Social Pros Podcast Convince & Convert

Luka Dukich, the Director of Content for the Chicago Bulls, is our guest on this episode of Social Pros, where we talk about why being adaptable is key for social media success no matter what’s going on in the world.
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:
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
SocialMedia.org
Are you adaptable on social media?
 
Adapting to change quickly is something that we’ve all had to master since COVID-19 replaced ‘normal life’ with a great level of uncertainty. But we didn’t just adapt our personal lives to reflect recent changes in the world, we’ve also had to adapt our social media presence.
 
Luka Dukich, the Director of Content for the Chicago Bulls, has managed to adapt the sports team’s entire social media strategy in response to recent changes with poise, professionalism, and a level of success we can all aspire to.
 
Luka understands that you “can’t control what you can’t control,” and has found other ways to get creative on social even when no games are going on. He has done an incredible job maintaining and, in many cases, increasing fan engagement across the team’s social media channels.
 
In This Episode:
 
05:40 – A look at the unusual content schedule for social pros at the Chicago Bulls 07:49 - How Chicago Bull’s social media team is structured 13:11 – Why Chicago Bulls have other social media accounts separate from the main accounts 20:18 – How they track the demographics of their different social media accounts 22:05 – How Chicago Bull’s content strategy has pivoted in response to COVID-19 29:55 – How Luka and his team engage with their fans on social 33:44 – How Luka handles video and photo rights in publishing 36:05 – How Luka’s agency experience prepared him for his current role 41:03 – How ‘The Last Dance’ impacted the Chicago Bulls Resources:
Get the new State of Marketing report for free from Salesforce Find out more about the community at SocialMedia.org with a special form for Social Pros listeners Download Salesforce’s e-book “Boost Sales Productivity: Get More from Your Sales Team" Find out how you can launch your first LinkedIn campaign with $100! Visit SocialPros.com for more insights from your favorite social media marketers.

Neal Schaffer, the President of PDCA Social, joins the Social Pros Podcast to talk about how brands and businesses can leverage influencers in their marketing efforts and effectively navigate through ‘the age of influence’ we currently find ourselves living in.
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:
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
SocialMedia.org
Full Episode Details
The Age of Influence
If you want people to hear about your brand and talk about your brand, you need to leverage influencers as part of your marketing.
Neal Schaffer, the President of PDCA Social and a leading authority on digital transformation, believes that brands should view influencer marketing as a commitment, not just a campaign. Social media has given a voice to all types of followers with different audiences. Chances are, there is an ideal influencer out there who has the influence and authority to help put your brand in front of the right people.
Neal Schaffer knows exactly how you can identify and engage with the right influencers for your brand and openly shares his best tips to help you create and implement a highly effective influencer marketing plan – including some major influencer marketing mistakes you might want to avoid!
In This Episode:
06:05 - What ‘the age of influence’ means for brands, business owners, and marketers 08:03 – How Neal defines influence 12:08 – How B2B brands can leverage influencer marketing 16:27 – Tips to help you identify the right influencer for your brand 19:53 – How to work effectively with influencers 22:45 – What departments of an organization should have a role in managing a successful influencer marketing strategy 25:32 – Advice for leveraging influencers during COVID-19 27:45 - Why you should focus on turning influencers into brand advocates 31:02 – How to structure your ‘influencer marketing budget’ Resources:
Get the new State of Marketing report for free from Salesforce Find out more about the community at SocialMedia.org with a special form for Social Pros listeners Find out how you can launch your first LinkedIn campaign with $100! Visit Neal’s website to learn more about him and his work Read Neal’s new book, The Age of Influence Visit SocialPros.com for more insights from your favorite social media marketers.

Laurie Meacham, the Manager of Customer Support at JetBlue, joins the Social Pros Podcast to talk about the importance of empathetic marketing and showing humanity towards customers on social media.
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: 
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
SocialMedia.org
Remember to have humanity
When COVID-19 hit, many brands were not prepared for handling a crisis of this scale. It was uncharted territory for many of us and it still is. COVID-19 has not ‘gone away’ and as social practitioners, we have had to scramble to adjust and fine-tune our content in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
From postponing brand announcements to canceling live events and adjusting content calendars, it has not been an easy transition, to say the least. However, one thing that I think we can all agree on is the undeniable importance of aligning your social customer services in response to the crisis.
Customers are firing more questions at brands than ever, and they’re using social to do it. Laurie Meacham, the Manager of Customer Support at JetBlue, has handled social customer service during COVID-19 perfectly. Think about it, this is a company that, like many others, has been hugely impacted by the global pandemic. Flights were (and still are in some cases) presumed canceled, and people are hesitant to even step foot on a plane. But, above all else, customers want answers, and Laurie and her team are right there, in the trenches of social media, to answer customers questions and show humanity during a highly stressful and uncertain time.
In This Episode:
04:27 - How JetBlue’s virtual customer support team is structured 09:08 – A look at how JetBlue’s remote workforce has operated for over 20 years 11:23 – Tips for working remotely and managing a remote team 13:33 – How the ‘rules of engagement’ have changed 16:58 – How JetBlue have handled customer service on social during COVID-19 22:08 – How the ratio of ‘social media chatter’ has changed lately 24:36 – What channels consumers are using to get in touch with JetBlue’s customer service team 27:36 – How people have shown support (or a lack thereof in some cases) during COVID-19 31:34 – How JetBlue’s ‘Healthcare Heroes Programme’ works Resources:
Get the new State of Marketing report for free from Salesforce Find out more about the community at SocialMedia.org with a special form for Social Pros listeners Download Salesforce’s free eBook – “50 Best Practices for Email Marketers” Learn more about JetBlue Visit SocialPros.com for more insights from your favorite social media marketers.

Michael Stelzner, the Founder of Social Media Examiner, joins the Social Pros podcast to talk about the 2020 Social Media Marketing Industry Report and why video may be the only viable place to innovate in social media.
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:
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
SocialMedia.org
Are you innovative on social media?
Video is one of the most effective ways to pull people into your content. If you’re not already incorporating video in your social media marketing, you risk missing out on opportunities for real growth, engagement, and innovation.
Michael Stelzner, the Founder of Social Media Examiner, started with a blog, which quickly became one of the most popular blogs about social media in the world. Since then, Mike and his team have pivoted toward video and for good reason. Video is where innovations are happening on social and Mike went as far as claiming that video is the only area where we’re seeing a lot of innovation on social media.
We dive into all of this further on this episode of Social pros, where we take a look at some key findings from Social Media Examiner’s 2020 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, which surveyed more than 5,200 marketers about how they use social media.
In This Episode:
02:43 – Why Social Media Examiner are holding an online Instagram Summit 08:52 – Why live videos have dropped in popularity recently 13:49 – Why marketers should pay more attention to YouTube 19:24 – How Social Media Examiner repurposes videos into full-length articles 21:03 – How brands can decide where to focus their efforts 23:52 – The problem with messenger bots 30:24 – The changing usage of social media in 2020 35:56 – Why video may be the only innovative medium on social media 37:27 – Whether marketers are likely to ‘take the TikTok plunge’ Resources:
Get the new State of Marketing report for free from Salesforce Find out more about the community at SocialMedia.org with a special form for Social Pros listeners Download Social Media Examiner’s 2020 Social Media Marketing Industry Report Find out more about the Instagram Marketing Summit Listen to the Social Media Marketing Podcast Listen to Episode 397 of Social Pros with Michael Stelzner  
Visit SocialPros.com for more insights from your favorite social media marketers.
 

On this special encore episode of the Social Pros Podcast, we’re joined by Lisa Blackshear, Sr. Vice President of Communications, Digital Media at Comcast, to talk about how to build and manage an incredible social care team.
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:
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
SocialMedia.org
Full Episode Details
Create Authentic Social Care Teams
Providing outstanding customer care has never been easier thanks to social media. Before the internet, a telephone call was the best way for brands to interact with their customers. Nowadays, customers are more inclined to ‘hit you up’ on social rather than choose to speak to you over the phone.
Social media customer care is critical, so how can you make sure your social care team is performing at the highest standard?
Lisa Blackshear, Sr. Vice President of Communications, Digital Media at Comcast, is our guest on this throwback episode of the show. Lisa runs what could possibly be one of the largest customer care programs in the country with over 400 agents interacting with customers and resolving issues across every social channel imaginable.
With everything going on in the world right now, having a strong customer care team in place is so important and providing genuine, human interactions is what will set you apart from your competition and keep customers coming back for more.
In This Episode:
05:20 - How to build an amazing social care team 09:17 - How engagement on social has evolved alongside customer expectations 14:08 - How Comcast’s social care team adapts their customer’s tone to create personal and authentic interactions 20:41 - How your customer care team can coordinate multiple touchpoints with customers 24:14 – What social channels Comcast’s social care team is most active 29:05 - How to use customer interactions to improve your social care team’s performance 32:56 - How to effectively coordinate between the social care team, communications/PR, and branding  
Visit SocialPros.com for more insights from your favorite social media marketers.

Tiffany Rivers, the Social Media Manager at Boys & Girls Clubs of America, joins the Social Pros Podcast to talk about how she and her team has leveraged social to bring over 4000 clubs together during difficult times.
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: 
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
SocialMedia.org
Full Episode Details
Social Unites
Not everyone agrees with each other on social media. Spontaneous (and often heated) debates can spark from the most unlikely post or tweet. So, who would have thought that when COVID-19 sent millions into isolation that social media would be the very thing that helps bring people together?
Social has played a significant role in bringing families, friends, and colleagues together during an incredibly difficult time. Tiffany Rivers, the Social Media Manager at Boys & Girls Clubs of America, has managed to successfully leverage the power of social to bring over 4000 clubs together to support one worthy cause.
As you can imagine, this was no easy feat considering each of the 4000+ clubs are in different locations around the country, each with their own CEO, leadership, and teams. So, how did Tiffany work with all of these clubs to ensure everyone told the same story in unison so that they could continue their work helping make great futures a reality for America's youth? Find out on this inspiring episode of Social Pros!
In This Episode:
03:50 – How Tiffany works with marketing and communications colleagues 09:26 – How to change an organization’s view on social media 12:37 - How the clubs leveraged internal talent, virtual programming, and social during COVID-19 18:45 – Why it’s so important to come together during difficult times 20:47 – Tiffany talks about the club’s partnerships with people such as Denzel Washington, Katy Perry, and Beyoncé 28:00 – How to determine what messages go out on which social channels 33:08 – How Tiffany makes sure that messages are consistent across all 4000+ clubs Visit SocialPros.com for more insights from your favorite social media marketers.