Freelance Dietitian Podcast

046: - How To Be a Social Media Manager Ft. Diana Garcia

• Julia Zakrzewski • Season 3 • Episode 46

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Prepare to be swept away by the social media master (SMM), Diana Garcia. She has been providing SMM services to RDs and wellness professionals for the past four years and shares her best tips in this episode. Including: 

  • Which metrics matter the most 
  • Which social media platform sits at the top of the pedestal 
  • Why more RDs should get on social media 
  • How you can become a social media manager yourself! 

TW - in this episode Diana briefly shares personal stories about weight loss. If you would prefer not to hear that type of content you may want to skip this episode.

You can get in touch with Diana here:
Website - www.dyanaracreates.com
Instagram - @Dyanaracreates
TikTok - Dyanaracreates

Love the show? Consider donating, leaving a 5 star review, or sharing this episode with your friends! Your support keeps the show afloat so new content can be released every week. Thank you very much!

Hey, and welcome to the freelance dietitian podcast. A show that teaches you how freelancing can help you meet your financial goals while giving you space to unplug and enjoy your life. I'm your host, Julia Zakrzewski a published freelance writer in the nutrition and wellness space. In today's episode, I interviewed Diana Garcia, the most charming social media manager you'll ever meet. Although she's not a dietitian, she does work very closely with nutrition professionals. And in this episode, she shares the important metrics that you should look for when you create content. When it's time to outsource and how you can get started as a social media manager, if you absolutely love making content. Let's dive in. Hey everyone. Before I start this episode, I just wanted to give a big shout out to RDS all over the world. I don't know if anyone's told you this lately, but I think you're all incredible. I've never known a group of people who are more motivated, ambitious, innovative, creative. And just so willing to put so much heart into everything they do. You're literally changing lives. And I know right now it can feel frustrating to be a dietitian because there's so much change happening in areas that maybe we never even asked for it. Well, some of the glaring obvious parts of the profession clearly needs some more attention. Like. Accessibility. Pay leadership opportunities. So I just want to take a minute and say I have also thought about a lot of these issues and if anybody is really struggling with their R D R D ship, and if if giving up your license or continuing to be an RD is something that you're chewing over in your brain. I just wanted to say my door's always open and I'd love to chat with you more about. I listen to you and give you a safe space to bounce ideas off of. I mean, if you're not comfortable reaching out to me, that's fine. Maybe have a friend and just chat over it because it's so confusing. And I know before I ended up quitting my job last year, I was really stuck in that spot. It felt awful to Pushed myself to do so much education, invest so much money and then still be so unfulfilled. Until I started freelancing and learning modern ways to leverage my credentials. Giving up my license and pivoting to something else was always whispering spring in the back of my brain. So I just want to say the door is open if you want to talk about it. For today I wanted to formally introduce our guest. She is in my brain, the social media guru, as I've as of today, as of right now. Her name is Diana Garcia. She's a business and social media manager, and she recently launched her own business called Dyanara creates she provides social media solutions to dieticians and wellness professionals. She has over 11 years of legal experience before transitioning into the world of nutrition and dietetics and she's been working in this new space for the past four years and 11 of her clients happen to be dietitians. Let's bring Diana on the show

Julia:

welcome to the show. Diana. It's so great to have you here. Did you wanna say hi to.

Diana:

Hi everyone. So like Julia said, my name is Diana and I am a social media manager specifically for dietitians and wellness professionals. So it's a little snippet before we get started.

Julia:

Yeah, and I was telling Diana and listeners, I have been trying to find a social media manager to bring on the show for over a year. Um, I don't know. I, I just couldn't find the right fit. And then Diana is a blessing, so I'm so excited to have you here today. Maybe we should start from the basics. Can you explain to listeners what a social media manager is?

Diana:

So a social media managers is essentially someone that oversees social media platform, right? Whether that's Instagram, your Facebook group, your Pinterest. I mean, there's so many social media platforms now, but essentially we oversee those social channels and we're basically somebody that helps enhance your online presence, your brand, help you with branding, marketing strategy, producing content, executing content, and then also, Reviewing metrics, analytics, all that funny stuff that I'm sure nobody likes to get into. Um, so we're essentially like the voice of a brand or an entrepreneur or a company.

Julia:

Yeah. That's so cool. And I'm so curious. So how much is like you giving suggestions to your clients versus them coming up with the ideas? There has to be some good collaboration there.

Diana:

Yeah, so definitely anytime I take on a client, the first thing I tell'em is like, Hey, this is a two-way relationship. We are gonna, We're hold each other's hand because at the end of the day, although I'm managing your social media, I am helping you with content. I'm giving you strategies and pointers. At the end of the day, you want your voice to be translated in the content. You want your voice, your aesthetic, your branding to be shown. Mm-hmm. So I don't take away that from my client. They're very much involved in the process and I super intentional about that because I think it's important that that shows through the content.

Julia:

Yeah, absolutely. And so it kind of sounds like you're leaning in perfectly to a next question I wanna ask you, which is, what do you think in your opinion is the most important thing to remember when you start using social media for your.

Diana:

So I, I love to use analogies and I think as far as social media, and I'll use Instagram as an example, I think of that the social media platform as almost like a storefront. Think of your page kind of sitting in a plaza. Your content is your products, your services, and your profile is essentially your store, right? Like when I walk by, do I wanna come in? The content that you're posting, am I gravitating towards it? What am I learning? What am I getting out of it? Is it entertaining? Um, and then obviously a lot of times when you're scrolling, you see a content, you then click on the person's profile, you see the profile and. Again, kind of like a storefront. And is it visually appealing? Does it look like this person's credible? Does this look like this brand, this entrepreneur, this person looks like they know they're do, knows blah, knows what they're doing, and are they portraying that through the content and the branding on their social media platforms?

Julia:

Yeah. You make it sound so easy.

Diana:

I know. I'm just like, It's just like a storefront. Just make it pretty. Yeah. It's so much more. But it's, it's like the perfect analogy because even people that work in stores, like they have visual designing and branding and they do all these things and that's exactly how I think of social media.

Julia:

That is such a great analogy. I love that. And do you find that sometimes small business owners are guilty of treating it more like a personal Instagram instead of a business Instagram?

Diana:

Oh, that is my biggest pet peeve. automatically off the back. I do a lot of social media refreshes. I call'em refresh because I'll take someone's page that's like, Hey, here are like five tips to lose weight, but here's a picture of my dog too. And I'm like, No no dog pictures, none of that. You know, at the end of the day, like I said, you wanna look per, you know, you wanna look professional, presentable, and you want your audience to not be confused, right? Like, when they go, it's like, what am I following? And at the end of the day, like, The whole thing about social media, people now are. What problem are you solving for me, right? Like what am I learning? It's almost like, what am I getting out of this? So I'm really big on like keep it professional, obviously show the humanistic side of things. Cuz I think that's really important for dietitians specifically, to show that human side, right? Cuz people already have such a bad rep with health professionals and feeling kind of awkward and all that stuff. So yes, keep the humanistic side in the sense of like, Hey, I understand how you're feeling. I know where you're coming from, but no dog pictures.

Julia:

Yes. Yeah. Be very clear with what you're trying to help them with.

Diana:

Exactly.

Julia:

And some listeners are probably like very data driven, I would say most dietitians are actually. So metrics are huge. Do you have like the top three metrics that you would look at? And probably it changes, I guess, through different platforms. So like on Instagram for example, or is it different than what you look at on TikTok?

Diana:

So for the most part, all social media platforms have very, very similar, metrics. So the three top metrics on all of them are essentially reach. Like, how far is it being reached, how many people is the content like hitting mm-hmm. And then there's also engagement. When you post something, how many likes is there commenting? Are people sharing, saving the content? And then there's also obviously followers. Just how your page is growing as far as like your audience and all that. But then another thing I like to take into account and for TikTok, there's also, um, an average view time. So obviously if you're watching a video, like how long are they kind of staying? Like are they just scrolling past it? Is it like the first three seconds? Hmm. And obviously for TikTok, not obviously, cuz I say obviously like, like everybody else supposed to know. But you know, for TikTok and just I think people's attention span in general, things have to be really short and sweet. And the first three seconds are like the most important seconds in the video, you're either gonna grab someone's attention or they're just gonna be like next, right? So that's really important. Over there on TikTok is the average view time, but something that I really like to follow as far as metrics. That's not something that you're gonna really find. You know, like a certain name or thing for it is, you know, the time that you're posting your content, the type of content, right? So for example, Instagram has single post, they have carousels, they have reels. Now all video formats go under reels, but back then it was like IG lives. Mm-hmm. on regular videos. But that's important for me, right? Because I think of creating content and measuring how that content is doing almost. Here goes another analogy, like throwing spaghetti on the wall and seeing what sticks. You don't just wanna post anything just because you know, obviously at first when you're posting, you're posting things because you want to, but at some point you then have to learn, Okay, what's working? What's working for my audience? What are they gravitating to? What kind of content do they like? And then you have to format it to that. You almost have to go into like a people pleasing mode of like, this is what they like, this is what I have to do for them. So that's something I like to really take into account when I'm working with my clients or just social media in general. What are people gravitating to? Is it the time, is it the kind of content and then the content form, obviously.

Julia:

Yeah. Those are such great points and exactly like you're saying it. It can take a while to click in the brain, but once you realize that you just need to keep producing stuff that your audience already likes. It alleviates so much pressure from you to create new stuff. Yeah.

Diana:

Right. Yeah. And it just makes it easier, right? social media is a job in itself, especially when you're a dietitian, an entrepreneur, so stopping to like review all these numbers and analytics and data, um, it, it can be time consuming and it can be a little frustrating, right? But once you kind of figure that out, then you know, okay, I don't have to waste my time making a carousel when people just maybe wanna see my face. I mean, that happened to me on my wellness page. Um, for the longest, that page was built from my weight loss journey. That's how I even got into nutrition. A lot of people were there because they wanted to see me, They wanted to see my progress as I was losing weight, updating them. And then I turned it into a brand. So I had like, you know, a lot of branding and like campaigns and photo shoots and people that were not me, right? Because I'm like, now this is a brand. And as soon as I took away my face from things, You can really tell by the engagement, the following, the reach that people are not happy at the fact that I was just like, I'm gonna step aside. Here are some pretty girls like workout clothes and all that good stuff. My content and my page really took a hit because people just wanted to see Diana. They wanted, they wanted me to talk to them. Even if I just posted a picture on my face, people are like, Oh my God. Yes, yes. And I'm like, No, but I'm trying to, you know. So once I learned that, I just cut myself so much time, trouble, and money, because I was paying for like these large productions when people were just, girl like just come on here and talk to us. Like we care.

Julia:

Yeah. You're the one we want. Nice. Yeah. what a compliment.

Diana:

I know, right? Yeah.

Julia:

Yeah. Good lesson there. And so, you know, I What, like, have you always loved social media? I'm just curious.

Diana:

I've always loved social media. Yeah. I've always been really comfortable on social media. I'm comfortable speaking and showing up and mm-hmm. and I have like my personal page, so people on there, like I have like my close friends and family and like, they're always waiting around for like, me to go on a rant or like me share a funny story and people are like, Oh my God, girl, like I can't wait until tomorrow. People are kind of just waiting around for me to do something. And, and I love it, you know, just outside of. You know my brand. So I obviously got into it because of me putting up updates of my life and all that good stuff. And then it kind of just transitioned into just me, Like I just fell in love with it and I'm on TikTok and I'm everywhere. I just, I love producing content and playing around with content and all that good stuff, so, Yeah, I've kind of always just been on social media, especially Instagram since in inception and Facebook as well, like, yeah, I'm like the, oh geez. Of, of the social media platforms.

Julia:

You were born in the right decade then, Diana?

Diana:

I really was,

Julia:

Yeah. Totally. And I have to ask, so like what's your favorite social media right now? If you could only use one for the next TikTok, six months.

Diana:

TikTok. Yeah, TikTok for the rest of my life. Okay. Like, it'll look to me. I'll be like TikTok all day. I mean, that's where I hang out the most for sure.

Julia:

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Uh, that was awesome. I love getting to know you a bit more too. It was super fun. Uh, who would benefit from hiring a social media for their.

Diana:

So essentially somebody that is too busy to take on the job. Like I said, it, you know, for a lot of entrepreneurs and, and companies and brands like this is a job within itself. So many companies now hire social media managers. So many companies now have social media departments. You know, anybody that's too busy to take on social media, anybody that wants to save themselves time. Right. Especially for dietitians. If you're working with dietitians or you know, an entrepreneur, like at the end of the day, I hate to say it, but time is money. Mm-hmm. you know, so if you're a dietitian, and I say this just from, you know, that's my clientele. If you're a dietitian and your job is to do one on. And group coaching and seeing patients, but you're too busy, you know, trying to like, come up with a post like you're, you're gonna be battling yourself all day. So obviously time is money and if it's taking away from that, you know, that's important. Anybody that needs help with content creation. I speak to a lot of clients that are like, Listen, I can save the world, but I can't come up with a post. And I'm like, I know it's sometimes it's like that, right? They don't have that creativity or they can't really come around to grasp like what to make as far, as far as content. And then anybody that needs to stay consistent online, right? That's another problem a lot of people have is not posting regularly. So, you know, a lot of people treat social media like, I'll wake up today and I'll spend 40 minutes trying to make one graphic and maybe I'll post it. I had a client the other day, I was like, or somebody that I spoke to on a discovery call. She's like, I try to make a post and it took me 40 minutes and by the time I was done I didn't even post it cause I was so frustrated. And I only post like once a week and I'm like, Yeah, that, that's tough. Right? So anybody that's trying to stay consistent, anybody that's trying to strengthen their online presence, right? Again, that goes back to, you know, having that strategy, that direction, having content that's working, that's. Doing what it needs to do. Um, and then obviously having somebody that is staying up to date with all these changes. Social media is always ever evolving. There's always a update. Social media manager's always making fun of the Instagram guy cuz he comes on and he's like, Today's update and we're like, I'm, I'm just learning how to do X, y, z, Like, slow it down. But yeah, somebody that's up to date with those, you know, with trends and changes and algorithm and all that technical stuff. So that's who, who essentially needs a social media manager.

Julia:

Yeah. And there's probably several listeners who would love to become a social media manager themselves. Do you have tips for maybe it's students or just rds or anybody else tuning in on how to get.

Diana:

If you're on social media and you're posting content and you're a social media manager. Well, that's essentially how I see it. You know, if you enjoy being on the apps, if you enjoy making content, that in itself, I mean, it's just a matter of maneuvering through these platforms. So if you show up, if you engage, interact with others, that's experience in itself. But another thing that I like to tell people whenever they're starting out, especially I think for people that are starting out, they're like, Well, I don't have experience. Like how do I show someone that I'm capable of doing this job? Take, take an imaginary brand, build an imaginary brand, make content for. And post. Right. Show them, show them what you can do as far as like aesthetics and camba experience and, and designing. Another great thing is obviously if you take like an existing brand or maybe a, a page that you like and you kind of see like, Oh, I could do something even better, that's just building sample work. Even if it's not something that you can. Hey, I've worked with 10 clients. Cause we all gotta start somewhere. For the longest I took a lot of my personal content. I did a lot of things I did for school too. Sometimes a lot of projects that I worked on when I was in school, I handled the dietetics social media page. So just fake it till you make it. And if you don't have the experience, just create, Create it. Create the experience. Yeah.

Julia:

You just have to actually sit down and do the work. That's always the hardest part about any business pursuit. Yeah. You actually sit down and do it.

Diana:

Yeah.

Julia:

Uh, can you share maybe any insight what a social media could hope to earn? Maybe just a range or some, Is it hourly or project.

Diana:

So for anybody that's starting out that's looking to maybe build their skill set, um, hourly rate is probably like the easier route to go for them.

Julia:

Mm-hmm.

Diana:

like I said, this is beginner stages. Somebody that's looking to gain the experience. A student, um, somebody fresh outta school. Um, from what I know as far as hourly rates, they can start anywhere between 15 to even$50 an hour depending on what kind of work you're doing. Cuz there's so many social media platforms and mm-hmm. you could just be creating content. Like me as a social media manager, one of the things I offer is just content creation. Maybe you don't want me to be all up in your page. You're just like, Hey, just do it. I'll do the rest. Okay. So it just really depends on the kind of work you're doing. So hourly is one of the ways you can go. And then there's also then packages, which is more for experienced people that can better then translate your work and then also the value that you're bring bringing to the client.

Julia:

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Makes sense. Sky's a little bit, you price yourself of what feels right. That lines up with your skills and you go for it.

Diana:

Yeah.

Julia:

Yeah. And what are the tools that you would use every day as a social media manager?

Diana:

Oh my god. What don't I use?

Julia:

Yeah, Spell the beans.

Diana:

I mean I think the most important thing is definitely like time management. Obviously when you're doing these kind of things, you are promising something to a client, so you need to stay on top of yourself, you know? Um, so time management is big, but I love using Google Calendar. I put everything on my calendar cuz I won't know what I'm doing for the day. I use Notion, which is another like planning kind of kind of app. Calendly which I use for booking calls and scheduling clients and all that stuff. Canva obviously, Canva's amazing. And Canva has just turned into a whole beast. There's so many awesome features on there. And then obviously all the social media platforms and then having a scheduling app for your content, right, Uh, to schedule things. And then any kind of like stock photo website that offers stock photos or videos and graphics and all that good stuff.

Julia:

Nice. So you don't necessarily have to go out and like buy a whole bunch of fancy stuff, like everything. Especially in this digital era, it's all online. You just have to find a system that works for you.

Diana:

Exactly.

Julia:

Nice.

Diana:

Yeah, I totally agree.

Julia:

Yeah. So I already asked you about TikTok, but I'm just curious because there's so obviously trends take off and it's so addictive. Do you have an audio on your brain right now that or a trend that you just can't get outta your head?

Diana:

Um, I would say the It's corn. Yes. I dunno if everybody knows that. You know, I, going back to TikTok in itself, like everyone needs to be on TikTok. I've been telling all the dietitians, I've been telling everyone, I'm like, You need to be on TikTok. I think. When TikTok started, everyone kind of was like, Oh, it's this silly app. And like the kids are dancing on there. And I won't lie, you know, we were dancing on there for a minute. But TikTok has evolved tremendously, tremendously. It's so informative. Obviously there's entertaining content on there. TikTok, when you're making content, it does reach a greater audience. Um, it doesn't limit your content to just the people following you. So for example, um, I talk about one of, like one of the few viral videos that I have. I posted like one video, like a trending sound. I wish I was like doing like a magic trick or something, but I really was doing nothing. I was just standing there and I was just talking and just from that video alone, I think I got like a hundred thousand views and I got 10 consultation. I had 10 people book discovery calls with me for my weight loss coaching, just from that one video. So, TikTok has really, really opened a lot of doors for a lot of people. Not only that, TikTok is now essentially becoming almost like a search engine the same way on Pinterest and search recipes and, you know, home decor and all these like silly things. I know I do. I'm like, if I wanna go to a restaurant, I'm like Miami restaurants. Cause now I get to see videos and people can tell me like, Hey, the food is great. Or like, Hey, stay away. Don't go. Yeah, Um, so that's the great thing about TikTok. And then the whole it's corn sound like that kid is so adorable.

Julia:

Yes.

Diana:

But not only that, the social media side of me is gonna come out. Um, he's gotten so many brand deal. Yes, from just him coming. I mean, if anybody saw the original videos, literally him with his grandmother enjoying corn on the cob, like who doesn't love corn on the cob with some butter. And, you know, somebody took it, made it a song, and the kid has had brand deals with like Chipotle, he's been on TV shows. I mean, it's out of control. So just to show like the power of social media and I think that's why like it's my favorite audio right now because just the like what it's become because of it.

Julia:

Yeah. I have always wanted to get on TikTok, but I'm like not a social media fan, but now I'm just kind of like, I should just go for it.

Diana:

Listen, when it comes to social media, whether, you know, whether you're trying to keep cute or not. The end of the day I tell people, I'm like, Show up. Because you don't, you don't know, right? Like you don't know the opportunities. You're missing out on how you can connect with people. I mean, we found each other on, on Facebook, right? Like, because I just decided to say something. And it was a lot of people that just kind of like to browse around and read and they're like, Oh, I'm not gonna say anything. Cause I don't know. And it's like, No. Everywhere I show. I show up very loudly, like, Hey, social media manager here by the way. Yeah. This is wrong. This is right. Here are my thoughts. Right? Like, I have to kind of advocate for myself because if not, you don't know who I am. So,

Julia:

Yep.

Diana:

I try to do that everywhere and uh, everywhere I'm at as far as social media.

Julia:

Yeah. That is so great. You're so cool.

Diana:

Thank you.

Julia:

I had such an awesome chat with you. It is the end of the episode. Do you wanna share any closing thoughts with listeners or just say,

Diana:

Well, it was a pleasure being on the show. I'm so happy that fate just kind of brought us together. Yeah. Um, and I was able to share like, a little bit of my world of just being a social media manager. I think everyone should be on social media and I think everyone should show up authentically on social media. Don't be scared. It's trial and error. Just go for it and you'll see the benefits from it. It's, it's fun. If anything, just have fun.

Julia:

Yeah. Is it okay Diana if people follow up with you afterwards? Listeners? I mean,

Diana:

yes. So you guys can follow me on Instagram. Diana creates d y a N a R a creates, and then I'm also on TikTok under dyanara Creates. And then you can also follow my other page, which is sensational dyanara. That's where I post all the fun stuff. Yeah, Um, but yeah, that's about it.

Julia:

Amazing. I'm gonna link those in the show notes. Thank you so.

Diana:

It was a pleasure.

That brings another episode to a close. I hope that this episode was very eyeopening and maybe changed how you view social media and how it's. So it's so untapped. And I think even myself, I grew up with social media, of course. I'm a millennial, but I never really learned how to specifically use it for a business because it is a completely different ballgame. And I think focusing on the metrics more to help guide where you're pouring your energy into when you're creating Is such a great way to make sure what you're going to create is effective instead of draining you out. Cause I think that's the catch is that I've definitely fallen victim to spending 40 minutes creating one post and then like three people like it and in the big picture, it's so insignificant, Always something new to learn. Very cool. Please reach out to Diana. If you guys want to, I'm going to include her, all of her links in the show notes. Next week Chrissy Carol is coming on the show. She is a dietitian and successful blogger. Who's been in the business, making money from blogging for the last decade. When I think of nutrition, blogging, I think of Chrissy. She is, oh, gee, she is so transparent. She tells you every single good or bad thing in the blogging scene. And she is so dependable and reliable. I cannot speak of her highly enough. So bringing her on the show so you guys can hear from her is the greatest idea I think I've ever had. We had such an insightful conversation and again, nothing but facts from Chrissy. So I think if you're really keen on blogging, you are going to love the episode. That's it for me. I'll be back here next Tuesday. I hope you guys have a great week and i'll talk to you then, bye.