Posts Tagged "Social Media"

ASE09: Tuesday Peter Shankman Keynote

Posted on Aug 14, 2009 in Affiliate Marketing, Conferences & Networking | 3 comments

I’m a lover of both Chris Brogan and Peter Shankman, but I have to say that I took more from this keynote than Chris’.  I was surprised that Peter wasn’t TOO hyperactive, but was still incredibly entertaining and engaging.

Bullet Point Review!

  • HARO has grown to just under 100,000 subscribers in 14 months.
  • It’s helped 24,000 journalists.
  • $0 to just over $1,000,000 revenue in 14 months.
  • Peter worked at AOL News launching their digital news.
  • You can’t make anything viral, but you can make something good.
  • Social media is trust.
  • Social media is the ability to screw up to a bigger audience in a faster amount of time.
  • We’re a society that loves to be finders.
  • Doing something to be nice gets you remembered, not just recalled.
  • We covet what we know.
  • 4 Ideals of Social Media
    • Transparency -> Immediate Trust -> Viral
    • Relevant
    • Brevity
    • Top of Mind Presence
  • Social media is 2 way communication – you must be prepared to talk and listen and respond.
  • Giving people what they want, when they want it.
  • Have you ever asked your audience how they like to get their information?
  • The average attention span is 2.7 seconds, or 140 characters.  (Coincidence, Twitter?)
  • There are three categories email falls into
    • Ones you can answer immediately and delete.
    • Ones you have to wait until you get back to the office to reply to.
    • Ones that aren’t getting to the point and require too much attention to figure out what it is they want or need from you.
  • Learn how to write; take a class if you need to.
  • You have 1 paragraph to get someone’s attention and keep them interested.
  • Paramount Studios CEO Barry Diller was known for getting to the office 30 minutes early and opening his Rolodex and calling 4 or 5 people randomly just to say hi -> this created good will and helped build relationships that could later be leveraged.
  • Peter checks Facebook every day and sends people a short note when it’s their birthday – this is his version of the Barry Diller method.

I know that now I have to find a Poken since they just look so cool and really start to think more about the altruism of business, something I don’t think most people think about.  As an added bonus, Peter showed us a video that was just GOOD and so it went viral.  Here it is – it’s a bit longer than a video I’d normally watch, but it’s worth it.  Funny yet touching.  Enjoy!

Here’s the recording of Peter’s Keynote as well for your viewing pleasure:

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ASE09 Session: What the Heck is a Website Nowadays?

Posted on Aug 11, 2009 in Affiliate Marketing, Conferences & Networking, Guest Posts |

Guest Post by Dominic Fawver.

Session Description: Businesses may be changing the way they look at web presence. Can you just have a blog? Is a Facebook presence alone a good idea? Does Web 2.0 mean the demise of websites?   The panel consisted of:

  • Shashi Bellamkonda, Social Media Swami, Network Solutions (Twitter @shashib) (Moderator)
  • Kelly Harman, President, Zephyr Strategy
  • Melanie Mitchell, SVP, Search Strategy, Digitas (Twitter @melaniemitchell)
  • Ramon Ray, Editor, Smallbiztechnology.com

This session gave an interesting and entertaining look into how the role of a website has been changed recently with the advent of Social Media.  One of the chief points that I took from the session was that your website should be the anchor for all the other forms of social media which you use.  Ramon Ray brought out some points that are easy to remember and contain a lot of useful tips, these are:

  • Focus on the customer.
  • Have a plan of action.
  • Have an easy to remember name.
  • Be informative.
  • Security –  have as much as is needed for your site.
  • Easy customer contact = good customer service.
  • Have fresh content.
  • Be found.
  • Be simple.
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ASE09 Session: Getting Noticed FAST

Posted on Aug 9, 2009 in Affiliate Marketing, Conferences & Networking, Guest Posts | 3 comments

Guest Post by Dominic Fawver.

Session Description: Regardless what your role in the industry is, it’s important to be noticed within the industry. Learn the networking and social media techniques that make it possible.  The panel consisted of:

This session, Getting Noticed FAST, contained a lot of valuable information from people who have gone from being a nobody in Affiliate Marketing to being well known by many of the top people in just a couple of years.  Some of the suggestions were:

“Get involved in the response…go to other sites and comment”   Jen Goode

“Start blogging”  Stephanie Lichtenstein

“Don’t flame people”  Trisha Fawver

“Do something different the first time you meet in person”  Mike Buechele

Many tips were given on the importance of using social media to get your name out there.  Also mentioned was the importance of personal branding and being consistent between all of the different forms of social media that you are on.

From the standpoint of someone who is new to Affiliate Marketing, this was a very good session with plenty of examples from the panelist’s personal experience.  It gave me ideas on where to start on getting noticed so that I can further a career in Affiliate Marketing (if I so chose) by meeting people who are already successful in the field and learn from their experiences and mistakes, while at the same time possibly being able to help them out with my own expertise.  In many cases it is not what you know, but who you know.

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5 Reasons Why You Should Outsource Now

Posted on Jun 3, 2009 in Guest Posts, Marketing | 1 comment

Guest Post by Nicole Munoz.

Outsourcing

Image courtesy of jscreationzs | FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Sales are down, investors are bailing, and companies are laying people off left and right because they can no longer afford to staff full time workers. It’s been a heartbreaking process for millions of people across the country who awaken to the reality that they no longer have a job to go. But let’s take a positive look at how this can be good for everyone; businesses and the unemployed alike. Many experienced professionals with new-found time on their hands are turning to outsourcing their skills to make some extra money while they search for full-time work. There are benefits for the hiring companies as well. This blog will look at the top 5 reasons why outsourcing is a great idea.

For many of us, cutting down our expenses has become a routine part of life. Companies are no different. Once a full time staff member has been let go, there is an empty space in the function of the organization that still needs to be filled by someone. Other employees may be asked to take on the additional role, and for expense’s sake, it’s a good idea to utilize them until sales increase. However, an even better idea is to outsource! With this form of employment, a company can save on the expense of having a desk, PC, office supplies, etc. set aside for that person. Outsourced workers usually work from home and are available by phone, email, or fax which means that they are instantly accessible.

Another great reason to outsource your work is that there is a large pool of potentials ready to be interviewed at any time you need. With companies like elance and oDesk, they have freelance workers ready to start immediately. They can bid on the projects and job openings that companies post. Many times, the freelancers get paid by the project to complete projects, but they can certainly be hired on a permanent basis. Each person receives feedback after they complete a job or project, so new clients can see that they have a good reputation. Another type of outsourcing, as with StartRankingNow, employs a set of people who are always on stand by to take projects immediately when clients knock at their door. Each person is contracted out to perform certain jobs based on their skill sets.

Third on the list of reasons is convenience. It is extremely fitting, especially in this economy, to hire someone “by the project” if you aren’t prepared to hire someone full time. If you needed marketing brochures or web content, for example, you could hire an expert to get the project done right away. After everything is completed, you can get back to running your business. Expertise is another great reason to outsource your work. With a flooded job market, there are tons of specially-skilled professionals ready for the opportunity to get hired out for your projects. This economy has given companies an even better choice of qualified individuals to hire for any task they need completed!

Finally, outsourcing is a great method for hiring because project tracking is already done for you online. Due dates for rough drafts, revisions, and final drafts are all laid out by the client and adjusted as necessary. Project management is easier and faster than ever with these helpful online tools! So, don’t spend another moment worrying about how your site is ranking; find an SEO Expert to outsource

Nicole Munoz is the owner of Start Ranking Now. She is an SEO Outsourcing, Link Building, and Social Media Expert. She also conducts SEO training in San Diego to other entrepreneurs and Internet marketing professionals.

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Upcoming Speaking Engagements

Posted on May 28, 2009 in Conferences & Networking | 3 comments

I’m excited to announce that I’ll be speaking at two different affiliate marketing conferences this summer. One I applied to speak at with some dear colleagues of mine back in March after getting the idea in February, which has lead to a build up of excitement. The other came rather unexpectedly recently and I’m very happy to be speaking at both! So come hear me talk about cool stuff!

Affiliate Convention – June 18th & 19th – Denver, CO
Friday, June 19th.  10:15 – 11:15 am.
Super Affiliate Room I: Social Media Marketing

Do you Tweet? Have you found Facebook useful for fun and profit? Wade Sisson, David Snyder, and Trisha Lyn Fawver take this session through the various social media applications and teaches several ways to successfully harness the power of speaking to a massive audience of friends, followers and fellow social media users.

I’ll be speaking along side: Wade Sisson, Director of Marketing for PartnerCentric and David Snyder, Co-Founder of Search & Social

Affiliate Summit East 2009 – August 9th – 11th – New York, NY
Sunday, August 9th.  12:00 – 1:00 pm.
Classroom D: Getting Noticed FAST

Regardless what your role in the industry is, it’s important to be noticed within the industry. Learn the networking and social media techniques that make it possible.

Our panel will be moderated by Lisa Picarille, Online Marketing Consultant at LisaPicarille.com.  I’ll be joined by Mike Buechele, Founder of Comic Book Fury, Jen Goode, Doodler-in-Charge of JGoode Designs, and Stephanie Lichtenstein, Affiliate Program Manager for Andy Rodriguez Consulting.

Some come on out!  I’ll have plenty of good things to say and you’ll be able to meet me live and in person!

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Affiliate Marketing Fanatics #7: Tweeting, Speaking, & Blogging

Posted on May 15, 2009 in Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Marketing Fanatics | 1 comment

Affiliate Marketing Fanatics – A Publisher (Mike Buechele) and an Affiliate Manager (Trisha Lyn Fawver) talk about all things Affiliate Marketing. From blogging to branding, social media to search, video and more!

We’re back after a fortnight away!  We don’t do it on purpose, it just happens that way, we swear!  We’re back in the swing of things this week with a relatively short show for us clocking it at an even 30 minutes and 30 seconds!  This week we delve into our favorite topic of Twitter… I think we might as well just rename this the TwitterCast!  Specifically we discussed:

  • Twitter monkeying around with the @replies and the #fixreplies fiasco that ensued.
  • Commission Junction has finally jumped on the Twitter bandwagon, and we ponder why larger companies take so long to make the social media move.
  • We excitedly ham it up about the fact that we’ll be speaking on a panel at Affiliate Summit East 2009, and another show I’ll be at next month.
  • Mike’s discovered a HARO-like service specifically for bloggers called Blogger LinkUp run by Cathy Stucker and we talk about the two.
  • Finally we give some well deserved shout outs to our fellow ASE09 panelists Jen Goode, Stephanie Lichtenstein, and our fabulous moderator Lisa Picarille.
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