Influence Factory – Featuring Wayne Breitbarth – “Leveraging your LinkedIn Profile”

LinkedIn is a fantastic networking tool that has been around since before Facebook and Twitter. This platform allows

Influence Factory – Featuring Wayne Breitbarth – “Leveraging your LinkedIn Profile”

Uncategorized chicago, Chicago marketing, dean delisle, facebook, influencer marketing, linkedin, social jack, social media marketing, twitter Dean

LinkedIn is a fantastic networking tool that has been around since before Facebook and Twitter. This platform allows anyone to connect professionally with other people in their field and build a career. LinkedIn has become a network that anyone and everyone can use; however, not everyone knows how to use it to their advantage. Knowing how to best construct your LinkedIn profile could be the difference between a company overlooking you or reaching out to you. In this episode of Influence Factory, Wayne Breitbarth, author of “The Power Formula for LinkedIn Success,” teaches you how to leverage your LinkedIn profile for ultimate networking success.

The Original Social Network

LinkedIn has been around since 2002 and A LOT of things have changed since then. With new social networks popping up left and right, LinkedIn has had to make some changes to keep up with all other social networks. By adding features such as an accomplishments section and recommendations on how to strengthen your profile, LinkedIn has become stronger than ever. Even though LinkedIn has all these amazing features, it is important to know how to use them effectively to get the most out of your profile.

Get Your Point Across

This platform has a ton of sections and features that allow you to highlight all of your amazing achievements and show everyone how awesome you are! Just make sure you are doing it in the most efficient way. LinkedIn’s summary section is set up so people viewing your profile will only see the first two lines of the summary unless they click the “see more” button below it. Because of this, Breitbarth stresses how it is crucial to have all your important information at the top of your summary section. Most people will likely scroll through your profile quickly and scan it for the most important information. This is a great way to ensure that people will get a good understanding of who you are and what you can do immediately.

Not Your Average Resume

The original purpose for LinkedIn was to have a space to put your resume online and connect with professionals in hopes of getting hired. Today, the underlying purpose is still the same but with a little bit of a new take. Breitbarth says that “The beautiful thing about (LinkedIn) profiles is they don’t have resume rules.” It is a little less strict than an actual resume, because it’s like any other social media platform. You have a profile picture, there is a messaging feature to chat with other members, and you can even make posts. The only difference is that the people you are interacting with are also professionals in your related field of work.

Using Key Words

LinkedIn is a social media platform for professionals looking to connect with other professionals in related fields of work, but it is also used as a search engine to find specific people, skills or job titles. Utilizing key words can really make your profile stand out – literally! When you use LinkedIn’s search function, you can type in a word and LinkedIn will compute all businesses and people that use that word in their profile. The best place for you to use key words in your profile according to Breitbarth are, the headline, all job titles if applicable, and the skill section. By doing this, your profile will be easier to discover and you will gain a lot more exposure.

In Summary

LinkedIn is one of the first social media platforms and has stayed relevant in the ever changing world of social media by constantly updating and adding new features. Knowing how to properly utilize each feature is essential in order to get the most out of your profile. Using key words and organizing your information efficiently are just a few ways you boost up your LinkedIn profile. By following Breitbarth’s tips, your LinkedIn profile will surely bring you success!

Influence Factory LIVE airs Wednesdays at 12pm CST. Register here!

You can also subscribe to previous and upcoming shows on the Social Jack website.

We hope to see you in our next Influence Factory!

Aug 2018

Influence Factory – Featuring – Nick Myers – “Marketing with AI”

Artificial intelligence has opened up a whole new world of opportunities that many people never believed possible! From

Influence Factory – Featuring – Nick Myers – “Marketing with AI”

Uncategorized AI, chicago, Chicago marketing, dean delisle, facebook, Influencer Development Program, influencer marketing, linkedin, Marketing Campaigns, social media, social media marketing, twitter Dean

Artificial intelligence has opened up a whole new world of opportunities that many people never believed possible! From the ability to have any question answered within seconds of asking, cooling and heating your house based on your personal preference, to having voice assistants schedule appointments for you with one quick command. However, AI isn’t justfor making our daily lives simpler – it can be a very useful marketing tool for us Influencers. Knowing how to utilize AI and voice assistants as a marketing strategy are amazing ways to help expand your brand. In this episode of Influence Factory, Nick Myers teaches us how to effectively market using AI and voice assistants.

Understanding AI

When most people hear the term “Artificial Intelligence” they think of how it is depicted in movies and television– as robots taking over. Scary, right? In reality, there are two types of AI: narrow AI and general AI. Myers describes narrow AI as the AI we have today; it only does specific things such as answer questions and schedule appointments for you. The second type of AI that Myers describes is general AI – meaning that it would be integrated into all aspects of daily life, having a higher level of intellect than narrow AI. But rest easy all you AI skeptics, Myers says that this kind of technology won’t be available for a super long time!

Bridging the Gap between AI and Marketing

So, how exactly does AI relate to marketing? Myers brought up a computer program called Chatbots – a tool many companies use on their websites for customer service questions. As soon as you click on the website, a popup will read “how can I help you?” You can type any question you have about the service you are using, and the Chatbot will give you a speedy and helpful answer. Myers also believes that AI is helpful in marketing because it can sift through social media data, thus giving companies more insight about what their customers want. This can help companies tailor their marketing campaigns to better fit their target audience.

Trends in AI Marketing

Researchers expect that by 2020, about 55% of households in America will have some form of smart speaker, such as a Google Home or Amazon Echo. It could be beneficial for businesses to find a way to incorporate voice into marketing strategies, as the world is “going away from the visual and more towards voice,” Myers says. This technology also provides a one-to-one engagement that other technologies don’t. Figuring out a way to harness this trend of using voice instead of visuals could really set your marketing campaign apart from the rest!

The Future of AI Marketing

Myers believes that in the next 5-10 years, we will see an increase in Chatbots with social media and a definite increase in voice assistants. More and more Influencers are jumping onto the AI bandwagon, meaning a significant rise in the amount of AI technology available. Therefore, AI marketing could easily become the most dominant form of marketing in the future.

In Summary

Artificial intelligence is an often misunderstood tool that many would not think to use for marketing purposes. There are many advantages to AI – such as a one-to-one connection to your technology, and being able to tailor your marketing campaign to your audience’s wants and needs. When used correctly, AI marketing could be just the thing to make your marketing campaign stand out! Hello, successful Influencers!

Influence Factory LIVE episodes air Wednesdays at noon central. Register here.

You can also subscribe to previous and upcoming shows on the Social Jack website.

We hope to see you in our next Influence Factory!

Jun 2018

Influence Factory – Featuring Duffy Atkins – “Creating Engagement with Facebook Live”

Social media is a wonderful world; it allows us to connect to people by the snap of your

Influence Factory – Featuring Duffy Atkins – “Creating Engagement with Facebook Live”

Blogging chicago, Chicago marketing, facebook, facebook live, Influencer Development Program, influencer marketing, linkedin, social jack, social media, social media marketing, twitter Dean

Social media is a wonderful world; it allows us to connect to people by the snap of your fingers! Companies and Influencers use these invaluable tools to engage with their audience and showcase their brand’s personality. Many plan out the content they want to use in order to gain the best possible engagement from their audience. However, what if there was a way to engage with them LIVE via video? Facebook has a “Facebook Live” feature that allows any individual or company to have a live video feed and interact with those who tune in. In this episode of Influence Factory, Duffy Atkins of WGN News explained how to effectively leverage this feature to get the most engagement out of your audience.

Tell your story out loud

The best thing about the power of video is that your audience can seeyour facial expressions and actions that pertain to the story you are telling them. While you do want to tell people what you are thinking and feeling in a video, it can be a bit unnerving if you are a camera-shy individual. During this episode, Duffy talked about the importance of simply telling your story out loud to others. Even if you do fumble on occasion, people will appreciate your vulnerability on live video, making your story even MORE compelling. Bringing in other material to supplement your visual story will make your story even stronger; the stronger the story, the stronger your Influence!

Influencer Marketing Pro Tip: If you are still feeling a bit nervous about filming a video of yourself, say your story out loud before you go live. You can either do this in an isolated area or with a friend or colleague. Doing this can build your confidence in your story and make you feel more comfortable when you talk about it.

Get to (quite literally) know your audience

Influencer Marketing is all about a) knowing how to make meaningful connections and b) engaging said connections by providing content that is conversational and relevant to them. All Influencers must know who to target and what type of content to send their way. Thankfully, Facebook Live makes the tedious task of researching a target audience super easy for its users. When you use the live stream feature, your connections (and many others) can see the video. By clicking on it, you will see how many people and who is watching. Once you’ve done several streams, you can get a strong grasp of who your target audience is, allowing you to tailor your video to them and effectively engage in conversations during a stream.

Influencer Pro Marketing Tip: While you should tailor your live videos to your target audience, do not make your videos relevant to just them. You can use the knowledge that Facebook Live gives you and create ANY kind of content that would be relevant to your audience. This will ensure effective engagement at all times on your profiles.

Be real

You may hear the overused phrase “be your best self” used by your friends in today’s day and age – but, that phrase contains a valuable lesson when it comes to filming a live video. During the episode, Duffy also mentioned that you should be your most authentic self when doing live video. You can prepare certain things for your streams; however, you should not be afraid to show your real self during a video – do not sound too rehearsed! Why use video over regular posting, though? Regular posts tell what a company or Influencer’s personality is, while video SHOWS your personality, because people can see the Influencer’s interactions with others. Do not be afraid to show people who you really are – it can drive engagement up!

Connect to your audience like you would a neighbor

Another key point from Duffy’s episode is that doing a live stream allows you to freely interact with your audience while you are on air. This gives you the chance to have a conversation with them and answer questions they may have. A live stream is like a neighborhood; it is a community of similar individuals interacting with each other. Don’t be afraid to say hello to your audience and get them involved with your stream. Having them partake in fun elements of a live video will maintain interest and generate more viewers!

Influencer Marketing Pro Tip: Much like how you would tag any major Influencers who partake in events, be sure to give them a shout out on a video if they helped or were a part of the audience. By doing this, you can expand who sees the post!

In summary

Facebook Live is an invaluable tool that is changing the way that Influencers engage with an audience. This live feature gives them the place to tell a story and show their true selves to the world, and personally connect with your network. The feature also helps with research by showing how many and who is watching your video, allowing you to tailor your content to them in the future. By using this video feature, your can enhance your Influence!

Influence Factory LIVE airs Wednesdays at 12pm CST. Register here!

You can also subscribe to previous and upcoming shows on the Social Jack website.

We hope to see you in our next Influence Factory!

Jun 2018

Influence Factory – Featuring Andy Crestodina – “Analyzing Your Marketing Campaign”

In order to understand the effectiveness of your digital marketing campaign, there are a wide array of tools

Influence Factory – Featuring Andy Crestodina – “Analyzing Your Marketing Campaign”

Blogging chicago, Chicago marketing, facebook, influencer marketing, linkedin, search engine marketing, social jack, social media, twitter Dean

In order to understand the effectiveness of your digital marketing campaign, there are a wide array of tools that us Influencers can use – they tell us what did and did not work and new insights gained from a targeted audience. Tools such as Google Analytics can help us make sense of all of this information. In this episode, our guest Influencer, Andy Crestodina, shared insights as to how you can effectively analyze a campaign, what he discovered from past campaigns, and how to leverage effective Influencer Marketing for any campaign.

Understanding Search Engine Marketing

You have probably already heard of search engine optimization (making sure a link to your website is high on the list of websites that come up in a specific search). This is essentially a step up from that. With this form of marketing, the specific target in mind is an audience that you know will be looking for your company’s services. However, intent is something that affects this audience. On one hand, people with intent are those who you already know would want your services and may lack patience to see ads or content. The people without intent may not even know that they want your services. You can hit both audiences in search engine marketing. Go after those with the intent by making sure you come up high on a search engine’s results. For those who don’t know (yet) they want you, this marketing can also get them interested and make them want to learn more about what you can do for them.

Video as an Effective Tool

While this may be an obvious tool to use for marketing, it is one that is tragically underused. Video that is visual and done well can be extremely compelling. If you are producing any type of content, special service, or event for your company, doing a short video commercial about it can make it more noticeable. Videos are often placed at the top of search engine lists, so you have a better chance of more people seeing it and wanting to go to your website; therefore, gaining new customers. You should also put a coded link (to make it specific to the campaign and easier to measure) in the first comment as you have a better chance of people clicking it. Also, use captions so you can start a conversation for viewers and pique their interest.

Influencer Marketing Pro Tip: LinkedIn’s algorithm does a fantastic job of sending videos to highest parts of someone’s search and their own newsfeeds. Andy said that in his professional experience, he found that some videos on LinkedIn get a couple thousand views and clicks on their links. You can use a social platform’s search engine to maximize your results!

The Difference Between Social and YouTube Video

You might think that video for the two are one in the same, but they are actually quite different! A video for social media is when you speak directly to your audience and make them aware about a certain event or service. While that is a form of content, YouTube videos consist of more content that everyone can access from you. Again, the difference here is intent. People on LinkedIn have more of that intent to find what you are offering, so that is why it jumps to the top of their feed and sometimes starts playing once it appears on their screen. A YouTube video will often be for those who do not have that intent. These videos usually appear from highest to lowest in number of views on the main feed. Remember that for social media, many of those sites will OPTIMIZE videos! YouTube will bring up related videos based on your history, but they may not be exactly what you are looking for.

Use Ego Bait

This term is far simpler than you think – AND it can get a video noticed by even more people! For this to happen, you should be quoting and tagging a person or business in the video. In doing that, more people will see your video, including the person you tagged. Remember that someone you tag can be an “ally in sharing,” meaning that their followers will see the content. Because it is a video, it will go to the top of their feeds and searches. When you mention someone related to the piece of content, it can boost your views and clicks for your websites.

Influencer Marketing Pro Tip: a “thank you” is still one of the magic words. If you do not thank someone you tagged, or tag people who are not relevant to the content, they will be LESS likely to share what you created. When you thank them for being a part of the content, they will respond to it. You want to improve visibility of a social media post, so make sure your engagement with other Influencers is GENUINE!

Analytics on a Small Budget

A wonderful point that Andy brought up in this episode is that you should experiment with different tools for analytics, as many of them can be super useful to building your Influence! For example, if you use Quora, you will be able to see if competitors are featured in any kind of question. This can then give you the idea of whether or not you should purchase advertising space, which will improve your brand’s visibility. Another tool that can be used to track conversion links is called Campaign Tracking Code. Any action to drive traffic can be considered a “campaign.” You should be using this to make the code specific to that campaign for easy tracking. Many of these tools are affordable, and companies who work on small budgets can use them effectively while not using up all of their resources.

In Summary

Search engine marketing can be complex but using tools can ease the process. To do it, you need to know that search engine marketing is more for an audience with intent during their searches. Video is also huge for many search engines as it is more likely to show up on the top of a feed or list. If you tag and share content with those it is relevant to, you can get them to share it for you as well. You should also experiment and play around with search tools as there are many affordable ones that can provide your brand with useful results.

Influence Factory LIVE airs on Wednesdays at 12pm CST. Register here!

You can also subscribe to previous and upcoming shows on the Social Jack website.

We hope to see you in our next Influence Factory!

May 2018

Influence Factory – Featuring “Jimmy Z” Zawiski – “Getting Fish in Your Funnels”

Are you looking to get more sales accomplished in your field? With the power of Influencer Marketing, people

Influence Factory – Featuring “Jimmy Z” Zawiski – “Getting Fish in Your Funnels”

Blogging chicago, classes, credibility, dean delisle, facebook, influencer marketing, knowledge, linkedin, Sales, Sales Coaching, sales leads, sales training, social jack, social media, twitter Dean

Are you looking to get more sales accomplished in your field? With the power of Influencer Marketing, people have the ability to build their brand and sway others, but most do not know how to effectively use it. Influencer Marketing, when leveraged properly, has the power to bring in more sales and generate leads. Our Influencer Guest, Jimmy Z, talks about the best way to fill your sales funnels with tons of great tips and tools on this episode.

Learn to Influence with Integrity

During this podcast, Jimmy mentioned that the main difference between proper Influencing and manipulation is intent. A great Influencer is an individual who looks to create a win-win situation for all people involved. Another important aspect of “Influence with Integrity” is that good Influencers look to add meaning to what they sell to people. Many people will ask you why they should bother buying your services. You want to provide more value to your service than what they originally thought. When you are deeply invested in what you want to sell, you can add more personal value to a product which WILL entice people. Bottom line here – personality and passion will add more value to anything!

Influencer Marketing Pro Tip: You can use this information and apply it to the Digital Marketing world of sales. Social media is unique in that it allows us to connect to people and show off a brand. For any product you sell, you want to create content that shows how important it can be for customers. This kind of content is what we call “value-based content.” With this, you should be giving the customers as much as you can about a product by adding that personal value to your messages. If you just try a quick joke or description on social media and then wait, people will ignore what you have to say. Give them as much as you can right from the start. When you do that right, customers can refer you to others and those others will continue referring you!

Determine Your Free Line

While personal value is important to sales, you are not going to get paid because people see the personal value you are adding to the product. That is mainly to help them generate interest in what you want to sell. However, that interest can be used to convert a lead into a customer when they get some free content from you. To effectively get customers on board or invested in your product, you need to offer free things that get them thinking about you. Maybe your company publishes reports that anyone can access. Or, maybe your company uses a blog or webcast (similar to what we do at Social Jack). When you use this free material, you can get very personal with prospects and get them into your funnel. Your line of how much “free” material you give away can depend on what company you work for, but it is effective nonetheless. Think of this content as your fish hook (or net, so you can grab more fish). By hooking potential leads at the start, it is easier to get them to come on as customers!

Create Credibility

Now, without value, your customer will not be interested in your product which can be bad. However, another thing that can hurt you is not having the proper credentials to sell your product. As an Influencer, you are the expert on your career field. However, if customers do not see what gives you the right to speak to something, that will lose interest the moment you talk to them. In order to fix this, you need to build credibility. Make sure your information on social media is up to date and that people know why you are trustworthy. You can’t generate interest if the trust isn’t there.

“The two keys to selling are interest and credibility.” – Jimmy Zawiski

Influencer Marketing Pro Tip: The easiest way to build credibility is by writing a book. Did you know that Amazon Kindle can do this, not to mention, make it EXTREMELY easy? Kindle has a self-publishing feature that educates you on everything you need to know about publishing a book and putting it on Kindle for FREE. Make use of this and build your credibility!

Bonus Influencer Tip: Amazon has an additional sister site called Createspace. This site not only gives you formats you can use to publish a book, but can also provide quotas on much it would take to print it. You can also connect it to a phone number so people can order a printed copy for a cheap amount ($3-5 at most). This is a GREAT way to spread your Influence at a low cost!

Create a Sequence Map

Do you know what you want to say about product but not sure exactly how to say it? Jimmy recommends using a sequence map, which is a map filled with empty bubbles. In this map, you write down a different thought about your product in one bubble. Once you’ve written down everything you want to say, you can then develop a flow by connect one thought to another which will connect to another. By writing down what you want to say, you can better practice and effectively sell the product by knowing when to bring in that personal value.

Influencer Marketing Pro Tip: If you are not one for writing stuff down, you can do it electronically too! Pages and Microsoft word can have you use bubble shapes in a document as well. You can type in the bubbles and then draw lines to connect everything!

Find A Way to Teach a Course

Another way that you as an Influencer can bring in more people is by taking your expertise and turning it into a course for people. This can establish credibility as people can see you break down material and demonstrate why you are an expert in this field. Doing this will generate interest in your product and turn those people into customers who want to learn from you. When you have a quality course and quality marketing, you will generate A LOT of customers!

“The greatest thing you can do is take your thoughts and turn it into a course.” – Jimmy Zawiski

Influencer Marketing Pro Tip: Jimmy recommends Kajabi if you want to teach an online course. It gives users a good set up to explain things and when mixed with awesome marketing, can bring in serious revenue for you!

In Summary

Social media has a massive Influence on sales in this age, and following these tips make it simple! Remember, adding personal value to a product will generate interest, but just be aware of how much free content you give people to egg them on. You also need to establish trust with them by having proper credentials to speak to a product’s value. Luckily, there are endless resources that can help you grow your credentials and, by extension, your Influence. When you market yourself right, your sales fishing net will bring in a lot of brand new customers!

Influence Factory live episodes air Wednesdays at 12pm CST; Register here.

You can also subscribe to previous and upcoming shows on the Social Jack website.

We hope to see you in our next Influence Factory!

Apr 2018

How to Rock Your Personal Brand – Building Your Influence

If you have ever received a referral for a job or new business, you know how critical your

How to Rock Your Personal Brand – Building Your Influence

Blogging Business Development, chicago, Chicago marketing, dean delisle, facebook, facebook for business, forward progress, Influencer Development Program, influencer marketing, Instagram, linkedin, personal branding, social jack, social media, twitter Dean

The Social Jack™ Team has helped thousands of business professionals develop their Influence and have put together a quick, easy to follow recipe to get on the right track. To make sure that people click on you when making that critical choice for a professional, read on.

Looking at Social Media as Events:

Although we aren’t supposed to “play favorites” we all have a social media channel we use the most. Some of us are Facebook, some are Twitter and others are Instagram. Regardless of what your favorite is, you should be looking at them as an “event” that you are going to. When you’re at an event, there will be times you really enjoy it and want to come back, and other times when you think it could be better (we’ve done hundreds of events, so we definitely understand!). You can apply this to you clients, as well. Every client has a different “event” that they like. To help your client, you need to find what “events” they like and help them refine it even more.

Influencer Marketing Pro Tip: Companies you want to “bring to your event” (aka social media) usually like to hire social media experts who are experts of multiple disciplines, or channels. Take the time to experiment with different channels. The more you can master, the more likely a company will want you for social media execution!

Define Your Goals:

To get the most out of your social media, you need to figure out what your goals are for your social strategy. Maybe you are a Thought Leader who wants to get your name out there as an expert in your field. Maybe you want to bring more personality to a brand or event, or even advance your career. Developing your personal brand can achieve ALL of these goals. Once you have a clear idea of your desired outcome and learn the basics, you can build on your brand and reach those goals. Make sure that your goal is quantifiable and realistic! If you need help, we have plenty of worksheets in our Social Jack Academy to help you get started!

Tell Your Story

A brand is more relatable and personal when you bring your own story into it. Your personal accounts and the content you create tell this story, so it is important. To do this, think about some of the biggest turning points in your life. People want to know what got you to THIS moment, so you should be telling them the most defining moments in your life. Write things down over time so you can figure out the key points in your life that brought you here. When you write these down, you can also define the “theme” of your brand. This theme is your main idea – the thing you want followers to know about you. The key points are the roadmap of your personal brand; how you explain your journey from point A to Z. The more you write down, the more of your story you can use to execute your person brand.

Influencer Marketing Pro Tip: When writing things out, do what we call a “mind dump”. This simply means that you just write down whatever comes to mind about yourself. Do not leave out a single detail. From our experience, we’ve seen people come up with their own theme from even the tiniest details of their experience. More details, more personality for your brand! If you enjoy writing, think about taking up journaling.

Know Your Digital Impression:

When people come visit your profiles on social media, you want to give them the idea that you are approachable. If you have any pages that talk about you in third-person, it can be a BIG turn-off to people (aka potential clients) because it makes them feel like you are not personal or approachable. This is where you start to Google yourself. Google yourself. Do it. It’s not vain- it’s imperative. Make sure you go at least three pages back and see what is already out there for your personal brand. This search shows your “digital footprint” so you want to make sure it is as clean as possible! If there are any outdated profiles on you, make sure you fix that information ASAP and keep it current. This is especially the case for LinkedIn. If you need help, our Influencer Development Program has several modules that help you build a professional profile.

Your Profiles are Your Professional Brand

While it is quite clear that your profiles show your professional brand, many people forget to make sure those profiles are completely filled out. While this can mean having your most recent position listed, having a (recent!) profile picture, and updating your bio, you are more than your title. When people visit your page, it should start a conversation with people and answer how you can help and why you are the expert in your profession.

Influencer Marketing Pro Tip: Feeling limited by the character limit of your LinkedIn headline? If you need more space to develop your personal brand in your LinkedIn, the mobile app extends the character count by 80 characters. Make them count!

The Power of Your Connections

A major thing to help you better connect with individuals and expand your network is constantly developing and updating your profile so you appear in searches. Your current and prospective connections may already be looking for someone with your specific experience, but if you give a generic title or headline they won’t be sure of your abilities. When your connections see a defined headline, it makes you more credible and trustworthy. They will also be more likely to view your experience and want to work with you.

Influencer Marketing Pro Tip: Remember, you may have only have 300 connections on LinkedIn but you actually have more thank you think. Your connections can lead you to other connections so make use of your network! When you connect more, it helps you build your personal brand.

Power Move – Add Other Influencers

Once you lock down and develop your brand, you should strengthen your network by adding more Influencers! If you want a better network, you want to attach yourself to powerful individuals in your industry. This will help you not only find kindred spirits, but also help you find people to speak at events or even work with.

Power Move – Conversation

You should connect to others, but don’t JUST connect – engage with your connections! You should be having conversations with these individuals, which can spark conversations with more individuals. This is what we call “social teaming”. When you have a good conversation with Influencers, you can boost your likes and engage with others. You can also see who else is talking about the posts and make a plan for what you should say. When you engage with someone in your field, they will see it and their connections will ALSO see it.

Measure Your Goals

You’ve updated your profiles, enhanced your brand and made use of those power moves. Now what? The only way you will see your improvements by measuring your results. This is what we meant earlier when we said to make these goals quantifiable. If your goal was to get more sales, keep a record of how many you made thanks to your social media presence. If you want to build more connections in your network, LinkedIn will show how many connections you have and how many people like what you post. When you measure your success, you will EASILY see your results.

In Summary

Remembers that your profiles tell your story. Our unique stories are what differentiate us from others. Use your profiles to bring your story to life and show people why they should work with you. If you need further resources, check out our Free Resource Center at Social Jack. You can access our Free Resource Center by signing up for a Basic Social Jack Account plus browse the worksheets and classes currently available.

We will see your profiles online!

We hope to see you in one of our next classes! Check out the full list at www.socialjackflash.com

Apr 2018

Building Influence Through Events – Interview with Michael Angelo Caruso

Last week’s edition of the Influence Factory brings you the latest industry news and lets you hear from

Building Influence Through Events – Interview with Michael Angelo Caruso

Blogging business, Business Development, chicago, cognitive speaking, consulting, dean delisle facebook, forward progress, general goals, influencer marketing, Michael Angelo Caruso, powerpoint, presentation, Sales, social jack Dean

Last week’s edition of the Influence Factory brings you the latest industry news and lets you hear from Industry Experts! Last week’s Influencer Guest, Michael Angelo Caruso, talks about how he has built his Influence through the use of Events.

When speaking at events, there are certain connections that you make at them. As speakers, we tend to just come in to an event and then leave. There are thousands of opportunities to network with other attendees when you present. You want to find ways to make your material connect to them. We will go through the key points Michael discussed during the webcast here so you can present like an Event Influencing pro!

The Power of Cognitive Speaking

The way we affect our audience during a presentation can be boiled down to a simple science. Cognitive speaking sounds like a new scientific term, but it has always been in the art of presenting. In our webcast, Michael spoke about how Brian Tracey utilized this psychology to understand how leaders and presenters influence others. Cognitive speaking usually involves having a bias. This can be an optimism, pessimism or even confirmation bias. When leaders talk, they can use this to sway an opinion and even sell someone on an idea. You also want to use what you say to show people that you are passionate about your area of knowledge, something that further enhances engagement. Cognitive speaking requires a human approach so make sure you do it!

“When you can show us what you care about, it makes you seem more human.”

– Michael Angelo Caruso

It’s All in The Details

One way to gain influence when speaking at events is to pay attention to the details (AKA your audience). This seems like an obvious point, but so many people rarely utilize it to its fullest extent. In these days, we are more invested in ourselves than we are with other people. If you want to see how your audience is reacting to your material, Michael said you “should look up at your audience once in a while.” In doing this, you are able to see what they are doing, AND you make your lesson more personalized. This is simple math: Eye contact plus addressing the audience = engagement.

Influencer Marketing Pro Tip: A “ride along” can be helpful when you are doing a presentation. This means that someone watches your presentation and can tell you things that you miss or do not realize that you are doing. We can become too invested in a presentation that we fail to change the way we address things to people. When we are told what we miss, we can be more aware of it so we can adjust the flow of a presentation for our viewers.

Watching your language

There are half a million words in our language and it can be a challenge to find the right words for a response. We may be able to anticipate some things our audience might say but we really need to think on our feet about the words that will create an impactful response. We do this by using word substitution. When you practice, you may find yourself using words that don’t give the presentation impact. By subbing out those words, you can find other words that give your speech a boost.

“While complete perfection is not possible, you can get very close to it when crafting a presentation.”

– Michael Angelo Caruso

Influencer Marketing Pro Tip: You can make speeches more effective during preparation by having a deep vocabulary. There are websites that often do a “Word of The Day.” If you want to deepen your word bank effectively, finding websites that do this can be a HUGE help. Michael recommends Wordsmith.org as a personal favorite.

Build a Good PowerPoint

Unfortunately, PowerPoint has become a bit of a crutch that many people are overusing in presentations. The best presentations will have certain restrictions for PowerPoints. If you are to use one, use it in the middle third of a presentation. The first third should be used to develop a relationship with the audience and the final third should be your “call to action.” A presentation should also use oversized text (limiting how many words are in a slide) and no more than one photo. Remember, people will turn their back to the audience if all their points are in the presentation. You want to make sure your audience is engaged and that cannot happen when you have your back to them.

“The fastest way for leaders and salespeople to excel is to master the art of the presentation.” – Michael Angelo Caruso

Knowing The Colors of Personality

While it’s important to dress your best for an event (and try to highlight the colors of your brand in your outfit), you should be MORE aware of the different personalities in the audience. There are four personalities – the thinker, relator, socializer and director. You should get an idea of which of these personality types are in the audience during a presentation. Once you learn WHO is in the audience, you can then tailor your word choice and presentation to them. This will maximize impact and keep people engaged in what you have to say. You’re using color, but just in an unconventional sense.

Get Feedback and Stay Relevant

This is the most important part of any presentation. The biggest metric of success is seeing what people say about your presentation. You should be asking people about your presentation to see what they got out of it. By learning this feedback, you know what you need to cut out or even add.

“When you want to find out what people think about your presentation, ask them what they took away from your speech.”

– Michael Angelo Caruso

On your social media channels, relevance is EXTREMELY important. You want to show your audience that you are up to date on current happenings in the world and your area of expertise. When you post relevant information, it keeps your audience interested in what you have to say.

In Summary

While it seems like a lot to give a successful presentation, these tips are very easy to apply. Remember that using cognitive bias will help you sway your target audience and get them interested in what you have to say. Once you have done that, you need to be aware of your audience and pay attention to reactions and their personality types. Don’t be too reliant on a PowerPoint as you want to keep eye contact with the audience, NOT give them your back during a presentation.

Influence Factory live episodes air Wednesdays at noon central . Register here.

You can also subscribe to previous and upcoming shows on the Social Jack website.

We hope to see you on our next Influence Factory!

Jan 2018

How to Rock Your Personal Brand – The Start of Your Influence

How to Rock Your Personal Brand – The Start of Your Influence If you have ever received

How to Rock Your Personal Brand – The Start of Your Influence

If you have ever received a referral for a job or new business, you know how critical your online personal brand can be. People are only one click away from choosing you or moving on, and many times you will never even know. In our Social Jack Influencer Development Classes we teach the fundamentals to make that shift to be found and chosen first by your network. Let’s cover some of the core principals.

In our 8 step process, we start with a core story to build your personal brand. We first want to make sure we understand the desired outcome of our professional. Everything should drive to that destination or outcome.

Know or Define Your Authentic Self (Your Story)

We want to know the “what” our professional subject is going for and “why” being known is so important. We want this information as part of their story and to begin the creation of their persona and personal brand. Sometimes we have professionals and executives who are working on their career, so they may want to get to a certain level of career advancement or promotion. Some are looking for executive presence and thought leadership. Whatever goals you are wanting to accomplish, it is important to know this before you begin to work on yourself or with someone like us.

Knowing your story is critical, but it is perfectly okay to start with a draft and adjust along the way. Some people wait years to even begin writing their story; the key is to pick a point and simply begin. Find trusted allies that will provide feedback, and even some subject matter, and experts to help you as well. Generally speaking, people are very willing to help. You may also have colleagues you work with that might have gone before you. Ask yourself this question: “What do you want to be known for?” Use your answer to craft a short narrative, typically 300-500 words. Catch yourself: you will want to tack things on as you go, which is fine, but make sure they are relevant. Stay targeted. Keep your focus.

Watch our latest class on establishing your personal brand HERE

When writing and building profiles and bios we look at the story as a whole, analyze the target audience, and determine which words people will use to find you on the internet and how you want to be found. Sometimes the keywords are not always what you would choose, however, they are what people would use to find you. Keywords and phrases are typically made up of 1 to 3 words and the ideal profile has 10 keyword phrases. If that seems like a lot right now, start small- itt is okay to start with 5 and add from there. Once you have your keywords, weave them into your story. You should do this AFTER you draft your story so you can flow with your ideas before worrying about keywords. If you need more help with keywords, we have a whole course you can reference in our Basic Social Jack Account.

Know Your Ideal Target

Think about your ideal audience: these are the people you want to attract and who you ideally want to do business with. You should be able to identify your ideal target at a very specific level: industry, title, type of company, geographic locations, size of organization, years in business, whatever matters most to you. Narrowing it down can be tough for many of us as we sometimes want to keep adding, however, the tighter you make your ideal target the better your story will be. Plus, it will take less effort to generate new business or advance your career when your story is concrete and your target is narrow.

Even if you do not go into social selling, you should do this next step at least once a month for your own protection. First, Google your name and any variations. This could look like your name + your company name, your job title, etc. When you Google your name, you are looking for things that you are NOT aware of and making sure that all your Social Media profiles, websites and content are in alignment with your new brand (story). Look over at least the first two pages of your search results. The first things that should appear are any Social Network accounts, websites and high-traction videos. You can simply replace your old profiles with your newest profiles or update the information across platforms, but you absolutely want to delete any old, invalid profiles.

Next, set up Google Alerts with your name, brand names, company names, etc. With this free tool, you can have Google alert you at the frequency you desire (we recommend daily) any time your name pops up on the internet. I actually do this for my entire family! You will need a Gmail account to set this up, but that is also free.

Engage In Relevant Online Conversations

Anywhere online — blogs, video, pod casts, Social Media sites, online news articles, etc. — make sure you get your name and your brand attached to the content that’s most relevant to your story and that fits the keywords you want to be known for. This will take some practice. You can also engage (like, comment, share, retweet, etc.) with the content of other thought leaders. This will give you reach and visibility into their Social network, which can only be good for you. See the 7 likes and 3 comments on the post below. On average, this would reach thousands of views in news feeds as people keep engaging. Keep playing with this and have fun; it’s networking right from your smartphone.

It might seem like you have a long way to go, but remember you can start right now with these first few steps. It only takes a few hours to make basic changes and get out of the gate. If you don’t like where you’re starting from, you can make simple adjustments as you grow. Just remember any time you make changes to one profile you should make the same changes across your other profiles, too. Also, remember to do this with others! Our goal is that you take what you have learned and someone else; you are never alone- nor should you be! If you need further resources, check out our Free Resource Center at Social Jack. You can access our Free Resource Center by signing up for a Basic Social Jack Account plus browse the worksheets and classes currently available.

We will see you (and your story) online!

We hope to see you in one of our next classes!

Join us for our next Online Flash Class: Personal Branding and Storytelling – How to Rock Your Digital Presence

Sep 2017

85 Event Attendees Within 20 Days – B2B Influencer Marketing Case Study

The Key: Social Team Formation, Training, Coaching and Willingness to PLAY! The Challenge: Help us fill our event

The Key: Social Team Formation, Training, Coaching and Willingness to PLAY!

The Challenge: Help us fill our event in three weeks!

So many of you saw the previous Blog post on the Informs IMPAC 2017 show here in Chicago. Well, the INFORMS people came to us about three weeks before the show and said they needed a short, low-cost campaign to fill their event with paying event attendees at the Notre Dame Chicago Campus. We viewed this as the ultimate Social Influencer challenge: with a small budget and very little time, could we use our core network to make this event pop and possibly put some butts in seats? We took a close look at our network and talked briefly among our team; then we decided to take on the challenge and thought we would give it a shot with our Social Influencer Event System. Spoiler alert: it was a dramatic success! I have outlined the highlights of our steps below.

Strategy: Look at the impact and influence of the network

We faced the challenge of two networks coming together. FinTech Analytics and Sports Analytics are two different groups, with two entirely different networks. Keep in mind we look at every event like a sporting event, so we assemble networks and sub-networks like “Social Teams”, where there are levels of talent and groupings based on each levels’ commitment to the organization and desire for it to succeed, i.e., corporate championship. So, our typical method is to run what we call our “Inside Out” analysis. It might be easiest to follow along with the diagram below:

Prep work: We make sure first and foremost that we connect all of our teams and brands to the teams associated with the event. We also score all Team Players on the diagram above, both professionals and brands, so we know who the strongest players are – and consequently the ones most likely to participate. As much as you’d like for everyone to participate, we find we mostly get a 50% participation rate; however, some groups surprise us with a higher level of play.

Get the Teams Ready for Play

1. Core Team (Level One) – these were the Board Members. We were able to get agreement ahead of time for willingness to play. This is critical; without this buy-in, it does not work. So, a big shout out to the Board Members listed below who allowed us to start this machine rolling. A special shout out to Andrea Leiter who was our initial content and spark to get the troops assembled and have them agree to play with us.

They agreed to allow us to train them on how to play on social media and how to interact with our content. Our Social Jack™ Influencer Team Training purposely keeps it simple and easy for busy people to play the game with us and it’s proven to be highly effective. Board Members also agreed to connect us to the next level of the network, the Speaker Team.

2. Speaker Team (Level Two) – The Speakers were all connected to the Board Members (Team One), so we worked to have them reach out and ask the Speakers to play with our content. We then also provide weekly online coaching sessions for all clients and subscribers so they have a place to go. Don’t forget to also include the Speakers’ brands as part of the game! On our Social Jack™ Platform, we also record all training and coaching sessions for review. We then reach out to all Speakers and invite them to participate. When we have more time, we offer our training and coaching program for Speakers; unfortunately, for this run we could not organize our training for all Speakers.

See Speakers List

3. Sponsor Team (Level Three) – Sponsors typically are invested; however, many do not know how to play socially. We had the Board Members with the best relationships personally contact the Sponsors and ask them to participate; some even sent email blasts in addition to social posting and engagement. Most are typically invested as they too want the eyeballs on their brand — or they would not be Sponsors. We watched and helped the Sponsors boost their message as part of the process. Reciprocity is part of the success recipe here!

4. Connected Influencer Team (Level Four) – This is our “secret sauce”: so, we find the Influencer Players in our network, depending on the type of event, audience, etc. Sometimes we have more and sometimes less. In this case we reached out to everyone — from media contacts related to sports and everyone we knew in FINTECH. We wound up with a team of about 35 people of which about 20 played nicely. There was a great variety of participation, ranging from emails to social media placement of banner ads to attendance. Too many to mention here, suffice it to say however that we could not have done it without these players in this process.

Time to Play

Once we have team connections and agreements in place, it’s really time to play! As soon as we had the board trained, we then mapped out our messaging with emails, social media and advertising. We had to move fast since we had a super short promotion window, with very little time for testing. We had to lead out with our best guestimates for the message and tweak on the fly as needed.

We created content calendars and sent those out to all the team players that were trained and those that had agreed to play with us online. As always, some jumped in right away and some needed a little nudge and still others did not show up. No-shows are a hard fact, but in this case, most showed up to play with us online and some even went the extra mile with sending extra emails and even posted their own supply of social media. The most important thing is for all team members to understand what and when you will be posting so they can interact with you, so the best bet is to have your content done in advance, let speakers and sponsors know when they will be featured and where, and then communicate like crazy on approach.

Ongoing Coaching Support

In our weekly Social Jack™ coaching sessions, we provide unlimited support for all clients and students. This means if they want to understand LinkedIn more, we teach that; if they want to play more on Twitter, we teach that. Whatever they need we are there to help them. This way they never feel alone in the game, and for many this is a new game for them. We understand that many of these people are new to this game and we want them to succeed just by being part of the event.

That Extra Reach

To continue this thought, think about if you have a speaker that only has 50 followers on Twitter, then you show them how to get another 20, then how to attach to their brand and other influencers in their world. You are now changing the game one person, one network at a time. We literally received many inquiries and orders just from this method alone.

In this case we had:

8 Board Members

7 Sponsors

13 Speakers

20 Connected Influencers

The total estimated “targeted” social reach ended up being over 75 million connections, and that is a very conservative estimate.

The Outcome: 85 attendees for a paid event within 20 days!

One More Thing

Always think of the “one more thing”: what is one more tweet, post, share or like that can be done and where. We went into LinkedIn Groups, Alumni Groups and other areas, and in the home stretch that also helped. So, remember when doing this, stick to the plan and — like you do at the gym — always go for one more thing!

There were many more things that we did behind the scenes as part of our process, but I hope this brings you ideas and thoughts of how you can bring more people to your events through Influencer Marketing. We are all Influencers and have a powerful network once it is activated, it’s just that some of us are new and just starting out. Remember that the largest Influencers started with just a few followers at some point and built up to what you now know. The cool thing is that it is never too late to start.

For many of you this seems way out there, it is new, it is growing, it is changing all the time. If you want to know more or want to get a walk-through of our system, I encourage you to visit our website or our Coaching and Training Platform.

Oh — one more thing, remember as you start your journey, you are never alone as long as you follow the Social Teaming methodology described earlier in this blog post. Please let us know how you do as you grow your brand and yourself as an influencer, we would love to feature you or maybe refer to you during one of our upcoming events. After all, our event clients are always looking for the next up-and-coming influencer!

We will see you online…. Influencing!

Aug 2017

Analytics is HOT – Chicago Group brings FINTECH and Sport Analytics Together – #IMPAC2017

Sorry if it sounds like I am geeking out here, but read on! Most of you know we

Analytics is HOT – Chicago Group brings FINTECH and Sport Analytics Together – #IMPAC2017

Article, Blogging, Business, Social Media News blog, chicago, dean delisle, FINTECH, impac2017, informs, linkedin, sport analytics Dean

Sorry if it sounds like I am geeking out here, but read on!

Most of you know we handle a ton of conferences and provide Influencer Marketing services. When asked by INFORMS to participate in their conference, it reactivated my technical network, meaning that connections from my roots were brought forward. I have been in the financial arena since the early 80’s and I’ve been in or around analytics for most of my career; I’ve been a huge fan of sports all my life. So when I looked at the INFORMS conference and saw this network coming together I was tremendously excited.

Those of you that know me, you know I am all about the network. When you look at the speakers and topics it’s almost hard for me to pick a track. So we are splitting up and coming together on the LinkedIn Group afterwards to compare notes! Then you have the companies connected to the speakers, STATS – the best live sports data provider I know, can’t wait to meet Patrick Lucey, Ph. D., Director of Data Sciences. I will have a follow up interview blog after the conference. Liz Wanless, Ph. D., from Ball State University will talk about something near and dear to my heart, which is Customer Relationships and Sales Optimization, she will be sharing two revenue enhancement case studies. Russell Walker, Ph. D., from Northwestern will be talking Big Data related to Sports Management; this is changing our world and delivery of stats as we speak. Zach Binkley, Ph. D., Lewis University will be sharing sports performance communication, implementation and innovation; with all the data today, this is a massive undertaking.

From my FINTECH world I can’t wait to hear what Michael Rechenthin, Ph. D, from tastytrade has to say about Data Sciences and Collaboration, this is right in my wheelhouse of content. We also know that Machine Learning and Predictive models are hot and that topic will be covered by Justin Dickerson, Ph.D. – he will dig into Default, Fraud and Scoring which is a big piece of our financial world today. Joe DeCosmo, Chief Analytics Officer from Enova, will address Real Time Analytics. We are in such a “real time, on demand” world, and he will share what is trending and what the future holds.

Take a look the chart below, all speakers have a critical handle on what is hot and going on right now, so that is why it is tough to select a track!

IMPAC 2017 – INFORMS Midwest Practice of Analytics Conference

The only negative? The conference only has 100 seats at the current venue! However, you can get on a waiting list for the next conference and early notification for the next conference.

Registration and Waiting List link: http://connect.informs.org/chicago/meetings/impac2017

If you cannot make this conference please ask me what questions you want answered at the bottom of this post and I will do my best to get them addressed here or in the LinkedIn Groups

Also, check the new INFORMS Chicago Twitter account

To follow activity and update use Hashtag: #IMPAC2017

Location: University of Notre Dame, Chicago Campus – 224 S. Michigan Avenue (2nd Floor), Chicago IL 60604

We also want to acknowledge all sponsors that are supporting this event:

Social Jack and Forward Progress are proud to participate in this great event, we look forward to seeing you at the event or on the related social channels on the journey!