Have you noticed how many people go around calling themselves a social media expert, yet don’t have much proof that they actually have earned real business results from it?
In this interview, I introduce you to a person who has worked with social media to generate real results – to make actual sales and build massive followings – for companies like Audi, ING, US Military recruitment, and more recently as a social publicity agent for entertainers like Bam Margera and The Veronicas.
His name is Leon Hill and I recently bumped into him at my main office, the Three Monkeys cafe in Brisbane.
Leon, like me, lives a laptop lifestyle, servicing his clients from wherever he can plug his laptop into the internet. He’s been working in social media in some shape or form since it pretty much began back in around 2006.
His first company, uSocial, was an incredibly fast-growing service that offered to sell you more Twitter followers, or Facebook Likes, or Digg “Diggs” from back when Digg was a leading social site.
As you can imagine, this offer was very controversial, and much of the media jumped on the story asking the question how exactly Leon could offer this service. The assumption was that he was stealing accounts or using some kind of automated software, which would be against the terms of service of most sites, or even illegal.
It went so far that some of the social media giants sent Leon’s company a cease and desist notice. After checking with lawyers Leon determined he wasn’t breaking any laws or service agreements, so continued to ride the wave of the controversial publicity all the way to a million dollars in revenue in his first year.
If you want to know how his service really worked and why he wasn’t breaking any of the rules, you need to listen to the interview :-).
Rockstar Publicity
Eventually Leon sold uSocial to move on to consulting for big companies, earning huge paydays teaching corporates how to properly use social media.
Although earning great money, Leon didn’t like how many of his ideas where not a good fit for the corporate environment. This led him down the path to an industry where his wacky ideas could be fully expressed – the entertainment industry.
After a stint handling publicity for Bam Margera’s Australia tour, he launched RockPublicity, which is what he still focuses on today.
What We Covered During The Interview
This is an interview about what actually works with social media to build a following, increase engagement and turn that into bottom line sales.
Here are some of the insights you will gain from the interview –
- How exactly Leon was able to offer a service that guaranteed to increase your Twitter following, or Facebook likes, or Diggs.
- Why all the bad press about uSocial was so good for business.
- An example of the kind of social media techniques he used to promote US Military recruitment.
- Leon explains how he came up with a concept to promote Bam Margera’s tour in Australia.
- I ask Leon to give me a tip for how I could promote my business, and he suggests something that involves me almost getting naked and swimming in a very public place (a little bit beyond my comfort zone, haha!).
- Plus there are so many insights into how social media can really be used to actually engage and grow an audience.
This is a highly entertaining story, wrapped around a whole bunch of very clever social marketing ideas. You won’t want to miss this interview.
Enjoy the episode,
Yaro
EJPodcast.com
Resources Mentioned
Where to Find Leon Online
[ Download MP3 | Transcript | iTunes | Soundcloud | Raw RSS ]
Thank you Yaro.
I am started my business building WordPress websites and will follow Leon’s advice. Once I figure out what I am doing, I will start bringing business by being remarkable.
Thank you Leon.
I always love to hear other people’s stories to learn more from them. This interview is so inspiring and gives many ideas to provoke self-thinking for more success. Good job Leon and Yaro!
Great interview. Social media is just getting too big to ignore and if your business is not on Facebook you will be left behind. Every day you put it off makes it that much harder to catch up.
Hi Yaro,
Awesome podcast episode, thanks for sharing! I learnt a lot from this interview and it is so inspiring to hear other people share their story and how they became successful.
I have followed your blog for a while, and it has also inspired me to start my own entrepreneurial journey, and I finally launched my personal branded site not too long ago, where I share what I learn from my own experiences, mentors, friends and interviews I do with inspiring people.
Keep up the amazing work you do 🙂
– Navid
Hi.. actually i have big question .. can i build better blog with original article only? since i notice there are a lot of web services today..
can i compete with them?
thanks
Arif
Should have come by earlier to drop a thank you to you for this Yaro… but better late than never right?
Was an absolute pleasure to be interviewed by you!
It was my pleasure Leon, thanks for delivering a great interview.
Yaro
I just wanted to say thanks to Yaro and Leon for this interview. It was massively motivational, inspiring, and wildy informative. I’ll be following both of your moves closely from now on. Thanks again guys!
Dear Yaro,
Is that media coup?
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/trending/Bam-Margera-knocked-out-by-Icelandic-rapper-in-scuffle-at-Secret-Solstice-Festival.html
It was certainly a spike in traffic Ron! Not exactly a targeted source of traffic for me though unfortunately.
Yaro