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Marc Guberti

4 Ways To Find People To Talk To On Twitter

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Twitter Engagement

Many people use Twitter to build strong connections with like-minded people. These connections tend to lead to more business opportunities, traffic, and sales. Ironically, a big challenge on Twitter is trying to find people to talk to. Even though there are hundreds of millions of people on Twitter, some people do not know how to talk to and find like-minded people on Twitter. In this blog post, I am going to show you four ways to find the people that you need to talk to on Twitter.

  1. Use Twitter’s search engine to find individuals. If you want to find entrepreneurs, search the word entrepreneur. After the big guys and magazines come up, there will be other entrepreneurs on the list who will commonly talk with their followers. Those are the people you need to talk with.
  2. Use Twitter’s search engine to find individual tweets. If you want to see tweets in real time for a certain word or phrase, you can search for tweets with that word or phrase using Twitter’s search engine. Before interacting with a tweet, be sure to look at the person’s profile and determine if this is someone you want to build a strong connection with. Then, reply to that tweet and wait for the person to respond.
  3. Follow the followers of someone else. If you find someone you want to talk to, and that person has over 100,000 followers, follow that person’s followers. Some of those people will be entrepreneurs who will follow you back. When these people follow you back, start a conversation with those people.
  4. Talk with like minded followers. Every Twitter user has a list of people who they can talk to, and that is their followers. No matter how big or small that list is, there are going to be like minded followers on that list. By building strong connections with these followers, you will learn how to develop strong connections with others as well.

Those are the four ways to find people to talk to on Twitter. What are your thoughts about the list? Are there any other tips you would like to add? Please share your thoughts below.

 

Mr. Wonderful’s Little Study For Getting A Deal On Shark Tank

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While browsing the web for a bit, I happened to stumble upon an article on Boston Magazine that had an interview with Kevin O’Leary. Most people know O’Leary as Mr. Wonderful, the guy who always sits in the middle seat on Shark Tank. During the interview, O’Leary was asked what would result in someone walking out of the tank with a deal. It turned out that O’Leary had been performing a little study about this. Here were his three findings:

  1. People who got the deal were able to articulate their opportunity in 90 seconds or less.
  2. People who got the deal were able to convince the sharks that they could execute.
  3. People who got the deal knew their numbers.

Whether we end up on Shark Tank (hard) or end up sitting in one of those five seats (much harder), we would be thinking about these three findings as a way to identify quality deals and make them happen. However, for those of us who do not get to go on Shark Tank, it is important to apply these three findings to our businesses.

With the rise of smartphones, multitasking has gone up. As multitasking goes up, attention spans go down. If you cannot convince someone in 90 seconds that you are important and that your product is good, you will lose that person’s attention. For many YouTube videos, most people stop watching after 10 seconds. The number of people who watch the entire YouTube video is minuscule compared to the number of people who actually viewed the video. This process works similar to a food chain where plants get the most energy (sunlight) and the animals on the top of the food chain get the least energy (because other animals got to use the energy from the plant first). In the beginning, everyone is eager to hear what you say. However, as you continue to talk, the energy level goes down. You need to “wow” the person you are talking to before their energy level hits zero.

After “wowing” someone, you have successfully talked the talk. Since the person’s energy level is higher, you want to keep that energy level high. In order to do that, you need to make sure that person sees you are a responsible person who walks the walk. Saying, “I will run 8 miles today,” and actually running the 8 miles are two different things. Metaphorically speaking, you want to be able to tell the person you are talking to that you will be able to run those 8 miles.

Now you have the person listening to you and absorbing everything that you say. The final part that seals the deal are your numbers. You could have a remarkable opportunity and be responsible, but it’s all fluff if you are getting 0 visitors on your blog, have no social media presence, and have a business going through financial decline. Not only do you need to have the numbers, but you need to have the numbers that click in the person’s mind. Since you gave a big boost to that person’s energy level, that person is able to show a greater appreciation towards your (good) numbers. The numbers offer tangible evidence in your ability to deliver what you say you will deliver.

Although getting on Shark Tank is very difficult, it is very easy to learn valuable lessons about business from the sharks themselves and while watching the show. What are your thoughts about Mr. Wonderful, his little study, and Shark Tank in general?

 

How Technology Is Affecting Our Mindset

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The mindset is the decisive factor of how far you will go in your lifetime. Money, fame, wealth, and fortune have nothing to do with how far you go. There are people with money who spend it wildly. There are famous people who have been arrested because they were caught using illegal drugs. The wealthy people had to become wealthy somehow. The people of good fortune could lose that fortune if everything went wrong. In fact, more lottery winners than you would think have ended up going bankrupt after winning the lotto.

The mindset is unquestionably the decisive factor of success. Having a powerful mindset allows those rags to riches stories to actually happen. Having a powerful mindset also allowed people to come up with new innovations, be persistent, and do remarkable things.

With the giant shift in technological advancements, it is important to question how much of an impact technology has on our mindsets. There are many people who are finding more opportunities because of the web. Some people are using the web to create businesses and build powerful social media presences at young ages (like me, but Houston Gunn, Jeet Banerjee, and many other teenagers are creating their own businesses as well). Other people are using technology to completely halt their progress. This comes in the form of a 5 hour YouTube video watching spree or something similar.

In addition, technology has made everything faster. I become very impatient when I see the five second ad on YouTube, and I know I am in the majority on this one. Technology has resulted in some people losing their patience. When a certain task takes a week to complete, one week seems like years. The people who are able to complete several tasks and stick with something for years are the people who looked at success stories. We all see the success story of the blogger who started with nothing a few years ago and now makes a solid $100,000 a month.

Technology has the power to dramatically strengthen or cripple the mindset. There is no in between. It is important to accept that technology has had a big impact on this world in several ways. Improved communication and organizing hundreds of documents on one computer are some of the ways that technology has had a big impact on the world. Technology has also had a big impact on our mindsets, and the people we become is dependent on how we look at and respond to the technology around us.

 

It’s Easier Than You Think To Write A Book

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There are some moments when it seems nearly impossible to write a book. Whether the problem is finding sources or turning your idea into 100 pages, writing a book can sometimes get tough. If you want the entire process of writing a book to become easier, you need to be actively publishing new content on your blog.

Starting at the New Year, I have written over 70,000 words for this blog alone in less than a quarter. 70,000 words equates to something close to 150 pages, and by the end of the year, this blog will have gained an extra 300,000 words of content. Writers are constantly finding ways to have bigger numbers for their books. They want a book with triple digit pages, over 100,000 words, and anything else they need. By writing quality blog posts every day and sticking with it, not only will you grow a big presence, but you will also be able to create your own book with your blog.

Many authors have created books with a collection of their blog posts such as Seth Godin (who did that twice). Both of those books became bestsellers. Even if you do not become a bestseller right away, this gives you an advantage because you have already written all of the content. All you have to do now is arrange that content in an organized way so a certain theme can be emphasized.

There should be no hardships that stop potential authors from writing their books. If you are able to send out one blog post every day, you will eventually able to have a blog with enough content to fill an entire book.

 

5 Frequently Asked HARO Questions

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HARO is a powerful way to build free PR. For the most part, I have been using HARO as a source. Writing Lead The Stampede motivated me to become a reporter on HARO as well. I have learned a lot about HARO over many months, and there was a point when I had many questions. These are the 5 most frequently asked questions about HARO.

  1. Why does it take people so long for reporters to get back to me? This was on the top of my list of questions. I did not get to know the answer to that question until I decided to become a reporter. Sending out an email with hours or days to spare gives you enough time to come up with a response. However, the reporter needs to read all of those responses. As the reporter reads the responses, that reporter needs to do research on every person. The reporter wants to interview the best options, and the weeding process takes some time. It took me an hour to read through 45 responses. Imagine how much time it takes someone who is from the Associated Press or Forbes to read the responses they got. In addition, the reporter has to contact possible candidates with individual emails/interviews which takes up more time. This is why people are rarely told if they got rejected. There simply is not enough time in the day to send out that many emails and still do everything else such as writing blog posts or scheduling tweets.
  2. How do I get more reporters to accept me? We all want the reporter to say yes to us. We all want to be in the Forbes article, the first page of The New York Times, or any other big magazine or TV channel. The three components that go into getting more reporters to accept you are how much time you put into your response, how clear your response is, and how quickly you respond. For some reporters, you could be the first or last person to respond and still get featured. However, most reporters usually look for no more than 5 people, and some queries get well over 100 responses. When you send out your response to the reporter, include your bio and credentials in the email. Instead of letting the reporter guess or do more research to figure out that you are the right fit, use your bio and credentials to convince them that you are the right fit.
  3. How do I become a reporter? The main requirement is that your blog or website needs to have an Alexa rank under 1 million. Just like all other places on the web, HARO does have restrictions on inappropriate content and using HARO to promote products. Remember that HARO is something to either get free PR or find people to feature in a book or blog post. HARO is not a place to tell the world to buy your product. These are HARO’s official rules.
  4. How frequently do the responses come in? That depends on a lot of factors. The best way to get more responses is by asking a clear question with a summary that is crystal clear. Being an anonymous reporter or being a reporter from The New York Times also plays a part in the process. When in doubt, list the media outlet as your blog’s URL. That will give readers something to see that proves you are influential on the web. In some cases, responses can come in at 15 minute intervals while others come in shorter or longer intervals. It all depends on how clear the query is and your media outlet (but don’t lie about who you are either).
  5. Is the workload worth it? The workload is worth it both for the reporter and the source. The source gets free exposure. Some sources get to be in front of millions of people just because they took 15 minutes out of their day (ideal amount of time) to respond to a HARO query. For reporters, the workload is worth it because you will be able to connect with incredible people. HARO has allowed me to connect with many people who have been featured on big media outlets such as Forbes, CBS, NBC, and many others as well. As a reporter, being able to tell your readers that you were able to talk with someone who was on the Today Show will give you preeminence because you were able to get that person to talk to you. For both ends, the workload is more than worth it.

Those are the five most frequently asked questions about HARO. Do you have any questions about HARO that I did not address in this blog post or thoughts? Please share them below and I will respond as quickly as possible.