Your Digital Marketing Coach with Neal Schaffer

Neal shares the four things companies need to launch a successful social media program based on time he recently spent in rural Japan helping farmers get social media savvy. Key Highlights[01:00] What I did in Japan[03:33] The Challenge[04:21] What is the First Step?[04:57] Education Comes in 2 Different Ways[05:23] Second Part: Strategy[06:10] One of the Big Missing Pieces[06:50] You Need Content[07:44] Compelling Stories[10:00] Creating SystemNotable QuotesAnd therefore the first step really is how do we get these farmers on Facebook and derive value out of being on Facebook and seeing that this can be a viable future for them by engaging on Facebook and using it as a digital media platform.The first step really is the education right? And the education comes in two different ways. Alright, so number one, understanding that potential. And number two, really yourself becoming a user of the platform and understanding how people use it, right? There's so many things that go into a social media strategy. But these are things that you need to think through. And if you've never done that, and you just go into the do before you do the plan.People use social platforms differently than maybe they did two or three years ago, they've moved to other platforms, maybe, and maybe you've missed them.And I think one of the big missing pieces comes into this notion that social media and I always talk about it being the convergence of information and communication.The content comes in a variety of formats of mediums. You have photos, you have videos, you have, you know, blog posts, you have status updates, but you need to have a content and what these farmers needed, was they needed to have stories.It's the development of the stories and they themselves do not understand it.Social media is always changing. What you do with social media as a business needs to Always Be Changing. Always be in flux as well. 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

Join Neal in a candid conversation over a pint from London as he introduces three of his social media friends who help provide fresh (but sometimes "old school") insight into leveraging social media for your business. Key Highlights[01:00] What I did in Japan[02:40] Introducing Alex[03:15] How Alex Started With Social Media[04:10] How Social Media Affected Alex's Personal and Professional Life[05:05] Introducing Liz[05:43] How Liz Started With Social Media[11:58] Introducing Conrad[14:42] Conrad's Tips on Improving Writing[15:40] Get Your Branding Right[17:16] Connect with Conrad[17:43] Social Media Is Real[18:55] Social Media Is About PeopleNotable QuotesAnd I think it's important that as businesses, that we use social media and we forget that we're engaging with actual people.And when we make a person, a person, a human human connection, the most amazing things the most amazing ales that you would never imagine drinking if you thought they were laggers. The stories the education that connections you make are amazing. If you have a message, just believe that if you put yourself out there, especially using social media is such a powerful medium, just do it, don't be afraid, and connect offensively with people, because people will really give back to you in a way that you cannot even imagine.I think first of all, one of the most important thing is is branding and you know, copy is part of branding and getting the right tone of voice is very, very important.And if you want to position yourself, as you know, unique someone, a unique business in the industry, the tone of voice is part of that. And, and part of branding is consistency. And when you treat people individually, and you gauge with them individually, you build a deeper relationship and that deeper relationship, assuming that they are a fan of your company, can have obviously significant positive impact over time.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

Pinterest Community Boards have a unique role in the world of social media. Find out why you should be leveraging them as part of your social media strategy.Key Highlights[01:26]  Great Way of Sharing Passion[02:05] community Board in Pinterest[02:20] How Pinterest Works[04:24] My AHA Moment[04:47] Pinning Together[05:35] The Advantage of Opening My Boards to Others[06:27] How to Audit Your Boards[07:57] The Interesting Thing About Community BoardsNotable QuotesWhat a great way to bring the world together, just like social media is. Think about it social is about people and engaging with people and the social signals that you send to people. And when you share someone else's content, it is an amazing thing you are putting your brand on the line to share with someone else.These are things were creating a community board, if you're a brand that already has an established user base that's engaging with you on Pinterest is really at this point, I think a no brainer.So instead of me carrying the burden of you know, whenever I see things, I will organically pin them. Why not enlist their help as well. And when I enlist their help, that means I allow them to pin to the board I invite them to pin The board.And the benefits of me are it allows them to scale in that when they pin it to their followers, it's going to be seen, but my board is going to be seen by their followers, right. So that's really the interesting thing of the community boards. It really allows you to scale. It also allows you to support others I created maximize social business as a platform to support our bloggers that everyone benefits from. And really the Pinterest community board is the next best thing to it. But if you just go back and listen to the last five minutes of me describing Pinterest community boards, you begin to feel that they are something that is very, very special in the world of social media, a special way of extending your reach for your content, a special way of creating and extending relationships within Pinterest.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

LinkedIn recently upped the ante of becoming a paid member with the new "Spotlight" account. Is it worth the upgrade? Listen on for Neal's detailed advice on the new features and why you may (or may not) be interested in them. Key Highlights[01:03] The Recent Changes LinkedIn Did[01:47] Should You Pay for LinkedIn Professional Plan[03:26] What is an Open Link?[04:06] Spotlight[04:32] Open Profile[04:55] What Open Profile Gives You[05:36] Making Your Profile Appear Larger in Search Results[06:55] How to Find LinkedIn Spotlight PlanNotable QuotesAnd that just is allowing me to be a little bit more contactable, it raises my contact ability, as I would say, on LinkedIn, which is important because when people are looking for someone for a particular reason, they don't want to have to deal with introductions, they don't want to have to deal with sending constantly in mails, they want to be able to communicate with you directly as easy as possible. That's why the contact ability part of your LinkedIn profile is so important.And like I said, if you invest in LinkedIn a great deal, you're on it every day, you've developed business from it, it really is a no brainer to pay that a little bit more and get these new premium features.This is a real podcast, a real person trying to do what I can on my mission to empower you with education and really sharing best practices and questions that I get from my clients and my speaking engagements and trying to really find truth and help you all become more efficient at maximizing your social.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 not finding success as a member of any given social network, chances are you simply aren't spending enough time there and becoming a true community member. From Twitter to Pinterest to SlideShare, Neal shares the secrets behind social media success. Key Highlights[01:01] The Approach I Am Taking[02:18] Why I've Been Getting A Lot of Traffic in Twitter[04:07] What Devoting Time to Community Means[06:38] The Beauty of Infographics[06:51] My Pinterest Experiment[08:33] Embed Yourself Deeply in the Community PlatformNotable QuotesOf the time I've spent in social media, I'm beginning to realize, as I experienced this across a number of social networks, that those who are most devoted to the community in which they're a member of will become the most successful and social.It's impossible unless you have a staff to be equally active or deeply active on all social networks, you have to pick your poison, as they say.If you think about it, you know the same business people that are on Twitter, on LinkedIn, there's a lot of them that are on Pinterest. And once you understand the way that Pinterest works, and how viral it can be and how many repins there are, you begin to see how it's very easy for things that you post to appear very, very prominently on the news feeds of a lot of people and the news feeds on Pinterest only show a few on mobile, it only shows two at a time on top, on the desktop editions, four or five or so. What's amazing with the infographic and this is a slightly divergent topic. But once you have an infographic, it can be shared everywhere. And it's about getting brand recognition by putting your name on the bottom.The beauty about infographics is not only do people love to read them and share them, but you get access to one of the most influential crowds in social media, which are content creators.It's all about really deeply embedded in for lack of a better word yourself in the community of that network and truly engaging and sharing liberally, with others and using or I should say, creating a community platform that you can leverage to help others that you respect with as well.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

A look into the different ways social media users use Instagram as well as other social networks - and my recommendations for being the most effective on each singular social network with your social media marketing. Key Highlights[00:36] How Striving to Use Social Networks for Their Original Intention Can Help You Be More Effective at Social Media Marketing[01:20] How I Use Social Networks Differently[01:28] Why Instagram Is One of My Favorite Networks[02:20] Social Networks Are Always Changing[06:35] Social Media Are for Human[06:59] Use Networks for What They Were Originally Intended[08:48] My Advice for TodayNotable QuotesBut, you know, the social networks are always changing, because in essence, we as users are hijacking them and using them for things they were never intended for.Instagram was a place where take a picture on your phone, right, and you upload it. And it allows people to see the real you even businesses are using Instagram in many, many different ways. Pinterest does give you the ability to upload an image from your computer to share and, and I think it creates a great visual memory on my Japan board.At the end of the day, it's humans that are using social media, it's humans, within businesses that are trying to reach out to other humans, whether they be decision makers in business for b2b, or whether they be consumers.But I just think you're going to be more successful at your social media marketing, by using these networks for what they were originally intended. I just think that, you know, Instagram or some of these other places, it's really important to understand who is using them, why they're using them what they were intended for.I got pretty overwhelming support by a lot of different people that some of them are true social media influencers in themselves, I feel a little bit more confident that there's a lot more people that think this way. And therefore you may want to rethink what you are posting on some of these, especially visual social networks.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 crowdfund marketing expert Peter Trapasso at Cisco Live and gets to the gist of how to use crowdfunding as a marketing vehicle. Key Highlights[01:18] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Peter Trapasso[01:25] Peter's Role in the World of Social Media[02:25] What is Kickstarter?[04:07] Advantages of Utilizing Crowdfund Marketing[6:00] Best Practices[06:49] Crowdfund to Social Media Marketing vs Email Marketing[08:48] User Bases[10:36] Final Thoughts[11:41] Connect with PeterNotable QuotesSo before launching, you're in a thing called pre launch and you need to do your planning. You need to put together your tribe and that would be friends, family, people that would be very interested in what you're trying to raise money for. So you need to do that first and the same time you need to start building your social circle.If you think about it more as a startup and a product, lead with the big idea, what are you trying to do, what are you trying to sell, then if it connects with people, then you know, the funding will come.And on top of that, you also want to leverage not just your core supporters, your tribe, as I called it, but also you want to have them become people that can spread the word to those that they know that might be interested in helping as well.Part of its the novelty, but also it's an effective use of social media as far as getting the word out, and also leveraging email marketing. So these things that already exist, you're just repurposing them for a new campaign.Sure, definitely do your homework. And I can't stress that enough. The ones that do best are the ones that have certain elements.Lok at other ones that have won ones that have made their funding and reach out and talk to them both within the area that your product and service falls into. And also ones that just seem to, you know, done really well, people tend to be very friendly. And I think they'd be more than happy to help you out.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 continues providing his advice that he recently gave LinkedIn on career change and learning to adapt to – and thrive on – the constant change that is part of our everyday life.Key Highlights[01:09] Losing the Big Customer[02:44] Focusing On New Pipeline[03:13] Importance of Personal Relationships in Sales[04:17] Unplugging From A Career[05:59] Adjusting to the Curveball[06:57] Finding My Passion[07:37] Establishing My Brand[08:34] Launching My Career in a New Direction[09:27] Becoming An Author[10:11] Launching Windmills Marketing LLC[11:32] What I Learned From My ExperienceNotable QuotesSo being in sales, and if you're in sales, you you get it means that you learn to face constant rejection. But in the belief that every lost deal, or telephone call that wasn't returned, would bring me one step closer to closing, real business.I realized the absolute importance of personal relationships and sales, relationships, supersede contracts in China, at least at that time, when I was doing business there, as well as maintaining a very, very long term approach in relationship building, this time would be no different. I've talked about the biggest changes that have happened in my career, triggered by a number of different events that have occurred. Sometimes, though, we have career curveballs thrown at us internally.Putting family in front of career was something I had never done before in all honesty, but it was a natural reminder about what is the most important thing in life, and what we work for, to support our families, right. I learned to adjust to this situation, like other curveballs before this one, it wasn't easy. After achieving all that I achieved, I was ready to go to that next level. But I knew that there was something more important than once again, that long term perspective, that there are all these external and internal things that are going to be throwing curveballs out to you and affecting your career. But at the end, building up your experience, focusing your energy, and taking that long term perspective on career on life, was only going to work in my favor.  And it's really the constant change and adapting to the change with a combination of maintaining a long term view of my career, while creating short term deadlines, that has allowed me to understand the timing of the right pitch, and being prepared to run those bases.Change in your career is inevitable, generate your own change and learn to accept change brought upon you embrace the challenges and the new knowledge that can be obtained from them for your future. Sometimes this change will make you rethink your own career plans for the better, it becomes part of an education that better prepares you for any future challenge you might face.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 provides his advice that he recently gave LinkedIn on career change and learning to adapt to - and thrive on - the constant change that is part of our everyday life.Key Highlights[00:57] Career Curveball Series[04:06] How Life Prepare Us to Run the Bases[06:29] Planning on Starting My Career in China[08:35] Nothing Is Static[09:17] Starting My Career with Sales and Marketing[11:35] Becoming the China Sales Pioneer[16:32] Facing A New RealityNotable QuotesIt gave me a chance to really look back into my past into my entire career, and analyze not the one curveball but the many curveballs and how it has affected the way that I look at social media in the way that I hope you look at social media as well. The only constant in your career is change, learn to embrace it. I love to talk about social media as being an experiment. You always need to be doing different things and changing things. Because it's always changing. I think a career is the exact same, but I learned to embrace it.Life will always throw you curves, just keep fouling them off, the right pitch will come. But when it does, be prepared to run the bases. The more of that experience and all the varied experiences that we have, the better it prepares us to run the bases. As my father said, business is really about learning how to communicate with people and learning how to communicate your own ideas to other people from various cultural and historical backgrounds.When I talk with other people in social media, I tell them or you know, small business owners, entrepreneurs, self employed professionals, like myself, make internal deadlines almost on a quarterly basis and try to stick to them. Now, hopefully, you'll agree with me that sometimes we go through life so quick, that we forget to take a break, and smell the roses.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

A blog post recently published on TechCrunch claims that Google Plus is dying. Neal Schaffer analyzes the facts behind the article, the evolution of social media, and yields some insight on the least understood social network today: Google Plus. Key Highlights[01:30] The Concept of Google Plus[03:16] What Will Happen If You Miss Out on Plus[04:32] What Makes Google Plus Different Than Other Social Network[05:26] The Other Important Thing About Google Plus[06:00] Thing that People Misunderstood About Google Plus[06:15] How to Begin Social Layer[07:19] What I Think is Happening in Google Plus[08:06] Why Have Doubt in Google Plus?[08:58] The Only Way of Determining ROINotable Quotes And in all honesty, I believe that this is questionable this post as to, is it good journalism or not, because if you're going to have a scoop, and you're going to provide analysis, and you're telling people, we have multiple sources that this is happening, you got to know a lot about the product, you got to know a lot about the industry. And you, you really have to understand that unless you can tell us some convincing data.I always include his quote when I talk about Google Plus to explain just how misunderstood Google Plus is, because Google Plus is both a community and what Google calls a social layer.But the other important thing about Google pluses, it is this concept, this notion of a social layer. It's tying together all of Google's products, and it's verifying your digital presence.And the problem that people so much misunderstand about Google Plus is, it was never really this standalone product that was going to compete with Facebook, or compete with Twitter or compete with LinkedIn, it was a social layer.  It's almost like the evolution of social business itself, it sort of mirrors that, where sometimes you start out with a social media person, then you have a social media department.But at the end of the day, companies are returning back and say we don't need a dedicated social media department, because we do social media, in every department in this company.And you'll have to read the article read the newsletter to find out what they're doing because of that, but social media is always in flux, right? It's always going to be in flux.So once again, we need to stick with social media in the here and now even some fairly well respected names out there in the media world.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