How Likeable Hub Helps Businesses Capture the Benefits of Social

Neal Schaffer: 0:00

Okay. Welcome to maximize your social actionable advice on how your business can maximize your social media presence. Now, the host of maximize your social, social media author, speaker, consultant, founder of maximize social business through social media center of excellence and the social tools Summit. Neal Schaffer. Good morning, afternoon, evening, wherever you are in the world. This is Neal Schaffer, welcome to another episode of maximize your social in preparation for the launch of the social tools Summit, May 12. In Boston, I have on the line here, none other than Nicole Cruz of likeable local Now, if you've been involved in social media like me, you know that the likeable brand is all about Dave Kirpan. What you might not know is that Dave is actually not only built out a very successful social media agency in likeable media, but he's also built out a really, really cool social media dashboard called likeable local that is obviously geared towards a very, very specific audience. So I'm not going to try to talk too much about what their tool does. I'm going to have Nicole talk at first, but I want to start with, you know, for a lot of small business owners or people that work at small businesses that are listening in, they probably already have HootSuite, right, Hootsuite is like the number one social media dashboard by any data that I've been able to find in social. So what was your mission? What was the angle that likeable local took to develop a tool, I wouldn't say compete with Hootsuite, but to target in on that small business owner, that is your target audience. And you know, what sort of differentiates you from everything else that's out there.

Nicole Cruz: 1:44

Thanks so much, Neal, for the intro. And, you know, really excited to be here and talk about likable local, as you mentioned, we're really on a mission here to help small businesses grow with social media and really see real results. So what we built into our tool that, you know, that makes it really intelligent, and really a no brainer for a small business owner are ways that they can, you know, easily actually capture referrals and contacts them through the software, a lot of ideas to create content, because, you know, one of the biggest and you know, most time consuming things for a business owner or any marketer is coming up with social media content. So, you know, we provide 1000s and 1000s, of, of awesome, engaging, pre created ideas that they can customize, we have industry specific options and, and trending news articles. So that's definitely a huge feature. And another thing that we're really passionate about immigrating is advertising on ways for you to amplify your reach, that aren't super complicated, because you know, it's you should be out there running your business and not trying to figure out Facebook ads when your precious working hours. So we've integrated some really cool automatic boosting within our tool, some great tools for Twitter and LinkedIn to amplify your reach, which we call reverb. And it's kind of like a repeating tool at optimal times. So really, really, you know, great and streamline ways for business owners to grow and see real ROI from social with our tool.

Neal Schaffer: 3:13

That sounds really awesome to call me and I look at likeable local as the first tool that has been created by sort of a social media expert. And it sounds like you've built in all of the best practices of social media marketing into your tool, right?

Nicole Cruz: 3:27

Yeah, you know, we thought about the things that are most important that D really believes in, you know, for your social media, and we wanted to incorporate all of those and, and of course, seeing results and getting referrals is is a huge thing. And in addition to being to being relevant and staying with the times, and we all know that advertising and, and curating and things like that are really themes of the future of social media. And we want that to be part of what we're doing. And most of all, it's the idea that, you know, I think most small business owners know that social media is something you need to be doing, you know, they're bought into that idea. But you know, what they still think is that it's hard, it's going to be challenging, it's going to be expensive, it's going to be really time consuming. And what we're striving to do is to give them the tool that has the gives them the access to make it easy to make it not so hard, and to make it effective without having to spend countless hours all the time.

Neal Schaffer: 4:25

Yeah, and I think those two key things, you mentioned that the content creation, curation is probably the most resource intensive thing you need to do in social, but also the amplification, whether it is you know, through organic through the repeating of things at optimal times or through paid advertising, right. And it sounds like you have a great approach to that. Tell me what you're doing in terms of lead generation as part of your tool. Yeah, definitely. So,

Nicole Cruz: 4:48

piece of our tool is called the linkable hub site. And it's basically this mobile optimized landing page and mini website for their business that they can customize and that our team can help you Customize, that has all sorts of add ons. So you can add on a referral friend form, you can add on a contact form, you know, an offers form, create your own promotion, those are things that are coming soon. And the idea here is that you can drive people straight from social and email them really seamlessly there. And you know, a referral is really one of the best gifts a customer can give you, you know, it's the best gift. So if you're able to target your fans on Facebook and on Twitter and get them to send you a referral of a friend, that is huge that is so valuable. And you know, I've talked to so many business owners who've tried to do referral programs or something like that. And they're like, oh, we have this Excel spreadsheet, and Suzy was managing it. And we totally didn't execute, and no one wants a Starbucks gift card. And you know, it's just like a pain in the butt. So, you know, they need something that is a little bit easier and kind of, you know, done for them. So simple. And that's what we want to deliver.

Neal Schaffer: 5:58

Yeah, that sounds awesome. And for those of you that are interested in this subject, I actually saw him speak when he published the book, but John Jan's of duct tape marketing has a great book out called the Referral Engine that talks about that. And it sounds like you've worked out process and your tool, which is awesome. So it sounds like if I'm a small business owner, or if maybe I'm in charge of marketing, PR, social media, and I wear a lot of hats, like a lot of, you know, marketing people do for small businesses, that really with access to likeable local, I can easily source content, publish content schedule, it's get some paid boosts, get some amplification, get this mini hub site going so that I can generate leads and measure things. And really, in a very, very little amount of time, I can gather what the ROI of what I'm doing on social media is through your tool. Is that sort of the correct summary? Yeah, absolutely. So tell me about it as far as like the ROI, and then the reporting, and the metrics are the things you automate. So if I'm a likable local customer, you know, on a weekly or monthly basis, I get access to, you know, reports, or how do we handle that that final part of the chain? Yeah,

Nicole Cruz: 7:00

absolutely. Measuring your growth is something that's super, super important to us. So something that we do is our dashboard has really simple clear cut, you know, no fluff metrics, right. So, you know, we're telling you, your engagement on a weekly basis looks like some leads all of that it's within the dashboard, that you can see anytime. Another thing we do, you know, for the busy professional on the go, is we sent an email every single week, it sums up all of your success on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, all of the leads, you've acquired super simply in one email that you get on a weekly basis. So we're giving you know, in, in app in dashboard, measurement of growth, as well as, you know, via email, and I guess, kind of on the on the subject of being on the go, something I haven't mentioned yet is we recently launched our software as a mobile app for iPhone or Android. And you know, that's just such a game changer for business owners who aren't always at a computer. So we're really think that's, you know, it's just such a helpful, helpful thing for them.

Neal Schaffer: 8:03

That's awesome. And it sounds like instead of looking at the, you know, we're gonna manage your social media approach of looking at the pain points of your customers, and developing the tool around that. So with that in mind, what are the industries, you know, the types of small businesses that that you've, you know, you have a lot of clients for, or your tool you think is most appropriate for?

Nicole Cruz: 8:21

Yeah, you know, I can go deep into, you know, into industries and I but I can also kind of talk about the criteria that we really feel like, makes it customer super successful with us. And, you know, it's really anyone who benefit anyone whose business has benefitted from word of mouth. So if you think of the, you know, the type of business where you might ask a friend, you know, who do you go to for that? And they would say, Well, I know a guy or I know a girl or I know this business, you know, that sort of word of mouth, referral business think, you know, realtors, contractors, dentists, doctors, jewellers, you know, professional services, those people are great fits for us, you know, and we work with all types of businesses, you know, as well as someone who really sees a high customer lifetime value from their customers. So gaining a repeat loyal customer is, is super valued valuable to them. And you know, that customer can definitely see so much ROI from from getting a referral from our software, for example.

Neal Schaffer: 9:21

And I can see that it could be appropriate for, you know, small b2b companies, as well as small consumer brick and mortar shops as well, right?

Nicole Cruz: 9:29

Totally. We have lots of b2b clients, you know, people who are, you know, actually even small marketing agencies or consultancy businesses, lawyers, or I mentioned accountants who are working with other businesses, all of those people, you know, are such great fits,

Neal Schaffer: 9:45

but it also sounds like you know, you could almost I'm thinking even a larger business could utilize your platform as well, because it just seems like it simplifies things. And it has all the necessary pieces that they need, right?

Nicole Cruz: 9:57

Yeah, absolutely. You know, we did Definitely have, you know, a lot of applications for different size businesses, especially as we launch our VIP product, which is sort of our first year products. That is definitely a really, really affordable great value price point. And, you know, I know I know down the road, we'll we'll be looking to maybe white label and work with franchises and such. So definitely, you know, a lot of opportunity for large brands and franchises, as well as, of course, sort of our our core audience, a small business owner.

Neal Schaffer: 10:30

That's great. So I guess two final questions before we sign off for this very short podcast, I like to keep my podcast short and sweet. But first of all, I mean, how those that are listening, a lot of them will probably want to sort of sign in and give you a tool, try you mentioned that you have a freemium model. So tell me what you get, oh, you know, where should they go to access the free tool? And what sort of functionality do they get to play around with for that?

Nicole Cruz: 10:51

Yeah, definitely. So you should visit likeable local.com, right there, you'll be able to sign up for free for a free 30 day trial of our likeable VIP product. And then and then after that, it's 9099 a month. So basically $20, what you get with that is you get obviously access to our mobile app, and Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn integration, any business pages and profiles you'd like, also get 1000s of content ideas that you can use at any time, it's sort of like Mad Libs, you know, for social media, all these different content prompts, trending news, a listening platform to moderate, different hashtags you want to follow and that sort of thing. And then of course, the linkable hub site. And as a VIP user, you can have up to three add ons. So things like that refer friend form or a contact form or different social widgets, if you will. So all that's really, you know, packaged into that VIP software.

Neal Schaffer: 11:45

Very cool. So final question is, what is sort of the roadmap or the future or the issues that businesses have with social media that likeable local, is going to work on solving over the next, you know, six to 12 months in your product?

Nicole Cruz: 11:57

Yeah, you know, I think what we're gonna, you know, definitely focus on doing is, is shifting with the social landscape, you know, more integrations with with paid ad tools, as other platforms sort of moved to the the pay to play model. And, of course, just more ways to drive ROI. And I think that that's always going to be the challenge is seeing that ROI from social media directly. So you know, creating really, really smart reporting, content suggestions based on their their internet activity and their preferences. And just, you know, an even more robust content library, as you know, content creation and sharing continues to be a challenge.

Neal Schaffer: 12:37

That's great. I really look forward to the integration with paid advertising, because this is an area where none of the social media tools is really handling but, you know, try to get a small business owner to go into Power Editor Facebook, and you know, they'll,

Nicole Cruz: 12:51

like so overwhelmed. Yeah, exactly.

Neal Schaffer: 12:53

Even experienced social media marketers are quite overwhelmed by the power editor as well. So well, that was great. Nicole, any closing thoughts before we end the podcast?

Nicole Cruz: 13:01

No, I just, I would just encourage anyone who's you know who's curious about like, we'll visit likeable local.com. We also have, you know, there's lots of buttons on there, if you want to want to see a demo or whatnot. But we also have likable demo.com, where you can actually request to, you know, go through sort of a live walkthrough of the software with one of our team members. So and then the last thing that you'll see, you'll see this on our site as well. But we have a ton of free resources like ebooks and webinars that you can download and use later. Education is really at the core of what we do. And we're really passionate about making sure that everyone has access to the resources, they need to start building their business with social media. So lots of great stuff on our resources tab.

Neal Schaffer: 13:45

That's awesome, Nicole, now, if you are like me that listen to the podcast, you know, probably the type of if you're an agency, or you're a social media professional, probably the type of client that would be able to get the most out of likable local, you probably have in the back of your mind right now. And maybe that is you or you have a client that fits the bill. But even if it's not, you can see how, you know, when Nicole talks about creating these Hub Pages, it's almost like a landing page, mobile optimized. So if you're already paying 20 3040 $50 a month for an Unbounce, or for LeadPages. Right there, you have that functionality, although, you know, probably simplified functionality, but you do have the functionality. If you're paying for content ideas, you have that functionality built in. And you have ways of optimizing for amplification of your post and, and the paid advertising management which you know, I don't know how much of that comes in at $20 a month, but it definitely for that price point. It's definitely something that I encourage you to try out. And you know, this is sort of a part of the whole concept of the social tools Summit is how many of you actually knew that tools like this existed, and that you can sort of bring together functionality from from a variety of tools to help you do things better, right? It's very, very hard to find one tool that does everything for you. So If If you are in that target market of lack of a local, this does sound like that is your one to one. If you're not, I still think there's functionality that you that you can use at that price point. So I encourage you all to not only try out local, local, but obviously come out to the social tools Summit, where we're going to be talking to a lot of other companies that are going to have a lot of other advice to share with you like Nicole from likeable local did with us today. So Nicole, thank you very much. I look very much forward to seeing you again in Boston in just a few weeks. And wherever you are in the world, make it a great social Day. Bye Bye, everybody. Thanks for listening to maximize your social. We appreciate all of your iTunes subscriptions, ratings and comments. If you would like to appear on this show or recommend content, please contact Neal Schaffer at Neal at maximize your social.com Please also make sure to check out Neil's new community, the Social Media Center of Excellence at social media ce o e.com. As well as Neil's first social media event, the social tools Summit, which will be in Boston on May 12. And in the Bay Area this fall. Thanks again and make it a social day.