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.

When I ask business leaders, owners and digital marketers who is their ideal client or target market I often get the response similar to "anyone between the ages of 35-65 who has problem A, B or C." What does this translate to in real business results? Nothing, nada, zip ROI.

Having a business that is focused on selling to everyone and their mother, grandmother, kids, dog and cat is a recipe for failure.

The world is filled with generalists who can sell you whatever you want if you simply pay the $99 and you too can become rich and super duper famous.

We all know the tricks, the lies, the spam that many marketers throw at us. The media is everywhere. Heck, as we have discussed in past blog posts and Social Zoom Factor podcasts, you and me are also the media.

We now live smack dab in the middle of the Inspiration Age where inspiring and connecting with your target audience and ideal customer in a human way is a requirement, not an option.

Tell me, how can you connect with your ideal customer at a human level if you don't know who they are? If you state they are somewhere between the age of 35 and 65 and live in Colorado, Florida, Australia or Timbuktu? How you market, speak to, inspire, connect with, engage and build relationships with each individual persona is going to be different.

This is why if you are wanting to build a successful business you need to consider narrowing your business niche. Maybe you are focusing too broad and it's time to get laser focused not only on who you are serving but also on what you have to offer them.

Take a listen to the 172nd episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to learn the benefits of narrowing your niche as well as 7 strategies and tips to help you build a niche strategy and plan. Be sure to subscribe to this entire brand new series, "Welcome to The Inspiration Age" on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

In this 30 minute podcast you will learn:

Benefits of narrowing your niche
Answer to the question of "are the riches really in the niches?"
How to find the right fit for your niche
Why you must be careful of being "too unique" when choosing a niche
Importance of researching your niche, what you must know
How to research the larger ecosystem of your target market niche
Determining how to position yourself
Telling your brand story so people will understand your brand promise and value proposition
Importance of planning your go to market strategy versus "winging it"
Determining the actions you want your audience to take to engage with you
Why focusing on a niche strategy will help you prioritize investment, time and resources for better success
How to embrace the inspiration age with a solid niche strategy and plan
Importance of humanizing your brand and leveraging niche marketing to do such

Welcome to the inspiration age where connecting with your audience is a requirement, not an option.

In this episode Pam Moore, CEO & Founder of Marketing Nutz provides 5 solid tips to help you better connect with your social media communities and audience both online and offline.

Welcome to the inspiration age, where connecting with your audience and communities is not an option, but a requirement for business and life.

What is the inspiration age and why should it matter to you and your business? We answer these questions and more in episode 170 of the Social Zoom Factor podcast. Take a listen and learn what the inspiration age is as well as 8 solid strategies and tips to inspire your audience.

You must learn how to embrace the inspiration age to grow your business, nurture relationships, earn trust, establish authority and most importantly touch the hearts of the people you want to bring closer to your brand.

Coming out of the information age it was easier to put most marketing tactics and strategies in a box. Brands with big budgets could simply throw big money at advertising agencies and the remainder at more predictable marketing mediums such as traditional media, direct mail and email marketing.

However, times are changing drastically. Now it's practically a free for all. We are all the media. The world is noisy on and offline. It is more difficult than ever to stand out from the crowd, to rise above the noise and to earn trust and connect with hearts. We can communicate anyway we want. We can communicate how, when and where we want... and so can our audience.

You do not own your audience. You do not own your social media communities on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat even if they are following you, like you or snap with you.

Your audience is not there to serve you. You are there to serve your audience, period!

Download Whitepaper 50 Tips to Inspire Your Audience: http://www.socialzoomfactor.com/inspireme

Many business leaders, social and digital marketers are finding it hard to get buy-in and approval from their c-suite for their social media programs.

Do any of these statements sound familiar?

• You can't get your social marketing budget approved.
• You are not getting buy-in across the organization for your social business program.
• Your CEO, COO, CTO and most executive stakeholders have shut down your employee advocacy program.
• You don't know where to go next as you just keep hearing no, no, no.

If these are your struggles with regard to your social media marketing or social business program then you definitely want to tune into the 169th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast as I share with you 5 top social media metrics and priorities your CEO and c-suite cares about most when it comes to social media.

If you are having difficulty getting the buy-in, approval and budget allocated for your social media program, the problem could very well be you are not understanding what really matters to your stakeholders and executives. You must "get in their head" and understand the risks they are concerned about as well as the metrics that truly matter to them.

In this 25 minute podcast you will learn: 

• What key metrics your CEO is most concerned about for your social media and social business program
• The key risks your CEO and C-suite is most concerned about regarding social media
• How to communicate the strengths, benefits and risk to your key stakeholders and executives
• How to get buy-in on your program from the C-suite and board members
• Why you must think both internally and externally
• Understanding the key risks associated such as brand protection
• Importance of aligning social media to business goals and outcomes including sales
• Importance of identifying key performance indicators that matter to the business and CEO
  
  
  

Learn how to save time and maximize ROI using Twitter for business. Pam Moore provides 8 social media tips to help zoom business results and save time. Learn how to balance automation with real time engagement, provide content marketing that is relevant and helpful for your audience. 

If you are new to the content marketing, digital marketing or social media you may have heard the term "evergreen marketing" by the experts and not been certain what it is or why you need it. It's often a term that is thrown around by even top industry experts who don't develop or implement evergreen content marketing best practices themselves.

Evergreen content is content that is timeless, sustainable and has a shelf life longer the latest Facebook feature or favorite mobile application. Evergreen content is foundational to helping your ideal client and audience solve their smallest and biggest problems. When done right evergreen content will drive continuous traffic to your blog. It's then up to you to make sure you can convert a large percentage of that traffic into community members, new friends or even sales. 

So what is evergreen content marketing and how can it help you achieve your business and marketing goals? Why should you care about evergreen content?

If you would like to know the answers to these questions, today is your lucky day as the 167th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast puts evergreen content marketing in a nutshell. We also provide 15 types of evergreen content you can start creating and implementing today to help you better connect with your audience, build community, increase brand awareness and increase sales.

Take a listen to the episode and be sure to subscribe to the entire series on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

In this 40 minute podcast you will learn: 

• Evergreen content marketing in a nutshell - what is it and what it is not 
• 15 types of evergreen content marketing you can start implementing today
• Top business and marketing benefits of creating evergreen content
• Why evergreen content must be relevant, timeless and sustainable
• Importance of knowing your ideal customer, industry and niche
• Why you must inspire, inform, educate, entertain and delight your audience
• Why success is in the details and the importance of information rich content
• Why less is not always more when it comes to evergreen content marketing
• Why Google loves evergreen content
• How to tap into the power of industry influencers and leaders to curate evergreen content
• How to easily curate content that has a long shelf life
• How to leverage one piece of quality content to create multiple additional pieces of evergreen content

Would you like to build authority, establish trust, increase brand awareness and grow your business results? 

Guest blogging and syndicating your content to top sites in your niche can more quickly help you establish industry leadership, brand awareness and trust. When done right, integrated and aligned to your business goals and marketing objectives, guest blogging can also help you improve business results. When attached to a solid online conversion funnel you can grow your email list and subscribers, grow community and even increase sales.

Successful content syndication and guest blogging requires both art and science. You must know your ideal customer, current and desired audience as well as understand the platform and audience for which you are wanting to guest post.

Before pitching an editor it's best to establish a relationship, earn the trust and prove you are ready to deliver value to their audience and readership and you won't have to pitch.

Take a listen to these 10 foundational elements to zoom business and marketing results with guest posting on the 166th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast. This episode is part of a new  series in which we are digging deep into how you can build an integrated social and digital platform that works when you are not working. A platform that helps you inspire, connect with and delight your audiences. 

Why am I not on blab? Take a listen to this podcast to learn why Pam Moore has not yet jumped into the latest social shiny object and video streaming, collaboration platform. The answer might surprise you! 

In this 30 minute podcast you will learn: 

Why Pam Moore is not on Blab 

8 Tips and strategies to work smarter, not just harder 

The importance of the Smart Hustle

Why you must know your WHY 

Why you must know your audience 

Prioritizing activities, priorioties and goals 

Avoiding the Fear of Missing Out when it impacts your business and life goals 

Not getting caught up in the fallacy that hustle is required 24/7 to drive results 

The importance of adequate sleep for mind, body and spiritual health 

Smart marketers and business leaders know that their online integrated digital and social platform is not simply a megaphone for to tell the world how great their business is and beg them to make a purchase. Though you may see many new marketers to the online and social world fall to spammy tactics, they don't usually last long.

Your website, blog, Facebook page, Twitter profile, YouTube channel, Instagram page, Blab conversations, Periscope sessions and Pinterest boards all create opportunities for you to inspire, delight, connect, entertain and inform your audience and readers. 

With every virtual touch, swipe, view, and listen you have and opportunity to earn a friend, to earn an advocate and customer. You have an opportunity to earn trust, start and nurture real and human relationships. You have an opportunity to earn a sale, not just push sales. 

If you have not thought about using your online digital and social assets to inspire, engage, entertain and inform then you should. How are your sales? Are they hurting? Maybe you should look at the content you are sharing? Is it really helping your audience want to buy from you? Are you truly helping them make a decision to buy? Or are you leaving them confused or maybe even pushing them away to your competition because you are all about yourself.

Take a listen to the 164th episode of the Zoom Factor podcast for 10 Tips to help your online community and audience buy from you.

Show Notes Page

Be sure to subscribe to the entire series on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

In this 25 minute podcast you will learn: 

• 10 tips to help your online audience buy from you
• Why you need buyer personas 
• Why first impressions are so very important 
• Why you must have a brand foundation and message architecture 
• The importance of testing varying forms of media such as audio, video and text 
• The importance of articulating clearly who you are, what you do and WHY
• Why you must share HOW you do what you do to help your ideal customer 
• Why the first, last and every brand touch in between matters 
• Why you should be a connecter of value, knowledge and people 
• The importance of inspiring action 
• How to choose a call to action that can help increase sales 
• Letting your audience know what the next steps are to engage with you 

With the explosion of social, digital marketing platforms and technologies such as mobile live streaming even small businesses and individuals have the opportunity to become the media. 

Becoming the media today does not require millions of dollars spent on advertising and fancy websites. Instead an individual person serving as an industry influencer or thought leader can launch a blog and integrated digital, social platform and quite quickly have brands eagerly wanting to engage with them. The brands want to tap into the power of their community, reach and voice because it is truly people who are becoming the media. You and me are the media. 

Many brands and people struggle with how much of them personally do they incorporate into the communications, platform and media. 

Because they don't know how to brand themselves, incorporate brand storytelling or properly engage their audience they wind up spamming and pushing people away versus drawing them closer to their brand. 

The leaders who are rockin' their personal and business brands online know how to balance content about themselves while always serving and making it about their audience. It truly requires both art and science. 

Take a listen to episode 163rd of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to learn 10 key foundational elements to successful brand storytelling.

This episode is part of the "You Are the Media" series in which we are digging deep into how you can build an integrated social and digital platform that works when you are not working. A platform that helps you inspire, connect with and delight your audiences. 

Social media is a great way to rev up your brand to turbo speed and leave your status quo competitors in the dust! Not only can you tap into the power of community, human relationships but you can also increase brand awareness, equity and even sales. 

Zooming your brand to turbo speed using social media requires both art and science. It requires the knowledge and ability to connect with humans in a way that inspires, connects, delights and entertains while at the same time staying true to your brand personality and tone. 

Unfortunately many brands hop online with no solid understanding of their audience, or even their own business goals or objectives.  They have no plan and wind up throwing social spaghetti at the wall and then wonder why it doesn't stick. They wonder why they get stuck with at best status quo results. 

Brands that hit turbo speed know who their audience is, know intimately how to grow and nurture their community and network, how to create and deliver content and conversations that surprise and delight them. They aren't afraid to try new things while at the same time balancing the desire to chase shiny objects while staying focused where they know they can achieve the highest measurable business results. 

The smartest social media marketing leaders know how to best leverage multiple mediums to tell brand stories, 

Take a listen to the 162nd episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to learn 10 tips and strategies you can start implementing today to finally once and for all start leveraging social media to grow your brand and business results. 

Show Notes Page

It's not news that people buy from people or that business and life are about personal, human relationships. People have been buying from other people, communicating with other people and connecting with other people for years, decades and centuries. It's in our DNA to want to connect with other human beings who believe in the same things we do. It's these common foundations that weave the threads for relationships, trust and community.

If we all know life and business is really about people, then why do so many marketing and business leaders still fall to lazy marketing tactics and corporate marketing speak as they set out on their online digital and social media adventures? They claim they want to connect with real human beings. They say they want to build community. However, their priorities, actions and language is doing the opposite.

For years people have gathered around campfires and dinner tables to connect and relate to one another. We share. We laugh. We cry. We tell stories. We grow. We become part of something bigger than ourselves.

When you share a story you share a piece of you. You invite people into your world. You share with them who you are, what you care about, why you are doing what you do. You are inviting them in a human way to be part of your story, part of your journey.

Brands can tap into the power of storytelling to inspire, connect with and serve their audiences. Storytelling helps build relationships and earn trust.

Brand storytelling is not about bragging about yourself all day on the latest live video streaming mobile application. It's not about creating a viral video or a long winded essay in corporate speak. Brand storytelling requires both art and science. It requires having a solid brand architecture and message foundation as well as knowing your audience and how you can serve them real value. 

Show Notes Page 

There is a clear separation between true social marketing business leaders and those that are sliding along with status quo. Many new and seasoned marketers and business leaders hop into the world of digital and social media marketing thinking they can send a few tweets, learn how to optimize visuals and social profiles and they will have a positive ROI on their investment in social media. Unfortunately too many of these same "status quo" seekers find themselves struggling to keep up with the true leaders, holding down a real job or feeling and experiencing real success. 

So what are the habits, behaviors and foundational success elements that true social marketing leaders embrace? How do they rise above the status quo? How do they consistently serve the needs of their customer, keep the brand top of mind and help achieve a positive ROI for the investment and time into social media? 

Take a listen to the 160th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to learn 10 foundational habits of successful social marketing leaders. Be sure to subscribe to the entire series on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

In this 25 minute podcast you will learn: 

• 10 Habits of Successful Social Marketing Leaders 
• How to rise above status quo with real business results
• Why social marketing leaders must take lead. Own the plan, business and results! 
• Why social marketers should learn to embrace data and analytics to improve business results 
• The importance of integration into business and marketing initiatives, programs
• The difference between social media and social business 
• Why social media is not just about YOU! 
• Importance of community and relationships 
• Importance of shutting up and listening
• How to set priorities 
• Why content is king, queen and joker 

There is much confusion regarding online brand and reputation management. Some think it's only for brands who get themselves in trouble and need to cover up the bad. Some think it's public relations, while others think it's just social media monitoring or some ninja SEO tricks.

The truth is every brand has a reputation regardless if they think they do or not. Your brand is the sum of what people think, say and tell other people about you. You can spend all the money in the world to create a beautiful brand inclusive of digital elements and visuals, fancy logo, website, blog and social media channels and profiles. However, if you don't deliver on your brand promise it's all for nothing.

Your brand is the foundation of your business. It doesn't matter if you are a small business, corporation or something in between you impact your brand with every action you take. Every tweet, call, post on Facebook, Instagram photo, Google+ update is a representation of your brand. Every employee that works for you is leaving hundreds of brand impressions every day online and offline.

They are talking about you! Yes, people are talking about your brand, your executives, your service and your employees. They are talking about what you do right and what you have screwed up on. The question is do you know what they are saying? Are you part of the conversation? Or are you choosing to ignore it? The truth is, the conversations are not going to go away. You might as well be proactive and understand how you can leverage the same social technologies and strategies that may scare you half to death to your advantage. It's all about perspective and how you choose to look at it and manage it.

Take a listen to the 159th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast where I share 10 solid tips to help you protect your online brand reputation.

Trust me, this is something every business leader, digital and social marketer should care about. If it's not keeping you up at night you should ask yourself why. Is it because you are proactively managing it or is it because you are ignoring it? Ignoring the need to manage your online brand and reputation is simply not an option if you want to be in business tomorrow.

It is every digital and social marketers dream that their ideal customer, partner and fan will easily find their blog, website or other online social channel. Unfortunately it's not as easy as building a website or blog and people just show up at your digital front door, banging to get in and buy from you.

It takes time for the traditional search engines such as Google and Bing to even know your site exists so they can start sending your traffic your way. Plus now you have tremendous opportunity to earn traffic to your blog or website via the social networks.

You can of course leverage paid media, earned media and even influencer marketing to increase blog traffic.

Remember though that visitors to your online platforms are tourists. They are stopping by. It is up to you to make sure that you are inviting them in, inspiring them to connect with you and helping them feel at home so they will stick around for awhile and maybe even tell a few friends how great you are.

One of the best ways to increase traffic to your blog or website is via organic traffic. Organic traffic is not paid media. Organic traffic is traffic that comes to you via search on the search engines, social networks or other online platforms. You don't pay for it directly, though you pay for it via your time invested in content marketing, website and blog development, influencer marketing and the list goes on.

Our websites and blogs earn between 45% - 75%+ organic traffic. We don't pay for expensive SEO tricks or expensive earned media. Instead we focus on creating a platform with content that inspires and connects us with our target audience and online community.

Take a listen to the 158th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast for 10 strategies and tactics you can implement today to increase organic traffic to your website or blog. I share with you the exact strategies and specific tactics we use in our business every day. 

This episode is part of a new “in a nutshell" mini-series of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to do a deep dive on many marketing and business concepts, strategies and tactics important to understand if you want to be successful in the online world and with digital marketing.

Social media agencies face many exciting opportunities to work with brands and clients of all shapes and sizes. Although some may focus on a certain niche or industry, many consultants and agencies work with clients from varying industries, experiences and levels of understanding of what social media really is or what it can do for their business. Obviously, each client has different expectations, goals, objectives and grasp of the power of social media.

Although it may be tempting to take on any client, a key to success is ensuring the client is a match for the agency. It’s also critical that as new clients are onboarded, they are taken care of from the start.

A client’s first interaction with an agency sets the entire stage for how the relationship will kickoff. You only have one chance for your team to make a great first, second and third impression, so why not make the most of it at every touchpoint?

Below are some best practices to help social media agencies ensure the onboarding process goes as smoothly as possible with new clients. The best part is that most of these tips can be used for many different types of businesses, not just social media agencies.

Take a listen to the 157th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast for a deeper dive discussion on each of these 13 points. I share with you exactly the most important steps, tips and strategies for how we onboard clients for my agency, Marketing Nutz.

Facebook has launched a mobile live streaming application and feature only available to users of the Facebook Mentions application which requires the Facebook page be verified. 

This podcast shares Pam Moore's thoughts on why Facebook made the decision and what is the possible future for the mobile live streaming via Facebook

What does it really mean to be a thought leader? Unfortunately too many digital and social marketers have a false belief that they can simply write a few blog posts, send a few tweets and increase their social influence scores such as Klout and they will quickly become the go to thought leader of their niche.

We've all seen the blog posts promising the magic 10 steps to be a thought leader in 140 characters or how to be a thought leader on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and every other social network known to digital man and woman.

The truth is that you can not become a thought leader in 140 characters. You also can't become a thought leader via mastering one single social network.

Becoming a thought  leader requires earning trust, respect and investing time in helping the human beings in your community, network and audience.

I've seen loads of businesses and people promoting their own personal brand spending months or even years of time trying to become "thought leaders" yet they have no real business. In reality they are helping almost nobody as they are too focused on becoming "influential" vs actually helping a real business or person.

Take a listen to the 155th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast for an overview of what it means to be a thought leader as well as 5 steps to help you build a plan do establish yourself and your brand as a thought leader.

This episode is part of a new “in a nutshell" mini-series of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to do a deep dive on many concepts, strategies and tactics important to understand if you want to be successful in the online world and with digital marketing.

In this 15 minute podcast you will learn: 

• Definition of thought leadership
• Why you can not establish thought leadership overnight or in 140 characters
• How to build thought leadership
• 5 steps to get you started in building thought leadership
• Who can be a thought leader
• Why thought leadership is important for B2B and B2C organizations and brands
• Benefits of establishing thought leadership
• What thought leadership is not
• Why a content marketing strategy and framework is at the core of establishing thought leadership

Do you know the difference between traditional marketing, ecommerce, multichannel marketing and omnichannel marketing?

Omnichannel marketing is not simply a buzzword for multichannel marketing. Omnichannel marketing requires that the multiple marketing channels are working together to create and deliver an amazing, seamless user experience.

Did you know that according to Google, 25% of shoppers start on a PC but eventually move to a mobile device.  Shoppers are no longer using one channel to research, shop and buy. People don't always simply walk into a store and buy a product. They may first be researching the product or service online via mobile device, tablet, desktop or all of the above.

Even in the B2B (business to business) space, business leaders are doing the same thing. They are researching products, services and people behind the brands using multiple channels. They jump from iPhone to iPad to laptop within minutes. Both B2B and B2C (business to consumers) customers expect brands to design a user experience that is personal, relevant and seamless across devices.

It is important for digital and social marketers to understand the reason why, the context, the when, where and how their customers are using what screen to connect with and buy from the business.

Take a listen to the 154th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast "in a nutshell" episode for an overview and definition of omnichannel marketing.

This episode is part of a new “in a nutshell" mini-series of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to do a deep dive on many marketing and business concepts, strategies and tactics important to understand if you want to be successful in the online world and with digital marketing.

In this 20 minute podcast you will learn: 

• Definition and overview of omnichannel marketing
• Difference between traditional marketing, ecommerce, multichannel marketing and omnichannel marketing
• Why channels must work together to be considered omnichannel marketing
• How omnichannel marketing differs from multichannel marketing
• Why you should not force your online buyer to scale up screens (move from mobile device to desktop)
• Why marketers should become experience architects
• The importance of being at the right place at the right time, not every place all of the time
• The importance of creating personal and seamless user experiences

Marketers and business leaders spend a lot of time thinking about what we need to do as content writers, sales people, digital marketers, social marketers, brand leaders, data analysts and business owners to grow our business. 

We focus on content and visual marketing that grabs attention. We build beautiful landing pages that convert readers, listeners and viewers to buyers. We dig in deep to data, analytics, and key performance indicators so we can measure and optimize business results and achieve the desired business outcomes. 

However, what can often happen is that we get too inwardly focused. Too many digital marketers start forgetting about why they are doing the work in the first place. Remember, that human being you need to connect with on the other end of that tweet, post, pin or video? Yes, that is the person you need to be thinking about. 

Let's flip this conversation around. Let's talk about what we need from our buyer. What do you need from a potential customer or buyer before you can sell to them? 

Take a listen to the 153rd episode of the Zoom Factor podcast for 4 things you must have from your buyer (or anyone for that matter) before you can sell to them. 

In this 15 minute podcast you will learn: 

• 4 things you must have from your buyer before you can sell to them 
• Why you must earn the attention of your buyer 
• Why trust is so important in online marketing and social selling 
• Why it is important that your buyer also invest in a relationship with you and your brand  

One of my favorite childhood stories is Goldilocks and the three bears. A story about a little mischievous little girl that made her way into a house owned by a family of bears. Goldilocks made herself comfortable in the house so much as to fill her belly with good porridge and even fall asleep in the little bear's bed.

As digital marketers there is much we can learn from the story of Goldilocks. We need to build a digital platform that is inviting, serves value, makes our readers, viewers and listeners feel safe, comfortable and taken care of. We need to help them feel comfortable and invite them to come back for more. 

Take a listen to episode 152 of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to learn 8 key takeaways we can learn from Goldilocks to improve our digital and social marketing results. 

In this 30 minute podcast you will learn: 

• 8 things digital and social marketers can learn from Goldilocks and the 3 Bears 
• 8 tips to improve digital marketing results 
• How to make sure your social media and digital platform is inviting to your target customer and audience 
• How to make your blog and website visitors feel welcome 
• How to make sure you are serving your audience real value 
• How to earn attention but not be too overbearing with your marketing and sales communication 

Smart marketers are not afraid to dig in deep and even "geek out" on data and analytics to achieve success in social media, digital marketing and business.

Many marketers get overwhelmed with trying to understand how they can leverage data and metrics to guide their business in the right direction. As a result they run away from data and the power it can provide versus digging in and learning how to tap into the power of what it has to offer.

I am thrilled to introduce Andrew Caravella from Sprout Social as a guest on the 151st episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast.

Andrew leads the marketing team and efforts at Sprout Social and has an amazing background and years of experience in digital marketing to help us all. 

Take a listen and learn how you can better tap into the power of social and marketing data to zoom your business. 

In this 30 minute podcast you will learn: 

• How Sprout Social uses data and analytics to create an amazing customer experience
• Biggest mistakes brands and digital marketers make in embracing or not embracing social metrics and analytics
• Top questions Sprout Social receives from customers of all sizes as it relates to social media data and analytics
• The importance of planning and selecting the right key performance indicators for success
• Where to start when selecting KPIs, goals and objectives

Content marketing is at the center of marketing today. Everything we tweet, post, pin and create is a form of content marketing.

Blogs are a foundation for many brands and people establishing thought and brand leadership online. Blogs can serve as a home base and help connect the dots between earned, owned and paid media to nurture relationships and achieve desired business outcomes.

Unfortunately too many digital, social and content marketers think they can just write a long blog post or throw social content spaghetti at the wall and hope it sticks. They foolishly believe that hundreds or even hundreds of thousands of readers are going to come beating down the social blog virtual doors begging to buy from them. This couldn't be further from the truth.

Attention is the most scarce resource marketers struggle with today. Throwing blog content spaghetti at the wall is not going to help you gain attention, build community or achieve real business results. 

Writing epic blog content that attracts, inspires and connects you with your ideal customer requires a combination of both art and science.

There is not a morning I log into Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram that my feed is not bombarded with spam. From people begging for clicks, link backs, free shout outs to over the top self promotional automated messages, replies and the list goes on. 

I even recently had an social media agency CEO spamming and begging for support of their non-profit campaigns that are based on a foundation of 1000's of fake RTs on every tweet on behalf of the client. They are charging the client for campaigns based on fake followers and fake metrics. This is a true story my friends and these things are happening all around us every single day. 

Think with me for a moment... 

• Would you walk into a room of real human beings and start blasting the name and url of your business? 
• When you meet somebody new at an event would you walk up to them and ask them to watch your video on YouTube before you had a chance to say hello? 
• Would you tap someone you just met on the shoulder and asked them why they unfollowed you or if they would follow you, listen to you?
• Would you yell at people in real life asking them to pay attention to you? 
• Would you keep sending people the same message over and over even if they already told you they were not interested? 
• Would you keep talking to someone about a topic if they clearly let you know they didn't want to talk or hear about it anymore? 

If you did these things people would think you were crazy. However, there are thousands of marketers and brands who are embracing these spammy tactics every day.

It's time we stop the spam insanity. It's time we put the human back in social media, marketing and business. 

Attention is the most scarce resource we have. The lack of attention is a core reason brands and even smart digital marketers are falling to lazy social spamming tactics. They are desperate for attention. They think that by blasting into our social feeds they will grab out attention. 

The thing many marketers are missing is that by spamming they are losing trust. They are hurting their brand more than helping. We all need to put food on the table to feed our families. However, that is not an excuse for any person or brand to fall to spammy, fake tactics. Build a brand that is built on authenticity, trust, integrity and serving others and success will be exponentially higher. Will it take a bit longer to get there? Absolutely. However, doing such will help build a brand that is sustainable and that will out last any campaign or Facebook news feed built on spamtastic nonsense. Yes I know spamtastic is not a word. I just made it up. ;) 

Check out episode 149 of the Social Zoom Factor podcast for some serious tough love to help you identify if you are guilty of these spammy non-human tactics. I also provide 10 solid tips and strategies to help you put the human back in your social media, business and life. 

Take a listen and be sure to subscribe to the entire series on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

In this 30 minute podcast you will learn: 

• 10 tips and strategies to put the human back in your social media marketing 
• How to identify if you are guilty of spam tactics 
• How to balance automation with being human 
• Why you must be patient in building relationships and not just go for the sale at hello 
• Why you must be aware of your own digital body language 
• Why your intention is at the core of how others perceive you and your brand 
• Why trust is key to earning the right attention and building relationships 
• How a mentor can help you get real with your own digital and social behavior 
• How to know if you may need to get help from an external social media digital agency or consultant 
• The importance of knowing your audience 
• Why spam will not build your business for the medium and long term 

Welcome to the digital marketing era where attention is the absolute most scarce resource. There is clearly no lack of people and brands trying to grab your attention. Every where we turn, every device we turn on, every social network feed we scroll, there is noise. Brands want us to check out their hot deals, digital marketers want us to watch their videos, download their white papers and the list goes on.

Many digital and brand marketers hop on Twitter with the hopes of grabbing quick attention of their target customer and audience. They foolishly think they can send a few tweets to a handful of influencers, beg for some clicks and links and they will achieve their business and goals.

The core foundational issue is they have the wrong intention. They have an intent to help themselves and achieve a quick win versus investing in the people who they want to trust them.

The truth is our actions speak louder than their words. Unfortunately many business leaders and even the most social savvy digital marketing experts are clearly unaware of their own digital body language. Their intention is easily seen by even those new to the social networks. It's often easy to identify a spammy business or marketer. When their posts, tweets and conversations are all about them, they wind up pushing people away versus bringing them closer to their brand. 

Your intention may be good, but your execution may be poor and negatively impacting your digital marketing results if you are not earning trust and attention as a result of the right intention.

You don't have very long to earn and lose trust. You can lose trust in one single 140 character tweet if you are only using spam tactics. Because attention is such a valuable resource, it is critical for marketers to maximize every second they achieve attention from their communities and audience. Attention can no longer be taken for granted. 

Check out episode 148 of the Social Zoom Factor podcast for a "get real" discussion on the power of intention and trust in earning attention. You will learn why intention and trust are foundational requirements to earning attention for your digital, social media and marketing strategies and tactics. 

In this 13 minute podcast you will learn: 

• How to earn attention with the power of trust and intention
• Why and how your intention shines through your digital body language
• How to leverage social networks to best meet your goals and objectives
• The power of relationships and earning trust in building your business
• Why you must know who you are and how you can provide the greatest value to your audience
• Why the quick fix, spam tactics will not earn attention for the short or long term

Welcome to the digital age of marketing where you are the brand. You can run, you can hide but you can't escape the need to build your personal brand. 

We all know people buy from people.  People also tweet with other people. They connect on LinkedIn with other people. They live video stream, Instagram and SnapChat with other people as well. 

When a new potential client contacts us to do business, the first place go to learn about them is the internet. We will start with a Google, Facebook or Twitter search. We then immediately click through to LinkedIn. 

In a matter of seconds we can find out who the person is and if they are who they said they are in the contact form. We can find out where they work now and where they have worked the past 10 - 20 years. We will within seconds know if they have a blog, if they have kids, where they went to school and the list goes on. 

Yes, you may be sitting there reading this and think... "Pam,  you will never know that about me because I will never post all of that information." 

I want to ask you why? Why would you not want me to find out the best information about you? Why not ensure your digital persona is a true representation of who you really are? 

It is becoming a requirement , not an option to develop your personal brand. If you want to be trusted and rise above the noise you must connect with people as a human being, not just a logo. 

Building your personal brand doesn't happen by jumping on Facebook or creating a fancy Twitter background or highly edited profile photo of yourself. 

You don't build your personal brand in minutes or hours. You build your personal brand over days, weeks, months and years. You must earn trust, establish credibility and authority. 

You must know who you are. You must know who your audience is and how you can serve them. 

Even if you are just getting started online, it is important you start somewhere. It only takes a seed. it's how you nurture your personal brand that will bring success. 

Check out episode 147 of the Social Zoom Factor podcast for 7 fundamental steps to build your personal brand. 

Take a listen and be sure to subscribe to the entire series on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

In this 23 minute podcast you will learn: 

• 7 fundamental steps to build your personal brand 
• Why you must be self aware of your strengths and weaknesses 
• Why personal branding is a requirement, not an option 
• Why you must stop excuses and start building your personal brand today 
• Why you are the media 
• The difference between authenticity and transparency 
• Why you must know who you are and what you stand for 
• Why you must know your audience and what they need from you 
• How to be aware of your digital body language 

Do you ever feel like you are going through the motions of life? Maybe you get a strange feeling that your life is set on auto drive but you don't know who is at the wheel?

Maybe it's the not the life you thought you would live? Maybe you aren't really sure how you got where you are right now but you do know you want a change.

Do you ever feel like your business is running on turbo yet you are running out of fuel? Good things are happening but they are not the right things at the right time.

Are you working way too many hours and the work is taking you away from the reasons you started your business or career in the first place?

If we don't take charge of our life and business, there are sure enough things that will steal our time and mindset and run us into a state of frenzy, late nights without sleep and time with the ones we love most.

It is time you take control of your life and business. It's time you design the life you want. Design your business to help you achieve the life you want to live.

Take a listen to the 146th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast for 10 strategies and tactics to help you design your dream life and business. These tips include actions you can implement starting today. They are applicable to entrepreneurs, small business owners up to professionals and executives working in large corporations.

Regardless of the size of the company you own or work for, taking charge of your own life is key to success and happiness.

In this 25 minute podcast you will learn: 

• Why you must design and take control of your life and business
• 10 tips to design the life and business you dream about
• Why you must value your time and knowledge so others will as well
• The importance of mind, body and spirit to achieve success in life and business
• The importance of envisioning the life you dream about
• Designing every hour of your day to achieve your goals
• Embracing and integrating your passions into your business
• Choosing clients and work that truly brings you joy
• Prioritizing your time and a focused mindset into the most important things
• How pivoting can help you move forward

Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired? Are you tired of working 18 hours a day and yet still not achieving your life and business goals? 

Do you ever feel like a silly hamster in a wheel, running and running and not getting anywhere?

There are far too many business leaders, entrepreneurs, digital marketers and executives who feel stuck. They know that things are not working. However, they are afraid to make change. They believe that if they move to plan b, c or even d that they have completely failed.

The truth is moving on to plan b, c, d or even plan e does not mean you failed. We all learn from our mistakes. True success comes from falling down and getting back up, over and over again.

Real leaders are able to embrace change. They help their organization, team and themselves stay relevant.

Real leaders must be able to pivot. They must know when it's time to pivot.

Staying "stuck in a rut" is not good for business or your life. It's the easy way out.

Take a listen to the 155th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast as we explore the importance of embracing change and learning how to pivot. If you are feeling stuck, as though you need to make change in your life or business but haven't had the guts to do such, this is the podcast episode for you!

In this 15 minute podcast you will learn: 

• Why true leaders are not afraid to embrace change and pivot
• How pivoting can help you move forward
• How to stay focused on your life and business goals through major changes
• Importance of empowering and training your team to embrace change
• Definition of leadership and pivoting in business
• My personal story of embracing major career, business and life changes

What happens to your anxiety level and blood pressure when you think about Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram going away? Does it rise? Does it stress you out? 

If Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Snapchat were to drop off the face of the earth tomorrow what would happen to your business? Would your business be negatively impacted? Would it thrive or would it crumble under algorithm changes and paid media models being aggressively implemented by every social network that hits prime time. 

Are you building your business on digital property that you own? Or are you too dependent upon the social networks and larger social ecosystem for your business success? 

Are you building your business on rented land? Are you building your business on social land that is far from a solid foundation to build your life and business upon? 

Building your business foundation on digital and social networks you don't own puts your business at much risk. You have no control on what these social networks do, what happens with their product roadmaps or how your audience and ideal customer react to their upcoming changes in the future. 

Simply take a look at Facebook, Twitter and any social network for that matter and you'll see how quickly they are changing. Facebook organic reach is in the tanker. Brand and digital marketers who put all of their social eggs in the organic Facebook basket are being hit incredibly hard. 

Don't let this happen to you. You need to build your own plan, strategy and integrated platform that inspires, attracts, engages and nurtures your ideal customer. You need to look past the numbers and market segment statistics and connect with real human beings in real ways on your owned digital property. 

You have put your time, resource, sweat, sleepless nights and maybe even some tears into your product or business and are ready to take it to market. It's an exciting time. It feels like your baby. You want to shout from the mountain top to the world how awesome it is. 

You look at all the millions and billions of people on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, Periscope and the list goes on. You want to tap into the power of community. You want some social buzz. You want people to be talking about your brand. 

Slow down there my friend. I know you are excited but how you enter the world of social media is very important. Remember you only have one chance to make a first, second and third impression. You don't want to lose people at the first 140 character hello because you are all about yourself. 

Even though you may be new to some of these amazing social networks, the millions of people who are already living and breathing them daily more than they want to admit are not new to them. They have behaviors they are accustomed to. They have certain ways they like to communicate with people and brands. 

You can't just plop onto Facebook or Twitter and announce your new product or mobile application has launched expecting to build instant community and fame. 

You need to develop a solid plan and strategy for how you will integrate social media into your business and launch for real result. You need to think it through. You must start long before you launch, not the week before or morning of. 

Take a listen to the 143rd episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast where I share with you 5 foundational elements you must have to launch your business or product using social media. I also provide 10 simple ideas and tips to integrate social media into your launch immediately. 

Take a listen and be sure to subscribe to the entire series on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

In this 30 minute podcast you will learn: 

• 5 Foundational Elements Your Social Media Product Launch Must Have 
• 10 tips to integrate social media into your product, service or business launch of any kind 
• How to best leverage pre-launch activities and time to build community and earn trust of loyal advocates early on 
• How to tap into the power of the OPC - Other People's Community and Content 
• How to NOT work with influencers and industry thought leaders 
• How to avoid damaging your brand with spam 
• How to tap into the power of video live streaming and mobile broadcasting on apps such as Periscope and Meerkat 
• How to leverage Twitter chats and Facebook groups to grow community 
• The importance of integration vs random acts of marketing (RAMs) 

What is the first thing that comes to mind when I ask you define social media? Is it Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Periscope, or Snapchat?

What if I told you that you should not be thinking about the technology first? You should be thinking about people. You should be focused on your ideal customer. Think DNA, not tools. How can you get in the head of your customer and inspire and connect with them?

Your mission with social media is to figure out where your ideal customer is hanging out online and then determine how you can have the most relevant conversation with them possible.

You need to be where your ideal customer is, not just where you want to be or even necessarily where you feel comfortable.

Do these questions found familiar?

• I am spending loads of time on social networks with little business return.
• I am spending loads of time learning tools and technology with zero business return.
• I feel like I am online 24/7 yet am making no progress.
• I don't know where to go next and sometimes feel like throwing in the social media towel!

If this is you, then you definitely need to listen to the 142nd episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast. I explain in plan english why you must quit focusing on the technology, and instead focus on how you can connect with real human beings. How can you best serve them value? You must know where you are going and why.

Take a listen and be sure to subscribe to the entire series on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

In this 25 minute podcast you will learn: 

• Why you can't start with technology when building a social media strategy and plan
• 5 Tips to build your social media strategy and plan
• The difference between social business and social media
• Why your priorities must first be focused on your audience and ideal customer
• Tips to avoid being online 24/ 7 and have even higher result
• Why your most important question you must ask in building your social media strategy is WHY
• Example social media outcomes, goals and objectives

Many digital marketers scramble and fight for attention every day to get their message heard on the social networks. They may fall to spammy tactics such as tweeting 24 hours a day with automated tweets, automated direct messages, blasting Facebook business pages with too many updates, constant cat photos and word puzzles. They often dilute their brand with these silly tactics when they could be increasing brand equity and building a thriving community who is on the edge of their seat waiting for every word they say. 

There is also another group of smart digital marketers who know the value of an email list. They create epic and compelling content offers that inspire, educate, delight and help their ideal customer and audience solve their greatest problems. They earn their trust and email address. They are then able to more easily nurture relationships with a captured audience who WANTS to hear from them. 

Unfortunately many business leaders and even smart marketers don't understand the value of email marketing. They don't know how to integrate email marketing into their programs and business. They don't know how to grow an email list and write off email marketing all together. 

Did you know that 88% of B2B marketers cite email marketing as their most effective lead generation tactic? 

If you are not using email marketing to inspire, connect, delight, entertain and serve your audience you are truly missing out on opportunities to grow your brand and business. 

Take a listen to the 141st episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to learn 10 tips to grow build and nurture your email list. These are the exact same tactics we have used to grow our list from 12,000 to over 50,000 people over the past 18 months! 

Be sure to subscribe to the entire series on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

In this 30 minute podcast you will learn: 

• Why digital marketers can not ignore email marketing 
• 10 Ways to grow your list by 400% 
• Important foundational elements to implementing email marketing 
• How to choose an email marketing service provider 
• How to integrate email marketing with your other marketing tactics 
• How to integrate social media to grow your email list 
• How to leverage the new call to action button on Facebook to grow your list 
• How to organically attract your ideal customer with relevant, contextual content
• Importance of managing the entire conversion funnel, end to end 
• Importance of end to end user experience 

Business leaders and digital marketers all over the world are struggling every day with how to stay up to date on the latest trends, technology, social networks, methodologies and more. 

Even with the large number of people we see of embracing change and having a genuine desire to "be the change" as change agents, there is very little real change happening in regard to mindset. There is very little that most people are doing to truly help people take action and move their business and life forward. Instead people are getting stuck on social media buzz from their own community and wind up in a dangerous swirling, whirling echo chamber. 

It's easy to get stuck in a box. Does any of the below sound familiar? 

• You don't know where to start so you gravitate to things you feel comfortable with such as shiny objects or deep analytical data. 
• You avoid public conversations on the social networks as you are afraid of saying the wrong thing.
• You are a lurker more than an active contributor.  
• You want to embrace change but feel stuck. 
• You worry too much about what others think of you. 
• The arguments over semantics drive you nuts. 
• You are part of the arguments and complaining over semantics. 
• You have lots of social media buzz but very little social media bucks. 
• You spend far too much time online for the business results you are achieving? 

The truth is there is far too much talk and not enough action being taken in the world of digital marketing, social media and online marketing. 

Answer this...

• Does it really matter if we use the term social media expert, guru, or professional?
• Do your customers and prospective customers really give a rip about half the things the masses argue about online all day via Facebook, Twitter chats and more?
• Does it matter if you get thousands of hearts on Periscope, or on every leader board on the planet? Is it really moving your business forward? 
• Why do you have the customers you have? How can you earn and retain more of them? Shouldn't you focus there? 
• Why are there so many events becoming a real life "echo chamber" that the only people speaking are the sponsors and same people speaking everywhere? 
• Do you need to get out of your own box and help move the industry forward? 
• Are you ready to truly embrace change and start helping the industry move forward? 
• How are you going to get out of your box? 

It is my belief many are living and embracing the echo chamber. It's time we get out of the box. It's time to quit arguing about semantics. It's time for the masses to start delivering value, real value. 

Take a listen to the 140th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast for some real talk on how we can get out of our box and move the industry forward. 

Be sure to subscribe to the entire series on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

In this 15 minute podcast you will learn: 

• Why it's time the social ecosystem gets out of the echo chamber and embraces change
• Why people must stop arguing about semantics such as "social media guru" 
• Why you must stand on the foundation of your morals and value you offer your customers and community 
• Importance of unplugging and getting out of your own box and way 
• Tips to get out of your box and out of your own way, starting today 
• The importance of self reflection and mindset 
• Why you should take a look at your 2015 goals and assess how you are tracking toward progress 

Many brand and digital marketers are poorly confusing influencer marketing with earned media. Some of these marketers may be making innocent mistakes. However, some very well know the difference but are pretending that they don't. As a result they are negatively impacting their brand perception and damaging relationships with the people who they claim they want to embrace and invite closer to their brand. 

Yes, this is the elephant in the room for many brand marketers and the influencers, thought leaders and people who they are reaching out to begging for tweets, likes, free blog posts or even days spent at an event on behalf of the brand with zero compensation. The brands make themselves foolishly believe they don't need to compensate the influencer for their time since they are bucketing the engagement into "earned media." 

Let me put this very simply for you. If you are paying for travel, accommodations, fancy dinners and entertainment it is not earned media. 

Earned media is media that you earn. It's not media that you pay for. It's not dependable. It's not something you can wine and dine an influencer for and expect to get measurable results. 

Learning how to integrate earned, paid and owned media is key to success for digital marketers. 

Check out the 139th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast for some real talk on why brands must quit confusing earned media with influencer marketing now. I share with you a story of how one of the largest car manufacturers in the world reach out to me asking for 5 days of my time at an event without any compensation and claiming they couldn't compensate for time as it fell into the category of "earned media." Seriously people, let's get real on this topic. It's time we make the leaders in this industry accountable. They need to walk the walk,not just talk the talk. 

This episode is part of a new “in a nutshell" mini-series of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to do a deep dive on the 3 types of media you must understand if you want to be successful in the online world and with digital marketing. I provided a quick overview of paid, earned and owned media in episode 138 of the Social Zoom Factor podcast. 

Remember the days of simple media and mass communication? The days marketers would simply buy an ad, tv commercial slot, throw out some direct mail, a few magazine ads, radio spots, measure the response and get on w/ their day job of herding cats, taming elephants and locking up the crazy monkeys in-house begging them for everything under the sun ;) Joking but you get the point. 

Media is not simple anymore, not that it ever was, but now it’s even more complex. It’s not just the explosion of social media, but the fact that according to a Nielsen study that confirmed the most trusted source of info in all countries surveyed world wide is earned media, also described as what use to be known as word of mouth. The issue is that many are confusing earned media with paid media and owned media. They are blurring them all together and as a results wasting millions of dollars, ticking off their audiences, ruining relationships with thought leaders and influencers and the list goes on. 

Today we are kicking off a new “in a nutshell: mini-series on the 3 types of media you must understand if you want to be successful in the online world and with digital marketing - paid media, owned media and the favorite earned media. 

This mini series is part of a larger “you are the media” and “influencer marketing” series.

In today's episode we will cover in detail the definition of paid, earned and owned media. 

Twitter can be very overwhelming to even the smartest and most social savvy business leaders. Many people find it frustrating to sort through the chatter and noise to get to the people, content and conversations that matter to your business and life.

Twitter lists are a great way to organize the people you follow and also help you organize conversations to get a grip on the clutter and noise so that you can truly leverage Twitter to rock your business and brand.

Twitter lists enables you to organize people you like to follow so that you can better read, engage and even curate content you want to share with your following. Lists can help you keep track of potential clients, clients, partners and even competitors.

Take a listen to the 137th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast for 15 business use cases to maximize your use of Twitter by utilizing Twitter lists. They are 15 use cases you can begin implementing today!

My blog and our agency site is loaded with information to help you with all aspects of social media, marketing and business. I encourage you to first listen to the podcast and then download our free resources listed at the bottom of this blog post including the Twitter Persona Worksheet.

In this 15 minute podcast you will learn: 

• Why you should use Twitter lists
• Overview of Twitter lists
• 15 business use cases for using Twitter lists
• How to use Twitter lists to organize the people you follow
• How to use Twitter lists to highlight your team
• How to use Twitter lists to organize industry and niche content
• How to maximize micro-communities with Twitter lists
• How to maximize events with Twitter lists
• How to learn what your audience thinks of you by analyzing what lists your followers put you on

If you haven't heard about the latest live video streaming apps on the market, Periscope and Meerkat, you must have been hiding under a rock. Periscope won the hearts of the social community and hit 1 million users in only 10 days!

Periscope and Meerkat are grabbing attention of everyone from celebrities to geeks, pastors, journalists, marketers, moms, dads, teens and more. Meerkat stole the spotlight at the SXSW event in Austin Texas in April. Twitter quickly announced the launch of their recently acquired mobile live streaming app, Periscope. Twitter then immediately shut down the API for Meerkat putting a damper in the quick growth Meerkat was experiencing.

Live streaming is not new. However, the ability to so simply live stream directly from the palm of your hand via a mobile device is what these two new apps have to offer that is unique.

With these two apps you have the ability to potentially launch your own TV channel from your mobile device. Crazy opportunities are in front of us if you really think about the ways we can use this technology.

It's not news how addicted TV and online video viewers are to reality TV. Now you can host your online daily reality show straight from you car, bedroom, front porch, or local coffee shop!

The biggest question marketing and business leaders have in regard to using these two new live streaming apps is how can they use them for business?

Take a listen to the 136th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast for 10 use cases for how you can use Periscope and Meerkat for your business starting immediately! Also included is a succinct overview of these two exciting platforms!

Be sure to subscribe to the entire series on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

In this 25 minute podcast you will learn: 

• Overview of Periscope and Meerkat
• What is live video streaming
• 10 use cases for how you can use Periscope, Meerkat and any live video streaming application
• Key differences between Periscope and Meerkat
• How to crawl, walk run when tapping into the power of these new applications
• How to give your audience a real-time, front seat view even if they are not at your event live
• How to offer up close and personal interviews with your executives, clients and partners 
• How to share events, product demos, product launches and more to build community via live streaming
• How to conduct market research using live video streaming 
• How to give a behind the scenes and exclusive access to your live video streaming audience
• Where to focus your efforts for greatest results
• Live streaming behaviors to avoid

Supporting Resources:

• 10 Tips to Stomp Random Acts of Marketing (RAMs) - White Paper
• Social Media Authenticity vs Transparency (episode 16)
• 22 Tips to Get Twitter Conversation Started Like a Boss (episode 128)
• 15 Tips to Zoom Your Brand (white paper)
• Audience Analysis Worksheet
•  Steps to Develop a Social Business Plan (white paper)

Failing to plan is planning to fail. When it comes to anything in life or business, you get what you put into it.

Although many smart marketers and business leaders know what they need to do to achieve real business results when it comes to marketing and integrating social media into their business, the truth is far too many are still searching for the easy button.

Unfortunately too many marketers are simply being lazy.

They are too busy self promoting themselves, chasing shiny objects, bashing their competition and focusing on problems versus solutions.  As a result they have no time put time and effort into the right things that could bring the highest return for their efforts.

Check out the 135th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to hear the top 10 stupid marketing tactics you must stop today!

In this 25 minute podcast you will learn: 

• 10 stupid marketing tactics you must stop immediately
• Why failing to plan is planning to fail
• Why you must set goals, objectives and KPIs early on in project planning process
• Why you must define what success looks like and be able to measure it
• Why you must put effort in solving problems versus worrying about problems
• The importance of integrated marketing versus silo'd marketing
• Walking the walk, not just talking the talk
• The importance of prioritization and alignment to business results to ensure you are not wasting precious time
• Taking time to slow down to speed up

Many marketing and business leaders hop online to the social networks and struggle with getting attention or achieving their goals and objectives. When this happens, often times without even realizing it, their mindset starts to shift to negativity. 

Though they may want to feel positive, they let emotions take them over. They may be frustrated with people in their communities, their own team and leadership and even clients. They may be jealous of competitors or others in their field. They wind up comparing their chapter 1 to everyone else's chapter 20. Instead of looking over the fence they should be focused on their own business and life! Because they let negativity enter their mind, they let negativity enter their life and business. 

We attract what we are and what we put out into the world. When we let our mindset and thoughts shift from positive to negative it is eventually going to be the negativity that people see, feel and hear from us.

When it comes to online marketing and communication via the social networks, live video streaming, photo sharing and even texting, we are limited to 140 characters or short bursts of information. One negative tweet can change the perception of a potential client who was thinking of contacting you or your business to conduct business.

Mindset is key to success in both business and life. The power of positivity is incredible. If you feel as though you have fallen off the positivity wagon recently, take a listen to the 134th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast for some inspiration to focus on your mindset and assess if maybe you are the reason so many people feel negative around you? 

The 134nd episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast provides a quick 10 minute dose of inspiration to help you embrace the power of positivity in your life today! 

Be sure to subscribe to the entire series on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

In this 20 minute podcast you will learn: 

• How your mindset may be impacting your online and offline relationships
• What to do if you know negativity is impacting you, your brand, and your communities online 
• Why we are what we tweet and post to the social networks 
• Why you may be finding yourself in many negative conversations online 
• Why you must take time off to recharge and reinvigorate your mind and brand 

Do you ever feel like you are running up against brick wall, obstacle after obstacle when it comes to trying to get people on board with your social media, digital marketing or social business plan?

Do you feel as if nobody around you "gets it?" Or that the people around you might be just stupid or clueless?

Smart, social savvy marketers who at the heart are innovators and change makers often feel a deep sense of frustration when trying to get their management, board members, direct team, partners and clients on board with where they want to take them in adoption of new media, technology and improved processes. These marketers know that there is benefit in tapping into the power of this new ecosystem of the constantly connected customer and 24/7 online environment has to offer. However, getting buy-in across their organization and even with outside clients and partners is  more than challenging.

There is a solution. Change agents don't just dictate change. They must embrace the reasons people want or don't want to change. They must facilitate discussions, educate, earn respect and obtain buy-in, even from some of the least supportive team members and executive managers.

Change agents do not ignite transformational change by preaching, yelling & banging tables. They don't inspire their management to adopt new media by yelling about it on Periscope or a Google Hangout. Instead they must understand the people. They must understand where they are, why they are where they are and how they can emotionally motivate them to move the needle in the right direction.

As a first step as this relates to the adoption of new media and technology it is important for marketers and change agents to understand where their team, management, customers and partners are in regard to the adoption of technology. Are they innovators and technology enthusiasts who will willingly embrace new technology and ways of doing business? Or are they more conservative or even skeptics?

If you walk into an office of a skeptic trying to sell him or her on the why he or she needs to approve your latest plan and budget because you will be first to market, and will be breaking new ground in your industry, you are likely to get kicked out to the curb. This may work with a tech enthusiast and early adopter, but not the laggards and skeptics.

Take a listen to the 133rd episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast for a quick yet informative dive into the Geoffrey Moore Technology Adoption Lifecycle. We explore why you need to make this model your best friend to help you win the hearts, minds and support of the people you need to get on board with your plan and strategies! This is a must do for any marketer or business leader working in technology today.

Be sure to subscribe to the entire series on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

In this 25 minute podcast you will learn: 

• Overview of the Geoffrey Moore Technology Adoption Lifecycle
• History of the Technology Adoption Lifecycle and how it started in the farming industry, 1957
• Why smart marketers must understand the technology adoption lifecycle
• The importance of taking time to understand where people are in adoption of technology and why
• How to best communicate with innovators, tech enthusiasts, pragmatists, laggards, skeptics and everything in between

Does the thought of jumping on a new live streaming app such as Periscope or Meerkat, or other social media network give you major anxiety? Does it excite you yet at the same time make you want to bury your head in a pillow for the next 30 days?

Many marketers want to embrace the new media of today. They want to lead. They want to take risks. However, they also fear they will fail. They fear they will make mistakes. So they avoid anything new when it comes to marketing and social media. Or they are the laggards, the last to adopt new technologies and processes that could improve their business and life.

Does this sound familiar? 

• You want to learn to better maximize your time on the social networks but don't know how.
• You want to try out the latest social network but are fearful of making a fool of yourself.
• You don't want to hurt your brand by making a silly mistake.
• You don't know where to start.
• You don't feel comfortable with the format such as video, audio, but would like to try and learn.
• You want to do more but fear is holding you back.

If this is you, you are in luck today. The 132nd episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast provides you 10 Tips to help you knock your fear of adopting social media or any new communication medium to the curb.

Use these 10 tips to gain confidence, develop a plan for learning and know how to prioritize your time spent learning and engaging.

Be sure to subscribe to the entire series on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

In this 25 minute podcast you will learn: 

• 10 ways to stomp fear of social media to the curb
• Why you should consider setting up test accounts
• The importance of social listening as a first step to learning a new social network
• Why knowing your audience is key to success
• How to prioritize your time spent learning new social networks

Supporting Resources:

• Digital Marketers Must Learn to Lead and Say No! (episode 114)
• Your Product Is Marketing Adobe Summit Recap (episode 107)
• How to Get Your Social Marketing Budget Approved (episode 3)
• 10 Google Analytics to Zoom Your Social Media, Blog and Business (episode 106)
• You Are the Media: 10 Reasons You Need a Blog (episode 111)
• 15 Tips to Zoom Your Brand (white paper)
• Audience Analysis Worksheet
•  Steps to Develop a Social Business Plan (white paper)

Creating content that people want to share with their communities, audiences, friends and colleagues is the icing on the social media and online marketing cake. 

When people share your content with their communities you are able to tap into the power of the OPC (other people's content and community). You can exponentially increase the reach of your content within seconds when it is shared. Social media amplifies this like we have never seen with any other communication medium or platform. 

Unfortunately even many smart and social savvy marketers have no clue how to truly produce content that is shareable. It's not just about having the right share buttons on your blog or website or begging people to retweet. it comes down to trust, value, context and relevancy. 

Many marketers are spending loads of time creating content but find that their content is still not being shared? Many new clients come to us with these problems and can't understand why their content is still sitting on or within a silo that nobody knows about but them. 

The truth is there may very well be solid reasons that your content is not being shared. Ask yourselves these questions... 

• Do people trust you and your brand? 
• Are you selling too hard versus focusing on establishing relationships? 
• Are you providing real value? 
• Does your content help people solve real problems? 
• Does your content have a purpose other than to sell more of your products or services? 
• Is your content easily understood by your readers, listeners or viewers? 

Take a listen to the 131st episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to learn 10 tips to create content that is share worthy!  Be sure to subscribe to the entire series on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

In this 25 minute podcast you will learn: 

• The power of creating share worthy content 
• How to create content that people trust 
• How to create content that people want to not only share but shout about from a mountain top 
• Why it's about relevancy, value and context 
• How to create content that inspires your audience to take action 
• Why accuracy of your content matters 
• Why you absolutely must know your audience 

Supporting Resources:

• 10 Ways to Activate Your Audience (episode 124)
• 10 Ways to Monetize Your Blog & Digital Platform (episode 116)
• You Are the Media: 10 Reasons You Need a Blog (episode 111)
• Is Your Content Worth of a Share? (blog post)
• Audience Analysis Worksheet

Build it and they will come never worked. Many marketers and business leaders waste loads of time and money on creating stand alone silos of content without ever having a strategy for how they are actually going to get eyeballs on it or ears listening.

Creating content is simply the first step. It's the easy part. Everyone including their mom and even some of their dogs are creating content. You can find a video, YouTube channel, podcast, blog, Instagram feed, Snapchat feed on almost any topic you can think of.

The challenge is not in creating the content but instead in getting people to read, listen, watch and engage with your content.

One great way you can break through the noise, grab real attention from your audience and earn their attention is to inspire people to subscribe to your content. Increasing and growing your subscriber base across your email newsletters and updates, RSS feeds, blogs, video channels, podcasts, and social networks will help you nurture relationships, grow community, and even increase brand loyalty!

Would you like to increase the number of subscribers to your content? Would you like to have hundreds or even hundreds of thousands of people sign up to receive updates from you automatically? This means they choose to receive updates from you. They WANT your content.

The 130th episode of the Social Zoom Factor provides 5 easy ways you can increase subscribers to your content.

Does this sound familiar? 

• You have created loads of blog posts but nobody is reading them
• You don't know if anyone is reading your content
• You have a podcast but not sure if anyone is listening to it
• You struggle with getting people to view the videos you have invested in
• You don't know how to build community
• You don't know how to build a loyal base of readers, viewers and listeners

This podcast will help you activate your audience to invest in a relationship with you as well as increase the ROI on your content marketing, digital marketing and social media investment.

Take a listen to the 130th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to learn 10 ways you can activate your audience and online communities to achieve your business goals starting today!   Be sure to subscribe to the entire series on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

In this 25 minute podcast you will learn: 

• 5 Ways to Increase Subscribers
• How to use RSS feeds to nurture relationships
• Using email marketing to grow subscribers and increase ROI across numerous marketing channels
• Leveraging video, podcasting, white papers and useful tips and kits to increase subscribers
• How to introduce your audience to different communication mediums / subscriptions you use via one single method
• How to organically attract your right audience with relevant, contextual content
• The power of earning trust to increase subscribers

Supporting Resources:

• Social Media Agency Zoom Kit
• 10 Ways to Activate Your Audience (episode 124)
• 10 Ways to Monetize Your Blog & Digital Platform (episode 116)
• Digital Marketers Must Learn to Lead and Say No! (episode 114)
• You Are the Media: 10 Reasons You Need a Blog (episode 111)
• Audience Analysis Worksheet
•  Steps to Develop a Social Business Plan (white paper)

Sometimes in life the moments that create the most success are the ones that may feel a bit rough around the edges as they are happening. The key to success is standing back up even when you get knocked down flat on your face. 

There are many business and marketing leaders who may tout they are change agents. They claim they lead their organization to embrace change and empower change agents with a goal of better serving their customers and broader community. They want higher efficiencies, margins, and to lead the way in innovation and working smarter, not just harder. 

Unfortunately when you pull back the covers on some of these so called change agents, they are really not doing anything innovative at all. They spend more time following, copying and bashing others in their industry vs really innovating. In reality they are falling to status quo. They fall to 

Following status quo is a huge risk for any organization or business leader. Though it may feel safe for a short time, you can easily lose your competitive differentiator. You may never get to where you need to go mostly because you are stuck in status quo and following others. 

In this 129th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast I share a personal story explaining a big event that happened early in my career. I got myself fired from an organization almost fresh out of college. 

I was fired over an Apple computer. Yes, an Apple computer. 

Had I not gotten fired, or refused to accept status quo I would not be where I am today, period. 

If you have hit a wall of fear lately in stomping status quo, I encourage you to take a listen to this podcast for a serious dose of inspiration. I explain in detail why and how I got fired and why it was a very positive career and life changing event for me personally. 

I truly believe your business and life need to be free of status quo if you want to live a life zoomed with success and happiness. 

What do you believe? Do you believe in status quo? Or do you believe in real change for the right reasons? 

You hear your colleagues, boss, friends and even teens rave about how crazy amazing Twitter and other social networks are. They brag about how many people they have met, relationships nurtured and rocked. The are excited about new partnerships, friendships and opportunities that all started with a simple 140 character tweet.

You smile as they share the excitement with you. You nod your head in agreement. However, the truth is you are questioning the validity of their statements. If what they say is true you wonder why you have such a hard time even getting a conversation on Twitter started.

Does this sound familiar? 

• Do you struggle with what to tweet about? 
• Don't know if you should share what you ate for lunch or not? 
• Wonder if you should share the kids Saturday morning soccer game on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or all of the above? 
• Don't know where to start when it comes to getting a conversation started on Twitter or any social network for that matter? 
• Does Twitter intimidate you more than any other social network? 
• Does Twitter seem like a bunch of crazy noise to you? 
• Do you feel that everyone understands this crazy 140 character language except for you? 

Social media is one big fat relationship and conversation. Learning how to be a relevant, contributing, inspiring part of the conversation is key to seeing real business and personal results using Twitter. 

Take a listen to the 128th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast for 22 Tips to help you get the conversation started on Twitter! My blog and our agency site is loaded with information to help you with all aspects of social media. I encourage you to first listen to the podcast and then download our free resources listed at the bottom of this blog post including the Twitter Persona Worksheet.

In this 30 minute podcast you will learn: 

• How to get the Twitter conversation started
• How to develop your Twitter persona
• Importance of content that is relevant, contextual and helpful 
• How to properly setup your Twitter profile
• The importance of understanding the needs of your audience 
• Using Twitter lists to filter the noise 
• Installing Sprout Social or Hootsuite on your mobile device  
• Embracing imperfect perfection 
• The power of the OPC - other people's content and community 
• Integrating Twitter with other social networks 
• Quality over quantity in everything you do 
• Power of Twitter chats 
• Why you should never buy fake Twitter followers 
• How to keep your Twitter content fresh and relevant 
• How to learn about your audience with social listening and Twitter lists

When Monday morning comes do you wish you could crawl back in bed, cover up your head and come back to the real world on Tuesday or Wednesday? 

Monday is going to come and go regardless if you crawl back in bed or take it on like a champion. 

Each of us has the same 24 hours in a day. Success is determined in how we use the 24 hours. 

Answer these questions... 

• Are you owning your Monday? Or are you letting your Monday own you?
• Are you letting negative people impact your positive mood on Monday? 
• Are you letting email control and take over your day and week? 
• Do you have a "not to do" list? 
• Are you in the right mindset to start your Monday?
• Are you taking time on the weekend or working 24/7?
• Are you prioritizing the most important projects, people and meetings as the top priority? 
• Are you owning your mindset, mood and results? 
• Are you making up excuses? 

Take a listen to the 127th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast for 10 tips to help you rock business and life results on Monday! No more excuses. 

In this 20 minute podcast you will learn

• 10 ways to rock your Monday business and life results 
• How to prioritize the projects, people and meetings that matter
• How to increase productivity Monday morning starting Sunday night 
• How to minimize stress Monday morning 
• Why you need a "not to do" list 
• Getting in the right mindset 
• Why you must get rid of the negativity 

Triberr is a platform that brings together smart,  savvy and talented bloggers, podcast and content producers of all kinds. It’s a mini social network that helps content creators amplify their content, find new bloggers and build community. 

Using Triberr effectively is both art and science. There are some who use Triberr for self serving reasons and/or are using it to blast noise to an already crowded, noisy online world. However, there are even more people who are using it to find great content, provide their audience with valuable content, learning the perspective of others, establish trust and credibility and the list goes on. 

We have had great success in using Triberr for the past few years to successfully grow our online brand, establish trust with our audiences, consistently provide value to our readers and listeners and most importantly grow our business. 

Take a listen to the 126th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to learn exactly how I use Triberr. I also share the fun story of how I got started with Triberr and my first conversation with the founder, Dino Dogan that changed my perspective toward sharing other people’s content in big ways! 

In this 15 minute podcast you will learn 

• Why I love using Triberr
• How I got started with Triberr 
• How to use Triberr to establish trust and authority 
• How to use Triberr to grow your brand awareness and audience 
• The importance of opening your mind to other perspectives 
• Why creating epic content that inspires, educates and informs your audience is key to success with Triberr and business in general 
• How I choose what content I share via Triberr 
• Why I don’t believe in simply sharing content via Triberr for the only reason to get shares of your content 
• How Triberr can provide your audience with amazing, fresh content with varied perspectives
• Why you must care about the quality of content you share from others 

There is obviously not a shortage of content, conversations and brands begging for your attention.

Brands and the smart marketers within them are quickly learning that they are media. It’s easy for brands to hop on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter to start blasting noise.

The opportunity that every human being and brand can truly be the media is incredible for marketers who respect the media.

However, unfortunately many marketers take the lazy way out and are thinking it is their purpose in life and business to fill a media blank space that doesn’t exist.

They for some reason think that if they are not blasting their brand message from a megaphone that people will not hear them. When in reality if they shut their yapper long enough to listen, engage and provide value they could be spending far less time on the social networks and providing much higher value.

It’s not about being the noisiest one in the room. It’s about being the brand, the guy, the gal, who can provide the absolute most value. It’s about being hunan. It’s about connecting as real people and establishing trust.

Don’t be the noise. Be the value.

In this 125th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast I provide a quick 5 minute dose of tough love for why marketers must stop filling space. There is no space to fill in this crowded, noisy online, connected world we live in. It’s a myth that marketers have created for themselves believing they need to create more noise to justify their job, be heard or whatever the excuse may be. Choose to rise above. Choose to not follow status quo. Choose to stand out from the crowd by putting down the megaphone and listening more than you talk.

We are living in exciting times with the advancements in technology, big data and analysis, communication mediums, social media marketing, social networking and the power at our fingertips to bring human beings and communities together. 

Smart marketers of today have incredible opportunity to increase brand awareness, build community, establish trust and activate their audience to actions that will bring fans, customers and partners closer to them and their brand while at the same time helping both the audience members and brand achieve their goals. 

Unfortunately too many marketers are lazy. They invest in social media platforms but don’t do much more than slap some fancy marketing branding lipstick on a Facebook business page, Twitter profile or Instagram account. Then after months of wasted time they wonder why they have little to no real measurable business result. 

If you want to see success in online marketing you must activate your audience to help them achieve their goals. When you inspire your audience to connect with you with a goal of helping them achieve their goals, you by default achieve your goals when you are successful. Inspire, connect, achieve. 

One of the top questions I receive from clients, colleagues and members of our training seminars is “how do I activate my audience?” 

Take a listen to the 124th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast 10 ways you can activate your audience today! I provide you some solid examples and recommendations for how you can activate your audience with content, value and community building. 

There is no need to over complicate activating your audience. You can start with baby steps. The mission of everything our agency, Marketing Nutz does in business is to put these types of things in a nutshell for you so that you can activate your audience, grow your brand and business without having to spend the next five years researching and figuring out these details. This podcast will help you activate your audience and better tap into the power of social media and online marketing this week! 

In this 25 minute podcast you will learn: 

• 10 ways you can activate your audience today 
• Why you must plan your conversion funnel, hope is not a strategy 
• Why call to actions must be relevant and valuable 
• How to activate your audience to nurture relationships and build community 
• How to leverage live streaming via apps such as Periscope and Meerkat to activate your audience 
• Tapping into the power of Twitter chats to grow community and provide value to your community 
• Leveraging Google Hangouts to grow your business 
• How to tap into the power of email marketing 
• Leveraging audio communication such as podcasting 
• Why you need an RSS subscription option on your blog /website 
• How to use content marketing assets to activate your audience 
• Why earning trust and establishing credibility must be a top priority to activate audience 
• How giving your audience an insider, exclusive view can activate your audience
• Tapping into the power of the OPC - Other People’s Content & Community 

The power of human connection, relationships, content, context, relevancy is multiplied exponentially when you bring people together in community for a common goal.

Communities are the foundation of social media. Communities are where conversations happen, relationships are nurtured and people connect on topics that matter to them.

The truth is that people don't just buy things, they join things. Of course we buy products. We buy everything from burgers, furniture, to iPhones and houses. Yet if you look at some of the most powerful brands on earth they are also connected via community. The fans of the community share their love for the brand and product via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and the list goes on. Or they may not ever share their love for that awesome burger they just devoured at all via a tweet or post of any kind. Instead they may simply show their love for the brand by simply buying the product and being a loyal, paying customer or evangelist.

People want to be part of something bigger than themselves. It's in our DNA as human beings to want to connect with other human beings.

For business and brands this foundational need creates tremendous opportunity for brands and the humans within them to provide some of the human glue and connective tissue that connects humans to one another. We can do this quite simply when we know what needs to be done.

Many marketing and business leaders struggle with how to not both start a community and struggle even more with figuring out how to take it to the next level and bring true value to both the community members and the business or brand leading the community.

In this 20 minute podcast I will answer these questions: 

• How do you determine the purpose of your community?
• How do you start a new community?
• How do you build the proper foundation for community growth and health?
• How do you select the right social networks and tools to help the community grow?
• How do you manage the organic growth and needs of the community?
• How do you keep the community fresh, vibrant and alive?
• How do you empower leaders within the community?
• How do you utilize data such as Google Analytics, Facebook Insights to grow community and provide the highest value possible.

Attention is the most scarce resource for digital marketing leaders in businesses of all sizes. The world is filled with media. Everywhere we turn, look, see and hear there is a brand or person trying to grab our attention.

Even smart, social, savvy digital and social marketers are finding it difficult to stay front of mind for their customers, audience and community.

Are these some of the questions keeping you up at night?

• How do you break through the clutter?
• How do you stand above the noise?
• How do you earn the ear, eyeballs and mind of your ideal customer?
• How do you get more people to listen to you?

The most important question you should be asking is WHY.  Have you ever considered that maybe you are asking the wrong questions?

Instead, try these questions on for size:

• How do you provide the highest value possible?
• Why should anyone read your blog, watch your video or listen to your podcast?
• Why should anyone care your brand exists?
• What are you offering that is unique that 100 other people just like you aren't already offering?

It is time to put down the megaphone and serve. It's time to stop babbling all day about yourself, your brand, your lunch, and you, you, you. It's time you shut your yapper and listen. It's time to serve. It's time to show up big time, but for the right reasons.

Take a listen to the 122nd episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to learn 5 easy ways how you can put down the megaphone for good and provide the highest value possible to everyone who comes in contact with your brand online.  

In this 20 minute podcast you will learn: 

• 5 easy ways to trade in the loud megaphone for service to your audience and customers
• The reason WHY is the most important question you should be asking
• Starting with 3 simple ways to provide value to your audience by identifying 3 ways you can help them solve their problems
• Why you must listen to your audience and community more than you talk
• How to know if you have a content problem or the challenge of not knowing your audience

If you haven't heard about influence marketing you have likely been either on a long vacation on a beautiful island with zero internet connectivity or you have been hiding under a rock. 

Influence marketing is helping brands big and small ignite their online and offline communities, increase brand awareness and nurture powerful relationships when done right. 

As with anything in marketing, business or life, there are some marketers doing it right and there are others who are burning more bridges than the ones they are trying to build. Many are doing it without really knowing they are damaging relationships. 

I developed episode 121 of the Social Zoom Factor podcast with a goal to help marketers brand new to influence marketing as well as seasoned veterans get the most out of their influence marketing programs. 

The goal of today's podcast is to save you some heartache, wasted time and help you save your reputation along the way as you build, launch and execute your influencer marketing program. 

I share with you tips in this podcast from my experience in working with brands of all sizes from startups to Fortune 100 brands helping them develop and execute influence marketing programs as well as from being an influencer myself.

In this 30 Minute Episode You Will Learn: 

• How many brands are confusing spam with influence marketing
• choosing wrong influencers
• How to choose the right influencers and avoid choosing the wrong influencers
• The importance of the influencer being able to drive real action
• Why trust matters with influencers
• Building your team to succeed with influence marketing
• Importance of doing your research on influencers before reaching out to them
• How to create value for the influencer as a top priority
• Importance of connecting influencer with other people at your in person events
• How to decide if you should compensate influencers for their time

Do you ever feel as though you hit a wall when it comes to creating epic content to rock your business, audience and content marketing goals and objectives? Are you running out of good ideas for content topics? Ever feel like simply giving up and throwing in the content marketing towel? 

Don't give up! You have already invested in your online brand, blog, website, and content marketing. What you need is a simple refresh to revive and reinvigorate your content marketing. 

Take a listen to episode 120 of the Social Zoom Factor podcast for 5 top ways you can easily refresh and revive your content marketing starting today! 

This episode is part of a new series "You are the Media." In this series we are diving deep into how to build an integrated online digital and social platform that works when you aren't working. A platform that helps you achieve your business goals. We'll be diving into digital frameworks, content calendars and plans, strategic and tactical options for social media, personal branding, business branding, measurement and more.

Free webinars: We are also launching a series of webinars and training opportunities to dig even deeper. Sign up here-> You are the Media - Building Your Media Foundation

In this 25 minute podcast you will learn: 

• How to do an inventory of the content you already have
• How to maximize every piece of content you have already created
• Shifting the focus of your content topics from you and your business to your audience
• Creating evergreen content that Google will love
• Turning one piece of content into an evergreen, content machine
• Tapping into the power of Google Analytics to better understand your audience and create epic content for them

Do you have questions related to social media, digital marketing, blogging, content marketing, strategy, entrepreneurship, startups, or branding? Questions keeping you up at night? 

Do you also like learning from others? Do you like hearing the questions and answers that many in your niche may have? 

If this is you then you are in for a treat today as this is the first Social Zoom Factor podcast episode that we are incorporating questions from the audience. 

Episode 119 questions and answers will cover the following: 

• Using social media to test a product and do market research before launch 
• Where to focus for a new online business? Thought leaders and influencers, ideal customers or both? 
• How to price social media services
• Where I get my inspiration 

Have a question? Submit your question via voice mail right here on this site and I will play it live on the podcast and answer question for you! All instructions are here-> Ask Pam a Question 

Have you invested heavily in an integrated social and digital platform, content, a blog, website or all of the above? Have you defined your audience, goals, objectives and a plan to reach them? 

Do you feel as though you have done everything right, yet your content is still not igniting your business or your audience like you know it could and should be doing? 

If this is you, then you are going to love this episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast as as we interview Mark Schaefer, the author of the newly published book,  Content Code: Six Essential Strategies for Igniting Your Content, Your Marketing and Your Business. 

In this episode Mark explains why people share content, who they share content with and how you can increase the sharing of your content by earning trust and connecting emotionally with your alpha audiences. 

Mark Schaefer is a globally recognized thought leader, international speaker, consultant and owner of the award winning blog, Grow. Mark is also the author of The Tao of Twitter, and Social Media Explained. 

In this podcast you will learn: 

• Why focusing on blog traffic alone creates nothing more than tourists
• Why creating content is not enough to drive real results by itself
• How to maximize investment in your content marketing by increasing sharing 
• The power of little data over big data
• How to make it easy for your fans to share your content 
• How do you create content that connects with your audience in an emotional why 
• Understanding WHY people share content 
• The importance of understanding and earning trust with your alpha audience 
• Why people share content for intrinsic and emotional reasons 
• Brands share content for economic reasons and are missing opportunities to connect with their audiences 
• The difference between economic value and intrinsic reasons for sharing content 

Unless you have been living under a rock, or on an island all by yourself, you have likely heard of "Mobilegeddon" or in kinder terms, the Google Mobile Friendly update.

On April 21, 2015 Google officially released quite a significant new mobile-friendly algorithm. The new algorithm is designed to give a boost to mobile-friendly web pages in Google's mobile search results.

This is very good news for those of us who have invested in ensuring our sites are mobile friendly!

If you are one of the people who has been living under a rock and/or ignored Google's announcement informing the world this was coming back in December 2014 then this is likely not good news for you.

Don't freak out on me. In this 15 minute episode of of the Social Zoom Factor podcast I am put this new update in a nutshell for you. I provide you with the most important information you need to know as well as what you can do to ensure your site is in good graces with Google and it's new mobile search ranking criteria.

In this 13 minute podcast you will learn: 

• Google Mobile-Friendly Update Overview (what you need to know and why)
• Answers to some of your most frequently asked questions regarding the new Google mobile update
• How to check if your site is mobile friendly according to Google
• What to do to ensure you are in good graces with Google's new mobile search ranking algorithm
• Common mistakes to avoid
• Best practices for mobile sites

Recommended Resources mentioned: 

• Check if your site is mobile-friendly according to Google's new algorithm
• Google Developer tools for making your website compliant with mobile friendly guidelines
• Google Identified Top Mistakes for Mobile Websites 
• Google Showcase of multi-screen success stories 
• Genesis Studiopress Wordpress Framework (mobile responsive framework and themes)
• Google Analytics

Resources mentioned: 

• Mobile Marketing: Stop Ignoring the Modern, Connected Social Savvy Customer (episode 40)
• 15 Steps to Build a Mobile Marketing Plan that Rocks Results (episode 41)
• Mobile Marketing: 5 Tools to Optimize Conversions (episode 42)
• 10 Google Analytics Metrics to Zoom Your Blog, Social Media and Content Marketing (episode 106)
• Do You Really Know Your Audience? (episode 4)
• Audience Analysis Worksheet  (worksheet)
• Why Your Blog Sucks and How To Fix it (episode 9)

Have you ever tried to get somewhere in a car, on a bike or on foot and you find yourself constantly running run into roadblocks and detours? Chances are the roadblocks and detours made you feel quite frustrated. This is because there are barriers stopping you from getting to your destination of choice. 

Many brands are doing this same thing to their customers, audience and community today. Brands who are not using social media are putting up virtual language barriers stopping their most precious customers and audience from communicating with them. 

If you are a business owner or business professional would you ignore your customer if they called you? What about if they walked through the front door of your business? Would you ignore their actions if they went all around town posting up signs telling people how terrible or great your business is? 

Brands are ignoring their customers who are doing these things today. Their paying customers and fans are communicating with them via Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Blogs, FourSquare, and the list goes on. However, many brands are sticking up their virtual hand and saying "sorry Mr Customer, I am too busy to talk to you the way you want to talk to me." 

Your mission as a brand leader in the world of online and digital marketing is to simply figure out where your customer is hanging out online and be sure you are ready to have the most relevant conversation with them. You need to speak to them where, when and how they want to speak. It's no longer on your terms. 

As much as brands may want to control the message, the truth is they can not. Your brand is the customer experience you deliver. Your brand is your reputation. Your brand is how you treat your customers online, offline and behind closed doors. The truth is these doors are opening and all of these channels are becoming more blended, more transparent. Brands can simply no longer hide behind a barrier and expect to be in business in one, two or three years. 

Take a listen to the 115th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast for a deep dive into this topic and hear case studies about brands that are putting up barriers and brands that are tearing them down and making the decision to be human, own their mistakes and put relationships and long term customer value and loyalty first.

Brands covered include Fitbit, CBS UnderCover Boss Reality Show, Delta Airlines, United Airlines, Gold's Gym, HostGator, and Panera Bread.

Take a listen and be sure to subscribe to the entire series on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

In this 30 minute podcast you will learn: 

• In this 30 minute podcast you will learn: 

  • Explore if you are creating language barriers by ignoring social media channels? 
  • How 8 big brands are utilizing social to open communication doors or create barriers?
  • The importance of communicating with your customers where, when and how they want to communicate with you
  • Why brands can no longer hide
  • The importance of a consistent customer service experience across communication channels such as phone, email, in person and social media 

Supporting Resources:

• 15 Tips to Zoom Your Brand (white paper)
• Band Humanization in a Nutshell (episode 5)
• Brand Humanization: Social Media Authenticity vs Transparency (episode 16)
• Digital Body Language: 105 Factors Impacting Your Personal and Business Brand (white paper)
• Personal Branding in a Nutshell (episode 11)
• 15 Characteristics of Human Brands (episode 55)
• Content Editorial Calendar Template (worksheet / template)
• Content Editorial Calendar Podcast Tutorial (episode 77)
• How to Develop a Content Marketing Framework and Plan (episode 7)
• Free Webinars & Training: You are the Media - Building Your Media Foundation

Many social and digital marketers feel that they are pulled into too many directions. They complain of being too busy. They complain of not having adequate budget allocated to their programs. They may struggle with obtaining buy-in for their program. In addition they feel they are more reactive than they are proactive. Many even struggle with proving their own or team value for their basic existence in the organization.

It is time digital marketers step up and lead. It's time the senior digital marketers own their programs. They need to learn to say no. They need to develop a plan and obtain the resources needed to implement it.

Do these problems sound familiar? 

• You struggle with getting buy-in for your programs
• You lack adequate budget for success
• You are forced into tactics and strategies you don't believe in
• Your are executing Random Acts of Marketing (RAMs)
• You struggle with proving value for yourself and/or your team 
• You wish your executives better understood your goals and objectives 
• Your program is not delivering measurable results 

We'll be diving into digital frameworks, content calendars and plans, strategic and tactical options for social media, personal branding, business branding, measurement and more.

One of the critical and foundational elements for success in business and online marketing is understanding the power of data and analytics to grow your business and ignite relationships with the people that matter most to your business and life.

Take a listen and be sure to subscribe to the entire series on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

Free webinars: We are also launching a series of webinars and training opportunities to dig even deeper. Sign up here-> You are the Media - Building Your Media Foundation

In this 30 minute podcast you will learn: 

• 10 Tips to take lead on your social and digital program 
• Lead without asking for permission 
• How to say no so you can say yes to the right things 
• Designing your dream team 
• Setting short term 3, 6 and 9 month goals for both short term and longer term buy-in 
• How to get your social media budget approved 
• Why you must dig into the data 
• Speaking the same language as your executives and team members and why you may need to invest in training as step one 
• Importance of being accountable for results, with no excuses 

Many digital and social marketers shy away from data and analytics. The foolish marketers may fear it's the dark side of marketing and that they will get drawn into week long meetings discussing menial metrics and data algorithms. This couldn't be further from the truth.

Smart marketers know that data and analytics is the light at the end of the tunnel to build their business. It is data that helps us know our customers, know our audience, understand how we can inspire, connect with and build communities. The focus on data should be to create delightful, meaningful conversations, experiences and relationships that can help sustain both business and life.

This podcast is part of a new series titled "You are the Media!" where we will dive deep into how you can build an integrated online digital and social platform that works when you aren't working. A platform that helps you achieve your business goals. A platform that helps you achieve and live your dreams. A platform that organically help you inspire, attract and connect with your ideal customer and simply amazing people who you want to have by your side.

We'll be diving into digital frameworks, content calendars and plans, strategic and tactical options for social media, personal branding, business branding, measurement and more.

One of the critical and foundational elements for success in business and online marketing is understanding the power of data and analytics to grow your business and ignite relationships with the people that matter most to your business and life.

Free webinars: We are also launching a series of webinars and training opportunities to dig even deeper. Sign up here-> You are the Media - Building Your Media Foundation

Take a listen and be sure to subscribe to the entire series on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

Are you focusing on menial metrics, vanity metrics and things that are really not moving your business and life forward? Or are you staying laser focused on the right things. The tactics, strategies and big ideas, concepts and innovations that can bring real meaning to your business, your life, your customers, your community and anyone that comes in contact with your brand? 

As you end the weekend, start the weekend, start your week or end your week I simply ask you to think about these two words... menial and meaningful. Make sure you are focus on the right things. 

Take a listen to the 112th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to learn more. 

Thanks to digital marketing and social media, one single human being can have as much and often times more impact than a large Fortune 100 brand. Even some of the world's largest brands are turning to individual influencers, bloggers, podcasters, videographers and more to tap into their trust, credibility and community they have fostered.

Online marketing and social media never has been and never should have been focused on number of followers, Klout scores or other vanity metrics. What matters is being able to inspire, connect, and move an audience. What matters is being able to change minds, touch hearts and connect emotionally with the people within your community.

Remove the buzzwords of the crazed digital world and boil it down to what really matters. It has and will always be about human beings. It's about the people. It's about connecting humans with other humans. It's about helping the humans within your communities solve their problems and achieve their goals. It's about connecting humans to be part of something bigger than they can be themselves.

YOU have the opportunity to be the media today and tomorrow. You can build an integrated online digital platform that works even when you are not working.

You can be the media that educates, inspires, connects, serves, and changes the world. It only takes a seed, one single tweet or Facebook post to create life changes for one, hundreds, thousands and even millions of humans.

However, even with this opportunity there comes much work. You must figure out how you can have the greatest impact in a world where the the scarcest resource is attention. Every brand, every blog, every tweet and Facebook page is vying for attention from the same people you want attention from.

I am thrilled to announce a new series of the Social Zoom Factor podcast titled "You are the Media." In this series we will dive deep into how you can build an integrated online digital and social platform that works when you aren't working. A platform that helps you achieve your business goals. A platform that helps you achieve and live your dreams. A platform that organically help you inspire, attract and connect with your ideal customer and simply amazing people who you want to have by your side.

We'll be diving into digital frameworks, content calendars and plans, strategic and tactical options for social media, personal branding, business branding, measurement and more.

To kickoff the series episode 112 covers the top 10 reasons you need a blog. You must have a home base and build your foundation on property you own, versus rented social land from Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Free webinars: We are also launching a series of webinars and training opportunities to dig even deeper. Sign up here-> You are the Media - Building Your Media Foundation

Take a listen and be sure to subscribe to the entire series on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

In this 30 minute podcast you will learn: 

• Why you need a blog (10 top reasons) 
• How a blog can help you establish your personal brand
• How a blog can help you earn trust, and establish credibility
• How to find your voice by serving your audience and customers with content that inspires, connects and educates
• Why you must focus not only on economics but on emotional and human connection

If you are attending live in person industry and networking events or trade shows you are likely investing a decent amount of both money and time. How can you maximize your ROI for the time and money spent?

Take a listen to the 110th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to hear my top 5 ways you can increase your event ROI with networking, pre and post event planning and execution.

In this 30 minute podcast you will learn: 

• 5 Tips to maximize ROI at in person events
• How to set goals and objectives for attending an event
• Why pre-event planning is key to maximizing your time invested
• Tapping into private social networking groups such as Facebook and LinkedIn
• Importance of researching events on the front and back end of the main event that you can attend
• Reaching out and connecting to speakers, organizers and attendees via Twitter and other social networks pre-event
• Creating Twitter and other lists to keep track of contacts
• Importance of not being shy and reaching out to people you may not know prior to event
• Making your list of people you want to meet
• Why event halls are magical for networking
• The importance of being in the moment, vs having your head stuck in your phone
• Capturing the moments real time via visual marketing and live streaming
• Prioritizing networking event opportunities
• Post event networking opportunities
• Maximizing visual marketing to keep the conversations going post event

Take a listen and be sure to subscribe to the entire series on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

Your brand is the foundation and one of the most important aspects of your business. Doesn’t matter if you are a solo entrepreneur, small business, large, super size, business to business, business to consumer or anything in between. You only have one chance to make a first, second and third brand impression.

In a nutshell your brand is your promise to all those who come in contact with your brand. It's your promise to your customers, partners, employees, audience and community. Your brand will help you tell your story and helps you build trust as it informs people what to expect. When done right it will also help differentiate you from your competition.

Your brand is rooted in who you are at the core, what you are about and what you do for your customers, employees, partners, audience and even online community.

Your brand is so much more than your logo. Of course your logo, colors, website, mobile site (or not), mobile applications, videos, tweets, Facebook and other social network pages, packaging, communication is also part of your brand foundation.

Some may argue that "your audience determines your brand, so why worry about it."  While this is true that the perception of your brand is in fact in the eye, heart and mind of the recipient. It is not true that the receiver is responsible for that first, second or third brand touch. That responsibility comes from you.

As a marketer you have the opportunity to be storyteller, and to also engage and empowers others to not only be part of the story, but to give them a canvas and a paint brush and inspire them to help you write and tell it.

By developing your brand strategy, brand architecture, vision, mission and more, you can impact perceptions. You can better connect with the human beings on the receiving end of your brand visuals, messages, social media updates and everything you create and deliver via whatever mediums you are using to connect with your audience, community and customers.  Although you obviously can not control how others perceive your brand, you can definitely influence and design a positive, inspiring and engaging experience every time they come in contact with your brand.

Take a listen to the 109th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast where I provide the definition of a brand, reputation and most importantly the top 5 reasons why you must develop your brand strategy and how it can benefit your business, customers and greater community!

In this 30 minute podcast you will learn: 

• Definition of a brand
• Definition of brand identity
• Definition of visual branding
• Definition of brand trust
• Definition of reputation
• Top 5 reasons you must develop a brand strategy for your business
• The power of brand story telling and why you must invest in creating your brand story
• Inviting and taking other along to help you craft your brand story
• Earning trust and credibility via branding
• How to differentiate from your competition via branding
• How to use branding to connect emotionally with your audience, fans and customers

Every smart marketer wants their brand to be relevant, memorable, inspiring and positive in the mind of their audience, ideal customer and online community. What many marketers don't know is that the little things they are doing online every day could be hurting their brand more than helping. 

When you think of leaving memorable brand impressions what comes to mind? Do you first think of a logo, colors, messaging, tone, sentiment or all of the above? None of the above?

Even the best business leaders and marketers get overwhelmed with staying up to speed with new media, social media and integrating it into the DNA of their business.

Social media is both art and science. It's easy and dangerous to get caught up in the tools and technology that you lose sight of why you are doing it in the first place. Are you getting so focused on building your community, generating revenue, growing your email subscriber list that you are falling to lazy marketing behavior? Or even trying some spammy tactics that are hurting your brand more than helping your brand? 

It’s not so much about what the technology can do for you as it is what you can do with the technology! It's important to make sure you are using social and digital technologies in a way that is helping you versus hurting you. 

Check out the 108th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to hear 25 ways you may be hurting your brand online without even realizing it! 

In this 30 minute podcast you will learn: 

• 25 ways you are hurting your brand more than helping it via social media and digital marketing 
• Why you must regularly audit the social media applications and tools connected to your existing social profiles 
• To send auto direct messages (DMs) on Twitter or not? 
• The risks associated with over self promotion 
• Why you should be careful of not having only negative posts on Facebook and other platforms 
• How to avoid being seen as a spammer 
• You are what you share, tweet, pin, post and update via the social inter webs 
• Why you can't ignore the mobile user and customer and the importance of a mobile responsive website and blog 
• To use curse words or to avoid them? 
• The risk of buying fake followers and fans 
• How much is too much information to share about your personal life? 
• How not to reach out to industry influencers 

In this 30 minute podcast you will learn: 

• The power of Google Analytics and what it can help you understand about your online platform, blog and website  
• 10 Google Analytics metrics you should be paying close attention to on a regular basis 
• How to tap into the power of Google Analytics to better know your customer 
• How to know the value of traffic from social networks such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook
• How to know what content your audience loves and even dislikes 
• Why you must enable and setup goals and conversions feature within Google Analytics 
• Why both quality and quantity matter when it comes to your online audience 
• How to know what percentage of traffic to your site is coming from mobile devices 
• How to use Google analytics to help measure the achievement of your goals 
• How to measure what pages are working to help you achieve your goals as well as what pages may be hurting your efforts 

The challenge can be overwhelming for marketers to consistently create content that is fresh, relevant and provides real value to their audience, customers, and prospective customers. 

Because of this pressure, unfortunately many marketers fall to lazy marketing tactics. They quit creating their own content and start curating and sharing other helpful content from leaders in their industry. Even worse they start copying, pasting and regurgitating other people's content. They copy, tweak and pretend it is their when in reality they have often lost the real meaning of it without even knowing. They wind up hurting their brand more than helping. 

Though curation can be an impactful and excellent way to establish your brand online as well as serve the needs of your audience, it also requires both art and science to see real benefit. 

Is anything really new anyway? Does content have to be new to be relevant? How can you curate content from other industry leaders and still be relevant to your audience? Where do you draw the line of endorsing other people's content vs supporting their brand more than your own? What are the negatives of content regurgitation? 

If these are some of the questions you have then take a listen to the 105th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to learn the difference between creation, curation and regurgitation of content. I also include tips and strategies to develop your own curation platform and ensure you are not simply regurgitating content that will hurt you more than help. 

In this 30 minute podcast you will learn: 

• Definition of content creation and new ideas 
• Definition of content curation 
• Definition of content regurgitation 
• How to create content that represents the brand of you! 
• Why you must keep the brand of you in your ocntent 
• The importance of adding your own perspective in every piece of content 
• How to curate content like a curation rock star
• The difference between regurgitation and curation of content 
• Why you must stop regurgitating other people's content. 

Your customers, employees, audience, partners and online social media community is human. They eat, sleep, breathe and talk like humans.

So, why are so many of you talking to them like they are a robot who wants to read your corporate speak? Why are you afraid to let your human show? Why do you keep trying to win them over with stupid stunt marketing and upside down tricks?

Your audience wants to see you, hear you and understand you. They want you to inspire them to connect and engage with you. They want you to help them achieve their goals and objectives. They want relevant content and conversation that makes them think. They want you to inspire them to do more, be more, achieve their life and business goals.  better and be better.

So tell me, are you doing these things? Are you even thinking about these things? Or are you too focused on yourself? Too focused on your own campaigns or developing the next big thing that you forgot why you were doing it all to begin with?

Humanizing your brand is a requirement, not an option if you want to be in business 3 years from now.  Yes, you can put brand humanization on hold. However, every day you lose is a day you could be building relationships, nurturing friendships, establishing and earning the respect of powerful brand evangelists who will shout from a mountain top how wonderful you and your brand are.

Take a listen to the 104th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast for 20 tips to help you humanize your brand starting today. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist or social media brain surgeon to do these things. Start now and start somewhere. Perfection is the enemy of good. Embrace imperfect perfection.

In this 30 minute podcast you will learn: 

• 20 tips you can implement immediately to make your brand more human
• The definition of brand humanization
• Why brand humanization is a requirement, not an option for brand survival today
• Why you want to connect with the heart of the person on the other end of your content 
• Why relationships are the life raft to the sea of technology change 
• Why getting in the head of your customer is imperative to humanizing your brand
• Difference between authenticity vs transparency
• Humanizing your brand from the inside out
• Tapping into the power of employee advocacy programs
• Why you must stop the interruption marketing
• How to develop a plan that provides results

The days of interruption marketing and throwing social spaghetti on the walls of the internet and hoping it sticks are over and done. No longer can you create marketing messages in a vacuum and expect to build relationships, build community, increase brand awareness, or achieve your business goals.

Marketers must learn to work smarter, not just harder. Smart marketers are realizing they must stay relevant in the mind of their ideal customer, audiences and social communities. They must consistently provide value and connect in a real, human and memorable way.

You can not fake being relevant. You can not fake earning trust. You certainly can't fake a relationship that has depth.

Take a listen to the 103rd episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to learn why you must make it a top priority to stay relevant in the mind of your customer.

In this 30 minute podcast you will learn: 

• The questions you should be asking to stay relevant
• How to stay relevant in the mind of your customer
• Why failing to plan is planning to fail
• How to select the right key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Getting in the head of your customer

Are you one of those people who sees others tweeting and talking in 140 characters to build their brand and wish you knew how to do the same? You see them rockin' their personal and business brands, building community, fostering new relationships and growing their business, all using Twitter. However, you may feel like you are left out of the tweeting, posting, pinning, social world.

Would you like to take your brand to the next level by tapping into the power of Twitter but not sure where to start?

If this is you, then you are in luck as this episode and new series of the Social Zoom Factor podcast is going to help you quickly understand how you can begin to brand yourself and your company using Twitter.

This is the first in a series of podcasts that will put how to build your online personal and business brand in a nutshell for you! Over the course of the next few weeks we will be digging deep into each of the major social networks as well as overall brand architecture building strategies and tips. 

Take a listen and be sure to subscribe to the entire series on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

Did you know that according to Google, the average consumer researches 10.4 sources before making a purchase decision? This includes researching content via the web, social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn as well as talking to trusted colleagues, friends and family.

How is your brand doing when it comes to delivering the needed information and customer experience that inspires your audience, customer and online social community members make the desired action or purchase decision? Does a visit to your blog, website or Twitter stream provide information that helps your customer become inspired to further connect with you and your brand? Or it is pushing them away to your competition?

76% of marketers believe they know what customers want. However, only 34% have ever asked them.

The truth is many marketers don't know their ideal customer. They don't know what keeps them up at night or how they can best help them solve their problems.

If you want to achieve real results using social media you must know your customer. You must refocus your energy, content, digital marketing, social marketing and more to the needs of your customer.

Refocusing your lense to your customer can exponentially increase business result in a short time period.

Take a listen to the 101th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to learn how you can refocus on your ideal customer to truly zoom your social business results.

In this 30 minute podcast you will learn: 

• 10 Tips to refocus your social media marketing and business on the needs of your customer
• Why you must stop the stupid marketing
• Don't forget marketing 101
• The risk of focusing on the wrong key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Why you must put customer DNA before social media tools
• How to conduct a quick content audit and content inventory analysis
• Why you must know your audience

It's official. We have hit 100 episodes of the Social Zoom Factor podcast! Little did I know when I set out to test the media waters with podcasting July, 2014 how much I would fall in love with the medium.

We did the research and had solid plans for how to integrate podcasting into our business model, ensure we were providing value for our existing social communities and strategically align to overall business and life objectives. We knew the future of podcasting was bright and wanted to be at the forefront of the movement to audio.

I had no idea though that myself and our online community, customers, friends and partners would like it so much that I wouldn't even need to publish a regular blog post for over 7 months!

Have you considered adding podcasting to your marketing and communications platform? Would you like to explore how podcasting can help you better connect with your audience, deliver better content faster and more efficiently and help you zoom results in your business?

Take a listen to the 100th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to learn how we have used podcasting to ignite our communities, customer relationships, media platform and business.

In this 30 minute podcast you will learn: 

• 10 Reasons why we chose podcasting as a primary marketing and communications medium
• Benefits of podcasting over other mediums including video and traditional blogging
• How we got started podcasting
• Lessons learned during our first 100 episodes

How much time should you, your CEO, CMO, CTO, CIO, and staff spend on social media?

Are you more or less of an expert or qualified for whatever it is you do in business based on the amount of time you spend tweeting, on Facebook or posting photos to instagram?

As a personal brand and human being utilizing social media how much time is enough, too much or not enough? Must we always be connected, plugged in and turned on to the social networks?

Should your CEO, CMO and other executives even be on Twitter?

If these are some of the questions you have, tune into this episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast as I answer them for you.

In this "Get Real" style of podcast today I lay it out there for you in plain english and tell you exactly what I think on these important questions I have been asked by business leaders across the globe hundreds of time.

In this 15 minute podcast you will learn: 

• Should your CEO be on Twitter?
• How much time must you spend on time to be an expert?
• Why being online all day is not a requirement to be a professional in online marketing or social media
• Why there is only one way to do social media and that is the way that works for you and your business

This is the fourth in a series of conversations that will cover influencer marketing in detail. 

http://www.socialzoomfactor.com/99

Your worth on this planet is not measured by the number of social media followers you have or your Klout or other influence score. Instead, what matters is the lives you are able to impact and change. 

What really does it mean to be influential? What is influence? How can you establish yourself and your brand as a thought leader? 

Would you like to know how you can you become more influential to better achieve your business and life goals? If yes, then this is the episode of today's Social Zoom Factor podcast is for you. 

In this 15 minute podcast you will learn: 

• What is the definition of influence
• What is the definition of social influence 
• 5 solid tips to become more influential 
• Why you must focus on helping your audience and community as a top priority 
• Why you must build a community that helps one another.
• Why influence requires changing mindset and driving action 
• Why you must stay true to yourself

This is the third in a series of conversations that will cover influencer marketing in detail. Take a listen and be sure to subscribe to the entire series on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

It's not news that your customers, online audience and social network communities are bombarded by information. There is not a lack of blogs to read, Google Hangouts to engage in, tweet chats to tweet into, podcasts to listen to or videos to watch.

How do you stand out from the crowd? How do you rise above the noise?

One of the best ways to stand out from the crowd of never ending tweets and mundane advice is to bring together some of the greatest minds in your industry or niche to co-create content that is unique, relevant, timely and of value to your ideal target customer, audience and community.

Co-created content is not just a buzzword or the next new shiny object that will solve your business problems. It's also not something you should run off and implement as a Random Act of Marketing (RAM) disconnected from your overall business goals, objectives and strategic marketing plan.

If developed and implemented correctly co-created content can help you drive efficiencies in developing and taking to market content that will help you ignite relationships, inspire your audience to connect with you organically and achieve your business goals.

Would you like to better understand how to develop co-created content working with influencers and internal employee advocates can help you zoom results your business? If  yes, then this episode of today's Social Zoom Factor podcast is for you.

In this 25 minute podcast you will learn: 

• What is the definition of co-created content
• Business benefits of co-created content
• How to develop a co-creation content marketing plan
• How to work with influencers to create co-created content
• How to engage employees and external influencers together to create co-created content
• Finding the sweet spot for co-created content when working with external influencers and internal employee evangelists

This is the second in a series of conversations that will cover influencer marketing in detail. Take a listen and be sure to subscribe to the entire series on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

You have heard the buzzwords surrounding influencer marketing. Everyone is talking about it. People are sharing blog posts, tweets and maybe even writing them without having any real experience developing and driving a real influencer marketing program for a business entity.

Are you one of these marketing or business leaders who really doesn't understand how you and your brand can ever use and benefit from influencer marketing to achieve your better business and marketing goals?

If you answer yes to this question, then this episode of today's Social Zoom Factor podcast is for you.

In this short 20 minute podcast you will learn: 

• What is the definition of influencer marketing
• The four main activities for influencer marketing
• How to find and select influencers to work with your brand
• How to identify your top influencers
• Why numbers are not everything. Quality over quantity is the goal.
• How not to recruit and kickoff a new relationship with influencers.

This is the first in a series of conversations that will cover influencer marketing in detail.

The Patriots were clearly not the only winner in the Superbowl XLIX. The Social Media SuperBowl set some new records of its own that are pretty exciting for all of us social and marketing geeks!

On this episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast I provide the following as it relates to the social media and brand advertising portion of the SuperBowl XLIX:

• A recap of the Social Super Bowl statistics including the top social moments, winning and losing brands in gaining attention from the SuperBowl social audience
• My thoughts on some of the top SuperBowl commercials and why some flew and some flopped
• 8 takeaways from the SuperBowl brand advertisers we can all learn from and incorporate into our business today

You can listen here or on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

A few stats to wet your social whistle: 

• For a 30 second commercial during the Superbowl, NBC was seeking $4.4 - $4.5 million!
• This was the most tweeted SuperBowl event ever with a record breaking 28.4 million tweets during the broadcast, second only to the FIFA soccer semi-final between Germany and Brazil which brought in 35.6 million tweets.
• Top hashtags used were #SB49, #SuperBowl and #SuperBowlXLIX
• Demographics were 54.7% male, 45.3% females
• 50% of the 66 TV commercials aired during the game incorporated a hashtag
• On Facebook, the SuperBowl was discussed by 65 million people versus 50 million in 2014. It generated 265 million costs, comments and likes.

Take a listen to the podcast to hear the rest of the statistics and the 8 key takeaways we can all learn from!

Be sure to subscribe to the entire series on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

Episode Highlights

• 8 Social Media SuperBowl Advertising Key Takeaways for brands big and small
• Why emotion still sells
• People don't forget what the big brands did last year and the year before
• The importance of making sure your ad does more than drive emotion and also aligns with your brand
• Balancing having a plan and being human during and after the game online
• How Volvo creatively cut through the noise of other automobile advertisers
• The importance of a social listening
• Why you must have a call to action

The SuperBowl is right around the corner and presents tremendous opportunity for brands to jump into the spotlight. Of course, the big brands are spending millions of dollars to get their short lived moments of fame with the hope of making a lasting impression, earning loyal brand evangelists and inspiring people to talk about them, share their message and become a viral hit sensation. NBC is seeking $4.4 million to $4.5 million per second!

The good news is that you don't have to be a huge brand to tap into the energy of the SuperBowl to power up your brand!

Check out this episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast for 10 tips to make a touch down with your marketing this upcoming SuperBowl weekend!

Episode Highlights

• 10 SuperBowl marketing tips for brands big and small 
• How to tap into the energy of the SuperBowl even if you are a small brand
• Why you can't use the SuperBowl logo on your marketing materials
• How to associate your brand with the SuperBowl without using the trademark
• How to tap into the power of visual marketing
• How to engage your employees to humanize your brand
• How to leverage hashtags to tap into the power of the OPC (other people's community and content) to grow your own brand awareness and community)
• Why you must get local and not just focus on national conversations

There is only one way to do social media, create content, setup a blog, measure results and build your business. The only way is what works for you, your customers, your audience, your community and your business!

One of the worst traps many business leaders and marketers fall in when diving into digital and online marketing is following the advice of others when they shouldn't be.

It's easy to find a blog post with a step by step guide for how to blog, build community, establish thought leadership and close more business. The harder part is figuring out what are the RIGHT steps for you to achieve real results in your business.

In this episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast Pam Moore, CEO Founder of Marketing Nutz, answers two of the top questions she receives in regard to social media and blogging.

Episode Highlights

Why I don't over focus on blog comments as a top metric for success

Why I don't hang out on Google Plus 24/7, 365 days a year

How I stay focused on top priorities

Importance of building your own plan that supports your goals and objectives

Why you must know where your audience is hanging out online

Why you must know what your audience needs from you

WHY is the number one question you must answer

Are you tapping into the power of visual content marketing to tell your brand story? Visual marketing empowers brands and the people within them to share their business and personal stories and lives real-time. No longer is it required to have a full time, dedicated design team on staff to serve up a good healthy dose of visual content marketing for your audiences and clients to devour!

Now even small marketing teams can easily take photos with an iPhone or other smart phone, mobile device and use them to engage their audiences via the social networks such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs within seconds.

Visual marketing enable you to show your products without telling people about them. Viewers can then easily make their own decisions without feeling "sold" or pressured from you and your business. Let the visuals tell your story and help you close the sale!

Did you know that the human brain processes visual information 60,000 times faster than the time it takes for the brain to decode text?

46.1% of people say a website's design is the number one criteria to determine the credibility of the company.

Visual marketing can often help you inspire, connect and engage with your audience more quickly and better than what a simple text message can do.

Check out this episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast for a succinct definition and summary of how you can use visual content marketing in your business or to build your personal brand. Included are loads of statistics just in case you still or sold or have a colleague or executive than needs to hear the data before investing.

In this episode Pam Moore, CEO and founder Marketing Nutz, a full service social media, digital marketing and branding agency puts visual marketing in a nutshell for you with a goal of inspiring you to begin including visual marketing into your marketing strategies and tactics to drive improved results. If you are already using visual marketing but not seeing results, hopefully the podcast will inspire you to take it to the next level.

Visual marketing is the discipline studying the relationship between an object, the context it is placed in and its relevant image. Representing a disciplinary link between economy, visual perception laws and cognitive psychology, the subject mainly applies to businesses such as fashion and design.

Episode Highlights

Definition of visual marketing

Why visual marketing?

Benefits of using visuals to tell stories

How visual marketing can help you close business

Why it's becoming easier for marketing teams to use visual marketing without a dedicated design team

Loads of statistics on the power of visual marketing to inspire, connect with and engage audiences

Many franchise organizations shy away from implementing social media, new media and the latest digital and web technologies due to fear and lack of ability to roll out such big marketing and media changes to their franchisees from the corporate organization.

Often time the franchisor fears that adopting social media and new technologies will put the brand at risk. They are afraid of brand inconsistency, negative interaction with audiences and the list goes on.

The truth is that regardless if a franchisor, franchisee or brand of any type or size decides to engage on the social web, there is a conversation happening in their honor already. The question is do they want to be a proactive part of the conversation.

My agency, Marketing Nutz has worked with numerous franchise organizations. We help them not only implement social media, adopt new technologies but also setup an infrastructure that empowers the franchisees while also ensuring brand consistency, streamlined communication and ensuring the corporate organization and franchisor is consistently providing value and partnering with franchisee teams.

In this episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast Pam Moore, CEO and Founder of Marketing Nutz, a full service experiential branding, digital marketing and social media agency shares 10 tips to help the franchisor setup an infrastructure and culture that promotes teamwork, collaboration, and successful adoption of social media and the latest digital technologies and methodologies. These tips are also helpful and applicable for any brand and organization setup in a distributed model with teams in different locations and geographies.

Be sure to download our brand new Franchisor Social Media Zoom Kit loaded with resources to help both franchisors and franchisees zoom business results with social media!

Episode Highlights

• 15 tips for franchisors to successfully implement social media at the corporate and franchisee level.
• The importance of having a servant heart vs only focusing on control.
• Why franchisors must stay knowledgeable on the latest media and technology to empower franchisees to succeed.
• How to setup a social media policy that empowers vs simply controls.
• Why social media policies are required, not optional.
• How to provide value to franchisees in the form of social media templates, training and more.
• How to more quickly roll out new media to franchisees by learning and rolling it out at the same time.
• Why franchisors must quit overwhelming their franchisees with too much marketing information. Less is truly more.
• Embracing imperfect perfection

When it comes to digital marketing and social media too many people throw spaghetti technology at the internet walls and then wonder why nothing sticks, why they have zero revenue and are working 24 hours a day.

We all have the same 24 hours in the day. Wishing you had more time to do what you need to do is not a strategy for success in life or business. Finding a path that enables you to live the life you dream and get your business on the path to massive success doesn't happen over night. You are going to need to roll up your sleeves and get to work.

The truth is you need to slow down to speed up. You need to quit chasing shiny objects. You need to build yourself an integrated platform that works when you are not working. Leveraging your knowledge and reducing time spent to do such is the key to success.

Building a platform that works when you are not working enables you to quit trading time for money.

To do such you must set goals, architect it for integration vs silos, integrate the right technologies that support your business goals and more.

In this episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast Pam Moore, CEO Founder Marketing Nutz shares 15 Tips to build an integrated online marketing platform that works when you are not working!

Take a listen and be sure to subscribe to the entire series on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

Episode Highlights

• 15 Tips to build an online digital and social marketing platform that works when you aren't working
• Why you must build an integrated platform where all pieces are working together vs stand alone silos disconnected from each other
• How to increase ROI, improve efficiencies and grow your business with a platform that works for you
• Defining the vision of your life and business before you implement any technology
• Aligning business goals and objectives to the development of your digital platform
• Why you must properly architect the platform before implementing
• Creating content that connects with your audience
• Selecting the right components such as email marketing, social sharing widgets and more
• Don't forget the easy functions easily over looked such as contact forms, sharing buttons

Social media has given consumers, viewers, partners and stakeholders a new platform to speak their mind. Brands can no longer hide behind the brick walls of buildings, public relationship companies or administrative assistants screening calls.

There is likely a conversation happening in the honor of you and your brand right now, regardless if you have chosen to be part of the conversation.

What should a brand do when crisis hits? What should they do when the Twitter and Facebook storm gets out of control and tweets are flying left and right with angry TV viewers, customers, partners and friends? Should they ignore the tweets? Should they close their eyes to the Facebook comment stream with hundreds or thousands of comments complaining and sharing their negative opinions of the brand?

Is ignoring customers and online community members on social media even an option? Take a listen to this episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast for a case study in how CBS and the Under Cover Boss TV show has chosen to ignore even their loyal viewers online. A social firestorm happened after an episode that CBS aired of a CEO of a Bikini Sports Bar and Grill fired one bartender but gave a different waitress a breast enlargement after six more months of work. Yes, this is not a fake reality show. This is real life and how a CEO is treating his employees. Viewers of the show were fired up and shared their thoughts via social media. To date (two weeks after show aired) CBS has still not replied to the Twitter stream. You view a recap from Huffington Post here -> Undercover Boss CEO Fires Employee for Not Wearing a Bikini, Offers Another a Boob Job

In this podcast episode Pam Moore, CEO Founder Marketing Nutz, a full service social media, content marketing, digital marketing and branding agency shares with you a quick recap of the CBS Under Cover Boss scenario and why brands should never fall to "ignoring their audience and community" as a strategy for success. Unfortunately, it's quite obvious CBS has chosen to use their Twitter stream and hashtags for specific shows as a one way push communication versus truly investing in relationships and engaging with their audience.

Podcast Episode Highlights

Recap of a terrible episode of CBS UnderCover Boss and how CBS has ignored the Twitter storm

Why ignoring your audience is never a strategy

Why hashtags should not be used to only promote your brand

Why brands must be ready to use the mediums and tactics implemented such as hashtags to respond and engage even when conversations get negative

Importance of developing and implementing a social media crisis preparedness plan

Being proactive and ready to manage a social media crisis should it hit your brand and community

At the foundation of social media is people. Social media is about people communicating, sharing, engaging, laughing, crying, and living life together online. It's about relationships, meeting new people, finding old friends, and fostering relationships that help you zoom your business and life.

Understanding how to nurture relationships, and most importantly bring people together so they can be part of something bigger than themselves is where the real power of social media comes in!

Many organizations will assign a team member to be the "social media community manager" assuming this person can take charge on everything having to do with social media. Usually this happens because the business and marketing leaders making such a decision don't really understand the difference between social media and social business.

Assigning an intern or entry level person to run a social media or social business program is a potential recipe for disaster for the business as well as a career demolition derby for the social community manager assigned. Knowing how to tweet is far different than defining strategy, tactics, building and launching an integrated social media program that will help the business achieve business and marketing goals.

Many social community managers jump into social media work expecting it to be glamorous! We've even seen this with our agency, Marketing Nutz. What many social media professionals find surprising is the amount of detailed work, knowledge, data, analysis, team leadership and business acumen is required to be successful in the world of social business. Social media requires much more than knowledge of how to send a tweet or post to Facebook.

In this episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast Pam Moore, CEO Marketing Nutz, full service social business, digital marketing, branding, content marketing agency shares 12 strategies and tips to help social media community managers be successful. This is the first in a series of conversations that will be diving deep into strategies and tactics to help marketing and business professionals be successful in integrating social media into the DNA of their business to achieve results. Take a listen and be sure to subscribe to the entire series on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

Episode Highlights

12 strategies and tips to help social media community managers be successful in any sized organization, big or small

Why social media community managers must realize their are not a team of one. Teamwork is the awesome sauce for success.

The importance of learning the business quickly

Taking pride in even the small tasks.

Learning the language of your customers

Being proactive vs waiting to be told what to do

The power of relationships with internal and external team members, including agencies

Setting yourself up to succeed in a career of business and marketing

Why you must let go of the ego at the door

As more and more brands jump on the social networks there is no shortage of tweets to read, podcasts to listen to, blog posts to learn from, videos to watch or people to talk to!

What's even worse is as the competition for eyeballs, ears and hearts is increasing across the social web, even the biggest and most popular social networks such as Facebook are moving even further into a pay to pay model. The days of free organic reach with little investment in content and community are quickly coming to a close. Not that this ever really worked or was a strategy for smart brands.

Did you know that on average 98% of the people who “like” a business Facebook page will never visit the actual page again? They may only see it in their newsfeed “if” the brand is lucky and Facebook’s algorithm determines it is worthy of a view in the newsfeed of their fans.

What are you doing to adapt and be ready for the new social web?

The number one question you should be answering is WHY! Why should your audience and online social community care that your brand exists?

We consult with business owners and brand of all sizes, from entrepreneurs and startups to Fortune 100 brands. One of the first things we ask when conducting a social media audit or developing a social business strategy or marketing plan is WHY. It’s amazing how many brands can’t answer this simple question.

Why should anyone care that you have a Facebook business page? Why should they check out your tweets? Why should they read your blog? Why should they click on any of the call to actions you offer on any of your social network profiles? Why should they trust you with their email address? Why should anyone follow you on Twitter? Be your friend on Facebook? Check out your photos on Instagram?

In this episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast Pam Moore, CEO Marketing Nutz a full service social media, digital marketing, branding, content marketing, web development agency discuss why every brand on the planet must make it a priority to answer the question WHY. It's a short 15 minute podcast designed to help you get your butt in gear and start zooming your business to turbo speed in 2015! 

When is the last time you met a perfect person? Do you have a perfect friend? How about a perfect client?  How about a perfect product? Do you know of a perfect brand?

The truth is you can never be perfect. Humans are not perfect. Each one of us makes mistakes. We each have a unique wackiness about us. It's our quirks, scratches and bumps that make us human and that help us connect with one another in simple, meaningful and memorable ways.

Brand can never be perfect because they are made up of human beings, which are not perfect.

Many business and marketing leaders avoid embracing social technologies and methodologies because of their desire to be perfect. They fear making a mistake and looking like a fool in front of the social universe online. When they do make a mistake some of these same brands run and hide instead of owning the fact they made a mistake and showing their human, imperfect side.

Your customers, audience and online community will appreciate the fact you are human and aren't afraid to show it! They will be happy to see you own mistakes. How you handle these mistakes can help your brand shine and nurture relationships if done right.

It is time that marketing and business leaders embrace imperfect perfection. Embrace what makes your brand human. Let your brand shine from the inside out. Your brand is going to be exposed from the inside out before it is transformed. Waiting to embrace the latest social technologies until you, your brand and your team is perfect is going to do nothing but waste time.

Social media is about relationships and connecting one to one with other human beings. It's both art and science. It's imperative brand and marketing leaders learn now how to embrace the human factor and quit expecting their teams to be perfect or to develop and launch a perfect social media program.

In this episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast Pam Moore, CEO Founder of Marketing Nutz, full service social business, digital marketing, branding, content marketing agency discusss why you must humanize your brand in a way that enables relationships to be built with the people within your business. She also share case studies of two brands (Brighthouse and HostGator) who boldly embrace imperfect perfection and have earned the loyalty of our agency, Marketing Nutz, time and time again.

Podcast Episode Highlights

Why brands must embrace imperfect perfection

Two case studies of brands being human and owning their mistakes (Broighthouse and HostGator)

Why business leaders must quit expecting employees to be perfect

Importance of brand humanization

How social media will reveal your organization from the inside out before it transforms it

Why you must own your mistakes and how to do such to increase brand equity and nurture relationships

Invest in your employees and loyal brand advocates

Do you ever feel like you want to jump in the fast lane of business and life but something is holding you back? Does it feel like you are stuck in the slow lane doing the doggy paddle?

Many business leaders and marketers deep down inside are afraid of success. Because of fear they often stick to status quo as they are more comfortable there. They are afraid to put themselves out there so stick with a nice, slower pace of "doggy paddle."

Unfortunately the doggy paddle is not going to help you zoom turbo in business or life. Although it may be comfortable, it's unlikely you'll be able to sustain anything at such a slow pace for much longer than the short time. The chances are high you will burn out, run out of money or simply fail.

There is no better time to kick the doggy paddle to the curb than the launch of a new year. As we kickoff 2015, I am challenging you right here and now to jump in the fast lane. I want you to kick the social media doggy paddle to the curb. It's time to leave the amateaur stroke to the lil' puppies. It's time for you to start zooming turbo with those who are going places. It's time for you to work, live and play with the big dogs!

In this episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast Pam Moore, CEO and Founder of Marketing Nutz, full service social media, content marketing, branding, digital marketing and social business consulting agency shares 10 tips and strategies to help you leave the doggy paddle in the dust. I share why it's important you set goals, prioritize, stop worrying about competition as well as embrace new technology to drive efficiencies and deliver value to your audiences on a consistent basis.

Also, be sure to download our brand new SWOT analysis worksheet. It will help you map out your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats so you can properly assess your business, market, skills and build a plan to zoom turbo in 2015!

Episode Highlights

• Why you must kick your doggy paddle to the curb if you want real results using social media for business
• Why you need to stop peeping over the fence at competitors constantly
• How to stop worrying about FOMO (fear of missing out)
• How to become more confident and jump to the fast lane even before you think you're ready
• The importance of mindset to achieve your goals and objectives

Are you feeling overwhelmed with keeping your social presence, online brand, and content marketing rockin' over the holiday season? Do you want to take some time off, enjoy time with family and friends and seriously unplug but are afraid to do such because you don't want to lose touch with your audience and online communities?

It's important for all of us to take time to disconnect from technology and connect with real humans in real life who are usually the reasons we are doing all the tech and social work to begin with!

If you wish you had more time off for the holidays but still want to provide your audience with content that keeps them inspired and remembering you through the New Year, then this episode of Social Zoom Factor podcast is for you.

In this episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast Pam Moore, CEO & Founder Marketing Nutz, full service social media marketing, digital branding, content marketing conversion optimization agency provides 10 tips to help you not just survive the holiday season but keep your content thriving and nurturing your audience with amazing content, and a healthy pulse of value to help them ring in the New Year with style and smarts!

Episode Highlights

10 Tips to Keep Your Content Marketing Rockin' Through the holidays

Why planning content is imperative even if you are delivering 1/4 of the volume of content that you normally do

Giving yourself permission to take time off

Informing your audience of your plans to unplug

Why you should focus on one killer piece of content

Using visual marketing to save time and differentiate

Splitting one piece of content into multiple segments

Leveraging content you already have

It's no surprise that Facebook is still one of the hottest social networks around. Check out these statistics published by Facebook as of September 2014.

864 million daily active users on average 

703 million mobile daily active users on average 

1.35 billion monthly active users 

1.12 billion mobile monthly active users 

As with anything in life or business, when there is opportunity for goodness, there is also much opportunity for risk and even damage to your brand and business.

Facebook is no different. Facebook presents tremendous opportunity to nurture relationships, establish and grow community, increase brand awareness and even your business bottom line. However, if you don't understand the ecosystem, how you can best fit within it to build relationships and your brand, you may wind up hurting your brand more than helping it.   

It is is as important to understand not only best practices but also worst practices that can damage your personal brand, corporate brand and business success when it comes to social media, business and life!

In this episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast Pam Moore, CEO Founder of Marketing Nutz, a full service social media, digital marketing, experiential branding, word of mouth, content marketing agency shares 15 things you should never do on Facebook.

Episode Highlights

15 things you should never do on Facebook

Focus on relationships over spamming

The importance of managing your privacy by being careful who you let into your Facebook network

Be yourself and never fall to tactics that waste time stalking and copying competition

How to ensure you don't lose people at hello when inviting them into Facebook groups

The importance of giving credit where credit is due when sharing other people's content

The differences of how you communicate and post content to Facebook vs Twitter

The importance of customizing content for your Facebook audience vs blasting the same content to every social network

How to avoid the drama and negative posts and conversations on your Facebook wall

Why you should never setup a personal Facebook profile to use to solely promote your business

We have all seen them…the videos, photos and social network status updates by frustrated parents.

The story goes something like this:

1. The kid does something wrong.

2.Parent implements a consequence such as grounding, taking away car etc.

3. Parent vents on Facebook or Twitter.

4.Child vents on Facebook, Twitter, text and who knows where else!

5. Parent takes photo of messy room, wrecked car or mad teen.

6. Parent posts photo and/or another frustrated status update to Facebook.

7. Parent and child go about their life. They make up, forgive one another and forget about situation.

8. Parent does not update social network status that everything worked out great and that their child is now back to the perfect angel the Holiday cards will depict they are.

So, what’s the problem?

So now you may asking “what is the problem and point of this post and podcast?”  Why is it a problem to complain about your kids constantly? Isn’t it part of life? Part of sharing everything you do, what’s on your mind via Facebook?

The truth is that your child's reputation sits in the palm of your hands. Every image you post, rant on Facebook and tweet complaining or bragging about them is impacting what people think and know of them.

This could either positively or negatively impact not only their personal brand, ability to land a job but their life.

Take a listen to this episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to hear the thoughts of Pam Moore, CEO & Founder Marketing Nutz, a full service social media, digital marketing, branding and content marketing agency on this very important topic. I share some solid reasons why you need to think twice about what you post to the social networks. I also provide some proactive strategies and tips to help your child and teen in staying safe online while still building their online persona and brand.

Episode Highlights

Why everything you post about your child or teen to social media is impacting their personal brand and future

Proactive tips to keep your children and teens safe online

The negatives and risks of posting too much information about your teens

Why some things are better left unsaid

How to assess if your postings to the social networks are negatively impacting your child or teen

The role parents play in helping their child manage their online brand

Patience is one of those words that many business and marketing leaders struggle with. It's natural to want results and to want them right now at this very moment. As humans we tend to want what we want when we want it, right?

However, as time pertains to both business and life it is always good to be patient. You know the saying... "good things come to those who wait." But does it? Do we really need to wait?

I think that is the greatest misnomer about patience, is that you have to wait. The truth is that being "patient" doesn't necessarily mean you sitting on your tush doing nothing. In business it can mean that you are doing the right things to get to where you want to go and to achieve the business goals and objectives in the right way.

Patience in business is more about doing the right things that will sustain and grow your business for not only the short term but also the medium and long term.

When it comes to marketing and social media, too many business leaders are far too impatient. They are looking for the the easy button, the magic pill or the magic carpet ride that will give them instant results. The worst part is that there are also many agencies and consultants who take advantage of these desperate, impatient people! They love their weaknesses and will sell them on the fallacy of instant results that are not feasible and take advantage of an unknowing customer who is looking for the shortcut to instant fame and success.

In this episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast Pam Moore, CEO Founder of Marketing Nutz, full service social media, social business, content marketing, digital marketing, experiential branding, word of mouth agency delivers some tough love to those who struggle with being impatient. I share tips to kick that impatient attitude to the curb and help you understand why you must slow down to speed up, set goals, determine objectives and build a plan to achieve and build your dream business and life. I also share some things to look out for when hiring an agency or consultant who may be promising you more than anyone could possibly deliver.

Episode Highlights

Why you must kick your impatient attitude to the curb if you want results using social media

Acknowledging you are impatient

How I deal with my own impatient personality in business and life

How to embrace your impatience to achieve the results you want

Planning for the future sustainability of your business, not just today

How to identify an agency or consultant overselling you results that are not feasible

Is your content and social media digital platform ready for 2015? Is your content ready to inspire, connect with and help your audience achieve their goals? Is the lack of compelling, relevant content keeping you up at night? If yes, I have some tips for you to help you get your content marketing in tip top shape before the new year! 

One of the keys to success in content marketing is creating evergreen content that has a life span longer than a day or a couple weeks. If you are like most marketers and business leaders you have likely spent a lot of time on creating content the past 12 months or longer. 

Wouldn't it be great if you could kickoff 2015 by maximizing the investment you already made in content marketing assets so that you can zoom results even more without spending a lot more time or money on new content?

In this episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast, Pam Moore, CEO Founder of Marketing Nutz, full service social media, social business, digital marketing agency is going to help you do exactly this! She will teach you to how to do a quick content marketing inventory analysis so you can 1) Identify the content you already have 2) Better align and integrate the content in your 2015 marketing plan and 3) Achieve a higher ROI by leveraging what you have already invested in!  

You can download the content inventory worksheet referenced in the document at http://www.socialzoomfactor.com/calendar 

You’ve heard the words… Tweet Chats, #TweetChats, Hashtags, or even hashbrowns as one of my clients first called them.  You see the early notification tweets: “Peeps – high tweet warning, for the next hour, headed into a tweet chat.”

For those who aren’t engaged in the tweet chat or don’t understand them, a tweet chat may seem like a bunch of noise. You are half right and half almost right. Yes, there may be some associated “noisy tweeting.” However, tweet chats can offer great benefit for you and your business to build new relationships, increase blog readership, build community, increase brand awareness, and even get new followers or Facebook fans!

So what is a tweet chat? Why should I care? How do I use a hashtag? How do you find relevant chats? What are the business benefits? What are the unspoken guidelines for joining them? What tools should I use to participate and filter tweets? 

Take a listen to  this episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast for an overview of Twitter Chats from Pam Moore, CEO Founder Marketing Nutz, full service social media, social business, digital marketing, branding agency. She puts Twitter chats in a nutshell for you so you can understand what they are and how they can benefit you and your business. Future episodes will cover tips and strategies for how to start a tweet chat, how to monetize them and how to best join them for business and life benefit. 

Episode Highlights

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Definition of a Twitter chat (tweet chat) 

What is a hashtag

Benefits of Twitter chats for business and personal branding 

Best tools to use for Twitter chats

How to find relevant Twitter chats

How to monetize Twitter chats

How #GetRealChat started

Best practices for organizing Twitter chats

Choosing relevant topics for Twitter chats 

Organic roles within the community for Twitter chats