Your Digital Marketing Coach with Neal Schaffer

Today Neal is talking with Pawan Deshpande, the CEO and Founder of Curata. They discuss Curata on the eve of the Social Tools Summit in Boston. Curata provides tools that help marketers curate content and publish it many channels, as well as provide analytics, best practices, and machine learning to make content curation and creation easier and more effective. Curata can schedule content, build posts from relevant metadata, and even suggest images. Pawan also discusses the company’s history, the value of content curation, and the future of content curation and creation convergence.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

Neal talks with Glenn Gaudet, the CEO and Founder of GaggleAMP. This tool helps companies and social media manager create employee advocates within their companies, and makes it easy for employees to share company-created social posts. They discuss how employee advocacy has grown, and how you can get started doing employee advocacy if you haven’t tried it yet. Glenn will be present at the Social Tools Summit in just a few weeks and also hosts AMPlify, the employee advocacy conference, directly after the Social Tools Summit in Boston.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

Neal discusses an amazing tool that is used by serious social media marketers everywhere, Simply Measured. He’s talking to Ron Schott, the Director of the Professional Services Team at Simply Measured. This tool helps big brands and small companies alike reap the benefits of social media by understanding their analytics and planning future social media campaigns based on the measuring and reporting that Simply Measured provides. The tool also has the ability to track competitors and market sectors, plus so much more. These are the kinds of tools Neal is excited to introduce you to and conversations they’ll be having at the Social Tools Summit in just a few weeks.Key Highlights[01:23] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Ron Schott[01:59] Who is Ron?[03:10] What is Simply Measured?[04:12] How Simply Measured Handles Data[05:03] Competitive Data from Simply Measured[0:41] Other Outside Data Simply Measured Brings in for Customized Reporting[06:13] Case Studies[07:50] The Latest Social Networks Simply Measured[09:00] Simply Measured's Ability to Measure Facebook Presence Globally[09:48] Paid Social Market[11:08] The Best Way to Get Started with Simply Measured[12:24] Connet with RonNotable QuotesWe're kind of edging out in those cases where people are looking more business solutions are looking more business goals, rather than specifically social goals. And so for us to tie those things back to, you know, end action, basket size, things like that, that's ultimately where we want to be getting to.But I can say we have, we have a number of our larger publishing clients, many that you probably visit every day, that are using our tools to then figure out you know, not only what type of stories are driving the most online interactions, and pageviews, and things like that, but what type of social content is better driving people to those stories?When you integrate that with conversion funnels, and what have you, you have complete visibility, right. And you know, what you need to do more of, and I think that's sort of the holy grail that companies tried to get out through piecing together, you know, different tools, and it takes a lot of time and it you know, I don't think they're able to see that complete picture like that you could do is simply measured.The most important takeaway is that simply measure continues to lead the field and continues to expand on what they do to provide more value to their customers, but thinking about not only using data for measuring and for ROI, or what have you, but feeding that back into the planning process. 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

Today Neal is introducing you to another social media tool that can help you reap the benefits of the wide world of social: Likeable Local. He’s talking Nicole Kroese, the Director of Marketing and Partnerships, about all the things Likeable Local can do and how it’s growing and changing. Likeable Local’s mission is to help businesses, especially small businesses, grow with social media. How? It makes it easy to create content with post templates and timely content at your fingertips. It also has metrics, so you can track your likes, looks, and leads generated by your social efforts. These are the kinds of tools Neal will introduce you to and conversations they’ll be having at the Social Tools Summit in just a few weeks.Key Highlights[00:38] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Nicole Cruz[01:29] Likeable Local's Mission[04:47] Lead Generation Part of Likeable Local[07:00] Measuring and Reporting[08:21] Business Criteria That Likeable Local Will Be A Good Fit For[09:57] Opportunities for Large Brands and Franchises[10:45] Where to Access Free Tool[11:45] Issues That Businesses Have With Social Media That Likeable Local is Working on Solving13:01] Final ThoughtsNotable QuotesAnd most of all, it's the idea that, you know, I think most small business owners know that social media is something you need to be doing, you know, they're bought into that idea. But you know, what they still think is that it's hard, it's going to be challenging, it's going to be expensive, it's going to be really time consuming. But you know, what they still think is that it's hard, it's going to be challenging, it's going to be expensive, it's going to be really time consuming. And what we're striving to do is to give them the tool that has the gives them the access to make it easy to make it not so hard, and to make it effective without having to spend countless hours all the time.I think those two key things, you mentioned that the content creation, curation is probably the most resource intensive thing you need to do in social, but also the amplification, whether it is you know, through organic through the repeating of things at optimal times or through paid advertising.And the idea here is that you can drive people straight from social and email them really seamlessly there. And you know, a referral is really one of the best gifts a customer can give you, you know, it's the best gift.They need something that is a little bit easier and kind of, you know, done for them. So simple. And that's what we want to deliver.I think that that's always going to be the challenge is seeing that ROI from social media directly. So you know, creating really, really smart reporting, content suggestions based on their their internet activity and their preferences. 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

This week, Neal Schaffer interviews Chad Abbot of Abbson Live. Chad will be joining the Social Tools Summit next month, and Neal wanted to talk to him about the powers of video. We know that video is an incredibly powerful marketing tool, and we know that live streaming can be helpful for events, but Chad shared some other ways that live video can be used in your marketing strategy. Use of video across platforms is growing, and now is the time to jump in and try it for yourself!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

This week Neal Schaffer introduces you to Oktopost and the man behind it, CEO and Founder Daniel Kushner. Oktopost is another great social media management tool that specializes in B2B services, tracking relationships and helping you target your marketing. They’ll soon be launching an employee advocacy program as well, helping companies simplify the advocacy process. Learn more about Oktopost, and where Daniel sees social media being used in the sales process in this week’s episode.Key Highlights[00:41] Introduction to Podcast Guest, Daniel Kushner[01:26] Difference Between B2bB, Social Media and Consumer-Facing Social Media[03:03] Top 5 Things That B2B, and Social Media Marketers Should be Measuring[05:28] The Problem With Attribution[07:11] The Different Integrations Oktopost Currently Supports[10:01] Daniel's Experience with Marketing Automation from their Customers[11:43] Case Studies[12:25] Daniel's Vision on the Market for the Next 6-1 Months and on their Product[16:31] Final ThoughtsNotable QuotesIn every company, the lead is something which is, is different. And maybe it's the same name, but every company has a different meaning of that name, right? The most basic is somebody leaving their information in the system, at minimum, the email, and that becomes a lead.Where do we get this lead from? I think one of these metrics is one of the hardest today for marketers to measure. Because it's a very vague question, where are my leads coming from?So it's very hard for the marketer exactly understand where the leads are coming from, although it's one of the most critical things that we need to measure, especially because it's not all linear. It's not all a single point of contact. I think we, if you're looking at the marketing funnel, social media is used in two places. One, it's used for traffic generation. So to the very top of the funnel, we might say that the first touch point, and it's also used in the middle of the funnel to engage with prospects and into an even customers to push them through the funnel itself.As a marketer, you can now see which social content is now not only generating traffic to third party websites, like Wall Street Journal, in this case, but also ending up as, as good lead generators on your website.We definitely very strongly recommend that even if you're using a platform like OB supposed to run your advocacy, that you find somebody who can help you run the program, if it's not something that you have the knowledge and expertise in house, because doing it right, because, you know, when you're testing tools, and you know, marketers, they're like testing new technology and testing things out. And if things fail, that's okay marketing, but we're we're we're taking our technology and our new ways of doing things and expanding this 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

At the Social Media Marketing World event in San Diego last week, Neal Schaffer met all kinds of great people, one of them being Emeric Ernoult. Emeric is the CEO and Co-Founder of Agora Pulse, an engagement dashboard tool for Facebook and Twitter. Agora Pulse allows you to track the most important fans and interactions on social, gathering data unlike any other tool. Luckily, Emeric is going to be joining the Social Tools Summit in Boston in May. Listen to learn more about this great tool, what inspired its creation, and other tools that Emeric loves.Key Highlights[01:22] Introduction to Podcast Guest, Emeric Ernoult[02:40] Business Value of Agorapulse[08:51] How to Get Started With Agorapulse[09:31] Agorapulse Functionalities[10:42] Why You Should Use Agorapulse[13:03] Historical Tweet Feature[14:57] Other Agorapulse Facebook Features[17:10] Agorapulse Plans[18:34] Final ThoughtsNotable QuotesBasically save time by engaging with the people who are really, really matter for your business. And were the most important people for your business. That was the way so like, focus on the most important people. And that's my big vision. That's my thing. And at the end of the day, when I look at what I've created with Social, I'm left with nothing. I've just created the feeling that I had to be there and I did my job. That's it. And and we thought this is a big problem, because it shouldn't feel that way. It should feel like I've done something useful for my business, I've done something that is an asset that is a value.And that's the key with the right people to make sure that when those right people get to consider what you're doing or when those right people are your client and have to consider buying something else or you know, another tool that they have those relationships in mind and to think twice, before leaving.We make sure you know what you're building in terms of quality relationship with the right people, things simple we're at 90% they're building the quality and identifying the right people you've you're building relationships with, I'd say we're 65% there and we have a lot still love to build.And at the end of the day, we can rank your user we can score your user and user scoring is really one thing we're working on very hard and doing a lot of r&d. And that's where the identifying the most important user for your business will come into the picture.I love all my competitors. That's number one. And I invite embrace them. And I invite them to come and have a beer with me and chat about our metrics and how we're doing and how they're doing and exchange advice and tips and share experiences. And yeah, there is some some kind of an overlap.But you know, their key strength is really on content discovery, and we're absolutely not doing this. And wLearn 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

This episode brings you into the atmosphere of the CeBIT Global Conference, where Neal Schaffer met Steven Zielke, who helped found the Rock the Blog event. But that’s not the only thing he’s founded: enter Blappsta, a new app that can turn your blog into its own native app. Neal is very excited about this app, and even more excited to share it with you. Blappsta provides yet another medium to access your readers in this increasingly mobile world, holding your hand through the registration, allowing you send push notifications, and above all, becoming the provider of your own app.Key Highlights[02:13] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Steven Zielke[02:25] What is Rock the Blog[04:25] The Issue Steven Found and How He Developed the Tool[06:45] Feedback on Blappsta[09:12] Steven's Vision[10:21] Blappsta Cost[10:54] What Makes Blappsta Interesting[11:39] Companies Steven Are Working With[12:27] Becoming a Mobile SocietyNotable QuotesAnd it's for you, it's something really nice because you have that direct communication to your loyal readers, you can push out to them and you instantly can can generate their reading onto your content. And for you, it doesn't matter is an app is a website, it shouldn't matter. It's your content that's relevant. So all we do is really giving another medium.Well, you've mentioned the most important part, that's notifications. And first of all, you have the notification on the on your fingertip. It's not us it's not the system or anything you can decide, I want to send a push notification. I mean, really, it's the the app world is, is changing in that respect. And then Google has laid a benchmark, again, trying indexing apps, and really tells us that they are interesting, interested in looking into the app and make it a part of their Google world. And that's, it's not about the technology app, it's about the content that lies in the app. But I think the potential of when you have mobile visitors of having the mobile visitors say with there's an app available, would you like to download it and have been able to send out notifications. This is what every every company wants is its were becoming a notification economy. And I think that's a really, really powerful aspect about this as well.If there's something that you need to get the word out to your employees. How do you do it? Well, there's nothing better than a notification on smartphone because we know everyone's eyeballing that.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

This week is a special episode, recorded at the CeBIT Global Conference (CGC) in Hannover, Germany. Neal Schaffer spoke and participated in this great event, and had such a good time sitting down to speak with Ingo Stoll about the role information technology can play in social media. This episode takes a step back from the usual more applicable advice and looks at the bigger picture, including the current state of social media, and the future of the industry.Key Highlights[00:25] Introduction to the Interview with CGC Radio[04:24] The Future of Social Media is Now[05:36] Evolution of Social Business[05:58] Social Media is a Two-way Conversation[09:09] Disruptive Technology[11:40] The Importance of Keeping Your Employees Happy[16:05] Change Agent[18:09] Lessening the Gap Between Consumer and BrandNotable QuotesSo it's less about speaking and getting 1000 questions or about people tweeting you out, but it's more about the audience is extremely influential.So instead of thinking about the future, it's there, it's now people are using these platforms. And if you're not engaging with people there, then maybe your competitors aren't right. And the big social data, it's there to be tapped into.It's less about thinking about the future and really getting busy and hunkering down and creating a strategy and looking at all the potential and figuring out what makes sense for your company to do. Social business is a place where you know, social media, like the internet, it just sort of overlaps everything your company does, and every department, and companies need to be thinking about that.  When you create a social media strategy, it's critical that you include every department in that strategy, and that every department has a say, and in the future, you know, more and more departments are going to be using social media in more and more different ways. Social is the public media, it is the ultimate media that represents who we are. And people are not only your customers, but they're your employees, right? So it becomes sort of a, you know, a natural central focus.Social media is bringing departments together, it's breaking down silos, and with employee advocacy, and we'll talk about this tonight at your event, obviously, but it's tapping into who we are as a company, what is our brand?Change is not enough anymore, we need transformation. And that brings it to the point that the changes we see are so substantial, that just adopting things is not enough anymore. It's really disruptive. What happens and it puts great pressure, great chances on the one hand, but great pressure on the leaders, and the managers of the organizations of today. So when you put it all together, it becomes a great representation. And it changes the organism of a company to a collectioLearn 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

Many companies invest in using a customer relationship management tool, or CRM, such as Salesforce. But there’s a free tool at your fingertips that you need to take advantage of: LinkedIn. LinkedIn has plenty of functions like searching and tagging that allow you to keep track of and maintain your professional relationships, sometimes better than CRM tools that are already out there. After collecting boxes of business cards for many years, Neal Schaffer decided it was time to take the plunge and use LinkedIn as his CRM. In this week’s episode, he explains why you should do the same.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