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As the economy shrink’s, Social Media grows!

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Seeing opportunity amidst mist:

What an amazing book launch Social Traffic has been. I will be posting a note tomorrow to wrap up the books pre-launch that will include a video montage we put together on the fly to articulate the launch, as it unfolded across social media. The idea of the video is to exasperate the power this medium represents to all of us in business today.

New Media

I have been involved with marketing my own businesses for 20 years now. I came onto the internet 4 years ago because I knew that it was the perfect platform for me to execute what I did locally to the world. Everything that we do offline can easily be extrapolated and amplified online - by reaching out to a larger audience using the same mind set with a different story, message and product. This is why, people who still haven’t seriously adapted to social media and the internet for marketing, need to do so now more than ever.

Because of the current economic situation, there is a huge opportunity in Social Media today. People who previously employed traditional offline advertising and marketing tactics are going to be forced to move towards adopting lower-cost internet marketing strategies if they want to keep getting their message out under much tighter sales and marketing budgets. Those businesses who were already active online, are now way ahead in the race for survival through this economic bush fire where weaker businesses will burn and only the strong, efficient and well capitalized business will survive. The actions already being taken by those currently applying social media and the internet as a delivery platform is a proof of their prudence.

When it comes to stock investing, Warren Buffet says that “we should be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy”. Warren Buffet is in a greedy mode right now whilst the world around him is gripped by fear, he is buying some great stocks for peanuts and he will earn billions as the economy claws it’s way back to value. You see, it’s the small business people amongst us: the entrepreneurs, the risk takers, who will slowly get the economy back on its feet through tough times - and throughout the process individuals who lead the way will be rewarded through their star rising when most others is falling with the economy.

The misled wayfarers:

Employees from the stock trading community, the corporate sector in property trusts, finance and banking will not. These people got us into this mess, they did it whilst enjoying all the prestige and accolades our society could dish up. Funded by unhealthy salaries and bonuses (bonuses they don’t have to give back now that their companies are hurting), driving prestige motor cars worth more than a lot of peoples homes, wearing designer suites, accompanied by fast women. It’s little wonder that, being allowed the latitude we gave them, that they managed to pump so much hot air into the economy that the ensuing bubble of nothing got so big it has very nearly bankrupted the world. Those responsible for this bubble don’t have a mind-set that will lift the economy out of this mess.

Gartner Hype Index Curve

They will wait for someone to bail them out and will be praying that they keep their wages because they have no clue how to survive without wages. If their wages are taken away from them they will go in one of two directions from here; either they’ll hit rock bottom and never recover, or they will shift their mind set to a place where they can use their education and training to morph themselves into small business people, they will become entrepreneurs to survive and to do that they must learn to play whats in front of them like we do. They will learn to see opportunity where others only see adversity, they will learn to listen to the problems a market place is having and find ways to solve these problems through supplying goods and services. Above all else, they must learn how to communicate with the market place and succeed at building trusting relationships with people in order to survive in the new economy.

With this influx of sharp minds coming across to compete for survival in small business, it’s going to get really competitive. These people are tech savvy, they were well trained over the years by corporations who had hugely inflated budgets to train them well, all they don’t have is the mind set that is required to become successful small business entrepreneurs.

The big jump:

It’s not feasible for us to think that all these clever people will curl up and die. Nor is it realistic to think they will all start new business on models based on telephones, tele-marketers or fax machines. This influx will be coming into the social media and internet marketing space to find customers who they can solve problems for using these apps as their delivery platforms of choice. They are going to be joined by a growing list of small business owners who have (until now) not been forced to think outside their comfort zone when it comes to marketing solutions for their businesses. They have just enjoyed decades of prosperity in business in the offline world. Sure all these people have heard of social media in marketing but they have avoided having to understand it through not being forced to endure the hardship that comes with change. Here’s the thing, a couple months ago, a lot of people woke up one day and accepted their lives were about to change, they knew their sales will start dropping 20% to 50% for the next year, and today its already happening. It’s through tough times that the strong get stronger, ties become more tightly knit and loyalty becomes everything - whilst those who don’t enjoy such characteristics implode on one another in the scurry for survival.

Businesses who already understand social media and the internet in business are already ahead and those who are using it as a communication platform to build stronger relationships with clients and partners are even further ahead. When you think about it, any businesses throughout who can utilize the internet to deliver their goods or services should have embraced it by now all things being equal for no other reason than the sheer genius of it. Why would any business not adopt a model where they only pay a sales force after already selling a product or service and where every customer can become a part of that sales force, if they were not restrained by insecurity or ignorance. Last financial year 4% of Americas gross domestic sales were made online through affiliate marketers, yet in Korea 36% of their gross domestic sales were transacted this way. This indicates that America and Europe were due to experience a massive shift from offline customer sales, service and delivery models to online models is overdue anyway, the only thing stopping these western giants from acting was the comfort of enjoying good times in business offline, allowing them not to have to deal with the change every business owner knows was coming. The slowing economy means every business needs to market, sell and deliver their goods and services to as wide an audience as possible for the least possible cost if they are to survive a period of recession, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that the masses will turn to the internet and social media to survive.

This influx of new players into social media over the next year or two coupled with an already growing need for a better code of practices and regulation throughout online businesses and sole traders, information overload, excessive spamming and a confused rational when it comes to relationship building online and we have ourselves a boiling pot of mayham.

The torch bearers:

To me, this climate represents enormous opportunities for those of us willing to see opportunity, cease the moment, and invest in solutions. They will come out the other side of this tough economic climate having established fare superior gains through our the pecking order of influence than they could never have realized in times when our economy is strong. Like Warren Buffet, I say “be pro-active in expanding where the economy is retracting and save, consolidate when the economy is pro-actively expanding”.

Firstly the influx into social media are going to require training, they are going to want to learn practices that represent long term success, everyone needs to know how to deliver value in solutions that can be marketed, sold and delivered via a combination of internet and posts. I think this climate will demand an emphasis on quality relationships because consumers with money to spend will become like gold. In order to win their loyalty merchants are going to have to know how to treat them like gold. I think the days of running businesses off email lists that yield 1% open rates are numbered, as are the number of info products and training courses teaching people how to build businesses like this. People doing business online are going to need platforms that are targeted in their ability to provide solutions, communities that carry influence will be ones that represent the way online business should be done. Communities that use social media as their communication platform are already facilitating opportunities to build quality relationships that extend offline making the world a truly smaller place for all of us. I personally think an opportunity for a community of like-minded thought leaders in the space of social media, to consolidate themselves as an influential network; will rise to lead us through the times ahead is upon us. This is why I believe that together, the Social Traffic group can support, be supported and collaborate by sharing a common mind-set of adding value to each others efforts and through doing this, our movement will grow into one that can really make a difference through the times ahead.

What do you think?

Notice to those people who downloaded Social Traffic.

If you used the state of our economy as cause for not upgrading to the full 145 page version of Social Traffic, it may be worth another consideration.

We have planned a Social Traffic MP3 version re-launch in the coming weeks. All those who purchased a (full 145 page) version of the ebook, as at, Friday 21st November 2008, midnight (EST North America), you will all receive a FREE MP3 download as a BONUS to go with it.

I will announce another, better bonus for all full (145 page) version book owners tomorrow.

Follow me on twitter and be the first to know about our bonuses and the Social Traffic MP3 re-launch;

http://www.twitter.com/SimonFord

Credit where credit is due…

Posted by admin

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… <-;

“Social Traffic”, code of ethics

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It seems that everyone has their own definition of social media but we have a consensus on at least one point – it’s an excellent way of interacting and bonding with like-minded people. It is exciting to see the way the “Social Traffic” group on Facebook has evolved over the past 5 days and become a small movement with such great potential so quickly. After all what is our common focus? I see Glen’s discussion on what the group stands for has attracted a lot of input and it’s inspiring to watch the talent pool come to light, but throughout these discussions lets not lose focus on what brought us all together. We are all here because we want to be working with a better caliber of people under better quality relationships than what we are currently experiencing. If this is not the case why are we all here?

I think the subject matter of what we are working on will vary and I think groups within the groups will centralize around topics of interest. We are here because we want to collaborate with a better quality of relationships than we are used to, and I am sure this group will provide that value to us. If we have the right mindset what we all want to happen within the group, will invariably happen. We can steer it in a direction which can benefit all of us.

With some great discussions gaining momentum and others about to start, I felt that it’s time to define a few guidelines for the group’s code of practice to better aid us in achieving our desired result from being members of this movement.

Now, a lot of people say and believe that putting any restrictions or rules on a group destroys its basic nature to evolve and grow. We don’t want to put restrictions - we just want to channelize this traction in the right direction – the direction of mutual collaboration, learning and helping each other with a core focus on elevating our level of intent towards one and other, to add more value than we take away from every interaction. So, in essence, we want to define certain boundaries that will help us collaborate and work together in the healthy, productive and pro-active environment we are all attracted to, without getting side-tracked by people with the old-marketing-mindset of sell a widget, receive a dollar then look to the next sale.

If we don’t define certain rules, chances are that we can go off on unwanted tangents. That may be OK for random FB groups, but not for targeted groups such as this one.

Having said that, let’s get straight to our socializing ethics. At the Social Traffic group, I would like to put forward suggestions for a group Code of Practice and ask for a collaborative effort in building on this beginning to define a code of practice that defines us:

1- Don’t friend people just to spam them

Spamming kills the very purpose of a conversation and takes it down to a low and closed-mind level. Up until today, we have been tolerating some messages, but we can’t afford to anymore. We are here to build a community and movement, not spam each other with interest-driven messages. If you have something very important to say, be prepared to listen first. Earn the interest of the group and wait until asked. Then promote yourself, or better still wait for someone to do it for you. The effect is 1000 times more powerful this way.

Note: If you are not confident of anyone ever showing enough interest in you to listen to or promote you; ask yourself one thign, should “you” be promoting yourself either?

2- Building strong relationships

Strong relationships play a key role in the success of any venture. The relationship gets stronger when there is a trust between the parties. This trust comes through mutual respect and confidence. We need a powerful social network within our group. If we can achieve this target then our group will see an active growth both in terms of membership as well as popularity. We want to get as many people who you think can in any way benefit from being here. If they are on other networks, bring them in. If they are offline, send them invites.

Everyone should take ownership of it as if this is their own space. Most of the strategies and discussions we have had so far revolve around building quality relationships rather than running after numbers - Social Traffic members understand this concept and are here for the long-run and not for short-sighted narrow-minded benefits.

3- Proactive approach

We have to adopt a proactive approach in reaching out to other people. That’s not a big task to accomplish, only if we can shed our differences and interact actively with other group members. The group thrives on commenting, discussions over notes, asking questions, answering other’s questions and building a knowledge base. For this, everyone needs to be proactive in participating. Here’s the hard part: Those members who do not actively engage with the group for more than 15 days should be removed from it.

We want to maintain this into an active discussion board, not just a place to watch others and stay quiet. I see no point in a member remaining inactive if they do not intend to contribute to the groups growth. Nor do I see benefit in the group having these members sit in the wings to take all that is positive away from the group without investing anything back into it. It’s this contribution defecit that will bankrupt our inspiration if we allow it to happen. In saying that, lets encourage others to participate and show them how they will profit from adopting this mind set before expelling them.

4- Frequent Surveys and polls

Surveys and online polls are the heart and soul of a social networking group. We can only judge the trends and practices of our members if we know what they are actually thinking and ‘doing’. A monthly survey or poll is necessary to keep the members active. The only difference is that we want the members to come up with the questions themselves collaboratively. These questions can evolve out of a questions discussion group that has been started.

5- Effective Collaboration

We are here to share our thoughts, ideas and strategies, so having an honest approach to networking is necessary. We encourage shout outs and heads up calls that are aimed at enriching the collaborative efforts of all members. Through such collaboration, we need to eventually expand our footprint to other platforms and applications. When sharing notes and ideas, we need to discuss them and take them a step higher - so that we can all grow and learn from each other.

6- Tapping those who matter

It doesn’t matter how many friends you have made but it does matter how influential or passionate they are. We have to bring in passionate people to increase the net worth of our group. Group members must actively promote the group to bring in more people to the group so that we all can benefit from the collective expertise and social marketing strategies. Having more thought leaders on board raises the level and value of our discussions.

7- Contributing to each others stock worth

Our net worth is an augmentation of the stock worth of each and every group member. When you add to the value of others by helping them or sharing, you are in effect increasing your own value. We want to drive this point in, because it is the core essence and fundamental concept on which this group stands. Break this and the whole system can break. Broaden your thinking, increase your level of intent to add value to those around you, invest time in widening your net worth and you will elevate the value you represent to others. The more successful the Social Traffic group becomes the better caliber of each smaller network within the group becomes leading to each individuals stock value rising. The groups stock price will not rise as a start up without a considerable investment that can only come through the mind set of it’s members.

8 - Revolving conversations

Although we want to encourage democratic conversations for the sake of transparency we need to center our conversations through a blue print that ensures conversations are always moving us forward. This blue print is also one that invites collaboration but let me start giving us something to work off.

I think that all conversations should start in the group discussion boards. The individual who starts the conversation must administer it. These discussions should be viewed as targeted and real time content from the cutting edge and therefore be a source for posts that should be pulled into notes written by anyone just like this one. The note should reflect the conversation that inspired it and be a place where the conversation lifts to another level.

If a conversation warrants through a successful knot, it should be turned onto its own Facebook page. The conversation can lift to another level on the page where participants can break away into a group within the group, anchored by the page that was initially inspired by a discussion within the group. The growth of “Social Traffic” can spawn out to as many smaller groups around many pages whilst the core philosophies that hold the extended network together will be discussed and communicated within the “Social Traffic” group.

If a smaller group outgrows it’s page, a break away group will no doubt emerge that will have a strong relationship with the Social Traffic group through a shared mindset and level of understanding we can depend on. “We all get it!”

Why Social Traffic?

The quality of what you do…

Posted by admin

I have a question for you. What are your idea’s worth? Nothing if you don’t execute them. What are your word’s worth? Nothing if others can’t take them on face value. As a general rule; people who honor their words, talk in a decisive tone and act on ideas will gain the respect of the community. Without determination and deciding internally what you want to achieve, chances are that you won’t go far in reaching your goals. Sometimes we undervalue the importance of the fact that when your mind becomes determined and committed to achieving a particular goal, the world conspires to help you. People will come out of the blue to support your cause. Opportunities you hadn’t seen before would come knocking on your door.

Building your network:

In my previous “If you were a corporation, whats your stock worth?” I mentioned how I think online networks should create more traffic and value by augmenting your existing relationships rather than playing a number game. Take time to think about what you want from the time that you invest online - it is an investment after all, not a cost. You need to invest time in building strong contacts.

One successful contact at a time will result in an empire eventually. While it is important to add new contacts slowly, maintaining and growing the relationship with the ones that you already have is even more important. If you don’t have time to invest into adding value to these relationships, is it wise to keep adding more connections to your list that you won’t ever have time for? Isn’t that what groups are for: to attract an audience - whereas friends should be reserved for quality connections (like a privilege of some sort)? Are social networking sites encouraging online networking practices that lead us away from beneficial human networking practices.

I allocate time every day to spend interacting with my existing contacts. I talk with them on their walls and ask something of them to see what they are made of. I do this not to stir people or annoy them but to determine if these people are worth having as a number in my trusted friends list and I can tell you a lot of people completely ignore my attempts to communicate with them. Scott Brandon Hoffman, one of my trusted connections in Facebook noted that someone sending him a friend request without a message was like them walking up to him at a party and just standing there, saying nothing. Now imagine introduction yourself to a person at a party and have that person turn his head in the other direction, instead of responding with a handshake. Yet by current social networking standards these people are still suppose to be considered your “friends”. Before I “got it”, I accepted invitations from such people without screening them, leaving my party half filled with people who don’t talk back. I mean it’s not like I am hitting their walls like a spammer (the only contact that’s worse than a contact that doesn’t talk back) and asking them to click a link to a page that’s all about me..? I usually say something more like;

“hey {name}, I just noticed we’re friends…boy, and I didn’t know anything about you…I took a look at your profile and can see you are into “what ever it is they are into“…tell me some more about yourself to fire this relationship up a notch..oh, and I write notes from time to time that give a pretty good insight into me…let me know if you’re interested and I will tag you to one…

Now, what do you do with someone who is on your list of connections who flat out ignores an approach like that. What value is there to having this connection in my friend’s list. Is it only because the technology demands that doing so will allow me to tag more people to my content. I am not blaming the humans here. I hold the machine responsible, please tell me what you think?

The answer to my concerns are going to be played out through the emergence of smarter technology like Google Friend Connect that will hopefully lead to us towards not feeling so compelled to maintain these type of connections for the sole purpose of distributing content through them. One way media (like TV) was flawed because it disrupts an entire household’s viewing pleasure in order to show an advertising message about a product or service, that may only have been of interest to a very small percentage of the people.

The internet and then Social media was the multi-directional communication platform that was going to change our media scape forever. It allowed for global collaboration where every individual could publish a message without having to pay media corporations huge fees to have it distributed to millions of viewers throughout their audiences. Should I really need to continue investing time and energy into hundreds of benign connections in order to find the people who are interested in what I have to offer. Isn’t social media meant to be a platform that facilitates our ability to walk into a targeted audience and communicate with them, without the expense, non targeting, static and cross noise that come with offline media platforms. Are we not polluting our own pond here? Isn’t it a case of quantity based connecting strategy? This makes it harder to find people we are looking for in business who are above this noise created by so many connections that lead to nothing? Do we have a choice or are we simple creatures of the technology that defines us now. Is the greatest machine ever built (the internet) changing the way humans interact forever? Do we have a say in it or must we continue to network and connect the way the machine is training us, if we want to excel at the game by the games rules. Must I just learn to accept people who flat out ignore me when I attempt to engage them in conversation, my new and technically super charged social network of 2008. Please leave your comments on this one. It’s important…

Here’s a thought. Aren’t pages and groups in Facebook designed for people to become fans and members of an audience or to join targeted groups or communities. Shouldn’t tagging and syndicating through profile pages be limited to people we are connected to through these networks. Shouldn’t my friend’s list remain sacred, reserved for people who I trust most - my friends, family, good customers (evangelists) or partners, “my circle of trust”? If tagging and networking like we do amongst our friend contacts now was extended through to fans or members of the same groups as us, wouldn’t it be easier for us to find targeted markets to whom we could promote our products and services to whilst being less compelled to have to accept everyone as friends. Isn’t it time we started looking for ways to better segment networking with commercial intent and networking with social intent. Why are all the powerful syndication capabilities in Facebook tied to our friends lists and not pages or groups. Isn’t this causing the boundaries between family, friends, audiences, leads, opportunities and customers to be blurred. Is it because Facebook pages and groups were an after thought, added years after the machine was first built for social networking amongst university students. Has the machine taken control and is now influencing the way humans interact socially through it’s technical limitations and inability to merge faultlessly with what social networking between humans has always been.

Someone asked me recently how to separate the good contacts from the bad? It’s a question you don’t get asked so much offline although the answer would be the same. You’ll just know. As an example, I spoke to a person I had just met a few days ago and after one conversation, I knew he was a person I wanted to invest more time into. If I had to go to battle with someone I had just met, it would be someone like him. Why? Because his attitude instills me with the confidence of knowing that if I did invest more time into him, he will not let me down. Because of the words he used I knew he was the real deal and not fluff and that I would be bonding on the same wave-length. I knew “he got it” and more than anything else, he was passionate about the fact, “he gets it”. Here’s an excerpt from an email I received from him:

“At this stage in my life, as an only child, with my parents long-deceased, being divorced since leaving my hometown of Macon, Georgia to move to Los Angeles in 1980, I’m committed to spending the rest of my energy to achieve, enjoy, and share the best of what life offers for myself and the people around the world I feel compelled to meet and treat as the only family I may ever have. So, I’m in it for the long run. Let’s do it! - AWJ”

The web, as we know it, is a fantastic opportunity - not because you can reach thousands of people, but because you can reach 10 people like “him” who you know is going to be connected to at least 10 people like “you“. Who “you” are, is determined by your own mind set which you control, so if “you” are someone who “you know” adds value to anybody lucky enough to earn a place within your circle of trust, then an opportunity to connect with 10 people like “him”, that you know has a similar network of relationships with other people like “you”, then you have the beginning of something very powerful in terms of doing business online. Say that 5 times quickly. No, I am joking….say it 5 times slowly and make sure you “get it”.

Don’t be short sighted in your attitude towards your connections - adding value to other people’s efforts makes your relationship more valuable, this can only increase your value. How each of us attract an audience through social networks that we can segment into leads and grow into opportunities that will become great customers who will eventually transform into evangelists will invite more and more followers into your revolving conversation marketing campaigns designed to walk them down the same path is what my Book “Social Traffic” will teach you.

A limited number of copies of the book go on sale at 8.00 am EST North America, next Wednesday 12th November. You can put your name down here.

Become part of a community executing the principles laid out in the book. Leverage this community to enhance your value in business though maintaining focus on increasing your intent towards members of your inner network of trusted business associates all applying the same focus here.

If you were a corporation, what’s your stock worth?

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Sometimes, all we are is what others perceive us to be. It doesn’t matter how great we are at a task, unless other people benefit from it. I was thinking about all of the people that I have known in my life – it’s interesting how a stranger can become an acquaintance and then turn into a close friend. Interesting because just days before you wouldn’t even know them and suddenly you trust them. I rarely take dynamics on face value; I tend to study a process, always looking for clues as to why things happen the way they do.

If you were to choose ‘1′ person to go into battle with, who would it be? If you were to choose ‘5′ people to camp out with, who would they be? If you were to choose ‘10′ people to form an informal alliance of trust with, who would they be? If you were to choose ‘100′ people to attend your birthday party who would they be? If you could pitch a business opportunity to a group of business mentors who would you want listening? Knowing the answers to these questions lies in knowing who you are, knowing who you are is only possible if you know where you’re heading. If you know that, you are going to get there. Truth is, very few people take time out to think about these simple questions.

When we look at how people are networking in the online world today, it becomes incredibly unnerving. Marketers are brainwashing people into a mindset that suggests we need to “add as many people on our networks as possible” if we want to succeed in doing business online. “She’s in your industry, let’s add her on LinkedIn”, “He looks like someone influential, let’s add him to our Facebook”. It’s like everyone is being encouraged to waste time adding as many people as connections with a blindfold on, instead of investing the same amount of time into reinforcing some of the online relationships that we already DO have, and neglect.

Next time you are going to add a dozen people to your network, think about this for a second: Will I choose these people for going to battle with, or camping out with, or starting an online trust-based association with or are these people going to be little more than another number on my profile page that I can hopefully syndicate my content through? Will having these people on my list actually add value to my efforts and make me more influential in any way – or are they just going to leach away the value and worth that I have been building for myself. Another question we should be asking ourselves is; do I have the time and resources required to be able to add value to what they are working on.

We need to seriously reconsider how we network online – there are individuals who think that online networking is not different to offline networking, except you can do more of it across distance and time. A lot of people who “get this” will read this note, just as I read notes written by others that lead to a thought process towards establishing more rewarding relationships online. Am I the only one who feels a movement of people who “get this” flocking together, like birds of a feather, or do we all sense that it’s happening around us.

I want to hold onto this thought whilst we take a moment to look at ourselves as an important part of this movement. Let’s take each of us and consider ourselves as an entity that has a set worth, like a corporation of some sort (Just like Nightingale’s philosophy). Let’s consider that our “circle of trust” are people who believe in us and have invested in us, let’s look at this investment as them owning shares in our stock value. Now it would be each of ours responsibility to ensure that our stock value increases over time so that the investment our circle of trust has made in us pay’s them a healthy dividend as well as a capital gain over time. If we don’t do this they will stop investing in us.

Now what if we were the CEO of a major corporation that had hundreds of staff, thousands of clients and multiple stock holders that all cohabited under the one umbrella - and it was your responsibility to continually add value for these stakeholders. You are going to want some talented people adding value each day if you are going to succeed in your role. Now, as the CEO of a major corporation, if you were to set a target of lifting the corporation’s stock value over a defined period, would you tackle this by asking your executives to produce more or would you be better served off focusing on the individuals. What if you were to embark on a campaign that touched all your stock holders, customers, staff and executives through? What if, you were able to lead them all into focusing on elevating their own focus to increase the level of intent they carry into each day. What if you were capable of encouraging everyone to enhance the level of perceived value they represent to the people around them.

Now, wouldn’t it be true that if everyone was able to elevate their intent towards others, at some point, this would increase the value each individual represents to others. This could only lead to the value of the entire corporation to rise, along with its stock price.

Does this mean that everyone should hit the street and pick 1000 people to start adding value to? No, but everyone can increase their level of intent with everyone they come in contact with through every single day by adopting a simple shift in mindset. Open doors for ladies, give your seats to old people on a bus, say thank you, appreciate the person who serves you coffee - it’s the little things that increase your overall intent which ultimately determines our stock price as an individual.

My point is this, if we all shifted our mindset to see ourselves as having a stock value and we all started viewing the people in our lives as stakeholders in our corporation who had varying degrees invested in us, we would be forced to accept our market value. If we don’t like what we see then we must accept that there is only one way to fix it. We should focus on the value we represent to our stock holders and find ways of enhancing it so that stock price can rise. Do you see the analogy here? If we run around obsessed with making fickle connections who we can yell at by shoving links in their faces and demanding they listen to us then it’s only a matter of time before your stock price crashes. You can only, at best be building a bubble and as we all know, bubbles pop.

When it comes to business I would want to partner up with people who I can add value to. It enhances the value I represent as a person and by the same token, I want to work with people who add value to what I do. In my personal life I want to partner with people who are like mirrors that reflect me – so as to amplify my value. I married a wonderful woman who is witness to everything I do in life and in business. Without her, other family and my closest friends, what I do in business has no meaning. When you are networking online, let’s first understand the value you represent to each other with a view to reaching a higher potential in your businesses together.

Take some time to think about the collective power of a great movement of people that are focused on the overall intent they represent each other versus working in your own direction. If committing to a relationship, lets be sure we can honor it and let’s not commit to more than we can honor.

If you have read my “Sleeping With The Enemy” post you will have seen what my focus on 14 effective relationships did for me in a previous business. What I didn’t talk about in that post was how I started out begging, borrowing and stealing to start one very small 30 backpacker business. I had no clout, I didn’t have the numbers with 30 beds to be taken seriously by anyone in my industry or in hospitality. I could not approach top clubs and promoters in town with a view to partnering because at that stage there was not a lot of value I was able to offer them. Instead I focused on relationships where I did represent value, my backpacker customers who valued everything I was able to do for them. This trend was reciprocated by them wanting to add value to what I was doing because it’s in our nature to want that. Eight years later, through maintaining this focus, my network was 5 tiered from myself, down to my managers, to our house captains, to their lodgers onto their friends that was the most powerful social movement in Sydney that every pub, club and promoter in town wanted to work with. The same people I could never have added value to in such a relationship when I started out. The key message here is that I didn’t try to go after those people who weren’t ready to listen in the beginning.

People have asked me where I am going with this campaign. Questions like, if I have ten people in my group does that mean I will have to bookmark ten people’s content in order to have them bookmark mine?

This is not where I am taking this campaign. This movement has been moving along nicely for a long time now and it will keep moving where the masses allow it to go. Everyone of us is a part of it, I see many thought leaders producing great content that is forging paths that a lot of us want to follow. I see amazing contributors who add value to the efforts of others including mine, and most impressively I see a community that debates protocol and etiquette with a constructive precision, intent on building a better online community. I can see the emergence of a shift away from meaningless networking towards online relationships that do represent greater value.

My aim is to publish thought provoking content that delivers value to those people who enjoy consuming it. My intention is to add enough value to those around me that I attract a top line network of people who I can start a process of building a circle of trust with. I would like to introduce a process whereby I can expand and amplify these connections through a series of interconnected networks operating under a similar charter. This charter is to strive for better ways of harnessing our collective resources into strong infallible ties built on a foundation of trust enabling us to grow together as a movement of thought leaders in the space of social media marketing.

This movement does not need structure but it will need boundaries, and it has to be recognized as a movement for it to become one. If I was to pick ten people who have added the most value to my efforts here on Facebook I don’t need to look very far. I will be spending this week making sure I let them know that I recognize the value they represent to me and I will be arming myself with their email address and their Skype ID or phone number.