By Lindsay Bell-Wheeler
Today’s Q&A guest is a bit of a social media mover and shaker.
Not only a best selling author, whose previous social media books include Maximizing LinkedIn for Sales and Social Media Marketing and Windmill Networking: Maximizing LinkedIn, he’s also a Forbes Top 50 Social Media Power Influencer, and the creator of the the social media business blog, Maximize Social Business.
What would a global social media speaker who teaches at Rutgers University have to teach you about social media marketing and social media for business?
Well, as it turns out, a lot!
Neal Schaffer’s success is a walking testament to the “everyone’s using social” statement.
But, is everyone using it in the best way to benefit their brands?
According to Schaffer, and what he maps out in his latest book Maximize Your Social: A One-Stop Guide to Building a Social Media Strategy for Marketing and Business Success, the answer is a hearty NO.
Instead, many organizations toss a bunch of time and money at social activities and then sit back and hope for the best. But in so doing, they’ve forgotten a key component: Strategy.
They are also failing at figuring out that elusive golden goose – their ROI when it comes to social media efforts (cue Gary Vee…ROI of your mother joke!).
Without the hard data to illustrate how good or bad their current social media engagement has been performing, there simply can’t be effective social media.
So, where do you start? How do you create an internal plan that is clear and concise? How do you get everyone on board? Do you really need to spend a huge chunk of change on a social media guru consultant?
Today’s author Q&A guest can answer those questions for you, and many more.
Today’s Author Q&A with Neal Schaffer
At noon ET (that’s 11:00 CT, 10:00 MT, and 9:00 PT for those of you who can’t do time zones), Neal will be here to answer any and all of your questions.
In order to participate, all you have to do is:
- Make sure you have a Livefyre account or be ready to sign in with one of your social networks.
- Set a reminder for noon ET today.
- Order the book so you can support Neal and get your learn on.
- Create a list of questions (if you haven’t read the book, you can bribe Gini and she’ll write some for you!).
- Come back here, scroll to the bottom, and write a comment in the form of a question. As soon as you hit “post comment,” Neal will see it and reply to you. You can even join the conversation around questions others are asking, if you like.
We’ll be here for an hour so you can join us the entire time or step in and out during the hour. It’s entirely up to you; just make sure you’re here before 12:59.
Win a Copy
Those of you who participate in today’s author Q&A (even if you’re late to the party, but not if you’re an Arment Dietrich employee) will be entered into a random drawing for a free copy of the book.
Don’t forget – you have to actually leave a comment, ask a question, or participate in the chat to be entered in the drawing. Otherwise we won’t know you were here.
Get ready with your questions and join the conversation. And don’t fear! If you missed the live portion of this, we’ll keep the drawing open until midnight PT so you still have time to get in your questions.
Former Guests and Who’s Next
For former guests, check out Margie Clayman, Sarah Robinson, Mark Story, Beth Hayden, Sarah Evans, Stanford Smith, Chris Brogan, C.C. Chapman, Mitch Joel, Danny Brown, Chuck Hemann, Michael Brito, DJ Waldow, Tom Martin, Ahava Leibtag, Jay Baer, Shel Israel, Mark Schaefer, Gini Dietrich, Rob Biesenbach, and Steve McKee.
And following are the dates for the next few months, so mark your calendars!
Same bat time, same bat channel.
- July 16 – Ed Zitron, with This is How You Pitch
- August 20 – Tim Frick, with Return on Engagement
- September 17 – Ann Handley, with Everybody Writes
- October 16 – Tom Martin, with The Invisible Sale
- November 19 –
- December 17 – Diana Kander, with All in Startup
- January 21 – Jeremy Miller, with Sticky Branding