The Success Center

Overwhelmed with Social Media?

Yesterday, in a poll, I asked, Do You Ever Feel Overwhelmed with Social Media? I can already guess a couple of the answers, but I’ll share the results with you all next week. The fact of the matter is, if you’re an entrepreneur and you’ve just created a Facebook account, started your first blog, and still don’t know what Twitter is . . . you’re probably overwhelmed with social media. There are probably a ton of things that you haven’t discovered and once you do you might feel like it’s all too much to handle. But fret not my friend! You’re not alone and it’s actually not as bad as you think.

Before we take a look at some ways to help you manage your social media activities, let’s explore why you’re doing it in the first place. I call it . . .

Square One

This is the cornerstone of your social media and networking activities. In order to make a return on investment one has to first understand why he or she wants to invest in it. I’m sure you’re thinking, “to make money, Rod, duh!” Money is fine and dandy, but what if I told you that by engaging with people online you could get something better than money? That’s right! What could be better than money? How about someone’s trust and favor? What about building a relationship that could net you the repeat business of that one person and all of their friends? This is the simple yet powerful truth of social media.

Someone’s influence online can be just as or more effective as a 30 second advertisement on Television. In traditional media you only have a limited time to catch a prospect’s attention and pitch them your product or service. By maximizing social media time becomes your friend and not your enemy. The longer you build a genuine relationship with people the easier it is for them to trust you which is the equivalent of gold and silver. If you want to learn more about building relationships and trust in social media I highly recommend Chris Brogan’s new book, Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust. For the uninformed, Chris is a rock star of social media and has built a loyal following through his blog and social media activities.

Now that you have a better understanding of why you’re engaging in social media in the first place let’s move on to . . .

Square Two

The first building block of social media is actually networking with like-minded individuals. That’s where Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Myspace, Ning sites, and other networks come in. I highly recommend Facebook for building deeper relationships, Twitter for instant communication, news, and sharing, and Linkedin for an overall professional web presence and business networking.

Tip#1 - Don’t join everything!

There are some that would disagree with me on this, but I believe you should only join a site that you’re going to devote time to actually being on. When people reach out to you on sites that you’ve joined but don’t maintain you’ll reach back too late and miss opportunities. I recommend that you choose 3 main sites that you’ll be able to update easily and maintain. My top three picks are Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin for the reasons specified above.

Tip #2 - Create a Social Media Plan!

Having a Facebook page or a Twitter account is great and all, but don’t forget that they’re still platforms for marketing yourself, blog, products or services. So include social media into your marketing plan. Go at it with a plan and set realistic goals like generating web traffic, increasing your email newsletter subscriber base, or sell X amount of product units per month.

Tip #3 -  Integrate social media tools!

No matter where you are or what you’re doing you’re able to update your blog, your Facebook page, or Twitter status in a matter of minutes. That could be via phone, computer, or even email. Learning to integrate tools on a regular basis is the key to maintaining your sanity with it all. Maximize web applications like;

• Ping.Fm – This site updates all your social networks and blogs at the same time. It really takes the hassle out of logging in and doing it all “manually.” Note: When update all your status at the same time, you loose the “engagement” element that makes social media work so well for business. You’re there in spirit but not there in presence. I only use this service for letting my networks know of new blog posts or universal messages. I stay active on my social networks beyond using it to keep my level of engagement high.
• TweetDeck – Excellent desktop application that allows you to manage your Twitter, Facebook, and now, your Myspace accounts at the same time. Each account is managed in a window all within the application. Very versatile tool that allows you go beyond the Twitter website’s functionality and keep the same functionality of the Facebook and Myspace sites.
• Google Reader – If you’re new to social media, you’ll be reading a lot of websites and blogs that can help you increase your wisdom, knowledge, and understanding in that area. Read them all in one spot via RSS (Really Simple Syndication). In short, RSS allows a website to send new articles to RSS reader programs. Which means, you’ll get new stuff without having to visit every website in your bookmarks! Visit Google’s Reader site, Subscribe to The Success Center, and you’ll instantly start receiving new articles when they’re published. Also, you can Follow Me in Google Reader where I share lots of articles that I find helpful and informative.
• Google Calendar – This is a great tool to help you organize your blog posts, web content, events, and life in general. I’ll explain more on it in Tip #5.
• Web Browser Extensions + Plugins:
  1. The Hootlet – Once you’re on twitter you’ll want to share news, articles, blog posts that you write, etc. instantly. Hootsuite is a browser based twitter manager with a twist, they actually track your tweets. So you’re able to see how many people click on a link you shared that goes back to your website. I don’t use Hootsuite’s website for my twittering (as I use tweetdeck now) but I do use their “Hootlet” browser plugin that allows me to share on twitter from my browser. It’s extremely useful.
  2. Facebook Share Button – Similar to the “Hootlet”, you can also grab the Facebook share button which works with any web browser as well. Just as the name implies you’re able to share any content with your Facebook network no matter what browser you use.
• Mobile Applications:
  1. Blackberry – I’m a “crackberry” user and abuser so when I’m out and about and I need to send a quick update, I use Ubertwitter. It allows me all of the functionality of the Twitter mobile website plus, retweeting, search, following, and unfollowing. Facebook App – The Facebook application has come a long way. It gives you access to your Facebook “stream” with status updates, pictures, etc. One unique feature is it syncs up your friends with your phone book so you’ll have numbers at the touch of a button plus their profile pic. Unfortunately, you can’t access your in-box, but you are able to send messages. Viigo – This priceless tool allows me to get all of my Google Reader feeds (or websites) on my phone. So I’m never disconnected or out of the loop when it comes to the blogs and websites I subscribe to. It also has a twitter client built into the app for easy updating, weather, news, and more. Give it a try. Wordpress for Blackberry – I actually just found out that there’s a Wordpress app for Blackberry in beta. I haven’t used it yet, but will definitely give it a try.

  2. Iphone – Tweetdeck – same functionality as the desktop version . . . smaller package. Facebook app – I hear that the blackberry and Iphone versions are a bit different, but none-the-less, a valuable tool for staying connected. Wordpress for Iphone – yep, you can blog away while you’re on a long plane ride, at a meeting, or even live event.

Tip #4 - Invest a hour a day

If you’re a super busy entrepreneur, like most are, try penciling in a set time of day that you can relax and write a blog post, respond to comments on Facebook or Twitter, and share information that you find on the web. I’ve been a web junkie since I was born so I’m on the net “working” for hours at a time naturally. If you’re more strategic and structured than me then a set time might help you to develop good social media habits.

Tip #5 - Plan out your website or blog content

I can’t stress enough how important it is to create an editorial calendar for your website or blog. Most entrepreneurs create a “static business card” of a website and all this does is tell people who you are, what you do, and what you offer. If you really want to build relationships and earn sales, teach people something unique and share it with the world. This is the essence of blogging. Some of my clients take to it extremely fast and others are like, “how in the world do I fit this into my daily routine?” The answer is two-fold; first see Tip #4 and second, plan out your articles in a monthly calendar. This will keep you organized, on-track, and you won’t be stuck trying to figure out what to write. Here’s a short video explaining my process for creating The Success Center’s editorial calendar. I use Google Calendar to schedule my posts. This keeps everything organized and  I can also access my calendar on my phone while I’m mobile.

These 5 tips are a reflection of the strategies I’ve employed to help me manage and maximize social media for my business. Don’t feel overwhelmed by the amount of tools I’ve listed. A tool is only as useful as it’s handler makes it. Somethings will work well for you and some won’t, they key is to test, try, and try again. What tools do you currently use that should of been added to this list? If you have a handle on social media, how are you managing it? And if you haven’t already, don’t forget to cast your vote in the poll below.

Flickr image by Gary Hayes

Rod

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Are Your a Master Marketer like Obama?

This is a continuation of Mike Holmes’ post, The Barack Obama Guide to Marketing Success

Barack Obama’s presidential campaign set new standards for social media marketing. If you’re a small business owner or entrepreneur don’t take his example lightly . . . you might just become president of the United States. Or, at the very least, gain new customers, make new connections, and generate a sale or two.

Here are 7 lessons on marketing successfully using social media, Barack Obama’s way. . .

Lesson #1: Go Where Your Market Is

If you’re going to use social media as your marketing platform of choice then you’ll have to know where your target market networks. If your market is the entire United States like Obama then you might want to set-up accounts on every major social network. However, my advice is to start networking locally on at least 3 major networks and branch out from there [if necessary].

Namechk Service

Look at the graphic to the left. Using a service called, Namechk, we can easily see that the username, “BarackObama” has been secured for around 90% of all major social networks (secured accounts are highlighted in red). Use this tool to see if your name is available wherever your potential customers are and start building your brand.

Are Your Engaging with Your Market?

Lesson #2: Engage with Your Market

The Obama campaign had a dedicated staff of 30 people to head up his social media/networking campaign. What this equated to was, someone being there at all times to answer inquiries, reply to questions, update content, and interact with people across every major social network.

Tip: Don’t just set up social accounts and forget about them . . . set up a command post! Publish frequent/fresh content and engage with people that respond to your brand. You may not have a staff of 30 but you can still monitor your brand by using tools such as Tweetdeck and Hootsuite which allows you to update multiple accounts at once.

What does it really mean to engage? Here are a few tips;

• Post quizzes
• Put out polls and surveys – do you have a Wordpress blog? Give Poll Daddy a try. The folks that made Wordpress created it so you know it’s cool.
• Offer contests
• Start conversations
• Jump into other people’s conversations related to your brand, product, or service
• Offer advice
• Do free online consultations
• Share content related to your brand, product, service, or that which is helpful to your market
• Include your network in major decisions such as article titles, website design, or other elements that impact your business. Doing so allows others to interact with your company and brand on a deeper level.

My.BarackObama.com

Lesson #3: Give the keys of Your Brand to Your Fans

One of the key strategies that the Obama campaign implemented was the way they established Obama’s brand of ‘Change’ and let their followers “play with it”. They set up the social network, my.barackobama.com which became a “myspace” for his supporters.

The plan was definitely more effective than they could have anticipated. The site allowed people to start groups and share media which lead to offline activities; such as volunteering at events, rallying, and the spread of Obama’s name. How can you harness the power of social media for your brand in this fashion?

• Start a ning social network of your own and allow followers to interact with each other and spread your brand.
• Start a Facebook fan page, post exclusive content, and encourage your fans to share the content with their Facebook friends. Need a little help? Here’s a great article from The Social Media Examiner Blog about, How to Better Engage Facebook Fan Page ‘Fans’
• Got a Wordpress blog and want to jump-start your own social network? Download the Buddypress plugin pack and let readers become members, set-up profiles, forums, blogs, and more!
  Note: this plugin used to only work for Wordpress MU installs, but now works with standalone Wordpress installations . . . so go crazy . . .

Barack Speaking

Lesson #4: Create Value for Your Market

Obama didn’t just let his supporters organize events for his campaign . . . he attended his supporter’s events! According to Wikipedia, “On February 2, 2007, Obama attended a rally at George Mason University organized by “Students for Barack Obama,” a group that began on Facebook, with several thousand in attendance.” His initial acknowledgement of the group and presence at their event created value, grew his market share, and instilled loyalty into everyone in attendance. You can do the same by organizing:

• Tweet-ups - if you have an active Twitter following take the conversations offline and organize a meet-up at a local restaurant, bar, library, or other venue.
• Webinars, tele-conferences, seminars – these events can be very inexpensive or swing the other way depending on how you set it up. Whichever method you pursue, give out valuable information, answer tough questions, and connect with your followers, fans, and market on a totally new level.

Remember, value is anything that enhances how your target market experiences your brand, product, or service. Don’t limit this concept to just organizing events. This could be anything from how you consistently deliver quality content to offering free stuff on your blog. Want to know more about creating value? Read my article, What’s Your Value Proposition?

Lesson #5: Build Your List by Offering Value

Remember Getting This Text?

Remember when you got news that Obama was set to tell the world who his running mate was via text message? The only requirement being you had to sign-up for his website to be the first to receive the news.

Word of the text message revealing hit every social media outlet such as Facebook, Youtube, blogs, and more. Garner the same buzz over a product or service announcement by building your list in the same fashion:

1. Offer an Item of Value for an email sign-up

2. Make sign-up easy – don’t ask for too much information

3. Selling a product? Offer a sneak peak, free sample, or exclusive review for an email sign-up.

4. Offering a service? Give out an exclusive discount or coupon for email sign-up.

5. Be creative and don’t put a limit on how you create value for your followers, fans, or supporters. It’ll only breed loyalty to your brand.

Form Strategic Alliances

Lesson #6: Form Strategic alliances

The Obama campaign hired former facebook founder, Chris Hughes who was the online organizer for the campaign and the genius that made Obama’s brand shared, tweeted, and socially effective.

Needless to say, I wouldn’t be writing this article if it wasn’t for Chris joining the Obama team during the campaign days. By forming this strategic alliance, Obama was able to go where no other candidate had been before [and succeed]. Follow his lead by forming your own strategic alliances:

• Guest Blogging – Look for guest blogging opportunities from influential bloggers in your network. Doing so will gain you new readers, grow your blog’s community, and increase your web traffic substantially.
• Use Linkedin – Forge partnerships with like-minded entrepreneurs on Linkedin. If you and someone else offer complimenting products or services [meaning, they work well together not compete against each other], why not partner and advertise to the same market? Linkedin has great features that connect you with these kind of groups and entrepreneurs.

Barack Music Video

Lesson #7: Use Video and Extend Your Reach

The screenshot on the left is a music video produced by the Obama campaign that went viral only hours after it’s release on Youtube.

It’s impossible for Obama to spread his message everywhere all the time but the video did exactly that for him. Video enables people to experience you, your product, service, or message in a totally different way. Here are a few ways you can maximize it for your marketing plan:

Produce a webshow – Highlight your customers, capture testimonials, answer questions, or take live callers. These are just some of the things you can do to create your own show and deliver value to your market.
Record your speaking engagements – By using some standard video editing software you can package your speaking videos into free products or sizzle pieces for events. This will build your credibility as well as garner interest from whomever you give it to.

Final Thoughts

Entrepreneurs can learn a lot from a man that ran his presidential campaign in such an unprecedented way. He connected with millions of people via blogs, social networks, videos, or wherever people gathered socially online. Barack’s team ultimately created this content for the campaign, but the real magic is how he empowered, encouraged, and inspired people to use and share what was put out. What else can we learn from Barack when it comes to social media marketing? How did his campaign engage with YOU across various social networks? Add your two cents in the comments section below.

Rod

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Want a Successful E-Book Launch?

Flickr Image by stevendepolo

Last week I launched my highly anticipated e-book, The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Twitter Success. Not to brag or anything, but I knew that it would be an extremely successful launch. Was it because I had some secret weapon in getting people to download it? No, not really. I believe my confidence rested in my preparation for launch day.

How can you garner the same kind of confidence in launching an e-book, product, or service online? Let me share with you a few things I did  to make it a successful launch.

Plan for Success

It’s so critical that you have a plan before you start working on anything. A plan gives you a general direction in which to walk. Without it you’ll be lost before you ever find the success you’re looking for. Here are a few tips to help you plan out your next e-book:

• Create an Outline – I noticed that my process for putting together the book was the same I use for my blogging; I outline my main points and flesh them out from there. This was extremely helpful in organizing my thoughts and making the book flow the way I wanted it to.
• Plan an Adventure Not Just a “How to” – As I organized my thoughts I wanted the reader to start from a certain point and end up at another. I didn’t want to just explain what Twitter was and how to maximize it for business. I envisioned them reading it as a beginner and ending up as an expert in Twitter engagement. To help them along the journey, I answered questions that someone in their position would ask.

Make Time to Make it Happen

This goes without saying, but I think it’s important to note that if you want your e-book to be successful you have to make time to make it happen. That means, despite the distractions, your busy work schedule, or whatever else you’ve got going on in your life, you have to knuckle down and work it out. Here are a few things I did:

• Make a Public Deadline – Nothing will motivate you more than putting pressure on yourself to perform. I announced the e-book on Twitter and Facebook almost a week before I had a single page written. With the amount of replies I got from interested souls, I knew I had to knock this out or be proven a liar.
• Find Your Happy Place – For me, this is where the least amount of distractions exist, where it’s quiet, and where I can do my best work. When I’m at the airport, my happy place is away from the flight crew lounge and as far away as possible from passengers. For you, it may be your basement, the library, or even the bathroom (fellas, you know what I’m talking about).
• Don’t Write it All at Once – It’s very important not put too much pressure on yourself to have it all done in one night. Trust me, it leaves you frustrated, tired, and ready to move on to other things. Give yourself time to express your thoughts fully, make your main ideas clear, and create your best work. I wrote my e-book over the course of 3 days and edited it for 2.

Re-Purpose Your Best Content

The entire idea of the e-book came from the wild success I experienced from the original article, The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Twitter Success. That served as the middle of the book and I took elements from, Are you a Twitter Newbie or Power User? to serve as the beginning. I knew I had something special from the original article and I needed to follow it up in a special way. A follow-up blog post would not have done it or those that took the time to comment justice. Here are some ways you can get the most out of your best content:

• Dig Through Your Archives – You’re probably richer than you know it, if you would only dig through your archives. Take a look at your most popular articles and see which ones can be expanded on in a book format.
• Don’t Forget Offline Content – Did you speak at an event or make a presentation that got you a lot of praise? Your speech or PowerPoint files could be the basis for an e-book that’s worth paying for.
• Ask Your Readers – Remember the people who are going to download your e-book in the first place and see what topics they want you to go more in-depth on. You can easily do this through polls or surveys. I use Constant Contact as my go to service for email and survey marketing (affiliate link).

Resource: Chris Brogan touches on the concept of re-purposing your content in his article, Build Ecosystems for Your Content

Have a Marketing Plan Before, the Day of, and After Launch

When a major corporation plans on launching a product or service they have a plan in place to make sure that the world knows about it. Adopt the same mentality when launching your e-book and you’ll get the results you want. Here are a few ideas on how I did it:

Generating Buzz Before Its Release

• Send Twitter Reminders – I use Hootsuite to schedule certain tweets at high usage times during the day on Twitter. The key is to engage in-between those tweets to stay consistent with your Twitter community. Also, I sent tweets announcing what part of the book I was working on. This kept people up-to-date with the progress of the book and built anticipation for its eventual completion.
• Chat on Facebook – By chatting with fellow bloggers on Facebook I planted seeds of anticipation and got a lot of solid feedback that helped me to complete the book.
• Guest Blogging – Maximize your network and write a couple of articles that relate to your e-book. In your “about the author” section include a link to your email newsletter sign-up so people will be the first to know about the book launch. Last month I completed 3 out of 4 guest blogging assignments which generated new traffic, followers, and readers to this blog. This boost in traffic contributed to the success of the e-book.
• Write a Preview Blog Post – I don’t typically blog on Sunday but I knew I needed to keep traffic up through the weekend for launch day. I took a section of the e-book and turned it into a blog post which generated some traffic and continued to build anticipation for the book’s release.

Getting People to Download on Launch Day

• Make Your E-Book Re-Tweetable – Big shout out to Naomi Trower for sharing this article from the Social Media Examiner blog on How to Add Retweet Buttons in Your PDF Documents. By adding the hashtag, #successguide, I was able to keep track of downloads of the book on Twitter.
• Get Your E-Book Reviewed – My good friend, Brooks Young, wrote a full review of the e-book on her blog which was great PR and allowed me to share it with my network. Which I link to from the e-book’s download page to give her a little bit of traffic as well.
• Capture Comments – On the download page for the e-book I added a few comments that were made only hours after the launch of the book. This added to the “social proof” of the book’s success. Social proof is showing how others enjoy the product you launch which makes it easier for others to download it.
• Send Out an Announcement Email – If you have an email list then be sure to make a formal announcement to your subscribers. Make sure you send the email to subscribers only and don’t make the same mistake I made by sending spam. If you really want to get people to download your e-book from your email then make it worth reading instead of the typical announcement message. I wrote, 10 Steps to Success with E-Book Publishing which had the highest “open rate” of any email I’ve ever sent.
• Engage, Engage, and Engage Some More! – On launch day you couldn’t keep me off Twitter and Facebook! I didn’t overly announce the launch of the book but I did overly share and ease people into announcement messages. I also tracked, replied, and re-tweeted comments to keep my “social proof” of the success of the e-book high.

Marketing After Launch

• Write a Follow-Up Blog Post – This is essentially what I’m doing in this blog post. The idea is to make sure that you keep the success of the e-book at the forefront of everyone’s mind. And those that did not get a chance to download it can do so from the follow-up post.
• Announce the Results after Launch – Ever see a commercial for a movie with reviews attached to it after the movie is released? You can exercise the same strategy in an email, press release, or thank those that downloaded in a short video. This only keeps the buzz of your book in the atmosphere long after it’s launch.
• Create Advertising Space on Your Blog - Maximize your most strategic spaces on your blog to advertise the release of the e-book. This means, creating a unique download page and sidebar widget. Wordpress let’s you use standard HTML in it’s sidebar by using the “Text” widget. This is how I created a quick download space for the book in the siderbar to the right. Here’s a pretty good explanation on maximizing this widget for your blog.

Bonus Tips

• Have a Draft Version Reviewed – I chose 3 people from my Twitter network to review a draft of my e-book and their feedback was invaluable. They helped me decide what was missing, whether or not to sell the book, and pointed out grammatical errors.
• Track the Downloads - I unfortunately, didn’t capitalize on this, but it’s definitely worth mentioning. There’s a plug-in called, Download Manager, for Wordpress that let’s you track how many downloads you accumulate from a dedicated download page. It’s great for keeping tabs on how well your e-book or any kind of download-able content is doing.
• Explore Distribution Options – Don’t just settle for one version of your e-book, get it into the hands of your readers by any means possible. I’m working on a Kindle version and figuring out options for enhanced mobile versions as well. Here’s the site you need to submit a Kindle version of your book.

Like I said at the beginning, I knew it was going to be a successful launch, but only because I planned on it that way. What lessons have you learned from launching an e-book, product, or service? Was it successful like you envisioned it to be? If you have any questions or comments on how I launched my e-book feel free to share them in the comments section below.

Note: I’m keeping my actual download and site stats mum for the moment because I don’t want anyone to compare the success I’ve found to anyone else. I don’t want anyone to be discouraged because they haven’t achieved it and I certainly don’t want anyone with a big head to step on my toes either. Just know that the launch of my e-book resulted in the biggest single day of traffic for this site and has been downloaded a “bunch” of times.

Rod

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Last week you all gave me such an overwhelming response to my article, The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Twitter Success, I decided to put together an e-book based on it. This is definitely a labor of love for me, thanks to those who previewed it and gave me great feedback. I know it’ll bless you just as much as it blessed me writing it. Enjoy!

The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Twitter Success: How to Grow Your Business, Blog, or Brand with Twitter

What Will I Learn?

• Learn what Twitter is
• Why it’s Popular
• How to Find Followers
• How it Works
• Tools to Help You Do Your Best Tweeting
• My Secret Weapon to Marketing on Twitter
• Tips on Growing Your Network
• The Secret to Sales Success on Twitter
• How I got over 700 visits to this blog from Twitter Alone
• And More!

Who is it For?

This book is best for beginners who want to join Twitter, advanced users who have been on Twitter but want to learn how to really maximize it, and experts who want to see first-hand how I became a “Twitter Success” story.

What’s in it?

The guide is packed full of 20 pages that will show you how I use Twitter on a daily basis to grow my blog’s community, brand presence, and get business.

You won’t find any get-rich-quick schemes, a “system” of success, or any ridiculous claims like that here. I’ll show you step-by-step what I do and how I do it. Best part of all, it’s yours today absolutely free! No tricks, no gimmicks, nothing to sign-up for . . . free.

Why is it Free?

• I’m sick of people spamming me on Twitter, maybe if they really knew how to maximize it for business they wouldn’t.
• I believe it’ll genuinely help newcomers and advanced users alike.
• I want you to share it with your friends, followers, colleagues, and entire network.

Reviews

“I read fellow authors and nonprofits confusion about Twitter or they believe they do not have time to be “social.” I receive the questions on “how-to’s” and I believe The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Twitter Success EBook is the answer to their questiosn. It’s one of the best and easiest guides to understand for beginners and those who are advanced also.” – Brooks Young, Sole of a Woman Blog

Read the full review here . . .

Product Details

Format – Adobe PDF (Adobe Reader required to view. Get it here.)

Length – 21 pages

Size – 1.49 MB

Features – Navigate through the table of contents, easily through each section, and even Re-tweet it on Twitter.

Cost - FREE!

So, download it, read it, share with a friend or two, and let me know what you think in the comments below.

To your success,

Rod

Rod

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Download it tomorrow!

Welcome to a special preview of my new E-book, The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Twitter Success. Due to the overwhelming response I received from my article, of the same name, it prompted me to put this together. It’s a labor of love and I poured a lot of information that will benefit beginners and advanced users alike. You’ll  be able to download it free of charge tomorrow morning.

This portion comes from the third chapter entitled, “My Twitter Success Story.”

3 Steps to Cultivating a Quality Twitter Community

My blog, The Success Center has grown tremendously since I re-launched it on June 15, 2009 (it was originally a Wordpress.com blog). Take a look at its stats according to Alexa (the web information company) below.

The Success Center's Alexa Rankings

Other than my hard work, blood, sweat, and tears I owe a part of the site’s success to my Twitter community. I actually joined Twitter in January 2009 and didn’t use it much until I started my blog. Since then the traffic, readership, community, and relationships built have been incredible.

According to my Google Analytics account, Twitter is my #2 referrer of traffic second to Stumbleupon. However, I know for a fact that Twitter is my #1 referrer of quality traffic. Look at the screen-shot below and let’s break it down.

Referral Statistics

First, you’ll notice Stumbleupon as sending me the most visits with 1,599. However, look at the average time those visitors spent on my site, only 8 seconds! With a bounce rate of almost 87% (a bounce rate is how frequently people leave your site or when they “bounce” on to their next web destination).

Google Analytics

Now, look at the average time people from Twitter stayed on my site and how low the bounce rate is in the screenshot above. See the difference?

“A quality Twitter community will generate quality traffic to your blog or website.”

What’s a quality Twitter community?

These are the people that consistently retweet you, answer your questions, share your posts, participate in your Twitter activities, and present the most value to your Twitter stream.

Out of the 200 or so people that I follow, I know that all of them are a part of my quality Twitter community. I don’t follow them just for the heck of it and they don’t follow me just because I followed them back.

How Do You Cultivate a Quality Community?

• First, you have to understand why your followers follow you. Do you present something valuable to them in their stream? Are they actively following or just following in the hopes of getting you to follow back?
• Second, you have to create a valuable Twitter presence. Do so by engaging with others, sharing good content, and by being personable (that means you are approachable and down-to-earth).
• Third, you have to be consistent in the presence you portray. Don’t share for a straight week and then fall off for a month. Don’t hold Twitter church only to let curse words fly out of your stream on your off days.

Create your own Twitter success story by sharing the stories of your followers. Every tweet in your stream is only a part a story your followers are trying to tell. By engaging with them you can better assist them in telling that story. This is the ultimate key in cultivating a quality community on Twitter. What ways are you cultivating a quality community following on Twitter? Share your thoughts below.

Rod

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Update: 2/15/2010 – Due to the overwhelming response to this article, an enhanced e-book version of the same name has been published. 20 pages will show you how to maximize Twitter for your business, blog, and brand. Download the FREE e-book here!

The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Twitter Success

Twitter is an excellent marketing platform for entrepreneurs to grow their business, blog traffic, or brand. You’ll find plenty of social media marketing gurus that want to sell you a system to get 500 new followers a day, make zillions of dollars in referrals, and increase your blog traffic by 2000% in 30 minutes. However, I’ve got an ultimate weapon that will guarantee you long-term business success on Twitter.

“Giving-to-get” is my ultimate weapon when it comes to marketing on Twitter. I touched on this concept in last week’s post, “The Biggest Marketing Secret – Ever, Finally Revealed”

What’s Twitter All About?

If you’ve been living under a digital rock for the past two years and you don’t know what Twitter is, then check out my article, Are you a Twitter Newbie or Power User? When you’re done, come back to this article and join the rest of us.

One thing to note about Twitter is that it’s a platform for engagement, sharing, and connecting – not just for marketing. Using it for marketing alone would dub it as a tool . . .

“A tool is typically used once and discarded (in other words, something useful but not valuable). A platform is something solid used to stand on. Something sturdy you can build something on top of.” – myself in an interview with @latarahamying for her blog. Check out the full interview here: Savvy Marketing Moments With Rod “the Success Coach” Kirby

If you want to successfully generate traffic to your blog, website, or grow your business on Twitter, here are a few things you should do;

Find Your Voice

What's Your Twitter Voice?

Your Twitter voice is equal to what you share and how you brand yourself. If you’ve been on Twitter for a while, it’s easiest to figure out your voice by how people list you (or, how they categorize you). You can read more about Twitter lists from Twitter’s official blog. If you’re new to Twitter or aren’t listed then you need to find your voice.

It’s important to know exactly how you’re going to represent yourself on Twitter – this determines if people will relate to you and your Tweets. Take a look at the graphic on the right. From it we can see that “I am the voice of Business, Marketing, Social Media, and the Life Coach.”

Tips for Finding Your Voice;

• Know who you are
• Know what you want to achieve on Twitter
• Look within your industry
• Look at the popular people you follow

Update Consistently

Ever follow someone only to realize that they update maybe once a month? And when they update it’s never anything useful or cool, it’s just random like;

“Just woke up, about to get some breakfast . . .”

If this is you, please, quietly excuse yourself from Twitter . . . you’re hogging up my stream. Consistency will breed consistent followers and traffic. The key is to find the right balance and not post too much or too little, but get into the sweet spot of your flow.

Tips on Updating Consistently;

• At Home – find the best time of day when there are the least amount of distractions and go for it.
• On the Go – Use tools like, Ping.fm to update on the go, especially if you’re a busy person.

Organize or Participate in Twitter Activities

Remember, Twitter is a platform for connecting with like-minded people, so CONNECT! Get into Tweet chats whether they’re live streams or standard chats. I organized a short-lived event called the “Monday Morning Rockstar Challenge”

Rockstar Challenge

The idea was to kill the Monday blues by encouraging productivity. I would give the winner a shout-out in a “winner announcement” blog post which made people feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Plenty of people participated, but we just couldn’t keep the momentum going. It was definitely fun while it lasted.

Organize your own games or events on Twitter by using Tweetgrid for chats or Tweetchat for a live Q&A (at the time of this posting, the Tweetchat site was down). By taking the initiative you’ll position yourself as a leader and people will flock to you when they’re in need.

Share Useful links

Does this Make You Feel Happy Like it Does 4 Me?

Twitter is a platform for sharing which is critical to getting quality traffic, leads, and followers. When you jump into the ecosystem of sharing that’s when your level of success will rise. I share articles that I find on marketing, blogging, success, tech news, and more. Whatever I think someone will find useful and promote my Twitter voice/brand.

Here are a few tools you can use to share good stuff with good people on Twitter;

• Google Reader – I always shout this tool out because it’s such a big part of my social media strategy. Use it to follow, read, comment, and share your favorite blogs across multiple networks. You can find a bunch of the articles I share on Twitter on my Google Reader Shared Page.
• Feedly for Google Reader – This is an awesome plugin (compatible for Firefox and Chrome) for Google Reader that gives it a magazine-like interface. Best part of all, when you’re logged into feedly and visiting a website in another tab, you can save, favorite, or share that article while you’re browsing.
• Google Blog Search – This is by far the best way to look content, discover new blogs, and share it with your network.
• AllTop - This great service indexes the top headlines from different websites and blogs. It’s great for finding “what’s happening” in your industry.

Share Multimedia Content

Got Multimedia-Content to Share?

The great thing about Twitter is the amount of diverse content you can find. Don’t just settle for 140 characters, show people the world around you, videos you find on the web, or other details. I do this through my Tumblr blog which is nothing more than great multimedia content that I find and share from around the web. I’ve got it to share on Twitter whenever I create a new post automatically so I don’t have to “double post.”

You can easily share multimedia content by using these services;

• Twitpic – great for photo sharing from your PC or mobile device
• Twitvid – excellent for sharing videos from your computer, mobile device, or even a webcam
• Many of your favorite websites like Youtube, Flickr, and Digg support sharing to Twitter (links take you to my profiles on each). It’s all a matter of finding quality content to share!

Don’t Talk to Yourself

The first thing I look at when deciding on who to follow is whether or not they actually engage in conversations or if they just talk to themselves. You’ve seen him/her before, they spew out link after link promoting their projects and never talk to anyone. Remember, it’s called, SOCIAL media for a reason. Don’t be afraid to start conversations, re-tweet, and engage with others.

@BrendaClayson

Make an Offer

If you’ve done all of the above in some capacity then you will have earned the trust, loyalty, and admiration of those that follow you. You will have added value to their streams and they’ll love you for it. If this sounds like you then you have earned the opportunity to make an offer. Not to ask for a sale. But, to craft a tweet of significant importance to your business, blog, or brand and put it out there for everyone to click and share.

Note: Don’t abuse the opportunity by tweeting that offer too much. I like to promote blog posts at different times through the day but only after I’ve shared good content.

Lightning Round – My Quick Tips

Here are a few things that I do, personally, that gets me more traffic, followers, and business;

• Schedule Tweets During Peak Usage Times – I use Hootsuite to schedule quotes, new blog post announcements, calls to action, etc. Just be sure to check in and engage everyone once in a while!
• Address People by Their Real Name – Make your conversations more personable and direct. This reinforces trust and builds a genuine relationship between you and the other person.
• Ask Questions Give Answers – There’s a wealth of information waiting on you in the form of your followers and vice versa. Don’t let it go to waste!
• Offer Your Best Advice – I regularly give out information that I would typically charge people to get in my coaching sessions. However, giving your best advice puts you on people’s mind when a need arises.
• Accept Quality Followers, Not All - I have a low follow to follower percentage by choice. With my 200 followers I have a stream of people I can count on and that’s super valuable to me. I’m more capable of focusing on a few hundred than a few thousand.
• Be a Tease - Got a blog post you’re working on? Give out teasers throughout the day until you finish it. You’ll grow anticipation and people are more willing to share it if they’re waiting on it.
• Be Original - Sharing links is all fine and dandy, but don’t forget to share original wisdom, knowledge, or information that people can’t get anywhere else. It solidifies you as a quality person to follow.

Remember, Twitter is more than a marketing tool – it’s a platform for building, engaging, and sharing. If you take the time to maximize the tools presented in this article you’ll get more followers, blog traffic, and business. What would you add to this list? What tips would you offer to entrepreneurs looking to make it big on Twitter? Share your thoughts below.

Reminder: Please, rate this article by selecting the star system under my picture. Thanks!

Rod

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Do you want to grow your blog's community?

Last Monday I shared with you 3 things you’ve got to do in order to grow your blog’s community. You all liked that post so much that I want to share 2 more easy ways you can grow your blog’s community.

If you follow A-list bloggers like Chris Brogan or Darren Rowse do you know what they do that makes them so successful? The fact of the matter is, they’ve already built successful blogs by doing just a few of the things I suggested in last Monday’s post. However, one thing they both do that some bloggers don’t is, (drum roll please) they get off their blogs and interact with the community at large.

That means you can find them attending events locally, nationally, or internationally connecting with their followers and spreading their brands beyond their blogs. Chris constantly travels to conferences speaking and promoting his book. And, you can typically find Darren in the states at major conferences like, SXSW.

If you want to grow a blog that transcends the medium and produce something that’ll really impact people then you’ve got to go beyond your digital borders. Here are a few ideas on how;

Interact with your Local Community

It all starts in your own backyard. Do you know any bloggers in your town, city, or state? Are you connecting with them on Twitter and Facebook? You don’t have to go hang out with them at the roller-rink on Saturdays, but you should at least have an idea of who (within your niche) is around you.

What about readers of your blog that are in your community, do you know who they are? You won’t truly build a community for your blog until you connect with the ones in your own backyard.

I’ve attended several networking events here in Memphis where I met people who were avid readers of this blog. It’s a great feeling to match profile pictures with actual faces and to see how excited someone is to connect with you.

There are a ton of great ways to find people around you using social tools like Twitter and Facebook. Mashable has a great list of ways to find Twitter users in your town that you should check out. For local events and the latest happenings you may try When.com which lists events scheduled for your city.

No matter how you do it, step away from your blog and make connections outside of it. This will not only drive local traffic to your site but it’ll grow your authority as well.

Organize Events

If you were looking for an event to attend but couldn’t find something up your alley, why not organize your own? By creating some way for people to connect you’ll stand out as a leader and not just a blogger. People want to belong to something that’s why they join the bowling league, the poker club, and other organizations. Why not give them something to be a part of that will help make connections and grow their network?

I used to deliver monthly business seminars at a local library and then moved it to a church. The seminars proved to be an effective way to grow my marketing list, authority, and web traffic. You don’t have to go that far, but a simple tweet-up, social media conference, or even a meeting at your local library would go a long way to getting you the same results.

The great thing about organizing events is they don’t require much capital just a little bit of creativity and a lot of elbow grease. Larger events call for big venues and scheduled entertainment, but yours can be a meet-up at a coffee shop just for discussing blogging techniques. Don’t be afraid to kick the box to the curb and take things in a different direction. You’ll only grow from it . . . so what do you have to lose?

What’s Next?

Put these suggestions to action and take your blog to the next level in 2010. I’m making plans to officially announce the start of a networking group very soon. I don’t have all the details to share with you just yet, but rest assured that this is going to be awesome for you and me. To get the first bit of news on the group sign-up for my Success Tips newsletter and stay up-to-date.

Sign up for my “Success Tips!” Newsletter

Final Thoughts

Building a blog community isn’t rock science and certainly doesn’t take a college degree. All that’s required is to get uncomfortable, kick the box to the curb, and build real connections with your readers. Seriously, is that so hard? What other ways can you build your blog’s community? Do you get out to local events and conferences to meet other bloggers? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Rod

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This is the final chapter in the Quit your Job and Make Millions series. It’s been quit a journey and an educational one for you I hope. First, we looked at some things you need to have in order to finally quit your job. Second, I showed you some practical ways to save or make extra money so you can quit your job. I even shared some ways to market yourself once you trade the corner office for your office. Finally, let’s explore some uses of social media as a marketing tool when you quit your job and start your business.

Social media is absolutely huge right now mainly because of it’s low costs (pretty much free) and large return on investment. It’s a way to connect with potential customers and engage with current clients that makes it easier for them to trust you. The formula for social media success is as follows;

Engagement + Connection + Trust = Brand awareness and Sales.

Remember, it doesn’t matter if you’re quitting your job and starting a shoe factory or massage parlor, your company is still called, “You, Inc.”

Here’s a thought (for all my retail workers out there); If you’ve ever worked in an electronics store, customers will typically ask you which brand of X product is better. If it’s familiar to them they’ll say, “Yea, all my stuff is X brand,” or “I’ve never heard of them, are they any good?” So, how can you become that X brand that everyone loves? This is where the power of social media comes in. Remember the formula above, despite what a lot of social media “experts” will tell you, it’s not just about sales. This IS NOT a get-rich-quick venture on Myspace or Twitter. These are ways you can maximize social media to build your brand and make money.

1. Blog or Video Blog -this was number six in the last article, 6 Ways to Market Yourself after You Quit Your Job. For the uninformed, blogging is public journaling in it’s simplest form. But there are other variations of it like, blog-a-zines (such as this one), news and informational, gossip and entertainment, and the list goes on and on. The main idea is to create transparency when it comes to your business and potential customers. Show them your office space, your team (if you’re not a solo-preneur), share tips and ideas for using your products or services, etc. By sharing these details that normally would be kept private or sold you can generate a loyal legion of raving fans that will market for you through word of mouth and social networking.

Resources: You can easily create a blog by using the Wordpress, Blogger, or Typepad platforms. I run The Success Center on Wordpress because of it’s great templates and plugins that add functionality to the site. Do a little research to see which platform will best benefit your needs.

2. Social Networking – Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter are all great platforms to interact and engage with like minded individuals. When you quit your job, start a business, and get your website off the ground these networks will become your outpost in the middle of potential clients. Each platform has its own strengths such as Facebooks’s awesome content sharing and profile features, Linkedin’s professional profile layout and groups creation, and Twitter’s fantastic content sharing and conversation styled interface. Social networking is a great way to share information, develop relationships, and (ideally) lead people back to your base (your website) and get them into your sales funnel. The great part is, you’ll already have an established relationship so there’s no sales involved!

Note: Before you get too deep into a network, find out about “the rules of engagement,” so you can get the most out of it. The key is SOCIAL networking . . . no sales pitches, spam, or adult material!

Note 2: I’m not even going to attempt to explain each of these networks here, that’s entirely another article! However, I did a decent write-up on Getting Started with Twitter that you may enjoy.

Resources: Here are some great articles that can help you maximize these networks that I found around the web.

5 Tips for Getting More from Facebook

5 Tips for Getting More from Linkedin

How to Make Your Tweets More Useful

Mashable – Great “News and Informational” Blog that deals specifically with social media.

3. Youtube – we’ve all gone to this site and watched videos of people doing crazy stuff or even watched old TV shows that aren’t on anymore. But, what if you had your own “channel,” where people could watch videos related to your business, industry, products, or services? By doing so you positively reinforce what you or your company is “all about” in a way that people can connect with. Best part of all, you don’t have to have anything to start. Just sign-up with Youtube and start searching for videos related to your brand, products, or services and get people to connect with your there. It becomes another outpost in which to draw people in to who you are.

Note: I did the exact same thing when I launched my “Inside the Success” channel which features inspirational entrepreneurial videos.

There are many more social media tools you can use but proceed with caution: don’t just “get on” because everyone else is on. Make sure you only sign-up for the ones you can devote the most time to. A tool is only useful when it’s in full use. Here is a great list from Wikipedia of all the different kinds of social media “web-wares” out there and it even breaks them down by category. And, as a bonus, below you’ll find a video that explains social media in plain English for the unfamiliar. If you’re a business owner, how are you maximizing social media? What tools do you use, won’t use, or would like to use? I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter. Sound off below!

Rod

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Want to Grow Your Blog's Community?

Do you want to have people talking about your blog and sharing it with their friends? Do you want to grow a group of fans that are on fire for what you post and ready to share it at will? Well, strap in kids, because we’re going for a ride!

In this guide I’ll show you how to grow your blog’s community no matter how much traffic you get or don’t get with plenty of resources to help you tackle each step.

There are 3 things you’ve got to do in order to grow your blog’s community; get serious about your blog, optimize your blog, and connect with people outside of your blog.

So, let’s get started!

Get Serious About Your Blog

Remember, even if you’ve got a brick-and-mortar store, your blog becomes your digital storefront open to the public 24/7. It can be your most powerful marketing, engagement, and sales tool if you want it to be . . . but you have to take it seriously.

People want to be a part of something great, something that creates value, and enhances their lives. They can’t get that if your blog hasn’t been updated in weeks, is sorely lacking in the “looks” department, or is just plain boring. Here are a few tips that’ll help you get a bit serious about your blogging;

• Get on a schedule and blog consistently – I’ll be preaching this message till I die; consistency breeds community. The more you stay on schedule the easier it is for people to anticipate your posts, show up when you’re ready for them to engage with it, and share it with their friends. Here’s a 17 minute video that’ll show you How to Create an Editorial Calendar for Your Blog. This will help you get on a schedule and plan out your blog posts.
• Produce quality posts not a high quantity of posts – If you consistently put out crap then you’re not going to grow your community. No body wants to read your random thoughts, incomplete articles, or poorly thought-out blog topics. Take your time and write something you want the entire world to read. Something worthy of a reader’s time and attention.
• Respond to as many comments as possible – If you already built a small community on your blog and your posts are being commented on and shared . . . engage with your community! Don’t think that just because you’ve built it, they came, and commented means you can go home. Get in your own comments section and respond.
• Invest in a great theme – Think of your blog’s theme as what you would wear to a professional networking event. Are you going to wear those sloppy clothes you used to wear back in high school or the professional and clean threads you got for Christmas? People love to visit a great looking blog. It’s a fact. I’ve visited blogs that didn’t get a single read from me because I left after punishing my eyes with their design. A great theme gives the eyes room to play and to interact with what’s on the screen. If you’re going to get serious about growing your blog’s community then you need to invest in a theme that looks great and can grow with it.Shameless Promotion (affiliate link to follow): I invested in a WooThemes template that’s been really good at capturing my reader attention’s. What’s great about WooThemes is there commitment to quality and building each theme from the ground up. Each theme also comes with different color templates and are highly customizable. Give the boys at WooThemes a try for yourself!

Optimize Your Blog for Community Growth

I use a self-hosted copy of Wordpress for my blog. I love the fact that with plug-ins you can turn your simple blog into whatever kind of website you want. (Case in point here are 11 Non-Traditional Uses of WordPress) Here is a list of plug-ins you can use to grow your blog’s community;

• Disqus – This is what I use for my commenting system here at The Success Center. What I love about the plug-in is #1 – It makes commenting super easy and the ability to comment using your Facebook, Twitter, or even Yahoo account. #2 – There’s a great tool within the Disqus software that lets you display your top commenters, posts, and recent comments. This is great for highlighting your community and showing a little love for what they contribute on your blog. Speaking of love .  . .
• Comment Luv – This is a great plug-in that let’s people share their latest blog post when they comment on your site. Another fantastic way to grow loyalty and really get people in the spirit of commenting on your blog. Note: I don’t run this plug-in because it isn’t compatible with Disqus, but if I could I would!
• Comment Relish – Remember, ever new comment your blog receives is an opportunity to grow your community. Why not send your new commenters an email and thank them for commenting? This is exactly what this great plug-in does.
• Google Friend Connect – Let people officially “join” your community and show them off with this free widget from Google. Not only does it allow you to track the blogs your friends (or visitors) join but allows you to send newsletters amongst a slew of other features it has.
• BBPress – Remember joining a forum back in the early 2000’s? Surprisingly, they’re still a popular way to connect with like-minded individuals, share ideas, and information. If you don’t mind moderating, kicking spammers to the curve, and keeping it alive then this may be a good choice for your blog’s community. BBPress is forum software made by the same great folks who created Wordpress. Give it a try.

Connect with People Outside of Your Blog

An empire doesn’t grow within it’s own borders . . . it goes outside of it’s four walls and spreads dynamically. You have to do the same if you want to grow a community that is active and valuable to your blog. Here are a few suggestions on how to do just that;

• Twitter – I love Twitter for the connections it creates and the conversations that are started there. I use it to run polls and then use the answers in blog posts. This is a great way to get your social network community to become a part of your blogging community. Try using Twitter PollDaddy for your next poll and see how easy it is!
• Facebook – If you’re not deepening relationships on Facebook then you’re sorely missing the point of maximizing it for your business. One way to do this is to connect your blog with your Facebook account by using the Networked Blogs app. Once you’ve got your account set-up people will receive your latest posts, be able to comment, and share it with their Facebook friends.Another great tool for growing your community outside of your blog is to start a Facebook fan page. Consider this as a “mini-site” for your brand or blog. You can stuff them full of exclusive content like videos, notes, or photos just for your fans. My fan page isn’t maximized like I would like it to be, but someone who does this extremely well is my friend, Naomi Trower. She creates videos and other exclusive content just for her fans. Follow her lead!
• Youtube – Everyone is watching videos on Youtube, of course, by now you know that. Try creating video countdowns of your top articles for the week, bi-weekly, or monthly and sharing it their. This is a great way to get people involved in your blog before they even visit it!

Conclusion

Remember, the three keys to growing you blog’s community are to get serious about your blog, optimize your blog, and connect with people outside of your blog. If you follow the information here you should be well on your way to attracting new followers, visitors, and readers of your blog.

Best of all, you will have done it by not spending a dime . . . just a little bit of your time. What would you add to this guide? How are you cultivating relationships and community on your blog? Share your best advice, tips, and resources in the comments below.

For more advice on being successful with your blog check out, “5 Keys to Blogging Success”

Rod

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Archive “Super Star” Spotlight: I thought it would be a good idea to start spotlighting a couple of posts that are buried in the archives. Some of you are fairly new to this site and others are lifelong followers (you are, aren’t you?). No matter what category you fall into, I’m sure there’s at least 1 article here you haven’t read. Enjoy one of the most popular articles here at The Success Center!

8 Magazine Strategies that add Value to Your Blog

If you’ve been keeping up with the news then you know that newspaper and magazine readership is in a bit of a decline. Most of that stems from new media technologies such as blogs, social networks, and all things “world wide web.” The emergence of these technologies has given everyday moms, dads, grandmas, and uncle Joes the ability to funnel news, information, and resources more efficiently than their parent media brethren. But don’t count out newspapers or magazines just yet. There are still a lot of things they do, that we as bloggers, can learn and apply to our own projects.

This weekend I took a trip to the bookstore to do a little research. My goal was to find out what techniques big brand magazines use to advertise, engage with their readers, and add value to their content. Here are the results of my research and a few tips on maximizing them for your blog;

1. Offer a free download with your newsletter subscription – Source: Success Magazine
   Strategy: First and foremost let me say that if you’re not currently offering a newsletter of any kind on your blog or website then you’re sorely missing out on a huge opportunity to connect intimately with your visitors/readers/audience. Your newsletter can be delivered via email daily, weekly, bi-weekly, or whatever floats your boat directly to your reader’s in boxes. Success Magazine offers a single MP3 audio download of a motivational speech. How long would it take for you to record one of your best articles and offer it as a free download for your newsletter?
   Why is it important?: For starters it’s a great incentive for people to sign-up. Secondly, who doesn’t like getting free stuff?
2. Develop an “Advisors Board” – Source: Success Magazine
   Strategy: An Advisors Board is a list of big name columnist that contribute to the magazine on a monthly basis. For Success Magazine that included Zig Ziglar, John Maxwell, and others. For you it could be other bloggers that you connect with that have similar goals and want to reach the same target audience. The key is to offer whomever is going to contribute to your blog more than just “an opportunity” to write for you. Dedicate a page for them which will display their profile and links to connect with them. Developing an Advisors Board is really kind of like partnering. It should be a win-win situation for everyone involved.
   Why is it important?: It adds value to your audience because they get to read articles from a different point of view or with a different style. It changes things up and plus, you get to take a little break from posting.
   Note: Guest posting is a common practice but it’s typically a one-time deal. An Advisors Board would be based on a continual and consistent posting basis.
3. Create an “Editor’s Note” – Source: Every major magazine
   Strategy: Whenever you open up a magazine you’ll see a letter from the editor. It’s typically a note that outlines the month’s issue and what to look for inside. But I would challenge you to take it a step further by doing it with video. A short clip introducing readers to your site, defining your blogging goals, or just saying hello to your audience.
   Why is it important?: It’s a great way to connect with your readers “from the jump.” It also reaffirms your personal brand by showcasing your character and not just your image (People get to see who you really are).
4. Do Book Reviews – Source: Success from Home Magazine
   Strategy: A lot of magazines offer short reviews of books they recommend along with web links to get more information on the title. However, as a blogger, you’re at an advantage because of the web. Instead of writing a review, do a video review. One blogger that does this well is Chris Brogan. Not only does he do quick, laid back, reviews, but he adds his Amazon affiliate link for the products below the video.
   Why is it important?: It’s another great way to share who you are and what you’re about. It’s another form of connection between you and your readers. Some of you already recommend books to your friends, why not do it publicly?
   Tip: Don’t just do a review a book to make a quick buck with affiliate links. Recommend something you have read or would read yourself.
5. Write “List” style articles – Source: Black Enterprise
   Strategy: I love the way Black Enterprise creates huge lists of just about anything you can think of when it comes to business. “100 Most Powerful Executives, 100 Best Service Companies, etc.”
   Why is it important?: The list article is easy to read, adds a ton of value to any blog, and never gets old. Sure, there’s a lot of research involved on the front end, but it’s smooth sailing once you start putting it together.
6. Create a Resources Page – Source: Entrepreneur Magazine
   Strategy: This one is a good one. Share information, tools, links, and other info that helps your blogging community.
   Why is it important?: It’s a sign that you’re a part of the community too and that you don’t have all the answers. Your visitors will appreciate, care, and respect you more for sharing.
7. “Ask the Expert” (Reader Q&A) – Source: Leadership Magazine
   Strategy: This was a great technique that utilized an expert in a specific field to answer reader questions in the magazine. The expert can be yourself or you can reach out to someone else (there’s the advisors board idea). Either way it goes don’t just write useful articles, share tips, and resources with your readers . . . become a problem solver. Darren Rowse from Problogger uses his twitter account to connect with his readers and answers their questions on his blog. Great use of social networking!
   Why is it important?: It’ll increase your expert status a hundred fold, encourage community participation, and adds value to your reader’s lives and not just the blog.
8. Make Subscribing Easy! – Source: All Major Magazines
   Strategy: In every magazine that I flipped through at least 5 or more “subscription” cards fell out around me. The pages were literally littered with them! It dawned on me that they made subscribing to the magazine easy. As a blogger you have to make sure that you’re giving readers and first time visitors the opportunity to stay informed and connected with your site. Do it by offering subscription links after your posts, in your sidebar, on your about page, and even on your contact page. Make it easy.
   Why is it important?: It’s a no brainer! The more subscribers you have the greater impact your content is making in the online community.

And there you have it. I hope this list was useful to you as it has been for me. Looking over it again, it’s kind of dawned on me that I have a lot of work to do. The best way to maximize this list is to print it out and check things off as you implement them on your blog. I made it a personal goal to tackle at least half of the items on the list this week. You should see my results over the next couple of days. This list is, of course, not everything you can learn from a magazine so please feel free to add to it in the comments below. What are some of your favorite magazines and how do they engage, connect, or add value to their readers?

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