Neal Schaffer, Social Media Keynote Speaker

Doesn't matter the answer to the next question But let's ?] to speak at the Spark conference tomorrow on influence marketing, which I'm currently writing a book on and excited to be here at 23, who I happened to meet at Marketo Nation earlier this year and we struck up a conversation and here we are in Copenhagen. You know, I like to, when I talk about social network algorithms and that organic social is sort of like dying, I always show a picture, like a picture from the 1940s or 50s of people, you know, sitting around a television and I think that's sort of what we're coming back to, which also, which has two meanings really. One is you want to keep people on social networks for it to be most effective because social networks want users to stay on there, not go somewhere else. The other is video. We are just naturally video people. We're naturally TV people, movie people. So video, we always known, knew it's the strongest medium. It's really hitting home now, especially when you look at, you know, not just videos on Instagram, but, you know, slideshow, slide, a story type of interactive video content. So I think that native video experience is pushing companies with combined with the way the algorithms work would have you to do more in video to not only be heard about the noise, but to be seen and really to stay relevant. I mean, you can't because if you want to get them on your website, then social networks don't want your content on their network, right? So if you want to succeed in social networks, you got to play by the rules. You're in their garden. But obviously it's including things like links. It's providing enough. I mean, you're storytelling through video, right? So it's providing, it's dangling something, which then for more info to find out more, to learn more about these exciting things, obviously 23 as a platform makes it easy for video creators and marketers to be able to create videos for all these different platforms. Because at the end of the day, you want to have native videos for all these platforms, but the big video has to be on your website and you need a video for YouTube as a search engine, but you want them on your website. So you're going to need to be everywhere, but you're going to have to differentiate those videos so that, you know, the prime video is always on your website. I'm a big fan and I've written a book on social media strategy, come maximize your social and really focuses on this framework for strategy, which is all data driven. So it uses what's called the PDCA framework or Deming circle. It really, you need to have data to decide. So instead of listening to your marketing person or a social media expert say something, test out these different platforms, see what videos work where. And the video that works on LinkedIn is probably going to be very different than what works on Instagram, like any other content. And I find that too few companies are really getting access. I mean, part of it is you need to have the right tool to get, to be able to aggregate that data, like, like 23 obviously does for video, but to be able to then use that data insights into driving your decisions as to what content do you want there? Ideally, you're going to have different videos and different social network because they're all different communities. They're all different countries, right? Maybe Facebook is China, Instagram is Japan, you know, LinkedIn is Taiwan. I don't know. But if you treat social networks like different countries, you begin to see that the same video should not work equally everywhere. It's going to work different. You're also going to be building different communities on different networks because different people use them differently, right? So the data, it all comes back to the data, in data we trust. And that's going to be the ultimate thing that marketers should be looking at. I think that one of the great ROI from working with influencers is actually using their content. So I first heard about this a few years ago when I moderated a panel was actually at something called the Content Marketing Conference, which still goes on every year. And it originally was in Las Vegas. And the director of social for one of the big hotel chains there was talking about how, as you can imagine, all these influencers, you know, every day, hey, you know, if you give us a free room, we'll post stuff on Instagram. And she would say, okay, if you agree to x number of photos, x number of videos, and we get copyright to all that content, sure. And I thought that made a lot of sense because content costs a lot. Content also, if you look at ads like an Instagram, they're easy to spot. Companies are not human. It's really, really hard to create these authentic images and videos that can compete with what people are doing. That's why you have the Logan Pauls, you have the people on Twitch, you have the YouTubers that we've never heard of, and my kids watch all the time because they, you know, they say something interesting about Fortnite or another game. They've been able to do things that even TV companies have not been able to do. So I think by leveraging these people for your videos. Now, if companies are already doing really well video, great. But as we were just talking before we started this video, I think we're at the tip of the iceberg. Most companies really are not leveraging video to the extent they could be. So I think working with influencers is a great way to actually make a splash in that market with video, find influencers that are really good with video, create relationships with them, and use that as sort of a stepping stone, right? And maybe, I mean, even hire influencers to help you with videos going forward. But it's just, it's almost like you want to be on TV. You want to work with a TV station. If you want to be seen more in social, why not work with the people that are getting the visibility that that's very, very hard for a brand to get? Well, the future of social, I mean, you know, the future sort of now, because there's so much like with video marketing, there's so much companies can be doing that they're not doing, leveraging all the opportunities and all the different social networks. So I always like to say, stay in the here and now and don't worry about the future. But definitely, you know, we come in and to the point with organic social, and I like to give the analogy of the phone book, right? It's free to get, I mean, back in the old days, it's free to get listed in the phone book. But if you want a full page, you have to pay for the privilege. It's free to have a Facebook page. There's no guarantee it's going to get any visibility. And we're really going back to that same day, where it becomes really pay to play. So you're at the stage where it's pay to play. On the other hand, you see people that get incredible engagement, incredible visibility. We see a lot of LinkedIn, we see a lot on Instagram, where brands still get more visibility, but not as much as people do. So at the end of the day, we come to the realization that social is made for people, not for businesses. And in order for brands to be seen, they need to work more through people, they need to ignite word of mouth. And by igniting word of mouth, that's the promise of social marketing, is a sort of viral spread of word of mouth. So I think that influencers become sort of the end goal. So I think brands are going to stop looking at influencers as sort of like one night stands or campaign based or thinking of them as like a programmable ad unit. And some of the pitches I've gotten to work with brands are just, you know, make sure you mention this, this, we need three, six second stories. And, you know, it's artificial, it looks and sounds like an ad, it's not authentic in any way. So I think that at the end of the day, you're going to have organic, you need to build community, you still need to have organic, you're going to have paid and then you're going to have influencer content. And I think that's sort of the future, the influencer marketing becomes a mainstream component rather than just a campaign based component. I have like, I don't know, 50 or 60 case studies in my book, so I should be able to like come up with one of them. But I think the brands that are savvy about it really have this long term approach, which we're seeing more of. They also are, you know, leveraging user generated content from influencers as their own content. One of the things I talk about, and when I talk at Spark, I'm going to talk about all these different types of campaigns or different types of things you can do with influencers. And one is actually, you know, co-create product, which I think is sort of the final thing that influencers want their own product at the end of the day. So, you know, the case with Shu featuring Gary Vee is sort of the ultimate of that. You get back to the Nike Air Jordans, but in the area of social media. So in China, the biggest online shopping platform, five of the top 10 fashion brands were actually started by influencers. So I think you're going to see more of that in the future. You know, obviously for B2C, but even B2B brands can find ways of working and branding with influencers. So, yeah, I think, you know, like with video marketing, I think we're really at the tip of the iceberg when it comes to leveraging influencers.