Social Pros Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Why Instagram is the Cookie Monster of Content and How You Should Feed the Beast Aug 16, 2019

Show notes

Jill Paider, an award-winning photographer and creative director, joins the Social Pros Podcast to discuss the importance of sharing photogenic content on Instagram and how 'social photography' has impacted the industry.

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Emma

Full Episode Details

When most people think about creative minds, they recall world-renown artists, novelists, architects and so on. However, what you might not realize is that social pros are creatives too. It takes a lot of creative thinking to produce and publish great posts and come up with effective marketing strategies that can propel a brand's growth.

But, can creativity be taught? Or, is it something that only the Leonardo da Vinci's and Steven Spielberg's of the world are born with? Jill Paider is an award-winning photographer and creative director. She has published 21 books and believes that inspiration fuels creativity.

The only problem is that if you are a creative, inspiration isn't a luxury, it's a necessity. You have to learn how to spark inspiration to keep doing the work that you love. You can't wake up one morning and procrastinate because you weren't feeling inspired. You've got to train your brain to fire on the cylinders and keep the creative juices flowing no matter what.

In This Episode:

06:55 – How to train your brain to get into a creative routine
09:16 – Why and how to silence the voice of your inner perfectionist
12:19 – Tips for balancing travel and work
14:03 – How the professional photography industry has been impacted by social photography
19:24 – Why photography is deemed as 80% creative and 20% technical
22:39 – How to use social to promote books
30:28 – How to be patient as a photographer and social media professional

Resources

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

How this Airline Became Best in the World at Social Media Aug 09, 2019

Show notes

Greg Hounslow, Emerging Media Manager at WestJet, joins the Social Pros Podcast to discuss how the airline has propelled their online presence to become the number one brand on social in the airline 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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Emma

Building a Number One Brand on Social

Influencer marketing has definitely made its mark on social. But, as with most things in life, there's a right and wrong way to do influencer marketing. Many businesses make the mistake of pursuing influencers just because they have a large following, but that doesn't always mean that they can add real value to your business.

According to Greg Hounslow, the Emerging Media Manager at WestJet, you should also consider the content output an influencer provides and whether it can actually help drive your brand and ROI forward.

WestJet is the number one airline on social media, winning multiple awards for their strategy and performance. Other brands in the airline industry struggle to rival their success and their secret is simple – rather than stick to the same strategy year after year, they've continued to evolve alongside social media.

In This Episode:

07:17 – How the social programme at WestJet is organized
11:56 – How WestJet's team expectations have shifted over the last five years
15:00 – The benefits of evaluating organic reach through fan engagement and evaluating paid from a revenue generation perspective
17:06 – How WestJet's content strategy has evolved
20:37 – How the customer care team responds to negative feedback
29:22 – Greg predicts the future of chatbots
34:40 – When influencer marketing works and when it doesn't

Resources

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

How a 180 Year Old Brand Made a Huge Social Media Pivot Aug 02, 2019

Show notes

Jen Hartmann, the Public Relations and Social Media Manager at John Deere, joins the Social Pros Podcast to discuss how a 180 year old brand leverages paid social.

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

Emma

Social is no longer a free marketing tool

There was a time when social could be used as free marketing. The only price you had to pay for some engagement was time and maybe a little bit of luck. However, putting the same message on multiple platforms and hoping for the best isn't going to cut it anymore.

Paid social is arguably the most effective way for brands to expand the reach of their content. Instead of saturating your audience with content, you need to consider targeting the right audiences, at the right time and on the right social platform.

Jen Hartmann, the Public Relations and Social Media Manager at John Deere, agrees that social is no longer the free marketing tool it used to be. As you can imagine, it was a challenge for her and the social team to transform the corporate strategy of a business that has been in the game for 180 years.

Tune in to find out how paid social helped John Deere target their specific audience with the right message at the right time and how to make it work as part of a much larger marketing communications program.

In This Episode:

08:25 – How to work with multiple social media stakeholders from different countries
13:07 – How to know when you're one of the best social brands in the world
16:46 – How to balance the content you share with your audience
21:25 – How brands can insert themselves into conversations on social without being tagged or invited
26:58 – Why brands should stop looking at social as free marketing and start seeing the benefits of paid social
31:31 – An insight into John Deere's influencer marketing strategy

Resources

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

How Cinnabon Built Their Sweet Social Media Program Jul 26, 2019

Show notes

Marissa Sharpless, Sr. Manager, PR and Social Media at Cinnabon, joins the Social Pros Podcast to discuss the power of storytelling 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:

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

emma

Storytelling on Social

People have been telling stories since the dawn of time. A great story has the power to bring people together and foster meaningful relationships between brands and customers. But with no recipe to follow, how can you use social for storytelling?

The good news is that you don't need a massive following to start connecting with your audience via storytelling. Even if you only have a handful of followers, knowing how to tell a good story on social can make waves that resonate outside of your community.

As Marissa Sharpless, Sr. Manager, PR and Social Media at Cinnabon rightly says, your storytelling ability is what will help you transform your fans into brand advocates. You don't need to turn yourself into the next George R.R. Martin to be able to tell a story people will connect with. Your story could be something 'small' or as big as changing the world one Cinnabon at a time.

In This Episode:

04:23 - How Marissa went from being a reality TV star to the Sr. Manager of PR and Social Media at Cinnabon

09:39 – How Marissa's background in broadcast journalism has helped her fuel Cinnabon's success on social

11:00 – What it's like working with multiple franchise owners

16:05 – How Cinnabon views paid social and use it to boost customer advocacy

19:03 – How to incorporate UGC in your brand storytelling

23:33 – How to use Twitter Chats and social listening to bond with your community

34:18 – How Cinnabon utilizes data when it comes to sales attribution

Resources

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

How to Use AI to Find Better UGC Photos Jul 19, 2019

Show notes

Amrita Gurney, the Vice President of Marketing at CrowdRiff, joins the Social Pros podcast to discuss how brands can leverage the power of user-generated content to build their audience.

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

Emma

Defeat the challenges of UGC

User-generated content has equipped brands with an infinite pool of videos and images to share with their audience. But, there's a lot to think about when it comes to building a user-generated content strategy and making sure you're not stepping on any legal toes is just the tip of the iceberg.

A simple search on Instagram is all it takes to pull up millions of photos and some of them are good enough that brands want to use them. The combination of different educational resources available to help improve your images has led to this renaissance of photography that many of us could never have predicted, according to the Vice President of Marketing at CrowdRiff, Amrita Gurney.

With a software platform like CrowdRiff, you can find UGC images that you can license and reuse for other purposes, helping your brand to promote authenticity, build trust and drive purchasing decisions.

In This Episode:

03:52 – How brands can use CrowdRiff to get smarter with the way they use visual content to attract audiences

05:34 – How to get permission to use UGC photos

08:43 – Different ways that you can use UGC photos to promote your brand

10:26 – How to approach licensing and securing the rights to use UGC images

13:25 – How CrowdRiff uses AI to curate relevant images

15:54 – Tips for choosing visuals that perform well on social

26:21 – How the quality of images has evolved over the years

Resources

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

The Power and Shortcomings of Influencer Marketing at Scale Jul 12, 2019

Show notes

David Armano, Global Strategy Director at Edelman, joins Social Pros to discuss the relationship between word of mouth and influencer marketing.

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

Airtable

Consumers Trust Influencers

Did you know that 63% of consumers trust influencers about brands more than they trust brands about brands? This has got to be one of the most undeniable proof points for the viability of peer to peer influence. Yet, so many brands still shy away from influencer marketing.

The truth is that consumers are more likely to believe what they hear about a brand via word of mouth than what the brand says about themselves. Consumers listen to influencers because they trust them, and they're entertained by them in some way. However, it's not all sunshine and rainbows in the influencer space.

As David Armano cautions, the influencer marketing space has a lot of rampant fraud. Yes, brands can leverage influencers to get in front of the right audiences. But, technologies also have the power to drive fake followers and engagement using bot farms, which can damage the authenticity of the results.

In This Episode:

06:08 – How Edelman structures their social digital team

08:34 – How social campaigns have evolved over the last decade

15:36 – How much testing and experimentation brands should do in social digital

20:17 – How Edelman's Trust Barometer works

25:07 – The relationship between influencer marketing and word of mouth

29:28 – How to assess whether a spokesperson is suitable for a brand promotion

35:48 – How issues in crisis communication has changed in the era of social

Resources

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

How opendorse Revolutionized Athlete Marketing in Social Media Jul 05, 2019

Show notes

Blake Lawrence and Adi Kunalic, Co-Founders of opendorse, join the Social Pros Podcast to discuss their incredible athlete marketing platform and how its revolutionizing the way the sports industry use social.

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

Pattern 89

Power Comes with Content

The influencer marketing landscape is at its pinnacle with brands seeking help from 'prized' influencers to drive their message to audiences large enough to pack out hundreds if not thousands of sports stadiums. But not every influencer is a born marketer.

Athletes are prime examples of influencers who, despite not being natural marketers, get worldwide attention from their social audience. Thus, brands and sponsors see athletes as the "golden chalice" of influencers who have the unique power to reach millions of sports fans with every post they publish on social media.

According to Adi Kunalic and Blake Lawrence from opendorse, the ability to reach the masses on social isn't exclusive to the most influential entities in sports media. The average athlete has a 6% engagement rate on social compared to the average sports team, which has an engagement rate of just 0.3%.

In This Episode:

03:58 – How athletes use opendorse to share content with their audience

08:34 – Why more employee advocacy platforms should consider personalizing the experience

12:39 – How opendorse can help you build your brand

18:03 – What type of content works best for engagement

22:39 – How to use reporting and analytics to get more value from influencer marketing

32:23 – How opendorse can help brands establish relationships with athletes

Resources

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

How Caesars Uses Social to Surround its Customers Jun 28, 2019

Show notes

Ryan Thompson, CMO of Blue Heron, joins Social Pros to discuss social strategy in the hospitality industry and why you should keep tabs on what your guests are saying on review sites.

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

Airtable

Listen to your customers online!

The hospitality industry can use social media to strengthen relationships with existing customers, promote their hotels and attract new guests. However, many hotels haven't grasped the concept of social as an effective marketing communication tool. While they're busy catching up, companies like Caesars Entertainment use social to swarm its customers and boost their online presence.

Social is a window into your customers' lives and if you're in the hospitality industry, you need to pay close attention to what your guests are saying about you online. 95% of travelers read online reviews before booking. So, if you roam in the travel and hospitality space, you need a frontline social team to respond to reviews whether guests are singing your praises or not.

As our guest, Ryan Thompson, says, if you're doing a good job of attracting the right people with your offering, your guests will help define the voice of your brand. Surprisingly, as Caesars Entertainment has proved, you don't need an enormous team to surround your customers on social.

In This Episode:

06:44 – How to structure a frontline social team and maintain a range of tonality across all social channels

13:01 – Tips to help hospitality businesses improve reach and engagement

16:30 – Why hospitality businesses need to pay close attention to review sites

19:11 – How to work with social influencers and brand ambassadors

24:03 – How email marketing can assist your social strategies

29:16 – How to use geo-based marketing and long-term campaigns to attract customers

33:34 – How to approach budgeting in a multifaceted organization

Resources

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

How to Use Big Data and Personalization to Dominate Instagram Commerce Jun 21, 2019

Show notes

Oz Etzioni, the CEO and Co-founder at Clinch joins the Social Pros Podcast to unveil how hyper targeting works in digital advertising.

Please Support Our Sponsors: 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

Emma

How Hyper-Targeting Works in Digital Advertising

With the right data, you can learn more about the user you want to show an ad to and give them an experience tailored to the individual. Whether you're an advertiser, agency or publisher, data-driven personalized ads will boost performance and deliver higher ROI because people simply like content that is personable to them.

If you want to crack the code of hyper-targeting in digital advertising, you've got to unearth and leverage the data that social platforms offer. Social ecommerce is the future and if you want to see an upward sales trajectory, your ads must reach the right person at the right time with the right message on the right channel.

Oz Etzioni is the CEO of Clinch, an innovative omni-channel AI-powered personalization platform that delivers ad experiences tailored to the individual. If you want to communicate with customers in such a way that they want to do business with you, you've got to start offering an individualized creative experience.

In This Episode:

04:20 – The value of crafting hyper-targeted digital ads
09:55 – How an omni-channel works
13:11 – What creative permutations drive the best results from personalized ads
18:22 – Addressing the potential invasiveness of this level of personalization and the associated privacy issues
20:22 – How the intersection of ecommerce and Instagram has grown
28:49 – Common objections related to hyper-targeting your creative ads online

Resources:

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

How to Add Value with Every Instagram Post Jun 14, 2019

Show notes

Senior Marketing Executive and Food and Hospitality Influencer, David "Rev" Ciancio, joins the Social Pros Podcast to talk about how to increase engagement on Instagram with a fine-tuned social media strategy.

Please Support Our Sponsors: 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

Pattern 89

Posting with Purpose

Are you hungry for more engagement on Instagram? There was a time (long, long ago) when all you had to do was post a half-decent photo with a short, preferably funny caption and that was it. Nowadays, if you want to be classed as an 'influencer,' you've got to sharpen your game and make sure every post provides value to someone, somehow.

As our guest, David (Rev) Ciancio says, "you've got to have a reason why you are creating and sharing content." If your posts don't provide any value, you'll continue to see tumbleweeds roll through your Instagram feed. Know your audience's pain points and give them content that they actually want and need.

Rev is a Senior Marketing, Branding and Digital Strategist (and expert burger taster), who helps brands and businesses up their game on Instagram. As one of the country's leading food and hospitality influencers, what he has to say about marketing on Instagram is taken as gospel by many, especially for those in the food and restaurant space. So, if you're curious to find out more, grab a fork and dig in!

In This Episode:

06:46 – Common mistakes to avoid with your Instagram bio

10:37 – What works when it comes to food marketing on Instagram

15:03 – How to use video effectively on Instagram and the importance of conveying customer experience

19:15 – Why UGC (User Generated Content) is so important when creating a successful Instagram marketing strategy

23:09 – How to take high-quality images to share on Instagram

27:12 – Rev shares his predictions for food trends

Resources: