October 23rd, 2020 Those of us who are into content marketing are reminded of the old saying, “It’s a jungle out there.” After all, we have to compete with other marketers and brands for our customer’s attention. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if people didn’t leave negative reviews on websites, or if we didn’t…
About Neal Schaffer
The 2 Main Types of Influencers You Need to Know for Effective Influencer Marketing
October 18th, 2020 When I was writing The Age of Influence, I realized that there had to be a different way of categorizing the types of influencers that existed other than mere followers. More followers doesn’t simply equate to larger influence. That’s why I created a new way of categorizing influencers that I’d like to…
The Best 15 Twitter Tools for Marketing
October 20th, 2020 For many years Twitter has been an excellent tool for marketers. After all, it’s older than many of the other networks. But more importantly, Twitter is one of those places where people all over the world can broadcast their thoughts in a manner that’s largely uncensored. Sure, there are trust and safety…
How Much Should I Pay an Influencer? Testing Out 9 Instagram Influencer Calculators
October 18th, 2020 Is influencer marketing pricing as easy as simply finding your influencer and using an Instagram influencer calculator to calculate how much you should pay them? If only influencer marketing was that simple! Nobody questions the value of influencer marketing these days. After all, this successor to celebrity endorsements and user reviews has…
5 Reasons Why TikTok Marketing Is The Hottest Social Media Trend For Businesses Today
October 14th, 2020 Is your business still on the sidelines about investing in TikTok marketing? If you’ve turned on the news recently, you’ve probably heard of TikTok and TikTok for Business. Indeed, the app is so popular that it has been making waves not only in the cultural sphere but in the political world as…
How to Create an Influencer Marketing Strategy That Delivers High ROI
October 1st, 2020 As I’ve said before, influencer marketing presents some unique challenges in terms of ROI. After all, the cost structure for this area of marketing is a little bit harder to define. Plus, the actual payoff of an influencer campaign is harder to quantify than it is for many other marketing options. However,…
Why Influencer Marketing? 5 Reasons Why Influencer Marketing Should be a Critical Part of Your Digital Marketing Strategy
October 7th, 2020 There’s little question that the ongoing pandemic is a significant challenge for marketers. With so many people stuck at home or, worse, left without a job, it’s easy to feel like nobody’s buying. After all, for several months people couldn’t get to brick and mortar stores to check out your product line….
7 Smart and Useful Facebook Marketing Tools to Grow Your Business
October 5th, 2020 The only way to outsmart every Facebook algorithm change is to leverage Facebook marketing tools in a smart and effective way. Despite competition from visual social networks, Facebook is still the king of social media, with more than 2.7 billion monthly active users. And believe it or not its popularity continues to…
Influencer Marketing ROI: The Ultimate Guide to Measuring It the Right Way
October 7th, 2020 One of the more difficult aspects of influencer marketing for brands is measuring ROI. After all, it’s easy to pay an influencer for something and know what those costs are. However, it can be difficult to know how much value you are getting for your money. Some metrics are easy to pin…
The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Analytics and How They Can Help Your Business
October 5th, 2020 Why is understanding your Instagram analytics so important for successful Instagram marketing? Creating good content for Instagram isn’t easy – you constantly have to improve your content strategy to keep your followers’ attention. New brands emerge every day, and many of them will rely on Instagram to develop a fanbase. Since your…
How Much Does Influencer Marketing Cost Today?
October 11th, 2020 There’s no question that influencer marketing cost is a hot topic for marketers. With organic social reach at an all-time low, and with paid social an often-expensive proposition, marketers are finding influencer marketing to be a great way to reach potential customers. Unfortunately, unlike traditional forms of advertising, it is hard to…
The 15 Top Influencer Marketing Platforms
October 12th, 2020 With influencer marketing becoming so important to the growth of brands, it’s natural that marketers want to find influencers more easily. After all, influencer discovery is one of the more difficult aspects of the business. Not only that, but you have to figure out which potential influencers are genuine, and which ones…
Are Nano Influencers the Future of Influencer Marketing?
October 7th, 2020 A few years ago we first heard of the term micro influencer. And now nano influencers are all the rage. Are nano influencers the new future of influencer marketing? There’s no question that influencer marketing has been a gold rush, both for brands and influencers. Go onto Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube, and…
16 Compelling Influencer Marketing Examples That Don’t Appear in The Age of Influence
October 12th, 2020 You probably found this blog post because you were also looking for influencer marketing examples. When I embarked on writing The Age of Influence, the definitive guide to influencer marketing, I was in your shoes scouring the web for the best case studies that would provide essential backup to my words and…
Your Guide to Leveraging YouTube Influencer Marketing
October 11th, 2020 If you’re like most brands these days, chances are that you’ve at least thought about influencer marketing. But have you thought of using YouTube for this purpose? There are many reasons that brands, and influencers, have favored other platforms. For instance, Facebook, Instagram and even Twitter (not to mention TikTok and Pinterest)…
8 Tips on How to Find Instagram Influencers for Your Business
September 14th, 2020 One of the most common questions I get asked from businesses is how to find Instagram influencers. If you’re hoping to take advantage of the influencer marketing trend that I write about in The Age of Influence, one of the toughest decisions is in finding which influencers to use. While drawing up…
8 Types of B2B Influencer Marketing for You to Consider (with 18 Examples)
September 14th, 2020 When you hear the term “influencer marketing,” what do you think of? If you’re like most marketing professionals, you’ll probably immediately envision a young, attractive man or woman selling the latest cars, beauty products, or fashion. For B2C companies, this is a pretty accurate description. But did you know that influencer marketing…
9 Indisputable Benefits of Influencer Marketing for Any Business in Any Industry
October 20th, 2020 There’s no doubt that influencer marketing is all the rage these days, even though COVID-19 is making a temporary impact on influencer marketing spend. Everywhere you look, social media personalities are pitching different products and services to their followers. However, many marketers and their clients still have questions about the importance and…
The Top 14 LinkedIn Tools to Grow Your Business in 2020
September 11th, 2020 Do a search for Twitter tools and you’ll find a plethora of apps to use, but if you do the same for LinkedIn tools, you simply don’t have the same ecosystem. Why, you ask? LinkedIn is infamous in the social media marketing industry for limiting the usage of their API for 3rd…
Instagram Link In Bio: Unlocking The Power Of A Single Link In 10 Different Ways
August 8th, 2020 I’m willing to bet that at some point you’ve been scrolling through Instagram, seen a post you like, read the caption, and somewhere in it the brand or person has written “head to my Instagram link in bio for more.” Instagram is an excellent marketing tool, but like any platform it does…
Influencer Marketing Post COVID-19: New Report Reveals Drastic Changes
September 14th, 2020 There’s practically no area of life that has been untouched by the global coronavirus pandemic. It has impacted daily lives and, as a result, the ways that businesses must manage their budgets depending on how they’ve been impacted. Influencer marketing post COVID-19 is no different. In social media marketing, COVID-19 has shown…
The 15 Best Social Media Management Tools You Need to Know
October 26th, 2020 With social media marketing now in its second decade, marketers are always trying to see if there are better social media management tools out there. After all, with all the changes that go on in social media marketing, you would assume that every tool would also be continually innovating, right? Well, the…
The 16 Best Video Marketing Tools for 2020
October 11th, 2020 As nearly everyone in our industry knows, video marketing is hot. Really hot. In fact, video marketing has been slowly taking over multiple social networks due to its overwhelming popularity. Although at one time it was expensive to produce, nowadays video marketing is a cost-effective option for most brands. If your company…
14 Ways to Monetize Your Social Media Influence and Intellectual Property
September 24th, 2020 How to monetize Instagram, or any social media, is a question that I get asked a lot, and since I recently appeared on a podcast talking about this, I thought I would provide you a slightly different, more comprehensive, and overall updated perspective from another post I wrote on the subject entitled…
The Top 15 Influencer Marketplaces for Your Next Influencer Campaign
September 6th, 2020 For those of you who have read my post on influencer marketing tools, you may have been surprised that I included influencer marketplaces in that article as a type of tool. You see, there are many ways to find and activate influencers as part of a comprehensive influencer marketing program, but if…
The 15 Best WordPress Plugins for Business Blogs in 2020
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July 5th, 2020 I have been regularly sharing my own experiences using WordPress plugins to run this business blog to help you make your own website more social media optimized, SEO friendly, and even help convert more of your visitors into new leads. I say “website” because WordPress is not just for blogs: As a…
The Top 15 Pinterest Tools You Need to be Successful on Pinterest
October 11th, 2020 Before we look into the top Pinterest tools, let’s first debunk the Pinterest myth. Even a few short years ago, Pinterest was a relatively unknown social media network. Why? Because it had a niche: young women with disposable income. It wasn’t until recently that the men started signing up in large numbers….
The 16 Leading Podcasting Tools to Help You Start or Grow Your Podcast
September 6th, 2020 All of the podcasting statistics point to the continued growth in the industry. More and more businesses and entrepreneurs are launching podcasts. Whether you are planning a new podcast or want to grow your current one, I created this list to both simplify the selection process for you but also to let…
The Top 15 Facebook Ads Tools You Didn’t Even Know Existed
July 6th, 2020 Many people think that Facebook Ads Manager is the only Facebook Ad tool you need. But did you know that there are a host of other Facebook Ads tools that can help you improve your ad spend ROI? Especially if you are a large company or are simultaneously running multiple ads campaigns…
How to Find Out If An Instagram Influencer Has Fake Followers or Not
October 11th, 2020 Have you ever wanted to work with Instagram influencers but worry they might have a community of fake followers? Instagram influencers can be great for your brand, from expanding your audience to finding new ways to engage your current customers and even creating user-generated content. Since Instagram hit the magic 1 billion…
The Top 16 Instagram Tools You Need for Successful Marketing
October 11th, 2020 If you’re one of the 70% of companies marketing on Instagram, you’ve probably been searching for tools that can help you gain an extra edge through desktop publishing, grid preview, hashtag analysis, and general Instagram metrics to help you understand what is and isn’t working. Note that if you are looking for…
Enter the Epic Marketing Book Giveaway! [U.S. Residents Only]
![Enter the Epic Marketing Book Giveaway! [U.S. Residents Only]](https://nealschaffer.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/BOOK-GIVEAWAY_1200x630_v3-225x118.png)
June 2nd, 2020 If you’re in a hurry, you can enter the epic marketing books giveaway at the bottom of thi blog post! In celebration of the publication of The Age of Influence, I am teaming up with my marketing author friends who endorsed my book to give you a chance to read their books…
The Top 15 Twitter Clients Used by the Top 35 Social Media Influencers
July 3rd, 2020 A couple times over the last decade (!), I’ve written blog posts about what Twitter clients are popular or those that are heavily used by social media influencers. My objective in doing so was to uncover new or popular Twitter clients that you might want to consider for your own Twitter marketing….
The 15 Best Email Marketing Tools to Consider Investing in Today
August 2nd, 2020 Why is investing in the best email marketing tool for your company important? I always say that you need to meet the digital user where they are, and that is either in social, search, or email. Your choice of email marketing tool is as important as to what social media marketing dashboard…
The Top 27 Tools for Blogging That Will Help You Start and Make Money from Your Blog
September 7th, 2020 Let’s face it: blogging isn’t always easy. And in this age of intense competition, making sure your message gets out there is much harder than it used to be. Luckily, there are a whole bunch of blogging tools, both paid and free, that we can use to maximize the impact of our…
The Top 17 Facebook Statistics Businesses Need to Understand in 2020
September 10th, 2020 Almost everyone in social media can agree on one thing: Facebook is the king of social. There are a lot of reasons for this, of course. For example, when you think of the term “social network,” this platform is the first one to come to mind. At the same time, unless you…
The Top 21 LinkedIn Statistics for Business in 2020
October 11th, 2020 A lot of ink has been spilled over the value of advertising on Facebook, Instagram, and, even the newest of shiny objects, TikTok. After all, these are among the largest online forums for social advertising and lead generation. Certainly, for B2C companies these other networks are excellent sources of engagement with customers….
New Data Helps You Measure Your Instagram Influence – and Hints at How to Become an Instagram Influencer
September 6th, 2020 This how to become an Instagram influencer post contains affiliate links, meaning that if you choose to click through and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you. The growth of influencer marketing is driving more and more people to want to learn how to become…
The Six Best Business Productivity Tools I Use for Sales and Marketing
September 6th, 2020 As a business owner, you don’t want to play around with technology. You want to find something that works, stick with it, and continue running your business. Simple and efficient processes are key, lead generation is mandatory, and effectively sharing your message on social media is a must. That’s where you need…
The Top 19 Twitter User Statistics for 2020 to Guide Your Marketing Strategy
October 11th, 2020 Ask me what social network I recommend to B2C companies, and it would be Facebook and/or Instagram followed by Pinterest and/or Twitter. For B2B companies, it would be LinkedIn followed by Twitter or Facebook. Clearly it’s easy to lose site of Twitter for marketing amongst newer and sexier rivals. But as a…
5 Creative Ways to Incorporate Video in Your Small Business Marketing Plan
June 2nd, 2020 Ready to elevate your small business today? Then it’s time to get serious about video marketing. Don’t worry, you don’t need a scriptwriter, film crew and headstrong director to create compelling videos. In fact, all you need is right here in this small business video marketing tips guide. Why are videos so…
Facebook VPN: How to Unblock Facebook Wherever You Are
June 2nd, 2020 For anyone involved in Facebook marketing, it is critical for you to understand what is a Facebook VPN and why it exists. Whether you’re trying to promote your brand to a country where a VPN is necessary or you happen to be on a business trip where you can’t access Facebook, VPNs…
The 18 Pinterest Statistics for Marketing You Need to Know in 2020
October 11th, 2020 Pinterest is a mysterious place if you’re not active on it. However, once you realize that it is more of a search engine and a discovery network rather than a social network, all of the Pinterest statistics for marketing that I will go over below will begin to make some sense. Before…
Seven Best Practices for How to Use Pinterest for Marketing in 2020
July 3rd, 2020 This how to use Pinterest for marketing post contains affiliate links, meaning that if you choose to click through and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you. I was also compensated to create this post, though all opinions are my own. Living in the shadow…
The Top 34 Video Marketing Statistics for 2020
October 11th, 2020 As we review the video marketing statistics below, you will see that video marketing is a strategy that you cannot ignore if you want to market online. You’ll soon be wondering why you aren’t using videos to comprise a bigger part of your marketing strategy. Most people agree that video is hot….
The 27 Definitive Instagram Statistics for 2020 You Should Know – and Why
September 18th, 2020 There are tons of blog posts out there about Instagram statistics for 2020. I don’t intend to add to the noise, but I think that there is some data that is important for every marketer to understand so that they maximize their Instagram marketing. These are the Instagram statistics that I bring…
The Top 21 Business Blogging Statistics for 2020
July 9th, 2020 Does your company website have a business blog. Are you actively publishing to it or is it an after-thought? Don’t have one yet? It’s time to join the club – and it’s a big club. Blogs are increasing in popularity with businesses, with more than 4 million blog posts being published every…
The Top 19 Podcast Statistics You Need to Know in 2020
July 3rd, 2020 I just spent the last few days at Podfest Expo in Orlando, Florida, which is considered the largest conference for independent podcasters in the world (note: Podcast Movement is probably the largest podcast conference dedicated to podcasting, but not necessarily focused on independent podcasters like Podfest Expo). While podcasting has always been…
12 “Secrets” to Writing Quality Content for Your Blog
June 2nd, 2020 Keeping a blog is more than just telling the world what you like. Posting useful information online, you attract many readers who become your customers in the digital age of today. When you gain a considerable community of followers on your blog, you can earn money from promoting your own products or…
The 10 Best Social Media Marketing Podcasts to Listen to in 2020
July 3rd, 2020 Let me tell you a true story about me and podcasting: I have had a podcast since 2013, but as I indicate in my own Episode 140, which you can listen to below, I was never a consumer of podcasts. It was a conversation with a millennial marketer at one of my…
The 15 Best Marketing Books to Read in 2020
August 2nd, 2020 As marketers, we tend to be busy people. Between social media, emails, Slack conversations, internal as well as client meetings, phone calls, webinars, conferences, and on top of that creating the latest, greatest ad campaign ever takes up a lot of time. But what about continued learning in our field? If we…
The Top 20 Influencer Marketing Statistics You Need to Know in 2020
October 11th, 2020 I have seen the ROI from influencer marketing, and by reading The Age of Influence you will too. Sometimes, however, seeing the stats is believing, and this is truly the case with influencer marketing statistics. Case studies is another area where I plan to blog more about, but let’s first see the…
(Influencer) Marketing in the Age of Influence: What You Need to Know to Succeed
September 6th, 2020 I am getting excited for the publication of my 4th book, The Age Of Influence, so I felt it was time to make a formal introduction as to why I wrote the book and and how it will help you become a better marketer in today’s age of influence. For those of…
The Definitive List of 64 Influencer Marketing Tools for 2020
October 11th, 2020 Whenever I speak on influencer marketing, I inevitably get asked: Are there any influencer marketing tools that can my life easier? After all the work involved in influencer identification alone could require a tremendous amount of time, especially once you understand my influencer marketing definition and its broad implications. And that is…
The Top 29 Compelling Email Marketing Statistics for 2020
July 3rd, 2020 It’s been predicted that there would be an end of email one day, but so far, email is still going strong a decade after that famous prediction was made by Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook. Social media may have caught up to the spotlight when it comes to marketing, but is email marketing…
The 10 Essential Types of Online Collaboration Tools Your Agency (or Small Business) Should Have
July 3rd, 2020 There is no type of business that has a greater need for online collaboration tools than an agency has. An agency’s business model is based on the collaboration of its employees together with client collaborations. As an agency owner myself, I can attest to the fact that choosing the right online collaboration…
A Complete Guide to Successful Facebook Messenger Marketing
October 11th, 2020 We all know that even today email marketing is one of the highest performing marketing channels in terms of ROI. As budgets for social media migrate to Paid Social and Influencer Marketing, some are wondering where else you might find ROI with an Organic Social program. For some companies, they have already…
How to Approach Micro Influencers to Create Content for Your Brand and Replace Your Content Studio
October 11th, 2020 Is your brand struggling with content creation for visual social networks and/or visual content mediums? Are you trying to figure out how to best leverage influencers as part of your content creation efforts? What about the challenge of how to approach micro influencers to collaborate around your content initiatives? These are the…
32 Content Marketing Statistics That Actually Matter to Your Business in 2020
July 28th, 2020 Hopefully, by now, your company is one of the 91% of B2Bs and 86% of B2Cs that are currently using content marketing. With increasing budgets in content marketing, it’s important to always be optimizing your budget spend and looking for new ideas to maximize ROI. However, it is a sad fact that…
How to Retarget on Facebook: Five Effective Strategies to Use with Your Pixel
July 28th, 2020 You have probably heard that retargeting ads provide some of the highest marketing ROI possible. But for some reason, perhaps you have not been as successful. Or perhaps your retargeting ads are not set up properly. I believe that many businesses still do not know how to retarget on Facebook correctly, or,…
The 39 Best Social Media Conferences You Should Attend in 2020
September 6th, 2020 Social media conferences and the current coronavirus pandemic If you’re reading this, you’re probably wondering what you should do concerning social media conferences in the age of the coronavirus. I was lucky enough to attend both Social Media Marketing World as well as Podfest in the first week of March shortly before…
21 Content Marketing Tools Every Marketer Needs
October 11th, 2020 Let’s face it: content marketing is hard. Every business, from decades-old establishments to enthusiastic startups, are all fighting for the attention of their audience online to grow their businesses. Original, engaging content is of the highest demand ever, and every successful content marketer must find that sweet spot between understanding their audience…
When is the Best Time to Post on Instagram for the Maximum Engagement?
October 11th, 2020 We all know that social media algorithms favor recent content and will see how people engage with your content after you publish it. If a lot of people engage with your content you will tend to get more impressions, and if your content is greeted by the sound of crickets. Therefore, timing…
Here’s How to Structure a Good Blog Post for Readers and Google
October 11th, 2020 Whenever I see someone posting a photo on Instagram, they are adding a caption. And if they are adding a caption, they are writing. Look around and you might find a lot of people writing today, not just in short-form social media captions but also in long-form content. In fact, with so…
Metricool Review: How Metricool Helps You Manage a Comprehensive Social Media Program – and More!
July 28th, 2020 When someone recently asked me what is the number one challenge for marketers in the near future, I replied that it would be how to bring together the various types of data regarding their customers, communities, and audiences and make sense of the insight before their competitors outsmarted them. The first step…
Top 3 Influencer Marketing Problems of Today and How to Deal with Them
August 2nd, 2020 What are the issues plaguing influencer marketing this year? How can brands and marketers deal with such challenges? In this article, you’ll discover the top three influencer marketing problems that come with implementing an influencer marketing program and how to overcome them. #1: Fraudulent Social Media Activity & Fake Followers Fraudulent accounts…
The Opposite of Evergreen Content: What to NOT Write About
October 11th, 2020 Everyone who has to deal with content in any of its manifestations knows that it is the key to everything in digital and social media. Whether we are talking about a blog, website, or even creating social media content, if the delivered information is fresh and engaging, it will attract the audience…
Top 11 Tips on How to Optimize Your Instagram Captions to Boost Engagement
September 6th, 2020 The secret to thriving on social media is creating relevant, engaging, and useful content for your target audience. When it comes to a visual social network like Instagram, if your Instagram posts aren’t attracting as many prospects or likes as you’d wish, it doesn’t mean that the quality of your photos or…
Where are the B2B Marketers in Japan?
June 2nd, 2020 I travel to Japan frequently for business (read My Japanese Approach to Social Media Strategy for some background), so it is fascinating to see the unique developments in digital and social media marketing there. I know that many of my clients are Japanese-owned or sell to the Japanese market directly through a…
What Consumers Really Think About Businesses Using Their Social Media Data
July 27th, 2020 There’s no doubt that the potential reach of social media is massive. In fact, it’s become the main marketing channel for an increasing number of businesses. Accompanying the massiveness of social media is the plethora of social media data that exists. “If you took out social media, Bark and Co. wouldn’t be…
What Do I Put in My LinkedIn Profile if I am a College Student?
July 27th, 2020 I get asked a lot about LinkedIn for students use-case scenarios, and although this post is originally based on how I would have responded sometime ago, my college-age niece recently asking me this question reminded me that I should have an answer revised for the times. You can find more details in…
How To Become A Social Media Influencer and Make Money From It
August 2nd, 2020 Believe it or not, a lot of marketers – and younger professionals – often ask me this question. So here you go, my advice on how to become a social media influencer, and following the advice below, actually make some money from it. Gone are the days when you have to leave…
A 10-Step Plan to Launch (or Revise) Your Instagram Marketing Strategy
October 11th, 2020 Why does every business need an Instagram marketing strategy today? Not only is Instagram is a social media network that marketers can’t afford to overlook anymore, being the second largest social network with over 1 billion users, the time has come to make it an integral part of every business’s marketing strategy,…
The Definitive Guide to Instagram Affiliate Marketing
October 11th, 2020 One of the ways in which influencers from all industries are trying to monetize their social media influence is through Instagram affiliate marketing. With Instagram becoming so popular globally and having an active and engaging audience, Instagram affiliate marketing is one of the top ways in which influencers can monetize their social media…
How to Get Verified on Instagram – The Latest Advice and Analysis
July 25th, 2020 Marketing budgets are shifting to influencer marketing on Instagram, so it should come as no surprise that more and more social media influencers (and wannabe influencers) are wondering how to get verified on Instagram. Social Media Verification Currently, most prominent celebrities, politicians and athletes from all over the world are active on…
How to Make Money on Instagram? Here’s 9 Different Ideas to Chew On
October 7th, 2020 We live in a world of technology, where social media has become a basic part of human life, and with the latest gadgets and devices, one can easily access the web at little or no cost wherever we are in the world. In the 20th century, people didn’t have the sort of…
7 Instagram Mistakes That Kill Your Online Business
October 7th, 2020 With more than 1 billion active Instagram users, it becomes tough to grow your online business without having a presence on this social platform. As of 2017, 71% of American brands are already on Instagram. In 2019, this percentage likely exceeds 80-85%, bearing in mind the yearly growth rate of nearly 50%….
Where’s Your Social Selling Playbook?
July 25th, 2020 Do each of your salespeople have their own social selling playbook? It is a social selling best practice that you need to follow for social selling success. Having just finished another 5 ½ hour social selling training session, this time for insurance sales professionals, I reflect upon how I can do better…
How to Create Your Own Instagram Followers Policy to Increase Your Community and Gain More Engagement – Podcast Ep. 131
July 25th, 2020 Instagram. It’s not only the 2nd largest social network, it’s also seen a huge growth in influencer marketing spend on Instagrammers who yield great influence. No wonder why a huge industry has been formed feeding those who seek “influence” through purchasing fake followers and engagement. This partially explains the large number of…
5 Tips to Ace Your Social Media Marketing Strategy
September 6th, 2020 If you want to engage in social media, you need to have a social media strategy. If you want to engage in social media to market your company, you need to have a social media marketing strategy in order to most effectively use social media for marketing. Whether or not you have…
The Struggle is Real: Finding Influencers That are Right for Your Brand
October 7th, 2020 On the surface, influencer marketing seems simple enough. Find an online influencer, pay them some money and watch them drive new faces to your product. Of course, anybody who has ever tried influencer marketing knows that it is far easier said than done finding the right influencer for your brand. The truth…
4 Reasons Why Holiday Posts are Crucial to Your Social Marketing Plan
July 21st, 2020 Many social media marketers see holiday posts as “fluff” – content that doesn’t really mean anything, but is easy to create and post. The truth is, holiday posts and newsbreaks can be some of the most valuable content you produce. And, with the right tools, it could be easy to produce, but…
Six Steps to Strategically Building an Influencer Marketing Program
October 11th, 2020 Welcome to the era of Influencer Marketing. The rise of social media has allowed more people to share more information to a wider audience. This paved the way for a new breed of celebrities: The digital influencers. Today, with virtually everyone using social media for a variety of purposes, any one of us…
My Top 25 Social Media Quotes for Business
September 6th, 2020 Over the course of speaking to thousands (if not tens of thousands) of professionals at a few hundred events over the last 5 years as a social media speaker, I’ve seen more and more of my attendees mention that certain things that I said resonated with them. I’ve also seen more people…
The Ultimate Best 61 Social Media Books List
October 11th, 2020 As a social media speaker, author and professor, I often get asked at the many social media conferences I speak at what are the top social media books I recommend. The barrier of entry is so low for anyone to pretend that they are an expert and publish on Kindle that it…
How to Use the LinkedIn Publishing Platform
July 17th, 2020 Today I was finally given access to the new LinkedIn publishing platform so that I start blogging with LinkedIn, and as a result published my first post on the new platform in the same day entitled “How Will YOU Use the LinkedIn Publishing Platform?” To all those who have asked me how…
11 Important Ingredients of a Comprehensive Social Media Strategy Plan [INFOGRAPHIC]
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July 16th, 2020 Since early 2010, when I launched my social media strategy consulting firm Windmills Marketing (DBA PDCA Social), I’ve helped a multitude of companies through the creation and implementation of a social media strategy plan. When I launched my company, social media marketing strategy was something that wasn’t talked about, but I knew…
Professional LinkedIn Profile Tips: A Checklist of 17 Must-Have Items
August 2nd, 2020 LinkedIn continues to evolve at a fast pace with 630 million users – but is your professional LinkedIn profile still stuck in the past? via GIPHY I’ve blogged about LinkedIn profile mistakes as well as LinkedIn profile inbound marketing tips. It’s time to provide you all an update aligned with all of…
8 Creative LinkedIn Profile Tips to Help You Maximize Your LinkedIn Presence
August 2nd, 2020 Isn’t it time that you update your LinkedIn Profile? Considering that LinkedIn profiles are the most viewed pages on LinkedIn, and your profile page really is every professional’s starting place to claim and create their own professional brand, you should be regularly reviewing your LinkedIn profile to see how you can optimize…
Social Media for Professional Associations
July 16th, 2020 I frequently get invited to speak on social media for professional associations, and when I do it often seems as if the clocks in the room have been turned back 10 years since before the advent of social media. Although there are always some savvy users of social media in the room…
5 Steps To Connect With People Outside Your Network On LinkedIn
July 16th, 2020 Once you move beyond the generic “add connections” option that LinkedIn has, you might want to specifically search for and increase your connections with people aligned with whatever connection policy you might have. The challenge is that restrictions exist within LinkedIn that may prevent you from inviting others you don’t personally know. …
Social Media as a Catalyst for Social Change
September 6th, 2020 Have you ever looked back and try to grasp the true significance that social media plays in our daily lives? Have you ever thought of how social media as a catalyst for social change has more and more become a reality? Years ago, the masses were silent. As I often present in…
Looking to Start a Social Media Consulting Business? Here’s How in 6 Steps
August 2nd, 2020 As a leading social media speaker and consultant, I often get asked about how to start a social media consulting business and develop initial clients. I am happy to mentor a new generation of social media-savvy business consultants, and I plan to be blogging about this more in the future, as I believe…
Social Media Strategy for Nonprofits: 10 Potential Objectives for Using Social Media
September 1st, 2020 I had a chance this week to speak at an event in front of several different local Orange County nonprofit organizations. While nonprofits are beginning to understand the potential for social media engagement, my sense during the meeting was that efforts seemed to be centered around Facebook for the objective of merely…
LinkedIn Photo Tips: The Why, What and What Happened?
September 6th, 2020 LinkedIn, like any other social media channel, is a social networking platform. This means that people are networking with each other while revealing who they are and what they do. LinkedIn reminds you to do this when you log in by making sure your profile is 100% complete. Part of getting to…
LinkedIn Account Restricted? Here’s Why. Hint: You May Have Been Too Active on LinkedIn!
August 2nd, 2020 Is your LinkedIn account restricted? You’re not alone – a look through the comments of this post will give you an idea as to the issues that others like you are facing. Feel free to read through this article, then pay close attention to the comments to see if there is someone…
Understanding Those Mysterious Facebook Spam Messages You May Be Receiving
July 15th, 2020 If you are one of the more than 2.4 billion people on Facebook, you have probably already figured out a way to deal with filtering out the many potential notifications, some of it some may consider Facebook spam messages, that you could be receiving. Going to the Facebook Account Settings page under…
YouTube and Your Personal Brand: 5 Reasons Why Every Professional Should Have a YouTube Channel
October 11th, 2020 I originally wrote this post several years, and since then YouTube has become a major channel for both communication and influence. Back in the day, the name of the game in becoming an influencer was restricted to blogging, but now we have seen the explosive growth of digital influence in YouTube, Instagram,…
6 Reasons Why Your Twitter Account May Be Restricted (Without Your Knowing It)
July 15th, 2020 Twitter is starting to slowly grow up. Now that Fortune 500 companies are starting to recruit on Twitter and social networking sites like LinkedIn and search engines like Google and Bing are partnering with them, it was only a matter of time before Twitter took steps to root out spam as well as…
What is LinkedIn and Why Should You Join?
September 6th, 2020 I attended a great local networking event last night in my local Orange County, California. There were many people who I had communicated with on Twitter and finally had the chance to meet…the feeling was almost like seeing long lost friends! I will save Tweetups for another blog post, because what interested me…
Twitter Followers vs Following: What is the Ideal Ratio?
July 15th, 2020 The never-ending question of quality vs quantity of Twitter Followers is similar to the argument of how many people you should connect with on LinkedIn or “friend” on any other social networking site. Yesterday I wrote that without enough connections on LinkedIn, you will not show up in as many search results….
LinkedIn Profile Tips: The 10 Mistakes You Want to Avoid and Why
October 7th, 2020 LinkedIn Profile Tips. A lot of people tell you what you should be doing, but what about what you shouldn’t be doing? LinkedIn is the place to not only find others but also to be found. And that is why you need a profile that not only helps you get found but…
20 LinkedIn LIONs & Super Connectors You MUST Connect With!
July 15th, 2020 There are many resources on the web for finding people to follow on Twitter. Just do a search for any particular type of person you want to follow (student entrepreneurs? job seeker advice? etc.) and chances are you will find a list. But why none for who to connect with on LinkedIn?…
My LinkedIn Profile: Does My Employer Own It?
July 15th, 2020 The following story of LinkedIn account ownership is a true one, and as with my other blog posts, I am hoping to get your feedback as to what the “right” answer to this question should be. Imagine that you began a job as a recruiter. Part of your job is, obviously, building…
LinkedIn Profile Name: Should I Use My Personal or Company Name on LinkedIn?
October 11th, 2020 LinkedIn, as you already know, is a social networking platform for professionals. It is no secret, then, that there is business to be found on LinkedIn for companies of many sizes and industries. If you are a small business owner, you may be confused as to whether you should use your company…
LinkedIn for Lawyers 101
July 3rd, 2020 I have had the opportunity to engage with many lawyers recently, both in person as well as online through LinkedIn, and the sudden interest in social media that lawyers seem to have has been surprising to me. I had always envisioned the legal profession as more of an old-school, conservative group of…
Two Easy Ways to Disconnect and Delete a LinkedIn Connection
August 2nd, 2020 On Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks, it is very easy to “unfriend” someone. For some reason it is very difficult to figure out how to delete connections on LinkedIn. If you think about it, LinkedIn was originally intended to be a social network for professionals who only connected with people they…
How Do I Send a Complaint to LinkedIn?
May 19th, 2020 Social media changes a lot. Some functionality is here today gone tomorrow. Your LinkedIn account might face restrictions today but I might never. Below is an incident detailing one of those incidents that happened to me several years ago but serves as an example of the never-ending changes that occur in social,…
LinkedIn Question: How to Contact 2nd and 3rd Degree Connections All at Once?
October 7th, 2020 Just got this question from a new member of my LinkedIn network today about how to contact someone on LinkedIn, so I thought I would share my answer with everyone. If you have something you want to tell everyone, or something that you want to sell, it makes sense that you want…
HOW TO: Connect with Barack Obama on LinkedIn
July 14th, 2020 I recently got asked this question about how to connect with Barack Obama on LinkedIn, and because I had a little trouble doing so myself, I thought I would let anyone know who wants to get connected with him on LinkedIn how I did so. Whether you agree with Barack Obama’s policies…
What is a LinkedIn IDK? And Why Should I Care?
October 7th, 2020 Have you had the experience recently where you were asked to enter your email address in order to send a LinkedIn invite to someone? You might have received too many LinkedIn IDKs. So, what is an IDK exactly? When you invite someone to connect with you on LinkedIn or receive an invite…
What is a LinkedIn LION?
September 6th, 2020 What is a LinkedIn LION? LION, in the LinkedIn world, stands for Linked In Open Networker. LIONs are basically open to networking with people that they have never met before, and they are important in the fact that they bridge networks of closed people. If we all follow the standard rule of…
How to Build My Network on LinkedIn? Here’s 13 Ways to Grow Your LinkedIn Network
July 14th, 2020 Who to connect with on LinkedIn in order to build a network is a question I often get asked. Every time someone invites me to connect with them, I always send out a reply thanking them and also asking them to contact me should they ever need any help with LinkedIn. I…