Episode 9 #SocialMediaSUCKS without Twitter, Influence and Social Media Marketing: Mark Schaefer

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Oh, yeah, we know what that sound means. This is Social Buzz on Air. What is happening, everybody? I'm your host, Sebastian Rusk. As always, hey, welcome to the show. Starting out a new series here. Got a lot of great buddies that uh uh really had my back with the with the book launch and saying kind words about the book and actually putting a testimonial on the back cover. Um, and I wanted to reconvene with these guys and start a series of social media sucks if and really talk about what their primary focus is within the digital space. Back on the show uh is my good friend Mark Schaefer. What's happening, Mark?

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Hello there.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Thanks for coming back.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

I am so happy to be with you.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

It's always a pleasure. So, once again, let me publicly thank you for your time and your kind words, uh, contributing to the back cover of social media sucks. Uh, I really appreciate that. And um it's amazing how we develop relationships through uh what you and I started off on what, an original radio interview inquiry through your publisher. Um then uh got a chance to actually meet in person a few months back here on beautiful Miami Beach. And uh it's just so crazy to watch the relationships develop first online and then move offline. You know, if you told me you were following me ten years ago, Mark, I'd call the cops.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Well, you know, I actually think that this is the best part of social media. It's certainly my favorite part to be able to go to uh almost any city in in America, almost any city in the world, and be able to catch up with people that I've known through Twitter or through my blog and get to know them a little bit better. And a few months ago, believe it or not, I was in Skinny Atlas, New York. I was working with a company in upstate New York and uh was staying in a hotel all by myself and didn't have any plans or anything. And some lady connected me and and uh with me and and said, Hey, you know, can I can I meet you while you're here? And we ended up having a nice dinner and becoming friends. And it was amazing that I could even find somebody in Skinny Atlas, New York, uh, to have dinner with and and uh have some companionship with uh kind of you know in the middle of upstate New York.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

It's crazy. It really absolutely is nuts. You can literally find whoever you're looking for, whatever you're looking for at our fingertips. I mean, before we'd have to what? I guess we'd have to to break out our ad address book and call one person and you know, hopefully, you know, Kevin Bacon's theory of six degrees shows up, you know what I mean? But now we're able to really identify that it's crazy. So um you've been on a uh book writing uh rampage for the past three years. Um you are book write an animal. So uh you started back in 2011 with the Tower of Twitter, uh, and then uh you and I connected over um return on influence and the most recent uh bestseller social media explained. Let's let's let's just run through um all three of those. Let's back it up to 2011. Why does social media suck um with without Twitter or without brands embracing Twitter or people embracing Twitter?

SPEAKER_00 3:22

Well, I think a lot of people really misunderstand Twitter, Sebastian, and that's exactly why I wrote the book. Because I grew up, like many people, you know, I grew up in a traditional company working in traditional marketing. And when I first tried Twitter, I hated it. I thought it was the stupidest thing I ever saw. Uh the first tweet I ever got was uh it's 4 a.m., confirming this is the stupidest thing I've ever seen. Why would someone tweet something like that? So uh, but I stuck with it. And one of the things I learned, and it took me months for this to really sink in, that this wasn't just an advertising space. It wasn't just a broadcasting tool. This is something to connect. And I mean, I think the you and I are kind of a case study here where we connected through these weekly weak links of social media. Twitter really does nothing more than kind of open the door and give you the opportunity to meet these wonderful people all over the world, but then you have to uh pursue it. It's it's it's an it's a networking tool on steroids. And I saw so many people suffering through this that uh I decided I'm I'm gonna write a book. I'm gonna write a small book that people can read in 90 minutes to save them the months of agony that I had. And that was the beginning of the book.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

Well, I I I will continue to back up the statement that Twitter is the most powerful website on the planet. Um it has replaced the telephone. You no longer have to ask for permission to contact people. Um it's it's their decision on whether or not they want to respond back to you. But to be able to eliminate the gatekeeper and go right to the person you're trying to get in touch with. And the the coolest part about Twitter, and I and I'm sure you'll agree, Mark, is the mystery of it all because you just never know who's gonna respond back. Yeah. I tell a story of uh seeing a tweet um at some point last year that said Mark Cuban prefers the new i the new Windows phone over the iPhone. And I kindly retweeted and commented and said, because his contract says so. Well, Mark decided to respond back and said, I don't have a contract, they send me these phones and I just check them out. Do you think I care about being cool? To which someone else responded back. Mark Cuban, Mark Cuban wears sketchers. Of course he doesn't care about being cool.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

So you know, you can there is there's a there's this there's this man majestic random synergy about Twitter and the and the social web in general, and I think that's a great story, is that you just never know where it's going to lead. You just don't. And what might start out as some off-the-wall uh Twitter connection can end up being a deep friendship or a collaboration or maybe even a customer someday. And uh, you know, it that's a wonderful thing, it's an amazing thing, but I think that is also very awkward and perhaps mystifying to a lot of business owners who want everything planned out and they want everything in an Excel spreadsheet. And if and of course those things are important, but if you only focus on that, you're going to miss some of the more qualitative benefits that you get through social media.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

I I agree. I don't think that we're in a um aim point shoot space when it comes to all this, because there's just so many open uh channels for us to be able to communicate, and the information is just such a fire hose that it's more like shoot aim button point, shoot, aim. And and and brands need to embrace the uh uh uh the opportunity to be flexible while still wanting to spread sheets and wanting to better understand really what the gain is on there, but really embracing words out because you just never know what's gonna happen. Just ask US Airways for example. Yes, absolutely. Gave a whole new meaning to more leg room in coach. So um second book uh where you and I connected was Return on Influence. Uh talked a lot about clout. Um I definitely want to chat about that a little bit more because they've made some um some drastic changes uh here and I believe my memory serves me correctly, they just they just sold as well.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

Excellent. So um why does social media suck with no influence or with no cloud score?

SPEAKER_00 8:07

Well, I uh this is uh it's it's funny. Uh I guess that's kind of the reason I wrote the second book too. You know, when I when I first started studying, well, let me back up. Let me tell you how this whole thing uh kind of occurred to me. I wrote uh a blog post about three years ago that that went viral. It was tweeted more than a thousand times. And um a couple days after I wrote this article, I got a call from a reporter from the New York Times. And she said, uh, Mr. Schaefer, I'm doing an article on this new marketing trend. I Googled it, I found your uh post. I liked it very much. I want to know if I can interview you for the New York Times. And uh yeah, of course I agreed. And so I ended up being in the Sunday New York Times. I was quoted four times. This article was syndicated, it went all over the country, it was in newspapers eventually all over the world. And so I started thinking about this: that how did my voice, how did my influence carry all over the world? I mean, I'm nobody famous, I've never been in a movie, I've never played, you know, shortstop for the Yankees or something like that. So I started researching this and really thinking about how does power and influence show up on the internet? And is that different than how it shows up in real life? And so that's why I wrote that book, because what I found is that there were vast differences. And there was a great advantage if people could understand the role of content and content that moves, like my blog post, and how that can create power and influence on the web. And it just occurs to me that if companies, brands, and even individuals like you and me really understand that dynamic, it can result in a competitive advantage. So it's a very exciting time. And I don't really think a lot of people understand those dynamics. Right.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

So why why is influence important? I mean, it always has been, but why is it even more relevant?

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Well, if you look at it this way, Sebastian, um many of the channels that we have normally used to connect with our customers are going away. I've consumed more television, excuse me, more television content in the last six months than probably the last two years. I've become hooked on uh breaking bad, I love mad men, um, I've watched uh you know other television shows, and guess what? I haven't seen one ad. Not one. Now, if some company is counting on television advertising to reach me, it ain't happening. I mean, I still watch some sports, I still watch some news, but generally my television content consumption is advertising free. I don't subscribe to a paper or newspaper anymore. I very rarely listen to traditional radio anymore. I listen to online radio, I read online newspapers, I subscribe to an online version of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. So many of these ways that we've traditionally connected with our customers are evaporating. And so we need to look at how do we get our message through? Because marketing is still important. We still need to let people know about what we're doing in our products and services. And so people are turning to uh publishers like you and me. Uh you have your your book and your and your podcast, and I've got uh a blog, and and I also do a podcast. And so there are thousands and thousands of people who loyally tune into these channels, and so brands and companies now are beginning to think about how do we identify those people, how do we befriend those people? How do we get them to think positively about what we do so that it might show up in their publishing? And so someone like George Clooney or Brad Pitt or Tiger Woods might not be the first place these companies go anymore because the influence is occurring at the grassroots level. And that's why it's critically important for businesses and brands to understand how this is happening, why this is happening, where this is happening, and how it can be applied to their own business.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Absolutely. Yeah, social media sucks uh if you don't have influence. This is uh this is for sure. Influence is a brand or an individual, but I believe it starts with an individual with your social equity. Uh, we're almost out of time, but I want to run through your your your most recent um work of art, Social Media Explained. Uh why does social media suck when not explained, Mark?

SPEAKER_00 13:38

Well, I I kept running into the same problem everywhere I went, Sebastian. Big companies, small companies, startups, they can't I keep getting asked the same questions about social media over and over again. How do you measure this? Where do I start? How do I handle the negative comments? How much is this gonna cost? How do we resource for this? Do I really need to do it? And so literally, I face the same questions everywhere I go, so I decide, you know what, I'm gonna turn that into a book. I've also turned it into a workshop because, like I said, I just keep keep getting the same questions over and over again. So it again, it fills a need for me, I think it's gonna fill a need for a lot of people, because if you're still trying to figure out where social media fits in the marketing mix, that's the purpose of this book, to help explain this to busy people who don't have time to read volumes and volumes of books or thousands of uh of blogs and podcasts.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

Right. So it sums everything up. Yeah, I did the same thing too. I want to tell my story with social media sucks, but I also want to give my opinion because I get asked a lot about the same stuff. So at least for right now, it's it's it's it's at least right now uh uh relevant to uh uh to where we're at here. Well, Mark, I I really appreciate your time. Uh be sure to check out more information on Mark Schaefer Businessesgrow.com. You can check out all of his books and pick up a copy of each of them on his website. And once again, thanks for uh for your time and your support here with social media sucks and uh the book uh drop it. It's an exciting time right now, and uh you know, it's time to put on a bow tie and uh get this book get this book global like yours.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

Well, good luck with that, Sebastian. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

Absolutely, I appreciate your time, buddy. Hey, I'm Sebastian Russ signing out from our studio here in downtown Miami for Social Buzz on Air. We'll talk to you next time.