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 the comforts of…
About Neal Schaffer
How Social Media Influence is Impacting Our Purchasing Decisions
Just how much influence do social networks have on our everyday lives? A lot, as many recent studies have shown. Social media reaches a vast pool of potential customers willingly sharing their locations, age ranges, and preferences that allow marketers to precisely aim their advertising campaigns at just the right demographic and area. Aside from…
How to Get C-Suite Buy-in for Purchasing Social Media Marketing Software
Is having legacy social media marketing software holding you (and your company) back? You’re tired of “doing social media.” And as the marketing manager/social media manager at your company, you should be. It’s exhausting logging in to all the different social media platforms, posting weekly (if not daily), tracking the performance of your posts, responding…
A 10-Step Plan to Launch (or Revise) Your Instagram Marketing Strategy
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, even B2B companies…
Social Media Post Scheduling Software: The Top Twenty Features to Look for
Choosing the right social media post scheduling software is a crucial decision to ensure social media marketing success. Failing to properly investigate your options could mean you are locked into a potentially pricey software subscription with a product that doesn’t meet your needs. With global companies using everything from Instagram to Twitter and YouTube to…
Why You Must Embrace Customer Experience Marketing To Stand Out As A Business (with Dan Gingiss) – Ep. 138
Customer experience marketing. It’s a buzzword that a lot of people throw out, but what exactly does it mean, how important is it to you business today, and what are the first steps you can take to implementing customer experience marketing the right way? I could not think of a better person than friend and…
The Five Best Business Productivity Tools I Use for Sales and Marketing
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 to be using…
How to Optimize Your Blog Posts for Higher Search Rankings and Stay Ahead of the Competition – Ep. 137
Getting to the front page in the search rankings is a battlefield – it’s a war! The struggle to stay relevant and compete with an ever growing number of competitors requires the right tools and the right approach, especially if you are wondering how to revitalize your existing blog content. How to optimize your blog…
The Definitive Guide to Instagram Affiliate Marketing
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 followings – 1…
Social Media Audience: Your Audience Might Not Be Where You Think They Are
Marketing is the science of influencing buying decisions by convincing your customers that they need what you are selling – no matter if it’s a product or a service. In this day and age, marketing is at the heart of the economy – after all, there are simply far too many products and services for…
How to Get Verified on Instagram – The Latest Advice and Analysis
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 Instagram and make…
Seven Helpful Social Media Writing Tips For Businesses
Social media is still considered by many to be the useless pastime of young people with nothing better to do with their lives. The reality is that social media can be considered to be one of the most massive advertising platforms in existence. Billions of people of all ages and walks of life use social…
How to Make Money on Instagram? Here’s 9 Different Ideas to Chew On
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 exposure to the…
7 Instagram Mistakes That Kill Your Online Business
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%. With so many…
How to Reach a Whole New Demographic Using Social Media
Have you ever found yourself under the influence of something you saw on a friend’s social media page? If so, then you’re not alone. Countless people now look at what trusted friends and family members have to say about a product before they make buying decisions. You can reach new social media demographics by appealing…
Where’s Your Social Selling Playbook?
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 at not just…
The (Social Media) Marketing Trends You Need to Understand Today – Podcast Ep. 136
Social media keeps changing – and that’s exactly why it is a constant fight to keep up with latest social media marketing trends. It seems that every few weeks you hear that Facebook has some new algorithm that messes up all the energy you’ve been putting into it. Then a new feature appears and everyone tells…
The Digital Transformation Has Yet to Come: The Sales and Marketing Perspective
(this post first appeared on TechHQ) I was recently on a 12-day 4-country speaking tour which brought me to Japan, Bahrain, Canada, and my native United States. As I traveled I reflected upon this terminology that has become so prevalent in business yet followed by so few companies: The Digital Transformation. The Digital Transformation will ultimately affect…
Wake Up Call: It’s Time for Social Media Marketing 2.0 – Podcast Ep. 135
16 days. 6 countries. 2 continents. After a business trip around the world, I pondered what role businesses should play in social media. And then it dawned on me: Social media marketing has been going on for ten years, but brands on average still suck at it. Should businesses keep trying to do the same…
It’s Time to Bring Content, Organic Social and Performance Marketing Teams Together – Podcast Ep. 134
I recently keynoted social media enterprise platform company Falcon.io‘s Spark conference on the topic of influencer marketing. I had a chance to meet with their founder and CEO, Ulrik Bo Larsen, at the event and get his perspective on all things social media marketing. They had just announced an enhancement of their platform to encompass…
What is Influencer Marketing? Your Definition is WAY Too Narrow: Influence is EVERYWHERE in Social Media
About a year ago, I announced that I would be writing my next book on influencer marketing The Business of Influence. But rather than creating a blog post about this new book, I created a campaign on Publishizer, a platform I highly recommend to anyone interested in writing a book. After selling hundreds of books…
8 Easy Ways for Beginners to Edit and Improve Videos for Social Media
Creating and publishing videos for social media is a great way to reach a much wider audience, and you will be able to engage them in social media more effectively with video as well. However if you want to come up with the kind of videos that are able to really attract lots of viewers…
The Influencer Marketing ROI of Creating and Publishing a Roundup Post – Podcast Ep. 132
You’ve probably seen blog posts before saying, “10 Experts Choose Their Favorite Social Media Speaker” or “27 Influencers Share Their Favorite Influencer Marketing Book.” These are examples of what one would call a roundup post, and they are a powerful form of influencer marketing when strategically planned and implemented correctly, especially but not limited to…
How to Create Your Own Instagram Followers Policy to Increase Your Community and Gain More Engagement – Podcast Ep. 131
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 people who only…
An Insider’s Look at the Influencer Marketing Industry – Podcast Ep. 130
Recently, I had the pleasure and honor with working together with one of the leading influencer marketing technology companies, OpenInfluence, one of eight leading platforms that were chosen by Pinterest to become official influencer marketing partners. The culmination of my work together with OpenInfluence was the co-creation of an ebook looking at how AI is revolutionizing…
How Fresh is Your Content? – Podcast Ep. 129
Part of what you do as marketers, business owners, or entrepreneurs is to create content. This could be a Facebook or Instagram post, a blog or a You Tube video. Its important to shuffle priorities in terms of what content we publish where and align them with there we see ROI at all times. The…
The 4 Best Social Media Conferences Remaining to Attend in 2019
Why attend a social media conference? It goes without saying that social media is always changing. There is no better way to tap into the collective wisdom of experts than by attending social media conferences where you can: learn from subject matter experts, such as well-known bloggers, authors, and speakers, in the field network with…
Social Media in the Middle East: Instagram is Now Your Small Business Website
I had an amazing few days in the Middle East on business speaking on social media in Bahrain and investigating the usage of social media in the Middle East. Where ever I go in the world I am always fascinated by the way in which social media is utilized sometimes quite differently by different cultures….
5 Tips to Ace Your Social Media Marketing Strategy
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. Whether or not you have a formal social media marketing strategy written down or not, here are some…
The Struggle is Real: Finding the Right Influencer for Your Brand
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 is that not…
Free Influencer Marketing Ebook: How AI is Revolutionizing Influencer Marketing
Don’t want to read the whole post and just want to download the free influencer marketing ebook? No worries: Click here to download the free influencer marketing ebook right away! As I proceed forward in writing my book on influencer marketing, The Business of Influence, I continue to be amazed at how widespread influencer marketing…
701 Video Marketing Ideas + Ten Ways To Come Up With More
Video, video, video. We all know that we need to create more videos and that videos for social media can also help us build a large YouTube community. The question is how to come up with video marketing ideas to consistently create engaging videos that also help us meet your marketing objectives on a consistent basis….
Gain Unprecedented Visibility into Your Instagram Marketing Efforts with Combin
Instagram can be a frustrating social network for marketers to manage. Originally created for use solely on smartphones, Instagram has slowly allowed brands more access to the social network from the convenience of a computer should you use a general social media dashboard tool that supports posting to Instagram – I recommend AgoraPulse for this…
Influencer Marketing is About Community, Not a Campaign
(this post first appeared on TechHQ here: http://techhq.com/2018/04/influencer-marketing-is-about-community-not-a-campaign/) The number one question I get asked from marketing executives as a social media speaker these days is all about influencer marketing, so much that I have decided to dedicate writing a book on the topic (The Business of Influence) because I believe influencer marketing is one of the least…
Social Media Replaces Nothing Yet Complements Everything
(this post first appeared on TechHQ here: http://techhq.com/2018/04/social-media-replaces-nothing-yet-complements-everything/) As a social media speaker, I get asked what I believe are bizarre questions from executives and businesspeople who see social media alone as somewhat a savior for their business. “If only we can get influencers to talk about us on social media we can meet our growth goals” is a…
The 3 Incredible SmarterQueue Alternatives You Need to Try
Social media management takes up so much time– a lot more than anyone likely could have ever predicted when businesses first started joining Facebook several years ago. You’re expected to actively promote your business without over-promoting it, build relationships, and continue to create great content. It’s exhausting and at times it can be overwhelming. It’s…
Social Media Apps: 11 Incredible Tools for Managing Your Social Media in 2019
The right choice of social media apps is critical to the success of your social media and digital marketing. There are many must-have social media tools for your business, but the right social media management app can make a huge difference in how your brand handles social media and how your social media team uses…
How to Leverage Social Media Video Marketing Trends with Wondershare Filmora Video Editor
With huge advancements in technology, business owners have found several new ways to promote their business online. Social media is the top target of every brand as it provides easy connectivity to millions of people from different corners of the world. And the best way to gain the attention of the audience on social media…
How to Build a Powerful Company with Patty McCord [Interview]
Every once in awhile I get excited for a new business book published by a well-recognized business person but a first-time book author. For 2018, the book that I am excited about is Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility, written by the co-creator of the Netflix Culture Deck and former Netflix executive Patty McCord,…
How to Build a Social Media Quiz to Increase Engagement and Get More Leads
You all know that using social media is a great way to market your company. Since you’re competing in the market for everyone’s attention, you need to engage with your customers or potential clients in a better way than others do. There are many ways you can go about this, but quizzes have proven to…
How to Create Engaging and Shareable Social Media Videos
Over the years videos have become ubiquitous with social media as they have grown to dominate almost all popular social media platforms. The reason for that growth is simple: Videos are by far the most effective form of social media content in terms of being able to attract and engage viewers. Social media videos are…
My 10 Favorite Social Media Growth Hacks for You to Try
I had the privilege to share my insights and provide tips about Social Media Growth Hacks for another site recently, so I thought I would share that content with you all as well. It was an awesome experience to collaborate with many top social media influencers whom I respect to provide a comprehensive resource for…
Who are the Top 100 Sales Influencers?
A new comprehensive list of the top 100 sales influencers has been published. While there are many of these arbitrary “Top [Number] [Subject] Influencer” lists that are out there, this was developed by a company using a lot of big social data to analyze influencer. This list also included two sub-lists of influencers in terms…
How Influencer Marketing Brings True Value to Your Business
Influencer Marketing has significant and tangible benefits for business and is not a trend that will fade away anytime soon. Brands are a singular entity amongst hundreds of millions of users in social media. It can be a lonely and somewhat depressing experience when you can’t create any traction on social. Instead of trying to…
Instaplus Review: Instagram Followers and Engagement Management Tool
Every social media marketer knows that Instagram is the 2nd largest social network and requires our attention, regardless of what industry our business operates in. Instagram is also a social network that is extremely engaging and, similar to Twitter, can provide the smart marketer with organic growth opportunities should they invest the time into building…
6 Reasons Why Your Social Media Agency Needs MavSocial
I was chatting with a friend the other day who spends hundreds of dollars a month alone on stock photo solely for promoting content in social media. “Did you know that there are tools that allow you to use licensed stock photos for free if they are limited to social media?” I asked. My friend,…
How to Create and Promote Your Own Twitter Trending Hashtag: The Case Study of #SocialTools16
Wouldn’t it be great if our hashtag became a Twitter trending hashtag? Why do certain Twitter hashtags trend and how can we make this work in our brand’s favor? You, too, can create and, if done right, promote your hashtag to the point where it trends globally on Twitter. This is the case study of…
4 Reasons Why Holiday Posts are Crucial to Your Social Marketing Plan
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 it should never…
Influencer Marketing: How to Supercharge Engagement with Your Content
While many companies are spending budget money “buying” relationships with “influencers” chasing KPIs of “social reach,” others (including myself) are including the concepts of influencer marketing in their day-to-day organic social media and content marketing activities. This is done through the simple concept of utilizing content to engage with social media users. Once you understand…
The 10 Definitive Instagram Statistics You Should Know – and Why
Influencer marketing is at an all time high according to Google Trends, and Instagram continues to arguably perform as one of the leading platforms for these marketers. Find your visual voice on Instagram by taking in the 10 most important Instagram statistics and takeaways and turning them to your advantage. 1. The Most Important of the Instagram…
How Harvard Medical School Does Visual Social – Podcast Ep. 128
Today I’m mixing it up with an interview as I get ready to hit the road again in the next couple of months. I’m talking to someone who I’m excited to meet at the upcoming Social Tools Summit in Boston, Jay Shemenski, who is the Digital Manager of the Harvard Medical School. Listen in to…
Is Your Business Making Any of These 10 Social Media Mistakes?
10 Social Media Mistakes to Avoid Social media has grown into an influential part of developing both a business reputation and a relationship with the public. The ability for people to interact with their favorite companies, learn new facts about upcoming products, or get a glimpse at “behind the scenes” of big brands is an…
10 Tips to Hack Your Social Media Growth – Podcast Ep. 127
Today I want to talk about something I haven’t talked about before: growth hacking, or specifically hacking your social media growth. Growth hacking is basically how to quickly create a robust social presence on a newly launched effort in a short amount of time. I’ve had a few companies reach out to me for advice…
Introducing the Social Media Tools for Business Buyer’s Guide
Social Tools Summit is the first social media industry conference focused on tools and best practices in utilizing them to scale ROI. As a co-founder of the summit, I’ve had the pleasure to meet numerous social media tools vendors. So, I’ve created a comprehensive list of leading social media tools that will help you decide…
How to Create Processes for Your Social Media Program – Podcast Ep. 126
Today’s show is about something I’m very passionate about both for my clients and for my own brand: taking social media seriously. Social is becoming a bigger part for businesses large and small, and they are spending more and more resources on it, but it’s important to take it seriously and look at what you’re…
Ask Me Anything: The Answers to Your Social Media Questions – Podcast Ep. 125
Not long ago I did an “Ask Me Anything” on Product Hunt, a website that showcases new products, apps, and startups. Today I’m going to share some of the questions I answered during that session because I thought maybe if one person is asking me this, other people are having these same questions. Listen in…
7 Steps To Creating A Stunning Visual Voice On Instagram
As a social media keynote speaker I do a lot of public speaking on social media, and one of the most common messages that I give is that every company needs a visual voice. This is especially true on purely visual social networks such as Instagram. We understand what voice means. When your mom calls…
Does Your Influencer Marketing Strategy have a Content-Centric Approach?
Influencer marketing and content marketing: Two key areas that will continue to see increased budget spend for companies of all sizes. While businesses are struggling to get greater ROI from their spend in these areas, one easy way of getting more bang for your buck is to think of combining the two seemingly different concepts…
How to Reach Out to Social Media Influencers and Bloggers – Podcast Ep. 120
Today I want to talk about how to reach out to social media influencers, bloggers, and anyone else you want to cover your story. It’s important to remember that these social media influencers are busy people, and you’re asking them to take time to use your product, and maybe even tweet or write about it –…
The ROI of Social Listening: Big Social Data as an Infrastructure Asset
For those of you that have read Maximize Your Social, you know that I consider Social Listening to be an important ingredient to a social media strategy. The ROI of Social Listening, however, has often been questioned by many. How do you go about calculating the ROI from your Social Listening initiatives? Let’s first take a look…
Announcing My New Ebook Maximizing LinkedIn for Business – Podcast Ep. 117
Today I’m coming to you from Clearwater, Florida, where I actually did this podcast episode as a Periscope broadcast. And while I do talk a little bit about Periscope in this episode, what I’m mostly discussing is my new ebook which just came out on Kindle. It’s called Maximizing LinkedIn for Business, and it came…
Six Steps to Strategically Building an Influencer Marketing Program
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 might influence someone…
11 Must-Have Content Curation Best Practices
The social media revolution was a huge equalizer among the publishing industry by giving anyone and everyone the tools to be their own publisher. Several years later, content curation is poised to do the same thing for thought leaders: Those who are able to curate the “best of the best” of content in their niche…
5 Ways Your Business Should Be Maximizing Your LinkedIn
If you’re overlooking LinkedIn, your business is ignoring the second-largest social network. That’s right, some data suggests that LinkedIn actually has more dedicated users than Twitter. Whether you are seeking introductions to decision makers or more clients for your business, LinkedIn can help you get there, but only if you use it right. Overhaul your LinkedIn…
Every CEO Should Invest in their Company’s Employee Advocacy Program
Chief Executive Officers may have been the last to join the social media revolution, but they are slowly starting to catch up with the rest. The latest numbers have up to 80 percent of global CEOs engaged on social media although newer CEOs are participating 52 percent more than their tenured counterparts. On the other…
What are the 10 Types of Must-Have Social Media Tools for Business?
Have you adopted all of the necessary social media tools your business needs to scale your social media program? As the co-founder of the Social Tools Summit, the first social media conference devoted entirely to social media tools, how they can benefit your social media program, and best practices in utilizing them, it is my job…
Recommended Pinterest Tools for Business: Tailwind
Are you looking for Pinterest tools to help you maximize your Pinterest marketing? As the Co-Founder of the Social Tools Summit, I realized that while I work with a lot of social media tools companies, I have written very reviews of which social media tools I use for both my personal blog Maximize Your Social as…
How to Refine Your Visual Voice and Engage on Instagram – Podcast Ep. 116
As you may remember, I’ve been in Japan these last few weeks, and I’ve been thinking a lot about the power of mobile. This week I want to talk about the social network that you can only engage in from mobile: Instagram. It’s important for businesses to find their visual voice and be original…
Six Innovative Ways This Resort Used Social Media to Increase Bookings 30%
Located in the friendly and quiet community of Costa Teguise on the beautiful and environmentally aware Canary Island of Lanzarote, the Sands Beach Resort is situated on a sandy crescent of beachfront property that is wrapped around a picturesque seawater lagoon. This luxury hotel features spacious rooms with amazing views, several on-site restaurant and bar options, multiple…
How Cathay Pacific Built a Global Employee Advocacy Program – Podcast Ep. 115
This week I’m coming to you from Japan, and I’m talking to Dennis Owen, from Cathay Pacific. Today we’re talking about their extremely successful employee advocacy program, which Dennis launched simultaneously with their brand campaign “Life Well Traveled.” Dennis explains how he got the higher ups behind him, the platform they use, what kind of…
Why It’s Time to Prune Your LinkedIn Connections – Podcast Ep. 114
When I first started speaking and blogging about social media, I focused on LinkedIn. But the platform has changed so much since the beginning, and of course our interactions and recommended use of it have evolved too. Today, I’m talking about pruning your LinkedIn connections. Not only is it important to comb through your current connections…
My 9-Step Process to Skyrocket Facebook Business Page Engagement
We’ve all heard about declining Facebook organic reach, advertising on Facebook is getting more expensive, and some are even deleting their Facebook Page. Do you ever feel like just giving up on Facebook? I did, but I didn’t, and Maximize Social Business is now thriving on Facebook as a result of the advice I am going to…
Best Practices for Content Marketing through Social Media
To this date, there have been 50 blog posts published about content marketing here on Maximize Social Business (you can find the complete list here) primarily by both alumni content marketing contributor Bob Geller and our current content marketing contributor Justice Mitchell. Clearly content marketing is a popular subject that resonates with our readers, but…
How to Create a System for Your Content Marketing – Podcast Ep. 111
After a whirlwind month of ten speaking engagements in three different countries, I’m back to the podcast. And after talking with people all over the world about social media, today I want to talk about content. We all know how important content is, but with an oversaturated market, it’s important that the content you are…
4 Ways in Which AgoraPulse Helps You Maximize Your Social
AgoraPulse is no newcomer to the social media dashboard scene, but they have been traditionally known as a Facebook application platform. Most people don’t know that AgoraPulse is a full-fledged social media dashboard which now includes support for Twitter and Instagram in addition to Facebook. While there’s no shortage of great social media tools to…
My Best Social Media Advice? Ignore Everyone’s Social Media Advice. – Podcast Ep. 109
I’m coming to you this week from the Women’s Business Symposium, sponsored by Comerica Bank, and benefiting Girls, Inc. Last week, I held the event that I’ve been talking about for months, the Social Tools Summit. It really got me thinking about why it’s important to be unique in the world of business and social…
How to Leverage Live Streaming for Content Marketing
Live streaming is huge. Almost 1/3 of business video in 2013 was viewed via the live streaming pioneer Ustream. Don’t think people have time to watch live stream video? It was reported that the average viewing time of a stream was 25 minutes on uStream versus a mere 6 minutes for Hulu and 3 minutes…
Reintroducing Agora Pulse: The Social Engagement Dashboard for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram – Podcast Ep. 102
I met all kinds of great people at the Social Media Marketing World event in San Diego last week, and I’m excited to share this interview with you. Emeric is the CEO and Co-Founder of Agora Pulse, an engagement dashboard tool for Facebook, Twitter, and soon Instagram as well. Agora Pulse allows you to track…
Social Media Tools for Advocacy: How GaggleAMP Helps You Leverage the Other
Businesses of all sizes are waking up to the fact that a truly effective social media presence requires companies to what I recently refer to as Leverage The Other by engaging with and scaling social media efforts through the involvement of influencers, fans, partners, and/or employees. Employee Advocacy is a relatively new term used in…
From the CeBIT Global Conferences 2015: The Role of IT in Social Media – Podcast Ep. 100
This week is a special episode, recorded at the CeBIT Global Conferences (CGC) in Hannover, Germany. I spoke and participated in this great event, and I had such a good time sitting down to speak with Ingo Stoll about the role information technology can play in social media. This episode takes a step back from…
7 Reasons Why LinkedIn Should Become Your New CRM – Podcast Ep. 99
Many companies invest in using a customer relationship management tool, or CRM, such as Salesforce. But there’s a free tool at your fingertips that you need to take advantage of: LinkedIn. LinkedIn has plenty of functions like searching and tagging that allow you to keep track of and maintain your professional relationships, sometimes better than…
My Answers to Your Top 10 Social Media Questions
The German social media and SEO tool company, Linkbird, recently reached out to me for an interview on all things social media. I had them ask me their top 10 social media questions, and what they asked me represent a lot of the same questions that I get asked in general. You’ll have to read…
Guest Blogging is Here to Stay: Respect the Content and the Creators – Podcast Ep. 98
Some people say that guest blogging is dead, but I disagree. Content curation is a great way to have enough content to share, and it’s beneficial for both business and the content creators. How? This week, I talk about the importance of building those relationships between brands and influencers: how organizations can strategically partner with…
There are Options: How to Help Your Small Business with Social Media – Podcast Ep. 97
I get a lot of requests saying, “We’re behind on our social media, and we need help.” A lot of these calls for help are coming from people with small businesses, so today I want to discuss some of the options that are available for you, such as working with consultants, agencies, and virtual assistants….
5 Things You Need for a Successful Social Selling Infrastructure – Podcast Ep. 96
I’ve talked a lot about the benefits of social selling and some of you are farther down the road of creating a successful social selling program than others. Social allows you to create connections faster and contact prospects you otherwise might not have been able to. If you haven’t started your social selling journey yet,…
The Role of Stories and Human Interaction in Sharing Your Expertise – Podcast Ep. 95
Hopefully you’ve heard about the Social Tools Summit that I’m launching this May in Boston, but maybe you haven’t heard why I’m creating this event. Aiming to educate organizations about the social tools that are available, the goal of this event is to close the gap between customer understanding and company potential. By bringing vendors, subject matter experts,…
How Employee Advocacy and Social Selling Need Alignment Between Sales and Marketing Teams to Succeed – Podcast Ep. 94
For many companies, the time has come to encourage employee advocacy and get your sales team active on social. Back when I was working as a B2B sales executive, I was inspired by the Japanese tradition of omiyage, or souvenir, and tried to bring a valuable nugget of information every time I met with a client. That souvenir…
LinkedIn Publishing Platform Tips: Should I Republish My Blog Content on LinkedIn? – Podcast Ep. 90
Now that you see the value in publishing on LinkedIn, should you simply republish your blog’s content on LinkedIn? Or …? It’s time to take into consideration your target audience, the potential traffic to your website, conversions, and how search engines will process duplicate content. Once people are on your website, you all need to…
9 Concepts to Help Raise Your Social Media to the Next Level – Podcast Ep. 89
I’m excited to be speaking at a one-day social media workshop in Bucharest, Romania by focusing in on those advanced social media marketing concepts that you need to dive into to help you raise your social media to the next level. Starting simple with concepts like content and social voice, and moving on to more interesting…
This is How You Create a Community in Social Media through a Social Media Campaign – Podcast Ep. 88
I often get asked about what makes a good social media campaign. While not normally a fan of Kickstarter campaigns, I found one that I really admired when someone shared Passion Planner’s most recent campaign in a Facebook group. I share best practices with social media campaigns by showcasing what worked in Passion Planner’s Kickstarter campaign: aspects of shareability,…
Want to Improve Your Social? Start with These Six Ideas – Podcast Ep. 87
If you have been plugging away at social, creating content and doing it all organically, it may be the case that you still aren’t seeing any traction. This week, I’m giving you six ideas for getting your social media off the ground by describing one of my pre-sales social media consulting calls. From clarifying your…
The Power of Visual Content in Social Media Marketing
The need for visual content in social media – it sucks, doesn’t it? You religiously schedule your social media posts at the right times and churn out original content on multiple platforms. You engage all the fancy social media tools. You follow the advice of the experts to the T and wait followers to come…
5 Key Instagram Marketing Takeaways from New Data
With 200 million monthly active users, 60 million photos posted each day, and 1.6 billion likes per day, the question is not whether or not your company should be on Instagram but rather how you can leverage that engagement to increase your own brand awareness through Instagram marketing. More than 86% of the Interbrand 2013 Top 100…
Making the Instagram Transition from Personal to Business – Podcast Ep. 83
As Instagram continues to gain in popularity, many haven’t started to leverage the opportunities that Instagram provides businesses. This platform is purely visual, has lots of people engaging casually, and it has brought a sense authenticity back to social. Today, I introduce my own story of the why and how I am transitioning to use…
My Top 25 Social Media Quotes for Business
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 tweet out soundbites…
It’s time to Ctrl-Alt-Delete How You View LinkedIn – Podcast Ep. 75
Before I blogged at Maximize Social Business, I had a blog called Windmill Networking, and before that blog, I had a WordPress blog called Expert Answers to your Linkedin Questions which was launched through Linkedin. A lot of people know me as the Linkedin guy, but I don’t want to be a one trick pony,…
The Ultimate Best 61 Social Media Books List [Always Updated!]
![The Ultimate Best 61 Social Media Books List [Always Updated!]](https://nealschaffer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/The-Ultimate-Best-61-Social-Media-Books-List-Always-Updated-1200x630-V1.jpg "The Ultimate Best 61 Social Media Books List [Always Updated!]")
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 is an important…
How to Monitor Social Media Feedback and Respond to Posts
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Global Response. All opinions are 100% mine. There is no doubt that consumer buying habits are influenced by social media. Way back in 2011, Harvard Business School conducted a study which found that online customer reviews definitely lend a boost to business. According to the…
6 Super Quick Social Media Productivity Tips + 23 Tools to Help!
Tammy Kahn Fennell recently wrote a great post here on Maximize Social Business about having a social media productivity plan with plenty of advice on how to build your own. We all know that social media, in theory, is the quickest, most efficient, and most cost-effective way to communicate your message to the world. But at the same…
Neal’s Fave Social Media Productivity Tips & Tools – Podcast Ep. 71
On my blog this week we had a great post by the CEO and co-founder of MarketMeSuite, Tammy Kahn Fennell, about how to create a social media productivity plan, and it inspired me to share my thoughts on social media productivity, including some of my favorite tips and the tools I use. It’s important to…
The Final Frontier of Social Media Marketing: Employee Advocacy
On January 1, 2014, in my 6 Social Media Trends to Watch Evolve in 2014″ post, the first trend that I talked about in detail was that of employee advocacy. As I mentioned then, Employee advocacy will become a strategic initiative for more and more large (and some small) companies. Companies are always looking outside…
Social Media Lessons Learned from the Japanese Countryside – Podcast Ep. 68
As you may know, I have been traveling a lot lately, and I realized that I didn’t record a podcast while I was in Japan, but I want to talk about what I did while I was there. My wife is Japanese, so we go to Japan every year mostly for pleasure, but I always…
19 Social Media Quotes for Business to Live By [INFOGRAPHIC]
![19 Social Media Quotes for Business to Live By [INFOGRAPHIC]](https://nealschaffer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/19-Social-Media-Quotes-for-Business-to-Live-By-INFOGRAPHIC-1200x630-V11.jpg "19 Social Media Quotes for Business to Live By [INFOGRAPHIC]")
Ask any business leader what their favorite quote is and they are bound to provide you with something that has provided them sound guidance in their career. One of my personal favorite quotes is one attributed to Woody Allen which is “80% of success is about showing up.” It provides me the energy to engage…
How I Help Companies Create a Unique Social Media Strategy Plan
Just as social media permeates every corporate discipline and industry, so will every social media strategy plan created by any given company be unique to their business objectives, internal resources, culture, as well as many other factors. Hopefully readers of my blog will have already realized that there is no cookie cutter approach to any of…
Executive Personal Branding and Your Domain Name: dotCOM or dotCEO?
What’s in a domain name for executive personal branding? A lot more perception and power than you might think. With the recent introduction of new Top Level Domains, it is now possible for executives and business leaders to define and brand their digital existence down to their domain name. What the heck is a Top…
How to Use the LinkedIn Publishing Platform
Today I was finally given access to the new LinkedIn publishing platform, 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 they can apply to be an Influencer on LinkedIn, the…
How to Become a Public Speaker on Social Media
I get asked by a lot of other social media professionals as to how to become a paid social media speaker, so I thought I would spend a minute to respond to a friend in blog post form so that I could share my thoughts with all of my blog readers on how to become…
4 Convincing Reasons Why Employee Advocacy Should Begin on LinkedIn
Back in 2011 I wrote my 2nd book on LinkedIn called Maximizing LinkedIn for Sales and Social Media Marketing. At that time, I wrote, In order to maximize your company’s exposure on LinkedIn … every sales and marketing employee that represents your business needs to have a LinkedIn profile. Obviously, from the title of the book…
Should There be an Aptitude Test for Social Media Professionals?
As someone who teaches as part of the Rutgers University Social Media Marketing Mini-MBA Program, I find myself being called an “educator” more and more. Whether it is through teaching, consulting, coaching, blogging, writing, or speaking, my end goal really is to educate professionals and businesses on social media and help them cross the chasm…
11 Important Ingredients of a Comprehensive Social Media Strategy Plan [INFOGRAPHIC]
Since early 2010, when I launched my social media strategy consulting firm Windmills Marketing (DBA Maximize Your 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 strategy was something that wasn’t talked about, but I knew it was the…
The Ultimate LinkedIn Profile Summary Tips [Infographic]
![The Ultimate LinkedIn Profile Summary Tips [Infographic]](https://nealschaffer.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/The-Ultimate-LinkedIn-Profile-Tips-Summary-Infographic-8-Stats-1200x630-V2.jpg "The Ultimate LinkedIn Profile Summary Tips [Infographic]")
It’s been a few months since I wrote my popular Professional LinkedIn Profile Tips: A Checklist of 17 Must-Have Items post, and since we have all seen the growing importance of visual social media, I wanted to offer my readers an easy way to compare their own profile with what I call the perfect LinkedIn profile…
Professional LinkedIn Profile Tips: A Checklist of 17 Must-Have Items
LinkedIn continues to evolve at a fast pace – but is your profile still stuck in pre-2013 times? 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 LinkedIn’s changes to help you create the perfect professional LinkedIn profile. Consider…
The Top 25 Twitter Clients Used by the Top 50 Social Media Influencers [INFOGRAPHIC]
![The Top 25 Twitter Clients Used by the Top 50 Social Media Influencers [INFOGRAPHIC]](https://nealschaffer.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/The-Top-25-Twitter-Clients-Used-by-the-Top-50-Social-Media-Influencers-INFOGRAPHIC-1200x6301.jpg "The Top 25 Twitter Clients Used by the Top 50 Social Media Influencers [INFOGRAPHIC]")
Last year, based on data of 5,000+ agency accounts and 1.5 million tweets, San Francisco based digital agency Cibo provided us with an interesting summary of the top 20 Twitter clients being used. It’s time to take a look at which Twitter clients are popular. I decided to take the matter into my own hands this…
Social Media Strategy: The Answer to the Top 5 Social Media Marketer Questions
“Creating a social media strategy is still a major concern for marketers.” Social Media Examiner recently published their 5th annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report, where they surveyed more than 3,000 marketers from around the world on a variety of social media issues. The report is free until May 30 (THAT’S TODAY!) and should be downloaded…
Learning from All Nippon Airways: Does Your Brand have a Facebook Content Strategy?
As I was flipping through the inflight magazine on my recent All Nippon Airways (ANA) Brand Ambassador trip to Okinawa, Japan, it was a pleasant surprise to see the below article: I’ll translate it further below, but for the sake of this conversation, let’s just say that ANA is very clear as to what content…
9 Twitter Chat Best Practices from Dun and Bradstreet [Interview]
![9 Twitter Chat Best Practices from Dun and Bradstreet [Interview]](https://nealschaffer.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/9-Twitter-Chat-Best-Practices-from-Dun-and-Bradstreet-Interview-1200x6301.jpg "9 Twitter Chat Best Practices from Dun and Bradstreet [Interview]")
“Maximizing Your Social” is all about fully leveraging the opportunities that social media holds for your entire enterprise. While most companies seem to be stuck on simply using limited social media channels for social media marketing or marketing communications, there is a new generation of enterprises that are using social media in a broader and…
The 15 Best WordPress Plugins for Social Media, SEO, and Better Visitor Engagement [Always Updated!]
![The 15 Best WordPress Plugins for Social Media, SEO, and Better Visitor Engagement [Always Updated!]](https://nealschaffer.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/The-15-Best-WordPress-Plugins-for-Social-Media-SEO-and-Better-Visitor-Engagement-Always-Updated-1200x630-V1.jpg "The 15 Best WordPress Plugins for Social Media, SEO, and Better Visitor Engagement [Always Updated!]")
I like to share my own experiences using WordPress plugins to run Maximize Social Business 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 CMS, WordPress powers one of…
8 Ways to Make LinkedIn Endorsements Work for You and Your Network
LinkedIn Endorsements. Nothing in the history of LinkedIn has created so much “buzz” in the online community as this newest feature. For those who know me, you’ll appreciate my perspective: 1) I don’t tend to waste time voicing a positive or negative opinion of the changes – they are what they are, and this is LinkedIn…
10 Social Media Strategy Audit Questions to Help Your Business
A social media audit is part of any social media strategy consulting that I do, but to give you some simple advice as to what you should do to further improve on your social media presence, ask yourself the following 10 questions: Social Media Platforms 1) Are your activities on the various social media websites…
8 Creative LinkedIn Profile Tips to Help You Maximize Your LinkedIn Presence
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 it with every user interface change. With that in mind, here are…
Social Media Marketing for Medical Practices
One of my good friends is a family doctor who owns a medical practice. One day she had an “aha!” moment: One of her new clients found her on Yelp. My own doctor is now slowly venturing cautiously into Facebook, and do a search on Twitter for dentists or search Facebook for family practices and you…
6 Social Media Community Management Tips from a Digital Marketer Turned Community Manager [Interview]
![6 Social Media Community Management Tips from a Digital Marketer Turned Community Manager [Interview]](https://nealschaffer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/6-Social-Media-Community-Management-Tips-from-a-Digital-Marketer-Turned-Community-Manager-Interview-V1a-copy1.jpg "6 Social Media Community Management Tips from a Digital Marketer Turned Community Manager [Interview]")
This is the second in a series of interviews (read the first one here) with community managers who are responsible for the execution of social media within their company. What can other community managers, those who want to become community managers, as well as social media professionals learn from their experiences? If you are a…
Social Media Community Management Advice from Shakey’s Pizza [Interview]
![Social Media Community Management Advice from Shakey's Pizza [Interview]](https://nealschaffer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Social-Media-Community-Management-Advice-from-Shakeys-Pizza-Interview-V2a-copy1.jpg "Social Media Community Management Advice from Shakey's Pizza [Interview]")
Social media community manager’s are a rare breed of individual, fulfilling a role that simply didn’t exist until recently and, at many companies, may not have their roles and responsibilities firmly defined. This is the first in a series of interviews I plan to have with community managers who are responsible for the execution of…
13 Experts Chime In on Klout’s Algorithm to Determine Social Influence
Social influence matters to businesses. After all, the promise of influencer marketing that engaging with those who have “influence” in social media can help to more effectively sell more products or quickly gain significantly more brand awareness is the holy grail that any business would want to chase. As more users join and spend more…
10 Tips on How To Create High Quality Content for Blogs, Newsletters, and Other Content Marketing Initiatives
Content marketing is more important than ever, and some would argue that it’s the most efficient way to boost your SEO these days. Content is also an excellent engagement vehicle. Furthermore, learning how to create high quality content for your website, blog, and newsletter is key if you want to continue to attract customers to your…
LinkedIn Group Moderation Rules: 5 Steps to Managing a Successful Community!
I always say that LinkedIn Groups are the biggest public forums for professionals on the Internet, because they are! Where else can you find more than one million groups, with the largest one “Job Openings, Job Leads, and Job Connections!” having more than 900,000 members! The potential for professional networking – and developing business –…
Who are the Top 15 Thought Leaders in Social Media Today?
Wikipedia defines a thought leader as …an entity that is recognized by peers for having innovative ideas. Thought leaders often publish articles and blog posts on trends and topics influencing an industry. I often get asked who are the true “thought leaders” in social media. In a world of voluminous tweets and blog posts, with…
5 Creative Ideas to Spark New Engagement in Facebook Timeline for Fan Pages
With Facebook’s recent implementation of Timeline for Pages, we are quickly reminded that we have no control over what direction Facebook might take with their platform. Regardless if you are a fan or not of Facebook, however, there is still no better way to reach out and engage with both present and potential consumers in…
6 Tips on How to Accelerate Word of Mouth Marketing through Social Media
Whether we admit it or not, the opinions of other people matter. Whether it’s about simple things such as which brand of laundry detergent to buy, or bigger decisions such as who to consult with on critical business matters, we’ve always taken into account the points of view of those we deem important in order…
What’s The Meaning of a Klout Score? The Pros and Cons of How Social Influence is Measured
Almost six months ago I blogged that marketers would decide on the fate of Klout. However, with the continued buzz about Klout scores that I hear from new and potential social media consulting clients, as well as the continued presence of its main competitor PeerIndex and the emerging metric for influence Kred, the debate over…
Are You Ready to Fully Expose Your Brand to Social Media Users?
Consulting with clients on their social media strategy and implementation for more than two years has led me to one conclusion about how businesses should be using social media: The closer you can bring your brand to your customers, the better it will be for both of you. In exposing as much of your brand…
5 Strategic Tips for Creating a Killer LinkedIn Company Page
Due to the professional demographic of LinkedIn, it’s only a matter of time before more businesses leverage the professional opportunities available by searching for products and services through LinkedIn Company Pages. It is in every business owner’s best interest to ensure that his or her company be found prominently in the Company search results when…
Pinterest and Facebook: A Foreseeable Rivalry for Retailers?
There are so many social media networks online that you’d think that you’ve seen them all. Google Plus created a major disruption when it was introduced last year. And now here comes Pinterest. Picture yourself compiling your thoughts on a digital album and showing them to people who like the same things you like, and that…
Understanding the Difference between LinkedIn Company Pages and Facebook Fan Pages
LinkedIn Company Pages are actually a combination of a number of different modules that are rarely maximized by businesses. In order to better understand how your sales and marketing team can best maximize this multi-functional part of LinkedIn, it’s important to understand exactly what the Companies functionality offers. A good way to start is to compare…
Social Media 101 for Professional Associations
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 when I present,…
The Top 20 Twitter Clients – HootSuite, TweetDeck and More
I recently changed my main Twitter client (more information on that below) and decided to create a poll in my LinkedIn Group to find out what others use. I asked my 2,500 group members: What Twitter client do you use for business? Statistically speaking, the results can not represent the entire user base for those who…
5 Steps To Connect With People Outside Your Network On LinkedIn
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. You are entitled…
10 Incredibly Simple Ways to Maximize Your LinkedIn Profile for Inbound Marketing
Your LinkedIn profile is the public-facing summary of who you are, what you represent, what your professional history is, and your area of expertise. In essence, your profile is a snapshot of the brand you are sharing with the entire world. It’s only natural, then, that increasing the Inbound Marketing potential of our profile can…
Social Media Influencer Outreach Brand Ambassador Case Study – All Nippon Airways #ANALAX
As consumer brands try to establish themselves as social brands, one of the missions they have in social media is to have their message go viral or spread by the so-called “influencers” that presumably exist in social media. This blog post is not intended to be about the debate as to how you determine who…
Social Media as a Catalyst for Social Change
As we begin to close out this amazing year of growth (ubiquity?) of social media in 2011, it is time to take a look back and try to grasp at the true significance social media plays in our daily lives. Years ago, the masses were silent. As I often present in my speeches, up until…
Ancient Religions and New Media : A Match Made in Heaven
Religion is one of the oldest pursuits of mankind while blogging has only been around since the advent of the Internet. Just as social media permeates every aspect of a business over time, it has the the potential to do so over many parts of our daily life. Upon the introduction of, Michael Myers, an…
4 Reasons Why LinkedIn (and not Facebook) Might be the Better Choice for Your Company
Successful social media marketing is about knowing where your customers are and establishing a presence there. It is clear that professionals from all demographics are spending a great deal of time with social media, and that Facebook is the main networking site where we spend (or rather, waste) our time. However, simply because many people…
How I Developed Business on LinkedIn – a LinkedIn Case Study
In consulting with businesses on their social media strategy, I often use success stories from LinkedIn’s own blog to illustrate how business can be developed on LinkedIn. I also talk about my own success story, which is included in full detail in my new LinkedIn marketing book, and summarized as follows: As my job involves staying abreast…
My Japanese Approach to Social Media Strategy
When I recently presented in Japan on how the agricultural industry could best utilize social media in a country where Twitter usage was reported to be more widespread than the United States yet Facebook was only beginning to grow, I was reminded by my Japanese friend Katsuyo Nakao of something very important that affected my…
4 Things Triberr Reminded Me about Twitter
When I taught my first Twitter workshops WAY back in 2009, before Triberr existed, I mentioned one of the many reasons why I was bullish from the start about using HootSuite as a Twitter client: It gave you the ability to seamlessly import RSS feeds. At that time, I mentioned that this was efficient for…
Why I am No Longer a LinkedIn LION
Want to buy Facebook fans? Why not buy some Twitter followers to boot? There are companies that you can actually pay money to to achieve this. Nw there are companies not only selling LinkedIn connections, but also saying if you use them to create a LinkedIn Group, they will make sure it gets filled with…
Twitter for B2B Marketing Case Studies: Four Ways How Tweets Lead to Business
Twitter is now 5 years old – Long Live Twitter! With an estimated user base that is now double that of LinkedIn at more than 200 million users, Twitter is less about what we are doing now and more about becoming a channel for customer service, consumer campaigns, and big brands to engage with their…
3 Winning Examples of B2B Blogs Done Right
Over the last few years blogging has become a recognized marketing tool as a component of a social media strategy. While businesses used to scratch their head as to why they should be fiddling with something that was originally created for individuals, B2B marketing professionals should now realize that a blog can and should play…
New Free Realtime People Search Engine Reveals All
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Waatp.com. All opinions are 100% mine. With so much public information about us out there in social media and on the web, do you ever start to wonder what others can find out about you? On the other hand, if you are doing social…
9 Twitter Etiquette Tips for Businesses Starting Out on Twitter
As I continue to speak to corporations, professional associations, as well as social media workshop attendees on the strategic value of Twitter for both B2C as well as B2B companies, I am finding many businesses starting to take the plunge and explore tweeting as a business tool. As you can imagine, becoming comfortable with a…
Is Your Business Making Any of These 5 Common Twitter Mistakes?
As Twitter grows to encompass almost 200 million users and businesses display almost as many Twitter icons as Facebook icons on their websites, you’d think that companies are starting to figure out how to better utilize Twitter to inform and truly engage with the public. While there are success stories of businesses on Twitter who…
In Defense of Klout Measurement for Social Media Influence
My social media consulting clients always ask me as to who they should be trying to “influence” on social websites, and I always have to remind them that any social media user could potentially be an “influencer.” That being said, some people or businesses use social networking sites more than others, some have more reach…
10 Things Seth Godin Taught Me about Social Media Marketing
With Seth Godin about to appear on stage in Orange County in just a few weeks time, there is a buzz around here about what new insights he will provide to us in 2011. And the event, in line with what Seth preaches about holding BIG events, is set to be HUGE – he will…
The 25 Most Popular Twitter Apps : Have You Heard of Them All?
One of the amazing things about Twitter, when compared to a LinkedIn or a Facebook, is that it’s core functionality is so simple yet complemented with complexity by hundreds if not thousands of useful 3rd party apps because of its open architecture and growing ecosystem. Where you don’t really need any external tools to maximize…
Looking to Start a Social Media Consulting Business? Here’s How in 6 Steps
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 the subject can…
Social Media Strategy for Nonprofits: 10 Potential Objectives for Using Social Media
Revised on May 23, 2014 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…
Twitter 101: What Should I Tweet About? Understanding Why Personal Branding on Twitter Matters
Despite the fact that Twitter has apparently grown from 58 to 175 million users in less than a year, it is clear that some of those “users” are actually “bots” or even corporations who have several different accounts to serve their current and potential customers with. Case in point: Dell alone has more than 30…
Farmers Insurance Social Media Marketing Case Study: Utilizing FarmVille for Facebook Brand Awareness
There are many tools that are available to companies in social media marketing, but one that you don’t hear about often is social gaming, especially when these games are played directly on popular social networking sites like Facebook. Farmers Insurance earlier this week announced a new campaign that would put their virtual airship on the…
What Should I Tweet? 5 Ways to Find Great Content to Share on Twitter
Twitter is both a tool for communicating with your network as it is about sharing information that interests you. While you may only connect with those in your professional network on LinkedIn and friends & family on Facebook, we are also following those that we share a similar interest with on Twitter that is helping…
Think About It: Your Twitter Username is Your New Email Address
Let’s face it: Since email as we know it today started developing from the 1960s, a lot has changed. The way we use email, the way that businesses try to get our email addresses to opt-us-in to their newsletters, and the fact that we tend to use email less and less as we send more…
5 Reasons Your Business Should be Sponsoring Social Media Events
Over the past several months there has been a significant increase in the number of social media-related events occurring nationwide. These events range from formal educational seminars and full-day events with multiple speakers to networking social events and tweetups over lunch or on a weeknight. If the target audience for your business is using social…
Why Your Company Needs a Social Media Policy and 14 Corporate Social Media Policy Examples
I received another email from someone indicating a big reason why internally their marketing department still doesn’t want to move forward: “After more in-depth discussions it became apparent that the real concern of our marketing department is protecting our “brand name” while employee’s use social media to, essentially further their own careers and successes. I…
LinkedIn Photo Advice : The Why, What and What Happened?
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 100% completion is…
How Your Business Can Twitter Better with Hootsuite
Today’s blog post was contributed by my guest, Ann Smarty, who I have gotten to know through her managing the LinkedIn Subgroup “The Guest Blogger.” Her post is about my preferred Twitter tool which I am also passionate about and use in my own social media consulting and implementation, Hootsuite, which just today released…
LinkedIn Account Restricted? Here’s Why. Hint: You May Have Been Too Active on LinkedIn!
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 similar to you…
Is Your Customer Service Ready for Social Media? The Virgin America Twitter Campaign Case Study.
As I consult with companies on their social media strategies, which often means discussing options when considering social media campaigns, I was ecstatic that I was recently chosen for a free flight on Virgin America’s Twitter campaign to help spread the word about their new Los Angeles and San Francisco to Toronto non-stop flights. I…
How Often Should You Update Your Social Media Status?
I often get asked about whether it makes sense to completely integrate Twitter Tweets with your LinkedIn Status Update, so that every tweet shows up on LinkedIn. Obviously there is no one correct answer for this as it depends on your objective and LinkedIn Brand. However, the question brings to mind a greater issue: How…
LinkedIn Referral Requests: 3 Bits of Advice for Handling a LinkedIn Introduction Request from Someone You Don’t Know Well
As you get more comfortable with using LinkedIn, the day may come when you start connecting with other professionals that you may not know very well. I am not referring to becoming a LinkedIn LION or open networker, but connecting with people that you may have had a chance to meet at a networking event…
How Many LinkedIn Connections Should You Have? My Advice May Surprise You!
![How Many LinkedIn Connections Should You Have? My Advice May Surprise You! [VIDEO]](https://nealschaffer.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/How-Many-LinkedIn-Connections-Should-You-Have-My-Advice-May-Surprise-You-1200x630-V1.jpg "How Many LinkedIn Connections Should You Have? My Advice May Surprise You!")
LinkedIn is a very interesting social networking site. Many users say they only want to connect with people in their closed network, but unless that network is big enough, the benefits of using LinkedIn to find and be found become minimal. On the other hand, I find many users who don’t care about acquiring LinkedIn…
Understanding Those Mysterious Facebook Spam Messages You May Be Receiving
If you are one of the 400+ million people on Facebook, you have probably already figured out a way to deal with filtering out the many potential notifications that you could be receiving. Going to the “Account Settings” page under your personal profile leads you to a complex screen like the one pictured below: If…
Manners in the Digital Age : Use Old-School Etiquette to Rise Above the Social Media Mainstream
Today’s blog post is written by my guest Jennifer V. Miller. Jennifer is the founder and Managing Partner of SkillSource. She advises executives on how to improve workplace productivity via positive workplace dynamics. Jennifer blogs at The People Equation and considers her old-school professionalism a key to her personal brand. Follow her on Twitter: @JenniferVMiller . Where did…
10 Things You Must Do for LinkedIn Profile Completeness
If you looked at 10 different LinkedIn profiles, you might see 10 different ways in which people have entered their details. For a social networking platform that is trying to standardize the way people depict themselves with their “xxx% profile completeness” status that appears when you edit your profile, the results have been surprisingly across…
HOW TO: Deal With an Angry Customer on Twitter
The following is a true story. It was late at night when I arrived at my hotel, a little past midnight. It was a long day and I had a morning meeting with a client scheduled for the next day, so I was looking forward to getting to sleep as soon as I could. Unfortunately,…
12 Reasons Why Your Small Business Isn’t Getting Leads from LinkedIn
I am amazed by how many small businesses do not utilize social media to the maximum. Think about it: social media, like the internet two decades ago, allows any business to compete with larger, more established entities. Come on, what are you waiting for? What further amazes me is how few small businesses maximize their…
How Can I Merge Two LinkedIn Accounts into One?
LinkedIn has been around for many years now, and maybe some of you created an account in the early days of 2004 like I did and just forgot about it, including the password. Then, later on you created a second account. Or maybe you used your business email as your primary email address and no…
How Should I Deal with a LinkedIn Recommendation Request I Don’t Want to Give?
If it hasn’t happened to you yet, it will soon: the dreaded request for a LinkedIn Recommendation from a former co-worker or employee that you may not want to give one to. Why? Well, every time you make a recommendation, it appears on your profile and becomes part of your LinkedIn Brand. Perhaps you don’t…
6 Tips on LinkedIn for Recruiting: My Advice for Recruiters & Headhunters
I will start out this post by letting you know that I am not in any way nor have ever been a recruiter or a headhunter. While I have been a hiring manager for previous companies, my experience in being able to write this post comes from helping out many recruiters looking for candidates on…
YouTube Advice for Beginners: The Importance of Your Username
I am writing this post today because I wish that someone had written this for me when I was looking for a solution. You see, I made a big mistake when I chose my original YouTube username, so today I write this to make sure that you don’t make the same mistake. I recently wrote…
YouTube and Your Personal Brand: 5 Reasons Why Every Professional Should Have a YouTube Channel
Hey, it’s 2010, so it’s time to shake things up a bit. You’ve seen me blog a lot about LinkedIn and Twitter, but yesterday I let you know that I wanted to add more Facebook content to my blog. Today I continue to expand my horizons, and hopefully yours, by talking about YouTube. No, I…
5 Reasons Why Businesses Should Like Birthdays on Facebook
I recently had the pleasure of celebrating my first birthday on Facebook. Wow, what an experience! If you don’t have your birth date out to display to your friends or you haven’t been on Facebook long enough, you may not be able to comprehend what I experienced. But for those of you who know about…
Twitter Tip #1 for Beginners: Follow Lists Before You Follow People!
This is a continuation of my previous post, where I wrote about 7 useful tips for those getting started on Twitter. Assuming that you have just signed up on Twitter and don’t know where to go from here, instead of following everyone from your email address book that is already on Twitter by selecting “Find…
6 Reasons Why Your Twitter Account May Be Restricted (Without Your Knowing It)
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 those who are…
Social Media Marketing for Business: Understanding the Five S's
I developed the concept of Windmill Networking to help both professionals and businesses understand and leverage social media. Windmill Networking is a concept that, at the heart of it, is based on social networking. But because social media revolves around social networking sites, businesses really do need to understand the social aspects of how users…
What is LinkedIn and Why Should You Join?
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 last night were…
Twitter Followers vs Following: What is the Ideal Ratio?
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. With Twitter, the…
LinkedIn Profile Tips: The 10 Mistakes You Want to Avoid and Why
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 also will entice…
What is #FollowFriday on Twitter?
There are still a lot of people who ask me this question, both new Twitter users as well as veterans. I thought I would write a post that would hopefully serve as a resource for the entire Twitter community to better understand this phenomenon. It also serves as a conclusion that I have reached on…
LinkedIn Recommendations: Will You Write Me One?
Come on, I don’t really want you to write me one, but there has been unprecedented chatter about LinkedIn recommendations in blogging circles these days. And I want to put everything in perspective to confirm whether or not LinkedIn recommendations really have value. It was Jeremiah Owyang who started the debate. Jeremiah is a renowned web…
20 LinkedIn LIONs & Super Connectors You MUST Connect With!
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 LinkedIn? Well, just as I have been the first…
LinkedIn Networking: 3 Ways to Find Great People to Connect With & Meet on LinkedIn
After networking with several great people over the last several days, which have in essence been conversations that seem more like a veritable cross-breeding of ideas, I believe that more and more people are starting to see the potential value of meeting new people on LinkedIn. Now, just because you are open to doing this…
LinkedIn Introductions: How Do I Ask for One?
LinkedIn Introductions are an integral part of the social networking platform. After all, LinkedIn has given us the ability to search for someone and see how we are connected to them, and it is with this information that we can request an Introduction from our connection just as we request a referral from a friend…
LinkedIn Business Tips: How Should I Sell to My Connections?
As more businesses realize the potential for finding new business on LinkedIn, I am amazed as to how companies are starting to look at social media as if it gives them the right to cold call and send what I would consider spam to anyone and everyone in LinkedIn. I wanted to go through some…
LinkedIn Branding Tips: Should I Indicate on My LinkedIn Profile Status Update That I am Unemployed?
Before I event start answering this question, I will tell you that I am going out on a limb on this one. I am going against what a lot of people are actually doing. You may think that I am crazy or just wrong, but my intention is only to help those that are unemployed…
How Much Would You Pay for 10,000 LinkedIn Connections?
I hope the title of this blog post did not shock you. No, I am not trying to sell you anything. But this is the question I have been asked twice now in the last month from a gentleman who is apparently living in Bulgaria. I was first contacted on May 22 and offered a…
More Thoughts on "Does My Employer Own My LinkedIn Profile?"
Since I posted about the topic of who owns what in social media from the perspective of an employee’s LinkedIn profile, I have been humbled by both the number of people visiting my blog as well as others that have re-tweeted about my blog on Twitter and elsewhere. Based on the comments I have received…
LinkedIn Group Etiquette: What are the Rules?
I have seen a growing interest in LinkedIn Groups from my networking contacts recently, and in addition to the common questions of What LinkedIn Groups Should I Join? and How to Use LinkedIn Groups Effectively?, there is a growing interest as to what the proper etiquette and best practices should be after joining a group….
My LinkedIn Profile: Does My Employer Own It?
The following story of LinkedIn Profile 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 out a network….
How Can You Spot a Fake LinkedIn Profile?
This is actually a follow-up to a post I did recently on Are There Fake Profiles on LinkedIn? At that time I found proof of a few users with fake profiles that I shared with everyone. And I mentioned that those with fake profiles would create new ways of making us believe that they are…
My LinkedIn Profile: Should I Include My Photo?
There has been some heated discussion this morning on a LinkedIn Group Discussion Forum that I belong to concerning this topic of displaying your profile picture (I hope you’ve also been maximizing your LinkedIn Group membership!). One of the Group members attended a LinkedIn seminar where the presenter said that those in transition should NOT…
LinkedIn Profile Name: Should I Use My Personal or Company Name?
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 name or personal…
LinkedIn for Lawyers 101
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 they seem to have has been surprising to me. I had always envisioned the legal profession as more of an old-school, conservative group of people that would…
How Do I Set Up a Company Profile on LinkedIn?
I recently did a Twitter Chat for #smbiz on tips for utilizing LinkedIn for small business. You can find out more about what we discussed here, but since then I have been contacted by small businesses looking for advice on how to utilize LinkedIn. I decided to answer this particular question on my blog because…
Are LinkedIn Recommendations for Real?
I just got asked this from an old friend from elementary school (!), who I have been able to keep in better touch with thanks to Social Media, Facebook in particular. He, like many others, wonders what the real value in LinkedIn Recommendations are when there are a lot of “if your rub my back,…
LinkedIn for Politicians?
I had dinner last night with a publicly elected official from a large American city. I was impressed with his understanding of Social Media, and he had already created and implemented a strategy to utilize Facebook for political purposes. But what about LinkedIn? LinkedIn is still seen as being a boring, static medium when compared,…
LinkedIn Privacy Settings: How Do I Make a Private LinkedIn Profile?
I was a little confused when I received this question about LinkedIn privacy settings recently from a former colleague. I mean, LinkedIn is really about getting plugged-in to a huge database of professionals. Why would you want to be part of this huge network but not want anyone to see your profile? I suppose that…
What Do I Put in My LinkedIn Profile if I am a College Student?
I recently received this question and realized that there weren’t a lot of resources out there for soon-to-be-professionals to look for in terms of creating an optimal LinkedIn profile. I also believe that any college student that is on LinkedIn is to be commended for staying “ahead of the curve”, so here is my advice…
Two Easy Ways to Disconnect and Delete a LinkedIn Connection
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 know and trust….
How Do I Send a Complaint to LinkedIn?
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. The problem is…
Can You Sell Your LinkedIn Account?
The timing of my blog posts concerning monetizing your LinkedIn connections has to be coincidental, but yesterday, for the first time, I received an email (which was probably sent out to all of this person’s LinkedIn connections) which was an offering, in essence, to sell his LinkedIn account.
Does LinkedIn Limit the Number of Connections You Can Have?
I started out on LinkedIn not knowing anything about it, gradually starting my network by connecting with past colleagues and classmates and then expanding my connections to include those with similar interests and open networking ideas. When I first hit the 3,000 invitation limit, I was shocked that there was a definitive number put on…
LinkedIn Question: How to Contact 2nd and 3rd Degree Connections All at Once?
Just got this question from a new member of my LinkedIn network today, 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 to go beyond your first level network to the millions…
How Do I Promote My LinkedIn Group?
Just as everyone has a good book that they could write, everyone has a good LinkedIn group that they can create. I am a believer that everyone has a niche that they have special expertise in, and thus you can argue that everyone should have their own LinkedIn group. For whatever reason you are on…
7 Reasons Why Every Professional Should Be on LinkedIn
If you are reading this you hopefully already have a presence on LinkedIn, but maybe you are not as active as you should be. Confused as to why you need to join and use LinkedIn? Well, if you are a professional, there are many reasons why you at least need to join LinkedIn and should…
Which LinkedIn Groups Should I Join?
As I mentioned in previous posts, LinkedIn Groups allow you to be virtually connected to a number of people that share the same interest. The largest groups have membership in the millions. If you join a group, you will be able to directly send an E-Mail as well as invite, without knowing the E-Mail address of,…
How Many LinkedIn Groups Can I Join?
Back in August 4, 2009, LinkedIn for the first time placed a restriction on the number of LinkedIn Groups once can join. The official E-Mail that I received at the time looked like this: “We are in the process of adding new functionality to enhance the experience of Groups, including the recent release of a searchable…
Was My LinkedIn Invitation Received? Did My LinkedIn Invitation Bounce? How Can I Find Out?
I recently got asked about how to manage LinkedIn invitations which bounced. Yes, sometimes those precious invites that you send out do not get to their intended recepient because either 1) they changed companies/email addresses and never bothered to update their LinkedIn profile, 2) the e-mail address that they have in their profile is misspelled…
HOW TO: Connect with Barack Obama on LinkedIn
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 or not, according…
Why Do So Many People Keep their LinkedIn Connections Private?
When you open an account at LinkedIn, the default setting is that your connections can be viewed by anyone. I used to have my connections open, until one day when I was doing some searching in a particular industry for companies to work, I noticed that all of the salespeople had decided to hide their…
Restricted by LinkedIn Because of Too Many I Don’t Know Invitation Responses? What Should You Do?
As I mentioned in my “What is a LinkedIn IDK – I Don’t Know This Person?” post, once you reach the LinkedIn IDK threshold of 5 IDKs, your account will be restricted in that you will need to enter an E-Mail address each time you try adding new people to your network. If you are…
What is a LinkedIn "IDK/I Don’t Know"? And Why Should I Care?
When you invite someone to connect with you on LinkedIn or receive an invite from someone, the recipient has a choice of accepting the invite or simply archiving the invite without performing any action. If the invite is accepted, the two of you become immediately connected. If the invite is archived, you can always accept…
What is a LinkedIn LION?
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 LinkedIn and say…
15 Ways to Grow Your LinkedIn Network
‘ Everytime 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 have had so many people, either directly or indirectly, help me that I thought I should give something back to the community. …