Social Traffic
Offer for those who strive to ‘get it’ - welcome to the family
The promotion campaign for my book, “Social Traffic - Event Marketing In a New Media Scape” is coming to an end. We got a massive response and over 1,000 copies have already been downloaded. The demand has been that intense, after focusing on customer support over the past few days we have just re-opened the doors to allow another 300 copies go. My partner and I have spent the past 24 hours putting together a little montage of the book launch to show you all just how powerful social media can be. Try doing this 2 years ago.
Whats the game?
Now, I had segmented my audience down from 12,000 home viewers (to use my new friend Philip Gornail’s analogy again, “let the coaches coach, the spectators, spectate and the players play”) to a live audience base of about 3000 people before this book launch. During the 7 day launch phase, 1000 (soon to be 1300) serious spectators actively stepped up to get the book and play the game. These people have downloaded my book, and most will have read the first 30 pages so are seriously considering becoming a customer of mine and taking what I do and applying it to their own game plan.
Now, I have segmented my audience into clearly defined groups so that I can communicate with all these people at different levels. Different conversations can take place that are pertinent to each segment of my audience. General conversations seem like futile small-talk after you’ve tasted the strength of targeted collaboration with your audiences. (Yes you can quote me on that.) Those watching from home want to talk about the game, the players and whats happening down at the ground. Those at the ground want to talk about; the players, the entertainment between quaters, the coaches and whats happening on the bench. Then there are those who are chomping at the pit to play, these people want to get close to the players who are playing, they want to learn and they want to take that next step. Then we have the players, these guys talk on a different level all together. These people mean business, they know their job, they want to discuss strategy, commitment, execution and outcome.
It’s time we take my campaign to the next level so that we can flush the players out, I am looking to attract participants out of the grand stand who are ready to play. I know how I am going to do this as well, this is not an impulse, this phase was planned into my launch story over a year ago, the post however I wrote today. I couldn’t write this post without the right situation and mindset that allow these words to flow with meaning. To be effective, you need to know the mindset and perspective of the people listening to you. The mindset required for you to be amongst those people I am addressing today.
As much as I can come up with seasonal game plan that I can break down into a series of individual game plans, it’s not until you are in the heat of the battle that you know what to do and say. Although a launch strategy and story is imperative to a successful campaign, success will always come down to how well you play whats in front of you. This is why I have always found the information trade so disputable in the internet marketing fraternity, first they sell the game-plan, then they leave it up to you to execute it. It’s no wonder that 9 out of 10 small businesses or sole proprietorships fail.
I am not going to spend my time complaining about the way things have been done to date, I am busy executing a plan for the way I believe things can be done a whole lot better. Obviously with a focus on quality strategy, income per capita must be higher proportionately to the decline in volume of customers. Likewise, the output of problems solved and successful execution of my philosophies must be proportionately higher. Suggesting this to people who are used to volume based internet marketing business models of paying less for less to all of a sudden pay more - before being shown that paying more and successfully executing a strategy is a much, much cheaper price than paying less and not.
How do you get inside the playing field?
So here is my plan. I am offering all of my first generation customers (all those people who have upgraded to the full version (145 pages) of Social Traffic, consultation services absolutely free. I’ll conduct two skype telephone pitch-building sessions of one hour each for each new customer; one to one conversations with my personal attention towards helping you execute what you learned from reading my book, into your business.
It’s important to limit these bonuses to people who not only purchase the book but who have read it. If I offer my time to people who have not read the whole book yet want the consultation (just because its there), my time will not be utilized to best effect (and neither will theirs). I am not offering 2 hours of my time to hundreds of people, to tell them what they can read in my book. My time is being offered to help you plan your execution of what you read and learned from having already read my book. It has to take you a step higher - into the playing field.
I have already stated that everyone who has purchased a full version of Social Traffic by the end of this week will receive a FREE MP3 download (value $67) they can listen to. This bonus is being produced now and will be ready over the next 2 or 3 weeks. I will email a link to everyone who has purchased the book by the end of this week to download this bonus as soon as its ready.
I value all my customers, especially my first generation customers which are the group I am talking about here, I am thankful to them because they are willing to put trust in me and be a part of this movement that I aim to make an elevating experience for everyone who invests into it. I regard my first generation customers as flying first class, customers who I will leverage the growth of my young company off, this group deserves being treated with special attention.
Let me explain how these FREE consultation services will work. In the first session you can share your product or event launch strategy pitch with me. Those who have read the book will understand what I mean by that. You need to come up with a strategy of building what you have learned from the book into your marketing plan over the next 6 months to a year. You need to convert this strategy into the best story or pitch to deliver over a 30 minute period to me, as though I am a customer positioned smack bang in the middle of your target market. You need to impress me as if the success or failure of your business plan depends on it and this is going to be a hell of a task. I will play the devil’s advocate, I will attack your story from all angles. I will find loopholes in it. I will ask questions and flush out every possible objection your market place will find if I don’t. I will record the session and send you the recording. At the end of the first session, you will be given a chance to take my feedback and use it to the best of your ability to improve your pitch story.
The second session will be tougher than the first one. I will expect your story to be a story that you can tell a potential investor or your biggest customer (which are very close to being the same thing in my book). My critique will be fierce, I will leave no stone un-turned. Remember I am not offering my time in the capacity of stroking ego’s here, I don’t do that. What I am offering is an experienced ear to listen to your business marketing campaign story and tell you exactly what you need to hear to turn it into a successful campaign. Just as a warning, when I do this for most clients, this is not usually what they expected or wanted to hear.
My objective here will be to send you away with a campaign story that is bullet proof so that you can use it as the foundational blueprint to build out your businesse’s marketing plan over the next year – If you can lock down a campaign story that potential customers or investors cannot raise objections to, that answers all queries and leaves your audience with little else to do after hearing it, but to clap, we’re done. By the end of the second session you will be close to having your perfect campaign launch story ready - you can then take the second recording away to perfect it and then test it on a client, potential customer or even an investor and record that session as your final pitch and have it transcribed. My book steps you through what to do with this transcription, so much so that it goes into details on plotting the story along your time line and inserting points where you want to introduce different emotional triggers. You will also know how to plan your content along that time line and the finish product will become your action plan.
I give an open invitation to all of my first generation customers who have read the full 145 page version of my book Social Traffic to join these consultancy sessions (as well as those people in my circle of trust who I gave a FREE version of the full copy who have read the whole book.)
Lets not waste each others time:
I’ll ask you to post a video or an audio testimony for the book through a YouTube video message if you have a web cam. (You can also email me a video or audio file; in the case of audio, kindly attach your photo in the mail). This step is not a formality. I want the testimony to show me you have read the book. I don’t want to waste my time on people who aren’t ready to do this and you need to have read the book to be ready to make the most of this opportunity. Every hour I invest into you is an hour I am not charging clients for consultancy. I want my investment in time to lead to your successful execution of the strategies you learned in my book into your business.
If my investment in time pays off, everyone who made the most of it will become an evangelist of this method of business - which will make you something far bigger and valuable than just a group of customers. With an enthusiastic leads list, hundreds of customers who all have a great mindset combined with 20 or 30 evangelists that will be born out of the success we share throughout the process, I have built myself a foundation that I can build an internet community (business) that will stand the test of time through any climate, stage 1.
So let me emphasize on this again, anyone who has purchased the full 145 pages of Social Traffic gets 2 sessions of 1 hour each of free consultancy! Even if all 1000 leads who downloaded the book get the full book to become customers, no problem, I am looking forward to interacting with each of you on an individual basis on the phone, to take our relationships to a whole other level that includes sharing success together.
Everyone who purchases the full book weather they take the consultancy bonus or not will be sent a FREE MP3 version of the book via email as soon as its ready.
So do send in your video testimonies to my personal Youtube account as a video message, or send me a video or audio file (with photo if audio) of your testimony by email. To book your time slot I will ask that you email me two weeks in advance so that you can be sure I have enough time to prioratize our meeting into my schedule. I will send an email to all new book owners next Monday, so that anyone who wants to join in can do so by then.
The Social Traffic sales page doors are open again for another 300 copies that are running down fast for those who want to join the 1000 people who have already downloaded a copy.
Stay up to date with my campaign through my twitter feed; http://www.Twitter.com/SimonFord
As the economy shrink’s, Social Media grows!
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.
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.
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…
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… <-;
When the conversation turns to business….
A lot of people, who are reading our posts are enjoying them because they are making them think, however, some of them have not really put it all together. I was talking to a member of “my circle of trust” and he asked me what I am going to do now that I have sold “Sleeping with the Enemy” (my old company), I told him; “I am doing it”. I realized then that he did not realize that he was participating in a marketing campaign. Sharing in his classic ‘aha’ moment made me realize that it is high time I posted an article that outlines the power of conversation marketing that has just been validated through this situation.
We started this journey eight months ago and the principle was simple, we add value to everybody by writing meaningful and helpful posts on social media strategies and launch guidelines with lots of high quality content. We invested a lot of time and money in these eight months to add value to as many people as we could touch; we did this to build the trust of people in us. I cross syndicated this content throughout different social platforms through blogging, Facebook, Yahoo Answers, Linkedin, Twitter and attracted an audience of thousands of readers. To give you an idea, we had approx 1500 from LinkedIn, 1500+ from Facebook, 3500+ from Plaxo, 400+ from Twitter and thousands more through various other bookmarking, article marketing and networking platforms. By posting the same content once and sharing it through multiple platforms on auto pilot, we attracted an audience of 12,000+ people who were specifically interested in what we have to say. These people were following us for one reason, because we add value to what they do and we have been doing it consistently, almost daily, for over eight months now.
From then onwards, we’ve driven these people into different level of conversations - surveys, videos and now into Facebook. We have accumulated 3000+ names and email addresses along the way and effectively shifted the conversation to what is going on in Facebook for the last four weeks. Our Facebook group campaign has attracted thought leaders who enjoy challenging themselves and collaborating with other people in their leagues.
Conversations are like a game - with each of us playing his part:
So, to use an analogy introduced to me by one of these thought leaders (Philip A Gornail) in a comment left on a previous note;
“Let the games begin…Let the spectators be entertained…let the coaches coach and let the players play.”
But here’s the thing, attracting and publishing to a growing audience of spectators without cost is just the beginning. Our main conversation walks our audience towards products and services that lead to a sales funnel designed to convert some of our audience opportunities to become great customers. I say great because; leads that are earned this way are not people coerced…our leads are intelligent people who have been engaged in conversation with us for some time, they know us. They know where we are coming from, what we stand for and the value we represent. This happens on the most part without them even knowing the conversation is anything but a conversation they are enjoying great value in being a part of. More importantly than that, when an audience member does turn into a lead, he/she will be introduced to it by someone they already like, trust and respect - so that the introducer could share the journey with them together. It’s this inter-connectedness, the passing of a trust baton that cannot be underestimated when it comes to the power of what makes a successful community. The mindset every new audience member arrives with, that will become the foundation of their experience.
Taking the conversation to new levels is important to keep the campaign interesting, as long as we have an audience; we have a community. If the conversation ends so too will the community that has built around it. From our current audience of 12,000+ we have attracted close to 3,000 people into inviting us into their email inboxes because they all want more from the conversation, those who haven’t are content staying where they are and that’s fine to.
To reference Phillip’s analogy again we have those who are happy to stay at home and watch the game on TV, whilst others (those who subscribe) who prefer to come down to the ground and watch. Our conversation to each segment of the audience will remain constant yet different, to ensure those at the ground receive greater value for being there. Then we get to those who can only watch for so long before they want to play: People who started out watching the game at home on TV with friends, who later started attending the games. Certain personalities will always get to a point where they want to play, they want to start their own conversations, build their own audiences and grow their own communities, these people want to emulate the process and form a community. To continue to grow, these people need to be able to do that without having to leave the community to do it. These players within the greater community are the people we expect will grow into becoming our customers through purchasing the ‘Social Traffic’, book.
Knowing this we are offering 1000 FREE preview copies (first 30 pages) of Social Traffic on Wednesday at 4.00pm (EST- North America). Of the 1000 FREE preview copies readers can read chapter 1 (30 pages) and from that decide if the quality is worth the price we are asking to activate the balance of the 145 page book.
By offering the first chapter for FREE we have backed ourselves, knowing the value readers will experience in that chapter alone is that good that most will purchase the full book. By limiting this launch to 1000 FREE preview copies, we expect a lot of people who would like the book but are not going to jump over any hoops to get one will miss out. What this assures us is that the people who will jump over hoops to get their hands on a copy will become our first generation customers and we couldn’t ask for a better start in business than that.
Good conversations are never meaningless or random:
If we end up with even 1 customer who is appreciative, enthusiastic, passionate and committed about what we are doing from an audience of 12,000+, from a leads list of 3000+ then we are a lot better off than starting the next level of our campaign with 2000 customers who are not.
If we end up with 1000 customers purchasing the book that have the right mindset, that works for us, but the emphasis is on the mindset not volume. I will guarantee that I can grow a customer base of 1 person who has a fantastic attitude into a valuable customer base that will amount to a successful corporation. Conversely, I cannot guarantee to grow 2000 strong customers with a poor mindset into a valuable customer base, in fact it’s probably not possible. People who queue to purchase a copy of ‘Social Traffic’ through this launch want a copy because of the value they have already enjoyed throughout the conversation, they know who they are and are already sold on that idea. I look forward to my conversation with these people being elevated to a whole new level, a conversation that can only be shared by customers who not only “get it”, but will have read the book, so are ready to “do it”. Those people not ready to take the conversation to another level will do so at their own pace, some may prefer to stay in the main grandstand and follow that conversation forever, others will drop out of the conversation all together and the fact they can do that is the power of conversation marketing.
The most powerful attribute of conversation marketing is that;
· people who participate do so at their comfort,
· anyone can break away to start other conversations, and
· all conversations are interconnected by participants.
As conversation marketers, it is our job to listen and feel what an audience wants to hear, then to publish content that inspires them to engage.
Our entry level conversation will continue as it has done over the past 8 months and we expect our audience to grow with the cross pollination of evangelists who have read the book back into the audience, each one of these people who breaks away to build out their own conversation marketing campaign across social media serve as social proof that what we do as a corporation adds value to those who trust in it. Our main conversation will continue to inspire new thoughts aimed at challenging the mindset of all those who listen.
Building a valuable business is about building one fruitful, trusting and respectful relationship with customers. The net worth of any corporation is the sum total of all its good customers and the cost of securing a new customer is a onetime cost. It never ceases to amaze me how businesses spend so much money on attracting new customers only to neglect them once they buy.
We have limited the distribution of Social Traffic to ensure the appropriate amount of value is enjoyed by those who purchase it. We want them to have time to read it, once they have we will begin a new conversation with them, this conversation will be at an entirely new level because they all share something that our general audience have not gone through. They have also invested more into what we do in order to build our relationship to the next level. We take our commitment to ensuring they are taken to the next step very seriously.
Our customer community will become a tight one, those who buy the book not only “get it” but will start “executing it”, connecting all across another level. We have some amazing campaigns planned that will continue to take the social marketing world by storm. Has anyone seen a strategy like this one before? Everything we do is aimed at pioneering a lead of newer social marketing models for community based business. We make it a win-win for everyone involved. don’t just watch other people get to that level, emulate them by acting quickly.
You can get hold of your preview copy of “Social Traffic” here. Bring your circle of trust in business with you so that you’re all on the same page so we move this conversation to the next level, together.
“Social Traffic”, code of ethics
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!”
The quality of what you do…
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.
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