TED talks highlight the mantra “Ideas worth sharing”. They feature professionals in a wide range of fields: sciences, history, math, technology, marketing etc. They give lectures, presentations, and demonstrations with the hope of inspiring the audience. TED talks help you shift your perspective and creativity to another level parallel to the changing world and technology.

We have gathered seven best TED speakers on digital marketing that will help you open your mind in a different point of view. Below learn from the best TED Talks for social media marketing from: Tim Leberecht, Andrew Fitzgerald, Seth Godin, Tristan Harris, Laura Vanderkay, Mary Norris and Kevin Alloca.

 

How To Get Your Ideas To Spread by Seth Godin

Who is Seth Godin? Godin is a marketer, blogger, entrepreneur, a former dot com business executive and an author of 18 best-selling international books. Seth has captured the best TED Talks for social media marketing.

He has talked about: the tribes we lead, this is broken, why I want to steal my ideas and how to get your ideas spread.

What it is about? Finding what your audience is interesTED in, talking to them and them telling their friends.

Seth Godin is not new to TED Talk series. He always has lessons for digital marketing. In this TED talk he talks about getting your ideas to spread. He uses a series of examples to show how simple concepts have spread quickly. For example, how the number one best-selling DVD in America is changing.

There is too much noise in social media feeds and it is really hard sometimes to capture the attention of your audience. Seth focuses his talk on how to capture the interest of your audience regardless of the social media noise and letting them spread your idea.

He also explains that marketers should not only have good ideas but also unique ideas that will make your brand stand out. He further elaboraTED why bad and unusual ideas are more popular and effective than “normal ones”.

In his TED talk he also talked about listening to your audience. It is here, he spoke of finding your audience who really are interesTED in your brand—it no one’s job but yours- speak to them (tell them what they want to hear) and listen to them (giving them what they want)… it will be easier for them to spread your ideas.

In his speech he says, “It is really simple- you sell to the people who are listening, and just maybe, those people tell their friends.”

Adventures in Twitter fiction by Andrew Fitzgerald

Who is Andrew Fitzgerald? Fitzgerald is a writer, editor, former Twitter Moments editor and currently works for Hearst Magazine as the chief digital content officer.

What is the talk about? Andrew Fitzgerald talks about real-time storytelling in our times across different social media platform.

Fitzgerald understands how social media is changing from connecting with others or promoting your brand to storytelling. He oversees how microblogging platforms like Twitter and Tumblr are changing the shape of content sharing and media.

In his TED Talk, Adventures in Twitter fiction he talks about how brands can tell their stories across multiple channels in real time. You can actually write a story on Twitter. Writing a story in 140 characters helps you hone your writing skills; it makes you reconsider carefully the words you going to use.

Fitzgerald explains the art of storytelling in a moving way using various scenarios; whether you are tweeting, posting to Snapchat, using Facebook or using Instagram stories you can still tell a story.

He explores the blurring lines between real and digital words and fact and fiction and the tools available towards a creative journey in building new stories. He uses an example of how radio shows in the 1930’s evolved.

He also refers to real examples like “Black Box” a short story tweeTED line by line by Jeniffer Egan through a fiction account; Hugh Howey’s “Wool” a short story that later stirred a succession of sequels; or real-life events like how Mayor Emmanuel documenTED mayoral election events with a science fiction twist.

If you are a social and digital marketer, this TED Talk is definitely for you- the talk is educational to those who are still adapting to new formats like visibility of content for 24 hours and 280-character-press releases on twitter.

 

The nit-picking glory of The New Yorker’s Comma Queen, Mary Norris

Who is Mary Norris? Norris a New Yorker copy editor and a published author of, “Between You and Me”.

What is the talk about? Norris talks about just important proper grammar and punctuation are to digital marketers.

Mary is known as the “Comma Queen” because of her approach to language and punctuation. Digital marketers know the significance of writing and editing and any error or typo could ruin the content meaning and the message you trying to put across or end your marketing campaign.

Mary Norris, a New Yorker’s copy editor knows this better than anybody else. She knows how proper grammar and punctuation is very important.

Social and digital markers write a lot in order to captivate the audience and therefore every word and punctuation should be checked before posting. She explains to the audience how the process of copy editing is very important.

She goes on and explains the level of each process and that it should not be rushed or ignored and if it does the editor’s work will be at the mercy of public critics.

She captured her audience when she talked about how conversational language affects the written word and the changing nature of the language.

There is a lot of pressure before posting a tweet, an Instagram caption, video descriptions, blog posts, or a Facebook post; there is that fear of possible grammatical error or typo.

You will need to listen to this TED Talk by Mary Norris so that you can handle your task with ease. You will also need to explore the ways of making peace with your work as Mary Norris did.

 

Why Videos Go Viral, Kevin Allocca

Who is Kevin Allocca? He is the YouTube Trends Manager.

What is the talk all about? Have you ever wondered why videos go viral? Well, Allocca in his TED Talk gives information on why videos go viral.

Kevin Allocca is the best person to answer the question, ‘why Videos goes viral?’ because his career is based on analyzing why videos go viral as the YouTube Trends Manager. He is usually one of the first people to know when a video is about to go viral.

Social media marketers use different types of creative posts (images, texts, and videos) to capture and engage their audience. But what length will they go for their content to reach a wider and bigger audience?

In this case, we look at videos. According to statistics for every three minute about 48 hrs of video are uploaded and a small percentage get more than 1 million views. Allocca gives three reasons why a video goes viral.

1. The Tastemakers: These are influential people, who are respected and have power in their industries. Once they watch the video and enjoy it they will make the video spread like wildfire.
2. Participation: Videos goes viral because of community participation. People will always want to be part of a viral video all you have to do is to create parodies and meta-references that erupts some sort of reaction.
3. Unexpectedness: Providing the same kind of videos will result in invaluable content. You will lose your audience. Videos go viral because of providing unexpected content. Make sure your videos are different for them to go viral.

He also used real-life examples using the three elements of viral success, (tastemakers, participation, and unexpectedness) and its contribution to YouTube viral content. These examples were:

• How Jimmy Kimmel (tastemaker) made the Double-Rainbow video go viral when he retweeTED.
• How the tastemakers made Rebecca Black’s Friday go viral and how later people parodied it (participation).
• He used the Nyan cat to show the ‘unexpected’ and its post-meta-references as ‘participation’
• And the unexpected twist of a cyclist riding on the street protesting a ticket.

Kevin’s TED Talk is a must watch for social and digital marketers as well as content creators who want their videos to go viral.

In my opinion, this is one of the best TED talks for social media marketing that has ever been created.

 

How Better Technology Could Protect Us From Distraction, Tristan Harris

Who is Tristan Harris? Harris is a designer and co-founder of Time Well Spent and Apture a tech company which was later acquired by Google.

What is the talk all about? Tristan talks about putting power back into people’s hand from technology

Technology keeps evolving in this age. As humans we find ourselves enslaved by it but Tristan shows us how we could take back the power from technology. His TED Talk is based on technology—on how technology can protect us from distraction and spending our time more resourcefully.

Social media marketers are not immune to distractions. They frequently face distraction in a different direction. This distraction causes harm to the human mind like having short attention spans. In this talk, Harris provides ways to help you be less distracted and shows us how technology can counter this.

Harris is in the key front of advocating for net positive contribution to human life by technology. He speaks about wanting designers to create technology that benefits humans as opposed to creating distractions. Before undertaking any technology creation, during the design process, they should ask themselves will it benefit human life.

This talk is not solemnly for technologists but for the digital marketer as well. As a digital marketer, is your content benefiting human life? If not you should focus on positively impacting your audience with each content you post? Let Harris’ theory be the core center of your marketing campaign or strategy.

 

How to Gain Control of Your Free Time, Laura Vanderkam

Who is Laura Vanderkam? Laura is a writer, author, speaker and time management expert.

What is the talk about? Laura talks about shifting your priorities right to gain control of your free time.

Social media marketers believe that there is little time or no free time at all. And when it is available they do not know what to do with their free time.

Laura Vanderkam, a time management expert comes to the rescue. In her TED Talk, she explains that to have a successful time management is figuring out where your priorities lie it is not always about adding more hours in the day.

She focuses on the importance of work-life balance; that people should make time for what matters most. Laura shared a special formula to find out which priorities matters most and applying this method in your life either for professional growth or personal growth.

First, she asks you to pretend that you are one year in the future and then write a performance review for the past year- the current year. Your review should sound like accomplishments– the things that made you on top of the list. And therefore, you will get to see and feel what success is.

Then, take the goals you have and break them down into achievable steps. Assume those goals are your priorities and hence, categorize them into three lists: career, self-improvement, and relationship. Finally, make a schedule to work on each priority in each category.

Using this approach, you will find the time and manage it better and you will no longer feel under pressure of concentrating too much on your social media marketing efforts.

Laura’s Time management approach is an example of having a much more powerful social media marketing approach. As she personally puts it, “small moments with great power”.

 

3 Ways To (Usefully) Lose Control Of Your Brand, Tim Leberecht

Who is Tim Leberecht? Leberecht is the co-founder and Co-CEO of Business Romantic Society, a TED speaker and the author of the best-selling book Business of Romance.

What does he speak about? He offers three greatest ideas of accepting the loss of control and planning for it in the digital era.

Letting go control of your brand is the worst nightmare for a marketer and might be considered as a loss. But Tim Leberecht shows us otherwise in his TED talk on ways to (usefully) lose control of your brand. 

He speaks about letting go of the tight control grip of your brand reputation, to allow room for growth and allowing others to take control. He explains how brands reputations are built—through relevancy and conversation that is organic and free-flowing. And you cannot achieve this if you are still holding the control grip tight.

Leberecht explained three ways in which businesses can usefully lose control of their business and create a valuable experience for their customers.

1. Give your customers and employees control of your brand- this means to trust them with control of your brand and letting them collaborate towards finding the best solution. He says, “Give employees and customers more control…collaborate with them on the creation of ideas, knowledge, content, designs, and product.”
2. Give them less control but with meaning- it simply means when you have given them control of your brand and later reduced the control by reducing the number of choices from the abundant pool of choices
3. Be transparent- he suggests that each brand should find the level of transparency and maintain that level 24/7. He says, “Openness is paramount but radical openness is not a solution.”

You can watch his video here.

 

Conclusion

TED talks are just one of the tools to help social media marketers in finding ways to approach their ideas, strategies and the audience. There are countless TED talks out there but the above are the best TED Talks for social media marketing. But first thing first, watch these TED talks first then explore the rest.