Your Digital Marketing Coach with Neal Schaffer

What is the best away to avoid a social media crisis? Listen to Neal Schaffer's advice and, instead of dwelling on the negative, focus on the positive by generating goodwill and brand advocates through growing a social media following.Key Highlights[00:26] Social Media and Crisis Management[01:10] Examples of Social Media Crises[01:30] What to Do When Faced With Crisis?[02:54] The Best Way to Prevent Crisis[04:24] Another Way to Deal With Crisis[05:53] Preventing Potential Social Media Crisis by Building Goodwill[06:59] The Mission of MarketingNotable QuotesI think that social media crises are the reason that a lot of companies actually started engaging in social media in the first place.And I think for every crisis that becomes public, there are a number of crises that have been diffused, because companies have handled them in a very, very efficient and swift way.The best way to prevent crises which you're never going to be able to prevent every single crisis that happens, because you cannot control the uncontrollable, you cannot predict the future.It's about proactively engaging and building up a social media following it's building up trust with the public through social media engagement on those channels, where the public is, but most importantly, where your audiences where your customers, your partners, your vendors, and your employees are.And proactively building goodwill fostering goodwill, because if you have that goodwill, and if you foster the creation of brand advocates, what's going to happen is if there's a crisis, there's going to be a lot of people that are going to stand up for you and it will help I don't know about completely diffused this quote unquote, crisis, but it will definitely help a lot of people on social media come to your site without you even having to say anything.So if you're actively engaged in and actively monitoring and you're on the frontline, and you see something weird going on, it's a potential emergency situation, you have to be in contact with an emergency team. I'm a believer that there's always going to be negative people out there. But I also believe that people just want to know that their issues are being heard. And that's why consumers feel empowered with the advent of social media, listening and responding. 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

What makes a BAD social media strategy? Here I outline 5 key components that you should avoid in planning your own social media marketing strategy. Key Highlights[01:04] Is There A Way to Write A Social Media Strategy?[01:53] 5 Ways of Looking A Good or Bad Strategy[02:24] Why Having An Objective Is Important[03:30] Campaign-Based Approach[04:47] Social Media As A Two-Way Communication Channel[06:20] Wrong Choice of Channel[07:16] The ROINotable QuotesAnd when I talk about an objective, obviously, strategy or planning starts with an objective, the objective should be a business objective. Social media does not exist in a silo.Social media must map into everything else you do as a business that really starts with your objective in your social media strategy.A good social media strategy will have an absolutely clearly defined objective, or group of objectives. And as social media permeates every single department in a company or large enterprise, I expect that the use of social media is going to have multiple objectives. We all know that social media is a long term objective. It's like having a website, it becomes part of your infrastructure. So if you're only thinking the short term, there was a great quote, social media is a commitment, not a campaign.Social media was made for people, right, it wasn't made for companies. So as a company as a brand, you are at a distinct disadvantage.It's not a matter of what site has more users. It's about engaging where your target audience is, it's being where your market is.What companies that have really bad social media strategies have is they either have no metric to determine their ROI. They don't know if there's any ROI, or they use a metric that's not business related.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

Move beyond the semantic differences of content marketing and inbound marketing and learn about the central role that content will play in your social media marketing.Key Highlights[00:27] The Role of Content In Social Media Marketing[02:19] Forms of Content[03:37] Content Vs Inbound Marketing[04:08] Content As One of Key Drivers[04:28] The Best Way to Be Effective in Social Media Marketing[05:09] My View in Content[06:06] Always Provide Information to Your CustomersNotable QuotesBut visa vie social media, social media was made for people. So as brands, as companies, as institutions and organizations, you need to have conversations with people don't you. And depending on what your objective is, or obviously what your target demographic is, who the stakeholders are out there in the public content is one way in which you engage.And while some of that content may be directly related to your products and services in your company, sometimes that content is curated from third party sources. Sometimes that content is just for the sake of engagement. And through engagement, we increase our EdgeRank we deepen our relationship with the community and our followers, what have you. So content is really used across a lot of different levels and social media and content marketing. Although it has the word marketing behind it is really the use of content to help your customers and potential customers from you know, every single way through the marketing funnel, from, you know, creating awareness for your company, all the way to providing content as a service to your current customers to help support them. From my perspective, you know, content is sort of one of the key drivers of what businesses do and social media, because that's how you engage. That's how you share. That's how you communicate in one way or another through content. Whether you want to use content marketing, whether you want to use inbound marketing, just knowing that the use of content is going to be critical to your social media marketing, which is another reason why the best way to be effective in social media marketing is to be able to provide that content in house.From a b2b perspective, that buyers prospective buyers base their decisions on information.And that content, that resource for information that I could provide them whether it was based on my own company's new products or services, how our clients were using them or industry information. That was the key to my engagement with that customer and building a deeper relationship, which at the end of the day lead to more trust, and more business for me and my company. 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

Is there a need for a social media marketing MBA? Let me describe to you my conceptual approach to social media education - and why there is an ever-growing need for a social media marketing or even socal business MBA.Key Highlights[00:22] The Concept of Social Media MBA[00:54] The First Thing People Tell Me[02:02] The Core Concepts That Are Not Platform Dependent[03:12] The Notion of Insourcing Your PR[04:00] The Relevance of Insourcing Blog Content[05:19] How You Can Best Leverage Social Media[05:43] Is There A Need for Social Media MBA?Notable QuotesIt's not rocket science. If you work enough, with the platform's you're pretty internet savvy, you can figure out a lot of the stuff yourself true. Taking these classes can give you a quicker time to market. You may learn a few tips and tricks, but it doesn't come down to the mechanics of the car, it comes down to where you can drive that car would probably be the best way to put it. And it comes down to concepts that you can use, you know, the module that I teach is called social media platforms or applied social media. Obviously, social media is here to stay. And it's about the concepts of how you exploit the opportunity at hand for your business, and really, you know, maximizing social business. And I really love that term, because the employees that accompany are your biggest brand advocates that companies usually forget about in their social media.And when you think of the need to create content, and to have people actually engage with others in social media, the immediate knee jerk reaction for a lot of companies is to immediately go the agency route, I obviously think it's going to be much more effective if you INSOURCE in sourcing employees who maybe can share the burden in sourcing employees who can create great content for your blog, or who can shoot videos when they're out in the field?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

Stop outsourcing your social media to consultants and agencies who put a black box around your social media. Instead, start thinking of ways to own your social media strategy and insource your social media activities.Key Highlights[00:43] Fire Your Social Media Consultant[01:24] The Problem With Outsourcing Resources[02:50] Are You Blindly Throwing Money Away?[04:00] Own Your Strategy[04:53] Understand The Basics[06:11] Do You Really Need A Social Media Consultant?[06:52] Think Twice And Ask Yourself QuestionsNotable QuotesI took a course very, very early in my career, and I talked about this in an earlier podcast, of actually not implementing social media on behalf of other companies, because I truly believe that it is something that should be done by that company, if they really want to get the most effective use of social media, it really is a no brainer. But the problem is 99% of the businesses that I talk with, if they're outsourcing it, whether it be an agency or consultant, or what have you, there are not doing it with the right people. If you're going to outsource, you need to be able to manage them by one owning the strategy. And in terms of owning the strategy, you need to educate yourself on social media. If you don't understand the basics, you're not gonna be able to cre ate a strategy and you're not going to be able to manage these external resources. Social media is not rocket science. It's teachable. And if you have good obviously business acumen, you can learn social media and become very proficient at it, it doesn't need to be a full time job either. So the title of this episode is fire your social media consultant, because most of them are not teaching you anything. It's a black box. And they hold the power by not teaching you because the more you know, the more you realize you may not need their services, because most of them are doing very, very basic thing. Really think twice. And ask yourself some serious questions if you're hiring someone or outsourcing your current social media. If not, I hope you're successful in sourcing if you haven't, now's the time to start. 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

Google Plus is a critical social network that every business should be on, but many discount it. Why? Find out why - and how you can help your company better leverage G+.Key Highlights[00:53] Should You Care About Google Plus?[02:29] Open Networking[03:31] The Influence of Our Circles[04:02] The Power of Google Search Results[06:11] Google Plus Is An Active Community[06:37] Establish Your Google Plus Presence NowNotable Quotes From a personal perspective, it's one thing you know, when I wrote my first book on LinkedIn, and I talked about Open Networking, and Twitter being an open platform, in essence, where you can communicate with anyone in the world you want whether or not they communicate back with you as another story, but it's a great place to start new relationships. So in that way, our circles are greatly influencing our search results in Google, we all know the power of Google just cannot be underestimated.If you were just to have conversations on Google Plus, and they were being prioritized in Google Search, and the bigger of a community of a relevant community that you can build for your business, the more those conversations that obviously should be relevant to your business are going to show up in Google. It's really a no brainer. But you know, obviously, when you're in business, a lot of businesses just want to get brand recognition or brand awareness begin to create communities find influencers find content to share, no matter what it is.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

Social Business: A New Definition. Let me explain my perspective on the evolution from social media as an independent form of media to how it might impact your business, and thus what social business means to your company.Key Highlights[00:23] Social Business Defined[01:12] The Traditional Definition of Social Business[01:43] My Definition of Social Business[02:00] How I Began My Social Business[02:43] What I Provide Companies That Need To Be Consulted[04:04] One of My First Clients[04:34] My AHA Moment[06:07] Think Outside The BoxNotable QuotesIn essence, I realized that companies needed to be consulted, and I needed to provide them the following two things. Number one is strategy, and number two is education.Education really starts at the top with the executive team and working our way down, I needed to make sure that my clients were up to speed as quickly as possible as to what was possible on social media. What were the best practices? In other words, how can I best replicate my knowledge and really give them a customized brain dump for their own situation?At the end of the day, what are the sales, what's the profit, but in addition to sales, you got to do the marketing, you got to hire people, customer service, legal issues, administrative issues, it all falls on your responsibility. And that is the experience that if you really want to be a social business consultant, that's the experience you need. And the reason is, as social media permeates industry, it also permeates corporate discipline. What I would add to the definition is social media began as really an outbound focus, either by marketing and or public relations, to engage with others. But it was primarily a one way broadcast. And we all know that social media is to a communication. The more engagement that brands and businesses do with social media users, the more feedback they get. And now I would say my definition of social business would be it's not just the outbound, and it's not just receiving the feedback, but it's actually the input of that feedback into everything your business does. 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

Does Facebook Graph Search matter to your business in the here and now? A look at the importance of sticking to present technology in your social media strategy.Key Highlights[00:22] Social Media Here And Now[01:30] The Facebook Graph Search[01:43] How Facebook Graph Search Can Affect How We Use Facebook[02:29] The 2 Things Facebook Graph Search Hinges On[03:08] The Question On Data[03:40] My Advice on Maximizing Social Media Presence[04:49] Understanding The Need for a Historical Perspective[05:39] Try To Avoid The NoiseNotable QuotesFrom an inbound perspective, there is the potential that the more likes we have on our business page, from relevance consumers or potential clients, and the more engagement that we have from them, the higher that's our company, or more prominent that our company will appear and more search results.On the other hand, from an outbound perspective, we can now use the search engine potentially, if it is implemented the way they say it will be to find out more information, more data about our competitors, about our fans.If you want to show up in more search results, you need to have more fans, you need to be more engaging, and therefore you need to be doing what you should be doing on Facebook from day one. In other words, if you want to leverage the future of Facebook, you need to be leveraging the here and now. And instead of trying to predict the future, is there more that you could be maximizing about your social media presence in the here and now.You stay the course until this new functionality comes out until you start to use it and really understand it, you see how others use it. And slowly, you will get a much better intuitive feel as to how you should be using it for your organization.So all of this is a combination of doing implementing your social media in the here and now but also an understanding that there is a need for historical perspective to understand And what all these changes might mean when they get rolled out how they get rolled out, and how people end up using them.So instead of being confused by everything that's out there, really try to avoid the noise and get back to the basics and stick to your social media strategy, which hopefully you have a written document if you read my top 10 tips to optimize your social media audit your social media strategy for 2013 blog post on women on networking.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

Welcome to the first episode of my podcast! This will tell you why I launched my podcast, which at the inception was called the Social Business Unplugged podcast. I also want to share with you how a podcast can feed into an inbound marketing strategy.Key Highlights[00:31] Why Social Business Unplug?[01:02] The Idea of Podcast[02:14] You Can't Do The Same Thing Everywhere Else[03:04] The Idea About My Podcast[06:14] Knowledge Is Power[07:48] It's Always About Becoming Your End CustomerNotable QuotesYou know, the idea of a podcast, there are many, many different ways to speak to people to, for lack of a better word, engage with people, there is video, you have YouTube videos, there's text, you have blog posts, you have books, if you think of content marketing, and all the different ways of providing content, all the different formats, audio is a pretty strong format.And my advice always comes down to, you can't just do the same thing on Facebook, you do everywhere else, you have to have some sort of exclusivity, some sort of uniqueness, a differentiator that says, I want to like your Facebook page, I want to come back to your Facebook page, because you're doing something special on there.Over time, the older generation or the people, you know, in the executive and management level, get out of touch out of tune with what their end customers really think about their products and services, what have you. And therefore, by enlisting this Gen Y group, they were trying to use them to actually better feed in the customers voice to the executive team, which is pretty fascinating perspective.People that sort of hold on to their knowledge, have nothing to gain from it, because it's an open market for knowledge right now. And that really stuck with me. At the end of the day, your blog is not for self promotion, it's for you sharing resourceful content that's going to create the magnet that's going to bring people back to your blog back to your website to create a trustworthy relationship that's going to lead them to become a buyer of your product or service, whether it's a blog, a video, a podcast, if you're not providing that information, if you're not sharing it with them, your blog post has very, very little value. So whether it's blogging or anything else, it's always about becoming your end customer, understanding what they're looking for and providing them the information.It's less about becoming more resourceful and more about becoming fun or engaging or sharing tidbits about your customers. And it's less about your own content and more about repurposing the content of your customers and your fans. 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