Blair Broussard, owner of Bee Positively Social, a social media consulting firm, joins Discover Lafayette to discuss effective digital marketing tools for small business owners in today's market. Blair has also been an active real estate agent with District South by Real Broker in Lafayette since 2017.

A chance to play middle blocker for the UL - Lafayette women's volleyball team lured Blair to Lafayette. Transferring from Centenary College after her freshman year, Blair recounted her first trip to Lafayette down I-49 with her dad and spotting a dead alligator on the side of the road. As a native of Mesquite TX you would think she would have been scared by this, but Blair thought it was cool and such a different experience from her years growing up in Dallas. The deal was sealed upon arriving at UL, where she was given a tour of the swamp on campus and of course, another chance to see an alligator!

Blair Claypoole Broussard was lured to Lafayette LA to play middle blocker for the Ragin Cajuns' volleyball team. Noting the vastly different cultural experiences (including the alligators!), Blair says that "Volleyball is how I came to know and love Cajun Country!"

While Blair graduated in Education from UL - Lafayette and also earned an MBA from the university, she was self taught on how to market her real estate services to garner effective social media presence. She is a big fan of organic activity on social media, i.e., posting experiences as they happen rather than relying solely on scheduled posts, so that the social media algorithms don't pick up your activity and identify it as a 'robot.' With that said, she does recommend that you schedule posts to occur daily and consider using paid ads for important messaging.

Blair is driven to help others tell their stories, especially small business owners who don’t know how or where to start in marketing their business. While we may wish we could just print a paper flyer and post it at the local coffee house or restaurant, the days of that being an effective marketing strategy are long over.

Blair Broussard is the proprietor of Bee Positive Social, assisting small business owners in systemizing and automating the appropriate social media tools to effectively grow their business.

Today, people "post" their flyers and other advertising materials on social media. The particular platform you should select for your business is dependent upon your target business clients as every social media platform has its own demographic. Facebook and Instagram are by far the most popular but again, your preferred platform will be tied to the referral network you want to tap into. Millennials and younger people will gravitate more to Tik Tok and YouTube, especially YouTube Shorts. "YouTube shorts (short 20 second video clips) are a great way to expand your reach and grow your business. You can use that link on so many other platforms."

For clients that are new to social media promotion, Blair will have them just pick one to start and "get their user friendly ability up." But most businesses today have at least one medium where they post and she will help them expand their repertoire to two. Blair advises that your social media page should answer the most FAQ's such as, "Where are you located? How can I purchase or sign up? How can I contact you?"

"Small business word of mouth referral networking is changing dramatically. Millennials are not going to leave a Google review. They will share the Instagram profile of your business. Not just your phone number. That's how small business word of mouth is happening." Blair recommends utilizing Linktree or Milkshake apps that optimize your social media traffic by streamlining all of your info, products and links (website, blogs, social media platforms, etc.) to be accessible in one click in your bio.

Blair is a proponent of blogging as it establishes your credibility as an expert in your field. Plus,