Your Digital Marketing Coach with Neal Schaffer

Instagram has become a critical piece of the puzzle for most businesses because of its popularity and high engagement, but not everybody succeeds on the platform. There's a lot of noise about what you should and shouldn't do on Instagram, and some of that advice is either outdated or might lead your account to getting banned. Let's change that. From the importance of niche branding on Instagram to the critical role that influencers play on Instagram to the unique way in which you should use Instagram for personal branding, Instagram specialists Viv and Tash from Ace the Gram will teach you a thing or two new about the platform that can help improve your Instagram TODAY!Key Highlights [02:11] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Viv Conway, and Tasha Meys[05:57] How Viv and Tash Help Businesses In Acing Instagram and How They Started[08:38] The Things Viv and Tash Would Do Differently Today Than They Might Have Done Five/Six Years Ago[10:57] The Way Viv and Tash See Instagram Algorithm Today[12:41] The Role of Interests in Algorithm[16:42] Instagram As Personal Magazine and Business[19:14] The Top 3 Things People Should Focus Efforts On[21:40] When Do Brands Should Start Using Instagram Influencers?[22:30] Discoverability Technique[28:33] The Power of Personal Branding[29:12] The Mistake Personal Brands Makes[30:21] How To Get Started In Instagram Marketing?[32:10] Types of Content You Can Easily Implement[34:12] The Challenge People Have With Instagram[37:01] Final Thoughts[39:41] Connect With Viv and TashaNotable QuotesThe algorithm Instagram has now is value-based. Instagram does have niches that it puts you into. So the more that you can nail your niche and be really specific and provide value to a specific audience, the more Instagram is going to know who you are, who you want to be shown to. And they'll do that for you. So you do have to be more niche these days.Your niche doesn't have to just be food or fitness, it can be the location you live in, what your target audience is interested in. So you don't have to laser focus on yoga, but you can figure out your niche.I think the first thing is obviously designing your intention. So why you're on Instagram, what you want to get out of it, and then your content strategy will come from that.Anyone who invests and the personal brand and whatever kick career they earn you become a hidden shoulder above the rest of your industry. And just because you are investing in there and getting your own audience and you do then become you get that freedom and flexibility and autonomy to be in charge of your own career.But at the end of the day, like, if you just remember, okay, why am I here? And what do I want to achieve? And then just take action, because action trumps everything.Links mentioned in the show:ALearn More:Buy Digital Threads: https://nealschaffer.com/digitalthreadsamazonBuy Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizinglinkedinamazonJoin My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/ Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmoDownload My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/books/Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschafferAll My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com

How do you know what impact everything that you do in digital and social media marketing has on your business? The secret comes down to what I call the PDCA approach to marketing that my agency is named for, but more importantly, it comes down to visualizing your marketing funnel and aligning everything you do with a part of that funnel. After that it comes down to measurement and truly geeking out on the numbers in the reporting that I recommend you do.Listen in for the full details as to how to effectively do this spending little time but having maximum impact on your business!Key Highlights [02:53] The Methodology On Measuring ROI[03:21] The Importance of Having A Report[04:51] PDCA Approach[06:22] All About Funnel[08:04] Next Step of the Funnel: Website[08:51] Email Marketing/Marketing Automation[09:29] Conversion Territory[09:45] Why Email Marketing Is Critical[11:48] Building Benchmarks[12:01] The Easiest Social Media Platform For Organic GrowthNotable QuotesIt bears reminding plan, do check action, it's how you manage experiments. It's how you know what you're going to do, how you do it, you're gonna know what to measure when you do it. And then you know what to optimize. And the measurement goes into report.But generally speaking, you need to be able to rationalize all of your activities. And the first way you do that is if we're going to use social media, we want to build a community. And not only is the size of that community important, and the influences of what we do in social is important as well.Influences can help you at every stage here. They can help you expand your community and social they can help you bring more website traffic. And if you include them in your content marketing, they can help you with generating more email signups.Email marketing is still critical and when you need to get multiple touches with someone because people buy from only companies or they do business only with companies that they know like and trust. You need to be able to get them on your list because that gives you multiple touches, because social media doesn't guarantee your touches, and you can't expect them to come back to your website every day.But hopefully, by listening to this podcast, you'll get a better idea as to what to look for, what to measure, and how to display it both organic and paid, aligning with the funnel, all of your digital and social media marketing activities.But at the end of the day, I really want you to think holistically and to be able to do it yourself and only use a tool when it fits everything you're talking about when all these pieces you can plug in and create the perfect report.Links mentioned in the show:The 10 Best Social Media Marketing Podcasts to Listen to in 2020: Learn More:Buy Digital Threads: https://nealschaffer.com/digitalthreadsamazonBuy Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizinglinkedinamazonJoin My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/ Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmoDownload My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/books/Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschafferAll My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com

John Lee Dumas is one of the most influential rockstar entrepreneurs out there, and it was an honor to interview him for my podcast. You will learn a lot in this episode on John's story as to how he became an influencer through podcasting but also his recommendation for you if he were to do it all over today.Key Highlights [02:32] Introduction of Podcast Guest, John Lee Dumas[05:49] Why John Started Podcast[08:11] Should You Podcast If You Want To Build Influence?[13:27] The Demand Aspect of Podcasting[14:22] The Steps John Took To Become Successful[15:10] Creating Solutions For Your Audience's Struggles[17:33] How To Get Started on Podcasting[18:27] Connect With JohnNotable QuotesI was podcasting four days per month, and doing just a weekly show, which everybody else was doing, it would have taken me forever, if ever to get good, but I was doing it every single day I put in the reps. And I did 2000 episodes in 2000 days, like I bought the work. And you know, it slowly caught on, I stayed consistent. I stayed true to my vision.It is absolutely not too late to start your podcast to build your platform. Because podcasting to me is this, it will always hold a special place in people's days in lives.One of my other favorite things about podcasting, too, is I like to say, podcasts are powerful, because they're free, they're on demand, and they're targeted.I had no products, no services, nothing to offer. When I started. All I said was you know what, I'm going to deliver free, valuable and consistent content. And there's nothing more valuable or free or consistent than a daily podcast that's just as consistent as you can be.Podcast is a great way to build up organic free traffic that knows likes and trusts you this then you know, potentially going to consume your product or your service or invest in that. But if you don't already have a product or a service, do not create one before you start a podcast because you don't know what the heck you're going to create.If you want to get started on podcasting, or just on building your overall brand, you do need to choose a platform like you need to choose a platform where you're going to be sharing free, valuable and consistent content, because that's how you're going to build that audience that knows likes and trust you that you can then ask them what their struggle is, and then create that solution for them.Links mentioned in the show:John Lee Dumas' WebsiteMy interview on Michael Stelzner's Social Media Marketing PodcastMy interview on John Lee Dumas' Entrepreneurs on Fire podcastEpisodes meLearn More:Buy Digital Threads: https://nealschaffer.com/digitalthreadsamazonBuy Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizinglinkedinamazonJoin My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/ Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmoDownload My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/books/Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschafferAll My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com

You might be wondering what impact COVID-19 might be having on influencer marketing. After all, you can't fly freely around the world to take pictures of product in exotic locations. But, as you know, travel influencers only represent a small portion of the influencer marketing pie. Here is my advice for businesses trying to navigate the current uncertainty to figure out what role, if any, influencer marketing should have in your marketing strategy. Once again, today's episode, like Episode 161 before it, is based off of a webinar I provided for the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland about marketing in the age of coronavirus.Key Highlights [01:00] Free FreshBooks Conference[05:30] My Take On COVID19 Effect On Influencer Marketing[06:53] Why Influencer Marketing Is Important In Businesses[07:22] The ROI For Influencer Marketing[08:27] Where Media Gets Wrong[10:18] Why I Doubled Down On Content and Relationship[11:20] Another Aspect Of Influencer Relationships[13:39] Influencers As Focus Group[14:34] Where To Find Influencer[16:30] Why You Need To Hire People With Brand Affinity[20:52] SummaryNotable QuotesI think that Coronavirus in some ways is only accelerated more and more people, you know, publishing and consuming more and more content on social media. And the heart of why influencer marketing is important for businesses is all about inciting word of mouth.If you want people to talk about you on social media, and ad is not going to cut it. You really need to incite that word of mouth. And the best way to do that is with other people.Spend that time to foster relationships, because some influencers are also losing money losing business, and you might find that it might be a lot more effective when they're getting fewer and fewer people, contacting them that you will really stick out. And you'll have a chance to build that relationship.So if you're afraid to do advertisements, if you're afraid of saying anything in social media, because of what's going on, that's where you can leverage influencers, who can talk for you through their content.Using tools to find people that are talking about your brand, your customers, your email database, your followers, you know, now's the time to append the data with social media profiles, go digging through and try to find people that are already know like and trust you that are already in your sphere of influenceLinks mentioned in the show:Freshbooks #IMakeaLiving Micro-ConferenceJon Rettinger's YouTube ChannelEpisodes mentioned in or related to this one:161: The Hidden Power of Email Marketing to Scale Your Digital Influence156: How to PivotLearn More:Buy Digital Threads: https://nealschaffer.com/digitalthreadsamazonBuy Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizinglinkedinamazonJoin My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/ Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmoDownload My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/books/Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschafferAll My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com

For many businesses, their primary source of digital influence doesn't necessarily come from their social media presence but from their website. How to increase the digital influence of your website in the eyes of Google and generate more qualified organic traffic leading to more business through "free" advertising is what every business owner wants.Today I interview Farzad Rashidi, co-founder of Respona, who is going to give his advice on how to exactly do that. Some of the topics we discussed include:Organic traffic 101: Why it's important for hockey-stick level growthHow to properly research and create quality content and landing pagesHow to get your content ranked for your target keywordsKey Highlights [10:13] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Farzad Rashidi[12:11] Farzad's Views On Organic Traffic and Growth And Why It's Important[20:38] What You Should Be Doing To Promote Your Content On  The Internet[22:49] Farzad's Advice About Creating Quality Content[23:50] Opportunity Score[27:26] Reverse Skyscraper Technique[29:44] Two Other Campaigns Farzad Do For Blog Posts[35:31] The Process After Blog Post Gets Published[36:17] Things That Bloggers Don't Take Into Account[39:08] Connect With FarzadNotable QuotesIt's all pieces of the puzzle. You need to have your keyword research, finding opportunities, and writing content that people are actually looking for, and it's somewhat relevant to what you do. And you write a very high-quality piece of content, and put it on your website,  promote on social, send it to your newsletter, do all that good stuff, but to actually set it up on a kind of evergreen type of machine that keeps bringing traffic to our site and to that specific blog post, what we call an 80/20 rule.I always talk about how this isn't about a campaign. It's a commitment. And influencer marketing is the same. It's not about a campaign, but it is something that you do as part of your normal process. It's a line item in your marketing.All of that trickles down to getting quality backlinks for individual blog posts. That's what a lot of bloggers actually don't take into account that even though you have a high domain authority, or domain rating, what really determines the success or basically the failure of your of your content is actually your page authority.If you don't have a process, you don't know anything.What I'm trying to say is that you don't need to have a large team to actually get started. You can start small and scale from there.Episodes and Links mentioned in the show:Ep. 160: SEO and Social: Honing the Skills Needed for a Modern Marketer Ep. 156: How to Pivot Your Marketing During the Coronavirus PandemicEp. 154: COVID-19: What Your Business Needs to Do to Survive During the Coronavirus PandemicLearn More:Buy Digital Threads: https://nealschaffer.com/digitalthreadsamazonBuy Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizinglinkedinamazonJoin My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/ Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmoDownload My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/books/Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschafferAll My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com

One of the goals of influencer marketing is to incite the word of mouth marketing that organic social alone can't, but there are times that we will still pay to play and employ Paid Social as part of our marketing. How might we be able to use Paid Social as part of our influencer outreach? This is a case study from my own influencer marketing program for the launch of my new book, The Age of Influence, and how I am leveraging one of the unique and most cost-effective forms of Paid Social that many don't know exist or haven't utilized properly: LinkedIn Message Ads.Key Highlights [02:16] Why I Am Passionate About Influencer Marketing[04:04] Paid Social[04:45] How I Leverage Paid Social[07:34] Ad Product On LinkedIn[09:42] How To Create Ad Product On LinkedIn[13:24] My Approach On Making LinkedIn Message Ads[15:27] How I Set Up My LinkedIn Campaign[16:27] My 2 Approaches On Marketing My Book[21:39] Hyper-targeting[25:05] Alternative Outside Facebook Messenger[26:22] ConclusionNotable QuotesWhenever you want to reach a goal. You reach in a paid social, you spend a little money. And inevitably, whatever KPI, whatever metric, whatever outcome you want, it's going to help you reach it.By tapping into these influencers and by having something bigger than my own, it creates something that's more compelling. This is an example of leveraging influencers in terms of this ko content creation.Influencers is not just about paying someone to say something for you. influences. Also, if I get my product in the hands of these people would incite word-of-mouth marketing.The first thing is, if you are going to develop a relationship with someone on LinkedIn, knowing the power that it has, wouldn't you want to give something of value to begin that relationship?So if you want to make these LinkedIn message ads work for you, you need to think of the person receiving it as an influencer. And you need to find a way to add value to them without being able to ask them how you can add value to them.And that's where LinkedIn has its value in all this is that if we're looking for people with titles, that is the premier place to look. And if you think that advertising on LinkedIn has to be expensive, you need to understand how this model of LinkedIn messaging works.Links mentioned in the show:My Marketing Book Giveaway: https://nealschaffer.com/marketing-books-giveaway/The Age of Influence Free Preview: https://nealschaffer.com/age-of-influence-preview/The Age of Influence on Amazon: https://nealschaffer.com/ageofinfluenceEpisodes mentioned in the show:Learn More:Buy Digital Threads: https://nealschaffer.com/digitalthreadsamazonBuy Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizinglinkedinamazonJoin My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/ Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmoDownload My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/books/Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschafferAll My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com

You've probably heard the advice that if you want to become an influencer, you need to niche down. This podcast is going to be all about why the riches are in the inches and what you can do to take advantage of that. I interview the CEO and Founder of MiloTree, Jillian Tohber Leslie, and we discuss:Why drilling down in your niche can help you explode your businessWhy using Instagram and Facebook Groups is GOLD for selling to your audienceThe importance of teaching your audience to buy from youKey Highlights [00:58] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Jillian Tohber Leslie[05:45] What Is Milo Tree App?[07:20] High-Quality Follower Vs Low-Quality Follower[10:50] What Are Niche and Niching Down?[21:58] Jillian's Advice On How To Be Successful On Facebook And Instagram[28:35] DM Me Vs Linking[33:11] Connect With Jillian[34:51] Final Advice[36:16] SummaryNotable QuotesWe think that it's an awesome way to get people to stay to get to know you to build that relationship.The guests that are the most successful, that I interview are the ones that have figured out what their niche is, who their audience is, and how best to serve them.And if you can create a relationship with that person and know what their problems are, know what they're struggling with, know what they're thinking about. That's the way to serve them. And that's the way to sell to them, whether it be a product or a service. So I would keep your stories related to your content, but a little more raw, a little more with a little more personality, not as stylized, like, let people in in your stories.If you don't have a passion for what you do, it's not going to last period. The niches are only relevant when it's a niche that's meaningful to you.People want to be led. I think it's an evolutionary thing. And therefore people want to and it sounds weird, be told what to do.It is a slow build It is all about showing up and being consistent, and it will slowly grow. it's not an overnight thing. It's about patience. And it's about doing the work. And I wish there were a magic bullet. But the truth is, there isn't. It's really you and your, your commitment to building your business.No shortcuts here, people, it takes time to build relationships with people, right. And especially when it's online, it may even take more time. But by showing up and being consistent, you can actually shorten that. Links mentioned in the show:Age of Influence Free Preview: https://nealschaffer.com/age-of-influence-preview/My Marketing Book Giveaway: https://nealschaffer.com/marketing-books-giveaway/MiloTree: https://miLearn More:Buy Digital Threads: https://nealschaffer.com/digitalthreadsamazonBuy Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizinglinkedinamazonJoin My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/ Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmoDownload My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/books/Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschafferAll My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com

1 of the 6 pillars of digital marketing is email marketing, but it's often the one easy to forget as most talk about more trendy topics such as social media marketing, content marketing, or influence marketing (I'm partly to blame!). Based off of webinars I provided for both the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland as well as the email marketing software company GetResponse, learn all you wanted to know to get you inspired to do more with email marketing and lead magnets.Key Highlights [03:54] The 6 Things You Can Do In Digital Marketing[07:36] The Value of Email Marketing[09:36] How To get Repeated Touches[11:05] Active Email Account Statistics[12:18] Email Marketing ROI[15:12] How To Grow Email List?[16:47] Essential Components of A Lead Magnet[17:35] Mistake Brand Do In Email Marketing[19:29] Other Ideas For Lead Magnets[23:10] Different Approaches To Grow Your Email ListNotable QuotesThe value of email marketing today, it is borrowed land, we don't own it. And at the end of the day, we want people on our island, our websites. That's where the magic happens. That's where we communicate with people the way we want, any way we want with our branding. And that's where we literally sell.Email provides the best way to repeatedly touch, it also helps you control the research phase of the buying process. if you are sending them emails on a regular basis that they're engaging with, you are influencing their purchasing decision through those emails.We have lots of people on social media, we want to get them to our website when they come to our website, we want to continue that relationship when they leave the website. And the only way to do that it's going to be through email. That's why I have this concept of a weekly newsletter, but also knowing dependent on how people opted in how much they like know and trust me, I keep that monthly option for those that might not know me as deeply as those like leads that I might get from partners versus leads die directly again, if that makes sense.  In fact, email marketing may be the cheapest, most effective way to scale your Digital Influence when you think of it that way.Links mentioned in the show:My Marketing Book Giveaway: https://nealschaffer.com/marketing-books-giveaway/Age of Influence Free Preview: https://nealschaffer.com/age-of-influence-preview/Email Marketing StatisticsRecommended Email Marketing SoftwareEpisodes mentioned in the show160: SEO and Social: Honing the Skills Needed for a Modern Marketer [Cyrus ShepardLearn More:Buy Digital Threads: https://nealschaffer.com/digitalthreadsamazonBuy Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizinglinkedinamazonJoin My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/ Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmoDownload My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/books/Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschafferAll My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com

What is the connection, and even the similarities, that marketers who want to improve at both SEO as well as social media need to have? Join me in this interview with one of the world's leading experts, Cyrus Shepard, SEO Advisor for MOZ, as we discuss:Why SEOs and Social Marketers both need to have a wide breadth of skills for writing across social pages, metadata and moreThe way in which aligning SEO and Social skills can lead to more backlinks, improved engagement signals, and more owned SERP real estate for branded queriesHow enhanced social media efforts can lead to higher search demandDigital influence isn't just about influence on social networks. It includes influence you hold in the search engines! That's why this conversation was so exciting and stimulating for me, so I'm sure it will be worth your time.In case you are new to the podcast, my new book The Age of Influence can be bought at any major bookseller worldwide. Here's a link to the Amazon USA page for it: https://nealschaffer.com/ageofinfluenceKey Highlights [01:41] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Cyprus Shepard[06:29] Skills We Should Focus On In This Age of Coronavirus[08:26]  Advice On Social Signals[11:07] Recommendation On Repurposing Content[12:28] How to Find and to Write With Keywords[15:33] Aligning SEO To Enhance Social Media Efforts and Higher Search Demand[20:31] External Linking Out Strategy[23:31] How To Balance Putting External Links And Keeping Readers On The Page Longer[25:30] Moz Beginners Guide To SEO[27:51] Connect With Cyprus[28:07] Final AdviceNotable QuotesMy advice to people is that you find the keywords that people are searching for. My recommendation is that you include those in your title tag for your content. But when you're when you're writing your social media posts, the headlines, there can be your call to actions can be something different, something exciting, something to get people to share the content, as long as it's in the title of your actual page.I encourage people to really look at their internal linking strategy first, and heavily interlink with varying anchor text, and advanced IP, when you're when you do your keyword research that I mentioned earlier, look at all the keyword variations that people are using to search and vary your anchor text a lot, because if you're a small medium site, if you just link with the same anchor text over and over again to yourself, Google is going to see that as over optimization, and you can kill your ranking.The links that are higher in your page, count more than links that are lower on your page. So when you do, I would highly prioritize the links higher in your content to yourself, because you're going to pass more link equity.You can try try out thLearn More:Buy Digital Threads: https://nealschaffer.com/digitalthreadsamazonBuy Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizinglinkedinamazonJoin My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/ Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmoDownload My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/books/Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschafferAll My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com

Why does influencer marketing and collaborating with influencers regardless of industry have such incredible promise for businesses now and well into the future, even during this coronavirus pandemic? This episodes focuses on why I wrote my recent book, The Age of Influence, by reading you the actual Introduction from the published copy. By hearing my perspective through this episode, the way you look at digital influencer will forever be changed - for the better!The Age of Influence can be bought at any major bookseller worldwide. There is a link to the Amazon USA page for it: https://nealschaffer.com/ageofinfluenceThanks for listening and sharing this podcast with your friends, checking out my Age of Influence book, and subscribing and reviewing on whichever app you use to listen to this podcast!Key Highlights [00:58] The History Of The Books I Have Written[03:00] Introduction To The Age Of Influence Book[03:40] Why I Wrote The Age Of Influence[04:02] Mistakes Often Made By Brands[06:37] How The Ways Of Communication Have Changed[08:11] Leveraging Other Social Media Users[09:07] The Importance of Engaging and Creating Relationships[11:06] How To Incite Word-Of-Mouth Marketing[12:00] 2 Myths About What Brands Think Consumers Want[14:22] Harnessing True People Power[16:48] Age Of Influence Table Of Content[18:30] Final ThoughtsNotable QuotesThe constantly changing landscape of social media means that despite all the money poured into platforms for advertising, campaigns are finding increasingly less traction in organic ways. Influencer Marketing is not about paying someone else to take selfies and put them online. It is fundamentally about engagement and communication. It is about building relationships.My voice here is on engaging the voices of influencers, leveraging the other as I call it, to spread your message. It's investing what power you have to move outside and insight word of mouth marketing, so that other voices will talk about your business. Social media represents the convergence of information and communication.All social media voices are equal, but some are more equal than others. Engaging with those whose voices are being heard is essential to spreading your message online. Rising above the digital noise and creating meaningful relationships.When launching a startup, sidestepping those gatekeepers, and connecting directly with your consumers has a much stronger benefit. Many businesses started out with word-of-mouth marketing without really knowing it. happy and successful customers told their friends who told their friends and so on.When done right harnessing employees ideas for content creation, and encouraging them to bLearn More:Buy Digital Threads: https://nealschaffer.com/digitalthreadsamazonBuy Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizinglinkedinamazonJoin My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/ Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmoDownload My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/books/Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschafferAll My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com