Just listened to the North Star podcast where @david_perell interviewed @mkobach, who’s the director of content marketing at @fast.

Fascinating conversation.

Here’s what they talked about…(a thread)

Marketing is difficult to quantify.

Sure, you have data. Retweets. Impressions. Link clicks. But the problem is…

It’s hard to know exactly what translated to the sale. Much of social media is about building a brand, not just getting an immediate sale.

If you want to strengthen the bond between customer & brand, surprise & delight your clients.

@cash is one company doing an incredible job of this.

They create interactivity. Do clever giveaways (they literally give away money).

As a result, they build brand awareness.

Advertising works.

Facebook. Apple. Microsoft. Google. Amazon - all have multi billion dollar advertising divisions.

Why?

Repeated exposure is inconceivable from truth in the mind of most humans.

When you hear something over and over again, you think that thing is true.

. @david_perell asked @mkobach about his two favorite commercials growing up.

Ones that inspired him to like this whole marketing thing.

Both of these ads had something in common. They spoke to people. They resonated.

1.) Michael Jordan & Larry Bird
2.) Car commercial

Michael & Larry.

@mkobach ran downstairs to talk about this ad with his dad right after seeing it. He thought how cool it was that someone thought about this, then executed.

It's clever. It's fun. It's one that speaks to you.

Car commercial.

This ad strike a chord. (literally, @mkobach talks about the power of the music).

It’s shares a visceral feeling we’ve all had. Being in a car when a great song comes on.

Giving you a sense of satisfaction &happiness. A moment we all long for.

When @mkobach first started with social media, he was smart (still is).

He just shared a lot of things everyone else was thinking, but rarely said.

And that vibed with people (still does).

On social media, most companies are boring.

No one is following you to be boring.

Ask yourself, is this something you’d personally want to look at? Read? Learn from? If so post. And make more of that.

Take some chances. It just might work out.

Formatting makes a difference.

Pay attention to it.
Make it real easy to read.
Make it pleasing to the eye.

See what I did there?

. @david_perell: What's a trick you use other social media marketers don’t know about?

@mkobach: It’s writing.

Think, how would talk over a beer? How would you text?

Then write like that.
Make it interesting.
Make it punchy!

And people will like reading your stuff.

Twitter is better than your resume.

It’s proof of work.

It shows what you think.
Shows how you think

@mkobach said this, but know @david_perell was nodding in agreement.

@mkobach who used to work with the @NYSE, landed his job @fast by doing one thing.

Twitter.

He calls it the cheat code to life.

A great way to meet people, build a community and share cool ideas.

. @fast, a cool company making online checkout...(you guessed it) faster, is building their brand in public.

Showing everyone their goals. Results. What's working. What isn't — with total transparency.

They're building trust with customers.

If you don't follow them, do.