It's an odd-numbered month, which means we're back with the fourth installment of WSI's Digital Insider Podcast Series. And boy, are we ever excited about this episode! First of all, we feel like we're hitting our stride with this whole podcast thing. The podcast has been a remarkable experiment for us and we hope you're enjoying our conversations with digital marketing experts as we continue to tweak and improve the show.
Second, we've got a great topic for this week: social media. On top of that, we've got an incredibly fun guest who is just perfect for an engaging, funny, and super informative chat on social media. Joining us this week is none other than Dave Kerpen, a guy we saw give a fantastic talk during our escapades at INBOUND 2014.
Dave is the founder and CEO of Likeable Local, and the co-founder and chairman of Likeable Media. Dave's companies help businesses of all sizes leverage social media to become more likable to consumers. Since his genius idea to host a sponsored wedding at a baseball game, which raised over $100K (including $20K for charity), Dave and his companies have pledged to make the world a more likable place.
Enjoy our session with Dave, and be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Vimeo, and YouTube if you like what you hear!
So that was an absolute blast! Thanks to Dave Kerpen for being such a wonderful guest. We had a little bit of everything in this episode, including lots of good stuff on social media, some baseball banter, and, believe it or not, a partial rendition of 'O Canada' by Dave. Yes, seriously!
Singing and jokes aside, here are some of the questions I asked Dave and a brief snapshot of his answers:
Many businesses are hesitant to share other people's content. Why is it important for small and medium-sized businesses to curate and share industry content in addition to their own?
I loved Dave's answer to this question because it's so simple and yet so true. Instead of thinking like a business and fearing other people's content, Dave says to put yourself in consumer mode. As consumers, me, you, Dave and everybody else in the world wants to consume multiple sources of content. We don't one want an opinion or one side of the story, we want to see all the angles of a given topic.
So in theory, you might think you are protecting your interests by only sharing content you create, it's a false sense of security. Chances are, consumers are reading and searching for more than the content you're creating. However, if you are the source that directs consumers to some other brand's relevant content, you'll retain some of the credit for the content (even though you had nothing to do with it). It pays to stay up-to-date with your industry's content and to be willing to find consumers an answer, even if it doesn't come directly from you.
Some marketers believe "likes" are a superficial metric. Do you think this claim is accurate? If not, what do businesses gain from generating high numbers of "likes" and "shares"?
This is such a great question because it's something that every business and marketer has pondered about social media metrics, and it's generated an equal amount of content from both sides of the spectrum. Dave's answer is a slightly different version of a phrase we always use, which is, "it depends."
Dave believes "likes" can be superficial, but they can also be hugely significant. It depends on the context of the "likes" and perhaps more importantly, the quality of the "likes." If your brand has thousands of "likes" from a group of people that aren't actually your audience, then those "likes" are worthless. A thousand or even a hundred "likes" from legitimate fans and potential customers are much more valuable to your business. If you're investing real time and energy in social media, you're generating meaningful results.
What is your response to businesses that say, "social media doesn't work for our industry?" Do you believe social media marketing is a tactic that can help any industry in any market?
It's no surprise that Dave firmly believes every business can leverage social media (and we think so too). He does say that some companies stand to benefit more from listening than talking, like "evil" cigarette companies and others with an unpopular public image. But at the end of the day, there's just so much data and insight to be gained from social media that we urge everybody, everywhere to mix social media and business. At the end of the day, my personal opinion is that it's a state of mind; the more you believe and behave like social media can make a difference for your business, the more effective it'll be.
And that's a wrap for the fourth episode of WSI's digital marketing podcast! I'd like to once again thank Dave Kerpen for joining us this month, and we hope you had as much fun with him as we did. If you have any feedback, let us (or Dave) know on Twitter or Facebook, and don't forget to subscribe to the podcast below!
