

Your Digital Marketing Coach with Neal Schaffer
Neal Schaffer
As Your Digital Marketing Coach, I am on a mission to provide you marketing professionals, agencies, entrepreneurs, and business owners expert advice, both from myself as well as my expert guests, on how to leverage Digital First Marketing to grow your business, one episode at a time, This podcast will include advice on a broad range of topics all with the commonality of being related to digital marketing and having actionable takeaways for your business. Topics discussed will include digital marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, influencer marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), blogging, podcasting, YouTube, video marketing, email marketing, marketing automation, artificial intelligence and Generative AI, as well as how to maximize digital marketing ROI from social media on sites like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, and TikTok.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Nov 23, 2015 • 20min
Rediscovering the Value of Social Media for Business - in South Africa - Part 1
Neal is back! You’ve heard him talk about keeping it real in your social and your content, and he wants to keep it real. Neal’s goal is always to do this podcast regularly, but everyone’s busy! Since the last podcast, he’s traveled a lot, successfully launched the second Social Tools Summit in San Francisco in October, and spoken at a conference in South Africa. This episode is part one of a radio interview he did while he was there, and focuses on the value of social media and taking a step back and looking at the big picture.Key Highlights[04:44] Introduction[05:26] Why Business To Be Made From Going Social[06:27] How I Help Businesses[07:18] How Small Businesses Can Use Social To Grow Their Businesses[08:07] The Essence of Social Media[08:32] How to Start Using Social Media for Business[10:39] Social Media As A New Channel[12:38] How To Balance Social Media With Voice of the Company[13:17] The Advent of Employee Advocacy[14:06] Tomorrow's Talk[15:27] How Much Time Should You Allocate To Social Media?[17:56] Coming Down To Your ObjectivesNotable QuotesSocial media has become a major communication channel. But now social media, you have a website and digital, you have TV, radio, and you have social companies investing a lot more in it, because it is the public voice, you have the ability to reach out on a one to many scale that you just couldn't do until now.Social is not for business, it's for people.Everybody that's online, is basically using social media. And there are ways for us to engage with them on a one on one basis.Well, it starts with, like I said, understanding who your customer is, are they even using social media. And that's really where you start at the basic you need to be, you know, everybody knows the media, you need to be publishing content, because that's how you engage in social media. But you also want to be reaching out to people.And I like to say social media replaces nothing but compliments everything, right? So it's, it's a new tool, but the old rules of business are still in place.But now social media is a new channel, and more and more people are using it. So it's going to be important to keep an eye on and understand how you can use it and to help complement whatever else you do. Companies need to humanize the brand they need to talk like regular people do. And if they're not offering some sort of resource, some sort of utility, some sort of information that's useful to others, people will tune them out.Social is not, you know, it's a channel you do not want to sell on, it's the channel you want to have a conversation on and engage with others and really build community from This is where it comes down to your objective, your objective is going to be different than that small business owner, small busiLearn 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

Nov 16, 2015 • 20min
Announcing My New Ebook: Maximizing LinkedIn for Business
Today Neal is coming to you from Clearwater, Florida, where he actually did this podcast episode as a Periscope broadcast. And while he does talk a little bit about Periscope in this episode, what he’s mostly discussing is his new ebook which just came out on Kindle. It’s called Maximize LinkedIn for Business, and it came about from his visit to the LinkedIn Headquarters over a year and a half ago. Listen in to today’s episode for a rundown of what you can find in the ebook, and where you can get access to it.Key Highlights[01:17] What Is Maximize LinkedIn for Business Is About[03:10] Table Of Contents[03:17] How LinkedIn Is Being Used By Corporations and Professionals Today[04:49] Two Important Things You Need to Know[05:44] The Importance of Connections[05:56] Tactical and SEO Benefit of Having Connections[08:34] The Value of Network[09:05] Establishing Credibility[09:25] What Are Recommendations[10:20] Understanding Skills and Endorsements[10:57] How to Make LinkedIn Profile Private[12:44] Pulse Feature[14:02] Chapter 8[15:56] LinkedIn Groups[16:44] Chapter 10Notable QuotesOne of the big mistakes or I should say one of the big things that people don't understand about LinkedIn is it's just for job search. So really, every professional and it's not just for job search, like I said, it's for your personal brand for your professional brand. And now more and more as an employee, you really need to have a certain aptitude of LinkedIn, you need to know how it works, and how you can make it work for you.Number one is really the mindset right, just understanding the value and the things that you're going to be need to do on LinkedIn. The second thing is The LinkedIn profile. So whatever you do on LinkedIn, it leads people to your profile, right. And I think people take it for granted.It's a matter of, you know, sending them invites, as a matter of after you meet someone at a meeting of actually doing a follow up and saying, Hey, would you like to connect on LinkedIn, it's printing your LinkedIn URL and your business card, so that it makes it easy for others putting in your email signature, right, I use wise stamp as a way to do that, wisely.The value of your network is in keeping in daily touch. So you're Top of MindAnd whenever you want to contact someone, or whenever you post something on LinkedIn, or you send out a connection request, people go to your profile, one of the first things they look for, believe it or not, is recommendations.If you want to be successful on LinkedIn, and you're going to be a lot more successful with the more credibility you have. Obviously, the whole value of LinkedIn is that it's a public database, right. But understand that there are things you want to keep private about.YoLearn 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

Jul 31, 2015 • 22min
How to Refine Your Visual Voice and Engage on Instagram
Neal has been in Japan these last few weeks, and he’s been thinking a lot about the power of mobile. This week Neal is talking about the social network that you can only engage in from mobile: Instagram. It’s important for businesses to find their visual voice and be original and organic on this platform. The beautiful thing about Instagram is it’s power to connect with people. So remember, don’t go for the hard sale on Instagram - instead, focus on personality, engagement, and authenticity.Key Highlights[00:53] My Thoughts on Instagram[03:47] Every Company Needs A Visual Voice[05:50] A Case Study of A Company Doing Well With Visual[08:57] Why Your Visuals Should Be Connected to Your Brand[09:11] Quote Images[12:04] Posting Event Images on Instagram[13:47] Videos As Part of Visual Voice[15:27] Popular TacticsNotable QuotesSo as I like to say, whenever I speak, every company needs a visual voice. And that visual voice is is the visuals that are going to represent you in Facebook, Twitter, and obviously, you know, any social network, but on Instagram and on sites like Pinterest, they're going to become your primary source of visual. And as I like to say, social media was made for people, not for businesses, so as a business, you're always going to be at a disadvantage. Therefore, the more organic you can become with your visual voice, I believe, the more effective the more successful you will be.If you have visual content, I don't think it's a challenge. The challenge is, for those that do not have a visual aspect to their product. And this is where you really need to think about how you're going to represent your brand on Instagram. It was because we had to post things that catch people's eyes, in order to grab their attention, get engagement and increase edge, and it was a tactical tool. You don't need those tactical tools on Instagram. So, yes, they are eye catching, those beautiful visuals are eye catching the quote, images are eye catching. But are they true to your brand? Right? Is there a more effective way of saying the same thing with a different image with a small number of words, and with more in the description that truly differentiates your brand from the others, because if not, your quotes are going to be lost in the sea of quotes are out there. A lot of people, a lot of businesses want to be on every social network. But does it make sense to be on every social network? Get people to connect with you on a personal basis. And then from there, once you see success by posting more business oriented visuals once in a while, you can then take the next step and start a business account. But I really think twice if you don't have a visual product.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

Jul 6, 2015 • 24min
How Cathay Pacific Built a Global Employee Advocacy Program
This week Neal is coming to you from Japan, and he’s talking to Dennis Owen, from Cathay Pacific. The two are talking about Cathay Pacific’s extremely successful employee advocacy program, which Dennis launched simultaneously with their brand campaign “Life Well Traveled.” Dennis explains how he got the higher ups behind him, the platform they use, what kind of content is successful, and the rewards they give for engaging in the program. This is a great episode to listen to if you’ve been trying to figure out how to factor an employee advocacy program into your business plan.Key Highlights[00:30] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Dennis Owen[03:05] How Dennis Got Into Employee Advocacy[05:40] How Employee Advocacy Started in Cathay Pacific[09:46] The Lack of Understanding in Employee Advocacy[10:36] The Planning Process[13:34] The Approach on Rewards[17:24] Measuring KPIs[20:18] Final Thoughts[22:57] Connect With DennisNotable QuotesAnd I think the main reason I wanted to do it is because it ties very nicely to our new brand campaign, which is called life all traveled. And as an airline, employees we traveled, we have the opportunity to travel for free. So we ourselves, live lives well traveled. And people are interested in travel, people liked to talk about travel, they'd like to see photos, and I thought what a great opportunity to tie internal brand advocacy to this new brand. Campaign life well traveled. So it's been a really nice fit.I think it's, it's a matter of just having something fun for people like, it doesn't have to be super expensive, because I think people that are, that are going to get involved with internal brand advocacy, are already sharing things. And they find the joy of that work that as well.When you look at a company like Cathay Pacific, we tend to be fairly understated. We're not a company that's out there bragging about ourselves. But there are other entities talking about us all the time, in terms of awards that we've gotten, or the new services. So I haven't found that that's been a real problem of finding content around Cathay Pacific and Dragonair. And sure, we have our own content, as well as we will definitely share that, like I said, with the lawful travel campaign.You know, we want people to understand that we're a premium airline. And there's value in terms of flying on Cathay Pacific Dragonair. So I think those were, you know, that's a it's a great story that I just wanted to share.Get out there and look and see what other people are saying about your brand. I think it's really valuable when you are able to share stories from other people, not the brand.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

Jun 30, 2015 • 18min
Why It's Time to Prune Your LinkedIn Connections
When Neal first started speaking and blogging about social media, he focused on LinkedIn. But the platform has changed so much since the beginning, and of course the interactions and recommended use of it have evolved too. Today, Neal is talking about editing your LinkedIn connections. Not only is it important to comb through your current connections to edit out people who may not be relevant for you, but it’s also good to have some guidelines for accepting new requests. You want your LinkedIn to be curated so it’s productive, fun, and adds value to your life and business.Key Highlights [012:03] My Upcoming Free Ebook On LinkedIn[02:27] What Should You Do On Random Connection Requests?[03:02] LinkedIn Lions Defined[03:54] The LinkedIn Connection Policy[04:31] Why I Am No Longer A LinkedIn Lion[05:47] Time To Prune Your LinkedIn Connections! [06:15] Instances When You Can Accept Connection Requests From Strangers[07:20] Biggest Power of LinkedIn[08:34] What To Do If You Are Unsure About A Connection Request[09:07] Using New LinkedIn Requests to Prune Current LinkedIn Connections[10:34] Key Distinguishers[10:53] "Guilty By Association"[12:17] The People You Should Prune[14:46] ConclusionNotable QuotesThere's value to be had in meeting with people, and engaging with people that you've never met before in the physical world.But if there's a few people in your target industry, in your target geography, whatever it might be, that you can connect with that can really help gain new visibility, and potentially connectability, for lack of a better word into your target market or target company, very tactical advice.If you want to engage with them, do what I recommend, you know, social selling best practices, engage with their updates, right, follow them engage with their updates, go to the groups that they're a member of, see, if they've, you know, posted anything, get an introduction for a friend, if you really want to connect with them.But the real tangible value is if you were to request an introduction from them, are they going to step up to the plate for you? That's the key thing. And what this does is, it gives credibility to the fake profiles to the internet, slash social media marketers, and sort of the rotten eggs of LinkedIn that you probably don't want to be associated with, unless you, you know, want to sell to those people. But it gives them credibility, because it looks like you have a lot of mutual connection. And I'm going to recommend when you prune your LinkedIn connections, these are the people you want to prune. You want to prune those people that stay connected with the fake profiles, because they're giving you a false sense of social proof of all the other fake LinkedIn profiles out there.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

Jun 25, 2015 • 12min
My New Video Workshop: Content Marketing for Social
This week on the podcast, Neal is sharing a new project with you. In his social media consulting business, he gets very broad and occasionally vague requests all the time, and there’s just no way he can help every person that reaches out. So Neal has decided to repackage the content he creates for trainings and make it available to more people. The first version of this is a 9-day online video workshop, complete with videos, worksheets, and a forum where you can chat with Neal. In this week’s episode you can learn more about why he’s starting this project, what this first version will be all about, and how you can join the party.Key Highlights[02:58] Role of Social Media[03:36] Questions You Need to Answer If You Want to Reach Foreign Audience[04:41] Always Have A Process In Place[05:18] The Social Media Center of Excellence[06:45] Understanding the Role of Content in Social Media[07:03] Content is the Game Changer[07:28] Different Types of Content[08:32] The Importance of Visual Content[09:00] The Role of Content Curation[09:32] Tools to Trade[09:57] Choosing the Social Network to Invest Your Time In[10:08] Paid Social[11:25] Social Media Is More Than Answering QuestionsNotable QuotesBecause at the end of it, and I hate to repeat myself, but social media replaces nothing complements everything. Without social media in the equation. How are you getting leads? How are you promoting your business? Do you even sell to foreign markets? And what I've learned over time, is that you need to have a process in place in order to test and measure and optimize what you do.I do want to go through the methodology because I think it can really help you. And it really begins with understanding the role of content in social media, I talk about the convergence of information and communication.Content is the game changer is the way that companies can level the playing field by offering unique, resourceful educational with entertainment value content. And that's why whenever we talk about what you're going to do on social media, whether it's that company looking to do outreach, or what have you, it's going to come down to the content, the content that they share the content that they use to engage in conversations.So you really got to decide what is going to be the easiest for you what makes the most sense for your product, and go through on that. And then we get to how we actually once we've decided on the different types of content, how to create content that's going to drive our social media program forward.It needs to be developed in a way that understands that social media was made for people, not for businesses. And businesses need to understand that and create compelling content that will be engaging in social media. Otherwise, your messages just look like spamLearn 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

Jun 18, 2015 • 12min
What Content Marketers Can Learn From Publishers
Neal is at the Corporate Social Media Summit this week, speaking and leading panels on all things social media and content creation. In this episode, he chats with Saul Leal, the Director of the Family Share Network, a group of Facebook pages, websites, and other social media accounts. They discuss how to create engaging content, how to monetize social media content and drive traffic to a website, and why publishing is more of a dialogue now than a monologue as it used to be.Key Highlights[01:07] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Sal Liao[01:41] Who is CompTIA[03:17] Sal's Business Model[04:33] The Concept of Alignment[07:45] How to Create Content that Feeds Special Moments[08:12] Concept of Passion Pages[09:04] Importance of Having Content that Resonates Audience[10:30] Connect with SalNotable QuotesBut the first thing is understanding the passion, the passion of our team, the passion and the vision of the organization, and ultimately, the passion of the consumer. And once we understand that passion, it's we provide engagement, and that engagement needs a purpose. And in our case, the purpose for social is driving traffic to our website.But I think that in the ecosystem of industries and the relationship of those industries, one actually succeeds on the internet one is really good at one thing.It's all about that loyalty. And the challenge has been publishers, they, they still think that publishing is a monologue. And what social media has brought it here was not it's not a monologue anymore, it's a dialogue.And anyone can can can do this passion pages is basically understanding what is the competitive advantage, what is the aggregated value that your brand brings, brings your users in our case, we will provide content for families, so anyone that loves their families should be green or content. And that's what we call pages. And it's really all about being from the computer in front of the analytics tool. And understanding why is the content that resonates with the audience, of course, and also taking consideration your own POV your own point of view in your strategy. You want people to share that content, to feel proud of that content and to feel that that content is so good in such a great way that a little bit of that content, it's part of them or they're part of that content in that way they share it. And for us. That's our objective.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

Jun 10, 2015 • 22min
How to Create a System for Your Content Marketing
After talking with people all over the world about social media, today Neal is talking about content. Yes, content is important, but with an oversaturated market, it’s important that the content you are creating and sharing is legendary! So why not leverage successful content you’ve already created and used in the past? This week is all about why you shouldn’t be scared to repurpose old content, and how to best go about using what you’ve already got.Key Highlights[03:51] The Traditional Approach on Content Marketing[05:21] Every Content Should Be Legendary[07:58] Look At What You Have[09:41] The Strategy[12:47] The Execution[14:38] Killer Functionality of Post Planner[18:07] One of The Easiest Thing To Do To Scale[18:53] Easiest Way to Start Influencer Marketing ProgramNotable QuotesYou always want to keep your eye on those other networks and see where your community is. We know that social media marketing is not content marketing content in of itself is its own art. But in order to engage in social media, which is part content, part communication, businesses need content, right. And the content needs to be in different formats in different lengths, different mediums, depending on the network, and obviously our objective.Good content is not enough, stop spewing out good content,the content almost needs to be legendary.As social media marketers, we're always in this, for lack of a better word, we're always in flux as to, we need to stick with a certain calendar and create a certain amount of content for minimal engagement. But on the other hand, we only want to produce high quality content.If the content and the time is not there, don't just do it for the sake of doing it. And it serves as a good reminder.Part of the system is we want to have minimal effort to create the best and most awesome content. One of the ways we do that is we repurpose, we leverage what we have.It's really about asset management and going in and cataloging all of your assets, setting them up for repurposing, and then having a system in place that allows you to continue the repurposing of that almost automatically in terms of a process.It's important to understand that you want to make content that's 10 times better than anything else out there. And that should be the single most driving factor. But with Facebook, don't be afraid to repost that content again. And this is where you become less reliant on always having to create mediocre content to fit an editorial calendar. And you begin to scale because you're reusing content, you you're you're repurposing content, you're also reusing content to fill the engagement, the regular engagement needs that your social media channels have.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

May 26, 2015 • 15min
How to Generate Leads from Facebook with TabSite [Mike Gingerich Interview]
This week, I am coming to you from Victoria, British Columbia, in Canada where I keynoted Social Media Camp. At the event, I ran into my friend Mike Gingerich of TabSite. TabSite is a great tool that helps you run contests and capture leads, mostly on Facebook, but also on the web. It integrates with tons of common platforms like MailChimp, Infusionsoft, Canva, and Hootsuite, and it’s so easy to use. It’s a great way to grow your following, get shared on social networks, and engage with people. Learn more in this episode!Key Highlights[00:53] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Mike Gingerich[01:29] What Is Topside?[03:12] How to Filter Out The Selection[04:17] Sweepstakes vs Sweeptakes Plus[07:24] Integration With Go To Webinar[09:04] Promotion Tools[09:40] Analytics Tool[10:57] Pricing[12:03] Mike's Advice on How Business Can Use Topside for Running Facebook ContestsNotable QuotesContests are a way of it's a way of engaging with your fanbase on a regular basis using all these different types of apps exists. We ramp up from there and including the fact where we have a small agency starting point where you can run one contest simultaneously on multiple Facebook pages. So that's helpful for businesses collaborating, or businesses with multiple locations.They need to be thinking about their engagement strategy. I mean, you have to be active on Facebook for your page. So it's sharing content that's quality, that's helpful. You have to look at using Facebook ads for some of your best content and, and the value of that is you get in front of more people. But the significant value is you get in front of the exact target audiences because it's a massive database. And Facebook ads allows you to drill into exactly who you want to be in front of and that's just totally a value. You need to be experimenting with video. Even if you're running a contest, you're posting that link but make a little video about that. A 25/32 video can get tremendous reach gets in front of a lot of people, and they can have a simple call to action that's free for you from Facebook loaded video driving them right to your your landing page.I think video is something that brands need to small businesses need to understand and experiment with.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

May 19, 2015 • 12min
My Best Social Media Advice? Ignore Everyone's Social Media Advice.
Coming to you from the Women’s Business Symposium, sponsored by Comerica Bank, and benefitting Girls, Inc., this week Neal is discussing when to listen to advice, and when to ignore it. Last week, he held the event that he’s been talking about for months, the Social Tools Summit. It got him thinking about why it’s important to be unique in the world of business and social media. When planning the summit, Neal got lots of advice from his peers about how to run the event. Yes, it’s good to listen to advice from peers and role models, but it’s also good to know that you don’t always have to take that advice.Key Highlights[02:02] Creating the Idea for Social Tools Summit[02:41] Ignore Everyone Else[03:06] Why I Think the Social Tool Summit Was A Success[03:22] My Approach to Business and Social Media[04:42] Social Media Replaces Nothing But Compliments Everything[05:36] Data-Driven Approach[05:47] Leveraging Social Media As A Tool[06:36] You Need to Do Something Different[07:27] Lead Through Innovation[09:02] Social Media Center of ExcellenceNotable QuotesWith social media to say you got to do this, you got to do that. I don't think people are ill-intentioned when they give us this advice. But at the end of the day, you have to stick with what's right for you.Because if you're doing what everyone else has already done, you're not going to be successful, you have to do something different. And if you're true to your brand, and to your business, into your experience, into your capabilities into your limited resources, you will be able to do that. But it's not going to come from a copy and paste effort. It's going to take some soul searching, it's going to take some experimentation. And everyone said it was unique, but I think they meant it in a good way, hopefully. But we did something different. Because I had a vision. And I felt there was a need in the market for this type of information, and executed on that vision. And I did not let anybody get in the way. I was a man on a mission. And that's actually always been my approach to business. And it's my approach to social media. And it's my approach to social media consulting. But at the end of the day, I want to do what's right. And that's the approach I want you to have for social media. The first one is social media replaces nothing but compliments everything. Social media is new tools, old rules, doesn't matter how late you are out of the game, doesn't matter how old you are. When you use social media as a business tool, those that have more business experience will tend to leverage social media as a tool more effectively.You may not want to be innovative. But to be successful, you need to do something dLearn 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


