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…
Social Media Marketing
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…
15 Best Social Listening Tools for Business
Most social media tools just focus on one simple task, for example, scheduling social media content or collecting all of your social media statistics in one place. Social monitoring tools, even though their application may seem straightforward at first glance, have huge potential to be used for different purposes. You can build your social listening strategy…
3 Signs You Need to Refine Your Facebook Lead Scoring Model For eCommerce
A growing number of e-commerce entrepreneurs are reducing the amount of money they spend on Google Ads and focusing on Facebook instead. This is due largely to the cost of Google Ads, which has risen to $2.69, making it too expensive for smaller e-commerce companies. Many e-commerce marketers have started to increase their spend on…
How to Handle a Social Media Crisis with Grace
Social media isn’t just an amazing tool for connecting with potential customers, it’s also rapidly becoming the preferred method of customer service. Consumers love posting questions, praise (and unfortunately complaints) on company social accounts because it’s much easier and faster than traditional methods. This is fantastic when content is positive, but it can also drag…
The 11 Best Social Media Conferences 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…
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 Capture Website Traffic with Twitter
Look at your website traffic stats after you tweet. Chances are you’ll find that when you post on Twitter, the result is a spike in traffic. There’s a definite link between the two, but it doesn’t have to be a random or occasional thing. You can use Twitter to generate regular, reliable, targeted website traffic….
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…
8 Insanely Actionable Ways to Get More Traffic With Twitter
Most bloggers and sites that drive a torrent of web traffic and cultivate a huge following do two things very well: First, they build compelling content that creates opportunities for attention, engagement, conversation and recognition making Google searchers stick to their site like superglue. Second, they harness the power of Twitter to drive highly targeted traffic back…
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…
8 Ways to Get More Website Traffic via Social Media
Is Social Media still important and should you bother? If you’ve just started a business and put together the social media profiles for your company brand on different networks, then I’m sure your mind is filled with questions like: “How do I get followers and likes?” “How do I get traffic to my website via…
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…
How to Repurpose Your Blog Posts to Get More Website Traffic
Most people know that blogging is a great way to get traffic to their website and connect with potential customers or clients. But writing a blog post is a lot of work, and only yields so much return. Repurposing blog posts is the best way to get even more out of the posts that you…
How to Drive Quality Website Traffic From Facebook Groups
Facebook groups have exploded in popularity this year – so much so that Facebook even launched a stand-alone app for groups. People are spending more and more time in groups when on Facebook. Groups are a great tool for you to use to connect with others, get answers to questions, and even drive traffic to…
Social Media Apps for Audio and Podcasts
I have talked about the big channels for podcasts in past blog posts – specifically iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud, and Tunein. Check out Share Your Podcast on Social Media and Drive Engagement if you want to learn more about those platforms – in this post I’ll be talking about lesser-known apps that you can use to gain business…
How to Get Website Traffic from Periscope
Periscope is the hot new social network on everyone’s lips right now. The app, which is owned by Twitter, allows users to stream and watch live video broadcasts. If you haven’t hopped on the Periscope bandwagon yet, I encourage you to create an account and start watching broadcasts to see if it could work for…
Use Google Analytics to Discover the Quality of Your Social Media Traffic
Google Analytics is a valuable tool for website owners that can give you so much useful insight into your visitors and how they are using your site. This information allows us to be constantly improving our marketing strategies and making them better. However many feel overwhelmed with all the data available in their analytics. They…
Share Your Podcast on Social Media and Drive Engagement
So you’ve created an amazing podcast (if you have questions on that, start here), or maybe you found one that impressed you so much you want to spread the word. It’s worth it to put some effort in: podcasts are a large and growing digital media. According to Edison Research, the percentage of Americans 12+…
Get More Twitter Traffic With Your Evergreen Blog Posts
One simple, almost effortless, way to drive more traffic to your website is to increase your tweeting frequency of your evergreen blog posts. Evergreen blog posts are timeless and always relevant. For example, a blog post on Facebook’s latest newsfeed changes is not likely going to be relevant for long. A post on how to…
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…
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…
10 Steps to Rebrand Your Business with Social Media
Congratulations, Your B2B Business Has a New Brand! Now What? Some businesses are fortunate enough to thrive under a single name from the day they first launch through many years of growth and evolution. Others find it necessary to rebrand for a number of reasons, from mergers and acquisitions to new ownership, legal issues or…
20 Simple Ways to Integrate Social Media with Traditional Marketing Practices
It is becoming less and less often that I see a national brand, or even a local Mom and Pop store without some form of social media profile. This is a good thing. However, more often than not they are only using Facebook and social profiles are not integrated with other marketing communications, or worse…
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…
10 Ways to Engage Your Audience on Social Media Today
At the beginning of the year, I outlined 15 social media concepts to help make you a more marketable social media professional in 2013. This month we will focus on Concept 2, the logic behind utilizing social media for business marketing. Review of Concept 1 can be found here. Concept 2: Do you know the…
Applying AIDA for B2B Branding in Social Media
In the fast-paced world of social media, it’s easy to assume that ideas from just last year are passé. The concept of AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) as a model for marketing success has been around for over a hundred years. AIDA is not even “so last century,” it is “so 19th century.” Given its…
15 Social Media Concepts to Become a More Marketable Social Media Professional
Approximately 73% of Fortune 500 companies have a Twitter account; 66% have Facebook Pages. However, many of these organizations lack experienced personnel to truly unleash the power of social. According to a survey by Harvard Business Review of 2,100 companies, only 12% of those utilizing media feel they use it effectively. Further, online job postings…
Should Social Media Marketers Worry About Privacy?
“Privacy is dead, and social media hold the smoking gun.” – Pete Cashmore, CEO of Mashable I recently mentioned the word privacy to a social media business colleague while researching the topic of this post. My friend Rachel Strella, who caters to the small business market, responded with a shrug. I wasn’t surprised. As participation in…
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 Marketing: Is There A Generation Gap?
I recently had the opportunity to attend my high school reunion; a rare and, as it turned out, a delightful chance to reconnect with people who, by and large, haven’t seen each other in decades. Some of you might grimace at the thought (was your high school experience really that bad?) or fondly recall those…
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…
The 20 Social Media Marketing MBA Questions to Ask: Are You Really Prepared?
Social media for sales and operations cannot begin to be explained in one blog post. Nor is it covered in one week of my intro to Social Media Marketing course. The tools, concepts, and principles we discuss are revisited in the subsequent social media courses and much of the rationale stems from traditional marketing practices. As…
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…
The Social Media MBA: Current Social Media Marketing Trends
Because the business environment is always evolving, evaluating currents trends in business and marketing (in and out of the social media environment) is a great way to help identify opportunities as well as threats. These continual changes in the social media environment impact brands and businesses, therefore they should be identified and analyzed frequently. Many times…
The Big Data Impact on Social Media Marketing
Space is really, really big. As it turns out, data is going to be even bigger. The content we actively create, exchange, curate and archive represents a veritable unending avalanche of digital wealth. The information deluge is fed by corporations, businesses, institutions and non-profits. Then add to that content from the vast array of social…
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…
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,…
Should Social Media Be Outsourced?
Smart marketing puts your message right in front of your audience. With millions of people participating in social media each day, using social media platforms to market your business can be a smart move. If you’re warming up to the idea of social media and see it as a legitimate strategy, a logical step is…
10 Steps to Maximizing LinkedIn for Sales and Social Media Marketing
LinkedIn continues to grow in both membership and website traffic. When I wrote my first LinkedIn book back in early 2009, LI was at 40 million users and had not yet established itself as the default social networking platform for professionals that it has become. Beyond mere networking, however, in 2011 there is now a…
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…
There’s No Such Thing as Social Media ROI – It’s Called Business ROI
I get a laugh when I read online conversations about people spending hours tweeting and chatting about how to measure “social media influence” as well as the “return on investment” (ROI) from social media. It’s almost as if these people are either 1) having a hard time convincing their clients of why they need to…
6 Social Media Marketing Strategy Mistakes to Avoid
Social media marketing (SMM), also sometimes called social network marketing (SNM), is a strategy that helps you build a network of customers and potential customers, stay in touch with those who are interested in your products and services, and ultimately build your bottom line in the form of additional sales. However, many businesses do not…
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…
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…
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…
How to Start a Social Media Consulting Business 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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
What is Windmill Networking? (Understanding the Social Web is the Key to Understanding Social Media Marketing)
I will be honest with you when I tell you that I created the concept of “Windmill Networking” after I began writing the LinkedIn book which would become known as “Windmill Networking: Understanding, Leveraging & Maximizing LinkedIn.” I created the concept at first to demystify online social networking and use it as a tool to…
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…