"What the heck is going on?"

Do you ever find yourself saying that when you look at your social media feed? You post something you know is great. It’s funny. It’s interesting. It’s intriguing. It’s sexy. It’s original. It’s got everything to make a popular post – in fact it’s so dang good it could even go viral and get hundreds of thousands of views.

But you’re staring at your feed in disbelief. You’ve gotten 12 views and 3 likes. And two of those are family members. That’s frustrating enough when you just want some attention for your cat or your sourdough bread that’s like the greatest loaf you ever baked – but if it’s your business you’re trying to promote on social media, and you’re failing time after time to get any traction – well that’s a far more serious situation.

Maybe you’ve tried using AI to get some tips on getting your business found on social media, and that hasn’t worked either. So, what does work, exactly? That’s what we find out on this edition of Out to Lunch.

Aerial Payne is the owner of Maranta Copy Co, a social media marketing company here in The Panhandle.You’ve probably heard that these days you can go online and hire an expert social media manager from anywhere - someone who has specialist expertise in getting small and medium-sized businesses outsize attention on social media. Well, Aerial Payne is one of those people.

At Maranta Copy Co, Aerial has around 20 employees and she could, if she wanted, live in LA, New York or Silicon Valley, but she’s a Panama City native and chooses to live here.

If you have a small business, you’re kind of conditioned these days to believe that the only way you can promote yourself is social media. The truth is, though, you have choices. For example, TV.

Yes, there are still people watching TV! And if you have a small business, the answer to your next thought is also “yes” – you’re right, you probably can’t afford to get a TV commercial shot by a production company and placed on a network TV station.

But you can afford to get a commercial shot by 30A Media and played on 30A TV.

30A Media is a production company and 30A TV is an independent network of 20-plus channels distributed on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, smart TVs, and iOS and Android devices — with syndication now reaching major cities. Both the production company and the network are owned by Paul Vizard.

Entrepreneur Of The Week

Our Out to Lunch Entrepreur of the Week is Ryan Eaton.

Along with his wife, Jenn, Ryan is Co-Founder and Co-owner of Big jerk Soda Company, a soda company in Pensacola that makes healthy, carbonated drinks – and you can find them at a bunch of stores up and down The Panhandle, including over 60 Circle K’s from Destin to Panama City.

Big Jerk Soda is made from real fruit with no artificial colors, dyes, preservatives or caffeine. There’s Ginger Beer, Lavender Lemonade, Blueberry Peach, Cherry Limeade, Pineapple Upside Down Cake, and Crystal Clear Root Beer. What hot, thirsty person looking at that lineup in a cold refrigerator in a store would say, “er, no” and pick out a can of Coke instead? Ryan explains the mental machinations of the soda purchaser and mechanical literal machinations of the soda manufacturer.

Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Farm & Fire restaurant on Highway 331. Farm & Fire is one of Chef Jim Shirley’s family of fine restaurants. It’s open from 4pm, 6 days a week, and from 11am for brunch on Sundays.

You can find photos from this show by Brandan Babineaux at outtolunchemeraldcoast.com.

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