Connections

The Chatterbox Revolution: The Next Content Marketing Trend Is All About Relationships

January 10, 2018 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

chatterbox revolution

When Mark Schaefer wrote about content shock back in 2014, we saw a new trend. As more content populated the web and our 24 hour days never grew in proportion to this level of content creation, we found ourselves overwhelmed by content.

Content shock was and still is the reason why it’s harder for today’s newbie to grow a digital empire than it was for newbies from 10 years ago to do the same. Back then, there was much less content and fewer big players. Now the web is filled to the brim with content.

Content shock is only growing, and even our most loyal fans juggle our blogs with other people’s blogs. Marketing has always been a battle of attention, but the future winners of content marketing will go beyond the level of expectation to attract that attention.

The Chatterbox Revolution Is The Key To Expansion

When you post new content, you might attract people to it. They’ll read it for a little bit and then go somewhere else. If your’e lucky, these people will follow you on social networks and subscribe to your email list.

At this stage, your reader will receive your content in a variety of forms. This may sound great since you get them on multiple platforms, especially the email list.

While this will definitely get you returning visitors, realize that growing your social media audience and getting them on your email list is no big secret. EVERYONE is trying to achieve those objectives because they’re easy and effective.

Just get people to follow you on social media and send them to your email list. If you have 1,000 people on your email list, send one email and 1,000 people get it.

The winners of the future are the people who interact on a 1-to-1 level with as many of those 1,000 people as possible. They’re interacting with as many of their Twitter followers as possible and outreaching as often as possible.

Sending 100 emails in one day to people in your audience and another 100 for outreach will be considered productive instead of time sucking. Even if you delegate both of these tasks to save time, you’ll still need to do some of the responding and outreaching.

This is what I like to call the Chatterbox Revolution. In the past, brushing interaction to the side in favor of producing more content or doing almost anything was the norm. Interaction happened, but it wasn’t the priority. Whether it was content creation, product creation, or marketing, something else always seemed to be more important.

Now interacting with your audience and building new relationships on a 1-to-1 level are the two top priorities of your business.

Yes, growing a social media audience and an engaged email list are still important. However, you’re not doing anything special by building up those audiences. Special happens when you interact with individual people beyond any of your automation strategies currently in place.

It’s taking the time to reply to hundreds of comments each day. It’s commenting on other people’s blogs more often and getting into other conversations. It’s having longer conversations with your audience.

Your audience will increasingly love you for the attention you give them, and in return for your attention, they will give you their attention. The Chatterbox Revolution views attention as a two-way street where you must pay attention to your audience so they pay attention to you.

What Happens To Content Creation?

Each time you create a new piece of content, you give your audience another reason to give you their attention. If you don’t publish a blog post in a month, your audience doesn’t have to check back in for a month. Give them that long to check in, and they won’t remember who you are.

It’s important for us to be frequent and consistent with content creation. I’m publishing a new blog post and a new podcast episode every day because that gives my audience plenty of reasons to pay attention to what I’m doing. If anyone in my audience thinks of me upon waking up, they know I either published something new or am about to.

With that said, I don’t see people spending as much time writing content. I only write one blog post per day. In the past, I wrote three blog posts on 1-2 day and held off for the rest of the week. That resulted in my inconsistency, and since I wrote 2,000+ word blog posts, it took a long time for me to go from idea to finished content.

Some content creators will increasingly update their old material and publish it as new material. This is a time-effective strategy that will provide their audience with new content and give these content creators more time to embrace the Chatterbox Revolution.

For some, it will be more about playing with what they already have than creating new stuff.

Some content creators will embrace daily blog posts, but they won’t be as long as usual. I almost never aim for 2,000+ word blog posts anymore because each minute I spend writing a blog post is another minute that I can’t interact with someone in my audience.

At the same time, people pay attention because of the content I provide, so I handle my content creation with care. For me, this is a more concise blog post than what I’ve written in the past. I almost never spend more than 30 minutes on a blog post anymore.

I want to get the message down without too much scrolling. That way, you’ll have more bandwidth to stick around and read a few more blog posts. Now all I have to do on capitalize on this extra attention is to interact with you on a 1-to-1 level.

In Conclusion

The Chatterbox Revolution is now in full swing, but there were content creators ahead of their time. Two that quickly come to mind are Neil Patel and Gary Vaynerchuk. Neil responds to every comment on his blog, and while others may do the same, Neil can get hundreds of comments for a given blog post. Gary Vee interacts with his audience by taking their questions and communicating with social media and email.

One thing you’ll also notice is that these content creators produce a lot of content (at least one new piece of content every day). Some of it can be recycled, but they’re providing their audience with a new piece of content every day.

What are your thoughts on the Chatterbox Revolution? Are you ready to embrace it, or not yet? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

5 Hacks For Connecting With Influencers

October 3, 2017 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

Relationships with influencers are critical to your content brand’s success: they help you expand your knowledge as well as open doors to new opportunities.

Some of my biggest successes are directly tied to the relationships I’ve built and fostered along my journey. However, reaching out to influencers and building relationships with new contacts can feel overwhelming.

You may feel uncertain about how to go about it, and even question whether you’ll get a response to your initial efforts.

I’ve been there, believe me.

That’s why I want to share five powerful hacks that helped me build relationships with some of the most influential content marketers and productivity experts on the planet.

#1: Interview Influencers On Your Podcast

Both my Breakthrough Success Podcast and virtual summits have allowed me to interact with some of my niche’s top influencers. Interviews are a brilliant excuse for asking for an influencer’s time 🙂

Not only do you get to ask questions and interact with top influencers, you also get to provide your audience with valuable content.

Combine that with the fact that podcasting is a growing and less-tapped-into industry than blogging, and you’ll begin to wonder why more people aren’t doing it.

I currently publish an interview every week, but I am formulating a plan for daily episodes. And my knowledge stores will only grow as I interview more and more influencers – it’s amazing what you can learn from a single interview with a top influencer.

#2: Collaborate With Influencers

As I plan my blog content, I consider which influencers can provide relevant advice, resources or opinions, and contact them well before the publication dates.

I often work on the copy first, and then copy and paste submissions into the post to craft a more engaging article. Once the post is published, many of the influencers I mentioned will end up sharing the blog post to their own audiences, expanding my reach.

If you’re pressed for time, you can simply mention the influencers by name while you’re writing the post, and then let them know you’ve included them in the post once you publish it (and be sure to provide a link).

Some will share it and others won’t, but having at least some influencers share your content is a thousand times better than having no influencers share your content.

#3: Do The Influencer A Favor

The more you give someone, the more willing he or she will be to return the favor. But keep in mind these small favors will change according the influencer.

Some influencers (like me) would love a positive review for their podcasts (here’s mine). Other influencers would prefer you leave a 5-star review for their latest book. Writing a guest posts for the influencer’s site is also a viable option.

Determine which favor holds the most value for a particular influencer, then offer it without expecting anything in return.

If you approach relationships in this manner, it won’t be long before an influencer voluntarily provides you with something in return (if you have to ask, start with something small).

#4: Ask Meaningful Questions

Top influencers love shepherding other people through the path they once traveled.

Gary Vaynerchuk has an entire podcast dedicated to helping others. Want to get on Gary’s radar? Ask him a really good question.

Nearly all influencers recall a time in which they spent countless hours trying to figure things out. When they see other people in a similar situation, they naturally want to lend a helping hand.

Influencers enjoy steering people in the right direction and providing that little nudge to keep them moving forward. And they like it even more when people act their advice.

This is the starting point for repeat interviews and a much greater relationship.

#5: Be Everywhere To Them

You can’t be everywhere for everyone, but you can be everywhere for someone. What’s everywhere for someone mean?

Simply focus on the places where your special someone spends the majority of his/her time. This is why television ads used to work (and why now they are less effective).

Today, people spend more time on Facebook than they do watching tv, which is why social media ad spend has greatly increased over the years.

But that doesn’t mean you should try reaching an influencer with an ad. Rather, you should seek out the places they’re engaging with their readers.

Do they reply to tweets? Do they respond to blog comments? Are they posting a lot on LinkedIn?

These are the places where you need to be. Like, share, and comment on everything they post. Mention their social media handle when you share their content and eventually they’ll notice you.

For example, I notice the people who repeatedly share my content on Twitter more than anyone else in my audience. While I write with my entire audience in mind, I can match names and faces with the people who consistently share my content on Twitter.

Find the platforms most frequented by top influencers who share your mindset.

In Conclusion

Connecting with influencers is as easy or as difficult as you make it. The beginning stage may feel difficult, but as you continue, you’ll have a much easier time connecting with influencers and building relationships.

The ultimate hack not mentioned above is that once you build all of these relationships, you can ask for referrals.

Once I have over 30 speakers for my virtual summits, I ask them if they know anyone else who would also be a great speaker for the summit. They usually make intros and that alone makes relationship building much easier.

What are your thoughts about these hacks for building relationships? Have any tips for us? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

Why Interacting With Your Audience Is Worth The Time

November 14, 2014 by Marc Guberti 4 Comments

I have responded to hundreds of comments on this blog and thousands of people’s tweets on Twitter. I have a policy to respond to every comment and every person who shares one of my articles. If you combine the amount of time I have spent interacting with my audience, it adds up to a few days. Even though I may only have to type a response under 140 characters on Twitter, I had done so thousands of times throughout the course of my journey.

After spending that much time interacting with everyone, I can say that it was definitely worth it. I continue responding to your comments and tweets to this day, and I still find joy in the interaction.

The main reason why all of this interaction is worth it is because I get to know my readers. Some of these interactions have resulted in new customers and subscribers.

One of my main businesses is my Kindle business in which I self-published as many valuable books as I can so I can get a high volume of sales. One of the problems I have seen is that customers believe they must have a Kindle device in order to download a Kindle book. Amazon allows people to install the Kindle app on smartphones and has the Cloud Reader for the people who prefer to read on their computers.

This knowledge and the interaction I get is important because I get some tweets that say things like this:

“@MarcGuberti I was just looking at your Twitter book on Amazon but do not have a Kindle. Is there another way for me to buy the book?”

I have actually gotten a few of these tweets. If I did not bother responding to these people, I would have lost customers. Luckily, I ended up responding to these customers telling them about Cloud Reader and the Kindle app for smartphones. A few minutes after telling someone on Twitter about Cloud Reader and the Kindle app, I would see another sale for my book.

Some of the people who I have been interacting with for a long time have also left reviews for my books. Getting reviews for a book is very important to becoming successful on Amazon, and I know a few people who I have met on social media that would definitely leave a review for any other book I publish.

In addition, there are many people who visit this blog, leave a comment, and then come back. I see those comments, and I respond to every single one of them. Getting returning visitors is helpful because the more times a visitor returns to your blog, the more likely that visitor is going to stick around for a long time.

If you are not interacting with your audience right now, you need to set aside some time each day to interact with your audience. Your audience makes or breaks your success which is why you need to engage with that audience. Engaging with the people in your audience will result in those people remembering who you are.

How do you interact with your audience?

4 Tips To Becoming An Influencer

August 22, 2014 by Marc Guberti 6 Comments

Influencer

Becoming an influencer allows you to become an important public figure in society. Since one of the human desires is to be and feel important, many people strive to be influencers. However, most people are doing it all wrong, and many of these people have the wrong definition for what an influencer is. An influencer is someone who changes the world, and many people would miss if that influencer went away. Nelson Mandela is someone that millions of people miss, and he changed the world. We now celebrate Mandela Day every year.

Chances are you want to be an influencer too. Whether you become an influencer at Mandela’s level or not, it is important to know how to become an influencer in the first place. In order to become an influencer, here are the four things you need to do:

Identify the audience you want to change. Who is going to benefit from the changes you put in place? You need to choose who you are targeting, and if you choose everyone, then you are really targeting no one.
Money comes second. Alas, everyone ignores this one. Being an influencer is about making a difference and changing the world. It’s not about ending up with some extra green cash in your pocket. If you want to be an influencer, you need to put money second. The money will come eventually, but changing the world needs to be your top priority.
Make it your livelihood. If you are trying to be an influencer and are working at two jobs, things are not going to work out in your favor. In order to be an influencer, you need to focus a majority of your time on changing the world the way you want to.
Get people to know about you. This is where social media is very helpful. You want to interact with the people you are trying to change. The bigger your audience is, the more your message will spread.

You have the power to change the world. YOU have the power to make a difference. By being an influencer, you will be able to change the way many people live their lives. What are your thoughts on these tips and being an influencer?

16 Ways To Build A Big Social Media Audience From A 16 Year Old

August 16, 2014 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

Growing a social media audience and getting the best out of that audience is so easy that a 16 year old can do it (that would be me). In a span of less than 3 years, I have been able to get over 100,000 Twitter followers, over 14,000 Pinterest followers, over 10,000 Vine followers, and I’m working on Instagram and Facebook. My audiences continue to grow as the days go by, but many people wonder how I was able to get to this point. I decided to come up with 16 different methods you can use to build your social media audience (that has nothing to do with my age. That just happened to be the number I pulled out of my head).

Focus most of your time on one social network. If you master one of the social networks and sort of know the other ones, you are going to do very well with the social network that you successfully mastered. I decided to master Twitter because it is a social network of simplicity, and now that I know Twitter Domination by heart, I have been able to continue dominating Twitter while growing my presence on other social networks.
Use the big player social networks. Even if you have no plans on using a Facebook or YouTube account, create them. When you master one of the social networks, you need to learn how to master a second social network. It’s the whole idea of being bilingual is better than only knowing one language while being trilingual is way better than being bilingual. Creating the accounts now and tinkering around with them will allow you to be prepared to master them later.
Post on them all often. It is important to post on all of your social networks at least once every week. That indicates to all of your audiences that you are active, and being active is one of the crucial steps towards allowing your content to spread on those social networks.
Interact with your audience. Interacting with your audience will allow you to build stronger connections with the people in your audience. You want to be well acquainted with as many people in your social media audiences as possible. My recommendation is to look at your notifications three times each day to see if you can interact with any of your followers.
Post motivational quotes. No matter what niche you are in, motivational quotes hands down never fail at increasing engagement. Motivational tweets are more likely to get retweeted and motivational pins are more likely to get repinned.
Post articles on your social networks. Posting articles is a great way to provide informative content that your followers would enjoy.
Post valuable content. Valuable content is the kind of content that your targeted followers would like. You can’t satisfy everyone with your social media strategy (you can’t even do that in life. Shocker!) so it is more important for you to focus on satisfying your targeted audience.
Post pictures. Social media posts with pictures get more engagement than social media posts without pictures. We are a visual generation that needs to see everything in pictures. That’s why movies are more popular than books.
Grow your presence on all of your social networks. On the social network you are trying to master, you need to build a powerful presence. However, you should also be growing a bigger presence on your other social networks. Even if you are only gaining five followers every week on a social network you are not focusing on, that is still growing.
Find patterns. Some rules for one social network will apply to another social network. That means if you become successful at one social network, it becomes easier to be successful at other social networks. Here are some of the universal laws of all social networks that I was able to find.
Be an expert in your niche. People follow the experts, not the people who have no idea what they are talking about. Telling people that you are an expert in your bio is a great start, but you need to prove to people that you are an expert with valuable social media posts and a professional picture.
Be humorous. Whenever you can, mix in some humor with your other social media posts. There are numerous examples of content going viral because it was humorous.
Be creative. If your content is creative, then it will gather attention. Creative content is the type of content that the average person could not think of. There is a difference between valuable content and creative content, but if you mix the two together into one social media post, your content is going to spread faster.
Host a giveaway. Giveaways allow you to easily bring in more followers. Some people will follow you just for the giveaway. The only problem associated with the giveaway is that once the giveaway ends, many people unfollow the host of the giveaway. Esurance is a brilliant example of this. If you want people to continue following you after the giveaway, tell everyone that you will be hosting another giveaway three months later.
Interconnect your social networks together. That does not mean connecting your Twitter and Facebook accounts together so all of your tweets end up on Facebook. Linking those two accounts together is not even a good idea to begin with. I am talking about promoting each of your social networks and their posts on your other social networks. If you have a YouTube video, promote it on Facebook. In your YouTube video’s description, have a link to your Facebook Page. Here’s a more in depth analysis of how this strategy works.
Be patient. Don’t you wish certain things could happen faster? Unfortunately, when it comes to growing a social media audience, fast is not a part of the vocabulary. You are not going to get 100,000 followers in one day. You will most likely reach that milestone years after you create the social media account. However, by sticking with it and learning new techniques along the way, you will be able to dramatically grow your following.

Those are the 16 ways to grow your social media audience. What are your thoughts on the list? Do you have any additional methods on growing a social media audience? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

Five Ways To Speak At More Public Speaking Events

August 15, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

While some people have spoken at thousands of public speaking events, other people are struggling to get chosen to speak at a single event. Sure enough, there is a way to hack the system, but few people know about it. Those few people are the ones who are getting speaking opportunities left and right. What’s the difference? These are the five things working for them that may not be working for you.

You need to have more credibility than most of the people in your niche. The person organizing the event would rather have the social media expert with 500,000 Twitter followers speak than the person with 100,000 Twitter followers. The more real followers you have on your social networks, the more credibility you have. In addition, the people who get the most speaking opportunities happen to be bestselling authors. That means in order to get more public speaking opportunities, you need to have a big audience and successful products.
Connect with people who have organized public speaking events in the past. Chances are those people will organize public speaking events in the future. If you contact that person and fit the bill, that person will have you speak at their next event.
Have recorded videos of your public speaking events. Many people who are organizing public speaking events are looking for the people who have experience in speaking to the public. When you get a public speaking opportunity, you need to take that opportunity and then record the video of your public speaking event. After that, put the video on your blog and post it on YouTube. One of the people who sees that speech is bound to be an event organizer.
Have a “Public Speaker” page on your blog. This page builds authenticity and allows people to know that you are available to speak at their event. Some people may want you to speak at their event but don’t know where they can contact you about that. The “Public Speaker” page on your blog solves that problem.
Post valuable content on your blog. In order to get many public speaking opportunities, you need to get the first opportunity first. The first opportunity usually comes from an event organizer looking for an inexpensive but effective option. If you post valuable content on your blog, event organizers who are looking at your blog posts and like what they see will decide to hire you. After you get a few public speaking opportunities like that, you will get more public speaking opportunities from bigger organizations.

Speaking opportunities will be difficult to get in the beginning. However, as you get some speaking opportunities here and there, and you continue posting valuable content while growing your audience, you will eventually get speaking opportunities left and right. What are your thoughts on the list? Do you have any additional tips on getting more public speaking opportunities? Please share your thoughts and advice below.