How Ferrara Candy Company Is Crushing Social

transcript was exported on May 13, 2022 – view latest version here.

Camen:

to live in a world where once again, you will have to pay to be seen, but we’re not there yet. So keep testing, keep producing your content, keep figuring out how you can break the algorithm.

Hrach:

that might sound like a sour statement to some, but that’s okay because we have a pretty sweet episode today for everybody that’s because on today’s show, we have Brian Camen, senior director, media content, and public relations for Farrera candy company. And we talked about so much today, Daniel, I don’t even know how to summarize this episode. We talked about, you know, TikTok and how it’s changing and becoming more pay to play. And we talk a little bit about, you know, building social presences from the ground up managing 50 plus different profiles for different brands. I mean, I don’t even know where to go. This episode is packed with so much. Goodness.

Lemin:

We also talked about, you know, testing and learning and I’m, I don’t know, I’m fully willing. I think they have 36 brands or something in their portfolio. I’m fully willing to test every single brand. I’m not sure that’s what he was talking about though.

Hrach:

I think he was probably talking about like testing social media approaches and strategies, but yeah, I will personally volunteer as tribute right now to test every single one of their candy brands.

Lemin:

I’ll go for the candy.

Hrach:

exactly. Well, in the meantime, everybody, as we come over here and have some snacks, you can go snack on all of this amazing advice that Brian leaves us today because I am Anna hock from convincing convert and he is Daniel lemin from convincing convert. Also funny enough everywhere on social Daniel is known as lemon heads. And we have an amazing episode for to you today, before we get into this amazing episode, though, you’re gonna hear about how, you know, especially Brian Camen, he and his team are really great at engaging their audiences. They’re really great about testing and seeing what works and they have a full-fledged team. You’ll hear how they have a ton of agency help and support behind it as well. It takes literally a village to build this amazing social effort that they’ve put into place. And if you are looking for a little bit of support on your social efforts as well, I highly recommend you check out.

Hrach:

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Hrach:

we just celebrated our 500th episode that officially puts the show up there with just as many episodes as law and order to celebrate recreated a free ebook that features the absolute best of the best of the best of social pros episodes over the years, including our favorite guest provided tips on how to become a social pro and exclusive insights on what experts are predicting about the future of social. You can grab that ebook right now at Bitly slash social pros, five that’s B I dot Y social pros five zero all lower case. Now let’s hear from Brian Camen, senior director media content and public relations at Ferra candy company, Social pros listeners. Do we have an unbelievably sweet treat for you today? We have Brian Camen, senior director media content, and public relations from Ferrera candy company. Brian, thank you so much for being here today. I am so genuinely excited for you to be here because one massive fan of the work that you’re doing. And two, I’m also a massive candy Fe. So thank you for coming on.

Camen:

for having me

Hrach:

so, alright, let’s talk a little bit first about your experience working in candy and social cuz first off, that seems like a dream team. First you get like all the candy you want all day long. I imagine anyway, I’m assuming, but then you also get to do something that you’re incredibly passionate about. So talk to us a little bit about you have a very, very large title now, but it didn’t always start off that way. You had some much more humble beginnings. So talk us through sort of your rise from being the very first social hire to now overseeing all of paid, earned and owned.

Camen:

Anna, I’ve got a wonderful, sweet job. I, I love it. I am so fortunate each and every day to come in and work with brands that I personally love to consume. And now I get to do marketing for them. I started at Ferra December, 2018, 2018. And at that time, like you said, I was the first hire for the social function and my remit was all around around social strategy, social execution, and we’ve got some phenomenal brands, you know, trolley, sweethearts, nerds, laughy, Tay rocks, black forest, fun balls. Now, and later I guarantee you that me just saying that it’s, you can close your eyes and you can think about a moment in your life where you’ve consumed one of those products either as a child or an adult and you’ve smiled like you just, you just can’t do that. And I like it.

Camen:

always happens. And another reason why I, I love working on candy and at Ferara so I started December, 2018. And at that time, if you can believe it, a lot of these brands either didn’t have an online social presence or the presence was very limited. So quickly spent a quarter the first quarter just doing housekeeping and a lot may think it’s small, but tedious work, but it’s so Val valuable and important. The little things matter so much when you’re working on social and digital strategy. Now for platform, for platforms to begin with, do you have, do you have a profile? Do you have the right username? Is your username uniform across all these different channels, like small things that just needed to be built. And it was very rare and still rare today for a brand to have for brands, plural, to have such a young or immature presence today.

Camen:

a completely different story. Obviously we’ve spent three years building it up, but you know, we just started the nerds social channels not even two years ago, you know, same thing with laughy taffy. These are iconic brands that’ve been around for a long, long time. So like I said, start in December, 2018, started just with general housekeeping. And then from there it’s making a plan. It’s, you know, what’s your three year, what’s your five year vision look like, how do we ensure that we’re building communities, but then how do we also ensure we’re utilizing media to drive measurable communications objectives? So it’s building up a paid owned and earned presence. And from an owned and earned standpoint, you know, got the house in order created strategies partnered with some phenomenal agencies, made some really strong hires internally that I’m so proud to call my friends and colleagues and fast forward years later.

Camen:

really only three years later, we have a, we had a fully functional team I’m I sit in a department called 1908 X, 1908 is the year that our our company for ROS founded X stands for experience. I would say we are one part marketing services, one part center of excellence, one part right house agency. And within our team, we’ve got a creative team content team L licensing and partnerships insights, and a analytics public relations, all the specialty functional areas and marketing, and you know, team was being built out, starting to do integrated marketing for the first time. And now a few years later I’ve had this, I have this wonderful opportunity in front of me. I just slid into this role about a month ago, month ago, that is overseeing all paid owned and earned. And I’m very fortunate, humble for this opportunity have had some wonderful colleagues who are previously responsible for paid media. Who’s responsible for e-commerce, you know, who have been great partners who have really who help help drive measurable objectives and help build the team. And here we are today got this opportunity ahead of

Hrach:

That’s awesome. Well, huge congrats on, I mean the massive promotion and step up and overseeing so much more than, you know, especially from again, such humble beginnings and having to come in and literally audit everything that existed and then build everything up from scratch. I mean, that is such a massive undertaking, but as you mentioned so essential, I, before we get in, cuz there’s so much to unpack there and there’s so much good stuff that you brought up in your, in your intro. I just have to know how good is your dental plan, because I would need it, like, I’d be like, oh, gotta go write a nerds tweet, guess I’m gonna need to pick up a box of nerds. Like I would, I would really need a dental plan.

Camen:

It’s, it’s a pretty, we have pretty solid benefits all around it, no, that, that is a phenomenal question and people they, they definitely ask that. So dental plan spot on I’ve had to go myself you know, a few times a year, but it’s all good. You, we, I work with discipline which is really hard when you work when you work and there’s candy all around you, but you know, I don’t over consume.

Hrach:

That’s good. I, I, I do remember back for my in-house days at philosophy at corporate, it was a skincare and cosmetics company for anybody who doesn’t know it and we would just show up and there would be like a box of mislabeled product. So like, I, I imagine that happens to you too. Like a one, one centimeter is off on the packaging and I’m sure it’s probably just like an explosion of candy at your desk all the time.

Camen:

Candy is all around us. And I, I failed to mention this, but for a time it wasn’t just candy. It was candy and cookies as well, so

Hrach:

right. Cause Keer

Camen:

Yep. We, we had, Keer famous, famous mothers, D DRA, world dance all those, all those brands that we integrated from Kellogg for a while and yeah, like sweet snacking whenever you want. It’s really good.

Hrach:

mean, it really, it really does seem like the dream, right? Like you get like delicious things and then you get to go like strategize for it. But, but, so that actually though, because I feel like I would have analysis paralysis, like crazy, I’d be like so much delicious, so much strategy to do. So how do you take us from the top floor of your approach? Like first off, how do you even start to decide what brands get? What, how you’re going to approach social in general? Because you have what? Over 30. Yeah. 35 ish, 36 ish. I think I read was the most recent number of brands that you’re, you’re doing social for. And then you actually have like 50 plus different accounts to run. So how do you even start?

Camen:

that’s a, that’s a phenomenal question. And I’d say you start by getting your house in order, but we, we have different segments and tiers of brands. So we know where we’re investing in terms of paid or we know what it’s going to take to win in the marketplace. But the flip side of your question is we have a wonderful opportunity because we have so many different brands that we can test and learn, fail fast, repeat, optimize all that. And that’s one thing that is so special about working across an entire portfolio, because one thing is right for trolley doesn’t mean it’s right for nerds or for black forest. But it’s a fun opportunity. And I, I tell, we talk all the time and, you know, in a second, you’re the voice of a worm on trolley, and then you might be a millennial mother on black forest or fruit snacks. Now you’re a gen zer on on SweeTarts or nerds. So nailing who you are, knowing who you are on each individual brand is extremely SI important to have success because we do, we go, we go back and forth working on all the different brands.

Hrach:

and I imagine too, especially some of, you know, like you mentioned, some of these brands are iconic and have been around for generations and, you know, in order to get them to the next generation, obviously now social is one of the best ways to reach them. So you have to keep evolving your approach and keep updating your messaging. So how do you kind of keep on top of the audiences and who you’re talking to and, you know, how do you make those decisions? Is it really just strictly, purely from like a brand voice perspective that you start there? Or is it, you look at audience segments, you take a breakdown. What does that look like when you’re trying to figure out for 36 plus brands, the many different segments that you have in play too?

Camen:

it’s, it’s all of the above really, I would say most important is you have to know who you are and who your target audience is. You know, your primary, your halo audience, and then what’s that overlap between who you are, who your target is. And we’re talking social specifically, you know, who’s the active user on those platforms. So there’s a lot of research that goes into the work that we do. It’s not just, you know, we’re gonna do fun stuff to do fun stuff, as much as I love doing that. And I love test and learn and, you know, agile strategies and earning the attention. If we’re not smart, if we’re not being strategic, we’re gonna set ourselves up for, for failure. So we try to avoid that as much as possible. We’ve had a lot of had a lot of success in just the last few years that I’ve been at Ferara and you know, it’s, it’s fun.

Camen:

it, it’s a lot of fun. I, I, I get, I get I get excited talking about our brands. There’s a lot of passion for them by the people who work on them and also the people who consume them. So it’s, it’s different. I, I, I, I didn’t, I didn’t share this, but you know, I’m now, geez, I don’t know, 15 years of my career and I’ve, I’ve done different industries. I, I started in-house at a business school and I spent 10 years working for agencies across different industries. So like, I know what it takes and how fun or how it is perceived to work on a healthcare brand or which there’s nothing wrong with it that that’s very purposeful as well, but it’s different. It’s a lot different than candy. So I knew that CPG is where I wanted to go. And when I saw the opportunity at Ferrari a few years back you know, I, I didn’t think twice about it. And I love that I’m still 15 years of my career. I’m learning, growing and developing every single day.

Lemin:

I wanted to, to jump in here. First of all, I have a personal relationship with one of your candy brands. My many listeners know my last name is in fact lemon and not surprisingly, I was known as lemon head growing up in many, many context. In fact, that’s where you can find me on Instagram. I’m, Lemonhead on Instagram. Oh. At back in the day on instant messenger as well. I am, I am plural. I am plural. Okay. But I always had kind of a, a special relationship with Lemonhead the candy. I think it, it always spoke to me.

Camen:

not alone. You’re not alone whatsoever. a lot of consumers have a very special relationship with Lemonhead. It was one of the, the first brands back in the day when you know, we were founded. And there’s, there’s, you know, Daniel actually, I don’t know where you’re from, but the city of Chicago specifically, which is where our, I reside has a lot of love for Lemonhead as well. You know, we’ve got a, one of our factories has a big Lemonhead signs right off the highway. And you know, we used to sponsor games at the United center. So there’s a lot of passion for that brand, both in Chicago and around the nation.

Lemin:

it’s a good candy

Camen:

Lemin:

not to speak ill of the other brands, but it may in fact be among my favorites.

Camen:

okay. Anna, do you have a favorite?

Lemin:

yeah, yeah.

Hrach:

know what, literally anything in your gummy portfolio, I’m gonna go for a black forest, gummy bear, some trolley, anything I’m all about the gummy more than like the hard candy sour sweetheart, although I will say it is, it is very, very hard to pass up a nerd’s rope as well, which has the gummy element then also kind of the hard candy bit too.

Camen:

yeah. Well that, yeah, I can’t fault you for any of that. , you’ll, you’ll have to try, you’ll have to try fundamentals, which was a new brand it’s first, full year of existence last year that, that that’s in the, the gummy line. And then I’d also encourage you to try nerds, gummy clusters, which are in Foco, on fire in

Lemin:

Wow. Wow. Wow.

Camen:

yeah. Yeah.

Lemin:

I, I wanted to ask you not to, we could talk about the candy brands for the, the next 30 minutes, and I don’t think anyone would, would dismiss that trip down, down memory, memory row. But I, I, one of the things that you, you just talked about was the, the notion of testing and learning, which you, you have the potential kind of the special opportunity to do at scale, since you have 36 plus brands, I wondered if you could just touch on what that have you kind of systematized testing and learning how you do it, what you look for or do you, is it a little bit more instinct than process? I think a lot of listeners where they, they talk about testing and learning in their own organizations, but always curious kind of how, how others are actually doing it. Yeah.

Camen:

it, it’s gotta be both. I, I would say we need to have a learning agenda. You need to know what you’re trying to test, and what’s the question you want answered. If you don’t do that, then there’s really not a strategic purpose to testing and learning. It’s, it’s something that is easily forgotten within the industry. It’s like, oh, I’m gonna do that. Cuz it’s, it’s cool. Like, yeah, that’s like, that’s hot right now, but really what’s the rhyme and reason, what are you trying to learn and accomplish? And then how is that going to help you in the future? How does that ladder back to, you know, coms or business objectives? But I’m gonna, I’m I’m gonna double down. So yes, there’s a process. Yes. We need to know what we’re trying to learn. Where are the resources it takes to be able to fully learn or answer the question that we wanna answer, whether that’s paid, owned and earned, doesn’t matter.

Camen:

just what, you know, what are we trying to accomplish? And then just go out and do it, but follow through, you know, you have your question that you want answered. What, what, what, like, what did we actually learn and what are we gonna do about it? The, so what is so important? There’s a lot of, so out there and now I’m like very philosophical up there. There’s a lot of, so there’s a lot of news, you know, web three, decentralized social, like it’s, it’s amazing. Like it, it like that’s future frontier, but what are we trying to, what are we trying to actually learn for our, for our brands about our brands, about our consumer, to our consumer in this space. And we’re not just gonna jump in, be an early adopter to be an early, early adopter. There’s a lot of brands that are doing that for us. That’s helping us then better form, you know, create our formulaic approach to that space. And that, that was just like one example, cuz it’s, it’s hot right now. And it’s hot for the right reasons, which is, which is good. And I’m excited to test and learn in that space in, in, in the coming quarters quarters.

Hrach:

Brian, continuing on with testing and learning, you had mentioned also the importance of failing fast. What does that look like for you? Because I think especially when you know, the real time nature of social, it’s so easy to maybe potentially call a test too early or you know, maybe even hang on a little bit too long. So what is kind of that sweet spot. And, and how do you define failing fast when it comes to your approach?

Camen:

That’s sorry, Anna, that’s a really good question. Failing fast is it’s, it’s something that, you know, because you’ve set those parameters up in the test itself. So for example, just an example, sweethearts was one of the first brands and then confectionary industry to have an always on organic presence on TikTok. Yeah. And yep, yep, yep. So, okay. We know that we’re gonna get on TikTok. We know that’s where our target audience is. You know, here’s the quantity of videos that we’re going to do. Here’s the different things that we wanna test in content formats, and here’s what we hope to learn. And we’re all we’re gonna do it within a X, Y, Z time period. Here’s what we’re go. Here’s how we’re gonna approach it from a organic perspective. Here’s how we’re gonna approach it from an erm perspective. Here’s how we’re gonna approach it from a paid perspective. And then what, you know, what do we wanna, how do we, how do we know if we’ve won or not, we’ll do it within you know, a certain time period and then we’ll move on. And yes, sweethearts was our first brand and on TikTok and now nearly all of our brands are there. You know, we learned a lot from it from both a paid own and earned perspective and it’s fun, fun.

Hrach:

I’m curious too, especially since, you know, you just brought up TikTok and, you know, really getting those presences there, did it kind of feel like it was back in the day when like social first launch and you were just trying to figure it out and figure the platform out or was it like a totally new approach this time because you already knew the foundations of social this time around, right. Versus like when social first started like back early, early in the day, getting all the brands on like any flashbacks to that moment, or were you just like, ah, we got this

Camen:

many flashbacks. I mean, I was, I, I started my professional career in 2007. Facebook for business was around that time period. Twitter was around that time period. And it you know, we we’ve had, we’ve had platforms pop up here and there like fads and stunty type things, but TikTok allowed and is still allowing to a certain extent you to break the algorithm really, really easily earn that attention, earn that reach, get millions of views without paying a dime. And it, it did remind me somewhat, it’s not the same exact thing, but the notion of it reminded me a little bit of Facebook for business when it first came out and a little bit about how the Twitter community and how engaged they were back in, it’s still, it’s still very engageable, but back in like 2008 to 2011 where it was the first time that news was breaking on Twitter and that happened before mainstream and Twitter wasn’t mainstream yet. So I there’s a lot of like good flashbacks to my early part of my career. So

Hrach:

you know, it’s so funny that you just mentioned like the breaking news piece of it, because I literally just had that moment on TikTok the other day, where I found out about a piece of news before I saw it on a major news outlet and I actually had to go search several and was like, it was confirmed and true. I was like, oh my, I can’t believe this is we’re going here again. Like it’s so crazy to see this evolution in real time.

Camen:

can close my eyes and see the tweet about Sully Somberg and the plane on the Hudson, or I believe it was the same. I think news broke out Michael Jackson passing on Twitter and like Shaq’s first tweet. Like these are, it’s kind of geeky and weird. And I don’t know if anyone outside of social professionals would really understand this, but there’s very clear. I have very clear memories early on in my career about special things that happened on social media. I, I, I could talk about,

Lemin:

it’s almost a little bit like for, for those old enough, or to, to remember, like where were you when, when the challenger exploded, it’s the same, I’ve, I’ve had a lot of those same moments and, you know, social has been a big part of, for me, a lot of those moments, I think, you know, everything that’s going on right now in Europe, we’ve TikTok has been a little bit more front and center than some of the other platforms that are just kind of showcasing it. So it’s an, it’s an interesting thing to see how every, how platforms evolve with each sort of cycle of news cycle of of commentary to, to serve that role. I’m curious on TikTok, what do, what’s your take on how long breaking the algorithm is viable there before they begin? They, they, they realize, Hey, we can start charging, you know, outsized amounts of money for brand partnerships and, and everything. How long do you think that that trend will be an option it’s

Camen:

already happening? It is it’s it it to, I, I love the platform and we, as brands will continue to use and invest in it and reach our target audience on it. So let me just be clear by saying that. But you can tell that the algorithm is finding is figuring out who it is and what the C-suite senior professionals at TikTok wanted to be. So we will, my advice for brands is to prepare to live in a world where once again, you will have to pay to be seen, but we’re not there yet. So keep testing, keep producing your content, keep figuring out how you can break the algorithm. It’s a TikTok has been phenomenal for our brands. It will continue to be phenomenal. But marketers, social professionals will have to evolve the way that they use it in the future because it’s going to change no doubt about it. We’ll see when that happens, but it, you can tell, you can just, you can tell, you can tell it’s tightening a little bit or evolving and changing a little bit.

Hrach:

in addition to what’s funny is around the same time is the, to CRA really started escalating. So did clubhouse and audio, and you are actually continuing to invest in, in audio. And a lot of brands have kind of cooled on this, but there’s still so much opportunity here for audio, but you are also continuing on with audio, correct?

Camen:

we are. We are continuing to invest on audio whether it be Spotify or other platforms. Audio is something that is recognized at a very young age. I’m not talking about our target audience. I’m just talking about the consumer mindset and you, once, once something becomes memorable or once you hear X, Y, Z for a certain period of time, you’re going to continue to remember it for a long time. So memorability, audio, memora, Memor, ah, look at that. That’s a tough word. Audio.

Hrach:

is a tough word.

Camen:

memorability is important and creating a distinctive voice for yourself on audio is important in order to continue to drive awareness, relevance, consideration, and you know, the entire marketing funnel. So it’s, it’s an area that we’re gonna continue to invest in, and I’m excited to see where it continues to take us.

Lemin:

where is that happening for you? I mean, are you on clubhouse? Is are you exploring some other newer things? Where is audio? What, what is that mean for you?

Camen:

we’re primarily on streaming audio and then sponsoring podcasts. There’s gonna be a lot more that sponsoring podcast. That’s funny. We’re on a podcast. Hi everyone. There’s going to be a lot more that we’re going to invest in and play around with across our portfolio for audio. We’ve done quite a bit on on trolley and to hear, to hear audio hosts or podcast hosts read our ads. It’s, it’s hilarious. I, I feel like you guys would love it, so we’ll have to talk at some point , but we’ll, we’ll continue to invest in streaming audio and podcasts, and that’s, you know, a lot of our target audiences there. So, you know, we’re gonna continue to measure, optimize and, and learn from it.

Hrach:

awesome. I, yeah, we just got super better there for a second, but that’s okay. I don’t think our audience will mind. But you know, Brian, not to switch gears so drastically, but I just would be remiss if we didn’t bring up the fact that, you know, in addition to all these new frontiers that you’re exploring and all of this work that you’re doing and all of these brands that you’re managing in the midst of all of it, you are winning awards for campaigns. You actually just won two Reggie awards this last weekend, two silver Reggies. Talk us through what were those four? What did those campaigns look like and congrats, cuz that’s huge.

Camen:

There’s a lot of really smart and brilliant brand marketers as well as agency partners and partners of mine in 1908 X who have helped who have not helped who have developed and, and, and led these campaigns to bring them to life. I was honored to represent the honor to represent Farra at the award ceremony. But like you said, yes, we won two, two silver veggies. One was in the repositioning rebranding category for for fundamentals. So in the brands first full year of existence, we had an equity campaign called the story of fundable, where we asked kids and parents uhlike how fundable came to life and that birthed the story of fundable. So that campaign run a, won a silver and a Reggie, a lot of smart people internally worked on that in partnership with day one agency, as well as mind share.

Camen:

then trolley also won a silver Reggie for a partnership the sorry the category was gaming or e-sports and trolley partnered with Xbox to create in celebration of Xbox 20th anniversary, limited edition packaging. We did that as well as had additional really strong social activations in the gaming space. And trolley is just continuing to win in, in gaming and that campaign once again, really smart brand team with in conjunction with 1908 X the, the team that I’m part of triple clicks, gaming agency, widen Kennedy mind share goal for PR and it it’s special truly is a really special brand. They have a really unique brand voice, and I would encourage everyone in anyone listening to get on TikTok, go to Instagram. Like you go to Twitter, if you want as well. It’s we’re the voice of the worm and the worm will do anything to be eaten. Trolley is deliciously, dark really awesome. And yeah, check it out. So those are two recent award-winning campaigns and we’re just, we’ve got some really great strong momentum across our portfolio at Farra right now.

Hrach:

does that mean since with the gaming partnership, maybe there’s gonna be some like trolley Twitch in the future didn’t breaking out into

Camen:

yeah. We we’ve partnered with Twitch already, but there there’s gonna be even more, truly in a gaming space in, in the future. So truly have a discord. I’m

Lemin:

Ooh, can we,

Hrach:

worm zone discord, Mr.

Camen:

Lemonhead great question. So we have a league trolley right now and there’s a a private discord on on Le on for lead trolley for our organizers, but there’s could be more to come. So stay tuned, stay tuned.

Lemin:

foreshadowing. I like it. Yeah.

Hrach:

love that. I love some, that means everybody has to go follow you now to figure out what this foreshadowing is gonna be. And when it’s gonna come into play in the meantime though, when people are following you and they’re going and looking up trolley and checking out all the great campaigns that just won all those beautiful awards. We also would be remiss if we didn’t mention that this is not your first time winning an award, or, sorry, I should say winning a prize, it’s a little different than an advertising award. You actually were on. Let’s make a deal.

Camen:

Hrach:

I feel like this is like, you could pull this out at any party and win any fun fact category with this. So talk everybody through just real quick, how you also we on let’s make a deal. What that experience was like.

Camen:

was an antibody Bo out of body experience. Shoot, I don’t know. I would say 2009, maybe 2010. I can’t even remember when it was my mother convinced me to meet her and rest of my family in Las Vegas for a taping of let’s make a deal with Wayne Brady. And somehow she brought a costume for me, which was a cow and I was dressed up as a cow on national TV. It’s out there somewhere if I don’t even, I don’t really wanna encourage people to go see it, but it’s out there somewhere. And at first I won a I, I played a game and I won a motorcycle and some other stuff. And then I don’t know if you’re, let’s make a deal fan, but at the end of the show, they have the big deal of the day where you pick door one door, two door three. And I was one of the top prize winners. So I had the opportunity to go for the big deal of the day. And I picked the right door and I picked the car and I MAED Wayne Brady. And the rest of was history. Still have the car this many years later. So that’s the fun, little effect about me that not many people know, but now maybe a lot more people know than that used to. So,

Hrach:

you still have the car today?

Camen:

have the car? Oh yeah. Yeah. That’s

Hrach:

Oh my God. That’s so cool. Brian, I, what

Lemin:

number was it? Sorry, Anna, what door number was it? Is it

Camen:

2, 2.

Lemin:

would be my, that would be my

Hrach:

I would’ve picked three for some reason. I would’ve lost

Camen:

They always, you never know where it is. You got a 33% chance of winning though. So it’s pretty good odds, right?

Hrach:

well, I am. I feel like that is the perfect mic drop moment for this entire episode. Not only did you just win a bunch of awards and bunch of silver Reggies, but you also won a car that you still have, and you could win literally any fun fact trivia question at any, any gathering possible. Brian, thank you so much for being on the show. I, this has just been so phenomenal. I feel like Daniel and I could talk to you for another hour, at least on just like your approach, your, your, the brands and how you approach them. I can’t believe, I mean, with so many brands and so many social channels, we could only get to so much, but thank you so much for being here. This was huge.

Camen:

you for having me. And we didn’t even get to talk about bros or seasons, you know, I know Valentine’s day Easter, Halloween holiday. So we’ll, we’ll, we’re definitely gonna continue the conversation.

Hrach:

we will absolutely continue the conversation, but before we actually officially let you go, we’re gonna continue the conversation for just a few more minutes, because we, of course, Brian, can’t let you go without asking you the top two questions that we have asked all 500 plus guests of this episode. So, or of the show, are you ready?

Camen:

as ready as I I’ll ever be.

Hrach:

right. So Brian, first question that we ask every social pro that comes on this show. If you could give one piece of advice to anyone who wants to become a social pro, what would it be?

Camen:

that’s a great question. And it’s not gonna be rocket science, but my advice to young professionals has always been and will always continue to be, to have the mindset of learning, growing, developing, always be open to learning, growing, developing. I made the misstep when I first entered the professional career of, Hey, I did social media as a hobby. So I’m the expert. No, not at all, not whatsoever have an open mind, but be willing to learn, grow, and develop. And if you do that, then you’re at least getting off on the right foot in order to, to grow throughout your career. And like I said, 15 years later, I am still learning, growing and developing. And I’m so fortunate to be in the position I am today to be able to help out young professionals.

Hrach:

I mean, I’ve learned things in this episode, so I can attest to your advice. So I will back that a hundred percent. Thank you. All right, Brian, last and fun of question for you before we officially let you go. If you could have a video call with any living person, who would it be?

Camen:

really good question. And it’s a tough one. It’s hard to narrow down and I, I don’t want to give an answer that is cliche, but my answer might come off a little cliche and it’s going to be Zuck. And, and the reason being is because I’m a really old millennial, as you could probably tell in in, in this episode and my career professional career started in 2007 and yes, I completely know that digital was around before then. I completely know that that, that that, that there was a time and, and a place in a different way, but what he did and his company prog progressed the social digital landscape tremendously for people of my age. , it was around that time when companies started hiring for social media practitioners. And if it wasn’t for the advancement of Facebook, Instagram you know, little Twitter, we wouldn’t have the roles that we have today. So I am earning an income partly due to the creation of Facebook, which is now meta. And people can make arguments, whether they agree or disagree, but I firmly believe that the guy did a lot of good for a lot of people, generations of people or generation of people back when he led the creation of Facebook now, meta. So that’s, that’s my answer. As cliche as it may be Zuck, if you’re listening would love to, would love to have a video call with you.

Hrach:

I don’t disagree with you on that. I think whether people, regardless of how they feel about, you know, Facebook policy and, and what, how it’s evolved, what it’s, where it’s going. I think everybody out there would love to be at least a fly on the wall for that video call. So, yeah, Zuck, if you’re listening go ahead and get Brian a call and then we’re gonna listen in too. Hopefully. So we’ll get some insights as well. Maybe if you don’t mind, Brian, I just kind of invited myself to your video call.

Camen:

you’re more than welcome to come

Hrach:

all right. Perfect. Well, in the meantime, Brian, thank you so much again for being on this show. God, it was so great to talk to you and yeah, we didn’t get into the holidays and stuff, but maybe we’re just gonna have to have a part two

Camen:

social pros. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. Really

Hrach:

it. Absolutely. Yes. And social pros. Thank you so much for joining us once again for another amazing episode of social pros. We are so excited to have you here with us week to week, and we look forward to seeing you again next week on another episode of what we hope is your favorite podcast in the whole wide world, social pros.

EP 520 – Edited (Completed 05/13/22)

by Rev.com

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