What does having a a company with a ‘Social DNA’ look like – Lessons learned from Spotify and Tesla

Spotify logo

This is a quick post I put together I think might clarify the obscure mantra of “Having social be a part of your brand’s DNA.”

In my professional blog, I cover tactics and hacks companies can use to grow their user base. BUT, all tactics in the world wouldn’t work as well as having a good ‘Social DNA’ carved into your brand.

Having “Social’ as a part of your DNA can manifest in many ways. The phrase is often used as high-level talk with little concrete examples of what it means.

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The pros and cons of running a daily blog

The pros and cons of writing a daily blog

If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I’ve challenged myself to write a blog post every day in 2016. 365 posts. Day by day.

If you’ve truly been following me, than you know I broke my streak last week and haven’t posted a single post.

While I have been writing every day, I haven’t been posting everyday .

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When quantity overshadows quality

When quantity overshadows quality

When talking content, there’s an endless debate – should you focus on quality or quantity.

I can give you my answer right away, but understanding the thought process is more important.

There is a mis-consumption on the impact of creating a lot of content in oppose to creating right targeted content every once in a while.

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Planning my content strategy for 2016 (thoughts)

Content strategy 2016

It’s almost the end of January and I’m still coming to terms with completing my personal / business goals for 2016.

Finalizing your goals is hard work, after all, it’s the ones you are going to pursue all year long. Make decisions according to, and work for. At the end of 2016, your are supposed to be where the goals you set are and who they made you become.

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The one thing about social media no one can teach you

The one thing about social media no one can teach you

Every week I get between 5-10 emails / messages asking me about ‘where should I learn social media’ and discussing the different schools and courses they can attend.

I often give them the same answer – It doesn’t matter. I might even add “If you are willing to spend some time and focus, save the money and start hitting Google / Neil Patel / Buffer / Social Media Examiner”. Because eventually the content is always the same.

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Improve interaction with your followers using 3 simple tricks

improve interaction with followers

Interacting with your followers and having meaningful engagements and conversations are key to social media and content success.

What keeps surprising me is that this is where a lot of companies and personal brands are really missing the mark.

You will be surprised how many social media folks just don’t engage back at all, and the ones that do, usually simple “like” the other persons comment or maybe sometimes say a simple ‘thank you’.

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Exploring new marketing channels? ask these two questions first

Explore marketing channels

Before I go into today’s post I want to share with you that yesterday I didn’t post anything on this blog – but I did write a post for another blogger (post will be up soon) so I’m still counting it as a post done.

I said at the beginning of this adventure that some of the content might be off site. When it is published, I will add it here as Day 10.

Some hard truth

Ok – I’ve been waiting for a long time  to share with you something that not many content marketers are willing to admit.

Creating great content is a must if you want to succeed with content marketing, but it’s only 25% of the success factor.

The one big secret for making your content to actually work for you – is distribution and promotion.

If your content doesn’t have any distribution plan, it will fail.

If you think about most ‘growth strategies’ – they focus heavily on growth of distribution and reach. Why? because without distribution the funnel doesn’t even start.

How you should approach every new marketing channel

I’ve recently started using Snapchat.

After listening to Gary talking about it so much, I’ve decided it’s time to give it a try. I love it. I truly enjoy.

Only one problem – It’s shitty for content discovery and content doesn’t last (it automatically disappears after 24 hours). That’s a bad combination for trying and increase reach.

If it’s very hard to discover content, it means that you will need to work really hard on getting followers and attention. Because the content disappears after 24 hours it also means that you’re not creating real estate, that can be discovered by future readers.

Why is this the only thing I’m telling you about Snapchat at the moment? Because as a marketer, being easily discovered is key.

So what is the first thing you should check when approaching a new marketing channel? 

  1. Is your audience there / potentially be there in the next 6 months.
  2. How easy it is to get discovered and build a following.

I’ll ignore the audience part because I will discuss it in future post. For now lets focus on the “discovery and building a following.”

 What your process should be

Every time you decide taking your brand / company into a new marketing channel, before creating one piece of content on it – you need to ask yourself:
How will I get attention and followers?

Lets take Instagram for example. On the top of my head I look at Instagram and think:

  1. I can promote my new account on other platforms (Cross platform promotion)
  2. I can explore hashtags even further
  3. I can explore the location options further
  4. I can as comment on other relevant accounts to get noticed
  5. I can like other Instagrammer’s photos to get their attention.
  6. I can follow / unfollow people to get noticed
  7. I can reach out to influencers and ask them to recommend following me.
  8. I can do sponsored ads
  9. I can do sponsored “shout out for shout outs”
  10. I can re-post other’s people content, mentioning them and give credit so they’ll notice me.
  11. I can send direct messages to other relevant accounts
  12. I can mention relevant industry leaders account and ask a questions.
  13. etc. etc.

Now that I broke down all my options to engage and get attention / followers on Instagram, I can start thinking about the tactics and content I need use to start getting new followers – so my content will have impact and actually get noticed by people.

Always ask yourself – How am I going to get attention on this platform and make it last. How hard will i need to work to get noticed / discovered.

I will write about this topic more in-depth soon.

But for now, try and test yourself – look a the marketing channels you’re currently using. What can you do to get more followers right now? Is this a good channel for you?

 

BTW, are you a snapper? follow me on Snapchat at roypovar or by scanning this code:

Roy Povarchik Snapchat

Roy Povarchik Snapchat

I’ve been using Snapchat for 5 days and it changed my life

Follow me on snapchat

Yes, this is a dramatic headline, but I’m that excited. I’ll tell you why in just a minute.

Up until a few days ago I didn’t get Snapchat. At all.

I downloaded it a few times in the past, tried following some people I knew. But I just didn’t get it. I didn’t even get the interface (which sucks).

But something changed.

I saw Gary Vaynerchuk’s ‘SNAPPING MY WAY THROUGH VEGAS‘ episode and was partially brainwashed that Snapchat is the next big thing.

So I did what any old guy (Old in compare to a millennial) would do, and just looked through Snapchat support and looked up some Youtube videos explaining the product and concept.

Somewhere between watching Gary using it and thinking about my strategy and resolutions to 2016 the magic of Snapchat hit me.

Why it changed my life

If you’ve been following me / this blog for a while, you already know that I have issues with selfies and real time documentation. I just get awkward in the moment. Up until recently I haven’t taken and posted a selfie… every! I was always tagged, but never took the picture. That’s crazy right?

The second thing is that i’m too heavy with content. My professional blog posts take a lot of time to write and even on my Twitter account, I take everything too seriously and heavily. That doesn’t cope with the future of marketing. This is actually a part of why I started the writing challenge.

Snapchat changed that for me.

Why? Because this platform is hardcore all about real time, quick response, but most of all, if you’re not putting yourself out there – there’s nothing there for you.

But i’ve decided i’m giving Snapchat a try. So I’m all in. And it feels great.

Here are some of the things I’ve been doing in the last couple of days that i’ve never done before:

  1. I’ve created content on the fly: from giving tips to just sharing daily work stuff.
  2.  I’ve actually contacted more people
  3. I use video. All the time.
  4. Got the urge to do more real time things.
  5. Started actively asking my surroundings to be a part of my social efforts.
  6. I started multitasking better on my social efforts.

For me, that’s a huge change. Think of where I’ve started.

Business wise, I don’t know f Snapchat will actually have any results as getting new followers is super hard. But I will find out soon.

What I was really surprised though is to find out how many of my friends  are actually on Snapchat.

Which actually proves Gary’s point – that Snapchat is maturing and will probably become the next big thing, and this is the time for you to build your brand on it before others in your field will take over.

So.. I’m on Snapchat as ‘roypovar’.

You can also scan this code to follow me.

Add your profile code or nick name in the comments and I promise to follow you back!

Roy Povarchik Snapchat

Roy Povarchik Snapchat

5 Quick tips for creating a great presentation

5 Quick tips for creating a great presentation

I’ve just finished creating the presentation for tomorrow’s ‘Goal setting workshop’ (feel free to join us) and was inspired to share some tips on creating an engaging presentation.

There have been so many posts written about it that I’m guessing you already have your best practices set, but I’ll share mine anyway. You might find something here that is right for you.

Before I start, I highly recommend reading ‘ The presentation secrets of Steve Jobs’. This is be far the best book I’ve read on the matter.

5 Quick tips to create great presentations

 

Outline your story before you even open your Keynote (or PowerPoint):

The biggest mistake you can make when creating your presentation is starting right off with creating the presentation itself.

Great presentations are all about great storytelling, and like any good story, you first need to understand what is the main point you want get across, outline your story and organizing  it in a way your audience will really get it.

A simple A4 or notepad will do.

Write your story, its milestones, it main points – and only then ‘translate’ it to a presentation.

One point per slide

There’s nothing worst then an over- crowded slide.

Each slide should make only one point. Forget millions of bullet points, forget about cramming 200 words per slide. Simplify it.

Make sure each slide is focuses on delivering only one idea that your audience can easily understand and follow.

The slides accompany you, not the other way around

This is the most common mistakes I see speakers do.

You are the main event, not your slide deck.

You want your audience to focus on you, and what you are saying. If your slides are telling all the story, your audience will just read it quickly and stop paying attention to you.

Your slides should focus on one idea, emphasising what you are saying, not replacing it.

Use high quality images

Images and pictures will always grab more attention than text. But choosing the right image isn’t easy.

Make sure you are using pictures that are relevant to what you are talking about (at least in topic at atmosphere) but most of all – make sure you are using a high quality image and not just a crappy one you got online.

You can use websites such as Pexels on Unsplash to get free high resolution photos.

Watching a presentation with pixelated images, or a louse stock photo is a totally let down. Doesn’t matter how interesting you are or how important the topic is, your presentation just lost major points with your audience.

Frame your talk

At the beginning of your talk, give your audience a summary of what you’ll be talking about. So it’ll be easier for them to keep track of the talk’s progress, what to expect and even create anticipation,

Within your talk, make sure you are opening and closing topics in a way your audience can follow. Create a headline slide when starting a new topic, a summary slide at the end of the topic, and always try and leave room for questions.

If you don’t frame segment of your talk, or give context to what you’re going to talk about, you are making it hard for your audience to follow you.

If your audience looses interest for a second, it will be very hard to get their attention back.

In conclusion:

There are so many component of a good presentation, but I think this 5 will easily make your presentation better than over 90% of the presentations out there.

Are you using Slideshare to post your presentations? Share it in the comments.