Maximize Your Social With Neal Schaffer

Here's my advice on how to reach out to bloggers, influencers, and anyone else you want to talk about your company. It’s important to remember that bloggers and influencers are busy people being pinged by lots of other brands, so if you’re asking them to take time to use your product, and maybe even post a photo or blog about it - time isn’t free! Listen in to learn how to build a connection, what you can and should offer them, and how to make the relationship last by involving them in your content and programs.Key Highlights[03:44] How to Reach Out to Bloggers and Social Media Influencers[06:05] Time Is Not Free[06:30] Step One In Reaching Out To Influencers[07:04] Step #2[08:12] How You Should Start A Pitch[08:58] Step #3[09:54] Get Feedback![10:17] Christopher Columbus Approach[11:49] The Fifth Phase[13:07] The Common Sense Of 2015[13:43] SummaryNotable QuotesSocial media gives you the ability to listen and engage with anybody that's on social media, whether they're influencers or average pe

Neal recently visited South Africa and was interviewed on South Africa FM. Last week, you heard the first half of that interview. This week, listen in to hear a continuation of the conversation about social media for business, and what it might be like if we could start over with social media. What would we do differently? Would we change our priorities? You’ll also hear more about Neal’s story and how he got to where he is, as well as an entertaining countdown of questions.Key Highlights[01:59] Changes In Social Media Platforms[03:06] Can I Use All Platforms At The Same Time And Effectively?[04:23] Spray and Pray[05:02] What Did Mark Zuckerberg Do To Outperform MySpace?[07:22] What I Do To Help Businesses[08:32] How I Got Into Digital Marketing[11:00] The Story Of How I Wrote My First Book[12:07] Acknowledgements I Have Received[12:57] South African Digital Market[14:04] Beat The Clock QuestionsNotable QuotesThey need to make sure that you want to stick to it, the information you find is new, it's inter

Neal is back! You’ve heard him talk about keeping it real in your social and your content, and he wants to keep it real. Neal’s goal is always to do this podcast regularly, but everyone’s busy! Since the last podcast, he’s traveled a lot, successfully launched the second Social Tools Summit in San Francisco in October, and spoken at a conference in South Africa. This episode is part one of a radio interview he did while he was there, and focuses on the value of social media and taking a step back and looking at the big picture.Key Highlights[04:44] Introduction[05:26] Why Business To Be Made From Going Social[06:27] How I Help Businesses[07:18] How Small Businesses Can Use Social To Grow Their Businesses[08:07] The Essence of Social Media[08:32] How to Start Using Social Media for Business[10:39] Social Media As A New Channel[12:38] How To Balance Social Media With Voice of the Company[13:17] The Advent of Employee Advocacy[14:06] Tomorrow's Talk[15:27] How Much Time Should You Allocate To Social Media?[

Today Neal is coming to you from Clearwater, Florida, where he actually did this podcast episode as a Periscope broadcast. And while he does talk a little bit about Periscope in this episode, what he’s mostly discussing is his new ebook which just came out on Kindle. It’s called Maximize LinkedIn for Business, and it came about from his visit to the LinkedIn Headquarters over a year and a half ago. Listen in to today’s episode for a rundown of what you can find in the ebook, and where you can get access to it.Key Highlights[01:17] What Is Maximize LinkedIn for Business Is About[03:10] Table Of Contents[03:17] How LinkedIn Is Being Used By Corporations and Professionals Today[04:49] Two Important Things You Need to Know[05:44] The Importance of Connections[05:56] Tactical and SEO Benefit of Having Connections[08:34] The Value of Network[09:05] Establishing Credibility[09:25] What Are Recommendations[10:20] Understanding Skills and Endorsements[10:57] How to Make LinkedIn Profile Private[12:44] Pulse Feature[14

Neal has been in Japan these last few weeks, and he’s been thinking a lot about the power of mobile. This week Neal is talking about the social network that you can only engage in from mobile: Instagram. It’s important for businesses to find their visual voice and be original and organic on this platform. The beautiful thing about Instagram is it’s power to connect with people. So remember, don’t go for the hard sale on Instagram - instead, focus on personality, engagement, and authenticity.Key Highlights[00:53] My Thoughts on Instagram[03:47] Every Company Needs A Visual Voice[05:50] A Case Study of A Company Doing Well With Visual[08:57] Why Your Visuals Should Be Connected to Your Brand[09:11] Quote Images[12:04] Posting Event Images on Instagram[13:47] Videos As Part of Visual Voice[15:27] Popular TacticsNotable QuotesSo as I like to say, whenever I speak, every company needs a visual voice. And that visual voice is is the visuals that are going to represent you in Facebook, Twitter, and obviously, you kn

This week Neal is coming to you from Japan, and he’s talking to Dennis Owen, from Cathay Pacific. The two are talking about Cathay Pacific’s extremely successful employee advocacy program, which Dennis launched simultaneously with their brand campaign “Life Well Traveled.” Dennis explains how he got the higher ups behind him, the platform they use, what kind of content is successful, and the rewards they give for engaging in the program. This is a great episode to listen to if you’ve been trying to figure out how to factor an employee advocacy program into your business plan.Key Highlights[00:30] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Dennis Owen[03:05] How Dennis Got Into Employee Advocacy[05:40] How Employee Advocacy Started in Cathay Pacific[09:46] The Lack of Understanding in Employee Advocacy[10:36] The Planning Process[13:34] The Approach on Rewards[17:24] Measuring KPIs[20:18] Final Thoughts[22:57] Connect With DennisNotable QuotesAnd I think the main reason I wanted to do it is because it ties very nicely to

When Neal first started speaking and blogging about social media, he focused on LinkedIn. But the platform has changed so much since the beginning, and of course the interactions and recommended use of it have evolved too. Today, Neal is talking about editing your LinkedIn connections. Not only is it important to comb through your current connections to edit out people who may not be relevant for you, but it’s also good to have some guidelines for accepting new requests. You want your LinkedIn to be curated so it’s productive, fun, and adds value to your life and business.Key Highlights [012:03] My Upcoming Free Ebook On LinkedIn[02:27] What Should You Do On Random Connection Requests?[03:02] LinkedIn Lions Defined[03:54] The LinkedIn Connection Policy[04:31] Why I Am No Longer A LinkedIn Lion[05:47] Time To Prune Your LinkedIn Connections! [06:15] Instances When You Can Accept Connection Requests From Strangers[07:20] Biggest Power of LinkedIn[08:34] What To Do If You Are Unsure About A Connection Request[09

This week on the podcast, Neal is sharing a new project with you. In his social media consulting business, he gets very broad and occasionally vague requests all the time, and there’s just no way he can help every person that reaches out. So Neal has decided to repackage the content he creates for trainings and make it available to more people. The first version of this is a 9-day online video workshop, complete with videos, worksheets, and a forum where you can chat with Neal. In this week’s episode you can learn more about why he’s starting this project, what this first version will be all about, and how you can join the party.Key Highlights[02:58] Role of Social Media[03:36] Questions You Need to Answer If You Want to Reach Foreign Audience[04:41] Always Have A Process In Place[05:18] The Social Media Center of Excellence[06:45] Understanding the Role of Content in Social Media[07:03] Content is the Game Changer[07:28] Different Types of Content[08:32] The Importance of Visual Content[09:00] The Role of Co

Neal is at the Corporate Social Media Summit this week, speaking and leading panels on all things social media and content creation. In this episode, he chats with Saul Leal, the Director of the Family Share Network, a group of Facebook pages, websites, and other social media accounts. They discuss how to create engaging content, how to monetize social media content and drive traffic to a website, and why publishing is more of a dialogue now than a monologue as it used to be.Key Highlights[01:07] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Sal Liao[01:41] Who is CompTIA[03:17] Sal's Business Model[04:33] The Concept of Alignment[07:45] How to Create Content that Feeds Special Moments[08:12] Concept of Passion Pages[09:04] Importance of Having Content that Resonates Audience[10:30] Connect with SalNotable QuotesBut the first thing is understanding the passion, the passion of our team, the passion and the vision of the organization, and ultimately, the passion of the consumer. And once we understand that passion, it&ap

After talking with people all over the world about social media, today Neal is talking about content. Yes, content is important, but with an oversaturated market, it’s important that the content you are creating and sharing is legendary! So why not leverage successful content you’ve already created and used in the past? This week is all about why you shouldn’t be scared to repurpose old content, and how to best go about using what you’ve already got.Key Highlights[03:51] The Traditional Approach on Content Marketing[05:21] Every Content Should Be Legendary[07:58] Look At What You Have[09:41] The Strategy[12:47] The Execution[14:38] Killer Functionality of Post Planner[18:07] One of The Easiest Thing To Do To Scale[18:53] Easiest Way to Start Influencer Marketing ProgramNotable QuotesYou always want to keep your eye on those other networks and see where your community is. We know that social media marketing is not content marketing content in of itself is its own art. But in order to engage in social media, wh

This week, I am coming to you from Victoria, British Columbia, in Canada where I keynoted Social Media Camp. At the event, I ran into my friend Mike Gingerich of TabSite. TabSite is a great tool that helps you run contests and capture leads, mostly on Facebook, but also on the web. It integrates with tons of common platforms like MailChimp, Infusionsoft, Canva, and Hootsuite, and it’s so easy to use. It’s a great way to grow your following, get shared on social networks, and engage with people. Learn more in this episode!Key Highlights[00:53] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Mike Gingerich[01:29] What Is Topside?[03:12] How to Filter Out The Selection[04:17] Sweepstakes vs Sweeptakes Plus[07:24] Integration With Go To Webinar[09:04] Promotion Tools[09:40] Analytics Tool[10:57] Pricing[12:03] Mike's Advice on How Business Can Use Topside for Running Facebook ContestsNotable QuotesContests are a way of it's a way of engaging with your fanbase on a regular basis using all these different types of apps ex

Coming to you from the Women’s Business Symposium, sponsored by Comerica Bank, and benefitting Girls, Inc., this week Neal is discussing when to listen to advice, and when to ignore it. Last week, he held the event that he’s been talking about for months, the Social Tools Summit. It got him thinking about why it’s important to be unique in the world of business and social media. When planning the summit, Neal got lots of advice from his peers about how to run the event. Yes, it’s good to listen to advice from peers and role models, but it’s also good to know that you don’t always have to take that advice.Key Highlights[02:02] Creating the Idea for Social Tools Summit[02:41] Ignore Everyone Else[03:06] Why I Think the Social Tool Summit Was A Success[03:22] My Approach to Business and Social Media[04:42] Social Media Replaces Nothing But Compliments Everything[05:36] Data-Driven Approach[05:47] Leveraging Social Media As A Tool[06:36] You Need to Do Something Different[07:27] Lead Through Innovation[09:02] Soc

Today Neal is talking with Pawan Deshpande, the CEO and Founder of Curata. They discuss Curata on the eve of the Social Tools Summit in Boston. Curata provides tools that help marketers curate content and publish it many channels, as well as provide analytics, best practices, and machine learning to make content curation and creation easier and more effective. Curata can schedule content, build posts from relevant metadata, and even suggest images. Pawan also discusses the company’s history, the value of content curation, and the future of content curation and creation convergence.Learn More: Join My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/ Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmo Download My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/freebies/ Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschaffer All My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com

Neal talks with Glenn Gaudet, the CEO and Founder of GaggleAMP. This tool helps companies and social media manager create employee advocates within their companies, and makes it easy for employees to share company-created social posts. They discuss how employee advocacy has grown, and how you can get started doing employee advocacy if you haven’t tried it yet. Glenn will be present at the Social Tools Summit in just a few weeks and also hosts AMPlify, the employee advocacy conference, directly after the Social Tools Summit in Boston.Learn More: Join My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/ Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmo Download My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/freebies/ Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschaffer All My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com

Neal discusses an amazing tool that is used by serious social media marketers everywhere, Simply Measured. He’s talking to Ron Schott, the Director of the Professional Services Team at Simply Measured. This tool helps big brands and small companies alike reap the benefits of social media by understanding their analytics and planning future social media campaigns based on the measuring and reporting that Simply Measured provides. The tool also has the ability to track competitors and market sectors, plus so much more. These are the kinds of tools Neal is excited to introduce you to and conversations they’ll be having at the Social Tools Summit in just a few weeks.Key Highlights[01:23] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Ron Schott[01:59] Who is Ron?[03:10] What is Simply Measured?[04:12] How Simply Measured Handles Data[05:03] Competitive Data from Simply Measured[0:41] Other Outside Data Simply Measured Brings in for Customized Reporting[06:13] Case Studies[07:50] The Latest Social Networks Simply Measured[09:00]

Today Neal is introducing you to another social media tool that can help you reap the benefits of the wide world of social: Likeable Local. He’s talking Nicole Kroese, the Director of Marketing and Partnerships, about all the things Likeable Local can do and how it’s growing and changing. Likeable Local’s mission is to help businesses, especially small businesses, grow with social media. How? It makes it easy to create content with post templates and timely content at your fingertips. It also has metrics, so you can track your likes, looks, and leads generated by your social efforts. These are the kinds of tools Neal will introduce you to and conversations they’ll be having at the Social Tools Summit in just a few weeks.Key Highlights[00:38] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Nicole Cruz[01:29] Likeable Local's Mission[04:47] Lead Generation Part of Likeable Local[07:00] Measuring and Reporting[08:21] Business Criteria That Likeable Local Will Be A Good Fit For[09:57] Opportunities for Large Brands and Franc

This week, Neal Schaffer interviews Chad Abbot of Abbson Live. Chad will be joining the Social Tools Summit next month, and Neal wanted to talk to him about the powers of video. We know that video is an incredibly powerful marketing tool, and we know that live streaming can be helpful for events, but Chad shared some other ways that live video can be used in your marketing strategy. Use of video across platforms is growing, and now is the time to jump in and try it for yourself!Learn More: Join My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/ Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmo Download My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/freebies/ Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschaffer All My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com

This week Neal Schaffer introduces you to Oktopost and the man behind it, CEO and Founder Daniel Kushner. Oktopost is another great social media management tool that specializes in B2B services, tracking relationships and helping you target your marketing. They’ll soon be launching an employee advocacy program as well, helping companies simplify the advocacy process. Learn more about Oktopost, and where Daniel sees social media being used in the sales process in this week’s episode.Key Highlights[00:41] Introduction to Podcast Guest, Daniel Kushner[01:26] Difference Between B2bB, Social Media and Consumer-Facing Social Media[03:03] Top 5 Things That B2B, and Social Media Marketers Should be Measuring[05:28] The Problem With Attribution[07:11] The Different Integrations Oktopost Currently Supports[10:01] Daniel's Experience with Marketing Automation from their Customers[11:43] Case Studies[12:25] Daniel's Vision on the Market for the Next 6-1 Months and on their Product[16:31] Final ThoughtsNotable Q

At the Social Media Marketing World event in San Diego last week, Neal Schaffer met all kinds of great people, one of them being Emeric Ernoult. Emeric is the CEO and Co-Founder of Agora Pulse, an engagement dashboard tool for Facebook and Twitter. Agora Pulse allows you to track the most important fans and interactions on social, gathering data unlike any other tool. Luckily, Emeric is going to be joining the Social Tools Summit in Boston in May. Listen to learn more about this great tool, what inspired its creation, and other tools that Emeric loves.Key Highlights[01:22] Introduction to Podcast Guest, Emeric Ernoult[02:40] Business Value of Agorapulse[08:51] How to Get Started With Agorapulse[09:31] Agorapulse Functionalities[10:42] Why You Should Use Agorapulse[13:03] Historical Tweet Feature[14:57] Other Agorapulse Facebook Features[17:10] Agorapulse Plans[18:34] Final ThoughtsNotable QuotesBasically save time by engaging with the people who are really, really matter for your business. And were the most i

This episode brings you into the atmosphere of the CeBIT Global Conference, where Neal Schaffer met Steven Zielke, who helped found the Rock the Blog event. But that’s not the only thing he’s founded: enter Blappsta, a new app that can turn your blog into its own native app. Neal is very excited about this app, and even more excited to share it with you. Blappsta provides yet another medium to access your readers in this increasingly mobile world, holding your hand through the registration, allowing you send push notifications, and above all, becoming the provider of your own app.Key Highlights[02:13] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Steven Zielke[02:25] What is Rock the Blog[04:25] The Issue Steven Found and How He Developed the Tool[06:45] Feedback on Blappsta[09:12] Steven's Vision[10:21] Blappsta Cost[10:54] What Makes Blappsta Interesting[11:39] Companies Steven Are Working With[12:27] Becoming a Mobile SocietyNotable QuotesAnd it's for you, it's something really nice because you have that d