Coming to you from the Women’s Business Symposium, sponsored by Comerica Bank, and benefitting Girls, Inc., this week Neal is discussing when to listen to advice, and when to ignore it. Last week, he held the event that he’s been talking about for months, the Social Tools Summit. It got him thinking about why it’s important to be unique in the world of business and social media. When planning the summit, Neal got lots of advice from his peers about how to run the event. Yes, it’s good to listen to advice from peers and role models, but it’s also good to know that you don’t always have to take that advice.

Key Highlights

[02:02] Creating the Idea for Social Tools Summit

[02:41] Ignore Everyone Else

[03:06] Why I Think the Social Tool Summit Was A Success

[03:22] My Approach to Business and Social Media

[04:42] Social Media Replaces Nothing But Compliments Everything

[05:36] Data-Driven Approach

[05:47] Leveraging Social Media As A Tool

[06:36] You Need to Do Something Different

[07:27] Lead Through Innovation

[09:02] Social Media Center of Excellence

Notable Quotes

• With social media to say you got to do this, you got to do that. I don't think people are ill-intentioned when they give us this advice. But at the end of the day, you have to stick with what's right for you.
• Because if you're doing what everyone else has already done, you're not going to be successful, you have to do something different. And if you're true to your brand, and to your business, into your experience, into your capabilities into your limited resources, you will be able to do that.  But it's not going to come from a copy and paste effort. It's going to take some soul searching, it's going to take some experimentation. 
• And everyone said it was unique, but I think they meant it in a good way, hopefully. But we did something different. Because I had a vision. And I felt there was a need in the market for this type of information, and executed on that vision. And I did not let anybody get in the way. I was a man on a mission. And that's actually always been my approach to business. And it's my approach to social media. And it's my approach to social media consulting. 
• But at the end of the day, I want to do what's right. And that's the approach I want you to have for social media. 
• The first one is social media replaces nothing but compliments everything. 
• Social media is new tools, old rules, doesn't matter how late you are out of the game, doesn't matter how old you are. When you use social media as a business tool, those that have more business experience will tend to leverage social media as a tool more effectively.
• You may not want to be innovative. But to be successful, you need to

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