Another month, another excellent round of guests on the Social Pros Podcast. In February, we heard from Southwestern Consulting’s time management expert, a social media champion from Life Time Fitness, BroadSuite’s biggest social fan (iSocialFanz), and the Social Media Examiner himself.
As always, our Social Pros draw from different backgrounds and perspectives when they join us to talk about social media as a vital source of communication and connection in today’s digital world. Despite their differences, this month’s guests agree that you need to embrace change. When something you’re doing isn’t working, let it go and move on to something else.
Southwestern Consulting Co-Founder, Rory Vaden
Rory Vaden and his team at Southwestern Consulting set out to ease their clients’ pain points surrounding time management. In their surveys, research, and reflection, they realized that, “There is no such thing as time management. There is only self management.” There is only a finite amount of time that we all have to use. The key is best choosing how to divide up that time.
The first step, then is to give permission to eliminate. We often have feelings of guilt and fear associated with saying “no”. We worry we will miss out or let someone down. “Everything that we ever read about time management is logical but, today, time management isn’t just logical, it’s emotional.”
As Social Pros, we are always hearing about the latest and coolest new technology and social media tools. We’re tempted to say, “Oh my gosh, now I have to do this and I have to do this and I have to do this!” But in reality, we have to give ourselves permission to eliminate any efforts that don’t directly drive results. We can experiment and test, but if something isn’t working, we must give ourselves permission to eliminate it.
One of the people Rory interviewed said to him, “Rory, you have to realize it’s impossible to go through life without saying ‘no’. You are always saying ‘no’ to something. Any time you are saying ‘yes’ to one thing, you are simultaneously saying ‘no’ to an infinite number of others.” Meaning if you’re not consciously saying “no” to things that don’t matter and don’t work, you will end up unconsciously saying “no” to things that do matter and do work. “Get rid of that fear that, ‘I have to be doing this because everyone else is doing it.'”
Click the play button to listen here:
[podcast]http://socialpros.podbean.com/mf/web/ednbkv/Social_Pros_Episode_151.mp3[/podcast]
Read on for the full highlights: https://www.convinceandconvert.com/podcasts/social-pros-podcast/multiply-time-to-improve-social.-media/
Life Time Fitness Director of Social Media, Tony Saucier
Tony Saucier works with a small social media team of five at the national level, and a huge team of 114 at the local level of Life Time Fitness. They have chosen one “social media champion” at each of Life Time’s 114 club locations to be in charge of social media for that club’s Facebook page.
This strategy was developed as Tony and his team discovered their conversion numbers were skyrocketing when they started engaging at the community level. Now, they have 114 “Petri dishes” to see what content really picks up within their smaller communities. It’s the perfect way to experiment and see what works. Anything that resonates can then be used on the national social channels to share with their wider audience.
When Tony first started at Life Time, he was measuring everything to make sure he had data to cover his bases. As he continued with the company, he learned what metrics were useful and what weren’t. Anything that didn’t help them strategize and hone in on results was chucked. “We went from having a dashboard with 25 different metrics to 6.”
Tony and his social media team also tested four or five dozen different approaches on social media to try to figure out how to drive revenue directly. “The majority of them crashed and burned.” So what did they do? They stopped doing the things that weren’t working and put their energy into new ideas.
Click the play button to listen here:
[podcast]http://socialpros.podbean.com/mf/web/ej3nxu/Social_Pros_Episode_152.mp3[/podcast]
Read on for the full highlights: https://www.convinceandconvert.com/podcasts/social-pros-podcast/life-time-fitness-wins-fans-with-unplanned-social-content
BroadSuite Partner and Chief Digital Strategist, Brian Fanzo
Brian Fanzo is a big fan of social media, technology, and change. He is the Chief Digital Strategist at BroadSuite, as well as a prominent thought leader as his personal brand, iSocialFanz. Through his background in technology (computer science) and role in social media, Brian has embraced change and is driven a little crazy when others don’t jump onboard when the tides turn.
“I think it’s the people that are doing great things, we’re driving change together. But unfortunately, those that aren’t really preaching what really works and really stepping up to the bat are giving us all a bad name, and making it all harder on us as a community to drive change.”
Another thing Brian feels strongly about is the necessity of listening in social media. Especially when you’re just starting out, you must listen more than you talk. Brian says, “I think my biggest weapon that I use in social media, especially, is really leveraging social data and social listening.” Whether through hashtags, Twitter lists, or leveraging Google+, Brian listens to understand “not only what the community is talking about, but also what their pain points are” to better align the story he is trying to tell.
It’s exciting to see more brands starting to embrace the social element of social. Instead of “me, me, me”, brands are starting to ask their audiences for feedback. Because, after all, how can we solve our audiences’ problems if we don’t know what they are?
Click the play button to listen here:
[podcast]http://socialpros.podbean.com/mf/web/8utr4c/Social_Pros_Episode_153.mp3[/podcast]
Read on for the full highlights: https://www.convinceandconvert.com/podcasts/social-pros-podcast/be-social-dont-just-do-social/
Social Media Examiner CEO, Mike Stelzner
Mike Stelzner, CEO and Founder of Social Media Examiner, is no stranger to cutting things loose if they don’t bring results. One of the hardest decisions he ever made was to shut down his passion project, My Kids’ Adventures, which was all about helping busy parents do fun activities with their kids. He realized that despite having 700,000 people visit the site in a year, he was only making $400 per month. He was spending over $20,000 per month to maintain the site. “The return on investment just wasn’t there. I came to the realization that I had to shut down my baby.”
Though the decision was tough, Mike and his team were tougher. His team is more focused. “We are a stronger company now as a result of not doing the thing that was the passion of the CEO.”
Mike recommends the book Necessary Endings, by Henry Cloud. The book likens our life and work to a rosebush. We produce more than we can possibly sustain. To produce prize flowers, we have to cut off some branches to let the rosebush become what it’s truly meant to be.
Mike takes this seriously and applies it to all areas of his business. If a blog isn’t getting enough page views, then he won’t keep publishing it. If he doesn’t see the engagement he wants on a social media platform, he will tweak his strategy.
“It’s all about taking the research and coupling it with the real world experience.”
Click the play button to listen here:
[podcast]http://socialpros.podbean.com/mf/web/e367zm/Social_Pros_Episode_154.mp3[/podcast]
Read on for the full highlights: https://www.convinceandconvert.com/podcasts/social-pros-podcast/social-media-examiner-biggest-site-in-social/
