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Gevril and Haurex Italia dinner during Baselworld in March 2011 with Larry Brauner standing in the background.
Baselworld 2012 March 8-15.
Jan
18
List Building Paradigm Shift
Filed Under Best of 2009, List Building, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Ning Sites, Outside the Box, Twitter | 14 Comments
My social media experiences have dramatically altered my thinking about list building.
This article may cause you too to rethink everything you’ve been taught and believe about list building.
My Articles on List Building
I have discussed building a list and its importance in several blog posts, which I list here for your convenience:
- Building a List with Online Social Networking - List building today isn’t the exclusive domain of autoresponders.
- My Online Social Networking Strategy - A winning strategy on nearly all social networking sites is to build a large targeted list of friends or contacts, generally the larger the better. Thousands are better than hundreds.
- List Building Using Ning Social Networks - Your Ning site will help you to grow your online list virally, and you’ll be able to use the many channels that Ning social networks provide such as broadcasts, forum discussions, blog posts, private messages and profile comments to communicate with your list. (My Ning network is Critical Thinking Outside the Box.)
- List Building Using Twitter - Twitter is possibly the fastest and simplest way to build a list. (Visit my Twitter profile and connect with me.)
List Building Before Social Media
I remember the Rolodex, “a rotating file device used to store business contact information” according to Wikipedia. I still have one in a carton somewhere at home.
I long ago replaced my Rolodex with a spreadsheet, but contact information I collect online I store in an autoresponder, a widely used e-mail marketing tool.
Most online marketers today would tend to visualize list building as a well-written lead capture page linked by a web form to an autoresponder. While this type of list building is still extremely important, especially in conjunction with online or offline advertising, it is nevertheless List Building 1.0.
Concept of Follower
In order to broaden our view of list building we introduce the concept of follower, a term frequently used in the social media world.
A follower is a person (or organization) who subscribes to (or in some other way receives) messages, sometimes called updates, from the person (or organization) whom they follow.
Examples of Followers
The concept of follower applies to List Building 1.0. A subscriber to my autoresponder is certainly one of my followers.
However, a friend at a social network (to whom I can send messages whenever I wish) is just as much a follower as my autoresponder subscriber. What’s interesting in this case is that I’m also that person’s follower. We’re mutually following each other.
A subscriber to my blog’s RSS feed (who receives an update whenever I post an article) is also a follower. What’s of interest here is that my follower is totally anonymous.
I have no way to identify this follower unless that person (or organization) chooses to step forward. For all I know I might even be following my follower without realizing that he or she is following me too. We could be mutually following each other without ever knowing it.
Suppose I own a radio or television station, or I host a talk show, my listeners or viewers are followers who keep track of me and receive my messages without subscribing in any way.
List Building 2.0
When list building is viewed as the process of acquiring and nurturing followers, you can easily understand how in List Building Using Twitter I could claim that “list building possibilities are endless”.
They really are, and the many reaching out methods you devise can be mixed, matched and synergized to develop a rich and heterogeneous following. Welcome to the world of social marketing and List Building 2.0!
Would you care to follow me?
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Tags: autoresponders, List Building, Ning, social marketing, social networking sites, Twitter
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Jan
11
List Building Using Twitter
Filed Under List Building, SPAM, Social Media and Social Networking Sites, Twitter, Twitter Tools | 36 Comments
Importance of List Building
Reach and frequency are basic advertising metrics. Reach refers to the quantity of people your message reaches, while frequency refers to the number of times on average each person is reached.
It is frequency that builds trust and drives your message home. Advertising without frequency is hardly ever effective. Marketers are relying more and more on list building to repeatedly reach people in their target market and achieve desired frequency levels in their marketing campaigns.
List building possibilities are endless. Last week we discussed list building using Ning social networks. Today we turn our attention to Twitter, possibly the fastest and simplest way to build a list.
Building Your Following on Twitter
As I stated in Brand Yourself and Market on Twitter:
Twitter may very well be the hottest online social media venue today. It’s a social network, micro-blog, instant messenger, mobile communications tool and giant party — all rolled into one site.
Creating a following on Twitter is easy, even for someone new to online social networking and social media sites. Here are three remarkably simple steps to get you started:
- Twitter Training - I used to recommend Bill Hibbler’s Affiliate University. Bill’s Affiliate University was dissolved, so I refer you to the Twitter articles and resources in Tons of Twitter Tools, Tips and Resources. If you’re looking for a complete step-by-step Twitter course, the Twitter Power System is your best choice. You can read about it in Twitter Power System Review.
- Build Your Reach Instantly - Here is a cool trick you can use to quickly get some very influential followers. Start with the top 50 Twitter users based on reach listed at twinfluence.com, one of my favorite Twitter tools. You will notice that the majority of those listed have as many “friends” as they have “followers”. They are the ones you should follow. They will almost certainly follow you back and increase your reach.
- Manage Your Connections - Once you have completed Step 2, many people you don’t know will start following you, and for the most part you’ll want to follow them all back. You can manage your Twitter connections using Twitter Karma, another of my favorite Twitter tools. After some time has passed, you’ll notice that many of the people you’ve been following become inactive — they haven’t “tweeted” in months. Stop following them in order to improve your ratio of followers to friends, a measure of your Twitter influence.
I applied this method myself about a month ago, and now about a hundred Twitter users begin following me each week.
When I “tweet” a link, roughly one to two percent of my followers click to see what the link is about. Isn’t that how any list is supposed to work?
This approach is easy, and it’s free.
Respect your followers and they’ll keep following you. Spam them, and they’ll stop following you in an instant.
That’s all there is to it. Please leave a comment.
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Tags: advertising, Affiliate University, free social media marketing training, free social media training, List Building, SPAM, Twitter, Twitter Power System, Twitter ToolsSharing is Caring!
Jan
5
List Building Using Ning Social Networks
Filed Under List Building, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Ning Sites, Social Media and Social Networking Sites | 15 Comments
List building is an essential part of online social networking, and Ning, if used properly, is a powerful list building tool.
Here are some strategies that I believe will help you with list building on Ning.
Creating Your Own Ning Network
You can create your own Ning social networking sites. Ning was designed with that end in mind. My new Ning site is Critical Thinking Outside the Box.
Your Ning site will help you to grow your online list virally, and you’ll be able to use the many channels that Ning social networks provide such as broadcasts, forum discussions, blog posts, private messages and profile comments to communicate with your list.
As tempting as it might be to start your own Ning social networking site as quickly as possible, I advise you to wait until you develop a substantial online following before taking that step.
I have seen many Ning sites die off from a lack of momentum. However, once you can personally enlist 100 to 200 people to become members of your site, you might very well be able to get it off the ground.
Joining Other People’s Ning Networks
You can start building a list by joining other people’s Ning sites. The best sites to join are those that attract the kinds of people you’re looking to meet online.
Don’t be afraid to join a new network that might not be right for you. You can always leave the network if you wish or you can create a profile, abandon it and move on. On the other hand you might really like what you find once you join, so if it looks interesting, give it a try.
When you join a site, you’ll be connected as friends with anybody there whom you befriended at another Ning site. This makes perfect sense, but it can work against you.
Messaging Restrictions on Ning Networks
You can only send messages to your friends, so of course you’ll want to add friends when you join a new site. You will be able to mail to them individually or as a group, but the latter is usually more effective.
Unfortunately, if you have more than a hundred friends at a site, Ning will not let you mail to them as a group. To avoid hitting the 100 limit, you should try to add about eighty friends max on each site.
Pre-existing friends will count against you. If you join a site, and you already have forty friends there, you’ll only be able to add forty new ones on that site before reaching your eighty target.
In addition, the overlap between this site and others will cause your friends to receive duplicate messages across networks each time you send an announcement.
Yet despite Ning’s messaging restrictions, you should eventually be able to directly mail to hundreds across all the networks to which you belong.
Exceeding the Messaging Limit
If you join a large Ning social networking site and end up with more than 100 friends there, you won’t be able to mail them as a group.
Don’t despair — add even more friends!
Later, when you find a site you really like or start your own Ning site, you’ll be able to invite friends from this site and others to which you belong all at one time using Ning’s “invite friends” feature.
You’ll even be able to invite them more than one time, as long as you don’t make a pest out of yourself.
Using Messaging to Build Your Brand
Don’t spam your friends. They’ll quickly tune you out.
Send useful information that positions you as a leader or as an authority. If you have a blog, you can send blog announcements to attract new readers and subscribers.
Eventually you’ll have the influence and following you need to start your own thriving Ning social networking site.
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Tags: List Building, Ning, Ning social network, online social networking, social networking, social networking sites, social networking strategySharing is Caring!
Sep
16
Diane Hochman spoke recently in My Private Classroom about moving the free line, a concept that every marketer engaged in list building these days ought to understand.Internet marketing expert Brad Fallon explains the “free line” concept in this YouTube video:
Widen your sales funnel at the top to let more people in, but don’t widen it so much that you have nothing left to sell. You have to find the right balance.You can give away free information, training or product samples, even free trials of services. However, choose carefully where to move the free line, and once you’ve made that choice, stick with it.
Don’t let the customer move the free line. You do have a right to get paid.
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Tags: Diane Hochman, List Building, Marketing, moving the free line, My Private Classroom, sales funnel
Jul
20
My Online Social Networking Strategy
Filed Under Best of 2008, List Building, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Outside the Box, Social Media and Social Networking Sites | 17 Comments
How I Use Social Networking Sites
I wouldn’t start a blog called Online Social Networking if I didn’t like social networking sites.
Let’s look at some of the ways that I use social networking sites to meet my business networking objectives.
Casting a Wide Net
I join a wide range of social networking sites. I know that even if I will not be active at a particular social site, the profile I set up there will add to my online presence. So if I like the site, I’ll become part of the community. If I don’t, there’s no harm. My profile will remain there as long as the site continues to operate.
When you Google me, you’ll find page after page of results that are me. What happens when people Google you?
Joining a bunch of social networking sites should jump start your web presence. It’ll give you some Google juice. Why not join some of my favorite social networking sites featured on my blog’s sidebar? As a plus, in most cases we’ll automatically be connected as “friends”.
Building Large Targeted Lists
When I like a social networking site, I settle in and become part of the community.
A winning strategy on nearly all social networking sites is to build a large targeted list of friends or contacts, generally the larger the better. Thousands are better than hundreds.
For some sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Yuwie there are friend adders, but I don’t like to use them. I prefer the personal touch, and I don’t want to risk losing my profile for suspected spamming. I spend a modest amount of time each day requesting new friends on each of my favorite social networking sites.
There are two ways that I target my requests.
On sites that allow profile browsing by specific demographics such as age, gender, geographic location, marital status, and parental status, I browse to find people to add.
On sites that have groups or clubs I browse the groups that are likely to attract the people I’m looking for.
I tend to accept nearly all add requests from others. I reject blatant spammers, men masquerading as women in order to attract favorable attention, and crazies.
Networking and Attraction Marketing
Social networking sites are meant for online social networking and not for advertising or spamming. They’re a great place to get to know people. You get to know people by asking them questions.
Please visit or revisit my earlier post, Social Networking vs. Advertising, for a full explanation of this absolutely crucial concept.
Social networking sites are also great from attraction marketing. Be the type of person you want to attract, and that person will be attracted to you.
Videos of you presenting useful information or explaining an important idea, not making a sales pitch, can showcase you as the knowledgeable leader you are.
Blogging is a big part of my branding strategy, so when I network online, I invite people to visit my blog, read, comment and register or subscribe. And many do.
I invite people I like on one social networking site to connect with me on another site. I don’t want to lose track of them if the first site closes down or if one of us happens to have his or her profile deleted. And yes, many do… connect that is.
At Direct Matches, I invite people to visit my profile page where I have a subscription form, and people can sign up for my training newsletter. And again, many do.
Every time people go along with my request, they’re opting in another time to our relationship. It’s sort of like dating.
Branding Yourself
Social networking sites, video sites and blogs are great for personal branding. In fact, your whole online presence can serve as a branding mechanism.
Craft your personal branding strategy and develop a web presence that is consistent with your strategy.
Being Consistent and Following Through
Possibly the most important online social networking strategy is to be consistent and follow through, not to expect instant results.
First you need to build your list, and then you need to gain credibility with the people on it.
When I’ve tried to push things, people sensed it. When I’ve been patient, people have often come to me, and what could be better than that?
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Tags: advertising, business branding, Business Networking, Direct Matches, Facebook, List Building, Marketing, MySpace, online social networking, personal branding, social networking sites, video, web presence, yuwieSharing is Caring!
Apr
15
Online Social Networking: Quantity vs. Quality
Filed Under Best of 2008, LinkedIn, List Building, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Social Media and Social Networking Sites | 5 Comments
On April 4 in Building a List with Online Social Networking I discussed the role of online social networking in permission-based marketing.
When you add a friend at one of the social networking sites, you are adding that person to your list, and at the same time you’re adding yourself to his or her list. It’s reciprocal list building.
You’ll readily agree that a tiny list is not likely to get you far. Right?
You must build a large list. But how large? And do you focus on quantity or quality?
Whether you have 100 or 500 or 5,000 people on your friends list, you aren’t going to be able to have a regular intimate dialog with all of them. So why opt for smaller rather than larger?
In Stan Relihan’s interview with Ron Bates, the most connected networker on LinkedIn with around 40,000 direct connections, Ron answers the question quite succinctly. He says that “there is quality in quantity”.In other words, the larger your list, the more people there will be who are just the ones you’re looking to meet. Some relationships will remain superficial while others will become strong friendships.
Ron also discusses the importance in business today of what he refers to as an “additive online presence”. Before somebody does business with you they’re likely to Google you to see what comes up. That’s your online presence. Each place you network, post an article or bookmark a site adds to that presence. This you may recall is a subject we touched on last month in Social Networking Sites: Your Web Presence and is frequently discussed at My Private Classroom for Marketers.
I encourage you to listen to Stan’s interview with Ron Bates and Stan’s other online social networking podcasts. You’ll find loads of gems.
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Tags: building a list, business today, direct connections, Google, LinkedIn, List Building, online social networking, permission based marketing, Ron Bates, social networking sites, web presence
Apr
4
Building a List with Online Social Networking
Filed Under Best of 2008, Communication, List Building, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Social Media and Social Networking Sites | Leave a Comment
List building today isn’t the exclusive domain of autoresponders.
Sure, a reliable autoresponder is still a vital tool if you’re marketing on the Internet. However, online social networking and friend lists ought to weigh more heavily in your permission based marketing strategy.
I started realizing this in 2006 when I first joined MySpace. I noticed how much richer and more effective the two-way communication of social networking sites was than the ongoing monologue associated with e-mail marketing.
I always encourage my e-mail contacts to write me back, but few actually do. And I never learn enough about them, unless of course they choose to join me on MySpace, Facebook, Yuwie or one of the other online networking venues I frequent.
There is another big reason to incorporate online social networking in your online marketing repertoire.
Consider the ease with which you can add thousands of friends on MySpace compared to the cost and difficulty of building your autoresponder list. Whether you use one of the “friend adders” and risk suspension of your profile by the networking site owner, or whether you add friends manually, it’s still much more straightforward to build a permission based marketing list through social networking than it is using more conventional opt-in list building techniques.
I myself do both. I add new subscribers to my autoresponders on a regular basis and simultaneously add new contacts to my friend lists on LinkedIn, MySpace and Yuwie. I have a good reason for doing so.
Not withstanding my previous remarks, it’s easier for me to broadcast a message on demand to my opt-in list than it is to my social networking friends.
Most people check their e-mail at least once a day. If they want to hear from me, they will.
If I post a bulletin on MySpace they can easily miss it. I have to post it several times each day to keep it “on top”. And if they don’t log in, or even worse, if they’ve abandoned their profile, they won’t see the message at all.
So why should you put all your eggs in one basket? Diversify. E-mail people and contact them through multiple sites and through multiple channels on each site to maximize your message delivery and response rate.
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Tags: autoresponders, building a list, Facebook, friend adder, List Building, marketing on the internet, Marketing Strategy, MySpace, online social networking, permission based marketing, social networking sites, target, yuwieSharing is Caring!
Mar
12
Top Reasons Why I’m Blogging
Filed Under Best of 2008, Blogging, List Building, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Personal Development and Success, Search Engines | 19 Comments
We all like lists.
Now that I’m blogging for a few months, it’s time to list my top reasons why I blog.
If you blog, feel free to share your top reasons for blogging. If you don’t, perhaps my list will motivate you to start.
So here we go. These are the top reasons why I blog:
- I value a web presence, and blogging is the cornerstone of my web presence.
- It was easy to get started.
- Blogging organizes my ideas.
- It helps me communicate and to disseminate my ideas in posts such as Critical Success Factors.
- It tests my ideas.
- It preserves my ideas.
- My blog can provide value for my readers.
- My blog is a free sample of me.
- Blogging helps establish my credibility.
- It’s a form of online social networking.
- It works well with social networking sites and other social media sites.
- Blogging helps implement my personal branding strategy.
- It attracts people to me and helps me build my list.
- I can blog to promote people, products and services.
- I can blog to create viral marketing.
- Blogging is interactive. I can use it to share my opinions about business in posts such as The SpiderWeb Marketing System and ASD Ad Surf Daily Cash Generator and allow readers to provide feedback.
- Blogging endears me to the search engines.
- I can use it to stake out search engine keyword real estate. You can learn more about this from my Blog Marketing and SEO Training series.
- Blogging anchors me.
- It builds my writing muscle.
- It’s a learning experience.
- Blogging helps me with my personal development.
- It helps me reflect.
- It helps me develop consistency.
- It sets an example for others.
- Blogging is cool.
- Blogging is fun.
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Tags: Blogging, Communication, List Building, lists, online social networking, Personal Development and Success, search engine marketing, Search Engines, top reasonsSharing is Caring!
