#33 Thomas Moen on Trust Marketing, the Evolution of Digital Influencers & Focusing on Facebook

Jun 13, 2018

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Thomas Moen has been helping people launch and sell things online since 1999.

Thomas is an Oslo based marketer who has been on the cutting edge of digital and community building even before the "early days" of social media. He sold his first company by 21, has been the CEO of 5 companies, and before stepping out on his own this year, was most recently the CMO of United Influencers, the biggest social media influencer management agency in Scandinavia.

Thomas is also the founder of his own digital school of marketing, Jab Jab Academy and has been hired by companies like The Red Cross & Elle Magazine to educate their employees about marketing in today’s digital world of influencers and constant content consumption. He is also a master at putting together live events.

He has a deep knowledge of the digital marketing landscape and I was excited to chat with him and also to get an international perspective on topics I talk about on this show. This was an incredibly full episode!

A few of the topics we covered:

Facebook - why that's his primary focus for his brand & business
Influencer Marketing - how he got into the influencer space before "influencers" existed & where the market is headed
Chatbots/ Messaging - what's next for marketing
How he constructed the work of his dreams
Trust Marketing
How he monetizes his personal brand (& how his personal brand has helped his business)
Online Courses, Webinar tips & more!

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Timestamps & Show Notes

[00:02:21] Intro to Thomas Moen

[00:03:17] Can you tell the audience a little bit about who you are and what you do?

[00:05:49] What year was it when you first discovered the Internet and what it held for you, and was that before you started working in the bar?

[00:06:24] So were you ever trying to go the traditional route or when did you realize that this itself could be a business?

[00:07:34] How did you come up with the idea of the blogging platform and actually turn that into a business?

[00:11:15] How are you reaching out to the companies at this time, because this is, I mean essentially what you are talking about is obviously Influencer Marketing, like you said, branded content. And yes, Influencer Marketing has "always existed", but that seems like around the time where probably it would have been hard to convince a company to actually put money into a blogging community or into this Internet thing.

[00:13:26] Were you blogging at the time or what made you think blogging?

[00:16:06] To give people the scope of your conference experience, how many conferences have you put on, and how do you actually make a successful conference?

[00:17:46] So going back to the blogging, when did you actually get out of that business?

[00:19:14] When you sold your company did you at least have enough money from that to pick and choose after where you wanted to go?

[00:19:28] Can you talk a little bit about the hard parts about working for yourself versus working for someone else and the hardest lessons you've learned?

[00:24:37] When did you realize that you were building a personal brand, that you wanted to build a personal brand, that you were building a community around yourself?

[00:27:04] So when did you first come up with the concept of trust marketing then? When did that enter your vocabulary?

[00:28:16] I ask everybody what they think the secret to influence is. But when I answer that question, it always comes down to building that trust and loyalty. I think trust is the number one thing that builds influence.

[00:28:31] So then speaking about trust, when did you start actually monetizing your personal brand audience?

[00:32:34] I think it's interesting the different reactions that people have to courses and selling your knowledge. You can't really scale, you're going to cap out if you are single handedly consulting one to one.

[00:34:12] So I have to ask about the price point. What made the jump for people to want to buy it -- is that just a psychological thing -- to buy it at 500 versus buying it at 50?

[00:35:20] What would have been the most effective ways for you to sell courses?

[00:37:10] So what makes a good webinar then?

[00:38:37] And how effective are Facebook ads for your courses?

[00:39:26] Why is Facebook so important to you?

[00:41:13] I read an article the other day about how teenagers are dropping off Facebook or aren't using it as much -- they're using Snapchat, Instagram, and YouTube -- do you think Facebook will be able to get that audience?

[00:42:31] So what are some tips you have for people who actually want to start building their personal brands on Facebook today?

[00:44:17] So for people just starting out, let's say they have an audience on Instagram and then they want to retarget those people with Facebook ads, how do they even go about doing that?

[00:45:22] So I know you're not necessarily billed as a Facebook ad expert, but what have you noticed that makes for good ad?

[00:46:19] I know you also have course on Facebook chat bots. Can you talk a little bit about how important that is now and how important that's going to be?

[00:51:20] That's such an awesome mindset, and very few people I speak to, and I'm guilty of this, too, think about that enough point -- think about what's actually enough. What do you really want? You're stuck in this growth mindset and the hustle and you're competing with so-and-so, and I think people -- it might have to do with age and experience, too -- but I think it gets to a point where you look at what you need, and you come from a place of gratitude and real practicality, and it's just like, what actually makes me happy?

[00:52:15] How much time do you spend actually making content?

[00:53:17] So I can't let you go without talking about the influencer space. Can you talk to me about how United Influencers came about? Well, just your relationship to influencers in general starting out in Scandinavia.

[00:57:31] At United influencers, were you helping brands find the influencers, were you more on the influencer side, or were you a go between?

[00:58:44] So this audience is on both sides of the aisle. I have people who are content creators and influencers, and I have people who are entrepreneurs, brands, small business owners. What's your advice to an influencer in terms of how to work with a brand and how much they should be asking? Also, what's your advice on the brand side for how much an influencer is worth? Because I think while big brands have the ability to hire agencies and have way more data, I think the small business person or entrepreneur who wants to be using influencers really isn't educated in that space.

[01:01:13] I know we've worked with some U.S. influencers. Has there been a huge difference for you in terms of working with U.S. influencers and how they operate versus European influencers?

[01:02:40] Do you think influencer marketing was harder to catch on in Europe, or not so much in the Nordics? I've heard the Nordics adopt things quicker than the rest of Europe. I don't know if that's true.

[01:03:46] Where can find Thomas!

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*FREEBIE: For those who don’t know, I’ve been hot on building brand on LinkedIn for pretty much every industry. If you haven’t been on LinkedIn in a while or if you just haven’t updated your profile, I created a free checklist to make sure you’re up to date and answering the right questions with your LinkedIn bio. You can get it at brittanykrystle.com/linkedin

If you’d like your questions answered on a future episode, the next round will be sourced from my email list & from iTunes reviews. If you haven’t already, head to brittanykrystle.com to sign up for my email list OR you can leave me a review on iTunes and include your question.

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