WITH SPENCER X SMITH
Open your inbox and count how many times you’ve received an email like the following: “Hey, Jane Doe, I’m just following up to see if you received my last email.” Or I’m “touching base” or “checking in.” Doesn’t it seem like many digital salespeople follow this same impersonal sequence?
Here’s a phrase I’m striving to eliminate from my vocabulary — “I have to …”
I never thought I’d spend a significant amount of time as a public speaker. Like many kids who grew up in the ’80s, my “career” started through a simple desire to make money — delivering papers, shoveling snow, selling magazines.
Before AmpliPhi Social Media Strategies was born, I was a very, very minor rock star. There were some surprising business lessons I learned while performing as the drummer in (and manager of) Myopic Son.
My kids really love a series of books based on a character named Dog Man. However, the book publisher, Scholastic, is making a terrible business decision: giving away free “how-to-draw” guides on its website. Wait … that’s an awesome business decision!
You know much, much more than you think. If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “Doesn’t everybody know this?” the answer is nope, they don’t.
Companies in Madison constantly amaze me with their generosity, both inside and outside our community. Here’s how to ensure both you and the charities, nonprofits, etc. you’re supporting gain the maximum amount of exposure and awareness for their causes.
In 1980, I was dropped off by a police officer at my parents’ house for a reason that may never have happened in all of history, except for that day.
I’ve always been a morning person. As a kid growing up, I was the first one awake in my house. I’m not sure why, but my parents strongly encouraged me — at a very early age — to get a morning paper route.
Like many of you who grew up in the ’80s and ’90s, I was super interested in baseball cards.
Spencer X Smith is the founder of Madison-based social media marketing company AmpliPhi, and an instructor at the University of Wisconsin and Rutgers University. He was formerly a vice president of sales for two Fortune 100 companies. He’s been called a “social media expert” by Forbes, and AmpliPhi is the winner of four consecutive (2016-2019) In Business magazine Executive Choice Awards for Social Media Consulting Company. Spencer has spoken at over 250 events since 2015, including a presentation at the New York Stock Exchange in 2017. His book ROTOMA: The ROI of Social Media Top of Mind was featured in Forbes and is an Amazon bestseller.
