3 Big Questions for Social in 2014: Celebrating 100 Episodes of Social Pros

Several esteemed former guests from the show join the Social Pros Podcast this week to celebrate the 100th episode and to discuss the current landscape of social, how it has changed over the past year, and what things look like going forward.
Read on for some of the highlights and tweetable moments, or listen to the full podcast.

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Huge thanks to our amazing sponsors for helping us make this happen. Please support them; we couldn’t do it without their help! This week:

• From ExactTarget, a free whitepaper called The Audience Growth Survey.
• From Cision, a free ebook called Power Your Story: Content Marketing Essentials.
• From Janrain, a free guide to improve your conversion rates and your data quality.
• And from Expion, a free report on the top 50 retail brands’ social media use in 2013.

Listen Now

Click the play button to listen here:
[podcast]http://socialpros.podbean.com/mf/web/vctmpn/SocialProsEpisode100.mp3[/podcast]
Download the audio file:
http://socialpros.podbean.com/mf/web/vctmpn/SocialProsEpisode100.mp3
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Find us on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/convince-convert-blog-social/id499844469

Tweetable Moments

“Social used to be the last part of the conversation. Now it’s often the first.” -@VSDieguez (tweet this)

The Big 3 Heading into 2014

This week the world saw the Social Pros Podcast turn 100 – episodes, that is. To celebrate, we brought back our former co-host Eric Boggs together with half a dozen of our esteemed past guests into a Google Hangout and then asked you to join.
Joining our usual hosts on the show this week are:

• Eric Boggs, Founder & President of RevBoss and former co-host of the Social Pros Podcast
• Jessica Gioglio, Social Media Strategist at Dunkin Donuts
• Scott Gulbransen, Director of Social at H&R Block
• Shannon Paul, VP of Social Media Strategy at Fifth Third Bank
• Vanessa Sain-Dieguez, Social Media Director at Hilton Worldwide
• Brad Walters, Director of Social Media and Emerging Platforms at Lowe’s Home Improvement

The pros discover a handful of pressing and timely topics, including their diverse backgrounds in social media and how they got to where they are today, along with new up-and-comers like Jelly and Jessica’s forthcoming book The Power of Visual Storytelling, which she cowrote with Ekaterina Walter.
The big three questions they tackle are as follows.

1. What in social has changed for you over the past year?

2. Which new channels, apps, or other new toys have crossed your radar in the past year and become important?

3. What are you most excited to get involved in this year?

In case you missed the live Hangout, or if you want to watch it again, here it is.

Curtain Call

Take a look back at the original appearances of our five guests on the Social Pros Podcast:

• Episode 1: Eric Boggs interviewing Taulbee Jackson in Super Bowl Social Media Command Center
• Episode 11: Vanessa Sain-Dieguez, Hilton Hotels
• Episode 40: Shannon Paul with Getting Social Media Strategy Right in Financial Services
• Episode 54: Jessica Gioglio with How to Derive Inspiration from an Active Fan Base
• Episode 66: Scott Gulbransen with How H&R Block Activated 90,000 Seasonal Tax Pros in Social Media
• Episode 73: Brad Walters with How to be Successful Across All Social Media Platforms

The Big Two

What’s your one tip for becoming a social pro?
Take a page out of Eric’s book and, “Partner with the people who already have the audience aggregated.”
If you could do a Skype call with any living person, who would it be?
Bob Dylan

What’s your one tip for becoming a social pro?
“Be brave. Be patient. Be disruptive.” But mostly he emphasizes patience.
If you could do a Skype call with any living person, who would it be?
Keith Richards

What’s your one tip for becoming a social pro?
Learn those “soft” skills: aggregate people skills, learn how to manage people who don’t report to you, help other people understand the vision.
If you could do a Skype call with any living person, who would it be?
Avinash Kaushik

What’s your one tip for becoming a social pro?
Learn as much about your business as you possibly can. Be able to answer any question across any discipline, and you’re golden.
If you could do a Skype call with any living person, who would it be?
Sheryl Sandberg, of Lean In and Google/Facebook fame

What’s your one tip for becoming a social pro?
Don’t be afraid to experiment. “Be fearless!” When it comes to new platforms and technologies, embrace the change.
If you could do a Skype call with any living person, who would it be?
Art Briles, Head Coach of the Baylor Bears

Jessica’s connection cut out so she couldn’t answer these questions directly, but check out her Social Image of the Week posts on Convince & Convert for her advice.

See you next week!