#69: Your Weekly Wrap-Up of Social Media News, 2 March 2025

In this episode, I'm chatting with Jen Heuett, an AI Business and Systems Strategist based in Christchurch. Jen hit six figures in her first year running a social media management business, then walked away from it. What she saw behind the scenes of all those businesses was the reason she pivoted, and it's the reason she now teaches what she teaches. I had to admit something to her on this one. Back when I was finding my feet with Social Smarty, Jen was one of the business owners I quietly stalked online. I thought she had it all figured out. Turns out she was burning out behind the scenes and about to make a pivot I didn't see coming. We get into the moment eight months in when she realised her social media training wasn't sticking, and why that had almost nothing to do with the training itself. She shares what she keeps spotting when she audits small businesses, the kind of shame that surfaces when she does, and the gap between how US and Kiwi business owners approach support and investment. Then we get into AI properly. Jen has strong views on how most business owners are using it (mostly in the wrong part of their business) and why their output keeps sounding like everyone else's. She talks about what "collapsing time" actually means in practice, the launch a client now plans in five minutes that used to take weeks, and the very first thing she'd do if she was starting with AI from scratch today. If your business runs on memory, sticky notes and a lot of hope, this episode might change how you think about what AI can actually do for you. You can find Jen here on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesmallwinsco And here on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmheuett/

In this episode, I'm chatting with Anna Catley, a strategy and brand marketer from Hawke's Bay who decided that sending out CVs wasn't going to cut it in today's job market. Instead, she turned her entire job search into a full-blown marketing campaign, complete with a bingo card, a 100-day LinkedIn challenge, and a cow onesie she wore to run 10 kilometres for charity.

In this episode, I'm chatting with Kayla Oughton, an AuDHD coach and the founder of Dopamine and Co. Kayla was diagnosed with ADHD at 35, later identified as autistic, and has spent the years since building one of the most genuinely engaged communities I've seen in this space. She went from sitting stuck at around 230 followers for a full year to nearly 20,000, and the way she got there is not what you'd expect. What I love about Kayla is that she didn't crack the code by following the rules. No content calendar. No Canva templates. No batching system. Just a really clear sense of who she is, what she wants to say, and the willingness to finally stop holding back. We talk about the real cost of censoring yourself online, what happened when she went viral on TikTok for all the wrong reasons, and the surprisingly simple shift that unlocked everything. If you've been stuck in the start-stop cycle with social media, or you've wondered whether your brain is just not built for this stuff, this episode is going to feel like a breath of fresh air. You can find Kayla here: Website: https://dopamineandco.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adhdcoachkayla/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@adhdcoachkayla LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kayla-oughton/

When it comes to AI and social media, are you riding the wave or getting lost in the noise? In this episode of The Social Smarty Show, we’re digging deep into the ways AI is shaking up how small business owners like you show up online. From caption-writing with ChatGPT to tools that can literally predict which posts will perform best (yes, really), we’re pulling back the curtain on what’s working and what’s quietly chipping away at your brand trust. If you’re feeling like AI could be a shortcut and a sellout at the same time, this one’s for you. Because yes, we want to work faster… but we also want to stay unmistakably us. In this episode, I mention the Social Smarty Society - you can check it out here: https://socialsmarty.co/society

Raise your hand if you’ve ever hit ‘post’… then sat there watching your likes trickle in slower than a Monday morning. You followed all the “rules” - nailed the hashtags, wrote a mini-novel in the caption, timed it perfectly. So why does it still feel like you’re shouting into the void? In this episode of The Social Smarty Show, I’m breaking down the outdated advice still floating around the internet - and what actually matters in social media marketing in 2025. If your reach is tanking and your content feels invisible, this is your wake-up call (with love). We’re talking hooks, video, searchability, and why the algorithm doesn’t care when you hit publish. If you’re ready to stop wasting time and start creating content that actually gets seen, you’re in the right place. In this episode, I mention the Content Confidence Kit - you can check it out here: https://socialsmarty.co/content-confidence-kit