Women’s Day Exclusive: Adel de Meyer

It looks like you have left no stone unturned in the world of Digital Marketing. Could you please share a little more about yourself and your personal achievements?

I’m a New Media Specialist, author, mentor, Director of Sales and Marketing at Content Solutions and globally recognised as a Social Media and Marketing influencer. I am a big advocate for personal branding and believe that every individual should brand themselves in some form and put themselves out there.

In just 3 years’ time, I have built my brand so well using Social Media and sharing my expertise that I got published in top publications and have worked with some amazing brands to date. I work with local and global clients including past projects with global brands like Adobe, Huawei, Pitney Bowes, Hootsuite, Marriott International and Yelp to identify opportunities within Social Media and how to use the social platform as a marketing and relationship building tool.

Proud to be listed as a Top 10 Social Media Influencer in Australia and in the Top 100 Social Media Influencers globally and having a blog that is recommended as a Top 25 Social Media Blog by Post Planner and others.

I enjoy sharing my experiences, tips and insights through contributions on international publications including The Next Web and Business 2 Community. I have been featured in over 50 publications as a guest contributor or featured interview on Social Media and Influencer Marketing. On average I reach over 10 million organic impressions per month across the internet with a following of over 100 000 followers. I like to believe that I have in-depth knowledge of what it takes to build community and move content.

Majority of us use social media personally – what is the biggest difference when using it for business?

With personal branding becoming so important and popular a lot of business owners seem to swift into building their business around their own personal brands as the demand for more authentic connection is increasing. People will rather listen and follow content coming from a person than a company branded page or profile. With this in mind, that doesn’t mean that all businesses should follow this approach as surely for some industries this approach won’t be suitable, but then the biggest difference comes in to understand that you should not just ‘add to the noise’ and provide genuine value on your Social Media profiles to generate an interest in your business. Help people to solve problems and be authentic.

Why do you think business owners should factor video marketing into their social strategy?

By 2020, 75% of mobile traffic will be video. Videos are easier to consume than full on articles. People love videos and it can help you attract more traffic and get more conversions. No surprise that 87% of online marketers use video content to grow their businesses, while 88% say that video is “an important part” of their marketing strategy.

Do you think a ‘Brand-Story video’ can work better than an ‘About Us’ page at building rapport with the reader? Why?

Absolutely! The thing is that with video you can add personality and humanize your brand. A video can create a better instant connection with a person as they can relate, hear the tone of your voice or be delighted about how you are telling them more about your business, the team and what you do.

“Changing the world one tweet and greet at a time”, is something awesome we found on your website. Would you share your thoughts on that?

Ha, so glad you spotted that, it is my favourite saying! 🙂 For me it tells the story of the connection between how we can make a difference and change the world online and offline. ‘Tweet’ (online) and ‘Greet’ (offline). Both are such a big part of our daily lives now and you can literally make a difference with one tweet these days.

Any Social Media marketing prediction you want to make for 2018?

Stories, video and live-streaming sticks out to me. People are looking for deeper conversations and want to be delighted by interesting, helpful or entertaining stories. In 2018, the social channels that shift the balance from advertisers back to friends, family and interesting topics will be the winners.

I believe the use of Instagram and Facebook will stay popular with already big communities forming in chat apps like Discord, Telegram and Slack continuing to grow in usage numbers.

What would be your advice to the women entrepreneurs out there?

First of all, it starts with YOUR message, your target audience and your passions. You have to know exactly what you want to achieve, the problem you solve and how you are going to communicate WHO you are to a global audience.

Secondly, get a thick skin. Unfortunately sometimes with using Social Media for your business or building your personal brand you will have to deal with negative comments or bad feedback, don’t take it too hard and most negative comments on Social Media has no real value and better off just blocking and moving on.

Then you need to establish a good brand identity in terms of your logo and brand colours. I would say having a good professional website and well branded Social Media profiles are a must in today’s digital space. Even if you don’t run your own business but work somewhere, put in the time to build yourself some form of personal brand online. It is becoming so competitive out there to land good jobs or getting those customers, so there’s no better time to start than right now.

Building a business or getting traction takes time, don’t be impatient – just put in the time while maintaining a healthy balance between work and family time and always work on your mindset. Your mindset is your most powerful weapon!