At last month’s Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas, I took a question asking “How do I effectively use social media in my business?”
Here is the long answer:
Social media (I would consider this as “blogging and the other stuff that goes with it”) is more than just a tool in my business. Up till now, it is the foundation of my business.
If HTML websites are billboards filled with information waiting for people to stumble upon them and read them, then blogs are like aggressive ticket scalpers running up to you and shouting in-your-face, in a direct manner. (this is a good thing).
And if you’re new to the social traffic, social networking game, here are some pointers:
- Go out and try everything: The best and worst part of social marketing is that it’s usually free to sign up and participate in. (Although if you forget to factor in the value of your time invested, you could be losing out in a great deal of opportunity cost). Heard about LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, Plurk, FriendFeed, Friendster, Orkut, Plurk, Hi5, Flickr, Craigslist, YouTube, Twitter? Why not sign up for an account. If you’re concerned about it (and you probably should be), make sure you register your personal name, your business, your brand, and get your related domain or account name before someone else does. Sure, you can go after “social network domain/account name squatters” after the fact, but it’s going to take time and resources to do that, so why not spare yourself the trouble now.
- Learn to specialize: I don’t think it’s worth being a “jack-of-all-trades” and spread yourself across all the social networks and have merely superficial relationships with the people in those communities. Instead, I’d suggest focusing on specializing in one or two social networks and “embedding” yourself in them. Learn the social rituals, get to know the influencers, build YOUR own social influence within those circles. Some wannabe “gurus” would have you believe that your social influence is dictated by the number of followers or friends you have. In my opinion, that is utter nonsense and is at best a simpleton’s scare tactic. Just like wine, it’s quality than counts, not quantity.
- Stay away from the Dark Side: Yes, the medium is a free one, but does that mean you should keep taking away from it (see: How NOT to be a tool on Twitter and How NOT to be a tool on Twitter part 2)? Believe or not, there’s a better course of action, that’s to build your goodwill bank.
Being “successful” with your social marketing efforts has a lot to do with your social influence and ability to shape opinions and behavior. And that’s going to take more than just a simple follower count to resolve.
how not to be a tool on twitter
If you’ve attended any sort of time management, goal setting or time management class in high school or college, you’d feel that you might have been beaten over the head with the Vilfredo Pareto bat.
Originating as a study that showed 20% of Italy’s population held 80% of its wealth, the concept of Pareto Efficiency (also known as the Pareto principle or 80-20 rule) introduced the idea of efficiency into everything you do. It’s not just enough to work hard, you need to work smart too.
Being (or wanting) to be a lazy affiliate marketer, it’s necessary to get a handle on this concept, especially if you want to hit your 2009 goals (it’s almost the end of January, you did set them, didn’t you?)
So this is your brain and the stuff you can work on every day:
I’d go one step further to suggest that working in “internet time”, the 90-10 rule applies.
A merely 10% of your efforts are going to be responsible for 90% of the results you get, because of the vastness of the internet, the efficiency of technology like (more…)
If you’re a frequent visitor to my site, you’ll know that aside from affiliate marketing, my other gig is that of product creator – developing information products – books, reports, videos, courses – which are delivered digital. The majority of the online world calls these “e-book” or “ebooks”.
Information can be found all over the internet and begs the question “Why would anyone pay for something that can be found free on the internet?”
The simple reason is that if you’re merely repackaging a blog post, a wikipedia entry, a google news story or a mp3 download, you’re not adding value and you might as well give it away for free.
On the other hand, if you’re adding value to the process, by organizing information, providing advanced applications to a basic technique or providing a comprehensive case study AND your customer gets value out of the process, you are more than justified in charging for your products.
There’s been a recently trend among bloggers and internet marketers to jump on the “I want to build a list” bandwagon. A common incentive to get people to join a list is to say “I’ve written a report on (topic), get access to this report by joining my mailing list now!”
I’ve experimented in the last week joining a number of lists. In some cases, the promised report hasn’t shown up.
In many cases, the report has been nothing short of disappointing. Just because you can hammer out, copy 5 pages of text, convert it into a PDF and offer it online, does not make it a “report” or a “book”. That’s like saying you can buy a smashed-up race car and say you’re a Ferrari owner. It is technically correct, but just so wrong.
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Here’s my take on the issue:
If you’re going to do anything (free or paid), do it (more…)
It’s hard to imagine Kelly McCausey who’s well-established in the Work-At-Home Mom niche as struggling to pay her utility bills despite working full time as an office manager in 2002, but she’s certainly come a long way since then.
Her first attempts to promote her desktop publishing services over the internet did not take off as she’d expected, however, other opportunities came up that eventually led her to focus on the work-at-home mom (WAHM) niche.
Listen to how she got started and built her business up, including her current projects, such as Work At Home Moms Talk Radio and her new projects.
During the Friday Podcast, we talked about:
- How to plan for your success online
- Building your business from the first step and expanding it beyond
- How you can focus on a single market and maximize its profit potential
- Pitfalls you need to be aware of as you’re building your business
- Qualities to build a sustainable online business
Check out the Friday Podcast below:
You can find out more about Kelly at:
Canada-based Alice Seba would seem an unlikely candidate for an internet marketer.
With a bachelor’s degree in History and Archaeology, and a mother of 3 (the youngest just turned 4 months a couple of days ago…), Alice stumbled into the world of internet marketing while looking for opportunities to work from home.
Her “Internet Marketing Sweetie” product was one of the first I bought coming into the industry a couple of years ago, and it was a pleasure to have Alice on the podcast series.
During the session, we talked about:
- How she got started in internet marketing and affiliate marketing experience
- Tips for internet marketing beginners and some of her strategies in taking care of 3 young kids AND running her own successful online businesses
- Should you author/create your own product?
- Tips for promoting your own affiliate program
- The ONE networking tip that will help you succeed in internet marketing
You can check out the podcast below:
Links:
Warren Whitlock is one of the earliest online marketers having rubbed shoulders with the likes of Declann Dunn and strongly advocates the use of direct marketing principles when it comes to marketing your business on the internet.
A published bestselling author and entrepreneur, I invited Warren on the Friday Podcast where he shared:
- How he got started in internet marketing
- How he got involved in promotions and launches for new books
- Why writing and having a book published helps your business
- His tips for getting your best results from social media marketing
Check out the Friday Podcast below:
Links:
