55. How to Refine Your Target Demographic and the Social Platforms to Engage Them On with Brian Carter

Nov 9, 2016

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In this episode, we have the pleasure of hearing from speaker, number-one bestselling author, businessman, and consultant Brian Carter. Brian, whose books include The Like Economy, LinkedIn For Business, Facebook Marketing, and the The Cowbell Principle, has also appeared on Bloomberg TV. He has taught over 50,000 students and has reached more than 3,000,000 people in the last year.

Brian definitely has the business experience to back up his popularity. He has 18 years of business success under his belt and has consulted with clients, including NBC, Microsoft, Universal Studios, and even the U.S. Army. His latest course, The Facebook Leads and Sales Machine, gives some insight into how highly he values Facebook as an advertising tool--and he’ll explain much more about that in this conversation.

Find Out More About Brian Here:

www.briancartergroup.com (this is shifting soon to scienceofdigitalmarketing.com) @BrianCarter on Twitter

In This Episode:

[01:28] - Brian talks about what the Cowbell Principle is and whether it has anything to do with Will Ferrell (the answer: yes, it does).
[04:04] - Why is Facebook so important? Brian gives his answer and also explains that Facebook and Google are the most important places to advertise and discusses the weaknesses of Snapchat and Instagram.
[05:46] - Locating your target audience and a lower cost per click for advertising are two more strengths that Facebook offers.
[08:32] - Gary Vaynerchuk is a big proponent of marketing on Snapchat, and Brian explains why. He and our host Stephan go on to discuss more aspects of Gary’s experience and advantages.
[10:13] - Brian talks about ways that you could use Snapchat, and reasons that you might, but suggests that for many companies it would end up wasting a lot of time. He also talks about the importance of advertising and the difficulty of creating viral content every day.
[12:02] - Combining advertising with viral content is a strong combination, and Brian gives examples of how this might work.
[14:05] - Brian reveals that the stats say we’re now socializing more on Facebook than face to face. He explains why, and he and Stephan discuss the issue of a “filter bubble.”
[19:17] - What would Brian say to someone who builds bridges or airports and claims that Facebook isn’t the right place to advertise for their industry?
[23:08] - Brian goes into further detail about how you can pinpoint or target ads on Facebook.
[23:41] - If you aren’t a stand-up comic, how can you be funny and engaging on social media? Brian provides some easy advice.
[26:36] - If you’re not creating funny content yourself, you’ll need to search for it. Brian gives some tips on how to find content like this and talks about the story of the “success kid” meme and how the child’s fame got his father money for a new kidney.
[30:36] - If you go to images.google.com and click on the camera icon at the end of the search box, you can do a reverse image search to help you figure out where an image came from and who the copyright holder is.
[31:15] - Brian talks about Facebook Audience Insights, a tool within Facebook’s ad manager, and explains how to put it to use.
[32:30] - Brian came up with a process he calls FIT, “find, invent, test.” He explains this as well as the difference between customers and fans.
[35:00] - We learn more about Facebook Audience Insights. Brian gives some insight into his process of testing ads.
[37:36] - Brian offers an example of how one might target the right audience when that audience sounds vague at first.
[38:58] - We hear about the possibility of using lookalikes.
[40:16] - Brian differentiates between fans and buyers, not only on Facebook but in general. This is the “finding” part of the FIT system. After this, the next step is to invent tests. After applying the tests, he goes back to fact-finding to see what worked and what didn’t. In this way, the system is a repeating loop.
[42:45] - Brian believes we have a “finite amount of creativity per day.” This is part of his argument against creating content calendars.
[44:25] - What are Brian’s thoughts on creating spinoffs from successful content or advertisements?
[47:28] - Brian discusses how his background in standup comedy helps him but makes it clear that this isn’t necessary if you’re willing to test ideas.
[49:15] - Instead of having a normal focus group, Brian talks about trying a focus group of improv people.

Links and Resources:

www.briancartergroup.com (this is shifting soon to scienceofdigitalmarketing.com) @BrianCarter on Twitter The Cowbell PrincipleFacebook MarketingThe Like EconomyLinkedIn For BusinessThe Facebook Leads and Sales Machine course Gary Vaynerchuk Filter bubble Giphy BuzzSumo (“the Google of highly shared content”)Success kid Facebook Audience Insights Google Reverse Image Search (click the camera at the end of the search bar)Pareto principle pexels.com