Maximize Your Social With Neal Schaffer

Neal shares best practices with social media campaigns by showcasing Passion Planner's Kickstarter campaign and what can be learned from it.Key Highlights [01:40] What's the Best Social Media Campaign for Me?[02:45] What Are the Best Practices in Creating Campaigns?[03:45] The Passion Planner[05:58] One of the Things I Like About The Passion Planner[07:54] The Kickstarter Campaign (Mini Version)[10:05] Why I Think The Passion Planner Is A Great Tactic[10:37] Other Interesting Things About the Passion Planner[12:38] The Social Good Component[13:56] My View on Social Media CampaignsNotable QuotesSo you know, what that brings us to is that people are the best sellers, people associate the best with people. And it's the people centric part of this, which really draws people especially if you are trying to attract consumers, I guess it will work for b2b as well. But so it's the person and it's their story. And they go through why they created this product, how it helped them how they think

This episode goes into depth on what a pre-sales social media consulting call would look like, and with that six ideas to improve your social media that go above and beyond social media.Key Highlights[02:04] Importance of Social Proof[03:10] What Should You Do to Acquire More Followers?[03:37] Let's First Work on Your Message[04:24] People Need to Have A Crystal Clear of What You Do When They View Your Website[05:18] What I Find In A Lot of Startup Businesses[05:52] Utilizing Your Employee Through Employee Advocacy Program[06:50] What is Affiliate Marketing[08:02] Integrating Affiliate Marketing Into Your Website[08:42] Step #3: Build Your List[09:35] Step #4: Blog[10:07] Leveraging the Visual[11:08] Paid SocialNotable QuotesI'd rather have a small army of passionate fans than a large army of crickets.And you may see success stories of some companies that were lucky in the right place at the right time had that one special person find their content and share it to their million followers. But for 99

Neal talks about the launch of his new Social Media Center of Excellence Facebook Group and what he has learned building a new community in social media - and how you can leverage Neal's experience.Key Highlights[02:14] My Own Facebook Group[02:41] What to Expect When You Join My Facebook Group[04:24] How  Started My Group[05:42] Deciding On Who You Opt-In Your Group[06:13] How to Get More Followers and Engagement?[06:45] "Cross-Pollination"[07:19] Your Group Should Serve Utilitarian Purpose[08:59] Utilitarian Part of a Facebook Group[11:10] The Advantage of Engagement on Facebook[11:58] The Other Side of the Equation: Engagement[13:02] The Challenge on Engagement[13:21] The First Thing I Do Whenever We Have a New Group Member[14:09] Create Rules![14:54] Have A CombinationNotable QuotesNow, obviously, numbers are not everything. It's more about quality versus quantity. I want the right people into the group.So who would you opt in? Right I'm totally against opting people and I think i

As your company's social media presence grows and you begin to yield "influence" in social media, you will be faced with those who copy your content as well as attack you. Neal shares his own experience as to how he deals with these issues to help prepare you and your business for what may lie ahead for you.Key Highlights[01:35] Who Are Considered As Influencers?[02:21] Content Creator Perspective[03:37] How to Find If Other People Is Copying Your Content?[03:57] Tools for Plagiarism[05:32] Taking It One Step Further[08:48] Why I Don't Upload My Content to SlideShare[11:32] How I Found Out My Ebooks Were Copied and Uploaded to SlideShare[12:41] Always Embed Internal Link Into Every Single Blog Post[13:39] Strategy on Creating Extremely Shareable Content[15:17] Why I Think Publicly Confronting Someone Is An Attack[16:50] You Got To Have Tough Skin[21:10] Dealin with Disagreears[22:17] It's Okay to Block PeopleNotable QuotesAnd this is really what businesses want to become more should w

Have you had a bad experience on a social network and refused to venture back into it? That's not good business sense. Perhaps it has happened to you by being opted-in to several Facebook Groups without your permission. Now is time to join Neal in rediscovering the potential business value of Facebook Groups.Key Highlights[02:47] Do A Reset On Everything You Do[03:30] Facebook Statistics[04:24] The Biggest Social Network[05:55] Adapt and Change Your Way[06:31] Facebook Groups[07:45] My Facebook Group Experimentation[08:35] Disadvantage of Facebook Group[11:58] My Facebook Community[14:03] The Challenge[14:53] Creating Group Rules[15:09} What To Do TO Increase Engagement[15:18] How to Join My Facebook GroupNotable QuotesYou need to be with your audiences. And you need to figure out a way to engage with your audience to make yourself more successful. But I have immense respect for the platform and the people behind the platform. They really are building something that, you know, is in essence, sort of revo

As Instagram continues to gain in popularity, many haven't started to leverage the opportunities that Instagram provides businesses. Neal introduces his own story of the why and how he is transitioning to use Instagram as a more integral part of his social media marketing - and why you should as well.Key Highlights[01:35] The Rise of Visual Social Media Marketing[02:19] Where Does Instagram Fall?[03:19] Brands That Do Well On Instagram[04:31] How To Use Instagram?[06:32] My Issues With People Who Are Just Posting Quotes All the Time[07:54] Authenticity in Instagram[09:22] Tools for Utilizing Instagram[11:38] Social Media Productivity[12:38] Taking the Step Above Beyond Brand Awareness[14:03] Retain Authenticity with InstagramNotable QuotesWith the ability to photo tag, I immediately thought of Instagram as really, if you're a brick and mortar that might be the second best place you want to be after Facebook.I'm all about trying to contribute original value to social media. So you know, there&ap

Neal interviews Glenn Gaudet, CEO and founder of GaggleAMP, and talks about the history of employee advocacy and the challenges that face companies that try to launch such a program internally.Key Highlights[00:51] The Primary Use of GaggleAmp[01:32] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Glenn Gaudet[02:42] How Glenn Got the Idea of the GaggleAmpNotable Quotes[06:52] How the Market Evolved[07:47] What Lacks in Understand Social Media[08:19] Why You Need to Understand the Value of Social Media[10:38] The Trap into Employee Advocacy[12:54] Free Trial[13:34] The Power of Feedback[14:26] Why Companies Sometimes Get Disappointed in Employee Advocacy[19:59] How GaggleAmp Works[20:43] Connect with GlennNotable QuotesAnd then from that was really the idea of having a platform that was designed to do this in a way that it was super easy for the employee to share the content, yet maintain their privacy, and provide rich tracking information for the company and to balance all those different pieces.And what was lacking in that

A first look at the newest social network Ello. Should you sign up? Spend much time there? Use it for your business? Listen to Neal's advice and gain some rational perspective on what value Ello might be able to provide you and your business.Key Highlights[01:15] New Social Network - ELLO[02:07] Remain Holistic on Your Approach on Social Media[02:45] What is ELLO?[03:56] Experiment on ELLO![04:17] How ELLO Works[06:15] Keep An Eye on ELLO[06:58] One of the Cool Things About ELLO[07:28] Another Thing You'll Notice on ELLONotable QuotesWhile yes, it is growing in certain circles, we have to take a and remain you know holistic about our approach to social media.And it really is going to depend to see what ello does in order to bring value to businesses who want to leverage it for marketing, even though ellos already said we are going to be an ad free network, which makes sense, I still think that they could offer, you know solutions for businesses.There's a lot of artists, a lot of creative types

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