Social Pros Podcast

Latest Episodes:

How FedEx Dominates in Social Media by Getting Specific Mar 20, 2020

Show notes

Alex Shockey, the Global Social Media Manager at FedEx, joins the Social Pros Podcast to discuss the structure and strategies of the tiny but mighty social media team at FedEx.

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Full Episode Details

Social media is constantly changing. We know this to be true and yet so many brands struggle to keep up. If successful brands on social have taught us anything it's that you must embrace change and evolve how you're structured to meet the needs of social media.

This is just one of the takeaways from this episode of the Social Pros Podcast with Alex Shockey, the Global Social Media Manager at FedEx. Alex perfectly articulates the speed of social media's evolution and focuses on the importance of identifying conversations on social and finding new ways to bring them to the surface in strategic ways.

As Alex accurately points out, social media is often a soapbox for people to share their opinions. With 7,000+ FedEx mentions per day, Alex shares how she and her team capitalize on these stories and reveals what makes some social mentions worth bringing to the attention of their audience.

In This Episode:

04:28 – A peek inside Alex's role as Global Social Media Manager at FedEx
09:58 – How FedEx's social media team is structured
12:51 – How social conversations have shaped FedEx's social media strategy
16:20 – How social chatter has shifted and evolved across different social media platforms
18:56 – How to implement positive customer stories about team members and your brand in social strategies
24:50 – How the FedEx social media team works with other departments within the organization
31:30 – Tips for tracking the performance of a social media team

Resources:

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How to Use Authenticity and Become a TikTok Influencer Mar 13, 2020

Show notes

TikTok influencer, Maggie Thurmon, joins the Social Pros Podcast to discuss how brands can create content that resonates with audiences on TikTok.

Huge thanks to our amazing sponsors for helping us make this happen. Please support them; we couldn't do it without their help! This week:

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Full Episode Details

With over one billion users, TikTok is undoubtedly having its moment in the spotlight. While the majority of its users may be dancing teenagers, a lot of brands are embracing the rather youthful social media platform and gaining plenty of traction.

However, if you really want to understand the ins and outs of TikTok, you've got to learn from the best. TikTok influencer, Maggie Thurmon, is a high school senior with over 700k followers on the platform and 17.9M likes (and growing). So, what's her secret to success? Maggie claims it's all about listening to your community and "taking what your followers say and running with it."

Maggie is taking the TikTok world by storm and shares some incredible insights on how to be a great content creator on this platform and how brands like yours can resonate with TikTok users.

In This Episode:

04:10 – How Maggie grew her TikTok following to 700k+
05:14 – How trending challenges work in TikTok
07:34 – How Maggie and her dad have worked together to create viral content
10:20 – The importance of being conscious of your audience and creating content that they can watch and resonate with
12:42 – How to build an audience on TikTok
21:33 – Why it's so important to be authentic and genuine
23:09 – What type of content works best on TikTok
29:38 – How to balance content creation fatigue with other responsibilities
34:17 – Tips for planning new video content

Resources:

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Psychology Shows Why Social Media Often Fails Mar 06, 2020

Show notes

Jonah Berger, Marketing Professor at The Wharton School, joins the Social Pros Podcast to talk about how you can become a catalyst for change and leverage the power of understanding behavioral science to change anyone's mind.

Huge thanks to our amazing sponsors for helping us make this happen. Please support them; we couldn't do it without their help! This week:

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Full Episode Details

Whether you want to convince customers to buy from you, transform an organization, or get more engagement on social, everyone has something they want to change. But… creating change isn't always easy.

Pushing for change usually evokes a push back. When you tell someone to do something, they usually do the exact opposite. Think of what happens when you ask your kids to do the dishes, clean their bedrooms, or put their phone away at the dinner table. Chances are, they'll ignore you completely, or at the very least, put up a fight about it.

However, creating change is possible. You just need to learn how to become a catalyst for the type of change you want to evoke in the world. Jonah Berger, Marketing Professor at The Wharton School, has discovered a better way to catalyze change and shares his findings with us on this eye-opening episode of Social Pros.

In This Episode:

03:39 – Why Jonah wrote his latest book, The Catalyst
06:47 – Why you need to understand the barriers that stop your audience, client, boss, etc. from changing their mind
08:44 – The psychological reason why humans are so resistant to change
14:02 – How the endowment effect impacts our willingness to get rid of something that's 'old' and/or familiar to us
18:52 – How communications can actually increase opposition
21:37 – How to use the 'Asking for Less' strategy to change people's minds
27:20 – How to overcome the uncertainty that leads people to hit the pause button
31:26 – How we can become more receptive to the right kind of change

Resources:

Visit SocialPros.com for more insights from your favorite social media marketers.

How 130,000 RE/MAX Agents Use Social Media Feb 28, 2020

Show notes

Kayla Roofe, the Sr. Social Media Manager at RE/MAX LLC, joins the Social Pros Podcast to talk about how digital and social have changed the real estate industry.

Huge thanks to our amazing sponsors for helping us make this happen. Please support them; we couldn't do it without their help! This week:

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My Emma

Full Episode Details

Buying a home is a huge expense. For most people, purchasing a property to call home is the largest investment they will ever make.

The way we browse for the perfect home has changed a lot since the good old days of newspaper listings and real estate drop-ins. Nowadays, you can search and potentially find your dream home from the comfort of your couch (or wherever you happen to be). Kayla Roofe, the Sr. Social Media Manager at RE/MAX LLC, leverages social media to broadcast new listings and ultimately, sell more houses.

She works with a staggering 130,000 RE/MAX agents from all over the world. Aligning that many team members around social and making sure that they're doing it 'right' has got to be one of the most difficult jobs out there. Thankfully, Kayla is a social pro herself and doesn't hold back when it comes to sharing the best tips for selling something as expensive and potentially life-changing as a brand-new home.

In This Episode:

04:28 – How RE/MAX's social team is structured worldwide
06:30 – A look inside RE/MAX's social media strategy
08:24 – How social media has disrupted the real estate industry
12:37 – How real estate agents can use social media in the "right way"
14:53 – Key metrics Kayla uses when working with agents to help them improve their social media strategies
19:03 – How RE/MAX streamlines social content production across different franchisees
22:03 – How RE/MAX use influencers to help build credibility with their audience
25:13 – The importance of offering good customer service on social media
30:04 – How Kayla coordinates with the CEO

Resources:

Visit SocialPros.com for more insights from your favorite social media marketers.

If LinkedIn is Salad Do You Need More Roughage? Feb 21, 2020

Show notes

Anthony Juliano, the Vice President/General Manager of Asher Agency, joins Social Pros to talk about his philosophy for succeeding on LinkedIn.

Huge thanks to our amazing sponsors for helping us make this happen. Please support them; we couldn't do it without their help! This week:

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My Emma

Full Episode Details

If social media is a buffet, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat are the desserts while LinkedIn is the leafy green salad that we're not overly excited to sink our teeth into. People love spending time on the 'candy platforms' but they usually don't consume as much "salad" as they should.

Anthony Juliano, the Vice President/General Manager of Asher Agency, states that people don't love spending time on LinkedIn as much as they enjoy spending time on other platforms. When people go on LinkedIn, they usually get what they need, get out, and get on with their day.

However, Anthony argues that compared to other social media networks, LinkedIn has the most untapped potential for the largest number of professionals. Thankfully for Social Pros listeners, Anthony is a seasoned trainer on a variety of social media topics, with a specific focus on LinkedIn.

In This Episode:

04:30 – How the demand for LinkedIn courses and programs amplified over time
06:25 – How teaching methods change depending on the audiences' relationship with social media
08:01 – How social media is becoming more of a universal skill across different industries
10:42 – Anthony's philosophy of LinkedIn for business and B2B
12:30 – How to leverage LinkedIn and the importance of consistency
14:33 – Why LinkedIn has become more relevant today than it was a decade ago
16:30 – How marketers have changed the way they use LinkedIn
19:21 – Tips for creating successful newsfeed content on LinkedIn
25:36 – Why you should focus less on the length of your posts/captions and more on the strength of your story

Resources:

Visit SocialPros.com for more insights from your favorite social media marketers.

Why Passion is the Number One Ingredient for a Social Media Manager Feb 14, 2020

Show notes

Bari Rosenstein, the Social Media Manager at Honest Tea, joins the Social Pros Podcast to talk about providing her audience with a personable and personalized experience on social media.

Huge thanks to our amazing sponsors for helping us make this happen. Please support them; we couldn't do it without their help! This week:

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My Emma

Full Episode Details

Having a passion for our roles as social media practitioners is what keeps us motivated to keep doing what we're doing. Without passion, you can't succeed in your role because passion is the fuel that drives success.

Bari Rosenstein, the Social Media Manager at Honest Tea, loves the brands she represents on social. She responds to each message and interaction herself, giving Honest Tea's audience a very personable and personalized response every time. There are no robots involved and it's this personal touch and honesty that helps to make Honest Tea such an approachable brand.

Bari's genuine passion and authenticity for her role as Social Media Manager is palpable. She's bursting with enthusiasm and leverages her knowledge of the space and awareness of how the craft of social media is changing to demonstrate the importance of believing in social if you really want to succeed on social.

In This Episode:

05:14 – How Bari's role is structured within the giant Coca Cola ecosystem
10:12 – How to embed enthusiasm and authenticity in other team members across different departments
12:14 – How Bari uses UGC to increase social engagement
15:15 – How Honest Tea looks at social from a scorecard standpoint
17:09 – A look inside Honest Tea's social media content calendar
18:14 – Tips to break out of a very social-driven role and branch out to other areas of the business
21:46 – How Bari handles social customer care
29:57 – Using different social media platforms to reach different demographics
33:18 – How Honest Tea use celebrity influencers to help market their brand

Resources:

Visit SocialPros.com for more insights from your favorite social media marketers.

Is Social Media Making You a Better Person? Feb 07, 2020

Show notes

Scott Stratten, President of UnMarketing Inc., joins the Social Pros Podcast to discuss his new book, The Jackass Whisperer, and reveals what you can do to silence the jackassery you experience at work, at home, and online.

Huge thanks to our amazing sponsors for helping us make this happen. Please support them; we couldn't do it without their help! This week:

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

My Emma

Full Episode Details

The world of social is filled with jackassery. Beneath almost every post, tweet, caption, and video, you'll uncover an infinite pool of vile comments left by faceless individuals we like to call trolls.

It's time for a jackass rebellion. Sure, it's almost impossible to escape jackasses at work, at home and online, but that doesn't mean you can't help to stop the worldwide jackassery epidemic. As Scott Stratten points out, if we want to stop some of the jackassery, we need to start by looking in the mirror.

In his new book, The Jackass Whisperer, Scott spills the hard truth - If you can't spot the Jackass next to you or anywhere you happen to be present, then the Jackass is probably you. We create our own noise and we have to be the change we want to see in the world, both offline and online.

In This Episode:

03:59 – Scott breaks down the concept behind his new book, The Jackass Whisperer
08:09 – Whether social media creates or exposes jackasses
10:51 – How social has made us both better and worse people
15:37 – A few of Scott's favorite 'jackass moves' on social media
17:29 – How jackassery levels differ across different social media platforms
27:40 – Why silence is one of the biggest jackass moves
30:26 – Tips for dealing with online jackassery

Resources:

Visit SocialPros.com for more insights from your favorite social media marketers.

Using Creativity to Dominate Linkedin Video Jan 31, 2020

Show notes

Allen Gannett, the Founder of TrackMaven and author of 'The Creative Curve,' joins the Social Pros Podcast to talk about how creativity is a learnable skill, the resurrection of organic social, and how to dominate LinkedIn video.

Huge thanks to our amazing sponsors for helping us make this happen. Please support them; we couldn't do it without their help! This week:

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

My Emma

Full Episode Details

Success on social media has a lot to do with timing. Creativity is one thing, but you also need to consider the rate at which people consume content in each social platform as it correlates with the rate of change of that platform.

Founder of TrackMaven, Allen Gannett, articulates it perfectly when he said that to be successful on any social media channel, you must be a citizen of that channel. What you post on Instagram isn't going to work on Twitter. It doesn't work like that anymore. You need to understand the subculture of the social channels that you frequent and pay attention to the timing of your schedule cycle.

As the pendulum swings back to organic social, brands have a unique opportunity to get ahead of the curve and make organic social work for them. But, you've got to be very channel-specific and not afraid to color outside the lines. Allen believes that creativity is a learnable skill, which means if you're willing to put the work in, you could be well on your way to becoming a mighty social pro.

In This Episode:

03:52 – What TrackMaven's data reveals about paid social vs. organic social
09:19 – Why you need to consider the pace of change in social media and how it relates to what you post, and when you post it
11:33 – Why you need to be a citizen of whatever social platform you're using
16:46 – The importance of being authentically human on social
17:48 – Why creativity should be seen as a learnable skill
27:19 – How Allen uses episodic video content on LinkedIn
29:56 – A look inside Allen's content publishing schedule and best practices for pleasing LinkedIn's algorithm

Resources:

Visit SocialPros.com for more insights from your favorite social media marketers.

How to Decentralize Social Media Execution to Add Authenticity Jan 24, 2020

Show notes

Ovi Vitas, EVP, Chief Brand & Digital Officer of Marriott Vacations Worldwide, joins the Social Pros Podcast to talk about his unrelenting focus on customer experience and how to use 'Social Champions' to decentralize social media execution and add authenticity.

Huge thanks to our amazing sponsors for helping us make this happen. Please support them; we couldn't do it without their help! This week:

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

My Emma

Full Episode Details

When your company is under the umbrella of a 'mother company,' how can you communicate that on social media whilst retaining and showcasing the differentiated experience your brand provides customers?

This is often top of mind for Ovi Vitas, EVP, Chief Brand & Digital Officer of Marriott Vacations Worldwide, who takes a decentralized approach to the content that's created and shared on social. To showcase a property-by-property experience, Ovi and his team have identified people from each location to be crowned 'Social Champion.'

It's this unique approach to decentralizing social media execution that has empowered people at each location to create incredible social media content. By following an enterprise set of guidelines, these 'Social Champions' play a key role in helping Marriott Vacations Worldwide add real authenticity to their social content.

In This Episode:

05:26 – What brands can learn from Marriott Vacations' unrelenting focus on customer experience
08:22 – How to use social media to market a 'high-end' product
11:25 – How "Social Champions" help Marriott Vacations Worldwide showcase the authentic uniqueness of 60+ properties
18:28 – How modern technology has aided our ability to decentralize social media execution
23:53 – Why it's important to focus on brand reputation management while remaining transparent
29:48 – How the timeshare aspect of Marriott Vacations Worldwide works and what they're doing to improve the customer experience
33:53 – Why brands need to listen to what customers are saying on third-party online communities

Resources:

Visit SocialPros.com for more insights from your favorite social media marketers.

How to Spot Social Media Fads vs. Trends Jan 17, 2020

Show notes

Rohit Bhargava, the Founder & Chief Trend Curator of Non-Obvious Company, joins the Social Pros Podcast to discuss the difference between fads and trends and what 'megatrends' have the power to change your business and propel your career.

Huge thanks to our amazing sponsors for helping us make this happen. Please support them; we couldn't do it without their help! This week:

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

My Emma

Full Episode Details

Can you predict what's going to be a trend or a fad? Social media trends tend to have a much longer lifespan than fads. The last thing you want to do as a social media practitioner is to invest too much time in to something that turns out to be a 'flash in the pan.'

So, what's the difference between a fad you should ignore and a trend worth pursuing? Rohit Bhargava, Founder & Chief Trend Curator of Non-Obvious Company, wrote many books on the subject, including his most recent title, 'Non-Obvious Megatrends.' Exploring its pages uncovers mega trend predictions that are likely to shape our world in the coming decade.

Together, we dive into these megatrends, revealing what others miss and unlocking the key to growing your business into the next decade. If you want to keep up with the ever-changing world of social, you absolutely need to know about these all-important megatrends that have the power to change your business and propel your career beyond expectations.

In This Episode:

02:49 – Why it's so important to think for yourself and why you should pay attention to existing megatrends
09:34 – An insight into the five mindsets of non-obvious thinkers
11:24 – How to identify social media fads vs trends
14:35 – Understanding the amplified identity mega trend and how it impacts us as social practitioners
21:22 – How to survive in an information economy and the rise of 'attention wealth'
23:27 – How to strategically supply instant knowledge to your customers
29:01 – The rise and fall of trends from previous years including the downfall of crowdsourcing
31:34 – Why more B2B brands and marketing leaders need to take a more human-centric marketing approach

Resources:

Visit SocialPros.com for more insights from your favorite social media marketers.