Maximize Your Social With Neal Schaffer

How should small businesses approach an investment in social media? Learn how a social media consultant views how small business should consider what business value they should derive from social - and how to better manage their expectations vis a vis budget spend on social. Key Highlights[00:49] The Power of Habit[01:31] The Concept of Unplugged[05:01] The Challenge with Social Media[06:06] My Approach[06:16] A Role of Social Media Consultant  [09:15] Things I Have Struggled With As Social Media Consultant[09:57] The Fear I Have As Social Media ConsultantNotable QuotesAnd obviously, for those listening to the podcast, we know that that is not the world of social in order to be successful. It takes time to, obviously, create relationships develop relationships as a whole content side. And above and beyond that there's sort of a brand new inside that this doctor or this small business has their own culture, their own brand, their own differentiators in the marketplace.So my approach has always been compan

If you're looking to better leverage social media for marketing, this is the one question that you need to answer to help guide you towards implementing the right social media strategy.Key Highlights[01:18] The One Question You Should Be Asking Yourself About Your Business[03:43] My Laser-Focused Approach[04:30] Where Do You Get Your Leads?[04:47] Businesses Through Referrals[05:26} What Can You Do In Social Media to Help our Relationships[06:39] Where's Your Market?Notable QuotesAs I always say, social media, complements everything and replaces nothing. A lot of us tend not to because we start a process and strategy and we get going, and we sort of get lost in it over time.And this is obviously where social media can help you to scale and help you develop relationships nationwide, whether it be LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.And the answer that really comes down to well, what is the objective who are your customer? And I think a lot of people, a lot of businesses still aren't very clear about that wh

Building a brand in social does not happen overnight. Learn about just how important consistency in your social media efforts are and how to use paid social to help accelerate it. Key Highlights[01:10] Importance of Consistency in Social Media[03:33] Other Things You Should Be Consistent About[04:52] The More Recognition, The More Credibility[05:35] Accelerating Our Efforts in Social[06:40] Consistency Supplemented with Paid Social[06:47] The Wrong Way of Using Paid Social[07:47] The Best Way to Use Paid Social[08:27] Success Doesn't Happen Overnight[09:30] Do Not Buy Fake FollowersNotable QuotesFor normal businesses and brands that are not part of you know, the fortune 50 or consumer vocabulary, it takes time. And it not only takes time, but it's consistency. See public communities have hundreds of millions of users out there. And once you engage in a relationship with them.And if you just sit there and talk to yourself, other people may hear you. But when you actually tap on people's shoulder

How can a B2B company find success in a social network like Pinterest? Find out how and learn some new tips, tricks, and concepts to help you Maximize Your Social in this episode.Key Highlights[01:11] What is Pinterest Myth?[01:27] Why Pinterest?[05:35] Pinterest Statistics[06:51] What I Like About The New Pinterest Analytics[08:34] Looking at Demographics[11:25] Top 6 Interests of Females in Pinterest[12:40] Other Pinterest Analytics Feature[15:43] Social Media Marketing WorldNotable QuotesSo you know, when we talk about social media, one of the things is yes, we want to engage with people, we want to engage with influencers, we want to engage with brand advocates, with potential customers in social media. But we also want to bring them back to our website.And it's really bringing all this together in your mind or on a dashboard, thinking holistically as to where am I going to invest my time and I do this on a weekly basis, right?Businesses, do business with other businesses, but it's really people

Neal takes a deep dive into LinkedIn Pulse and reveals a "hidden" back door to help you get your content featured into LinkedIn Pulse.Key Highlights[01:33] One of the THings I Am Writing About in the Ebook[02:09] Why Would You Want to Syndicate Your Blog Posts Within LinkedIn[02:42] What is LinkedIn Pulse?[03:43] How LinkedIn Pulse Works[05:00] How to Get Your Content to Be Seen By More People[07:21] Have Connections[07:41] Why You Should Never Buy Fake Followers[08:57] Discover Tab[10:21] Channels Feature[10:41] Publishers Feature[11:45] My AHA MomentNotable QuotesLinkedIn is huge. One of the top 10 visited websites in the United States, sure, we'd all love to have guest blog posts on Forbes, but LinkedIn actually gets more traffic than Forbes, believe it or not. So it is a very, very lucrative and attractive demographic. And therefore if we are creating content for ourselves, our personal brands or for our businesses, it makes sense that we would want to publish on LinkedIn now what you publi

LinkedIn is not about the connections but the engagements and relationships you can build with other professionals and businesses. This episode will change your perspective on LinkedIn for the better.Key Highlights[01:48] Engaging on LinkedIn Differently[02:31] What to Do When LinkedIn Permanently Restricts You?[03:23] You Don't Need to Have As Many Connections As I Do[04:17] How LinkedIn Restrictions Happen[05:06] My Own Epiphany on LinkedIn[05:48] I Am Not Appearing in LinkedIn Search Results[07:08] What Happens When You Start A Conversation in A LinkedIn Group[07:31] LinkedIn Is the Best Place to Engage[08:44] Publishing Platform on LinkedInNotable QuotesNow the short answer to what I said, I said, LinkedIn is always changing the rules, right. And that's social media is always changing. Every single platform is always changing the way that they do business. But still, you know, everybody should have a robust network, multiplayer age by 10. That's the number of LinkedIn connections you should

Neal introduces the concept of an anchor network and how to leverage big data through tools that analyze your own social presence to better optimize your social.Key Highlights[01:12] Back to School Time![01:23] How to Use Big Data to Optimize Your Own Social Media[02:06] Two Things You Need[02:20] My Preferred Tools[03:07] What is Preferred Network[04:21] Example of What I Do on Twitter[06:32] What I Do in My NewsletterNotable QuotesAnd I think the back to school time is always a great time to look at our options, and really delve into some great books. And, you know, get to the next level wherever we are in our social media. And one of the keys here is you need to have a tool that allows you to analyze and allows you to compile all of that big data. And I say big data, we're not talking about, you know, terabytes of data here, pulled from the cloud, or, you know, Google servers, we're talking about data that we're accessing, from social media, on how people are engaging with our social media a

When looking at optimizing your social media program, are you asking the right questions? Neal will provide examples of a holistic mindset to help you ask the right questions that will truly help you Maximize Your Social.Key Highlights[02:11] How to Tell If Your Facebook Efforts Are Paying Off?[02:39] Experiments[03:33] How Do We Expand Our Reach for Our Page?[04:49] Is Facebook Really Tied to Your Business?[06:15] What Differentiates Me from A Lot of People[06:55] Looking At Social Media As A Whole[08:31] Are You Asking the Right Social Media Questions?Notable QuotesAnd as you know, well, if you listen to my podcast from last week, and read my recent blog post on six social media productivity tips and 23 tools to help you, you'll know that I like to reserve time for content creation and engagement. And I urge my listeners this podcast and brands to do the same. And it was a great reminder. And it sort of echoes well, he gives you a specific, you know, tactics that you can do to see what works.So my resp

Neal reveals his "aha!" moment from his recent blog post on LinkedIn and offers advice on better understanding the unique demographic that is viewing your blog posts on LinkedIn.Key Highlights[00:40] Understanding the Audience for Your LinkedIn Blog Posts[00:56] My LinkedIn Resources[01:54] How I Consider LinkedIn[02:11] My AHA Moment[02:53] My Free Ebook[03:47] What I Did to Introduce My New Ebook on LinkedIn[05:48] The Power of Comments on LinkedIn[07:35] LinkedIn Is A Unique CommunityNotable QuotesThere's a lot of people who say, Well, I have a blog, I don't want to create special content for LinkedIn, that's just a waste of time, I'll just, you know, republish my own content on LinkedIn. And you know, there's a lot of people that are doing that, in all honesty, and some of them have been really successful, I have not taken that approach. I love the approach. And if you're going to make content, make it work. And if you're going to publish the same content, at l

Spending too much time in social and achieving too few business results? Let me share with you my favorite social media productivity tips - and a plethora of tools to help you and your business improve your social media productivity by leaps and bounds.Key Highlights[01:35] Social Media Has Never Been Free[02:11] 6 Social Media Productivity Tips[03:20] The Beauty of Content Curation[03:46] Content Curation Tools[04:41] 3 Different Communities of Content Creator that Help Promote Content[06:03] Schedule Your Posts[08:11] Use A Dedicated Browser[08:45] Stick to A Daily Routine[09:33] Get Analytical[10:25] Turn Old Into NewNotable QuotesSo the whole advent of paid social, why do we have to pay to get noticed in the Facebook newsfeed and to be honest with you, social has never been free, it's required time, it's required someone's time, right?At the end of the day, it's the human resource cost that is there. And therefore, if somehow we can be more productive with our use of that time, visa vi

A look at why unplugging from social media is a critical component to a social media strategy as well important to understanding the ROI of social from a business and personal perspective. Key Highlights[00:43] The Personal Side of Social Media[03:50] Why Social Media is an Ever-Changing Landscape[06:21] Social Media Should Not Be a Burden[08:31] Make Every Post Count[09:04] You Don't Need to Be On All Platforms.Notable QuotesBut the important thing is, and as I come back from Japan, I see the increased use of these social networks that were designed primarily for people to communicate, often talk about social media being the convergence of information and communication, right.The important thing is, the more people spend in these messaging apps, and they bring social media back into the personal realm, the less they're spending on social media platforms.This is why social media is an ever changing landscape. And you really need to be monitoring things and adopting your social media strategy on a re

Neal announces his new free ebook, created together with the employee advocacy platform PeopleLinx, on how to create, manage, and measure an employee advocacy program regardless of the size of your business.Key Highlights[00:49] My Newest Ebook Resource[02:03] Where Marketing Begins[02:43] Employee Statistics[03:42] Interesting Note About Overlap[04:35] Where the Ebook Starts[05:40] Defining Your Employee Advocacy Strategy[06:35] Measuring Employee Advocacy Strategy Success[07:43] How to Gain Access to the EbookNotable QuotesThe idea is that companies often look outside the company walls for influencers, or fans, or people that they can try to influence to talk about them in social media, while some of their biggest fans are working for them inside their company. So the idea of employee advocacy is how do we yield? And, you know, it's really no surprise, you know, most strategies in social focus on the brand entity, and overlook the power and the influence of the employee use of social networks.You can i

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. B

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 educatio

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 bur

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

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 t

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 t

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

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 ther