Maximize Your Social With Neal Schaffer

While many still cringe at the term "influencer marketing," something that has surpassed that buzzword of late is the "creator economy."So what exactly is the creator economy, its relationship to influencer marketing, and how it can be leveraged by both business and, of course, creators?Listen in to understand the historical perspective of the creator economy, and how the pendulum is swinging more in the favor of creators in this Age of Influence.Key Highlights [05:16] The Creator Economy And Its Relationship To Influencer Marketing[07:19] The Golden Era Of Influencer Marketing[10:19] How Content Creators Leverage Advertisements As Main Revenue Sources[10:34] Other Revenue Sources That Content Creators Have[11:34] Social Media Networks As Potential Revenue Source[13:55] What Does Creator Economy Mean For Influencer Marketers?[15:20] How Creator Economy Brings Transparency and Authenticity In Influencer Marketing[16:37] Start Creating Content Now![17:46] SummaryNotable QuotesYou cannot beco

Paid Social is a mainstream form of social media marketing, and while many focus on fine-tuning targeting, have you thought about the impact that different ad formats can have on your cost and ultimate ROI?This episode features an interview with Lauren Schwartz, founder of the Creative Marketing Agency The Loft 325.  Lauren is a design professional with over 15 years of experience, including 8 years working in digital marketing.More importantly for us, her special power is in creating profitable creative strategies and creatives for e-commerce brands. and she is especially passionate about creating top-performing ad campaigns and creatives.Listen in for her advice on:Understanding the different ad formats and advantages and disadvantages of eachWhy video ads are the bestTips and tricks to create them and optimize them for maximum conversionKey Highlights [00:01] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Lauren Schwartz[02:58] Changes In Paid Social Over The Years[04:41] Lauren's Journey To Paid Social Marketing[07:

The other day I was helping my high schooler daughter apply to a summer program, where in addition to her transcript and essays, they asked for her LinkedIn profile URL.Yes, her LinkedIn profile!!!For those avid listeners of my podcast, I also covered a similar topic 2 1/2 years ago in 139: LinkedIn for Students: What Do I Put in My LinkedIn Profile if I am a College Student?If an overwhelming majority of college students, how many high schoolers have a LinkedIn profile in addition to their TikTok, Instagram, and, yes, Snapchat profiles?VERY few.So why am I even talking about this on my podcast?Because if you can picture yourself as a high schooler, who has little to no professional experience, and be able to complete a LinkedIn profile, you will see new ways not only to optimize your own LinkedIn profile, but also your personal branding and content you publish throughout social media.Don't believe me? Listen in, and then let me know what you think!By the way, the free ebook I mention in this episode can

I have always thought that businesses can learn a lot from successful nonprofit marketing. The idea is that if a nonprofit that is strapped for resources can connect with their community, you should be able to connect with your own.This episode is all about nonprofit digital marketing, but in a similar vein, the advice here is applicable for all.It is an honor to have my Digital First Mastermind Community member, and someone that I can now call a friend, Beth Hammock on today's episode. Beth is CEO of Hammock Communications and is an expert in both Nonprofit and Higher Education marketing, and I think you will genuinely enjoy her advice as well as our conversation.Some of the digital marketing "magic" advice that Beth has includes:Illusions: Social media strategy - influencers, awareness, acknowledgement, appealsSleight of hand: Google ad grants - getting them and using them. How tos and examples of success. Magician's choice: Video storytelling - how to accomplish this on a nonprofit budg

If you were to look at my LinkedIn profile headline or the main menu on my website, you might see a title that you don't recognize:Fractional CMOA lot of people ask me exactly what a Fractional CMO is and what I do as one, while others, after learning about it, want to follow in my footsteps.So what exactly is a Fractional CMO? And why might you want to hire one to help you with your digital marketing?Listen in as I reveal all!Key Highlights [02:31] How My Journey Into Becoming A Fractional CMO Began[04:13] What Got Me Into Fractional CMO[06:30] The Reason I Wrote The Age of Influence Book[07:22] What Are the Requirements to Become A Fractional CMO?[08:48] The Concept Of A CMO[09:23] Ways of Working With Fractional CMO[10:19] The Bad Side of Being Fractional CMO[13:10] The Key Benefit of A Fractional CMO[13:23] Fractional CMO vs External Consultant[14:16] My Role As A Fractional CMO[17:18] SummaryNotable QuotesIt's the reason why I'm writing my next book on general digital marketing. Because so

A lot of us in digital marketing tend to treat content marketing like a digital machine. Create this content and expect these results. Unfortunately, this leads to creating a lot of very average content that everyone else is publishing on the Internet, adding to the noise and not driving any impactful outcome for your business.Georgios Chasiotis, Managing Director of the B2B SaaS content marketing agency Minuttia, wants to change that. By looking at the current trends in content marketing based on his expansive client work, he wants to give you his advice on:Why "copycat content" isn't going to get you the results that you needWhat type of content you need to create based on your company's lifecycle stageWhy you need to focus on creating a library instead of a publication and how to do thatReady to significantly improve your content marketing for 2022 and beyond? Then listen in!!!Key Highlights[01:20] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Georgios Chasiotis[04:03] When and Why Clients Come to Min

Leapfrogging (pun intended as you will see shortly) off of my previous episode #234 speaking about the virtues of being a marketing generalist, here is a case in point: If you want to become a marketing leader, you need to have all of your digital marketing bases covered.What bases need to be covered? And what does a comprehensive digital marketing program look like?I am honored to have my friend and Digital First Mastermind Community Andrew Smith on as my guest today offering us an x-ray view of the digital marketing program that he is running as the Senior Marketing Manager for Leap, the leading all-in-one home improvement contractor sales software.Leap sells to other businesses so the program being described is a B2B digital marketing program, a treat for you B2B marketers. But even if you are a B2C or nonprofit marketer, the lessons learned from Andrew's experience are 100% applicable to your situation.Key Highlights[00:57] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Andrew Smith[03:55] Andrew's B2B Digital

"The riches are in the niches.""You gotta niche down."You've heard these over the years, including on this podcast. And I don't disagree with the advice if you want to gain visibility in a noisy market.However, if you are a marketer or a marketing entrepreneur, just owning one niche might not be the ideal solution to your strategy and most likely not for your customers.Listen in as I share my own experience and advice and make the case for becoming more of a digital and social media marketing generalist.Key Highlights[02:27] Why It's Dangerous To Stick To A Niche?[02:50] How I Began Blogging[05:51] Wanting to Be A "Doctor of Social Media"[06:57] Offering Additional Value Beyond Niche[9:10] The Time I Went Generalist[10:34] Launching My Fractional CMO Service[12:29] Going Back to the Role of Generalist[13:06] Why You Need to Have a Broader Knowledge[15:31] My Work As A Fractional CMO[18:15] SummaryNotable QuotesIn other words, if you go to a doctor, you don't t

What does the term "affiliate marketing" conjure up in your mind?For those of you who have read The Age of Influence, you should remember that I believe that affiliate marketing is one of the earliest forms of influencer marketing. Not only does affiliate marketing provide many of the benefits that you can receive from influencer marketing, but it can also directly impact your sales, SEO, word-of-mouth, and other digital marketing metrics.To clarify what exactly affiliate marketing is and what are the best practices for utilizing it in your business, I am honored to have Kyle Kostechka as my special guest. Kyle is Business Development Director for the oldest and leading affiliate marketing company, Clickbank, and spends his days consulting with both brands and affiliates.I hope this episode is an eye-opening one that helps you take advantage of what affiliate marketing can do for your company.Key Highlights[02:47] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Kyle Kostechka[06:31] Who Is Clickbank?[15:50] ClickBan

A lot has been said about blogging, both good and bad. Is it dying? Isn't social media more important? All of these arguments miss the point: In a Digital First world, being visible in search engines should be of utmost importance to every business, and, when done right, blogging holds the keys to success.Learn from my own success in blogging and why I continue to double - triple - quadruple down on it and the concrete steps that your business can take to do the same in this episode of my podcast.Key Highlights[01:31] When Did I Start The Process of Doubling Down On My Blogging[02:07] What Can I Do To Get The Word Out About My Book?[03:33] Seach and Social on Social Media[04:19] YouTube and Google Search Engine Strategy[06:23] The Things That Dominate Search Engine Results[07:33] What You Need to Do If You Find Bad Content On Your Website[09:27] Why I Create My Own Library of Content[12:42] The Statistics I Get After Creating Library of ContentNotable QuotesSo list building strategies, and then leveragin

Influence marketing will continue to be a critical part of digital marketing and only increase in importance as brands' organic social media reach continues to decline while newer form of short-form video that are the staple of many social media sites make it challenging for businesses to create and compete with the creativity of the global social media user base.That's why I'm especially excited to interview Sanna Ödmark, Head of Marketing for the Swedish influencer marketing agency Cure Media. You see, more companies are investing more money into influencer marketing, but they aren't necessarily doing it in an effective way.In fact, only 30% of CMO's in a survey that Cure Media conducted answered they know how to collect accurate ROI data from the channel, which is far behind other digital channels, such as website (55%) and SocialMedia (54%).That is why our topic that we discuss,  how to measure success in influencer marketing, is of critical importance.Key Highlights[04:43] What i

We are all using digital marketing to grow our business, and in doing so we are creating brand equity along the way. Brand equity is a powerful concept that doesn't appear in your income statement but indirectly helps you grow your business in tandem with your digital and social media marketing.When it comes to brand equity, there are some legal aspects that are important to understand so that what you grow in your business becomes rightfully and legally yours. This is especially true if your dream is to sell your company to a larger entity or receive funding from venture capitalists.For that reason, we have a unique interview with someone today, Bao Tran, an IP attorney who is launching a new startup to help democratize the patent application process. In this interview you will learn:1) Why brandings are a significant part of company valuation2) Different innovative ways brands can be protected with Trademarks3) Different ways brands can be protected with CopyrightsAfter listening to this episode you wi

If you're doing your social media for business or yourself the same as you have for the last few years, your time is up. All of the trends in social media show us that we truly need to think visual first in so many ways in order to gain visibility within social media news feeds.In this episode I analyze all of the changes that have occurred in social media over the years, putting even niche platforms like Tsu and Ello (remember those?!?) into perspective. From this I believe the future of social media and thus social media marketing becomes clear, and I finish this episode with my advice on the ideal trifecta for your social media marketing going forward into 2022 and beyond...Key Highlights[01:33] Introduction[02:40] The History of Social Media[05:15] The Emergence of New Social Media Platforms[07:55] Dynamic and Emergence of Reels[10:28] Pinterest Dynamic[12:06] What Are Video Pins?[12:28] How To Get More Impressions from Different Social Media Platforms[14:13] The Effects of the Changes in Social Medi

In all of the social media platforms that exists and the various marketing tools that businesses can use to support your presence there, there is one social network for which there is one tool that rules them all.That social network is Pinterest, and the dominating tool is Tailwind.Learn from Senior Community Manager of Tailwind, Melissa Megginson all about their tool and comprehensive best practices not just for Pinterest, but also for Instagram and Facebook, which Tailwind supports.Key Highlights[04:09] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Melissa Megginson[06:14] What is Tailwind and How Melissa Started[08:39] Pinterest's Evolution[11:28] What Type of Pins Should I Be Posting?[15:30] Melissa's Advice When Creating Idea Pins[17:37] Best Format and Practices for Video Pins[18:03] Does Repurposing from Other Platforms Work?[21:51] What is Tailwind Create?[24:38] Tailwind Communities[29:53] Best Practices and Recommendations for Pinterest Ads[31:52] How to Do Keyword Research on Pinterest[33:24] What Makes

Digital and social media are the field of dreams for every business. The problem is that you first need a roadmap to get started, but even with that roadmap you will have your successes and failures, new discoveries, and learn a lot both about your target audience as well as your product and branding.This is why a mindset of never-ending experimentation is critical for success in digital and social media marketing as well as if you have a digital product or service. But its not just experimentation that is important: Equally important is understanding when you need to pivot and then actually making that alignment.To me digital marketing is art, which is why the creative aspect excites me on a daily basis. I sincerely hope that you find some inspiration in this episode.Key Highlights[01:54] How Neal Created His Membership CommunityThe story of how Neal's membership community started and why it was now called the "mastermind of business leaders".[05:29] Why I Like Setting Up Quarterly Flags[06:55

The world of advertisement has truly changed. Consumers are now savvy and smart – they know if the advertiser is genuine or not. In addition, the channels in which you can connect to your customers are continuously expanding. As a product-based business owner, you may wonder, how can I make my business a success?Well, worry no more because, in this episode, we have the experts and the combined force behind The Product Boss Podcast -- Minna Khounlo-Sithep and Jacqueline Snyder, who will help you make your dreams come true! Join me as we learn everything you need to build a successful product-based business - and the importance that you need to always place on relationships.Key Highlights[01:28] Introduction of Podcast Guest, The Product Boss -- Minna Khounlo-Sithep and Jacqueline Snyder[02:26] Who Are The Product Boss?[03:42] How "The Product Boss" Started[05:42] How Marketing Products Changed in the Age of Social Media[08:46] The Most Effective Way of Connecting with Your Customer[10:13] Will Produc

SEO ranking is critical for most business because it is the key to increase the brand’s visibility and attract potential customers where people search for information – especially now that we truly living Digital First. When we think of SEO, the first word that quickly comes to our mind is keyword. But if we dig deep into it, you’ll realize that SEO is not only about using relevant keywords. Come and join with me in this discussion with the CEO of bubblidigital, Neil Sheth, on how to figure out the other ways you can create content that will rank high on search engines and the real value that SEO offers.Key Highlights[02:53] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Neil Sheth [05:21] How Neil Got into SEO and Content Creation [08:44] What does an SEO agency do for their clients?Neil shared what an SEO agency do for their clients and why clients should hire one.[11:24] The Process of Creating Customized Plan for Each CustomerNot all plans are alike. Customers get customized plans for each of them based on where they&apo

Do you ever feel that sometimes your content or branding just isn't correctly aligned with your business? Or that your message doesn't leave the viewer or listener wanting to learn more about you or do business with you? Perhaps you or your business have pivoted, but your content or branding has not?These were the questions I have been struggling with, and a series of events, including my recently attending Podcast Movement, let me on a journey to rebrand this podcast, changing it from Maximize Your Social Influence to Your Digital Marketing Coach. Learn all of the reasons why I did so and what takeaways it might have for you and your brand and content in this first episode of Your Digital Marketing Coach.Key Highlights[0:53] Introduction to Your Digital Marketing Coach Podcast[03:05] Why Should I Consume the Content I Am Publishing?[5:34] Moving from Social Business Unplugged to Maximize Your Social Influence[07:05] Why Do I Need to Do Something Different to Stand Out?[08:51] Your Content Has To Be

The world of marketing is continuously changing, especially during this time of the pandemic. Virtual summits are now becoming popular and the most effective digital lead generation tools today.If you are to start your first summit – or even thinking of creating one, this episode will surely help you understand the basics and elements you need for your own virtual summit. So come and listen as we learn “Virtual Summit 101” with the CEO of Hey Summit, Rob Gelb.Key Highlights[1:37] What is Hey Summit?[4:35] How Rob Started Hey Summit[10:44] Hey Summit Case Studies Success Story[12:28] Different Types of Events[16:50] Should I Go for A Broad Topic or Niche Subject?Choosing a subject or topic to discuss in a virtual summit can be challenging. Should I go for a broad topic or a niche subject?[21:05] Categorizing Subject and Topics[25:21] How to Create a SummitLearn the steps and important elements when creating a summit.[28:10] Rob's Advice to Companies Doing Webinars/Virtual Summit[31:21] Mistakes to Avoid W

As I’ve been doing social media marketing for quite some time, people often ask me, how do I become more influential on social media? How do I monetize my influence? How do I monetize social media?But the thing is, should you really make social media platforms your business?In today’s episode, I share with you the difference between running a business and leveraging social media platforms to promote your business. And what’s more valuable than monetizing your social media presence.Key Highlights[1:16] Monetizing Social Media[1:38] My Social Media Marketing Journey[5:31] The Importance of Having a Product When Monetizing Social Media InfluenceWhen monetizing social media, you need to understand the difference between running a business and leveraging platforms. You need to have a product or business first, then use social media platforms to promote them, not making these platforms your business.[07:08] Determining Your Content Medium [08:38] What Platform Should I Create Based on My Content Medium?[10:40] Crea