DISQUS

I have to say that I am thrilled to see a reasonable discussion going on here about using social media in a sales mode. There are a lot of purists that would simply say that sales should not be in social media, but that is like saying advertising should not be on TV.

I hope to see a lot more of these kinds of discussions. Thanks Chris

That is very kind of you to share your process.

How do you decide which things are working well and when to add a new technology?

I think it is funny, but will probably not change anyone's life. (Or create many sales)

@Chris - just playing devil's advocate. Either way I signed up for messages (Email or twitter) from someone. Either way I can choose to stop following/subscribing.

I get 6 per day so I do not mind. You get 70 - that must suck. I see your point.

I am in the minority here. They do not bother me.

They do not trick me and usually I ignore them, but a one time email like that on where to find more info is not bad, in my opinion.

If it was more than one, I would have an issue with it.

I subscribe to your blog feed to email, Chris. I am guessing you do not manually email me that every day.

A better discussion may be around - What is responsible automation? If you think any automation is bad, then you are not very realistic and you are missing the point of technology, which is to make us more proficient. Can we be proficient, automated and authentic all at the same time?

In light of these things, I think you need to label every single post:
I am posting in the hopes that some day you will
a) Buy my upcoming book
b) Hire me to speak
c) Hire me as a consultant
d) Buy me a drink at a party some time
e) Recommend me to your friends that will do the same.

And don't hide it on the about page. You need to clutter up every post with a huge disclaimer at the top that makes your posts unreadable and unSEO friendly in Google.

Then, I might trust you, but I will not want to read your mess.

:)

Nice post Chris.

One thing to keep in mind is that it depending on your goal, you may not want to spend too much time investigating one person.

If you are trying to determine the top 50 influential people in your industry, then this kind of stuff is good. If you are just emailing people that are writing in your industry and email request, then the time it takes is not worth the investigation.

I believe a huge factor is frequency and length of time they are blogging. Rarely will someone keep putting out great content for years on a topic unless it is making an impact for them. They may have a smaller audience than others, but be very influential with them.

I do it because it is the only way to do Business Networking in your underwear. (That I am aware of)

I agree with you on the blog point 100%. A Blog is an SEO Copywriters best friend.

Case in point - my blog is the one that beat him above in that image. I did not try to optimize it. I just did a post on my marketing authority site (Also known as a blog with over 1,000 marketing articles) and boom, one day later I was #1. Probably will not stay there since it will fade into the archives, but I will take a little extra exposure while it lasts. :)

Bad partnerships have to be right up there as well. Nothing shoots a business to hell faster than an ugly partner divorce.

Rons last blog post..Debt and the Law of Reciprocation

Hmmm, everyone is so happy on this one.

I think it is very valuable to learn audacity and some of the tools you mention, but there are more important things not being taught that are more fundamental.

1. Speaking - Why record an audio. Being a good speaker is more important and takes much more skill.

2. Personal Finance - Before you learn YouTube, maybe you should have weekly Quickbooks mock transactions to enter and write about. (Dull, I know. But important)

3. Efficiency - Maybe we should give each kid a budget and they can hire a virtual assistant or buy new software or have a custom app designed to simplify their lives. Now that is a great skill to have.

I think it would take a teacher a lot longer to grade audio files than writing. If they are going to go to the effort, why not just have them do oral presentations. The kid could include media in the presentation, such as playing an audio interview they conducted asking other people what they thought of the book. (If you really want to include audio)

Do not get me wrong. I am not a nay-sayer. My first company was built to advance technology in education. I just do not think that social media will become the main platform. Maybe Kindle, with lots of interactive features where people can collaborate and share will.

Hmmm, Disqus is interesting. My fear is that changing your commenting system is serious. Do your old comments disappear? What happens if I later change to another system? Tricky

I am surprised no one mentioned Google Analytics on her website.

She would check the stats in the morning and evening before leaving and see if there is a bump of traffic coming from an sources. She would also analyze why some of her efforts seem to hit a cord and generate traffic while others do not.

She would use the tool to measure and improve her results.

Hi.

I have used this technique, and you are very right. It needs to earn an income and be a real part of your business.

You probably could do food, but you would have to take photos, describe how you prepared it, etc. etc. Would it be worth the savings? No.

For example, I could start a blog and review every DVD I rented. It could be a legit write-off, but to save 30 cents I would have to spend a half hour writing.

Another thing Senior Cow does not mention is that you can hire family members as writers. But they better really be writing, and on a blog that really has a monitization strategy.

I am not a tax expert. I love this topic but it is scary to write about in public. If you document things well and have a clear strategy and reason, you can do a lot of things that can save money.

Nice Comments - I started out on your list way back because of Traffic Kahuna. Later I was referred to John Cow (not knowing it was you) and signed up here as well.

Then I won a contest. Yeeeha!

Then I bought Traffic Kahuna . Nice.

It took you probably 18 months to make money from me. I think people do not realize that the whole process starts with that initail sign up and quality content.

Buzzoodle Rons last blog post..Virtual Assistant Blog

Yeah, I was actually really shocked. She was selling some toys directly and doing some amazon affiliate links - nothing scammy or improper.

Your heart just sinks for people when you know their intentions are good but other people are reading into it too much.

In some ways, that is probably why only the thick skinned internet marketers are left and the "nice" non internet marketers get out after someone attacks them. It is not fun and there is no good way to defend yourself.

Well said - and really those people make it harder for honest people to try to get involved because they did not sign up for taking shit from people.

Two years ago my daughter (then eight) started a business. Sure I helped her with the design of a website but she was writing it and doing nearly everything else. Then people started bashing her and saying it was a gimmick I was doing. (Yes, I needed to exploit my daughter to make an extra $50 a month)

I was actually relieved when it kind of faded as an interest of hers. I wanted to teach her entrepreneurship, but ended up taking too much crap for it and it was really bad for me to see people attacking an 8 year old trying to start her own business.

Buzzoodle Rons last blog post..Personal Email in Business

For those of you that are NEW and wondering...

I started this diet In sept 2007 and yesterday I realized my goal of weighing less than 140 lb. I started at 186 lb.

While it was a little slower than he stated, it was definitely easy and effective. It took almost a year, and a few more pounds would not hurt, but it works.

Hi Chris.

That is great traffic. Stumble Upon seems to do great in spikes for me.

There is one thing that you stats cannot show you that you might find interesting.

I found you from GREAT word of mouth. I was on the phone talking to Phil Gerbyshak http://makeitgreat.typepad.com/ and he told me he thinks every word you write is law.

He spoke so highly of your blog that I checked it out and have been coming back time and again.

If Google Analytics could track phone, email and personal recommendations, I do not know if it would be the #1 source but I bet it would be some of your most frequent readers.

Social Media is a great tool for word of mouth - If you put out a great product and people start talking about it, you do not have to lead the charge, others will do it for you.

Creating a facebook batman account probably would not do much to help ticket sales. But the fact that people talk about it with these tools, organize groups to go see the movie, etc. does have an impact.

Maybe that is the beauty of it. It is hard to game the system, but easy for people to influence their small sphere.

When dealing with customers, I think it is a big plus. But small businesses do lack clout with big vendors, which can be a big issue.

Great stuff Chris.

I do not usually add links to comments, but regarding Ann's "What not to do" request, I wrote a popular yet basic piece on stupid mistakes people make with social media. (7 Commandments, not 10)

http://blog.buzzoodle.com/index.php/2008/06/09/...

If companies encourage employees to comment on things they are reading, the will end up creating a great deal more exposure. You'd think every organization would send out an email letting people know how and when to comment on blogger's blogs.

Nice - There is some additional food for thought about how twitter helps people escape - see my blog post about it here. I think it speaks volumes about who is spending all day there.

Nice post. Your book certainly had a lot of great stuff like this - I hope you will continue to do more business topics.