The Journal of Business hosted Spokane influencer Chandler Baird, founder and owner of Spokane Eats, for its most recent Elevating The Conversation podcast.

The Elevating The Conversation podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, and elsewhere. Search for it on any of those platforms or the Journal's website to hear the entire conversation, but for now, here are five takeaways—edited for space and clarity—from the episode, which runs just under 30 minutes.

1. Being hyperfocused on the local market has more benefits than drawbacks. Our page is very niche. About 95% of our followers are in the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene area. They're mostly women ages 30 to 55 looking for things to do, looking for restaurants to visit. 

In one way, I've pigeonholed myself, right? I can't work with a lot of bigger brands because we have such a local focus, and I can't really branch out as much as people say I should.

But I really want to keep it super niche, and I feel like that's one of the reasons that it's so powerful and works so well. It's just our little pocket of the Pacific Northwest, and this is who we are, what we talk about, and people know exactly what to expect.

I meet followers every single day when I'm out in public. We'll be eating out, and people come talk to us all the time. I was at my daughter's soccer practice last night and someone comes up and says, "Hey! Spokane Eats!"

It's just fun that I actually get to meet these people that I'm talking to online. I follow lots of influencers, and I'm not sure that anybody gets that opportunity as much as I do. 

People ask, 'Oh, do you not like to be approached in public?' No, I love it. I'm talking to you guys online all day. I want to meet you. I want to see you face to face. I want to see your cute little kids.

It's so much more than just an online presence.

2. Social media has become saturated, and therein lies a challenge. I would say yes, social media is more saturated, for sure. There are more people trying to push their products and their talents on social media.

It's become a little bit harder. You have to get more creative. You have to learn the algorithm. You have to play their games. For example, if you post, and within the first 15 minutes to an hour, your post isn't getting good traction, then Instagram is going to think, OK, people don't like this, so we aren't going to show it to as many people.

There are lots of different strategies behind social media that you kind of learn as you go, and there are different little tips and tricks that we do to try and help get the most eyes on our content. At the end of the day, it just takes a lot of time and energy and effort and consistency.

And that's what a lot of people don't quite understand. They'll post a few times and say, 'Oh, I'm not getting any traction. It doesn't work.' No, you have to be consistent. What you give to Instagram, Instagram will give back to you. And that's really what people need to understand.

I'm not telling people they need to spend all day on Instagram, because I think that's the opposite of what our world needs. I think we need to be off social media more than we're on it. But if you're trying to push brands, and you're trying to push products on Instagram, you've got to give it time.

3. The laws and ethics guiding influencers are clear, but can get complex. There are rules and regulations that influencers are supposed to follow. If you work with a brand that's paying you, you do some sort of disclosure, such as labeling it as a sponsored ad or sponsored partnership. There's different ways of saying it, and now, there are actually tools on social media where you mark things as paid partnerships.

Different clients have different criteria that they want you to follow. Some of the bigger brands send detailed worksheets of every single thing you have to do. It's very specific, very thought out. Other brands don't know, so I'm the one saying, 'Oh, I have to do this.' A lot of times, they don't want those disclosures, because then, it looks like an ad. But you have to follow these rules, or there are consequences.

I try to stay on top of these things. There's no like platform telling us influencers, this is the law, this is the rule. So you kind of just have to learn this and do it yourself.

At the end of the day, the most important thing for me is being authentic, and that's how I try to like maintain my ethics. 

4. Aspiring influences need to just start. My advice is just to start. I feel like so many people reach out like, 'Hey, I want to do this. What should I do?' And then two years later, they're reaching out again, saying they're still thinking about this. And I'm thinking, why didn't you start this two years ago? If you would have just started posting some things, talking about what you like, and exploring what's meaningful to you, then two years later, you'd probably have the growth that you'd want.

So I think that's what holds a lot of people back is that they have this idea, but then they just stew on it and never actually do it. I'm a big believer in, if you have an idea, just do it. Do it in 24 hours. Just get it done, get your page made up. You can change things later.

My first pictures were so bad. I was brand new to this town. I didn't know anyone. I didn't know what I was talking about. You'll make mistakes, and people will forgive you. Just taking the initiative and making the effort is a hard thing to do.

5. Businesses in search of a presence should seek help. For brands that have no idea how to do it, delegate. Find somebody who's into it. 

At a restaurant, for example, maybe the chef and the owner aren't on social media. They don't know how to take pictures that would work. Find one of your servers or your bartenders that loves it, because chances are, you have one, two, or three people on your staff who are on social media all day consuming and would love to try it out for the business.

People don't realize how much time and energy it takes to create posts on social media and to post and to be active. So handing that off to somebody that's going to find interest in it, I think that would be something that would be really, really great.