Social Media with Dave Kerpen

 

Social Media with Dave Kerpen

It's an odd-numbered month, so we're back with the fourth episode of the Digital Insider Podcast Series. We're ever happy over this one! We believe we've hit the right note with the whole podcasting thing.

This podcast is an incredible experiment for us, and we hope you enjoy our discussions with experts in digital marketing as we make tweaks and improvements to the podcast.

Picked a perfect topic

We've also picked a perfect topic this week: social media. In addition, we've got an extremely amusing guest that is right for an entertaining, humorous, hilarious, and informative discussion on social media.

This week's guest is none other than Dave Kerpen, a guy we watched give an amazing talk at the INBOUND conference. INBOUND 2014.

Dave is the co-founder and CEO at Likeable Local and the co-founder and chairman of Likeable Media. Dave's firms help businesses of any size leverage social media to be more appealing to the public.

Dave and his companies have committed to making our world a more likable location after his brilliant idea to have a sponsored wedding during a baseball game that brought in over $100K (including $20K to benefit charitable causes).

Enjoy our conversation with Dave. Follow us on iTunes, Vimeo, and YouTube If you like the content!

It was real fun! Thank you, Dave Kerpen, for being such an amazing guest. We covered a piece of all of it in this episode, with lots of interesting stuff on social media and some baseball banter, and the most amazing thing of all, the song was a parody of "O Canada" performed by Dave. Yes, seriously!

Aside from the singing and jokes, here are a few examples of questions I put to Dave and a quick summary of his responses:

Curate and distribute industry content

A lot of businesses aren't willing to share content from other companies. Why is it so important for small and medium-sized companies to curate and distribute industry content in addition to their own?

I was awed by Dave's response to this question since it's so easy and accurate.

Instead of thinking as an organization and being afraid of the content of others, Dave advises putting yourself in the role of a consumer.

As consumers, we, Dave, and everyone around the globe are looking to access numerous content sources. We don't all want opinions or just one perspective. We want to look at every angle of any given subject.

If you may think that you're in the best position to protect your interests only by sharing your content, this isn't true security. Consumers are likely searching and reading more information than what you've created.

But, if you're the person who connects users to another brand's relevant content, you'll get some or all of the credits for your content (even even though you had nothing to have anything to do with the content).

It is important to keep up-to-date on the latest industry news and be prepared to provide consumers with a solution even if it didn't originate directly from you.

Certain marketers believe that "likes" are just a superficial measurement. Do you think this statement is true? If not, how can companies gain from creating large amounts of "likes" and "shares"?

Marketers and businesses

This is a great question since it's something all marketers and businesses have considered when considering social media metrics and has generated equally much content from both ends of the fence.

Dave's response is a different interpretation of the phrase we've used for years to describe the situation: "it is contingent."

Dave believes that "likes" may seem superficial. However, they could also be important. The nature and context of "likes" and, more importantly, the quality and value of those "likes." If your business is awash with thousands of "likes" that come from a subset of people who aren't your customers, the "likes" are useless.

The thousand or hundred "likes" from genuine customers and followers are more valuable to your company. If you're investing your time and effort into social media, you'll be able to generate tangible results.

What are your thoughts on companies that claim "social media doesn't fit into our sector?" Do you think that social media marketing is a strategy that can benefit any business in any industry?

It's not surprising that Dave is adamant that every business should be able to benefit from social media (and we're convinced too).

Dave mentions that some companies can help more by listening than speaking, such as "evil" tobacco companies and other companies with a bad public image. However, there's an abundance of information and insights to gain through social media at the end of it all.

Incorporate social media

We encourage everyone to incorporate social media into business. In the end, at all times, my own belief is that it's more a state of mind. The more you believe and act in a way that social media can impact your company, the more efficient it will be.

This concludes this fourth installment of the WSI's online marketing podcast! We want to be grateful to Dave Kerpen for joining us this month.

We hope you enjoyed it as much with Dave as we enjoyed ourselves. Contact us (or Dave) on Twitter or Facebook if you have feedback or suggestions. Also, don't forget to sign up for the podcast in the box below!