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?

Leon Hill on the EJ PodcastIn 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

The VeronicasEventually 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

Leon Hill and Partner

Resources Mentioned

Where to Find Leon Online

[ Download MP3 | Transcript | iTunes | Soundcloud | Raw RSS ]