Social marketing is really a series of micro moments, and there's a lot to it. Small businesses can find this especially challenging, as they may feel that it's more difficult to be seen in social and trying to do it all with limited resources. However, there are so many great opportunities out there to get some great insight into customers and build a foundation for a social presence. Darcy Sullivan of Propel Marketing & Design, talked about a lot of great strategies, tips, and advice for building a strong social presence. She talks about the importance of building a foundation with strong SEO and offers other great advice, including: How to use social conversations to REALLY learn about your customers & how personality matching can be effective Using competitive insight in ways you may not have thought of (reading competitor reviews? Why?) How to align keywords, SEO, and content creation around the ways people are now searching for information How to own and benefit from negative reviews Darcy shared an example of this last point, and I wanted to share links to the commercial she talked about, and another great example of using negative feedback to your benefit: Ski slope commercial Restaurant advertising using negative feedback If you'd like to connect with Darcy, you can find her on LinkedIn or Propel's website.  Listen: Small Business Opportunities for Building a Social Presence

It’s been a wild ride….where has social taken us, and where are we headed in 2020? I had the opportunity to talk with Michalis Michael of DigitalMR, who I originally talked with in February, 2018. You can listen to that episode here. Back then, we talked about the state of social monitoring, listening, and intelligence and he made some predictions for 2020. So here we are…..was he right? Listen as Michael and I talk about what’s happened in the last year and a half, what’s new, and what we need to pay attention to in 2020. He also shares a new prediction for 2023. As references to our conversation, you will want to take a look at this great resource from Esomar, " Briefing questions when considering tools and services for unstructured data – text, images, audio, and video"  and get familiar with Social Brand Performance Score & Digital Brand Equity Scores, which Michalis explains during our conversation. These are two terms we will need to become familiar with in the new year as they work toward providing insights and measurement/guidance for marketers and researchers in the coming year. We also touch on DigitalMR's listening247® service. You can learn more about it here.  Please take some time to learn more about Michalis and DigitalMR. You can visit their website or connect with Michalis on LinkedIn or Twitter. Listen: The State of Social With Michalis Michael, DigitalMR

We talk about brand building for companies and on a personal level as adults, but what about kids? Is it too early to start building your brand as a child? Absolutely not! Our kids are growing up in an online, social world. We need to keep them safe while helping them understand that their online activities will follow them throughout their lives. I had the opportunity to talk with Josh Ochs from SmartSocial. He shared some information about his work with parents, students, and schools and how to help navigate social sites and apps. You can learn more about SmartSocial by visiting their website, or you can learn more about Josh and his Digital Drivers Ed Program on the Smart Social website. He has a great app review section on his website, which you can access here. Feel free to reach out to Josh on Linkedin to get to know him, and watch our video chat while we recorded this episode! Listen: Keeping Kids Safe & Building Their Brand Online

Did you know that cats prefer Apple products, while dogs tend to be more sporty, preferring Adidas?  As marketers are moving away from vanity metrics & realizing there is so much more to the story, research & listening has expanded beyond traditional text based listening into visual. This episode talks about visual image recognition and how it is used in social listening & research. Vad Sapozhnykov, Marketing Director at YouScan, talks about how it works, what insights can be gained, and how it is being incorporated into more traditional programs. He talks specifically about situations in which: Brands identified influencers through image recognition A brand quickly realized their branding was displayed at an event that they did not support Two brands compared side by side found that the reasons people were discussing each brand were very different, allowing for not only marketing insight but competitive intelligence To learn more about YouScan, you can visit their website or connect with Vad on LinkedIn or Twitter to get to know him better! Listen: YouScan & Visual Listening Through Image Recognition

The more we can clap for each other, the better the world will be… That is the premise behind Videosocials, a program that launched earlier this year designed for folks who know the importance of incorporating video into their social strategy, but realize being on video is not their favorite past time. What is Video Socials? Who’s behind this new social program? Meet Vik Rajan, cofounder of PhoneBlogger.Net, who launched Videosocials earlier this year. He talks about the importance of video in social strategy, and how this program helps people become comfortable in front of a camera and learn how to leverage video in the social landscape. Don’t forget to connect with Vik on LinkedIn and Twitter, and learn more about his company, phoneBlogger.net. Listen: What You Need to Know About Video & Social Strategy

Launching a new initiative takes a lot of work, and social media marketing can be extremely useful for increasing visibility, engagement, and buy in from customers. What challenges exist, and how can social media strategy be used effectively? This episode features Joe Cannata, Certification Director at Kinaxis, a supply chain management and sales & operation planning software company. He shares his story of launching a certification program and using social strategies as part of the program’s success. Key takeaways include: Challenges and opportunities for working with marketing to enhance a new program launch – how to get buy in from marketing, work in tandem for shared goals, and how to make the most of this relationship. How different departments can work together with marketing to create a strong social media presence Ways to effectively reach a niche market in a personal, engaging manner The success of such programs, and how they can evolve over time Joe brings to the table a lot of knowledge about certification & social strategy. Please feel free to reach out to Joe and connect with him socially to learn more from him! Learn more about Kinaxis  Take a look at the Kinaxis' Certification Program Connect with Joe on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook  Joe & I also talk about social media strategy certification, which is available through the National Institute for Social Media. To learn more, I encourage you to visit the NISM’s website, where you can take a look at their certification prep course and exam and take advantage of their webinar series. Listen: Social Media Strategy Tips For New Program Launches

In the second part of this two part series, Jimmy Matorin talks about psychographic profiling - what it is, how it's currently being used, and ways to take advantage of this constant stream of real time data from consumers. You can listen in to learn more on how the food industry and brands like Ikea are using psychographic profiling to better connect and understand their consumers. Jimmy also talks about the dangers and things to be aware of when using this newer data stream. How is Ikea using profiling? Follow Jimmy on social: Smartketing LinkedIn Twitter Listen: Psychographic Profiling

Consumer targeting & profiling is nothing new, but has taken on a new meaning with the volume of data thanks to social media. Is it too much? Is it better and/or more useful? How does the data lead to influencer marketing? Are micro or macro influencers better? All of these questions are answered during this episode of the Social Media Research Brief podcast. Listen as Jimmy Matron, Business Catalyst at Smarketing, shares his experience from traditional targeting to today's version of targeting via social media data. He also shares insight on how data can lead to marketing opportunities and connecting with the right influencers in your market. Be sure to check back next week for part 2 of my conversation with Jimmy, when we talk about psychographic profiling. In the meantime, please check out Jimmy's blog and connect with him on social - he'd love to hear from you! Learn more about Jimmy & connect with him on social: Smartketing Blog LinkedIn Twitter Listen: The Evolution of Consumer Targeting

In this episode, Logan Allec, founder of Money Done Right, shares his story about building his brand and how social marketing helped him grow his company to where it is today.   He turned traditional social marketing strategies on their side with great success: Traditional strategy tells us to find our audience online and start with marketing on that platform. Logan flipped the script a bit – where did he start and why? What challenges exist in building visibility and audience loyalty when the social platform is not traditionally used for user engagement? The broader the target audience, the trickier it can be to market to all effectively. How did Logan address this and use social strategy effectively to connect with Millennials to Seniors? Finding the value of repurposing content, but knowing its limitations There are some great ideas & takeaways in this episode! I encourage you to connect with Logan - he’d love to hear from you! You can find him where you hang out online: Website (Money Done Right) Linkedin Facebook Twitter Listen:  Logan Allec Shares Tips on Social Marketing to a Broad Audience

Sure, you’ve heard the term and probably considered using it as a part of your own marketing strategy, but there’s also a lot of misperceptions out there. Susana Yee, founder of Digital Everything Consulting, shares some information on the most common myths and misperceptions around influencer marketing. She addresses myths and answers questions, including: Is influencer marketing really less expensive than other marketing strategies? Is influencer marketing a quick, inexpensive marketing strategy? What are trickle down influencers and how can they work better than “big name” influencers? Can influencer marketing be used on its own? What clues are out there when vetting a potential influencer? How to choose between an influencer and brand ambassador? You might be surprised at some of her responses. If you’re considering using influencer marketing or have tried it with mixed results, you’ll want to listen to this episode. Susana also talks about her upcoming influencer roadmap course – this four module, self paced online course guides marketers through the entire process, from researching and identifying potential influencers to negotiating contracts and launching campaigns. If you want to learn more, you can visit her website and register to be notified when the course launches. I encourage you to reach out to Susana and connect with her to learn more about Digital Everything Consulting and influencer marketing. Digital Everything Consulting's website Check Out the Influencer Roadmap Course Connect With Susana on LinkedIn Listen now: Influencer Marketing Myths & Misperceptions