Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: For years, if something important happened in the world, there was one place that we all went to talk about, Twitter. Today that platform looks a little different. It's now called X. But the core of what made it so powerful hasn't changed too much. It's still one of the fastest places on the Internet to get ideas, start conversations and share opinions. So today we'll talk about where X fits in a modern day marketing strategy, how professionals in the health and wealth industries can use it strategically and what kind of content works best for your audience. I'm David Belleville. And I'm Jo Barker and this is the Amerilife Marketing Mentors podcast.
All right, Jo, off the top, let's just start big picture and level set with our audience today.
For those agents and advisors out there, what would you recommend they utilize X for and how do they incorporate it into their marketing in 2026?
[00:01:02] Speaker B: So I think I, I'd probably be very upfront and honest in the beginning which would be, I would not recommend X as being one of those first platforms that you take advantage of. If you're just getting started on social media. I think it's a good one for trending and, and certain content pieces later. But the fact is, is the age group within X, it is very, very predominantly male and, and it tends to steer towards the younger age groups. For a lot of our target audiences it's, it's just outside of, of where the majority of our target audience is sitting. So if you think about Medicare, we're 65 plus. If you're thinking about annuities, it's normally 50 plus. So it really just depends on who you're targeting it. I'm not saying it's a, it's a bad platform and you shouldn't be on there. But if somebody was to come to me and be like, hey, of all the platforms, which ones would you recommend I spend time on? X definitely wouldn't be up there as one of them, but, but I do think it's good for keeping up with trends, especially in the financial era and what's happening financially, what different news topics are trending out there. That's what I would see it useful for.
[00:02:03] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's a great lens for this conversation today, that it's a supporting platform for your overall marketing strategy. We often would recommend Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube as the big three, but X can be a platform that supports your overall goals.
One of the best things that a platform like X is good for is the timely nature of it and in the health and wealth industries. There are often new laws, new regulations, what's happening in Washington D.C. that can share, that can steer these conversations in real time. And those are often the conversations that are happening on X. So if nothing else, it is a great platform for you to be active on if you do have your finger on the pulse of what's new and happening in your industry.
[00:02:54] Speaker B: Absolutely. There are certain topics that, that you can follow along, there are certain hashtags that you can definitely follow along with. And it is the spot where the breaking news and those type of big news stories happen. And, and reading through the comments and reading through the opinions, I mean that's where it really becomes valuable as adding in your own thoughts, putting your own spin on it, retweeting or you know, reposting with your own thoughts on things. All of those, you know, can be very beneficial.
And that's where I think even getting into what's trending and what people are talking about, that platform can also be
[00:03:25] Speaker A: utilized for that 100%. It's you just mentioned like getting into the conversation by sharing your takes and opinions. We talk a lot about building authority and a personal brand that sets you apart from your competition. And, and X can be that platform where you do allow some of your opinions or takes to come through that gives you those key differentiators. And that's a platform where it makes sense too to be sharing those thoughts and opinions.
When it comes to building an audience on X, what are some of the things or strategies that our audience should be utilizing to build some sort of a presence on that platform?
[00:04:07] Speaker B: It's picking the topics that you, you know, that you're most interested in or, or that are most relevant to your target audience. It, it is exactly what you said of giving your opinion and stating it in a way that that is your own and it's authentic. The thing with X is that's good to keep in mind. It's not about the likes. Likes actually don't mean anything on X. It's not even built into the algorithm. Nobody really cares about the likes on X X. What they really care about is they care about how many comments you're receiving. So a comment on X is gold.
Any type of reposting or resharing of your content, which is what a.
So you see a lot of the amount of original posters on on X is not huge compared to how many people are on there. But you see so many reposts and adding your opinion to post that. That's where you know, you really see the value so if you're trying to grow an audience on X, don't worry about the likes, worry about or, or try to get it to where people are engaging and leaving comments. Try to get it to where it's so valuable that people are, are sharing it, adding in their own feedback into it, and then just watching to see, you know, what's trending, what, what are people talking about and what's your opinion on it, and not being afraid to put that out there.
[00:05:14] Speaker A: Yeah, X is one of those platforms where you can fairly easily build a organic audience just by nature of staying consistent and posting about topics that are relevant to the audience that you want to create.
I also want to talk about comments or interacting with other posts on X.
Not to get confused with the other social media platform threads, but that word was really coined back in the days of Twitter when a user would string thoughts together for one long post and that became what is now known as a thread. So bringing it back to X, being able to share content in that way is beneficial for multiple reasons. One, you're opening the door for conversation engagement, but you're also piquing some curiosity. Oftentimes the first post in a thread is all that's distributed, so you can, you know, leave a little bit more to be desired. And that creates some reason for the user to open that thread and engage with it.
[00:06:19] Speaker B: No, and I think those are the type of things that are key, is making sure that you know, you're giving enough to interest them and then you're diving them into the comments and you're trying to keep that going. And that's where, you know, asking for opinions, utilizing good questions and good hooks and, and really putting in the curiosity side of things to get people to engage in the conversation with you. That's what X is all about. The other thing we're seeing on X is the videos. The videos are getting more and more popular. You're seeing a huge uptick in the amount of videos that are coming onto the platform and the amount of engagement off of those videos.
[00:06:50] Speaker A: Yeah, X is an evolving platform.
[00:06:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:53] Speaker A: I mean, so much so that it's undergone one of the biggest rebrands that we've ever seen in social media.
So it, it does make sense for those out there to stay on top of the changes and what is resonating on the platform. Video is something that is dominating across social media. So as that gains more relevance on X, it becomes a platform where you can cross post. So if you are on Facebook posting to reels regularly, this just becomes Another platform where you can share that same content.
And as X continues to evolve, we're now seeing AI incorporated directly on the platform and that is with Grok. Grok is one of the most popular LLMs that is out there and now it's built right into X. And Grok is, is something that you've used quite often in your day to day.
[00:07:44] Speaker B: Yes, Grok is pretty incredible. So it is the most unique LLM because of its integration with X, which makes it extremely unique because it is the only AI platform that has true to the second updates coming from a social media channel of what the news is breaking. What are people saying? None of the other platforms can do that. All the other platforms are having to go out there and they're pulling information that are days old or, or if they are looking into the news, they're having to go pull it out of what's in Google. There is a direct line of Grok built within X.
That's huge. And so I personally utilize it for any like trending stories or anything of the most up to date.
In my experience, none of the LLMs come close to that experience.
I also found it really interesting towards the end of last year there was an announcement on X that the algorithm and the content being displayed was going to start being controlled by Grok. And so that came out towards the end of last year, I think it was in January they said it was complete. And so now the algorithm and the content that's being shared and being promoted and that you're seeing out there based on the user and how long they're spending on each post, that's all AI controlling all of it's Grok controlling all of that based off of what it's seeing.
[00:09:03] Speaker A: And speaking of the power of Grok, it's become so integrated in the platform that you can fact check using Grok in real time. And that's one of the most popular use cases that I've seen it used for. And so for our audience where trust is the most important thing, being able to utilize GROK and be fact check in real time can enhance your credibility. If someone did want to fact check you using Grok and essentially all you have to do is reply to a post on X and ask Grok to fact check this or is it true?
[00:09:36] Speaker B: That's all you have to say at Grok, Is it true? Is this true?
[00:09:39] Speaker A: And I have really, you know, we saw the advent of community notes and, and that let other users fact check in real time. I think that this is just another layer that people can use to ensure that they are getting factual information. And again, for our audience, trust is everything. So Grok is, is kind of changing the way that we use social media and it's happening in real time on X.
[00:10:05] Speaker B: When I'm scrolling on X and looking through all the posts, it's rare on a news story post to not see somebody fact checking it. So it does just go to show you how much TR does come into play because people are having a hard time trusting anything that they're seeing anymore, especially on social media as you have the AI videos and the AI content and graphics and how real some of these graphics look to where you're like, oh my gosh, I can't believe that person did that. Well, it turns out they didn't. It was, it was AI that, you know, somebody used it, creating AI. But then you have Grok who comes right behind it and says no, this is not factual, which you see so many people. So now it's kind of hard to see a find a post that doesn't have it.
[00:10:45] Speaker A: It's so true. And for all the reasons that you just said, it makes it even more beneficial to have that because it is easy to get duped by AI generated imagery and now video. And because of the nature of X, content is flying fast on that platform. Yes, your feeds are not as curated as maybe your Instagram feed because of the timely nature of, of X. And so being able to fact check in real time is just a huge benefit of AI and grok.
So going one step further, Jo, you mentioned being able to use X as a way to get content ideas. And so if you are not going to use X for anything other than soliciting content ideas, that's a great use case for it as well because of the timeliness of, of it, but also the conversations that are being had, the hashtags that you can use to sift through content.
So it's also just a great platform to listen and sit back and let those conversations come to you.
[00:11:54] Speaker B: Yeah, you can go on there, see what's trending, see what's happening with cms, see what's happening with all, you know, the regulations and, and what's happening in the government and you know, what bills are being talked about or being reviewed. Those are the type of things that you know, are good to pay attention to. And then you can still, the, the hashtags are still relevant of following along certain hashtags, but it really is, it's a good platform I think, for, for certain topics, um, where I think it's not as lucrative is for like lead generation. It, it's just much harder on that platform. So really it just depends on what if you're an agent or advisor, what your goal is. If your goal is to create content that eventually leads into to lead generation, you're going to have a much faster path utilizing other channels than you would X.
But it is still a good relevant one if you know, if you have the capacity to be able to post over there and stay up to, you know, what's in the news and what's going on in our industries.
[00:12:47] Speaker A: Right. X becomes a really valuable platform for those who are ready to scale, who are ready to expand their messaging. One tactic that has worked for years and continues to work well is sharing a screenshot of a post on X and sharing that as a feed post on other platforms. That's something that still works and gosh, what an easy way to cross post across all platforms.
Jo, as we wrap up this conversation today, when we're talking about X, is there anything that we haven't talked about that you think that we should?
[00:13:21] Speaker B: No, I think another thing to keep in mind is just how long people actually spend on the platform. So it's not a people aren't spending a ton amount of time there every single day. I think from what I saw it's no more than 30 minutes a day and that's multiple times coming in and out, checking it and just scrolling the feed so you're not talking about a huge behavior and time spent there compared to those other channels. So those are just good things to keep in mind. And again, don't pay attention to the vanity metrics. If you are posting over there, worry more about the engagement metrics. That's where it's going to be key of, of trying to grow an audience and get your content in front of net new people.
[00:13:57] Speaker A: X is where the conversations are happening. So get in, chime in, share your thoughts and of course the Amerilife Marketing Mentors will be with you every step of the way. If you ever need any strategic guidance. That's why we're here. So be sure to follow us across social media and subscribe to the Amerilife marketing mentors on YouTube. Jo, any last words?
[00:14:17] Speaker B: Nope, all set.
[00:14:18] Speaker A: Awesome. That sounds good for Jo Barker. I'm David Belleville and we'll see you next time.
