Event Launch Strategies

The course

• Getting started on using social media for marketing is simple, but requires a structured approach.
• The event does not just stop there; it should consist of multiple bigger and smaller events and re-launches.
• Having a presence online is important to leverage social networking sites for marketing. The voice of your brand can best be told through blogs (WordPress), micro-blogs (Twitter), videos (Youtube), and pictures (Flickr).
• You can outsource part of your launch work (e.g. writing) using Elance and oDesk. To manage your contractors, you can setup Skype for voice calls and chats with unlimited calls to landlines around the world for as little as $20 per month.
• You need to have an account with a payment processing provider for all of your online activities. PayPal works just fine.
• Unless you have a big budget to employ SEO experts, content writers and designers; it is better to build your entire web presence on third party web 2.0 platforms.
• You need to distribute your content by cross syndicating them across platforms for maximum exposure.
• You need to network with prospects, build lists and start conversations with them.
• You need to plan and build out your sales funnel and channelize all your traffic to it.
• You need a closing page where interested people can subscribe, buy and RSVP. This does not have to be your own site; it can be an event page on another platform (so that you can benefit from their rankings)

Simon U Ford (SUF.EDBD)

Today’s tip! One stop shopping for all your event marketing in social media needs you can’t go past my Events Listed networking and marketing platform. It’s invite only, here’s a backdoor pass on me.

The Youtube feat went really well. Looks like we really hit a soft spot there. Sometimes you hear about an anticipated event for so long that when the time actually comes, you’re running around like chicken with their heads cut off. So many talked about Google Friend Connect (”GFC”) in the past few months, almost all of them haven’t figured out a good use-case application for it.

So I wanted to introduce you to the Roaming Heads campaign, headed by Jonathon Riveria using Google Friend Connect. It’s another social proof of the importance of having quality relationships online rather than stuffing up our meetings with unnecessary folks.

When you look at a GFC widget you’ll see pictures of people there. These are called heads. Smarter and reliable marketers are called the Big Heads - you can either learn from and become a Big Head, or you can stay a Dead Head.

They have a weekly party on Monday, in which they decide what site to host it at and how to market/promote them. Basically they go to different sites and sttart having discussions in the GFC widgets thus making the whole site buzz with community and action.

The destination for each week’s party will be decided by the person running the gorup. He’s the one who will find good and interesting sites to take the party to week after week. So every week, a website which is dead suddenly becomes hussling and buzzing with an active community and gets lots of traffic and traction.

Through this they’ve seen people participation in thousands. A small group of people going around like a whirlwind on steroids.

Social media disallows old school marketing. It demands for the personality to be at the fore front of all causes and campaigns. It encourages being different and thinking the unthinkable. This Roaming Heads group is ultimately going to be moving millions of people and will have a lot of leverage.

This concept is interesting in that if these heads can influence traffic to a site, they have a potential of becoming incredibly sought after by the online world. Everyone wants traffic on their sites. Everyone wants commenters and activities.

The difference between a happening site and a dry site is like a popular versus unpopular party. Popular club parties will be busy and buzzing, unpopular ones will be empty and boring. If a group of popular hot people go to an empty party, they will bring the traffic and excitement to it with them. Thus making the empty room full of life and fun. Next time around, people would actually want to go to that club, thus increasing its perceived brand value.

Quite like that, these roaming heads are going around the internet world brining life to sites of their interest. It’s an interesting case study to watch them. As they roam, their group size will also keep increasing like a snowball - with more people attracted to the fun. It’s a good marketing exercise as well, to see just how the social networks really work.

Food for thought? How do you grow in social media when everyone wants personal attention?  How do you remain approachable without being swamped and shut down. I could get nothing done when I had training courses + blogs + a new application + commenting and staying in touch + 10 staff to manage.

What happens when you become the brand and everyone wants a piece of you. Sure its great, but sometimes that’s not really what you wanted or planned for.

As an example: I think that Skype is the most obtrusive tool on earth yet its also the most valuable. My line is open I am attacker or my line is set to off and my staff cannot contact me. You can say I hate the intrusion. I do this for business. People need a face. A personality. If I wrote or acted as a brand people wont follow.

My plan was to “Becoming most Influential is about nurturing others into being influential”.

And that sums up what Social Traffic stands for. It stands for allowing teams like RoamingHeads to form and become independent. It stands for mentoring people who want to learn marketing techniques. It stands for deep online relationships and karma. With its new direction and leadership, that’s exactly where it is heading.

Simon U Ford (SUF.EDBD)

The last wave of evangelists are in… the Earth Day campaign has picked up pace… and as we step into April, the fireball momentum has already begun. Sometimes I wonder what is the single-biggest reason that we can attribute to the level of excitement around this campaign. Is it the fact that the Earth Day cause is close to heart for one too many? Is it because of the tireless efforts of the leadership group? Or is it because of the way humans like to be a part of a bigger stage?

“You know someone said that the worlds a stage
And each must play a part.”

In any case, I want to take a step back from talking about the campaign for a few days and talk about the foundations on which this campaign has been built. The stronger and deeper the foundations and pillars are, the higher the building will be. With EventsListed’s soft launch this week, we’re almost at the brink of the end of Phase 1. The social traffic group has been climbing a mountain which very few people have done in the past. We’ve proven our resilience, passion and skills for the world to see. But we just 2 tougher  phases to go until we can reach the top of the mountain and earn the right to put our flag up. Thanks guys, you all ARE the foundation.

On a more deeper level, I want to share a perspective with you. I strongly believe that everything in business comes down to the quality of the audience. Before you even have a product, you can still make money if people are listening to you… you can still move and influence people… you can still make a difference. On the contrary, if you have a product and no audience listening to you, you might as well just drop it. No point having a kickass product if nobody is listening to you, how do you sell it? So the most important thing for any online business person is to develop the market need and desire in people to want to know more about you… to want to tell others your stories and ultimately buy in to them. As a separate perk, having an avid and intent audience also gives you negotiating leverage with prospective JV partners, investors or just about anyone who is about to take stake in your firm.

Given the nature of different online platforms, it can take a good 4 to 12 months before you build enough authority to have the traction to justify action, that’s if you have a plan.

With the Events Listed campaign, we have spent 18 months since first mapping out our campaign plan. We started out running two blogs related to social media marketing and launch strategies to gain credibility in the events online marketing  niche. We then launched our book just when people were looking for answers. After the book, throughout the book launch we built a community around the strategies and concepts outlined in the book. This campaign took on a life of its own and the Facebook community following it has since evolved into a separately structured entity in it’s own right, with its own objectives, rules and goals. This new entity goes by the same title as my book, we are in the process of executing our first campaign together, the new entity that is. At the same time I have launched a comprehensive video learning center so Events Listed users have access to world class marketing strategies and information that’s tried and tested. We’ve been giving away a lot of great advice and information for free since we started this journey 18 months ago, you have to in today’s world… it’s how you build an audience.

So coming back to my initial point, people who have struck through thick and thin with this campaign and have put in efforts in making it a success will never walk away unrewarded. They’ve all come a long way, I have thousands subscribed to my 1800 blog posts, 3000+ downloaded my book, there are 2000+ amazing people in the Social Traffic group who have become the backbone of my latest campaign. While we slowly step into the next phase, I want you all to know how much your efforts and initiatives are appreciated and that nothing you do for social traffic will be in vain. I would also like to make special note of Glen Crosier who was a key member of the Social Traffic 1 book launch campaign that was launched 6 months ago now who has gone on to play an even bigger, more influential role in the Social Traffic Inc launch campaign that’s just hitting it’s straps.

With the $1500 high-demand course Social Traffic is about to launch, with my book now in the hands of thousands of evangelists, and with the Events Listed platform and learning center designed to facilitate the strategies I teach ready to go live… things all seem to be coming together; things are looking up. My life is in an amazing place at the moment. I am in the middle of founding two start ups that are both unbelievable, global opportunities. Events Listed launched itself with a million dollars working capital 18 months ago, Social Traffic became an offshoot to what has been a very successful Events Listed campaign and it’s set out from scratch with $0 working capital. Both these organizations are converging into a partnership that could result in us executing a million dollar launch together in just 5 weeks from now - I think we’re pretty close to that.

We’re all very lucky to be part of it. I look at the growth in people who have entrusted their learning with me like Rebbecca, Anne and Sian just to name a few. I remember the day I met each of them and take pride in what I see them doing online today knowing I helped them achieve their goals. Now, its not just a few either. There are over 100 just like them who are walking, talking, smiling, real life testimonies or social proof  that what we are doing represents true value. This is my million dollar focus. The words million dollar represents something out of the ordinary. The opportunity to do for 1000 people what we already doing for 100’s is out of the ordinary. It’s all I need as motivation. Money is not what motivates me. Adding value motivates me. Money just shows up when you do.

People often ask me what I do. I am in the business of selling convenience, I don’t sell information. All of what I teach or write about has been taught, written about or done before in some form or another. I am not a guru or a scholar just because I present information in a way that adds value to what others do. All of the information I teach exists, it’s spread out across the internet. I am in the business of taking it all in, understanding it, testing that it works, analyze its trends, then re-presenting it in a cohesive and simple way which is easy enough for anyone to understand. To rephrase, I re-purpose information into easily digestible shapes and amounts that can be consumed in the form of books, videos and working applications.

Anyone can find what I teach somewhere online for FREE if they spend enough time looking for it. People will only ever buy training courses because they’re cheaper and more convenient than what it would cost them in time if having to find and digesting it themselves. People buy the convenience of information these day’s, the information itself has no value in today’s world. You need to be aware of this when planning your next campaign.

I’ll delve a bit deeper in the next post about how everyone - even our students that have invested their time into this campaign - can begin to monetize it in the upcoming launch.

Visit my Blog

Visit Social Traffic

Today’s tip! Online events through webinars and e-learning centers are a growth industry in a shrinking economy. You need to be a part of it.

Dear subscribers,

It’s with regret I inform you that my second video, “Beating Google Friend Connect” has been pulled
from the YouTube “Search Engine Rankings”.

I can’t see it anywhere in the search results, can you?

I published this, my second video showing how my first video beat all of Google’s 9 videos into 1st place.

If you missed this story read about it here

We got my 2nd video into 11th position within 24 hours of publishing it yesterday. It was flying up through the ranks into 2nd position, right under our first video at number 1,..then, out of the blue,..Google pulled it. Gone! They pulled it from the search results?

Obviously they could not pull my first video, not  without causing a negative publicity storm for themselves. They have pulled my second video though, which just isn’t fair play. We have not break any rules other than out playing them at their own game. Let’s be sure they still get that negative publicity new sequence test . I mean it, don’t just say yeah OK let’s do this, then do nothing. Let’s shake Google around a little here,…we beat them fair and square, let’s scream until they put us back into the game.

Then let’s kick their butts again! I guess our competition was too hot for Google?

Go check it out for yourself, don’t just take my word for it. Search “Beating Google Friend Connect” first, you will see my second video comes up in the 1st position. So it’s still in the search engines. Then, search using “Google Friend Connect” only, you will see my first video is still ranking number 1. My second video, that was ranking number 11 a few hours ago, is all of a sudden missing. It’s gone!

You can click back 20 pages and you still wont see it. Google have pulled us from the race because we were smashing them at their own game? Please let me know if you do see it,.. because I can’t see it here in Australia. I think Google have pulled the video from their word index for the phrase “Google Friend Connect” only. Although flattered Google have had to cheat to beat us at their own game. It’s really not good news for any of us, I mean, knowing Google manipulate search results changes life as we know it?

What this means is that Google control the worlds information, they don’t simply organize it like their adds say. They decide how they display it to us, in what order and what gets cut. This is proof Google choose what we do and don’t see? Please Blog about this, Tweet about it, point the whole world to this example. It’s fact, these results are black and white. Pulse it across Facebook.

DIGG THIS POST SO IT GOES FRONT PAGE! PASS THE WORD PLEASE!

Send this email to all of your media friends. Ask anyone with a big list to email this example out. Let’s see how long it takes for Google to put us back into the race once we put them under some Social Media, people power pressure. If they do put us back into the game, let’s be sure to rub their noses in it. Follow the same sequence to get my second video to the top spot under the first video. Let’s make sure we are holding down positions 1 and 2 by weeks end, that will teach them to mess with Social Traffic. <-;

Imagine you were Rubik, the guy who invented the Rubik’s Cube. You knew how it works… you knew how to approach it… you knew what thinking mechanism is best for solving it. And yet, as soon as you launched your new fascinating puzzle, some genius came in and solved it before you. Would that make sense?

This is how the social traffic team and their two waves of evangelists are feeling right now with their recent win on ranking for “Google Friend Connect” (Google’s product) on Google’s search engine. Ahem. Excuse the pompous remark, but I can’t help but feel pleased with the strategies and techniques we’ve pulled. Allow me to explain the scenario:

Google’s been planning its launch for months, and yet it took us 8 days, with only 800 odd views (less than a fifth of the Google owned videos), 160 odd comments comments, and 57 or so faves to bring our video up on number 1 spot on YouTube for the phrase “Google Friend Connect” on YouTube. This was an amazing 8 day period and our evangelists doing our course had a hands-on experience learning through some of the rarest online challenges. And you know what.. they won. They won the challenge at a glorifying level of just 8 days of involvement and no fowl play.

In case you’re wondering, we were competing for that spot against 12 highly viewed Google owned videos and also against the highly regarded Digg mover Chris Lang who is probably one of the best in the bookmarking for SEO business. Google’s videos have over half a million views all up, and back-links from PR8 and PR9 ranked Google blog pages. The reason, we got ahead in Youtube was because we understand the technology, we understand how it measures popularity and because of the comments on our video. Comments, the % of a video viewed throughout and it’s ratings are regarded as more important than volume of views in their search algorithms. They show activity.. life.. and interest. Who cares if 100,000 people view a video if they stop it a minute in and don’t leave a comment. YouTube won’t serve that video to their customers, people are searching for results not statistics. They want a video that best solves their problem.

You can watch our video here.

Our free Social Media marketing in evangelism for charity course is based on learning how to gain a strong hold on different social media touch-points; including EventsListed, Google, Article marketing sites, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. The program is run on engaged schedules revolving around training videos, weekly meetings, mentorship and hands-on exercises.

This YouTube challenge was one such exercise that helped them learn how to create and promote future campaigns for viral distribution in cut-throat niches. Imagine, some of our students had minimal experience online before joining Social Traffic. All of a sudden, here they are locked in a three way battle, a gloves off, fight to the death lasting 8 days. The prize,…YouTube search engine supremacy, achieving the impossible and living to tell the story. I hope to hear them tell it over and over again because it’s their story now, they own it because they deserve it. Can you believe their competition in this massive fight was non other than 12 Google developer video’s not to mention a foremost social bookmarking expert going toe to toe to rank number 1 for one of the “hottest” search phrases online at the moment. Let’s put this into perspective, our guys were newbies just 5 weeks ago yet taking on the 800 pound Gorilla of the Internet jungle. No, let me correct myself. Beating the 800 pound Gorilla of the Internet jungle.

I’m sure they’re all much more confident in their marketing skills now. Someone once said the best way to learn how to swim is to jump in the deep end of a pool - these courses have thrown these guys into the deep end of a very big pool,…the difference, we threw in some Olympic champions along side them. Watching them take to swimming so fluently in such a short period of time has made all the work I have done preparing these lessons very rewarding for me.

It’s priceless to be able to learn and make mistakes when your company’s bottom line or reputation is not dependent on it, especially when you can share the experience with so many amazing people, people you will continue support online forever - this was the primary motivation for the early sign ups we got and I am sure you can see by the comments across Facebook and YouTube they are very happy customers.

This practical experience of participating in getting a video to the top, watching it rise from page 26 to page 1 first, then rise up and fall down between spots 3 and 9 over an 8 day period until we finally cemented top ranking makes all the difference. Participation in this process is a lesson you don’t get in other courses online. Watching the effects of Digg votes, comments, ratings, views on the video itself gives you an opportunity to gauge the mechanics of how things work on YouTube. And this was just 1 module out of the 8 across all facets of social media marketing that we’re offering in our courses.

But like all good things that have to end, Social Traffic will be closing sign ups for our third (and last) free course on the 25th of this month. This is the last free wave of evangelists that we will be creating until our next charity launch. Lots of people are interested in it after seeing the amount of fun the first two waves are having. We had over 100 people sign up today alone. If you’re one of those who are receiving our emails and are watching what we’re doing, but haven’t joined in the efforts, then perhaps this is chance to do so.

This just might be your leap of faith in the sea of socially influenced traffic.

Everything else aside, the core lesson for our trainees here wasn’t how to rank number ONE on YouTube for a competitive keyword, the lesson goes much deeper. It’s about the power of having quality relationships across social media. About how smaller networks who are more connected to each other, networks that work towards common goals can beat the most successful company in modern times at their own game in not just search, in anything. The moral of this story is one that I have been singing across Facebook for over a year now, don’t waste your energies on huge followings that ignore you, forget people who don’t have time to maintain a relationship with you. Focus your energies towards building alliances with small groups of closely connected individuals (who may never have met each other in real life) and connect these small groups with other groups like them. The common denominator must be mind set, this is the priceless lesson that we pride our courses on. You can make great things happen on the internet. All you need is for participants across space and time feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves, and to for anyone to enjoy this feeling, the pay has to be a willingness to act when action is required.

After this last free round, the next Social Traffic course will be selling at $1500/seat for the exact same experience.

To me, this is exactly what defines social media - a means of developing quality relations spread all over the world using social sites. People who are joining in for the courses, are becoming part of this super-charged-and-connected group that is growing with every wave that passes. If nothing else, they’d come out of the course with a strong network and having known some of the big names in the social marketing world. Just having a chance to build such quality relationships for FREE is a win-win.

We offered 10 FREE places yesterday and got 100 opt-ins before we blinked. Our reaction was to let another 100 people enjoy this experience. It gives us am aditional 100 people as social proof of of the courses value before we start selling it next month. BE WARNED, If you don’t participate in the practicum one week, you won’t go through to the next week. To avail this opportunity of the last wave of evangelists course, you can sign up here: http://www.socialtraffic.biz/our-story/join-us/social-traffic-evangelist-sign-up-here/

Simon U Ford

Earth Day Birthday

Social Traffic

SUF.EDBD

Today’s tip! YouTube’s the second most searched engine after Google. Because of the barriers to building a video centric community you often find they’re the best quality. Tubinator helps build your YouTube community faster!