Maria: Hey Tom, I've gotta know, what is your favorite social media?
Tom Mulhern: I gotta say I don't understand TikTok. Maybe I'm too old, but I'm, I always wanna like search for a video and then if I find it, I can't find it again. So I gotta say my favorite social media platform is definitely Instagram. I just love it. I love being able to of scroll and see the little videos of friends that I haven't talked to in years and see what they're doing, so I can waste a lot of time on Instagram.
It's not Twitter, it's not TikTok, it's not Facebook unless I'm looking for something on Facebook marketplace. But Instagram is my go-to time waste when it comes to social media. What about you?
Maria: TikTok is by far my favorite. I think maybe I'm just young enough to get it.
I do love TikTok, but a little bit of irony is that I manage all the social media, but I do not have any of my own except for TikTok.
Tom Mulhern: You don't have any of your own personal social media accounts.
Maria: I did, I deleted all of my own social media and I've never felt better.
Tom Mulhern: Really So you deleted Instagram, you deleted Facebook, how do you share all the things you're doing with your friends and family back in Canada when you're living in France?
Maria: I have some group chats with some of my close friends and my family that I share photos in. But otherwise no one gets to see what I'm doing. Just me
Tom Mulhern: That's so meta, like being able to, and I guess I shouldn't use the word meta because that's what Facebook is now But you're like flipping the whole idea of social media on its head and just connecting with the people that you really wanna share pictures and stories with.
Maria: Yeah, exactly. When you do social media for a living maybe you just don't wanna mix business and pleasure,
Tom Mulhern: yeah, I get it. I get it.
Maria: So that kind of leads us into this, is that I am a social media expert and I wouldn't call myself a cannabis expert because I truly believe that no one in the industry is an expert because it changes so rapidly and we're all still learning.
But I do know a fair amount about cannabis social networks. So that's what we're gonna be talking about today.
Tom Mulhern: So you said cannabis social networks. I know you constantly are having all of these issues with trying to post stuff on regular social networks about cannabis, but are you saying that there's specific cannabis social networks that people can go onto and connect?
Maria: There is. So as we all know, social media is not very cannabis friendly. There are a few sites that will let you use a couple different things. CBD in particular. But all of these new cannabis focused social media sites have been popping up all over, and some of them are getting really popular. And so the great thing about these is that you don't have to regulate anything that you're posting and you don't have to worry about anything getting reported or taking down for just talking about cannabis.
Tom Mulhern: And what are some reasons that people would want to go on a cannabis social network? Because all of my friends are on Instagram, so why would I want to go over there?
Maria: So if you're in the cannabis industry, it can be hard for professionals to keep up with all the new developments and trends and regulations. So a cannabis focused site will help you keep up with these things. As well. It gives you a place to just connect organically with others in the industry.
Tom Mulhern: It probably is a good place to build your brand as well, if it's so focused on just cannabis, you know, to stand out with whatever specific thing you're having, whether you're a dispensary, you are a Cannatech company you can build that brand awareness and you can find out about other brands. I know this isn't a cannabis specific social network, but on LinkedIn I'm starting to cease different after parties that are gonna happen at MJBiz Con.
And I'm getting excited to go. I know Covas throwing a, a uh, eighties flashback party. Kaya Push is actually sponsoring it as well. So, you know, It's cool to connect on those, but they have to still be so careful with what they put out there.
Maria: So LinkedIn is a great one and there is lots of cannabis professionals on there, but it does still regulate a lot of the content. So one that's really similar to LinkedIn is going to be Leaf Wire. It's basically LinkedIn, but for cannabis. So their tagline is No stigma, just business.
Tom Mulhern: I'm on Leaf Wire and I find that they have really good newsletters as well with all sorts of different inside information. But you can also really connect. It's the same like you said, as going on LinkedIn and connecting with different people in the industry.
And, you of find people that you may not have connected with on LinkedIn because there's so many people on there.
Maria: And with Leaf Wire, you can post job openings and you can also post events or look through events that you might want to attend. And they're all gonna be cannabis focus, which is great.
Tom Mulhern: That's awesome. Is there any other good cannabis specific social networks that you've used in your past?
Maria: Yeah. So another one that you might like, since you said you liked Instagram is CannaBuzz. So CannaBuzz is basically Instagram, but for cannabis. So you can post any cannabis photos that you want videos as well, and you don't have to worry about them getting taken down. Unlike on Instagram,
So unlike leaf wire, CannaBuzz has more of a casual social media environment, so it's more just about sharing photos and comments versus so much business.
Tom Mulhern: I know that on Reddit, they're pretty specific about what you can post on there, but there are subreddits where you can find out more about cannabis and the industry and that they, it is more of an open platform.
Maria: So Reddit is I think one of the number one places to get cannabis information. There's so many different people on there from all different types of the cannabis industry or just enthusiasts, and it's a great way to find information that you might not otherwise find. Some of the more popular cannabis subreddits have almost 2 million members.
Tom Mulhern: Wow. So that's definitely a good place to connect. I know we tried launching a Kaya Cast subreddit, and we were so controversial that it got taken down. So that's how badass we are, Maria, that we're even too edgy for Reddit.
Maria: We're too edgy for Reddit.
Tom Mulhern: What are some other ways that people can connect or get information about the cannabis industry out there, whether it's social media or other, Are there other ways that people can learn about getting connected?
Maria: So another one that's similar to Reddit in the sense that it's a forum is Rollitup. So there's a lot of cannabis enthusiasts on there. There's also gonna be companies and businesses on there as well. It's a place where cannabis enthusiasts or professionals can come and talk about the industry as a whole and all sorts of topics, whether that's your actual growing of cannabis harvesting, or you wanna talk about issues with your business around marketing or accounting?
Tom Mulhern: So building that, those connections about those specific topics really is what the point of that is, right?
Maria: Forums are a great place to actually get cannabis information, and one of those reasons is because the industry changes so rapidly. Although it's not cannabis specific, Facebook has a lot of cannabis focus groups and those are great places for you to come together and talk about cannabis. So Facebook groups are a little less moderated than just posting on Facebook.
So the bots can't necessarily find you in there, so is lots of different Facebook groups you can join. And I know a lot of them have great information.
Tom Mulhern: So on Facebook though, like I know I've set up Facebook groups that are like so specific to, certain interests. Is that the way that it is on Facebook as well for the cannabis community? Is it really dialed in specifically to a certain demographic, a certain location?
Maria: Yeah, so that's one of the great things about Facebook groups is that they are a bit more niche, so you're able to connect with people that might actually be in your specific area. So versus something like a giant Reddit forum where there's people. From all over the world, you can join these Facebook groups and connect with other business owners in your area and create this sense of community.
Tom Mulhern: I know I'm a part of some Facebook groups that are like for fishing and they're specifically tied to my area and it makes it so much more engaging to have some of those conversations with people. So that's a really cool thing to know. And now on Facebook, do people have to be careful with what they share?
Can things be taken off if marijuana specific or what's the kind of the deal?
Maria: So the great thing about Facebook groups is that the moderators are whoever created the group, so Zuckerberg can't get you in there , so you're pretty safe within a Facebook group. Not to say they don't get taken down because they do periodically, but they are a lot safer than just posting on your open Facebook page.
Tom Mulhern: Okay, that's good to know.
Maria: Within all of these different social media sites, you might be thinking about advertising because how can you advertise cannabis on social media? And while a lot of websites don't allow any cannabis advertising, a lot of them do. So of course, any of the cannabis focus social media sites like cannabis Rollitup, they're going to allow cannabis advertising.
But as well, Reddit and Twitter actually allow cannabis advertising in Canada where it's legal.
Tom Mulhern: So all of these different ways of connecting on social media. There's the cannabis specific ones. There's the just regular social media channels like Facebook and Reddit and LinkedIn, and YouTube and Twitter and all of those other communities. The point of all of that is really to connect people.
That's why Facebook started was to connect different people and universities together. And I think at the end of the day, like what you've realized, Maria, social media is great, but at the end of the day, it's all about connecting with people in the industry. Connecting with people that you can learn from and, that can happen on social media, but it really can happen just having conversations with people.
Maria: Definitely, and that's exactly why we've started this podcast, so that you can have these great conversations with people in the cannabis industry.
Tom Mulhern: That's awesome, Maria I wanna encourage you to sign up again for Instagram because we all wanna see your amazing travels.
Maria: In the meantime, everyone can give a follow to the. Cast Instagram. We also have TikTok and you can find us on YouTube and Twitter.
Tom Mulhern: and LinkedIn.
Maria: Oh yes. You can connect with us on LinkedIn and we do share some great video snippets from the podcast as well as some kind of did you knows, tips, tricks, other things.
Tom Mulhern: And another reason to follow us on all those different social media platforms is that we're gonna start doing some contests really soon. So you're gonna wanna keep an eye on some of our social media pages to find out details about that. I'm not gonna give away any of the spoilers yet, but. We are gonna do some social media contests in the next couple months here.
We're gonna connect with people when we're at MJ Bis Con and yeah, we wanna just continue to grow the community that we're building here on the Kaya Cast Podcast.
