Your Digital Marketing Coach with Neal Schaffer

While in Toronto speaking, Neal interviews @ValTorontoGal from Charming Media and @MegButton from Star Content Studios for advice that a Public Relations as well as Content Marketing Agency can offer your business.Key Highlights[01:15] Introduction of Podcast Guests[02:48] How Social Media Can Help Companies[04:25] Meg and Val's Worst Experiences[08:27] Tips that Help Meg and Val Achieve Greatness in Social Media[10:37] The Value of Working with Content and PR AgenciesNotable QuotesI generally like to say, well, for us, because you're doing such a big traditional media awareness campaign, it's very good to support it with any type of social media support, especially if you're working with, you know, online publications, bloggers, they're gonna be mentioning your brand online, they're going to be talking to online. It is a natural complement. And it's almost a shame to be focusing all your attention in one area and not on that area as well.And the biggest thing that I would tell them is, you know, it's it's very easy to get excited and overwhelmed and all those good things, but it's always about your audience. And to me, that's where it always has to start, whether you're talking about social media or any type of media, it you know, it's it's overwhelming, but it's also exciting.So to me, that's, that's the biggest thing that I'm seeing is that they're everyone's looking for a quick, short route to get to kind of the holy grail of having an engaging brand. And you don't realize that there's a lot of work that goes into it.I think it's, it's really it's people are very used to seeing like, a direct and really fast ROI. And that's social media can happen. It can be really fast and explode.I think it helps to really find good brand ambassadors to help you push out your content. It's one thing if you're, you know, tweeting about what you like from your brand and Facebooking about it. But if you have good genuine brand ambassadors, I think that's a great way to really enhance everything that you're doing.But often the proof really just sets the record straight. And I find that sometimes if you're not getting a lot of traction, go to the statistics look and find proof for what you're saying and validate your points. And that really was very successful for a last campaign that we did with one of our clients.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 real-life analogy to help you understand how social selling is all about using social media to find information relevant to selling as well as choose the most effective communication channel to help engage with the prospective buyer.Key Highlights[01:12] What is Social Selling / Social Sales[02:27] What Happened to Me that Illustrates What Social Selling is About[04:37] An Example of an Aggressive, Awesome Salesperson[05:36] There's Data Everywhere on the Internet[06:10] Things You Can Do As Part of Social Selling[08:16] The Different Channels to CommunicateNotable QuotesAnd so this gentleman was very smart. He was reading the data reading the information that was right relevant, that he knew that every single person that's posting a do business as advertisement is one of his potential business banking clients.But the fact that this person used the data to contact me. In other words, this data appears in a lot of different forms.But there's lots of hints of people that may be looking to buy a product or service that either you or your competitors can easily find in social media. And that's part of the social selling is, you know, as a salesperson why, you know, I wonder where am I going to develop my next lead marketing can only get you so far, sometimes you need to do a little bit of prospecting, right? And you need to build up your pipeline. And that business tool allows you to efficiently within a single dashboard, do keyword searches, or perhaps decide if you're already connected to someone which channel you want to use to send them a message. But it's important to understand the concepts, the concepts of sales have not changed. Social media is not going to help you get 100% of your business. It complements what you've been doing. But if you understand the power of that data, and being able to find that data and contact the person, and the different channels available to you and different ways of engaging with those people, I think you'll see why social selling is a compelling topic for anyone in sales. 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 how information technology and project managers can proactively use social media and add value in a social business world.Key Highlights[01:3] IT Professionals' Roles in Social Business Strategy[02:47] 4 Areas Where Information Technology Professionals Can Add Value In A Social Business World[02:58] Managing the Growing Volume and Complexity of Content[04:28] The Advantages of Having A Blog[05:36] Leading on Google Authorship and Google Plus[09:15] Role in Employee Advocacy[12:28] Managing Social Big DataNotable QuotesAlso, I made a point to tell everybody, because it obviously there's a lot of people who knew about the tools that you know, there's a traditional sort of definition of social business or the social enterprise that emphasizes the tools.So, you know, the other important thing is that people are contacting companies, after they've already made a decision whether or not that whether or not they want to do business with them based on information that they found on the internet, and a lot more of that data is coming from social media.Google Authorship is not hard to do. But are companies ready to attach an author to each piece of content. I said, obviously, the SEO benefits are critical.And at the minimum, you're basically directing Google to let them know what content what websites where all your digital properties are, and allow them to understand your social layer, so that they could give your potential website visitors more relevant search results, right?But obviously, your employees as brand advocates for your company, are probably your biggest untapped trusted resource.And this is just a classic quote that I love from Nathan Egan, who's the founder and CEO of one of these employee advocacy platforms called people links that quote, your company has 1000s of websites, not just one, employees are the long tail of your brand identity and quote, Isn't that brilliant?But I think that companies will wake up. And as companies wake up, they need to have platforms, they need to have people to create content, to share content. And IT professionals or project managers, wherever people may be in that department.Social Big Data is here. Some companies are leveraging it, more and more companies will be leveraging it, get ahead of the game, be prepared, so that when people ask, you're already ready. 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 a great resource to allow you to benchmark how well you are Maximizing Your Social, SEO and mobile aspects of your own website.Key Highlights[00:27] Benchmarking Your Website's SEO[02:36] Analyzing Some Data Set[03:00] Data You Should Be Considering[03:50] Hummingbird and What Company Should Do[06:40] SEO Mobile[06:50] Mobile SEO Statistics[08:21] Why LinkedIn Is Significant[10:27] Always Have A Link to Your Socials in Your WebsiteNotable QuotesAnd it's very interesting, the more and those of you that are involved in SEO, or even do website development and get access to web analytics, it's very interesting to see obviously, the differences between those companies that are very active in social and not as well as those companies that seem to do better at SEO than other companies. And I'm really looking for a barometer a benchmark, so that you can compare yourself and see where you may need to be improving things.But, you know, what I said was, you know, what Google giveth, Google also taketh away. It's an algorithm that's constantly changing, they make mistakes, and they, you know, remedy them in future updates. I know that I have seen some effects from hummingbird as well.  And you know, what, you you live with it, and you try to improve everything that you're doing, and especially just creating more unique and great content, right. I also think that at some point that search engine traffic should convert she you should be getting some more direct traffic. At some point that search engine traffic should convert so that you're getting more backlinks. And if you're getting a heck of a lot of search engine traffic, knowing that it's never any guarantee, you're going to continue to get that I'd really work on those two things. I don't think that these are good barometers per se, I really think it's going to be different depending on your industry. But I think they're good numbers to consider that LinkedIn indeed, can generate a lot of traffic, but you need to be newsworthy, I think in order to generate that traffic from LinkedIn. Other than that, you know, you really should have a link to your main social media property somewhere on your website, whether it's above the fold below the fold is a whole different story.So if you've linked social media profiles to your corporate page, congratulations, you're ahead of two thirds of these companies that were being looked at in this specific report.You know, whenever I find data like this, I think provides good benchmarking data for you to compare yourself with and for you to include as part of your you know, your KPIs, or your metrics for analyzing both your social media and your entire digital 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

Jay Baer, the author of Youtility, shares the background to his book as well as his perspectives on mobile, content marketing, social media, and business.Key Highlights[00:30] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Jay Baer[05:02] The Concept of Youtility[07:40] Why Marcus Sheridan?[10:27] Jay's Strategic Tips for Mobile[12:50] The Importance of Identifying Customer Needs[15:54] Final ThoughtsNotable QuotesI think a much more viable approach in today's marketing climate is to just be useful, that if you are truly and inherently useful if you create marketing that is so good, and so useful that people would pay for it, which is really the definition of utility, good things will happen.What I felt we were missing is a strategic framework for why to create content, there's lots of companies out there making lots of stuff, without a real good understanding of what role content really plays and how content really supports other organizational initiatives.Now that you know, it's not about what are you doing on the web, and then what parts of that can you do effectively via mobile, it really needs to be upside down and say, Let's maximize our mobile experience.The notion of really drilling down to understand customer needs is perhaps the most important and unfortunately, I think we are largely derelict in that responsibility. You think that you understand your customers based on data, but in many cases, you really don't. So if you're not having actual conversations with your customers on a regular basis, that, frankly, is the first step to being a utility.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

An interview with Jayson Duncan of Miller Farm Media talking about the convergence of the art of video and social media.Key Highlights [00:22] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Jayson Duncan[01:37] The FFFirst Thing Jayson Recommends to Clients Who Want to Record Video[02:40] The Adven of Social Media and Popularity of YouTube[03:07] How to Convey Emotion In A Video[04:28] The Core of Who Your Company Are and What You Do[05:12] How Jayson Helps His Clients Find Hidden Stories[06:08] Quality Forms of Video[08:03] The ROI of Video Marketing[11:19] Should A CEO Be Out In A Video?[12:40] Final ThoughtsNotable QuotesThey need to think about the story they want to tell, and they need to make sure that their that story is cohesive across all the social media channels, it really needs to take a lot of time to think how does this fit our brand overall, as this voice fit that brand.It goes back to terms overused, but content is king. So having content that fits your brand and hits all the metrics you're trying to hit is very important tells that story. The next piece is that story needs to have an emotion to it. People buy emotionally, they don't buy rationally. So what is the emotion that your video is going to have to engage the audience?My answer circles back around it actually is about storytelling. And that's really the best way find out what you do that's unique, how you've got above and beyond why you do what you do those all their stories and all of that. And that's really what can take your video to the next level.We really take the time to get to know them. And that's one of the best parts of this job is you get to learn things about people and see behind the scenes of places that no one else is really allowed to go. Because you've you've got to find those stories.So it's about finding that happy medium. The hard part is that video is expensive, no matter how you slice it. I mean, there's always someone that's willing to work cheaper, and you can always find that guy, but there's risks there, too. So what do you do as a business, you have to know that at least to get a decent picture and a decent audio.And more than anything, I realized that video really is an art in many ways, and not just the storytelling, but there's so many different ways to tell that story visually, audibly, that are all going to create these unique emotions that we went through.And I think a lot of people probably think of video as something well, it's part of an infrastructure in order for us to humanize our brand and tell our story. It's something that if we have a website, we should have a video up there that really, you know, tries to to bring people in and get them deeper into our website and you know, contact us but also that tactical way of thinking about your marketing funnel. And really to looLearn More:Buy Digital Threads: https://nealschaffer.com/digitalthreadsamazonBuy Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizinglinkedinamazonJoin My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/ Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmoDownload My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/books/Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschafferAll My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com

What are the three things that CEOs should be worried about concerning their social media programs?Key Highlights[01:26] There's No Cookie Cutter Approach in Social Media[01:44] 3 Things CEOs Should Be Concerned About As They Become More Active in Social Media[02:32] Voice as An Integral Part of Social Media Strategy[03:30] Have A Strategic Voice[04:17] You Need to Listen[04:34] What is Social Media Crisis?[06:05] Leverage Tools[07:17] Tools You Can Use[08:05] Engage!Notable QuotesAnd if you have read maximize your social, you know how I talk about voice being an integral part of your social media strategy, and that most companies have brand guidelines that don't cover voice. And this is critical.The voice of your brand, is the voice of that person. And that may not be the message that you want to send out to the public or your target audience. And this is a mistake that I think a lot of small and medium sized businesses have. So I think it's really point number one is really, what is the brand image that you're projecting the social media, is that voice aligned with your social media strategy?And there's really no one answer to that, because there really is no cookie cutter approach. It really comes down to your brand, and what is important about your brand.But I do want to say that most of the negative things that happen in social media can be avoided just by responding and responding quickly and responding appropriately, and taking the conversation offline.And with social media, it's not about the tools, it's about the people, it's about engaging. And if there's a tool that can help you scale in a relevant way, why not, but I think that a lot of marketers are just infatuated with the tools and the tools, cost money, and don't necessarily help them be more effective. What is the objective that it's helping us meet as an organization, right? I don't think that you should just throw money at everything in anything in social media, and that every tool is going to help you become more efficient, because you're still going to do engage with people, you're still going to need to find people engage with them respond to what have you.Your engagement breeds engagement, right? And humans can't scale. But it's always recognizing those important people. And always making sure that you personally engage with them, I think is really one of the critical things that you need to make sure you do even if you delegate some responsibility that what's important comes from you. 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

The launch of the rebranded Maximize Your Social podcast (formerly Social Business Unplugged) goes into creating the importance of special moments with your social media followers as well as leveraging the ever-changing visual social networks and visual components within social media channels. Key Highlights[00:33] Rebranding My Online Presence[02:35] Giving Back to Your Network, Partner, and Customers in Social Media[03:28] "Enchantment"[05:06] Leveraging the Visual[06:24] Why You Should Be On Pinterest[07:12] Images Are Now Bigger and Wider[07:57] What You Need to Do to Optimize?[08:33] Remember the Recommended Facebook Dimension[11:06] Why Visuals Are ImportantNotable QuotesAs far as content curation, and engaging with influencers, but have we ever taken a step back and said, You know what, let's go out there and just thank those that have supported us that maybe we think before.It's creating just a very, very special moment that can deepen your relationship with someone by 10x. It's really just going out of your way and thanking people.But it's really doing these little things that make a big difference in the lives of people and it makes a big difference in the lives of your partners, your customers and, and social media. We forget it's about the people, right?The thing to note about the visual is it's changing very, very quickly.It just all the more reason why the visual is more and more important not only as content itself, but as that eye candy to draw others into discovering your content in social networks.So if search engine optimization and getting discovered as important for your company and your visual company, well gives you even more reason to be on Pinterest, even if you're not a visual company, there are ways of utilizing 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

An interview with Tammy Kahn Fennell, founder and CEO of MarketMeSuite, on the evolution of social media dashboards and social productivity.Key Highlights[00:45] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Tammy Kahn Fennell[02:01] The Evolution of Social Media Dashboards and How Businesses Should Be Using Them[05:24] The Challenge[06:30] Where MarketMeSuite Is Trying to Excel[09:19] Social Media Productivity and Efficiency[11:04] Tying Social Media Data for Business Efficiency[13:09] Three Ways Businesses Should Be Making More Use of Social Media DashboardNotable QuotesSo I think from a business perspective, businesses are being forced, by just the way social media is evolving to get a little more integrated, and really get organized so that once you organize, you can then prioritize them. Once you prioritize, you can actually gauge but missing those first two steps, could mean that you're just you know, you're approaching it from all different angles. And you could burn out on that and not actually get the true value out of using something.Where we found our sweet spot at market me sweet is that we don't want or need our companies to, or small businesses are professionals or solo entrepreneurs or bloggers, we're not expecting them to ever grow up and be Coca Cola, we want them to continue to be the best, you know, business that they are the best, the best social engager that they are. And we tried to build a tool that is very, that fits their unique needs.But the data that the message is in the prioritization, that that's there when you can figure out the most important conversations, it's incredibly actionable.I think that the other thing about being a tech startup in this particular lead digital world is that you have to understand that you need to play nicely with other tools and be very understanding of the fact that people do have unique workflows, and that people are going to do it in the way that makes sense for them.But I think that it's it's a very, it's a very good approach for a startup to have to say, you know, we are a, we are a very important piece of this puzzle. But we know that we fit in with the greater the greater mosaic.It's called follow up. And you know, that's that's what we do now in the in the social and the digital world is and a lot of people forget it. So if you've engaged with somebody, why not flag them? Why not mark them as a lead? Why not figure that out? By the way, you can do all these things in marketing suite so that you can just remember to interact with them. 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

WordPress is free, but if you want to get the most out of your CMS for inbound marketing, here are 10 recommended paid services that you should look into.Key Highlights[00:55] Paid Services for WordPress[02:02] 10 Paid Services That I Think You Should Be Investing[03:38] Genesis[04:37] Web Hosting: WP Engine[08:42] wpsitecare.com[10:24] Security Plugin[11:07] Landing Page Plugin[13:33] Stock Images Site[14:35] Contact Form Plugin[15:38] Magic Action Box ProNotable QuotesSo a backup service is something you should also consider. But considering the WP Engine included as part of the web hosting, well, it just makes a lot of sense to go with them. And it's not just that I've had security issues like many other sites do.And that's the advantage of going with a company that is dedicated to WordPress, in fact, automatic, you know, the organization that is responsible for maintaining WordPress, outside of the open source they have invested in WP Engine.So really, really great and technology that you should really consider paying for if you don't have a great landing page technology.So these people can immediately be added into your marketing automation funnel, great technology, Gravity Forms something that you should definitely look into having for your own website.On a similar note, I'm gonna the last three services, I'm going to talk about our actual, you know, pure marketing pure sort of call to action, how do we send out a call to action somewhere in our blog, that's going to get people's attention, that's going to focus them to go into a landing page or click for some sort of action for some sort of objective. So you want to experiment, put it up for one day, leave it off the other day and you know see what the difference is.But I hope by showing you what is possible for paying either a monthly or a one time fee. And the fees don't have to be a lot of money. You can easily and efficiently and I believe inexpensively run a very, very high grade always up to date, efficient and efficient from a code perspective as well as a marketing perspective website. You know, the more you rely on inbound marketing, for generating leads, the more you need to invest in your website, because that's really going to be and your social media, obviously.But the website becomes your key marketing infrastructure. 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