June 2018 | Social Jack | It's ALL About Who You Know

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 – Thea Polancic

It’s not a secret that businesses are what drive our economy and drive revenue. However, many people have

Influence Factory – Thea Polancic

Blogging Chicago marketing, facebook, influencer marketing, linkedin, networking, social jack, social media, twitter Dean

It’s not a secret that businesses are what drive our economy and drive revenue. However, many people have a misconception about capitalism and how it can be cold and inhumane. Despite that thought, there is another avenue of thought called “Conscious Capitalism.” This idea of business focuses on how business can be a force for good even if it is for profit. In this episode of Influence Factory, Thea Polancic, Founder and Chair of the Chicago chapter of Conscious Capitalism, discussed how people can humanize the world of business and use that to become an agent of change.

What is Conscious Capitalism?

Breaking down those two words into their simple definitions would make you think this term is about businesses’ awareness of what they are selling to customers. While this is true, the actual meaning of this phrase is that businesses are serving the needs of their stakeholders from the customers, to the employees, to the suppliers of the industry. This thought hits on the idea that businesses (and specifically, business owners) should make it a business to care about each individual involved with a company. This ensures that a business becomes more of a personality instead of a corporate entity.

Influencer Marketing Pro Tip: The idea behind Conscious Capitalism can apply to your personal online branding as well. You are there to offer a service and make money, obviously. However, your actions should be focused on how you can best serve your customers and community. By simply interacting with them instead of just pushing a product, you can show your personality and how your service can help others. Connect your brand and service to a purpose!

The Impact of a Caring Company

Each individual employee in a company has a primary purpose of getting money through their job along with getting benefits. However, this is just a general reason why people want a job with a company. The other (and far more important) reason is that they want to work for a company that cares about them. During this episode, Thea talked about companies providing a meaningful environment to their employees. A meaningful environment is one that allows employees to help the company’s success by being allowed to share thoughts and opinions with their colleagues. Yes, employees are needed for a business’ overall financial success. However, when companies allow their employees to share their thoughts, it can humanize them and get people to fully believe in what the company stands for.

Another way that companies can do this is by engaging in a voluntary exchange with their customers. A voluntary exchange is what happens when both the buyer (customer) and seller (the business) engage in a market transaction that will benefit all parties involved. Remember, companies are selling a service, but that service needs to show how it can benefit the buyer. Showing a customer how this product can solve an issue will also show that the company cares about creating a meaningful relationship with them.

Influencer Marketing Pro Tip: These lessons can also apply to your online brand. Social media gives you a chance to get personal with these customers and really engage in meaningful conversation. Talk with your potential customers and show how your company can help; if you are managing a company’s page, talk to your customers and find out what you need to do in order to help them, or solve a complaint. This helps customers see a business as one that truly cares about their customers – not one that couldn’t care less about them.

Growing the Business for Everyone

Another point that Thea made during her presentation is the importance of considering everyone who is invested in a business. Every move you make for a business should be done to benefit everyone, not just yourself. This can be done by expanding your company with new connections. By reaching out to others or even enhancing your relationships with current employees. Remember that capitalism can be a force for good, and you need to make sure everyone who is making your business a success is benefitting from the success.

Successful Business Growth

At the end of the day, the main goal of any business is to expand their services to make money. In order to do this, there are a couple things you can do. First, encourage a leadership culture. Earlier, we mentioned that you should make employees feel comfortable sharing their opinions. Doing this allows for workplace innovation. Initially, new ideas may struggle and face some backlash from others, but don’t let this scare you – this is how all innovations start. Employees should feel comfortable with being uncomfortable because it can take a business to new heights.

The other option to help with growing a business is by enlisting the aid of a business coach. The advantage of the coach is that they will be a fresh set of eyes that can point out what is being done wrong, or even opportunities that are being missed. Business owners can have a bias that may keep them from seeing these errors or opportunity gaps. A coach can help you find where there is room for improvement, and elevate a business to new levels of productivity and innovation.

Influencer Marketing Pro Tip: If you are looking to elevate you or your business’ brand, our team at Social Jackis here to assist you. We offer various programs for Influencer Development, which include helping your business expand its network.

In Summary

The idea of Conscious Capitalism can apply to Social Media Marketing. Conscious Capitalism is all about making sure every person invested in a business benefits from the opportunity. A business should be offering a service and be able to have a purpose as to why people should use this product. Businesses should also make sure that they care about their employees, who will bring in incredible ideas, resulting in new innovations for the company. In case of any issues, businesses should bring in coaches who can help them enhance a brand and humanize it. Take these lessons and apply them to your own social media channels.

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!

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

Influence Factory – Thea Polancic

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

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