Event Launch Strategies

It’s interesting to see the different types of personalities and characters that we come across in our lives. I have always had a keen and curious observation, and always tried to understand the perspective different people bring on the table in our day to day interactions. Their perspectives are a conglomeration of their personalities, experiences, DNA codes and intelligence. If part of growing up is about respecting different people’s perspectives and ideologies, in a way I had grown up even when I was just a kid.

Through life, I have learned that one of the most important things we can do in our interactions with others is acknowledging their efforts whenever possible. Genuine acknowledgment pays off in a much deeper way and touches the heart of the other person.

However, sometimes, simple acknowledgment with mouth service is not enough. During this campaign that we’re having around Social Traffic, I realized that sometimes you value other people so much that you really wish to benefit their businesses or lives as much as you can. This is a feeling that cannot be faked or forced – it has to come naturally.

In sociology you will study that like-minded people tend to flock together. If a girl walks around in a short skirt and shows off her breast cleavage, she will attract a certain kind of men who value the girl’s body above all else. Alternatively, if a girl enters a party and is graceful, articulate and intelligent then she will attract men who value these qualities more. Similarly, snake oil salesmen using shady online marketing techniques will always be attracted to campaigns that are sketchy in nature; whereas people of high caliber will always flock together in campaigns where they can add value to each other.

Our circle of trust has been building up – and people who have been promoting the mindset to the public do so because they believe in it. I regard these promoters in my “circle of trust” because they trust me and in return I trust them. They add value to the cause by telling their contacts about the campaign and gradually building the trust of other people in it. They support the cause with good intent and are focused on bringing positive change in global social marketing. They haven’t been doing this for any ulterior motives or personal incentives; which proves the point that they actually believe in the cause or passionately want to take this discussion forward.

I cannot just let this go unnoticed or unacknowledged though. I have always believed in building mutually beneficial relationships that add value to the collective whole. Today I have announced to them that I will reward them for their efforts. Not because I have to, but because they deserve it for keeping up the positive attitude and making this campaign successful and developing successful communication streams within the group.

The level of communication is based on the depth of relationships. The less the degrees of separation - the more the depth; and vice versa. This sort of communication is popular because it’s reliable and trustworthy and is the basis of any business model. Relationship based communications lost its validity with the advancements in internet, because it was exploited to an extent that it wasn’t reliable anymore. People baiting the links to plant cookies to pose as another person, hijacking tracking codes to steal other peoples rewards; and thus it has made relationship based communication very vulnerable online. Like all things good, a minority believe in the vast potential of internet as a delivery platform for the amazing business models it can support. Online marketing is not as strong as it could be because of those who abuse it.

I think the situation is beginning to get different now; we have smart programmers and developers funded by the biggest companies in the world who are working on making internet more secure and reliable. Social technology turns users into watchmen, as people and the machine merge into one cohesive force - we become strong enough to tackle this issue and lay the foundation for codes of ethical conduct in social marketing. Spammers are slowly being locked out of our blogs, emails and social networks and because of this we are seeing the return of relationship based communication. This is again getting popular because humans can interact and develop trust. I believe Internet has all the ingredients to bring fantastic revolution in social marketing. I promoted my campaign through email marketing and 74% of those following my emails open them and click the links off of them, I have invested time and effort to earn the privilege to have them listen. Traditional marketers are happy with a 10% open rate so focus on sheer numbers and you can see over time how they are becoming more desperate in their trickery to have you open a message from them. Is email marketing dead? Not for marketers who build relationships with people who listen to them, it is for those who do it the old way.

I believe in focusing on our bigger objective, because if I lose focus then I lose my cause. Marketing is the same; through word of mouth I worked to convince one person and he convinced another and slowly and gradually we built the trust of thousands.

On the internet it’s easy to loose focus and indulge in gaming the system. If you want people to buy what you sell, whether it is an idea or a mindset or a product; you need to tell them why it’s good for them and how it can add value to their lives. The catch is, although people want to buy they don’t want to be sold to anymore. Those who focus on numbers and not on quality will invariably fail in the longer run, they may be building income but they are not building value, thus will never be wealthy. Focus on why what you do can be good for others and you will build a business model that drives others into wanting to help you build it.

That’s why I am attracted to conversation marketing as my strategy of choice to promote what it is I have to offer people. When people ask me what I am going to do next after this book launch, I tell them that launching the book won’t be an end, but just a step forward in the right direction. That’s the perk of conversation marketing because so many, who show interest by reading or hearing us become a part of this campaign automatically - and they are happy about it because we are adding value to their lives by making them think and explore different horizons of possibilities. More importantly, people who become involved in this campaign do so because of those who spread the message to them. Our evangelists.

These people introduced the concept to others; we made a group for these people on Facebook and within seven days the number of members grew to 800 at an astounding growth rate of 3600% per year. I am seeing people learning and enhancing their mindset and introducing this to other people and in so doing adding value in their lives as well. So those who support us are supporting us for the right reason, and the right reason is that they believe they are doing it for other people to make their live’s good. Some people will grow out from the group into active participants in conversations around notes that I and others write and some will find value in products or services we represent, because they represent solutions to problems they need solving. Others wont, all will have something in common.

Because of this fact, I insist that 50% of every book sale is rewarded to the people most responsible for introducing it to every new person buying the book. (i.e. for every sale, the person who referred them to the book will get 50% of the revenue). Commissions are something we pay to give back to people who created value through their influence, if we pay commission in cash it can be measure to insure the people who most deserve it, are most rewarded. But it’s should never be about the money.

Those who want to buy my book have obviously enjoyed a great deal of value from the conversation so far, you believe and trust me when I tell you that owning the book will take your journey to another level. The value you anticipate the book to represent to you will excede the price. You will be offered the first chapters without risk, to confirm it’s value.

I have created a fair deal for you and I hope I have earned your trust. I am going to ask something of all those who are buying the book today. Please leave this post and go directly to the person who is most responsible for you buying the book outside of me. The deal is all about you enjoying value, I want to shift the boundary on this process by asking you to also consider a focus on ensuring credit goes where credit is due. Imagine If we all start to buy and sell this way, we stop spamming in its tracks and what I am asking of you is only a very slight shift in mind set.

You know who is responsible for you being here, enjoying this journey,.. find them,.. buy your book from them - it’s just a request, nothing mandatory. Though the public book launch is not until Wednesday 4.00pm (EST), we are giving early access to people prepared to find those who deserves the credit and buy through them, they will be ready for you. If they are not get them to contact me.

We will be releasing 1000 copies of the first 30 pages only (with a count down form 1000 to 0). You will be asked to refer ten friends on your way to downloading this free copy. It’s not compulsary but will be appreciated and acknowledged if you do. See you all on the other side… <-;

Simon U Ford (SUF.EDBD)

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