Episode 1 -- SocialBuzzONAIR - 1pm/ET! Our SPECIAL guest Mari Smith!

SPEAKER_02 0:12

Oh yeah, we know what we're gonna happen. That's right. I am so ecstatic. Hey, who knows? Anyway, uh, for those of you celebrating Halloween out there, happy Halloween. Not a big Halloween fan for some reason, but a lot of people are. A lot of people like uh, I guess, unique opportunities to dress up and uh act a fool, if you will. So, hey, big high five uh and happy Halloween to those of you embracing it. Um me, not so much. Hey, we do this each week. We chat about social media, chat about things that matter.com. We've developed an online education platform for you to get educated about social media. You start off with a 30-day boot camp. That's a lesson a day from yours truly, not a long, drawn out, boring lesson. It's five minutes uh long with three action points. How easy is that? 10 minutes total, and by the end of the 30 days, you should have your social media game plan in check. So be sure to check that out, no pun intended, at the socialbuzzuniversity.com. I'm extremely proud of our first product. Um, just for stopping by the Social Buzz University, I'm gonna give you a free copy of the top ten social media secrets revealed. That's an electronic book and ebook, like we like to call them, just for stopping by. And then we're also gonna have upcoming webinars that are free for you to attend to be able to better understand what the Social Buzz University is all about. But more importantly, the power behind social media. Why do you need social media? Why is it important? That's what we chat about, and it's all from yours truly. You see, I've done networking events, workshops, speaking engagements, all locally here in Miami, and that's awesome. People love it. The response has been incredible, and I've gotten business from them. However, I thought, what would it look like if I could get out of my own backyard, if I could give people access to this information that I that I've that I've been able to gain and learn over the past three or four years that I've been engulfed with social media, whenever the MySpace days started. Hey, if you're just joining us, better late than never, this is Social Buzz on Air. I'm your host, Sebastian Rusk. We do this once a week. We like to chat about social media. We like to chat about things that matter, but more importantly, we like to chat about people that are making moves and making noise within the social media space. My guest today, very, very special guest today, is the lovely and extremely knowledgeable Mari Smith. She'll be joining us in just a couple minutes. She's got a brand new book out that we're going to chat all about. It's available anywhere books are sold, so be sure to pick up your coffee uh today. I can assure you it will reshape your thinking on how social media works. Title of the book, The New Relationship Marketing: How to Build a Large, Loyal, Profitable Network Using the Social Web. Mari knows how to do that. She's got a great story on how she started doing exactly what she does, right? Which is write books, speaking engagements, social media. I call her the social media queen. She really is. When I think of social media, and I think of a and I think of an individual, I think of Mari. There's lots of influencers out there, there's lots of thought changers out there as I like to refer to them as. But Mari's approach, unique approach with branding herself, is just absolutely awesome. She's going to be joining us in about two minutes. Hey, local South Floridians, ladies specifically, I know it sounds a little weird with me talking about this, but the Women's Success Summit, this is the fourth women's success summit. The third one that Social Buzz TV has been involved in is happening next weekend at Gulfstring Park. Now, this is over 700 women will be joining over the course of two days. My good friend Michelle Villalobos is the brainchild behind all this. Her and her team are exceptional at what they do. These are women that are in business in South Florida making noise. Uh last time we had a surprise visit uh from my friend Guy Kawasaki, who was in town talking about his new book, Enchantment. You never know what's gonna happen this time around. Go to Women's SuccessSummit.com. Drop me an email if you have any questions pertaining to that. Come hang out. Social Buzz will be in the mix creating buzz as usual. So stay tuned for that. I'm gonna post a link on the Social Buzz on Air fan page. My guest today, Maury Smith, is passionate about people. That's what the I think that's what attracts me the most to learning from her and being part of her community. She's a relationship marketing specialist, one of the world's foremost experts on how to use Facebook for small business success. She is the co-author of Facebook Marketing, An Hour a Day, and her new book, The New Relationship Marketing, which is on shelves now. Back in 2008, Fast Company dubbed Mari the Piper of the online world. With her popular blog and her large loyal following of both Facebook and Twitter, Mari is considered one of the top resources and thought leaders in the world of new media. Now, Mari has a strong ten-year background in the world of relationships and internet technology, making social media her ideal arena. Through her consulting and training business, Mari helps independent professionals, entrepreneurs, and business owners to accelerate their business profits using an integrated social marketing strategy. After applying Mari's proven social marketing methods, her clients typically experience a significant increase in traffic, subscribers, clients, affiliates, lucrative strategic alliances, and targeted media attention. Mauri travels the United States in international and say it, big word, internationally to share her wisdom and provide social media keynotes and in-depth training. She shared the stage with the likes of Sir Richard Branson, the Dalai Lama, Tony Robbins, Dr. Stephen Covey, Paul Abdul, and many, many more. A self-described bubbly Scottish Canadian, Mari currently lives in San Diego, California, and has a real penchant for turquoise and bling. That is all about the brand. And if anyone knows how to build the brand, talk about the brand, and maintain the brand, it's Mari. Let's not waste any more time. I just saw the phone lines light up. Everyone, welcome to the show, Mari Smith. Good morning, Mari. Mari, can you hear me?

SPEAKER_03 7:36

Oh, here I am. My apologies. I had the mute button and I'm shouting away to you. You are enough energy for ten people.

SPEAKER_02 7:45

I know. If you could bottle me up and sell me, talk about a brand, huh? My goodness. Hey, Marty, right? Thank you so much for coming to hang out with us this morning. Oh, sure thing. Thanks for having me on. Oh my goodness, it's great. It really, really is great. Um was reading through um the my the sample copy that's available to everyone, by the way. I forgot to mention that. I'm gonna post the link on the social buzz on our page uh this morning. And it's it's so unique um to have you share your wisdom on on what building relationships can truly do. Um I'm on I'm in a line with your thinking, so it really just endorses um what my efforts are. But wow, um great it seems like more and more people are talking about relationships um instead of business, because I mean at the end of the day, relationships um are what business is comprised of. So talk to us about the book. Where did you come up with the idea? Um, why did you say, you know what, this is what I want to talk about, and this is the direction I'm going.

SPEAKER_03 8:45

Well, actually, because throughout my entire wide and varied career, uh, both as an employee in Scotland and as an entrepreneur in the United States, always my two primary passions over the years is this thread that have has run throughout, and that is my love of people and my love of technology, the internet. And so what happened in in 2007 uh Facebook landed in my lab. I had an opportunity to be on a beta test team of an app. And I just really fell in love with the platform, and it was like my two passions and my two worlds merged and became one. Prior to that, though, from the early 2000s, that you mentioned in my my my very generous uh introduction, that you know, my background was in the world of online marketing, doing consulting and training and email marketing, copywriting, etc. And I just always felt that marketing needed to be more focused on relationships than transactions. And I call myself a relationship marketing specialist for the last 10 years, and it transpires doing research for my book that the term relationship marketing came about in the mid-80s, actually made up by uh um a professor um Barry, and it had a little bit more of an academic definition and hasn't really been mainstream up until recently, the last probably couple years, since social media has become so prevalent, and it really is, it's like if you are using social media marketing at all in your business, any of the main sites, um Facebook and Twitter, but then you're also bringing it offline and integrating the two. Um if you're just using these sites as a one-way broadcast channel, then you're not really understanding. No businesses that are do that are not understanding that their the emphasis is on the social part, the relating, the listening, the engaging, and it has to be a a two-way conversation. So for me, the book really came about as my my publishers, they had published the Facebook Marketing and R a Day book um last uh spring of 2010, working on version two right now with Chris Dreadaway, and they approached me and asked me, you know, Mari, you've been calling yourself a relationship marketing specialist for many years. We'd love you to write, you know, a real definitive book on that subject. So um that's really how the book came about, and for me, relationship marketing transcends the medium. It's not just Facebook, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, blogging, etc. It's offline too. It's really when you go out to events and you network and you meet people, um, there's a wonderful quote. I'm not sure if uh if your listeners would have caught the 2020 show with Barbara Walters on Friday night, and she was profiling several billionaires, and they actually extracted 20 different keys to success from these self-made people, and one of which absolutely jumped out at me, and that was that when you're networking, don't don't focus on the networking, rather shift your focus to actually building relationships. And you know, that's just really music to my ears because I I really do believe it's you know it's not what you know, it's who you know, but it's also who knows you.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

Absolutely. So, and uh, you know, one thing I mentioned, I and I learned this from Gary V is is um social equity. I I saw you mentioned something about that um in your book. And you know, that what Gary talks about, I don't want people buying my wine for the next eight minutes. I want them buy my wine for the next eighty years, and that has so much uh truth to it. And he said, your social equity, our social equity, Mari Smith, Sebastian Rusk, Gary Vaynerchuk, that that equity is what's going to sustain our brand and continue to open our doors and build our relationships. And I don't think I think people um take the focus off that. I heard you say a few minutes ago, um a lot of so you know, proposed social media strategies for brands are a one-way conversation. And the only thing I have to say to those brands is it's not about you.

SPEAKER_03 12:46

Right, right, exactly. So you can actually look and you can observe all kinds of different size businesses from small to medium to large and major whole household brands. Um Intel does really well with their engaging on their Facebook. Starbucks actually leads the way in many different engagement metrics. You can see that they really invite their fans, they're you know, from all over it, all different, whether the people want to be on mobile or Facebook or Twitter, etc., they're really encouraging of everybody to interact with them.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

Yeah, they're doing a great job. I talk about Starbucks a lot when I say, you know, who's doing social media right? Um they are. You know, you talk they all they launched that campaign to withdraw ideas from their audience, and they were able to, you know, to come up with 50,000 new product ideas and you know, God knows how much um new engagement and and loyalty to the brand they got through all that.

SPEAKER_03 13:43

Yeah, exactly. Right, precisely.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

Hey, if you're just joining us right now, this is Social Buzz on Air. I'm your host, Sebastian Rusk, our very special guest we're chatting with right now is the very knowledgeable and lovely Mari Smith. We're chatting about our brand new book on shelves now available. In fact, if you go to MariSmith.com forward slash book, you can get yourself a free sample copy. Uh excuse me, sample uh chapter. Favorite chapter. There we go. Sorry, too much coffee this morning, Mari. Um, on uh the new relationship marketing, how to build large, loyal, profitable uh network using the social web. So you just got back from Hawaii, uh you extended your stay for a couple of days. Um you were speaking over there, um, making some new friends uh in Hawaii and also some RR. Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_03 14:32

Well, interestingly enough, that was my first trip to Hawaii. I'd always wanted to go there and um don't live too far away being on the West Coast, but still a six-hour flight. It's amazing. I don't think I had any appreciation of the three hours behind. It was kind of fun to fly west and uh get three more hours. But um very, very blessed to be invited over there by the the Hawaii Social Media S um Summit and then also the the social media club and did a couple different speaking engagements. So that was good, you know, and I actually do uh I I kind of discovered firsthand it's kind of an oxymoron to have a working vacation. You you're either working or you're having a you know a vacation, and I kind of tried to do both. I think next time I would just uh just do one or the other, but I did get to see a little little bits of the island, Oahu, and I would like to travel around do some other parts of the island. But over the years, you know, I just really do like to do public speaking and uh I do a lot around the US, Canada, and uh I do a couple trips a year internationally. I'm pretty discerning about my international travel because it just it takes takes a lot uh of uh energy and time. So, but uh like in April I was over in um Norway and then I went on to Scotland for so I was gone for a couple weeks and got to see see my family. But you know, I just because I'm an online marketer first and foremost, there's just so much I can do online and with webinars, and now you've got you know technology like the Google Hangouts and the webinar technology is phenomenal these days with the webcams and whatnot and the ability to record. But as I talk about in my book, in fact, there's a whole chapter towards the back of the book dedicated to integrating offline marketing with your online. And uh I really talk specifically to either people who are already a professional speaker or who would like to be, and the people who are uh attending or would think that they might like to attend event. Like this week we have coming up the big blog world expo in Los Angeles. So uh really it's wonderful event. This is actually my fourth or fifth year attending and uh speaking at the event. There's some really great things you can do in advance through social media, checking out who's going, watching the hashtag, tweeting to speakers and attendees, and saying, you know, I'm looking forward to meeting you there, and then really being deliberate about going in with a plan about who specifically you want to meet. Maybe you want to interview them, have your picture taken with them, and you know, go for dinner, invite them out for lunch, etc. There's some wonderful things that you can actually use to really leverage that offline networking and then bring all that content back onto online.

SPEAKER_02 17:02

Right. And it's such it's at our fingertips, and the best part about it all is it's free. I mean, you can literally set yourself up and plan accordingly going into a conference if you're attending. Heck, sometimes you don't even need to go because there'll be there'll be um there'll be uh enough happening on Twitter and and and Facebook with updates. Uh sometimes people host webinars um during these events before and after to really help you um gain the experience much more, and it's so much, it's so easy uh to do. You know, the thing that stands out in my mind, speaking of webinars, is how you and I um started created a dialogue, and that was a webinar um that you did a few months back on your Facebook page um through the Link2. Did I say that correct?

unknown 17:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

Link to Technology. Yeah. And um Simon Mainwaring was there talking about um his his new book, and um I was just floored that you and Simon could go back and forth, and then all of the attendees could chat. Simon could interact and chat, you could interact and chat. Uh, in fact, that's how you and I created some dialogue, is because you mentioned playing Words with Friends, of which we are Words with Friends, friends. And um I thought, wow, how amazing is that. I was able to connect with Mari. I've been following you since um since I can remember. And um I thought, what an interesting way to interact on a Friday afternoon, a very knowledgeable webinar, and then that led to playing uh words with friends, and then uh here we are a few months later, able to to pencil some time to chat about um uh what you're up to in your brand new book. So um again, thanks for this this opportunity. It's it's been awesome to chat with you.

SPEAKER_03 18:35

Yeah, likewise. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 18:37

So um do you get this question a lot? Why is social media important, Mauri?

SPEAKER_03 18:45

Oh, well, you know, I I like to quote my my friend Eric Qualman on that. He's the author of Socialonomics and those wonderful videos that uh that have gone completely viral with Social Nomics and Social Media ROI. And Eric talks about how really in today's age it's not a matter of if you do social media or integrate social media into your marketing, overall marketing, it's a matter of of of how well you do it. It's it's absolutely become um mainstream. And I I I think of back in the maybe 80s when you were the odd person out if you didn't have a fax number, and then it was you know email addresses, and now it's cell phone numbers. And uh and now you know, real current businesses, you are absolutely not current and quite often in some cases not even credible in a lot of prospects' eyes. If you can't be found on Facebook or Twitter, or you don't you don't have a blog, or if you have a blog, it's maybe outdated and you don't have uh easy ways to share your content. You know, really today it's all about sharing the content. As uh you mentioned our our our wonderful friend Gary Veinerchuk, and he talks about how social media is word of mouth on steroids, and so if you are producing content, which every business needs to be, in fact, another quote from Gary is that where we're headed is that all businesses, regardless of what industry you're in, is is heading towards being in the content business, the content industry. Your local dry cleaners are going to be tweeting tips on clothing care and you know funny stories about garments left behind or whatever you name it. But um, it's all about content and connection, can connecting over that content and and then converting, converting people into obviously customers. And so with that component, the c the content is so critical because it's very, very noisy. All of these different sites, enormous amount of noise if you if you haven't got your right filters set up, you don't know exactly who to follow, and you're just getting your getting your feet here. What happens is that if when you are able to identify, say through Twitterless, Google Circles, Facebook Friendless, etc., you Google Reader, you know, all top, then you identify who are your trusted, reliable sources of great, great quality content, and you become a master curator. Really, that's another C word here we're using, that when you're able to discern and cherry pick, okay, this is quality, this I'm not so sure about, I'm not going to send it out. This I need to to to um you know test out myself before I'm willing to share it. Interestingly enough, for example, last night I posted out on my fan page, I came across a new contest app. And you know, with contests on Facebook, you have to administer them through a third-party app. And I happen to see an ad, and I really pay attention to the ads. Some I click, some I don't, but I'm always interested to see who's advertising what. And I saw this contest app, oh, that's interesting. I clicked through and I thought, Oh, this is a new one. I'm always looking for new apps and and and I like to give people attention. I know I can draw a crowd to somebody's app. And um, lo and behold, is even though I distinctly said, you know, I haven't tried it, I'm asking, is anyone I just came across it, has anyone tried it? And it turned out that that app wanted access to enormous amount of permissions, both personal and business. They wanted access to all the fan pages that that you administer, etcetera. And people got a little rackist and they're like, whoa, and the the comments were leaving, they're like, Whoa, Mari, I'm not sure if I want to try that. But because the mere fact that I talked about it, they just assumed that I'm endorsing it. So that was a lesson for me, and I need to be careful of stuff like that. Um, and I am. I mean, um that's like, you know, one in a hundred that I would ever say, you know, what do you think about this? But even I'm just the point I'm making is even by the fact that I'm saying what do you think about this, my fans are thinking that I'm endorsing it.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

Well, it's all part of being a rock star there, Mari. You got to uh, you know, you gotta roll with the bunches there. You know, uh Jack Nicholson, uh, the actor is a big fan of our show, and I told him, Jack, you know, you really should get your social media strategy put together. You know what he told me?

SPEAKER_01 22:51

I eat breakfast 300 yards from 4,000 Cubans who are trained to kill me. So don't think for one second that you can come down here, flash a badge, make me nervous.

SPEAKER_02 23:02

All right, he gets a little uptight, sorry about that. But uh anyway, I just wanted some some people just don't get social media, I guess. You know, it's funny that you brought that up that that uh Gary talks about um content is king. He said that we we interviewed him for Social Buzz TV back in April when he was down here on his book tour, and he spoke for about an hour and a half um before the book signing, and he said, you know, content is king, but marketing is queen and she runs the house. You know, he's always got an interesting angle to put on it, but I think that was an interesting um comment because it's true, content is king, but how you're marketing your brand and distributing that content will will will will decide how you win. Do you agree with that?

SPEAKER_03 23:43

Yeah, absolutely. I mean I think it's absolutely critical to be discerning and because also even just who you retweet, who you are are um you know, associating yourself with um people will judge, unfortunately, your you know, reputation and positioning in the marketplace. You know, ever since Facebook's made some changes in that ticker that goes by on their top right, and then so now I'm I'm really, really so much more mindful. It's like I don't like to use the word paranite, but I'll say uh cautious. Uh I I'm distinctly more cautious since the ticker came along because I know that every single move that I'm making the column story activities is being reported whether I like it or not, and there's really no way to turn a lot of those off that cannot be turned off. Um you mentioned words with friends earlier, and uh I've distinctly pi peeled back because I I was reading about where like you could even display your latest move and who you're playing with, and you know, obviously it goes out whatever time. I don't really want people to see that if I want to play words with friends at, you know, one in the morning, I don't want that going out in the ticker. So I'm I'm just so much more mindful about what I'm clicking and when.

SPEAKER_02 24:55

Yeah, you're exactly right. I I feel the same way because you know, like when I when I when I crank up like George Michael or, you know, um Wilson Phillips on Spotify, all my friends know about it, and I'm completely exposed. So I that's a great point. And right in and make sure you you listen to that, listeners. Um make sure which apps you're you know which apps you're utilizing um that are spreading that information out. Not necess not saying that it would be top secret information, but um I'm right with you on that. I mean, you you you know, nobody needs to know I play words with friends at four o'clock in the morning with Mari Smith. Well, we don't play at four o'clock in the morning, but no. Um excellent, excellent uh point there. Everyone uh that's listening right now, if you're listening in the middle of next week, hey, thank God for uh replays and for podcasts, you need to be following and in touch with Mari. You can follow her on Twitter at MariSmith, M-A-R-I Smith, and uh also find her on Facebook, uh Facebook.com forward slash MariSmith. She's absolutely got her hands in fire at the moment. Um new book. Um I believe you're involved with um uh Mike Stelsner and uh Social Media Examiner with their upcoming um social media success summit, is that what it's called?

SPEAKER_03 26:06

Yeah, Mike Stelsner and I have we we've been uh strategic alliances and and really, really good friends for uh three years now. And and uh Mike is just a machine. He just really, really gets business and uh social media and created a phenomenal site with the social media examiner. And then three times a year these large online summits. So social media success summit is held every year in May. We just completed the Facebook Success Summit, which is October, and then Mike is about to launch a small business success summit, which will be in February. I think last year was uh the blogging success summit. So uh yeah, we we have a good uh strategic alliance, and that's always great and uh fun. And uh I have other alliances too. I actually just came out with a magazine in fact uh Larry Jenkin and Jay Abraham, the I like to call Jay the the godfather of marketing, who really is a just a genius. And uh so the two of them teamed up and have just launched a series of four magazines, which are available in uh print as well as eight different or seven different um mobile and um digital formats, which is really exciting.

SPEAKER_02 27:10

Absolutely. I was reading about that um the other day too. Very, very uh exciting stuff. I love how you're always on the cutting edge and people really look to you um as a thought leader, as a as a pioneer in social media, as I like to refer to, uh, because you know your stuff, but you're also real, you're genuine. I always love uh seeing your your um entertaining videos on on social media examiner. I always get such solid information compacted into small amounts of time, and I think that's really the key with uh with video. And uh again, virtual high five on that. Um I wholeheartedly endorse all of your efforts and everything um that you're doing, Mari. I talk like we've been best friends uh for years just for the simple fact that um that's the beauty of online relationships is we can really get to know someone online, um, and I think it happens it starts online a lot and then goes offline these days. It's crazy, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 27:59

Absolutely, absolutely. You know, and over the years I've caught I've call it when you are really deeply connected with someone online you've never met, but you just literally feel like you've known them all your life, then comes a point in time when you do have an opportunity to meet in person and ideally people have up-to-date photos and they look like they're avatars and you recognize them as literally like a long lost friend. So that one of the tips is uh for maintaining uh the trust factor, in fact, is to make sure that your photo, your all your photos across all your sites and you have a monthly and a quarterly checklist to go in there and search and do Google searches and really taking full responsibility for your reputation and how you're positioned out there. But the photo really needs to be updated every 12 to 18 months, depending on how you physically are changing. Now is a joke about you know, if you've lost or gained weight or lost or gained hair, then you need to update your photo.

SPEAKER_02 28:54

That's an excellent, excellent point. Hey, we're out of time here, Mari. This has been an absolute pleasure and a and a re and a real privilege for us here uh at Social Buzz. Love following you, love what you're doing. Please come back soon. Um, I can't read, I can't wait to read uh all the way through the book. Listeners, I provided a link to the free sample chapter. I got it out. Um provided on MariSmith.com forward slash book. Go grab that. It's free for crying out loud. Mari, have a magnificent Monday there in sunny San Diego, and um come back and see us, will you?

SPEAKER_03 29:27

I sure will. I really appreciate your time. Thanks, Sebastian.

SPEAKER_02 29:30

It's absolutely my pleasure.

SPEAKER_03 29:33

Take care.

SPEAKER_02 29:36

Well, that's how we do it here on Social Buzz on Air. That's right. We're giving you the buzz when you need it, but every now and then we run into the players that are really making moves out there. Not that we're not here at Social Buzz on Air, but Mari Smith most definitely is. Big, big thanks to Mari for taking time out of her busy Monday to come and chat with us about what she's got going on and also her brand new book, The New Relationship Marketing: How to Build a Large, Loyal, Profitable Network Using the Social Web. Pick up a free sample copy on MariSmith.com forward slash book. And stay tuned with us. We look forward to staying in touch with Mari and all of her happenings. She's got great training and information of what you need to know about social media, building your brand, etc., etc. Hey, we hope you have a fantastic week and um lots happening here in South Florida. Stay in touch with us locally here. Got questions, thoughts, concerns? Feel free to reach out to us. Have a magnificent Monday. I'm Sebastian Russ, signing off for Social Buzz on Air. Talk to you guys soon.