---
title: 'Structuring and Planning for Social Media: Find Your Face'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=FednaknyaHQ'
video_id: 'FednaknyaHQ'
date: 2026-09-18
duration_sec: 1580
channel: 'Rooted in Retail Podcast'
---

# Structuring and Planning for Social Media: Find Your Face

> Source: [Structuring and Planning for Social Media: Find Your Face](https://youtube.com/watch?v=FednaknyaHQ)

## Summary

In this episode of Rooted in Retail, host Crystal Vilcaides addresses a common question among independent retailers: who should be the face of their social media. She explores various options—from the store owner to team members, customers, or even AI—and emphasizes the importance of humanizing content to build trust and connection. The episode provides practical guidance on choosing the right approach based on business structure, vision, and personal comfort, with real-world examples like Catbird and Gary Vaynerchuk.

### Key Points

- **Introduction to the topic** [00:00] — Crystal introduces the episode's focus: determining who should be the face of your social media, emphasizing the need to humanize content for independent retailers.
- **Why humanizing content matters** [00:57] — Independent retailers have an advantage over big-box and e-commerce stores through their people. Videos are particularly effective for building the know, like, and trust factor that leads to lifelong customers.
- **Options for who can be the face** [02:06] — The face can be the store owner, a team member, a mix of owner and team, all team, or even an AI bot (not recommended). Faceless brands are more expensive to market and harder to see results on social media.
- **Owner as the face** [04:02] — If the owner plans to be in the store long-term and is part of the community, they should be the face. This builds strong relationships and is the best way to connect with customers.
- **Team approach for multi-business owners** [05:17] — For owners with multiple businesses or stores, having the team lead content is beneficial. Avoid designating a single person as the face due to the risk of them leaving and the need to rebuild trust with a new face.
- **Case study: Catbird** [06:42] — Catbird, a Brooklyn jewelry store, initially featured the owner Ronnie, but over time shifted to team members and customers as the face. This strategy avoids the risk of a single person and resonates with audiences who see themselves in the content.
- **Time commitment and alternatives** [11:15] — Social media can be done in five minutes a day with the 'daily five' approach. If the owner refuses to be on camera, alternatives include team members, customers, or a blend, as long as there is a human face.
- **Personal content builds connection** [13:39] — Sharing personal content (not just food) increases relatability and engagement. It helps customers choose you over competitors because they feel a deeper connection.
- **Gary Vaynerchuk example** [18:46] — Gary Vaynerchuk builds a massive following without sharing personal details, focusing on business content and adding value. This shows that personal content is not mandatory, but authenticity and value are key.
- **Flexibility and brand consistency** [21:07] — The face of your social media can change over time. If transitioning to team members, train them to maintain brand consistency (hooks, intros, outros) and ensure diversity to represent all customers.
- **Plan and system are essential** [23:52] — Social media often fails due to resistance, lack of plan, or lack of system. Crystal's upcoming course, Retailers Roadmap, addresses planning and systems. Customers can be incentivized to create content, e.g., $10 per post or product compensation.

### Conclusion

The key takeaway is that every retailer must have a human face on social media, whether it's the owner, team, or customers, and the choice depends on the business vision and structure. Consistency, authenticity, and a clear plan are crucial for success, and the approach can evolve over time.

## Transcript

Let's talk about social media. We are going to talk about who should be the face of your social media in this episode. So let's dive in. Welcome to Rooted in Retail, the show that's dedicated to helping independent retailers
thrive in today's ever-evolving retail landscape. I'm your host, Crystal Vilcaides, and I'm thrilled to have you join me weekly as we explore topics that are vital to the success of your store. From marketing to mindset, money to merchandising, sales to leadership, we'll cover it all.
Each episode features interviews with industry experts and accomplished retailers who share their real-life insights and actionable advice. Get ready for a great conversation on how to build your dream business with Rooted in
Retail. Now, if you have been listening to my training, following along for a year or over 10 years, then you've heard me say a million times. that you need people in your social media.
You need to humanize your content. This is the thing that independent retailers have an advantage over big box businesses and e-commerce stores is their people. And in episode 15, we really talked about resistance
and how incredibly important it is for you to show up for your community and go out there and be on social media and show your face and take pictures and do videos, especially videos, because videos are working so well when it comes to
social and they're not going away. It's a really great way to connect with your audience. And I have talked about over all these years that when we are leveraging video, we get to know the business owner, we get to know the business, and we build the know, like,
trust factor, right, to where it leads to lifelong customers. So a lot of this is marketing 101. But over the years, retailers have asked me, who should be the face? because, and the ones that are asking that are the ones that don't want to be the face.
And I think it's an important thing that we explore and talk about. And so let's dive in. It really comes down to what the vision is for your business
and the structure of your business today. Because you could do this a lot of different ways. It could be the store owner is the face. and the store owner could be talking about business, personal, or just business.
However we talk about personal, I'll get into some of this of like what you're talking about, but let's just talk about who it could be. So we could have the store owner, it could be the store owner and somebody on the team or multiple people on the team. It could be mostly the team and then a little bit of owner.
It could be all team, no owner. it could be one person, a face that you've, you know, designated in the store, but not the owner, somebody on the team. And, and then it could, that's really, that's kind of our, well, it could
be AI person. You could hire an AI bot, which I'm not kidding. Like the AI people, you give them a script and they look pretty darn real. It's so weird. I am not recommending that option. Okay.
I'm just telling you, you got some options. The other thing you could do, I don't recommend this either, is that you could just be posting photos of your products in your store and nobody is in it and you have a faceless brand. Faceless brands are going to be more expensive to market,
just harder to see results on social media. If you're going to be faceless, I think that there are other ways that you should participate from a marketing perspective, doing more things with loyalty programs, email marketing, text marketing, not social. It's social media. So we need to be
social. We need to have that conversation and really connect through our human content. So here's the deal. As I was saying, it kind of depends on the structure of your store and the vision of the store. I heard on a podcast the other day, a business owner saying,
my exit strategy is death. And so if your exit strategy out of your store is death, and you plan on working at your store for a very long time, and you're running the store, and you're involved in the store, and you are in the store, customers are coming in,
and they know you, and you're going to be there, then you should be the face of your social media. Because they're getting to know you, they're seeing you, you're part of the community, and that's the best way to build the relationship. I'm not going to get into the importance of
showing people. I really just want to talk about who, you know, who should be doing what. So if that's the case, then that could be you. But let's say that you are a multi-passionate business owner.
We have retailers who have a retail store and then maybe other businesses too. A coffee shop, a co-working space. They do other stuff with their spouse. Like I've heard a lot of different situations where they've got a lot of different businesses or a lot of different stores.
and if that's the case, then that can be challenging to be showing up as the face on all of these different platforms. That's a lot of content that you have to create. In that case, I think it would be beneficial for you to have your team participate,
and you could show up some, but they could really be leading the content, and I do recommend more of that team approach versus designated one person, designating one person because when it's about, as you can imagine, if you have one person
and they're the face of your social media, you are running risks of that person leaving and then all of a sudden you have a whole new face and people are like, well, who's this? I don't know this person yet.
I don't trust this person yet. And you're kind of like got to get them to know this new person and that's going to take time. So there's danger with that of having one person be that face.
The thing is, is if you have the one person, you could have them like introduce the other person that's going to take over for them. So they're like saying, oh, and now I'm doing this co-livestream with somebody on the team to kind of pass the baton and speed up that relationship with the new person coming in.
But really, that's kind of going to be your dangerous one. I really feel like it's either the store owner or a little bit of owner and team. It could also just be team. The little bit of owner so let talk about that A great case study that I often refer to is a retail store called Catbird They out of Brooklyn They have a couple of locations It a jewelry store They also make custom
designs, really great branding, unique products. They're crushing it with their social media. And in the beginning, I scrolled way back. I think it was like 2010 or something on Instagram,
and they post a lot, so you guys have took me forever to school to find their first post. In the beginning, there were a lot of posts of their owner. I think the owner's name is Ronnie.
You saw Ronnie a little bit more often in these posts because she was building. It was a new thing, and Instagram was also pretty new then. So she's using Instagram, but she's still showing, like, members of her team and behind the scenes.
And then if you look at their social media now, you fast forward 13 years later, you barely see Ronnie. You are seeing people on their team and they'll introduce themselves in their title.
You will also see a lot of influencers who are posting content. And so Catbird made the customer the face versus the owner or the employee.
And that is another strategy that I should have mentioned at the top of this whole episode is your customer becoming the face. And that can be a really strong strategy. What I love about that strategy is it's not one person, so there's not that danger there.
And we resonate when we see ourselves in other people. So if I see, like if I could shop at your store, I'm a perfect customer to shop at your store, and you find somebody like me and you're having them post on the social or create content for your social,
I'm going to resonate with her, right? And you can have multiple of those types of people that are posting. So it's like a team effort of your customers. And this could either be their content creators.
It could be influencers. You could just find, you know, top five, ten customers. and send them through training like my training, the Retailers Roadmap to Simplified Marketing.
And if they don't have that social media training already, but then they could just be using your products and do lifestyle stuff and they could also come in store and take some of those photos and be the face. So Catbird is doing more of that, but it's a blend.
So there was a video they did where they did like a three-minute tour of their facility because they have the retail store, but then they also have this whole area where they're making all these custom designs and the building is set up a certain way.
And it's just interesting to see the behind the scenes of a brand we love. So they did this great video. It was several employees, but Ronnie, the owner, opened it. Hey, I'm Ronnie. This is my business, and I want to take you on a tour.
And that was the last you saw of her. The rest of it was her team. And so that approach helps if the owner is not wanting to be super tied to the content.
It is more freeing, you know, if you're going on vacation, if you travel a lot, if you are managing multiple businesses, if you don't like being on social media, which I know a lot of us face this, if that is the case,
then if you can empower employees and or customers to really connect with customers on a human level, then it can work really well.
I've seen it work really well, for example, Catbird. And I'm seeing how they will work with, these are their customers, but they also have some larger followings. When I say larger, like 10,000.
You know, it's not like they've got 100,000. 10,000 people follow them, so they're kind of like these micro-influencers. They're good at creating content. They send them some products. They're creating the content. You know, it makes it easier.
Just go to Catbird's Instagram if you're not sure, like if you want to see what I'm talking about. They'll tag the person so they're getting that exposure too. And some of your customers might just love getting that exposure. They're helping build the brand.
It's sending people over their account. They might do this for a couple other brands too. We're going to see more of that. More influencers who have kind of their clients that they're creating content for. Just ideally they're in your town so they can pick up products from you.
They can come into the store. Maybe they make appearances at events, things like that. But as you can see, I hope you're picking up on, there's got to be a human. You have to have a face.
And it really does depend on your timing, what you can commit to your social. Now, like I talked about in episode 15, it really can just take a couple of minutes. I've talked about the daily five.
I think I've talked about the daily vibe on this show. I think I did it in episode one. And you can post your social media in five minutes or less. You don't have to have hours of commitment to social media every single day to create videos and photos.
It's still very possible for the store owner to show up. But if that is just not you, I have worked with store owners who are like, I absolutely refuse to be on camera. And so there are alternatives to still make social media work for you.
your team, your customers, a blend of that. Do you want to spend an entire day in Nashville, Tennessee with me learning all about social media,
creating your social media plan, knowing your who, what, when, where, why, all the apps, all the ways that you should be using Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, and more? If you want to do that with me in person on July 24th,
First, the 9-5 Great News, we are doing a social media day in Nashville, Tennessee, and we have 40 tickets available. This is an intimate experience to really get your plan up and running.
You feel super confident with your social media. You know what's working today. You know what's coming in the future of social media as well, so you're prepared. And for attending, you're also going to get a workbook with all the slides that we cover,
so you can take that back to your team. You might even want to bring somebody on your team, like your social media coordinator. You're going to get a 12-month social media planner. We're going to feed you lunch. You're going to get Q&A time. You're going to get networking time and more.
These are powerful events. We've done several in the past. People love them. So if this sounds good to you then go to crystalmediaceo click on products and then scroll down to social media day
You can get more information there and secure your ticket. I would love to see you in Nashville. Now, one thing I want to address also is I recommend if the owner is going to be the one who's doing the social media and is the face of that, I think it's great when we also talk about personal stuff.
It doesn't have to always be about the store and about your products. when we talk about personal stuff it resonates it's that relatability and that's typically the content you'll get more engagement on and you start building deeper relationships people get
to know you through the personal content and so then when they need to buy what you sell they're choosing you over the competitor because they don't know the competitor we talk more personal right and that builds that connection and you know this as retailers like you know those bonds and
the connections that you build through the conversations that you have with your customers in your store. So we're just doing that. It feels a little awkward because we're doing it through a camera versus a real life person, but we're doing that on social to build those connections
and stay relevant. I have had retailers who don't want to talk about the personal stuff and sometimes they just don't think it will help. So if you're in one of those camps,
Let me just address that real quick. If you don't think talking about personal stuff would help your engagement and connection with your customer,
I think you're wrong. There's no nicer way to put it. I think you should try it and see what kind of results you get. And I have a feeling that after you heard what I just said, if you notice,
the conversations you have in store and that connection, like the personal stuff is the meaningful things. Like, we want to connect with brands, right? Like, our retailers, our local retailers want to connect. And the way we do it more meaningful is through personal stuff.
So if you don't believe, you could try. And even people will be like, but nobody cares what I'm eating. Well, first of all, you don't have to share what you're eating. It can also be more of, like, your day or your family or your traditions or your thoughts or, you know, how you're feeling or an aha moment or a funny moment or a show you watched.
Like, it doesn't always have to be your food. For some reason, people are always like, nobody cares what I eat. And I think it's because in the beginning of Twitter and, well, no, Instagram, so many people took pictures of their food in the beginning.
So many. And so I think we, like, reference that as being a personal post. But you know what I'm going to tell you? People also do care what you're eating. It creates conversation. A big thing at Crystal Media is should pineapple be on a pizza or not?
And, I mean, we're divided. We are divided at Crystal Media. I think it should be on the pizza. Pauline thinks this is a disgrace. I'm surprised she even works for Crystal Media because I believe that pineapple belongs on pizza.
But she does. We manage. All right? It's tough, but we manage. Now, this is a whole conversation. When people start working at Crystal Media, that's the first question we ask them on their first company meeting.
It just sort of became part of our culture. We talk about some food stuff and wine stuff on our Instagram. That has nothing to do with social media. That type of post are the things that our retos talk to us about when they see us in person at shows, social media days, at our conference.
They'll also comment. They'll be like, oh, I'm one of those people. Nope, pineapple shouldn't be on it. Like, it's a totally different type of connection, right? So it can happen with your food, too. But here's the deal. I also, I'm going to be all day long in the camp that you should be talking about personal stuff.
You should be connecting, and ideally the owner is the person that's the face. If it can't be, if that's absolutely non-negotiable, customer routine is fine. You can get away with just doing business.
You don't have to talk personal. There are so many case studies and so many brands I'm seeing, especially on TikTok, that are just selling. They are selling. For some reason, I'm on the Wigs feed, like the Wigs algorithm on TikTok.
So I'm watching all these lives selling. I can't stop watching. I guess I am very interested in wigs. Maybe I'll get one. Maybe I'll get multiple. But they're just showing wigs. And they have a number.
This is number 24. They name them. They brush. They put it on. Then they go, whoop, now this is number 12. This is the thing. And people are buying right there. They're not talking about what they need or what they did last night or nothing personal.
It's just very focused on the product. Their other post on their feed is just about the hair. It's about the wigs. That's it. And they're selling. And it's working. That's working for their brand. Now, my thought with that is how sustainable is it?
It can be sustainable. And here's where they have the human element is they are live streaming with a human. And so there is a personal connection. People can ask their questions. She's answering right away. And, you know, she's got some personality.
There are a couple that I watch, fun personality. Hey, love. Hey, girl. Like, you know, they're just being their authentic self. And people love that. So that can be sustainable. But if it's just, you know, just pictures of product, you're going to have a lot of competition.
It's just harder to build that long term. You're going to find more people who are like could be price shopping and just not really building that connection. They're probably not going to follow you. So you can do just business stuff.
I also want to point out the fact that Gary Vaynerchuk, who is a social media pioneer, he's been in this industry longer than I have. He's much larger than I am. He's massive following. In fact, as I'm filming this, it's May 15th, and this weekend, May 19th, 20th, I will be at VCon, Gary V's conference,
and I'm able to go because I bought one of his NFTs, and that NFT gives me access to three of his conferences. So I'm stoked. I'm so stoked to go see him. Hopefully, I've met him several times and even shared a virtual stage with Gary at the Retail Success Summit.
But anyways, there's going to be epic speakers, and I'm going to do recaps and share with you what I learned in my experience on the show and really translate it from a retail perspective because there going to be some really big thinking of what coming in metaverse and AI and marketing and social So that was a little tangent with Gary Gary does not talk about personal Gary does podcasts and he does several posts on several platforms
every single day, and you've never seen a picture of his kids. You, I mean, he recently started posting a picture or two of him and his girlfriend, but you don't know anything outside that he loves the Jets.
He's a sports card collector. Those are personal things, but that's about it. he's not talking about his food he's not sharing stories that are personal it's very specific to business and Gary has built
a massive empire on doing that so my point is you can absolutely build a strong social media presence and not
talk about anything personal but you've got to use video like you have to authentically be you you've got to create the content, you've got to be in the content because people want to follow people. They want to grab onto somebody.
Like, people love Gary, his personality, how fast he is, how he keeps it real, all the advice he has, like, his energy. They love that. So that's why they follow. It doesn't matter if he's talking about personal stuff or not.
They connect because he always adds value, too. He's always adding value. So wherever you are in your retail experience, like in your store, it's really about, like, what's the vision? And here's the deal.
It can always change. Maybe you are the face today, and that's going to be really dedicated for you. And then down the road, something happens within your life, and it's just not practical for you to do that. And so you get your team involved.
And, again, I'd have the multiple teams, but really kind of have them do some training with them so they really understand your customers, have the same hooks, have the same intros and outros,
so you have some brand consistency throughout. And then the final thing I'm going to say about your teams that are represented on social media, anybody who's creating that content, so if they're wearing items, they're live selling,
they're showing items, like if they're showing items off, especially in photos, videos, ideally you're representing all of your customers. So what I'm seeing right now is there's a few stores that I love locally,
and it's girls in their 20s and they're modeling and they're talking about items and it's like it doesn't really relate to me because she's young 20 like I have I have a different style I have
I want to see me you know what I mean like I want to see me in that post would I be carrying that bag would that would I love that in my home would I be reading that book like what you know like I
we want to see ourselves in the content. So that's where using your customers works really well. If you've got team members that are different ages and you could appeal to the younger generation
and the boomer generation, the millennial generation, so that's going to help create more diverse content. They could all be wearing the same outfit. They could all be talking about the same product, but it will be delivered to different people's feeds because of how they
on social media and because of the different demographic. So really help. I know that some people are like, oh my God, now you're telling me I have to have like five different people that are showing up on my social media. My employees don't want to do video. They don't want to show up.
I know we're going to start somewhere. Okay. So the owner is ideal to show up. You know, your customers, you can connect. People love you. And then if we're having our team involved,
Let's try to have some diversity to represent our customers. Let's have some consistency on how we're doing the videos, how we're showing up. And just get really clear on your involvement with social, where you're headed with it,
and if you are going to talk about personal stuff or not. And then, you know, that structure helps us get social media done because that's the big thing is it often doesn't get done because we don't have any plan.
And we have this, we either have resistance, no plan, or no system. That's why it's not getting done. 15, episode 15, we talked all about the resistance side. My Reto's Roadmap course that's coming out is all about the plan and the system.
So if you need additional training, check that out. It will be out in June. But make sure that you're just clear. And I hope that if you were wondering anything on how you could position it, I think that there's a great opportunity for a lot of our Retos to get their customers more involved.
and I think customers would be honored. You could structure this in different ways. If you're paying hourly or scope of work, you're responsible for creating 10 posts a month
and we're going to give you $100. So it's $10 a post. Or we'll give you $100 in products. Depending on the age group and the person that you're talking to,
they might just want to create, be a part of the brand for some products. You know, so think creatively on how you are really showing up, but make sure that it's really connecting to your vision, to your brand and your customers.
If you have any questions, DM me or email hello at crystalmediasco.com. And I would love to hear from you. If you have a question for this show, chat it in, DM me.
You can leave a comment on this post. You can email us at that same email address. I would love to know. and if you would like to be a guest on the show, go to crystalmediasco.com slash guest and apply
or maybe you have somebody that you're like, they would be such a good guest on this show. They're super rooted in retail. They add a lot of value or they're a really successful retailer. Send them that link or tell me about them
and I'll reach out to them. But I would love to just get to know who you want me to interview. Maybe it's you and we'd love to answer your questions on the show too. Thank you so much for listening today.
I hope that gave you some clarity on the face of your social media and remember that I am rooting for your success and I hope you have a great week ahead. Bye. Thank you so much for being here.
It means the world to me. Don't forget to join the Rise and Shine newsletter, which is social media news you need to know. Send me an email every Monday morning. Go to crystalmediaco.com to join.
And don't miss the newest episode of Rooted in Retail, which drops every Sunday morning.