Visit the social strategy podcast when you're host Vernon Ross and this is episode number two Welcome to the social strategy podcast where it's all about making the most of your business with smart tips on what's working now in social media online business and good old-fashioned networking And now your host who's also known as Ross PR on Twitter Vernon Ross Hey guys, this is Vernon Ross welcome to the social strategy podcast and on this episode We're actually doing an interview and it's a live interview. I did it at a conference so prepare There's gonna be some background noise and there was an eruption and people just walked up in the middle of us recording But it was so much fun to do. It's not a super long podcast But I think you guys are gonna get a lot of content out of this I interviewed Michael Britto He is a senior vice president at Edelman digital if you guys don't know Edelman does all types of social media marketing public relations, he's worked with companies like HP Yahoo Microsoft you name it he's worked with them. He is currently an adjunct professor at San Jose University And he's also a an adjunct professor at UC Berkeley, which is just impressive all in itself He's had articles published in Mashable ad week information week PR news week news week marketing props social fresh and Countless others this guy is the real deal when it comes to content marketing You need to think about what he's saying and apply it to your business And he actually gives us some really actionable strategies and things that we can take and use in our businesses right now So without further ado, I don't want to drag this out anymore.
Here's the interview I hope you guys enjoy and I'll see you on the back end. All right, so this is running Ross's strategy podcast And I do a ton of events and every now and then I get a chance to meet the keynotes to do events and stuff like that So this is Michael Britto and you go by Britto is a Brito pie in a Brito. I don't know how to say it's utopian Britto Yes, yes, you get a lot of people mispronouncing it like it's all a great pain to a plan It's not a little bit so okay, so a little bit about you you were until just a couple days ago vice president so strategy at Edelman That's correct So tell us a little bit about that and how it was and how you came to that position sure I've been there for years and before that I was on the client side working for pre-large brands like Antonio And at Edelman I helped clients struggle through content strategy a lot of social business initiatives Which is the focus of the internal dynamics of companies helping them better create content open better engage with customers helping better drive analytics And things like that so it's been a great four years working on a variety of clients from B2B to B2B to see Some nonprofit organizations as well right now with some of your background I know you work for Yahoo you work for HP huge huge brands a lot of people want to know especially on podcast like this How can you translate that type of social interaction and this social strategy stuff that you did into a small business? For instance a pizza shop or a dentist or a doctor's office How can you incorporate some of that stuff that you know well content is content right and so most companies large small Dennis doctors, you know large CEOs of companies They all struggle with content They just don't know what to say how to say or to say it and so the frameworks are simple and they're the same It's just the content is gonna be different in HP than it is in the pizza shop down the street But the principles and the way that you take content from ideation to distribution is the same process Some are much more simple than others versus the large brands which more complex But it's not that difficult to take a large thinking around brand marketing or content strategy and apply it to a small business Right now.
I'm sure you do a lot of interviews and a lot of people actually questions What's the question that people don't ask? What's that one thing that you want people to ask you that they just never seen? You caught me on guard on that one and that's that's what I was hoping to do It's over the last year I've been wanting people to ask me like what's the difference between content marketing versus content strategy now? We know content marketing is a new buzzword right now and it's been replaced by like SEO a lot of the SEO experts You know talk about marketing but content marketing is just such a tactical way of thinking about content You know content is not a box you check or it's not a bullet point on a PowerPoint presentation It's the way that you think the way that you operate It's this idea of becoming a content organization whether you're a small company or you're a large brand And so when you think holistically take a few steps back and look at it more strategically and think about content as a way of as a behavior change in A way then you can deliver more effective content marketing strategies because you kind of understand what content really means versus an infographic or video And that kind of tends to make content marketers a little irritated right because that's where they make their business And that's there but it's true.
I mean you cannot walk into a large company or in a small company and just talk content marketing It's like talking it doesn't it's like talking. What's your Twitter strategy right? There has to be something much higher Right, okay cool. So you're from the from the coast from What's the what do you see the differences between like the Midwest and the way that we do social here the way that you implement social I West because I've seen a little bit of a difference between brands in the Midwest and agencies and highly actually implement social I can actually tell sometimes when I see a Twitter strategy or I'm not a silly strategy But I see companies that are based here in the Midwest versus companies are based in the East or West These companies in their content strategy.
They're trying to be a little bit more edgy in their West It seems a little bit kind of even keel or nothing really too controversial What's what's the feel of that? Have you ever seen that? You know what 20 you ask that but now that I think about it You may be right. I've never really studied that I do know what I love about the Midwest just the great food and the great people in the West I'm not a huge fan of the attitude in the West Coast, right?
It's just a bad attitude has nothing to do with social media It's just my observations But you know what I don't really know when I think about you know looking at different brands because we you know You don't really know I mean a brand who's here in Chicago or in St. Louis or wherever Midwest They have an agency in New York. We have an agency in San Francisco So when it's hard to tell is that the brand voice or is that an agency or is actually the community manager? But it's a really good question.
I'm gonna look into it even more. Yeah, I noticed a little bit of a regional difference between the way Some of the content I wonder if there are regionally regionally is some difference between how people be social I wasn't sure I figured out actually that question or something else Dealing with so you're a former Marine. That's right and coming from the military and being very regimented How are you as far as like a content together? Do you recommend a content calendar because it's something I recommend for people just help them get organized on how often are you gonna do?
Yeah, just think and make sure you do that all the time How does how does your military career play about how you do things implement your content? Well, I like to follow process But my wife won't fully agree to that all the time and that does stuff from being in the military, right? Having a content schedule is very important because it helps you understand helps you get a glimpse It helps you get a glimpse of what you're gonna say and when you're gonna say it and so if you can build that cadence and like Community manager or agency who has access to it. You have The North star right that that is your north star, you know, you're gonna post three times on Facebook Twice on Twitter this week and you actually know what you're gonna say if you've already gone through the approval process It just helps keep you grounded.
So yes, I do recommend keeping the content All right, so my father just wanted to ask you look me give me a little bit about your book I haven't had a chance to read it actually I didn't don't pick up yet or I haven't ordered it on Amazon So I'm a little bit about your book. Well, the good news is you'll get a copy of the book for being in It's awesome So it'll be here in two weeks But it really is looking at this transformation from brand to media And I talked a little earlier in the session today of the five characteristics of that media companies have that brands large and small Need to adopt the first one is storytelling Content relevancy ubiquity and agility those five characteristics that media companies have the ability to push out content In a moment's notice that's relevant that changes consumer behavior Those are the things that brands need to think about and this book is really not the why it's really a step-by-step process That helps pretty much the consultant all the way up to a large brand figure out how to optimize and operationalize their content strategy Okay, well good Michael. I really didn't talk to you and again This is a burning loss with social strategy podcast appreciate it and I'll let you know in this Alright, thanks a lot. All right, thanks a lot.
Good. Pretty amazing, right? So there was a lot of content in just that little seven-minute conversation that we had now of course after the event We went out had happy hour burgers and beers and a few of the old guard as we called them joined us And you know we came out and had some fun and got to know them a lot more and learn even more about Michael So Michael, thanks a lot for coming and speaking at the social media club at St. Louis and presenting the half-day social IRL conference It was on content strategy.
I learned a lot I'm sure everyone else that learned a lot all the tweets and everything else about it people really Got a good lesson in content strategy and what content is and content creation is and what it's not There's some just really good takeaways from there. One of the things I really did enjoy was the fact that he outlined five characteristics that media companies have that large and small You know brands need to adopt listen to those jot them down everything else that we talked about is in the show notes Michael's book is coming to be coming out soon. You can pre-order it right now on Amazon I have a link there for you guys. It's your brand the next media company And I read the preview you guys should read the preview This is this is really a step-by-step guide on what to do and implementing your media strategy So definitely go out and pre-order if you don't get a chance to pre-order by the time you listen to this podcast Don't worry about that.
Just go out and get the book. It's good ordered on Amazon It's gonna be one of the ones that's you know in my library and I read a lot of stuff That's not what I'm currently reading that reading right now actually right now I'm reading the emith revisited if you would like a free copy of that book just click on my link and you can go get the audio book on audible.com Try it out you'll book them on free. It's a pretty good deal You will read so many books listening to audio books It's sometimes the only way in between consuming other podcast which I'm doing right now at a feverish rate Then I can actually get books read because I just don't have time to sit down and you know thumb through a book And I can take my notes later. So make sure you go out Or Michael's book on Amazon again Michael.
Thanks a lot. You can find Michael on Twitter at Brittopian It's BRITOP AI and not Britto Payne like I say when I was first talking to him You also find me on Twitter at Ross PR. I really appreciate you guys listening to the podcast Remember to go out to iTunes rate review subscribe in that order rate it review it subscribe It's a matter of fact when you go out there the first thing you want to do is hit the subscribe button then you want to rate it I hope you give me five stars. I hope that this podcast was worth five stars.
I think that it is Maybe you agree. I'm pretty sure you do if you don't go find another podcast now. I'm just kidding rated honestly Let me know let me know when he's being proved. I'm working on this always getting better I have some very exciting interviews coming up.
I had an interview with Dixie Gillespie that one's gonna be going live next week. So look forward to that Fincon financial bloggers conferences coming and that is next week So there's gonna be a lot of exciting interviews there Pat Flynn jean Chatsky from the today show their financial contributor I'm going to have an interview with her Jamie Tardy from the eventual millionaire Derek Halperin from social triggers all types of good stuff And good people that I'm gonna be interviewing so I am really looking forward to that And I think I might even be able to sneak in an interview with this David Seidman and Garland guy Do you guys know him? That's really for the local people. He's from saying lowest.
He's a great guy. No David I've been doing him for a long time and he runs the rise to the top calm Some really great stuff there you guys can learn so much on that website. I've learned so much from David So I'm looking forward to actually talking to him at Fincon He has a another course called create also interviews you guys should also check out I'll put a link on the show notes to the rise to the top and I'll also put links to everyone else that I mentioned in the upcoming Fincon stuff that's come up next week. So I'm really really excited about that as you can tell I can't stop talking about it So until next time thanks a lot guys for tuning into the podcast.
See you on the back end next podcast. Talk to you later Do it