Twitter is an amazing platform to connect in a human way with clients, potential clients, colleagues, industry leaders, influencers, old friends and new peeps you haven't even met yet. They can live next door, down the street, across town or across the globe. No matter the time of day or night, it's a guarantee that someone is available right now and eager to have a conversation with you.

The biggest struggles most business and marketing leaders face when it comes to Twitter is the learning curve as well as finding the time to make the investment to achieve a positive ROI on time invested. It takes time to plan a Twitter strategy, manage your account and following, create content, find new followers, inspire the followers they you already have and the list goes on.

Many new to Twitter think it's a very overwhelming platform. They struggle with not only knowing how to inspire and connect with other Twitter users in a human way, but finding the time to do such.

Leveraging automation and technology can help increase the ROI of time spent on Twitter as well as give you back your life! There is much debate in regard to automating Twitter or not automating Twitter. It is definitely both art and science. It requires setting goals, knowledge of your audience, customers and knowing how much automation will benefit your audience and your business vs hinder the results you are seeking.

Using automation with social media requires a crawl, walk run approach. It's best to test the waters first and see how your audience responds. Then you can more easily tweak, rinse, repeat, and optimize for the highest results possible. The last thing you want to do is tick off your loyal followers just because you want to save a few minutes a day.

If you are not already tapping into the power of Twitter video, you should be. Take a listen to the 180th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast for 5 of my favorite Twitter automation tools plus 5 best practices to leverage Twitter automation so it helps, versus helps your business.

Show notes Page loaded with resources, worksheets and more. 

In this 25 minute podcast you will learn:

5 Best practices for using Twitter and any social media automation
5 of my favorite tools for Twitter automation
5 things you can easily automate with Twitter
Why you must set goals and develop a plan for what you want to automate with Twitter
How to leverage automation and not be a spammer
Why you should not automatically tweet your Facebook posts
Why you must understand each social network and not treat them all the same
How to automate and curate content to keep connected with your audience
How to choose the right times of day to automate your Twitter efforts
Balancing both art and science with Twitter automation strategies

Do you have a brand story that you share with people who come in contact with your brand? A story that serves as the connective tissue and foundation representing the who, what and why your brand exists on this planet today?

Your brand story should be the thread which connects your value proposition, team, vision, mission, and purpose with your customers, potential customers, audience, community and partners. It is who you are, what you are, why you are in business, where you have been, where you are going, why you are going there, who you have helped, and the list goes on.

Can you answer these questions?

What is your brand story?
Who are the characters in your brand story?
What is the setting?
What are the lessons learned?
What happened and is happening on the journey of building your brand and business?
What differentiates your brand story from your competition?
Why did you start your business in the first place?
What is your short, medium and longer term vision and mission?
How do you do what you do?
Who do you help? What have the specific results been to date?
Many marketers struggle with developing and communicating their brand story publicly. They may feel uncomfortable or simply have a hard time pulling it together in a way that they feel comfortable and confident knowing that it represents who they are and what the have to offer the market and the humans within.

If you have ever struggled with creating, developing and launching your brand story, then you have landed on the right blog post and podcast today!

Take a listen to 179th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to learn 6 key foundational content elements that must be included in your brand story.

In this episode you will learn how to begin to craft your own brand story that represents who you are, why you are in business and why anyone who comes in contact with you and your brand should trust you and be inspired to engage in a relationship with your brand and the people within.

Marketing and business leaders are experiencing tremendous pressure to get online, embrace and start leveraging the social networks, create content, launch corporate and executive blogs, design new Instagram profiles, fill Twitter feeds with amazing content, build Facebook communities, embrace live streaming and the list goes on.

Unfortunately there are still some digital marketers who buy into the the thought process of "if you build it they will come."

Sorry folks, but "build it and they will come" has never been a recipe for success for smart, social and savvy digital and social marketers. It simply doesn't work that way.

Believing that if you build it they will come works about as well as chasing shiny objects as a foundation for your social business strategy.

Stop the excuses and get to work. Quit wasting time all day on Periscope or Blab listening to your competition and all the awesome things you think they are doing. Why aren't you the one doing amazing things? You are not going to leap frog your competition and knock your business and marketing goals out of the park in the next 12 months by copying what others are doing. You need to design, build and implement your own plan that will attract YOUR ideal customers and grow YOUR business.

The new year is coming and you need a plan. You need to know where you are going and why.

You are never too big or too small to plan. If you fail to plan you plan to fail.

Take a listen to the 178th episode of the Social Zoom Factor for 10 reasons you need an integrated digital and social media marketing strategy.

You can't just throw some digital websites, blogs and pretty images at the web and tweet them out. Facebook ads for your social spaghetti content is also not going to solve the problem.

You need to get your marketing, digital, social marketing and branding efforts aligned to business goals, integrated and rockin' real measurable results. You need key performance indicators to measure and optimize your success. There is no way around it. If you want to succeed in business today you need to plan your work and work your plan.

Subscribe to series: Get Fit Social Digital Business

In this 25 minute podcast you will learn:

Why you can't skip the planning process
Why if you want to succeed in business today you must have a plan for your digital and social marketing
Importance of integrated marketing including digital, social media, SEO, SMO, branding, email marketing
Why Random Acts of Marketing (RAMs) can kill your marketing results
Avoiding Random Acts of Marketing (RAMs)
Acknowledging you don't know your customer or standing in market place
Identifying your unique value proposition and positioning in the market
Setting goals for where you want to take your brand, market position in the next 30-18 months
How proper planning helps you be more agile, more proactive vs reactive
Building a human brand requires proper planning, research of your audience and how you can connect with them
Tips to achieve buy-in for your program
Why brand consistency requires planning 

You are the media. Yes you. You, your friends, your mom, your dad, your kids, your pastor, your teacher, your hair stylist, your car mechanic, and even your dog has the opportunity to be the media. We all know cats steal way too much time from the inter webs.

Each of us has the opportunity to be the media. We can launch a blog, start a business, embrace video live streaming, get on snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and everything in between and within a short time steal media attention from even some of the biggest, baddest media platforms that have been doing this for decades.

Media at a human level gives us all an even playing field. It enables the little guys and gals and even furry friends to compete with the big media.

Here is the catch though. You are only the media if you participate. Times are changing and you can't simply throw sloppy media to the masses and expect to build your business or brand.

Welcome to the participation age my friends. The age where you must embrace conversation, human connection and meaning in dialog, not just one to many show up and throw up content. The traditional media is changing regardless if you want to accept it or not.

I am the co-founder and CEO of a successful social media, digital marketing and conversion optimization agency. We help brands of all sizes embrace the media of today to build community, build their brand, build their business and most importantly build the people who want to engage and join them in this world of inspiration and participation.

The one thing we have found consistent in working with entrepreneurs to Fortune 10 brands is that the brands who have the mindset of participation, inspiration and human connection are the brands that see an ROI from the new media of today. Unfortunately the brands who embrace media today as a way to blast their noise, beg for tweets and downloads never see the light of day when it comes to success in the digital world of the ever and always connected consumer.

Did you know that 90% of smart phone owners have their mobile device in arms reach 100% of the time? Why does this matter? Because they are available 100% of the time to listen, learn, engage and participate. It's up to you what you do with that person on the other end of the smart phone, iPhone, Android device.

Are you ready for the participation age? Are you ready to inspire, connect and help your audience achieve their goals? It's going to require participation from you, period. You can no longer throw masses of dollars at a traditional agency and expect to get the same return you did 10 years ago.

Take a listen to the 177th episode of the Social Zoom Factor to learn more about the participation age. I share with you 10 ways you can embrace the participation age and ensure your brand is smack dab in the middle of the fun, action, reaction, conversation, engagement and success of this new participation and inspiration era.

It's every smart and social, savvy digital marketers dream to reach their audience in a human, relevant, memorable and meaningful way. Video marketing provides marketers the unique opportunity to connect with their audience in the most human and relevant way. You can almost look your audience in the face eyeball to eyeball. They can hear your voice, see your facial gestures, experience where you are and the power of what you have to share like never before.

Are you an active user of Twitter? Did you know that you can now within one minute record and upload a video to Twitter natively that will engage, inspire, educate and entertain your audience? Yes, one minute. Simply record up to a 30 second video, craft a simple 140 character tweet and hit the "tweet" button. Plus you can see the response and statistics within seconds! You will almost instantaneously know how many people saw the tweet, engaged with the tweet, watched the video, shared the video and more.

Did you know...

82% of Twitter users watch video content on Twitter
41% of Twitter users think Twitter is a great place to discover Twitter videos
Native video on Twitter drives more engagement than other 3rd party players (2.4x replies, 2.8x retweets, 1.9x favorites)

I had not done much with Twitter video until Gary Vaynerchuk sent me a personal video using Twitter.  It literally took me experiencing the personal and engaging video from Gary that inspired me to pick up my iPhone and send and share my first Twitter video that same day with my audience and community. Thank you Gary! :)

If you are not already tapping into the power of Twitter video, you should be. Take a listen to the 176th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast for 5 best practices to tap into the power of Twitter video marketing as well as 10 ideas for Twitter video content to inspire and connect with your audience and social media community.

It's no surprise that even the most social and content savvy marketing leaders find it difficult to keep up with everything including creating compelling, relevant content that will inspire, delight, entertain and educate their audience. They have good intentions and know they need to provide value. However, finding the time is an entirely different story.

As a result many overwhelmed marketers unfortunately resort to sloppy, irrelevant content that looks. smells and feels like everything their competitors are providing. It clearly lacks the unique factor and is often far from inspiring or valuable.

These cookie cutter blog posts, podcasts, presentations, webinars, and even live stream videos all start to sound and read the same. It's like everyone is reading and writing from the same exact play book. They know they are starting to sound like a broken record. However, given the overwhelm they continue down the path of the status quo. It's almost a guarantee they wind up scratching their head thinking... "hmmm I wonder why my content isn't delivering value!?"

Creating content that inspires and connects you with your audience doesn't have to require a PHD in rocket science or master of the shiny object syndrome. With knowledge of your audience and a creative mindset you can easily create a content calendar and framework jam packed with value, inspiration and helpful knowledge to keep your audience and community coming back for more. If done right you can absolutely leverage content marketing to attract your ideal customer, increase brand awareness and achieve your top business goals.

Check out episode 175 of the Social Zoom Factor podcast for 10 types of content to help you consistently deliver value to your audience in the inspiration age!

Be sure to subscribe to this entire brand new series, "Welcome to The Inspiration Age. Are You Ready?" on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

In this 25 minute podcast you will learn:

10 types of content to help you inspire and connect with your ideal customer and audience
How to create content that inspires, delights and entertains in the inspiration age
How to create content even on a very limited budget and with limited resources
How to tap into the power of co-created content in partnership with industry thought leaders and influencers
Leveraging offline and online events for content
How to tell brand and customer stories that inspire and engage your audience in your journey
The difference between storytelling and bragging about yourself constantly
Why it's important to share the good, bad and sometimes even the ugly to bring your audience closer to your brand
Incorporating different mediums into your content such as video, audio and presentations
Supporting Resources:

Audience Analysis Worksheet (worksheet to help you prioritize your niche)
Welcome to the Inspiration Age (episode 170)
50 Ways to Inspire Your Audience (white paper)
Twitter Persona Worksheet (worksheet to help you develop your Twitter Persona)
Twitter Lists in a Nutshell
7 Metrics to Measure Value of Your Content in the Inspiration Age (episode 172)
Should You Narrow Your Marketing Niche? (episode 171)
Brand Humanization in a Nutshell
20 Tips to Humanize Your Brand
10 Tips to Focus on Needs of Your Customer
8 Steps to Develop a Social Business Plan (white paper)

Show Notes Page loaded with free resources, worksheets, content calendar template and more! http://www.socialzoomfactor.com/175

Are you tired of hearing business and marketing leaders brag about the measurable results they are achieving using the social network, Twitter? They talk about all of their new friends, new communities and even new clients. Do you feel like you are being left in the Twitter dust and that you are never going to catch up or really learn what it's all about?

Have you tried to use Twitter for business but honestly have no idea how to achieve anything close to an ROI on your investment of time and resource?

Does this questions sound familiar?

You want to reach new audiences and markets?
You want to increase and enhance brand awareness?
You use Twitter but have no idea what you are doing?
You wish you could better nurture relationships using social media?
You want to learn how to better use Twitter for business?
You want to learn more about what your competition is up to?
If you would like answers to these questions, then you must listen to episode 174 of the Social Zoom Factor podcast. I share with you 5 proven strategies to maximize your results using Twitter in the inspiration age!
Be sure to subscribe to this entire brand new series, "Welcome to The Inspiration Age. Are You Ready?" on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

In this 25 minute podcast you will learn:

Why you must learn how to embrace the inspiration age for success using social media for business
How to tap into the power of Twitter to nurture relationships
How to leverage Twitter to grow your email list of subscribers
How to use Twitter to learn more about your market and competition
How to test new products, services, taglines and other marketing messages with Twitter
How to truly inspire and connect with your audiences using Twitter

http://www.socialzoomfactor.com/174

It's time get real on the value of your content. Is your content really providing value to your ideal customer, audience and community?

Many business and marketing leaders are spending loads of time and money on content strategies, framework, media, posts and distribution. However, when you ask them the value of their content and how it is resonating with their audience they often return a shoulder shrug and head shake meaning "I have no clue!"

Can you answer these questions?
Do you know if your content is truly resonating with your audience?
Is it providing them real value?
Is it helping them solve their problems?
Is it helping them grow their business?
Is it helping them become part of something bigger together than they can be by themselves as one?
Is your audience truly engaging with your content in a human way?
Is your content helping you nurture real and human relationships?
Is your content helping or hurting your brand?
If you would like answers to these questions then you are in luck today. Take a listen to the 173rd episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to learn 7 easy ways you can measure and determine if your content is providing value to your audience in the inspiration age.