A serial entrepreneur, Scott Eddy is the digital guru you can depend on to help you form lasting meaningful relationships for your business. With an enviable base of followers, he sure knows how to create and nurture relationships. Offering corporate training and consulting services for individuals and businesses, he is also a noted public speaker specializing on topics such as Entrepreneurship, Startups, Social Media, Sales, and Motivation.
According to him, “I love starting companies, so when I get an idea, and have the situation (and time) to do it, then I do it.” Presently, he owns a digital agency in Bangkok, where he has a great team, along with whom he manages what he loves to do most – connect with people.
Let’s take a look at how he began on his career as a digital nomad.
As someone who is both an entrepreneur and on a PanAmerican road trip, your blog post “What it’s like to be an entrepreneur and a serious traveler at the same time” resonated with me. You talk about using social media to connect with people in real-life throughout your travels. Any tips on how to find the right people to connect with?
Whenever I am going to a new country, before I go I always go through Twitter to see who is the most active and engaging (brands and people) I try to connect with them, and usually a good group of people reach out to me. I use Twitter for this because out of all the social media platforms, Twitter is the quickest way to connect with someone.
There has been a lot of controversies surrounding Facebook in the last year and many brands have considered shutting down their account for good. In this new Facebook era, what do you recommend to brands who are trying to build a loyal following on Facebook.
Facebook is definitely making it harder everyday. Basically I would say you ‘have to’ set aside a budget to do paid campaigns through Facebook, if that is against what you believe it, then I feel it will be impossible to build a huge following on there. And if you do achieve it, the way they have things set up, even if you do have a huge following, if you are not paying for ‘boosts’ or ‘sponsored’ posts, then your following will not see most of what you post anyway.
Twitter is a great way to build connections with industry peers. As someone who now has hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter, can you give us a tip on how to build a loyal fan base?
This is exactly what I talk about when I do consulting for this industry. The first thing I recommend is to find your competitors, and see who is engaging with them, see who follows them, and follow those people. From my experience, if I follow 100 of those people, usually about 25-50% of them will follow back. And if you are doing this everyday, think about the possibilities. I say this to everyone, and I will say to you as well, Twitter is the best platform out there!!!!!
Instagram is a great way to both capture your travel and connect with others who share the same passion. What type of pictures do you find works best to inspire likes and comments from the community?
I think it depends on your following. I usually post quotes, travel pics and, of course, food pics. You have to remember, most of social media is people living vicariously through other people, so try to post unique images, things with the ‘wow effect.’
Although a lot of brands tend to dismiss Google + for other social networks, Google seems keen on making it a leader. In your opinion, should brands give this network the chance it deserves?
I feel that unless you are deep into the technology, this platform is useless. I know some people have success there, but I just don’t see it. I have tried a few times with zero success. If its working for you, I applaud you, but I am done with it.
Of all the social media channels you engage on, which one do you prefer and why?
I think my answer is a little obvious. I don’t think anything can touch Twitter. You can connect with someone immediately, with less than 12% of all accounts are private you can see what they are talking about and who they are engaging with, and this is the place that most news agencies are getting their first reports from….so it’s definitely the place to be for me!
Do you monitor your Klout score on a daily/weekly basis? Do you think this social ranking is of any real value to determine influence?
Klout is an interesting topic. While I think it is a remarkable tool, I doubt the credibility behind it. Let me give you an example, about a year ago I had a ranking of 76, at that time I had about 250-275K followers on Twitter, and less than 5K on Facebook and Instagram. Now I am much more engaging, have over 500K followers on Twitter and 20K on Facebook and 30K on Instagram (and did I mention MUCH more engaging) and now my Klout score is 72. For me, Klout is EXTREMELY frustrating and I just don’t get how they get their scores.
In your opinion, which social media will lead the way in the next 5-10 years?
I think Twitter will get much more relevant, and I think while Facebook will still be relevant, I think they will push more and more people away.
If you had to mentor a new social media newbie, what is your go-to advice to become successful?
Build relationships!!! To be honest, that is all I do on Twitter. I am not looking to sell anything, I have no other motive. I want to make as many friends as I can around the world, because some of those relationships will turn into long-lasting business relationships.
Want to connect with him? Find him on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram or YouTube. Or, you can reach out to us for an introduction.
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