Your Digital Marketing Coach with Neal Schaffer

Neal shares best practices with social media campaigns by showcasing Passion Planner's Kickstarter campaign and what can be learned from it.Key Highlights [01:40] What's the Best Social Media Campaign for Me?[02:45] What Are the Best Practices in Creating Campaigns?[03:45] The Passion Planner[05:58] One of the Things I Like About The Passion Planner[07:54] The Kickstarter Campaign (Mini Version)[10:05] Why I Think The Passion Planner Is A Great Tactic[10:37] Other Interesting Things About the Passion Planner[12:38] The Social Good Component[13:56] My View on Social Media CampaignsNotable QuotesSo you know, what that brings us to is that people are the best sellers, people associate the best with people. And it's the people centric part of this, which really draws people especially if you are trying to attract consumers, I guess it will work for b2b as well. But so it's the person and it's their story. And they go through why they created this product, how it helped them how they think it can help you.  I have so much belief that passion planner can be a catalyst to change someone's life that I feel that anyone should be able to use it regardless of their financial ability.We believe that anybody should get access to it. If you believe in the product, even if you don't want to invest, just have a share, we'll give you something. I think that is a great tactic. Once again, there is a strong human element here that ties into our emotions. With social good, we all want to feel good about it. But if you thought that was enough, no, there's more here.But I want you to see a social media campaign. And rarely a Kickstarter campaign that creates a tie a human tie and emotional bond with the person who created the product through the video that authentically allows you to get something free, even if you don't want to invest in the project, because you might be interested in the product allows you to do that by authentically sharing on any you know, any social media channel that you want. And when you mentioned the word community, obviously, you better have a community otherwise, I don't think it's going to resonate with people. I believe that this product does have it through all of the things that they're doing. And I think that once you have that strong community, it's going to help propel future success, as in creating new products, new Kickstarter campaigns for promotion, whatever this brand decides to do.And this whole community aspect that we are here because of our community, we want to support our community that really permeates itself throughout everything that they say on their website. And that's just a brilliant example that I think is is really, really hard for a lot of companies to emulate. 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 episode goes into depth on what a pre-sales social media consulting call would look like, and with that six ideas to improve your social media that go above and beyond social media.Key Highlights[02:04] Importance of Social Proof[03:10] What Should You Do to Acquire More Followers?[03:37] Let's First Work on Your Message[04:24] People Need to Have A Crystal Clear of What You Do When They View Your Website[05:18] What I Find In A Lot of Startup Businesses[05:52] Utilizing Your Employee Through Employee Advocacy Program[06:50] What is Affiliate Marketing[08:02] Integrating Affiliate Marketing Into Your Website[08:42] Step #3: Build Your List[09:35] Step #4: Blog[10:07] Leveraging the Visual[11:08] Paid SocialNotable QuotesI'd rather have a small army of passionate fans than a large army of crickets.And you may see success stories of some companies that were lucky in the right place at the right time had that one special person find their content and share it to their million followers. But for 99.99% of us, that really doesn't happen. If it did happen, it would just be too easy.For me, the social media followers, yeah, you can use social media to help amplify your message. But what is your message, let's first work on that.And that's why with social media, your websites are more important than ever.Once again, instead of trying to have you go against the world, you then as part of your program, begin to do a blogger outreach program or influencer marketing campaign where you start to reach out to people and say, hey, you know, I have a product that I think would be genuinely aligned with what you do for a living, would you be interested in it.But genuinely having people promote your product and sharing the wealth with them. And if they believe in your product, they will do that, right.All you need is a handful of them in social media that can really help amplify your message in a way that you yourself can't because you're a brand and they're a person, and they already have a loyal following. How can I leverage the visual to create a magnet, that's going to be not only more engaging with my readers, but also that I can utilize social media to help draw more people to my content to my presence? I'd rather you complement your organic efforts with a little bit of paid, you know, five bucks, 10 bucks, 20 bucks on Facebook, can help you generate a certain amount of results that can help complement everything else that you're doing. 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 about the launch of his new Social Media Center of Excellence Facebook Group and what he has learned building a new community in social media - and how you can leverage Neal's experience.Key Highlights[02:14] My Own Facebook Group[02:41] What to Expect When You Join My Facebook Group[04:24] How  Started My Group[05:42] Deciding On Who You Opt-In Your Group[06:13] How to Get More Followers and Engagement?[06:45] "Cross-Pollination"[07:19] Your Group Should Serve Utilitarian Purpose[08:59] Utilitarian Part of a Facebook Group[11:10] The Advantage of Engagement on Facebook[11:58] The Other Side of the Equation: Engagement[13:02] The Challenge on Engagement[13:21] The First Thing I Do Whenever We Have a New Group Member[14:09] Create Rules![14:54] Have A CombinationNotable QuotesNow, obviously, numbers are not everything. It's more about quality versus quantity. I want the right people into the group.So who would you opt in? Right I'm totally against opting people and I think it goes against a lot of well basic principles of etiquette and of of online social networking, and social media principles.But also, once you opt them in once they go to the group, you need to have a clear visual clear rules, posting rules, a clear about section, and you need to tell them, hey, you know, if you're offended, please opt out, you have already expressed interest in that's why you're here.And how do you get more engagement, it's the same themes over and over and over. And there's no one golden rule, because every community is going to be filled with different people with a different objective. It's the whole social media is half science, half art. This is sort of the science, but you all need to be the artist, because we're dealing with people here, and everybody is different, right?But really, your group, or your community should serve utilitarian purpose. And I think a lot of brands businesses don't really have that utilitarian purpose, because they're looking at purely as a marketing objective.But you need to have a utilitarian view that it just becomes natural to push people there, right.So it really is a great place, like I said, engage where people are. And the beautiful thing about this engagement is that EdgeRank actually works in your favor, if groups are getting more of a drink than pages are you can imagine.The objective of a group is to get actual discussion from people, and not just comments on what you write her answers to your questions, but you want them to submit their own questions.And I want people to know that we're going to be very focused and I want them to value it. I want them to I want my group to attain mindshare for what it is versus competing groups wherever they may be in social media. 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

As your company's social media presence grows and you begin to yield "influence" in social media, you will be faced with those who copy your content as well as attack you. Neal shares his own experience as to how he deals with these issues to help prepare you and your business for what may lie ahead for you.Key Highlights[01:35] Who Are Considered As Influencers?[02:21] Content Creator Perspective[03:37] How to Find If Other People Is Copying Your Content?[03:57] Tools for Plagiarism[05:32] Taking It One Step Further[08:48] Why I Don't Upload My Content to SlideShare[11:32] How I Found Out My Ebooks Were Copied and Uploaded to SlideShare[12:41] Always Embed Internal Link Into Every Single Blog Post[13:39] Strategy on Creating Extremely Shareable Content[15:17] Why I Think Publicly Confronting Someone Is An Attack[16:50] You Got To Have Tough Skin[21:10] Dealin with Disagreears[22:17] It's Okay to Block PeopleNotable QuotesAnd this is really what businesses want to become more should want to become right, you want to create content that is going to engage with users, that's going to help your company be found.And that's, you know, the common theme for the consumer brand, or the business brand is at the end of the day, you want to be known out there, right? You want that share of voice out there on social media.But I think it's something that's more of us need to do. If we find out about it, I would not be shy, because then copying your content is a very, very brash move in this new digital world that we live in. And perhaps we need to educate more people.And if you're creating a lot of content for various purposes, sometimes you might create ebooks for the purpose of opting people into your newsletter of getting them to the top of the marketing funnel, you know, creating, creating a relationship with social media. But taking it down the funnel, one step by acquiring an email address is something that most companies do.And if you want to take that approach, you know, you just want to make sure that you're branding, your product names, your service names, or company names are included, you know, throughout not just the visual branding, if it's a PowerPoint, but in a blog post is mentioned throughout every single blog post, and then maybe you don't have to worry about it.So you get random people out there. And you sort of have to have tough skin, when you're out there, knowing that there's gonna be people who disagree with you.Now, is anybody listening to that person? Probably not. So the biggest damage that you actually get, when people like this confront your business, or you as a content creator, it's more about just an emotional or a mental damage. And this is what's going to happen, once you establish got leadership or you have a large soLearn 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

Have you had a bad experience on a social network and refused to venture back into it? That's not good business sense. Perhaps it has happened to you by being opted-in to several Facebook Groups without your permission. Now is time to join Neal in rediscovering the potential business value of Facebook Groups.Key Highlights[02:47] Do A Reset On Everything You Do[03:30] Facebook Statistics[04:24] The Biggest Social Network[05:55] Adapt and Change Your Way[06:31] Facebook Groups[07:45] My Facebook Group Experimentation[08:35] Disadvantage of Facebook Group[11:58] My Facebook Community[14:03] The Challenge[14:53] Creating Group Rules[15:09} What To Do TO Increase Engagement[15:18] How to Join My Facebook GroupNotable QuotesYou need to be with your audiences. And you need to figure out a way to engage with your audience to make yourself more successful. But I have immense respect for the platform and the people behind the platform. They really are building something that, you know, is in essence, sort of revolutionising the way that we communicate with each other for lack of a better concept.So the other thing is that we talk about all these other networks where people still spend a heck of a lot of time on Facebook, it is still by far the biggest social network.But the fact that people are on Facebook is no different today, it's irrelevant to the edge rank, the edge rank, and social media is always going to favor people over businesses. Businesses are always at a disadvantage when engaging in social.So the other side of the Facebook group is as a business, you're at a disadvantage. When you're in a Facebook group, you're engaging as a person. And you can engage with people a lot more easier than you can on a Facebook page, if they have an interest in your group. But if people are going to pay to be in a forum, I want it to be presented in a certain way to make it a resource for everybody over time. t the benefit now, and I'm already seen it is that I'm creating when you're talking to someone on Twitter, you know, or on some of the social networks, some of the other ones, it's a little bit different than when you talk to them on Facebook, because it's the most personal of our networks, it's where we share the most personal information. 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

As Instagram continues to gain in popularity, many haven't started to leverage the opportunities that Instagram provides businesses. Neal introduces his own story of the why and how he is transitioning to use Instagram as a more integral part of his social media marketing - and why you should as well.Key Highlights[01:35] The Rise of Visual Social Media Marketing[02:19] Where Does Instagram Fall?[03:19] Brands That Do Well On Instagram[04:31] How To Use Instagram?[06:32] My Issues With People Who Are Just Posting Quotes All the Time[07:54] Authenticity in Instagram[09:22] Tools for Utilizing Instagram[11:38] Social Media Productivity[12:38] Taking the Step Above Beyond Brand Awareness[14:03] Retain Authenticity with InstagramNotable QuotesWith the ability to photo tag, I immediately thought of Instagram as really, if you're a brick and mortar that might be the second best place you want to be after Facebook.I'm all about trying to contribute original value to social media. So you know, there's a part of it, which is authenticity, that it is something about you and it is irrelevant to your brand. And curating third party content for any social network is one strategy.But one thing I was looking for is we have all these social media dashboards come out, why can't they handle Instagram?So once you have a tool like that, and you begin to consider Instagram more strategic, because there are so many eyeballs on it, you want to maintain a daily basis of engaging with others, not just commenting and liking on, you know, friends, your network, but also being able to post more often.ut I will say that, you know, for brand awareness, Instagram is extremely important right now. And with the tools, we have the opportunity to take it to the next level. And I would say to try to avoid that at all costs, if you could, I really do think that it's important to retain the authenticity with Instagram. And I think it's gonna allow you to have a deeper connection with other people. And at the end of the day, it's gonna help you be more effective with your social media marketing. I think most people and you know there's a lot of savvy social media marketers that may have already been doing this for the past several months. But I think that you know the notion of scheduling unless you're a brand that's been doing a lot on Instagram. I think it's still relatively new to a lot of marketers and a lot of small businesses and I hope that this gives you the knowledge the inspiration Have the courage to go out there and do it yourself and not miss out on the potential 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

Neal interviews Glenn Gaudet, CEO and founder of GaggleAMP, and talks about the history of employee advocacy and the challenges that face companies that try to launch such a program internally.Key Highlights[00:51] The Primary Use of GaggleAmp[01:32] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Glenn Gaudet[02:42] How Glenn Got the Idea of the GaggleAmpNotable Quotes[06:52] How the Market Evolved[07:47] What Lacks in Understand Social Media[08:19] Why You Need to Understand the Value of Social Media[10:38] The Trap into Employee Advocacy[12:54] Free Trial[13:34] The Power of Feedback[14:26] Why Companies Sometimes Get Disappointed in Employee Advocacy[19:59] How GaggleAmp Works[20:43] Connect with GlennNotable QuotesAnd then from that was really the idea of having a platform that was designed to do this in a way that it was super easy for the employee to share the content, yet maintain their privacy, and provide rich tracking information for the company and to balance all those different pieces.And what was lacking in that was the understanding of how social media fits into the broader marketing mix. And now what we're seeing is we're seeing social media professionals who truly are coming out of that understanding of the marketing mix, rather than somebody who's just often off on their own doing social media.If you don't understand the value of social media, why would you want to amplify it? Right? Because that's what our platform does. It amplifies what you're already doing. And if you're already doing nothing, you multiply that times zero, you still get nothing.But it really is really does allow companies to scale their amplification, yes, in an organic way, that is just very, very different than anything else out there.They think that all of their employees are going to be social media managers, they're going to have these complex dashboards, and they're going to be figuring out what they're going to say, and, and that's just not the case, the rank and file employee, just want you to make it really super easy for them to either share it or say no thanks.I think that the biggest one that pops up is a certain expectation. And this, this is why we do a free trial, we want you to actually use it. And as part of the free trial, we want you to invite various stakeholders that are employees. Because your expectations of what they want, are probably going to be different. And so with, by going through the trial, you not only get the results in terms of the amplification, but you're going to get the feedback from those other stakeholder types within your organization.And so when when when marketing expects certain things from other types of employees, they oftentimes get disappointed because they're expecting them to do all this additional work.It's really pLearn 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

A first look at the newest social network Ello. Should you sign up? Spend much time there? Use it for your business? Listen to Neal's advice and gain some rational perspective on what value Ello might be able to provide you and your business.Key Highlights[01:15] New Social Network - ELLO[02:07] Remain Holistic on Your Approach on Social Media[02:45] What is ELLO?[03:56] Experiment on ELLO![04:17] How ELLO Works[06:15] Keep An Eye on ELLO[06:58] One of the Cool Things About ELLO[07:28] Another Thing You'll Notice on ELLONotable QuotesWhile yes, it is growing in certain circles, we have to take a and remain you know holistic about our approach to social media.And it really is going to depend to see what ello does in order to bring value to businesses who want to leverage it for marketing, even though ellos already said we are going to be an ad free network, which makes sense, I still think that they could offer, you know solutions for businesses.There's a lot of artists, a lot of creative types that are on the platform. And it's it's a beautiful network, it's just another avenue to engage with people. So I think as a matter of experimentation, just to get familiar with the network, I don't think it can hurt to actually acquire an invites, which you will need, every user can only invite five people to the network.It's no different than any other social network. But obviously, social media is about being where your audiences.But I will say that it's refreshing to be on a network where there's no ads, and where people aren't, you know, where you can have natural conversations and meet new people. It's sort of like the early days, like I said, of any other social network. So you might be able to meet interesting people there. And it's an experimentation, who knows what will happen.But until then, that is basically what ello is, and what it will become, nobody knows and no one can predict the future. And it really, you know, comes down to, you know, sticking to your guns, sticking to your social media strategy. But you know, keeping an eye on ELLO, and keeping an eye on sort of the leading people that are on our following a few and keeping an eye on the numbers as to how many followers they have.Experiment with it, try to post something different once a day try to connect with people at a human level= and look at the impressions you're getting.  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

How should small businesses approach an investment in social media? Learn how a social media consultant views how small business should consider what business value they should derive from social - and how to better manage their expectations vis a vis budget spend on social. Key Highlights[00:49] The Power of Habit[01:31] The Concept of Unplugged[05:01] The Challenge with Social Media[06:06] My Approach[06:16] A Role of Social Media Consultant  [09:15] Things I Have Struggled With As Social Media Consultant[09:57] The Fear I Have As Social Media ConsultantNotable QuotesAnd obviously, for those listening to the podcast, we know that that is not the world of social in order to be successful. It takes time to, obviously, create relationships develop relationships as a whole content side. And above and beyond that there's sort of a brand new inside that this doctor or this small business has their own culture, their own brand, their own differentiators in the marketplace.So my approach has always been company's needs strategy and education. Let's have an onboarding process so I can train your company. And let's keep an ongoing relationship as a social media adviser. That is basically the role that a social media consultant should play because we are consultative. I just think that there's an incredible amount of time that goes into crafting a voice crafting content, curating content, engaging, that's a few $100 a month, unless you price yourself very, very inexpensively just would not allow me to do the best job that I could.So this is something that I present to you in the spirit of being unplugged, and a really opening up my mind to you and the things that I have struggled with as a social media consultant.But then, at the end of the day They said, well, what's the ROI of doing this? And that's sort of the fear I have for a lot of people that do this sort of job as well, as companies that, you know, put money into an effort that really isn't appropriate for getting business value out of a social media presence.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

If you're looking to better leverage social media for marketing, this is the one question that you need to answer to help guide you towards implementing the right social media strategy.Key Highlights[01:18] The One Question You Should Be Asking Yourself About Your Business[03:43] My Laser-Focused Approach[04:30] Where Do You Get Your Leads?[04:47] Businesses Through Referrals[05:26} What Can You Do In Social Media to Help our Relationships[06:39] Where's Your Market?Notable QuotesAs I always say, social media, complements everything and replaces nothing. A lot of us tend not to because we start a process and strategy and we get going, and we sort of get lost in it over time.And this is obviously where social media can help you to scale and help you develop relationships nationwide, whether it be LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.And the answer that really comes down to well, what is the objective who are your customer? And I think a lot of people, a lot of businesses still aren't very clear about that when they think about social media. So you have a lot of consumer facing companies, but you also have b2b aspects of your company.So it's easy to focus on the consumer facing side. But it's often the business facing side, that is actually giving you your sales. And it's really trying to map out both and understanding that, you know, I was talking to a manufacturer of chocolate chip cookies last week.And as long as you understand that, and you can answer those questions and understand that it's going to take a very, very different approach, you know, potentially different networks, obviously, different tactics and different objectives for your b2b and b2c side and learn how to shuffle your budget your resources for each one, and to be able to calculate your ROI, I think you're gonna do really, really well.It probably makes sense to invest more of his effort on the b2b side, in terms of social media and using that to help foster and develop those relationships.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