One-Click Marketing, Real Community

What if your entire marketing workflow—social posts, emails, texts, analytics, and approvals—lived in one tab and actually made sense? We sat down at the Mount Pleasant Expo to unpack a practical way to run multi-channel campaigns without drowning in logins, spreadsheets, and “who has the code?” messages with Rachel Backal, Engagement Manager from Pollen Social. From agencies juggling a dozen clients to community orgs relying on volunteers, we break down how a single platform can reduce friction, restore consistency, and bring your team together around clear goals and clean data.

We walk through real scenarios marketers face every week: hopping between Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, Mailchimp, and Google Analytics; rebuilding the same message five times; and spending more time exporting reports than learning from them. You’ll hear how one-click cross-posting and extended scheduling windows keep campaigns on track, while unified analytics from GA, Google Business, Meta, and Shopify turn performance into a story you can share with clients or boards. With unlimited users and role-based permissions, teams can invite volunteers to upload event photos, let leaders view dashboards, and keep editors focused on content—all without paying per seat or risking access sprawl.

AI shows up where it counts. Caption generation helps when the creative well runs dry, image tools fill gaps for promos and recaps, and newsletter helpers speed up drafting so you hit send on time. Most importantly, there’s real human support: strategy-led onboarding, hands-on guidance during your free 30-day trial, and a local team invested in the Charleston business community. If you’ve been hunting for a marketing stack that saves hours, cuts context switching, and still respects your brand voice, this conversation lays out a clear path.

Ready to simplify your stack? Try the 30-day free trial at pollensocial.com, subscribe for more practical playbooks, and leave a review to tell us the one workflow you most want to fix next.

Expo Podcast Sponsor: Pollen Social

Presenting Sponsor: Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce

Studio Sponsor: Charleston Media Solutions

Expo Podcast Sponsor: ‪@PollenSocial‬

Production Sponsor: RMBO.co

Design Sponsor: DK Design

Committee:
Kathleen Herrmann | Host | MPCC Immediate Past President | Mount Pleasant Towne Centre
Mike Compton | Co-host | Marketing Chair | RMBO.co
Rebecca Imholz | Co-host | MPCC Executive Director
Amanda Bunting Comen | Co-host | Social ABCs
Ben Nesvold | Co-host | In-coming President | Edward Jones

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Hey folks, Mike Compton here.

(00:01):
I'm here with Stephanie Barrow.

SPEAKER_01 (00:02):
Hey friends.

SPEAKER_00 (00:03):
And Rachel.

SPEAKER_01 (00:04):
Hi! I'm so excited.
Macall.
McCall! Yeah.
I always have to say B as inBoyne A-C-K-L because it sounds
like McCall.
Right.
Yeah.
Well, we were just talking abouthow she's recently engaged, so
that'll be changing.
Yes, yes.
It's gonna be a way harder lastname, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_00 (00:22):
What is it gonna be?

SPEAKER_01 (00:23):
It's gonna be Freed for Tag.

SPEAKER_00 (00:25):
One more time.

SPEAKER_01 (00:27):
Freed for Tig.

SPEAKER_00 (00:28):
Bless you.

SPEAKER_01 (00:29):
I know, I know.

SPEAKER_00 (00:30):
I love that.
I love it.

SPEAKER_01 (00:31):
It meets peace in German.

SPEAKER_00 (00:34):
We're the building business, right?
Podcast, powered by the MountPleasant Chamber Council.

SPEAKER_02 (00:38):
Yes, Omar Shrine Center.

SPEAKER_00 (00:39):
At the Omar Shrine Center.
Yeah.
At the Expo Live.
Thanks to Holly Social, whichRachel works for right now.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Huge sponsors and supporters ofthe chamber.
Yeah.
And now the podcast.
So thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02 (00:53):
And she's on the AMA board.
I am.

SPEAKER_00 (00:56):
So worlds are colliding here too.
We're almost.
What did I say earlier?

SPEAKER_02 (00:59):
We're having like a uh We're having like a Gray's
Anatomy meets Reno 911.
Because I, you do the wetogether on the AMA podcast.

SPEAKER_00 (01:07):
Crossover.
We're having a crossover episodehere.
Yes, yes.
With the building.
We do the AMA, which is a sisterpodcast to the building
business.

SPEAKER_02 (01:15):
Which is what it's all about in Charleston.
It's a community.
100%.
We both live in Mount Pleasantand we're members.

SPEAKER_00 (01:21):
Much love to Charleston Media Solutions for
us able to, you know, justreport out of their studios to
the podcast.
Heart to them.

SPEAKER_01 (01:27):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (01:27):
Heart to them.
Rachel, you go to the show toosometimes.
I do.
Every time.

SPEAKER_01 (01:31):
I I love going.
I love hearing the differentstories.
I'm like behind the camerasmiling.
Like ear and ear.
I'm like, yeah, say more, saymore.

SPEAKER_00 (01:40):
You are gonna be a co-host of the podcast one of
these.

SPEAKER_01 (01:42):
I will one of these days.
We would love to.
But today we're here with.
Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 (01:48):
That's your energy, right?

SPEAKER_01 (01:49):
She's got great energy.

SPEAKER_00 (01:50):
Pollen social.

SPEAKER_01 (01:51):
Yes.
Yes.

SPEAKER_00 (01:51):
Can you talk about Pollen Social, please?

SPEAKER_01 (01:53):
Yes.

SPEAKER_00 (01:54):
Where can we find you?

SPEAKER_01 (01:55):
Yes.

SPEAKER_00 (01:56):
And all the good stuff.

SPEAKER_01 (01:57):
So we are a marketing platform.
We do everything from socialmedia posting, email blasts,
text messages, an analyticssuite.
We want to be like a one-stopshop.
You can find us athollandsocial.com.
We're on Instagram, Facebook,LinkedIn, TikTok, all the fun

(02:18):
stuff.
So I have a lot of questions.
Yes.

SPEAKER_00 (02:21):
So you got 10 minutes, Steph.

SPEAKER_02 (02:24):
I'm an agency owner, right?
Yes.
So I have 12 social mediaaccounts that I manage.
Okay.
Can I manage all 12 of themunder your platform?
You can.

SPEAKER_01 (02:34):
And you can actually easy enough, you can toggle
between each uh company all fromone email address.
So all from one login account,you can switch over to client A,
client B, client C.

SPEAKER_02 (02:47):
Right, and I can pull analytics and reports
through there.

SPEAKER_01 (02:50):
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 (02:51):
What else can she do though?

SPEAKER_01 (02:52):
Yeah.
So when you're doing marketingfor your clients, let me know
what you're doing.
Are you doing just social?
Are you doing email outreach?

SPEAKER_02 (03:00):
Yes.
I'm doing emails.
I do a lot of Google LSA ads.
I do a lot of Google PVC, a lotof content updates.
Okay.
So Google Analytics is importantto me.
Metadata TikTok is huge to me.
I hate running reports.
That is my least favorite partof the job.
That is sending in voices.

SPEAKER_00 (03:19):
Poland Social can help you with that.

SPEAKER_01 (03:21):
We make it very easy because you're going to all
these different sites to getthese analytics, right?
You're exporting these reportsfrom different platforms.
Take so much time.
So much time.
And then going ahead andunderstanding what these reports
mean and explaining them to yourclients.
Yes.

SPEAKER_02 (03:39):
That's a whole other thing.

SPEAKER_01 (03:40):
It's a whole other thing.
So with Pollen, you're able topull all these reports from one
place Google Analytics, GoogleBusiness, everything to do with
Meta, Shopify, Mail Training.
Shopify too.
Yeah.
We integrate, we're using Zier.
So like any any platform CRM youcan think of, we can integrate
with.

SPEAKER_02 (04:00):
And you have scheduling tools too.

SPEAKER_01 (04:01):
We have scheduling tools.
You can schedule out a year inadvance.

SPEAKER_02 (04:04):
You can schedule out a month in advance.
Because with Meta, you can onlyschedule out a certain amount of
time in advance, like a month ortwo.
Exactly.
So say you're like travelinglike I do a lot, you can't
schedule those things out.
You better remember busy to beposting in real time, which
sucks.

SPEAKER_01 (04:18):
And then think about it, you're also posting a meta,
but I'm guessing you're usingLinkedIn or TikTok or ads.
All the things.
And then you're individuallyhaving to post to those as well.
Copying and pasting.
Yeah, copying and pasting.
What if you could just selectTikTok?
Uh sorry, not good.
Uh Facebook.
The check marks.
Yeah.
Check mark.

(04:38):
Um TikTok, Meta, email.
Or send a social post as a textmessage, right?
You can have that all there, andall just a check mark away to
share.
What our thing is we have apatent, it's one-click
marketing.
So there's really no otherplatform out there that you can
do email and text messaging inone click, the same with posting

(04:59):
social media.

SPEAKER_02 (04:59):
Yeah, I used to work with, I used to a partner with
like Sprout Social for that.
Very costly.
Very costly.

SPEAKER_01 (05:05):
Does it do newsletters?
No, it does not do newsletters.

SPEAKER_00 (05:07):
Yeah, speaking of the costly part of things here.

SPEAKER_01 (05:10):
So the cool thing about the pollen is every plan,
every whether it's annual,whether it's monthly, whether
whichever tier you're on, youget a 30-day free trial.
Love it.
So no credit card required.
We want you to be confident andin love with the platform as
much as we are before you committo putting any credit card down.
Okay, perfect.

(05:30):
So in that 30 month in that30-day span, you get to work
with me and my team.
And we do more than just gettingyou onboard.
Really, our my bread and butter,what I'm really passionate about
is marketing strategy.
So I want you to think of me asyour marketing advisor.
So customer service is huge, anda lot of these platforms, you

(05:51):
don't get to speak to a human.
Absolutely do not.
So I want to be the person yougo to, I want my team, and I
want you to feel like whetherit's in person, a Zoom, I want
you to feel like we are yourbiggest advocate for your
business.
So um I love that.
Yeah, I lost my train of time.

SPEAKER_00 (06:09):
So we got customer service, right?
And you get some you know uhadvice.

SPEAKER_01 (06:13):
Yes.

SPEAKER_00 (06:13):
And and you know, a human person to talk to.

SPEAKER_01 (06:16):
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 (06:16):
But it's AI powered.

SPEAKER_01 (06:18):
AI is AI, it's definitely AI powered.
We've dipped our toes now intoAI uh image generation.
Okay, interesting.
You can use that.
It's actually pretty amazing.
We just had um a client do, theyhad a similar expo, and they're
like, we don't have anything tocreate.
And so we're like, let's give ita prompt.
It took like two tries to get itthe way that they wanted it, but

(06:41):
it was good enough where itlooked real that you're not
looking at it, you're beinglike, okay, time savings.
Really, it truly is.
But my favorite thing is our AIcaption creator.
I love creating content.
Yeah, I have no idea what towhat the lingo or lingo is.

SPEAKER_02 (06:55):
Sometimes I come up with newsletter headers, I'm
like, I don't know, I just wrotethis whole thing.
My brain is done now.
Exactly.
I don't know what that kettleis.
Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 (07:01):
And now we have AI to help you create your own
newsletters, which I've actuallystarted playing around with for
camera.
Yeah.
Because we have new we donewsletters, and I, Amanda runs
those, and I was like, I wantthe whole team to have
visibility of this.
Right.
What's going out?
What are the clicks?
And think about we're onMailChimp, and Mailchimp's

(07:22):
great.
However, getting into MailChimpis a little bit of every time.
Let's get the what who's sendingthe code.
Yes.
Yes.
So everyone on camera will havetheir own login.
So and they'll have differentpermissions.
Yeah.
So whether it's just doingsocial media and you're actually
uploading content and postingit, or Mike, who's the president

(07:43):
who just wants to look at theanalytics and wants an overview.
You go in there, you can viewthe same things that Stephanie
can view, that I can view, butobviously the information and
data mean something different toyou than it means to me, than it
might mean to you.
Yeah.
So a lot of these companies onlyallow you one login.
Yeah.
Or one user, right?
You pay per user.
We are unlimited users.

(08:03):
We want your whole team to beinvolved.
Or let's say you have avolunteer helping for an event.
We want them to be able toupload the content that day, and
that's it, right?
We don't want them to be able toaccess anything else.
We just want them uploadingcontent.
We've got a media library wherewe can they do a content dump,
right?
And then Stephanie or Mike,they're creating the content.

(08:24):
We go ahead and edit the contentand I can post it right from
Holland.
I almost did that too.

SPEAKER_00 (08:29):
This morning I went to Harbor Entrepreneur Center
and went to the CoffeeConnections.
Yes.
I took a bunch of videos andsome photos.
I was gonna send them to you.

SPEAKER_01 (08:37):
Yes.

SPEAKER_00 (08:37):
Because you're really good at recreating those
videos.
But then I'm like, let's notbother her.
Let me download CapCut myselfand like, you know, big boy and
figure it out myself.
I'm still sitting on it rightnow.

SPEAKER_01 (08:47):
Well, if I was able to upload it, I could take it,
make it my magic happen.
Absolutely.
And then you would never have toworry about the content again.

SPEAKER_00 (08:55):
I'm already signed up in a way, right?

SPEAKER_01 (08:56):
So, yes, we are getting you guys onto the
platform.
Camma is joining the platformbecause we're being spotlight in
October.
So we're getting that set upnow, we're getting all the
details finalized.
And then I will work with thecamera team, the board, to get
everyone on there, comfortable,make sure their permissions are
set up, and get all of ourGoogle Analytics, all those

(09:19):
things, fun things connected.
So all you have to do is log in.
This is such an awesome product.
Are you pitching at everybody intown?
Yeah.
So yeah, yeah, because pollencould be you could be an
influencer, you could be abusiness owner, you could be a
celebrity, an artist.
And really, you're if you're onsocial media and you're posting
regularly, you can get somethingout of pollen.

(09:39):
So and the tiers are importantbecause you can just, if you
it's$19.99 a month, right?
If you just want to do socialmedia, right?
So it's like, if you think aboutit, it's a maybe a cocktail at
the dewberry.
The price of a cocktail at thedewberry.
So in that sense, you get accessto everything, and we're always

(09:59):
releasing beta features so thateverybody on our platform can
try them out, and if it makessense to you, then maybe we go
ahead and add that as a service,right?
But we want you to love itbefore you're paying for
anything.
We want it to make sense, andthere's different plans we can
do for each business, butthere's something for everyone.

(10:20):
We're highlighting it on camerathe month October.
Yes.

SPEAKER_00 (10:22):
That's right, yes.
That's right, that's right.
Um, our sister uh podcast.
Yes, yes.
Uh why are you at the expo?
Like, and what makes the expo sospecial to you?

SPEAKER_01 (10:33):
So we are just actually Mount Pleasant Chamber
Commerce is on Pollenthemselves.

SPEAKER_03 (10:39):
Yes.

SPEAKER_01 (10:39):
So we love supporting our users in any way
that we can, whether it's goingto an event or it's going to an
award ceremony, or if it's justshowing up for an opening,
right?
A new location opening.
We want to support them.
We love partnering with localbusinesses.
We are born and raised inCharleston, that's where we come
from.

(10:59):
So, really, we want to starthere and we want to make sure
that we build the rightreputation and confidence in our
own community before we go aheadand spread out.
So attending something like ayou know, Mount Pleasant Expo is
super important because there'sso many businesses I've never
even heard of that we're gettingto go ahead and do our spiel

(11:20):
with and we're finding out.
I need help with marketing.
I don't know where to start.
And it's just so fun because myfavorite thing is helping tell
the small businesses story,right?
So if it's content creation,whatever it is, being able to
share that is like it'severything.
It's your purpose.

(11:40):
It gives me purpose.
It's your walk.
I'm passionate about this, asyou can tell.
I love it.
I love it.
Yeah, and I we're so lucky tohave you on camera in the
marketing.

SPEAKER_00 (11:48):
Oh, I'm I'm so happy to be a part of it.

SPEAKER_01 (11:51):
It's it's really awesome to be able to have a
better understanding of themarketing community outside of
just work, I'd say.
You know, obviously we're alwayshot trying to help each other
out, but I love working, I lovelike becoming friends with the
marketing community.
And Mike, you introduced me tocamera.
So I want to be here withoutyou.

SPEAKER_00 (12:12):
Don't make me cry, don't make me cry.

SPEAKER_01 (12:13):
But I love it.

SPEAKER_00 (12:14):
No, that's awesome.
That's great.
So would you suggest coming tothe Expo next year?

SPEAKER_01 (12:18):
I totally would.
I think whether if you have abooth here, it's a great way to
get business exposure, meet newclients, um, or business
partnerships.
But if not, just attending thisand seeing all the different
businesses that you haveavailable in the Charleston
area.
It's so nice.
And I love the sense ofcommunity.

(12:38):
Me too.
And it's free, so why not?
Come on over.

SPEAKER_02 (12:42):
You have to start, exactly.
Look at all this cool swag youcan take too.
It's gonna get really busy inthe afternoon.
I know.

SPEAKER_00 (12:47):
I know, right?
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (12:48):
End of day.

SPEAKER_00 (12:50):
Where can we find you one last time?
Socialmediaek.com.

SPEAKER_01 (12:53):
Yes, please follow us on Instagram or Pollen
Social.
Check us out online, uh,polensocial.com, and feel free
to sign up.
You'll get a 30-day free trial,and I will become your new best
friend.
There we go.

SPEAKER_00 (13:08):
Well, that's worth it, right?

SPEAKER_01 (13:10):
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 (13:11):
I love it, I love it.
Thanks for listening to theBuilding Business Podcast,
Powered by the Chinese.
Thanks, Rachel, thanks,Stephanie.

SPEAKER_03 (13:17):
Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 (13:18):
Pollen Social is the sponsor for this podcast.
Uh make sure you check him out.
We'll check you out next time.

SPEAKER_03 (13:25):
Thanks, Paul Buddha.

SPEAKER_00 (13:27):
Food's here.