ARE YOU SHARING OR SELLING?

DAVID MEERMAN SCOTT REVEALS THE 85-10-5 RULE OF SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS

When I speak with people at Business Mastery, many want to know, specifically, how to use social networking feeds such as Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook to communicate effectively as a marketing and sales tool. While there is no right or wrong when it comes to content creation and sharing, I’d say that a loose guideline may be helpful as a way to think about the various uses of social networks.Social networks are a great place to share content, to interact with others, to listen in on what’s happening, and yes, if approached carefully, social networks can also be a way to get the word out about you and your business. However, as I review individuals’ business-related social streams, I find way too much selling going on. Too many companies are shouting into the social world.

THE SHARING MORE THAN SELLING RULE

As a way to think about your social activities, I’d suggest you should be doing 85% sharing and engaging, 10% publishing original content, and only 5% or less about what you are trying to promote.

Sharing more than selling via David Meerman Scott

MAKE 85% SHARING AND ENGAGING

Sharing and engaging include such things as commenting on someone else’s blog or Facebook post, quoting a tweet and adding your take, sharing a photo of somebody else, or responding to somebody who has said something that interests you. You can also share an interesting blog post or news report with your network.

Most people, especially those new to social networking, don’t share and engage enough. I’d say you should be doing it with at least 85% of your social interactions, but it could be much more. Since sharing and engaging are the easiest aspect of social networking, it shouldn’t take much for you to do more of it.

MAKE 10% ORIGINAL CONTENT

I’d recommend that 1 out of 10 of your social interactions be publishing something original. You can write a blog post, tweet about something that interests your marketplace, or publish a video. The more helpful this content is to your buyer personas, the better.

Many people worry about social networks as a tool of business because they think that everything they do has to be new content. But I suggest only 10% needs to be!

MAKE 5% OR LESS A PROMOTION ABOUT WHAT YOU DO

One out of 20 interactions (or fewer) can be something that you want to promote to your audience. This is when you can share a new product your company offers, a special discount for social followers, or other content of a promotional nature.

Most people sell way too much, and, as such, their social feeds don’t have much interaction. People just don’t want to be sold to. However, if you are helpful and engaging and responsive on your social feeds, then you build an audience who will want to hear from you and who will be receptive to learning more about what you and your organization does.

SOCIAL SHARING ON INSTAGRAM GROWS BUSINESS

Nantucket Island is my favorite surfing spot. When I’m there, I’ll occasionally take a lesson at Gary Kohner’s Nantucket Island Surf School. Kohner grew up on Nantucket and started surfing in 1984. He founded the school in the summer of 1999 to share his love of surfing and the ocean with others. Besides offering lessons for people of all ages and weeklong surf camps for kids, Kohner also rents surfboards, stand-up paddleboards, and wetsuits. He is an avid photographer and shares photos almost daily on his @nantucketsurfing Instagram feed.

Kohner’s Instagram is a great example of the “Sharing More than Selling Rule.” He shares images all the time and very rarely sells his services directly. Yet the beautiful images help to market his business.

Kohner uses simple equipment that anybody can master: a GoPro in the water and an iPhone on land. “I’m a little OCD about certain things I enjoy,” Kohner says. “I enjoy taking the pictures. I enjoy playing with the editing tools on Instagram and then putting it out there. It doesn’t feel like it’s a work thing. It’s something I do for fun. I try to keep it fresh and keep it interesting so I figure it gives people something to look at.”

Gary Kohner, Nantucket Island Surf School, Instagram @NantucketSurfing

Instagram is a great social network to share about any product or service that has a visual component or customers who use the product in interesting ways. It also allows those who don’t feel as comfortable creating written content to get their ideas out there.

Kohner shoots a bunch of photos from the water and then looks to find the best ones to post. “If I’m using the GoPro while surfing, I usually have it on an automatic setting. I’ll come in sometimes with over 1,000 pictures. I go through them quickly and weed out the ones that are junk, because a lot of those pictures are just not good and you can tell right away,” he says. “I will pick out the top 50 or so that look the best, and out of those 50, I usually pick the top three or four that I really like. I’ll save them and use them for Instagram. That’s why I’m able to post stuff daily. If I go out surfing one day and take a bunch of shots, I can save those up and post them over the next week.”

Kohner sometimes posts epic shots of a really good surfer on an awesome wave, but he also posts beginners standing up for the very first time during a lesson. “It’s a nice moment to capture,” Kohner says. “I wish I had a shot of my first ride when I was a kid. [My account is] an Instagram for the surf school, so it makes sense not just to have surfers inside a tube [a cresting and breaking wave that is challenging to surf], but have it more accessible to everybody.”

When Kohner posts shots of people surfing, they often repost on their own Instagram accounts, which extends his reach. “I have a lot of kids who taken lessons with me follow me on Instagram,” Kohner says. “I’ll ask the parents, especially if they’re younger kids, ‘Hey, I’m going to take some pictures; if I get a good one, is it cool if I put it on my Instagram?’ And the parents almost always agree. I tag the surfer and the kids love it. They say: ‘Oh, I’m on Gary’s Instagram! I’m on the surf school Instagram! I’m famous!’ And they share on their Instagram with their friends. So much of my business here in Nantucket is word of mouth; I’m sure that my Instagram is helping.”

Gary Kohner, Nantucket Island Surf School, Instagram @NantucketSurfing

I know for a fact Kohner’s Instagram is helping market his business. When people who know I love surfing ask how to get started, I just point them to Kohner’s wonderful photos. That often leads to them signing up for lessons.

Instagram allows users to comment on each other’s photos. Many people pay attention to those who tag them in these comments. If you use Instagram for your business, you should pay attention, too. For example, when I shared a photo of me wearing my Nantucket Surfing T-shirt and hat on Hawaii’s North Shore, I included this caption (tagging Kohner’s Instagram ID): “Showing my @nantucketsurfing colors at Sunset beach prior to watching the Vans Triple Crown.” Kohner responded to me: “I’ll be there tomorrow! How long are you going to be around the North Shore?” And I replied: “Hey Gary. I just left. . . . Have fun! It was my first time and loved it.” A friendly approach like Gary’s is a great way to acknowledge or endorse customers who take the time to talk about you and your product or service.

Kohner’s Instagram helps keep his business top of mind with the typical family that visits Nantucket for a few weeks each summer. When the kids follow Kohner’s photos all year long and Mom and Dad ask the kids what they want to do while on Nantucket Island, the first thing they’re going to say is that they want to go back and take some surfing lessons.

“A lot of people are away doing their thing in the winter,” Kohner says. “They don’t surf year-round, so I remind them of that memory of surfing, the time they spent in Nantucket. If they’re coming back, it’s going to be ‘Let’s go surfing!’”

Header image © Shutterstock/Twin Design

David Meerman Scott

David Meerman Scott is an internationally acclaimed sales and marketing strategist who has spoken on all seven continents and in 40 countries, including Tony Robbins’ Business Mastery events. In partnership with Tony, he created the New Marketing online training program, which teaches entrepreneurs how to align their marketing with the way that people buy.

Source: https://www.tonyrobbins.com/career-business/are-you-sharing-or-selling/

Advanced Affiliate Marketing Techniques

When choosing affiliate products to promote with your Internet marketing business, you want to pick products that cost more so that you make a higher commission per sale.

But you also want to have a whole range of products at different price points so you can keep people buying no matter how much or how little money they have.

For example, let's say you pick self-help as your niche. You should have a bunch of products that cost less than $10 - such as eBooks or video courses - because a lot of people seeking to improve themselves don't have a lot of money but still want to buy something that will make them better people.

The 'Profit Ladder'

Then you should have more expensive products in the $10 to $100 range so that you can offer them to people with more money to spend and also push your customers up the profit ladder. That means getting people to buy increasingly expensive products.

Then you should have some products that are really expensive, such as those that cost $1,000 or more. This is to appeal to people who have a lot of money to spend but also to have a big money offer that people can aspire to. A lot of times these types of products are things like personal coaching, or seminars people can attend to become masters at whatever it is they want.

Big money products not only satisfy people's desire to get the best there is, but also provide you with the biggest commissions so you can make the most money even if you only make a few sales.

Niche Statistics

Popularity of Niches

Before you start promoting affiliate products, you want to make sure the products or the niches you choose to work in are popular. You don't want to waste your time working in niches that there aren't a lot of customers. Instead, maximize your potential revenues by only working in the best niches that have scads of customers.

So how do you find out what niches are popular? Like anything else these days, you simply use the internet. There are plenty of places you can go to measure the popularity of a particular niche. The first place I always recommend is Google Hot Trends which lists the top 100 searches on Google during the previous 25 minutes.

Researching Niche Statistics Online

Google is the largest search engine and is used by more people than any other, so it is a reliable source to tell you what is hot at the present moment. Another site is Yahoo Buzz, which shows also shows the top searches but on Yahoo, which uses the Bing search engine. But Yahoo Buzz also gives a little more information than Google.

Two other similar sites are Trend Hunter and Trend Watching. These are more geared toward consumer goods, such as electronics, appliances and other hard goods rather than digital products, which are what you probably will be promoting.

Sources for Niche Data

ClickBank has a lot of information about the products it offers. A similar site that also has lot of data you can use to measure popularity is Commission Junction.

With the affiliate products you promote on ClickBank and Commission Junction, you make a commission every time somebody clicks through and buys that product.

'Cost Per Action'

But another affiliate model is called "Cost Per Action". This is slightly different because you can get paid every time somebody clicks through to a page whether they buy anything or not. Obviously, the CPA amount you are paid is usually less than that of a sales commission, but a lot of CPA click-throughs can quickly add up and make you some real money.

CPA networks for you go check out include Peerfly.com, ShareASale.com, GoOffers.net and CPALed.com.

For more great content like this visit my blog at: http://www.evergreendollar.org

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Sohan_Miah/2470209

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9806169

One Simple Talk That Will Change Your Life...

Great stuff from Tai Lopez - what do you think of this?

The Down Side to Being Seen

I've been having an interesting experience these past couple of weeks as the target of a few people on social media whose views differ from my own.

I genuinely like people and find everyone to be unique - we all have a different story, a different experience which dictates how we see things from our own individual perspective. However, how people deal with their perspectives covers a whole spectrum of emotions.

There are people who are tolerant, who respect other opinions, even if they don't hold the same beliefs. They have a "live and let live" attitude which allows for peaceful exchanges! These people often have an open mind and are willing to listen to other viewpoints and then decide whether they resonate or not.

There are also people who have tried different things but found they didn't work for them, and then take it on as their responsibility to protect others from perceived harm. They are fiercely protective but often fail to realise that they are denying other people the freedom of choice. They are seeing the situation from their own perspective and assuming that their experience is the only one. They fail to realise that their experience was theirs and theirs alone and that another person might blossom in a similar situation.

Similar to the protective people mentioned in the previous paragraph are those that haven't tried different things but have learned from other people's experiences and beliefs. They can fall into quite aggressive exchanges because belief systems are often seen to define who they are as a person. To change their ideas is a frightening and unacceptable thought, so they will deny all evidence to the contrary and live their lives on a single track - they are right and everyone who doesn't share their ideas is wrong - end of story!

I have been very fortunate in my years on social media to have met some wonderful people with widely differing viewpoints from whom I have learned a lot. The personal attacks have been few and far between, thankfully. It is indeed unpleasant having total strangers making judgements on who you are and what you are, while at the same time refusing to acknowledge any evidence presented to the contrary. It has given me an additional understanding of what many people have to experience on a day to day basis - a large number of them are only trying to help people awaken to what is going on around them.

When I told a friend of mine what was happening, his response was - 'You are being seen, well done!' Which is true to a large extent. What I am doing is my passion and life purpose and I won't stop - it's a price I am willing to pay for raising my head above the parapet.

However, it got me to thinking about the many businesses that fail within the first few years. It also made me very aware that people who want to run their own businesses really need to find an occupation they are passionate about - that is the only thing that will make dealing with internet bullies tolerable. I wonder how many businesses failed because of this form of harassment. How many business owners decided that living small was preferable.

I remember one of the marketing experts I follow saying words to the effect that if everybody likes you then you haven't clearly defined your business. It's when people either love you or hate you that you know that you are on track. So, I guess from the events of the past few weeks, I am definitely on track!

I also saw a post on Facebook which said something like, if you spend 10 minutes interacting with someone with negative energy, you have wasted 8 minutes of your time. Though this sounds quite harsh, I think there is a lot of truth in it. You are allowing someone to spend time in your head when it's clear that they have already made a judgement about you and won't be changing that any time soon. There are so many other positive things that you could be doing with that time.

From a spiritual perspective, in these obviously very troubled times, I believe that it is crucial to stick to the higher ground. There are huge divisions happening all around the world and it can be easy to be sucked into the negativity and fear, when it is even more important to keep focused on love and the loving people in the world who are making a massive positive difference in people's lives.

In conclusion, I have learned a lot from my current experiences and accept the fact that, for whatever reason, there are those who will never like me or what I do, and that's okay. The important thing is to concentrate on the people that do like us and what we do, nurture those relationships and together we will be able to make a big difference in this world.

Would you like to share your stories of social media experiences?

Sue is the Founder of Soulfully Connecting. The idea behind Soulfully Connecting is to demonstrate that there are other ways of living which can heal the earth, the animal kingdom and ourselves. She is passionate about people having freedom of choice, which is only possible when they know about all the options.

http://www.soulfully-connecting.com

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Sue_Ellam/123682

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Consider Your Personal Brand

In a modern World of Facebook, YouTube and connected consciousness in all it’s forms – platforms that provide extensions of consciousness that pervade the new reality of a physical World mixed, and often distorted, with a complex and hyper-connected cyber World – we must be more self-aware than ever.

Everyone should be thinking about their personal brand – what it means to them, and what it says about them to the outside World.

I’ve become particularly interested in this subject as a result of my mission to bring positive change to the World by realising my vision of humanity at it’s best, striving to be better, and thriving through understanding how to interact with each other in a quality and meaningful way so we can work together to solve the meaningful problems we find ourselves faced with. I was introduced to the principal of being a ‘Key Person of Influence‘ by Daniel Priestley’s book by the same name (click the link for more details). I read this book whilst on holiday in Italy, and it provided some revolutionary insights for me about how to build my personal brand, and why it was important.

Whether you’re in business or not, this is something that should be on your radar. The benefits of becoming a key person of influence in business and your professional life are fairly obvious – the most exciting projects, the highest fees and the best opportunities always end up with key people of influence. Why is this? Quite simply, because they are seen, known and trusted in their respective market place, and furthermore are seen as experts in their field. Why wouldn’t you want to work with an expert who you feel like you know because you see their content everywhere? Become a key person of influence in your industry, and you won’t be worried about finding or keeping work so long as you provide a fair exchange of perceived value to your clients with excellent customer service.

However, you’re not off the hook if you are employed and have no plans to change the World anytime soon.

You’re even more unlucky if you’re a millennial… because it’s more than likely that 100% of your life is on-line, and what’s on-line is timeless – a fact few in recent generations seem to realise or appreciate enough!

These days, employers use peoples Facebook profiles and other social media information that is publicly available to get a more solid idea of who job applicants are, what their values are, and whether or not they will be a good fit for the role they’ve applied for, and be a good fit for company culture. There is so much information about us on-line with most people using social media platforms heavily and regularly, and so everyone should be considering this when they’re posting information and updates to the various sites that act as adverts for their lives. Your Facebook and LinkedIn profiles are now part of your CV – whether you like it or not!

This is exactly why everyone should be thinking about their personal brand, and working to nurture it into one they are proud to present to the rest of the World – it’s going to be presented to us anyway, so it’s well worth putting the effort in to get it right.

The first thing you need to do if this concept is new to you is to decide on what your key values are, and to write them down. This should be a set of guiding principals by which you consistently live your life, and that result in actions that match those of the person you are working to become. If you don’t know what these values are, or you have a rough idea but they’re not specific or clear enough in your mind, then you have no way of knowing if you’re behaving in a way that’s serving your higher purpose in life. Before you fire a gun, you need to make sure it’s pointing at the target…

It is then important that you review your social media activity to date, and be honest with yourself as to whether or not the way you’ve been advertising yourself is congruent with the way you want to be seen, derived from the values and guiding principals you’ve just written down. Some of it will be positive, and some will be negative – don’t get hung up on the stuff you don’t like the look of, just make a mental note and be sure to avoid repeating behaviour you’ve now identified as negative. Do more of the stuff you like, and that is in line with your goals.

Be sure to rave about the things you’re doing that are exciting and that demonstrate character and personal growth – these things are so valuable, and serve to inspire countless others to greatness as well as promoting your passion and thirst for life at your best. Let people know what you’re experiences are, and what key learnings you’ve derived from them – how have you grown? Share your story – we all have value to add to others through our stories of our unique perceptions of our experiences.

The more you show up as the person you want to be, the more you become everything you desire. At the very least, it’s important to be aware of how visible we all are on-line these days, so you can filter hat you share with the World and decrease the possibility of any negative content having a detrimental effect on your life, either in making new friends, building your professional network or finding your dream job.

No matter who you are, where you live or what you do – look after your personal brand, and your personal brand will look after you. Showing your true character, passion and drive through your personal brand is a great way to open doors for new and exciting opportunities in life, and it’s a fantastic way to meet like minded people who share your passion and thirst for living.

You’re amazing, and the World deserves to know about you so shout from the rooftops!

Author: PUBLISHED BY LITTLE GREY SAYS (Jamie Keeling)

Entrepreneur | Peak Performance Specialist | Martial Artist | Author | Investor 

"See it, believe it, achieve it"