Good morning. And welcome to the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. I'm Esther,
and I'm always going to be Melanie.
And I'm glad for that. And today we're joined by May king Tsang, the original FOMO creator, and we'll be talking about. Surprisingly enough, FOMO the fear of missing out. Welcome, Making.
Hello, ladies. How are you both?
It's been a long day. It's Monday morning, and it's already been a long day. Okay,
it really has. But we are here we are with you. It is turning into fabulous Monday morning. So tell us more about FOMO. Why should we embrace FOMO
Now, just before we hit the record button, we talked about Jomo, didn't we? And I want to separate the two, because when I first declared myself as a FOMO creater, I did get a few messages and said to me, FOMO, I don't want FOMO. I want Jomo. I want the joy of missing out. But do you want your lurkers, your prospects, your clients missing out on the service or product that you provide? No, absolutely not. So in a business setting, FOMO is a very good thing. You want to create bars, excitement, lots of content, lots of useful advice for your lurkers, and that will help them along their journey with you. And then one day they will come across to the other side and become a client or become a prospect or wherever they are on the business journey.
So you make this sound really simple. Everybody should just wake up and know how to do this. And I can vouch for the fact that no.
Well, if it was easy to be in business, then we'd all be doing it, wouldn't we? But yes, you're absolutely right. And it's not linear either. Fomo is not linear. It's not like there's a blueprint. Okay, you do this, you do this, then you do this, this and this okay. And although I do have a five-step plan on how to generate FOMO,
of course you do.
People are on different parts of the journey with you. Okay? And so it's important to fulfil those five steps in one realm or another. And when they are ready. And this is a key point. When they are ready, then they will get in touch with you. And that could be within the day. When I've been live tweeting at conferences, I've managed to get prospects within a couple of hours. Or sometimes it could be within 18 months. People have been lurking on my stuff for a while, and then they come to me and say, what are your prices and so on. So for all your listeners out there, same thing for your business as well. So. Understanding where people are on their journey with you and helping them by generating that buzz and excitement online can really help them to take their next step with you.
So obviously, people can hear the buzz and excitement in your voice right now. How does that translate into written content.
Well, first of all, we need to showcase that we are who we are and showcase that we are an authority in our field. So we need to demonstrate that we're really good at our stuff and demonstrate that with some authority, whether that is writing blog posts, doing videos. Sharing. Testimonials, all of that contributes to showcasing that you are an authority in your field. One of the other things is the relationship building side of things as well, because as business owners, yes, we do definitely need to publish our content out there. We definitely do. But we also need to start building relationships with people as well. So creating content with Lurkers is important, but also acknowledging the people who may have liked your post or may have shared your posts or search for opportunities to go into conversations in order to start building relationships with people. That is something that we need to do, too.
So let's just assume that because we have a range of people who listen to us making. And so some of them are startups, and some of them are established businesses, and obviously they're going to have completely different trajectories and different ways of building FOMO and especially the poor startups. To a large extent. They're still very, very nervous about airing what they do. So going live and the problem might not be competent enough or fast enough to do live tweeting and that sort of stuff. So is there any way that they can create FOMO at such an early stage, or is it really best for that type of industry for that type of startup? Sorry to contact you and bridge that gap, maybe.
Yeah, definitely to hire me as a FOMO creator. No, thanks for that, Melanie. No, I'm kidding. I lived in Australia for six years, came back in 2016, and because I was away from England for such a long time, I had to start my business again. So what I'm telling you now is basically what I did for my own business. And so I built my brand. And as a startup, it doesn't matter if you're one person band or a team of five or more or what have you we still need to establish our brand out there. And the brand is not just in our colour scheme. It's the way we talk, the way we come across, when we're meeting people in person, when we're allowed to again, virtually in meetings and that kind of stuff. So. Branding is so important, then it's the relationship building. As I've mentioned, we are all in business and we all know what we know and we're all amazing at what we do. We have to believe in ourselves, and when we believe in ourselves, we can publish that content online. So the next bit is, as I say, establishing that you are an authority in your field. And then when the opportunity arises, you can embrace opportunities like this to appear on a podcast or appear on a show to accentuate your authority even further. And then that's when your DMs should be busy. Well, not should be. But it could be busy with inquiries and people wanting to find out more about you. So really, to be honest, creating FOMO, it is bridging the gap between social media and PR, and what you're doing online is showcasing that you know what you're talking about. You've got some happy clients because, hey, look at this testimonial, right. Give a backstory as to what you did for that client, doing a lot of behind the scenes stuff, really explaining to people what it is you do and how you do it. Give those little Nuggets and insights, because we're all terribly nosy. We all want to know what's going on in people's business right? So give your lurk as that. And then, as I said, when the time is right, they will come to you when it's right for them. Hopefully that makes sense.
Yeah. So I always had sort of assumed FOMO and creating FOMO was all about your events and your upcoming things. Or if you're selling a product, it's running out soon. But the way you're explaining it now, it's also even just to work with you so you could sort of do it as a service based business. Go, I've only got one space left, and all my clients have said this about us. So with one space opening up and et cetera, so any business could use FOMO, right?
Absolutely. I generated FOMO for conferences, summits, and since the pandemic have been generating FOMO for digital challenges, product launches, service launches. But you can absolutely create buzz and excitement for your product or your service. And it's not about manipulation. I really want to state that clear, because some tactics of buy now or forever or hold your PC. I don't know, like ten days ago, six days ago. Some of it is very well done but if you're offering a discount after ten days and then after the ten days has lapsed, you said, oh, I've got another ten days. Well, that's kind of manipulation, isn't it? So we want to stay clear of that. Fomo is about creating positive buzz and excitement in your community. And when I say your community, it's not necessarily how many followers or fans or connections you've got. It's the people who are engaging on your content, those lurkers who may not like your stuff. You may not read tweets who may not comment, but they are there and just letting people know the impact that your business is making on your clients, what you're doing, sharing an insight into what you're doing this all contributes to that real button excitement. So yeah, traditionally, I invented FOMO for conferences, summits and so on. But I've done interviews with business owners as well. And again, that establishes their authority in what they do by being interviewed by someone. Think Terry Way again, Graham Norton but it showcases that, you know what you're talking about. You're being interviewed by someone that also helped to contribute to that FOMO.
Yeah, I'm a journalist. Yeah, but it's not that interesting anyway. To be honest. Anybody can create this FOMO. Obviously, you're better at doing it. But when should people start creating FOMO about, let's say, an event because most people associate the word FOMO with events. Let's be honest here. So is it when you say give out the date, perhaps, or is it nearer the time, or does it matter how long you try and build FOMO?
That's a very good question. I've created FOMO for clients whilst building up their community in the past, and that took about three months.
Wow.
I've created FOMO for clients where they just had a week to go. I've created FOMO for clients where we've had a month. So. It really depends on how active and how many lurkers you have. So going back to the client where I worked with them for three months. It was because they were creating an Instagram account and Twitter account from scratch. They had an event in three months time, and the founders were doing their incredible stuff, but I gave them a lot of FOMO in advice, which they applied. And I also happened to be the FOMO creator on the day. So we were doing interviews on the day as well, but we actually created lots of buzz and excitement in the lead up to it, as well as adding followers onto it. As I say, creating firmware is not linear. You must do this and do this. It's in conjunction with you establishing your authority, letting people know why they should be coming to your event. What kind of speakers are going to be there? So I've interviewed speakers and sponsors of an event to again create that buzz and excitement, because traditionally before a video, I suppose you might have seen photographs or blog posts and all of that is still very important, but visually video and actually hearing a little soundbite from the speakers and sponsors about what to expect on the big day is really important as well, and it's not exclusive to conferences. I've done it for webinars before now I've done it for networking events as well. So it's not just and workshops as well. Yeah, that's right.
Yeah. Big plug there for the upcoming Monday morning. We're just taking notes here in the background on everything.
It's only a month away, for God's sake.
I know it is. Right. So link at the end. Buy your tickets. You don't want to miss out FOMO. You mentioned the pandemic, which obviously still quite fresh, still quite rife. Still quite there. Did you notice an increase in FOMO or were people happy enough to be missing out because there was nothing to miss out on?
Very good point. Very good point.
Did they have more of a JOMO at that point or now that things are opening up how much FOMO and JOMO and just Mo is there? Is there another acronym that we can throw in there?
Do you know that's a great question, Esther. I think that the pandemic cost a lot of businesses out, if truth be known in the digital world. And suddenly there was a massive panic. A lot of businesses suddenly realised, oh, okay. That social media thing that we had to do and we've not been doing, we need to do it better. And then suddenly a lot of conferences fashioned a virtual conference very quickly, some in the digital space. Obviously their virtual conferences were amazing. But people outside of the digital space, I'd say they kind of fashion something together and something is better than nothing in some instances as well. Actually, initially, I would say in the first four to six to nine months, there were still people were still wanting to connect with people. Actually, my business sold in six to nine months. And then there was this sort of JOMO because people were getting zoomed out or they were getting virtual conference out. And then there were people who were giving up on the idea and so on. So the ones who stuck through the virtual and good hybrid conferences. So, Melanie, you were creating FOMO for the public sector Digital Marketing Summit by the incredible Joanne Sweeney. That is how you create a hybrid conference. It was incredible. I think that it's definitely separated the conference organisers those who fashion something together and those who just pursued it and just really took it to the next level. But certainly with attendees, there was a period where people were getting Jomo. But as the world is opening up again, they're starting to come out of the woodwork. And there are still a lot of exceptional virtual conferences that are out there.
So we are talking about events and events have their own budget. Obviously. So don't worry, I'm not going to ask you for prices. It wouldn't be fair because there's lots of different shapes and sizes of businesses that will be listening to this. And it's all very dependent on platforms, what kind of event they're running or interviews or whatever. I know it's all very dependent. But. Could you actually facilitate services for the startup who probably will have little to no budget to the big corporates who will have brands even who will have literally thousands at their disposal and make it value, give them good return on investment for both sides.
Yes, and I've done that. So I have been hired to create FOMO, but on the other end of the scale, I've been hired to review people's existing strategies in social media marketing and given them real key takeaways on what they can do to just bridge that gap closer between social media and PR and generate that FOMO.
Oh, that's actually really encouraging to hear, because you can actually get expert tips rather than somebody taking it over completely.
Absolutely. Yeah. Because with startups like you say, you have a certain budget, and it's always nice to have something. Have your marketing reviewed by someone else. You're so closely ingrained with it. There may be some things that you kind of missed out on. And. I've been in this industry in the social media industry for ten years. Three cities, two different countries, and the FOMO elements. I've seen what works and what doesn't. So I'm able to assist with them with FOMO consulting.
Actually, considering the way you've actually worked, you could call yourself Global FOMO consultant.
Absolutely. Yeah. It's really funny, actually, one of my dear friends who's been in the marketing space for 30 years, he said that I am the world's number one FOMO creator. I just wasn't ready to put that on my bio.
Well, it's their knife. You've heard it here first, but you heard it here first. May King Tsang is the number one FOMO creator in the world.
Where do we find more about what you do and where would be the best place to contact you? Because you're all over flipping Twitter like a rash
and get your free download?
Well. I'm just in the middle of doing my website. So LinkedIn or Twitter is probably the place that you can go. I do have an email capturing website, but I haven't done anything with it yet on Fomocreator.com, but do contact me on LinkedIn and Twitter, and we can definitely get in touch then.
Thank you so much.
That's brilliant. Thank you May King for joining us today, and I do hope people do get in touch with you. I have seen firsthand some of the FOMO that you create for some events, and it's unbelievable. So if you have any questions for making bite FOMO, I'm sure you can get in touch with her, and she'd be happy to answer all any questions. You can find her mostly on Twitter spaces as well. Every week she's popping up there. So thanks for joining us. And we'll be back next week with more Monday morning. Marketing. Bye bye
bye.