In this episode, I’m really excited to have as my guest, Ted Rubin. Ted is a digital marketer and brand strategist who coined the term Return on Relationship (aka. #RonR). He is also the Chief Marketing Officer of Photofy, a prolific author, and an even more prolific social media personality.
Ted believes in looking people in the eye, even in today’s digital world, as clients and customers want a connection that adds value to their business. Looking someone in the eye conveys that you’re paying attention and that you’re “in the moment.”
In our discussion, Ted and I talked about:
- Why communities are more powerful than just relationships
- How to build emotional connections on social media and really listen to people
- Why he posts photos of his socks…
Listen to the podcast to find out more.
Show Notes from this episode with Ted Rubin, Digital Marketer and Brand Strategist
Key points and takeaways from this episode include:
- Sales is about relationships.
- A network gives you reach but a community gives you power. Networks connect but communities care.
- A handshake is a door opener to a friendship but in order to become friends, you need to engage. You need to have conversations. You need to pay attention to what each other is doing.
- Social media is a huge opportunity to get to know something about someone.
-
Looking People in the Eye Digitally… means doing what you used to do when you are facing someone but being able to do it via social platforms.
- Find points of emotional connection that will allow you to build a relationship. Don’t go there selling. Go there to know about that person.
- Looking people in the eye digitally means getting to know a person for who they are with all the tools you have available that allow you to do it.
- Don’t ask questions if you don’t want to listen or want to hear the answers.
- If content is king then connection is queen, and she rules the house.
- Conversations are the best content.
- Relationships are like muscles. The more you engage them, the stronger and more valuable they become.
- The more content you produce that makes an easy conversation, the more people will reach out and connect with you.
- The more you share about yourself, the more personal you make it, and the more you let people into your world, the more it makes people comfortable to reach out to you and connect with you.
- Every audience is different. Every person is different and everybody’s goals are different. You have to see what works best for you but the most important thing is to know how you can scale that.
- You lose people with every click. You lose people every time someone has to go deeper. Create snackable content that is incredibly short and will allow people to connect and engage with you easily.
- Everyone should have a blog.
- Social media is the ultimate permission marketing… it’s totally up to you who you listen to and where.
- Personalize. In this day and age, people want to know more about who they are dealing with. They want to know what you believe in and what’s important to you. It doesn’t have to be aligned with what they believe in. It’s more about YOU as a person and how they are spending their time.
- Don’t be afraid to repost content. Don’t be afraid to use content again and again. As long as it is evergreen, you can keep using that content in different ways… ride good content until the wheels fall off.
- Save your favorite content so that you can easily access and use it again and again and again.
- A network is simply a series of nodes that give you connections to other people but a community is a group that works together, shares knowledge and information with each other, and supports each other.
- Build multiple communities by sharing other people’s groups.
- You can be part of many different communities. There are all these different places in your life where you can build these connections, and when you build a community, it becomes much stronger.
The Buzz – Our Innovation Round
Here are Ted’s answers to the questions of our Innovation round. Listen to the interview to get the full scoop.
- #1 thing to be more innovative – Open your mind to other people’s opinions. Hear people out. Pay attention to what people are talking about and what they are saying.
- Best thing for new ideas – Talking to my business partner. Having conversations with people.
- Favourite tool for innovation – Social media – putting content out there and seeing how people react to it.
- Keep project / client on track – Getting paid at the beginning of the month and not at the end.
- Differentiate – Be YOU. It’s easier to build your personal brand when you are yourself. As Dr Seuss had said, “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”
To Be a Leader
Relationships are like muscles. The more you engage them, the stronger and more valuable they become. A brand is what a business or a person does but a reputation is what people remember and share. Always keep that in mind in everything that you do. When you build relationships, you are good to people, and you look to support people wherever you can, then, your reputation will grow.
Reach Out
You can reach out and thank Ted through his website and email.
Books
- Return on Relationship
- How to Look People in the Eye Digitally
- The Age of Influence: Selling to the Digitally Connected Customer
Cool things about Ted
- He’s been listed as #13 on Forbes Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers, and number #2 on the Leadtail list of Top 25 People Most Mentioned by digital marketers.
- He’s the most followed CMO on Twitter according to Social Media Marketing Magazine.
- He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business and Economics from Cornell University.