Marketing

Is Social Media Overrated?

August 18, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

On the social media blog of all places, responding with a big yes would be problematic. I’ll take the safe route this time and say that it depends on the individual, but I will also say that for most people, social media is overrated. Social media is a place to build connections and grow an audience. Many people use social media to procrastinate and escape their work. In this scenario, social media is completely overrated. As Abraham Lincoln put it, “You can’t escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”

If you are spending more than an hour on your social networks every day, then it is overrated. That is too much time to delegate away from your work. In order to make revenue from social media, you need to have products that people would want to buy in the first place.

The worst part is that most people get addicted to the social networks. Some people are on Facebook for 6 hours every day. That’s absolutely ridiculous, especially when most of that time is you feeling bad about yourself because your friends posted pictures of themselves having a good time. Many people could write five extra blog posts every day if they cut down on the amount of time they spend on social media.

There is a way to use social networks that makes them pivotal to your success. By getting more done in a shorter amount of time and growing your audience, you will be able to tap into social media’s full potential. Some leaders got to where they are because of social media. In this case, if these people do not spend over an hour a day on their social networks, they are not overrated.

Social media has the power to grow your presence and allow you to become very successful. It can also eat away at hours of your precious time every day. With great power needs to come great responsibility. What’s your choice?

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.

4 Ways To Increase The Life Span Of A Tweet

August 11, 2014 by Marc Guberti 4 Comments

On Twitter’s news feed, it is easy for a tweet to lose importance. Within a few minutes, the tweet that was once on the top of people’s newsfeeds is no longer to be found. The only way to view those types of tweets is to view the person’s profile and scroll down until the tweet gets discovered.

There is no such thing as the immortal tweet. Even Ellen DeGeneres’ famous selfie at the Oscars is not an immortal tweet. Although there is no such thing as an immortal tweet, you can increase the life span of your tweet. Here are four ways to do that:

Pin your tweet to the top of your profile. Pinning your tweet to the top of your profile will ensure that more people see it. My recommendation is that a tweet only stays pinned on the top of your profile for 1 week so you can have a variety of tweets pinned to the top of your profile.
Make your tweet something that others would want to retweet. In order for your tweet to have a better life span, it needs to spread on Twitter. In order to spread content on Twitter, your tweet needs to be something that others would want to retweet. Is it a motivational quote, a valuable article, or something else? Regardless of what that tweet is, it needs to be something that your followers would want to retweet.
Embed the tweet in a new blog post. As your tweet is about to become forgotten, you can write a new blog post that has the tweet embedded. In most cases, it takes longer for a new blog post to get forgotten than a new tweet, and by promoting that tweet in the new blog post, your tweet’s life span will increase.
Get more targeted Twitter followers. The bigger your audience is, the more powerful that audience will be in spreading your content. Power to the people! I almost forgot to mention these methods you can use to get more Twitter followers.

By increasing the life span of your tweet, more people will be able to see that tweet, and your content will spread across the powerful platform. What are your thoughts on the list? Do you have any additional tips on increasing the life span of your tweets? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

10 Valuable Articles From The Archives

August 4, 2014 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

The problem with any blog is that as more content gets added to them, other content gets completely forgotten about. A tweet can only do so much to bring back attention to older blog posts that got published months ago. There are many blog posts on this blog that were written last year with methods that still work to this day. In fact, some of those blog posts are still popular, but they still don’t appear on the front page. I decided to dig through my blog to find 10 valuable articles that you should give a second look. They contain oodles of knowledge and things to think about. Some are longer than others.

100 Amazing Blogging Tips

100 Amazing Pinterest Tips

70 Amazing Twitter Tips

20 Thoughts To Live By

The Problem With Waiting For Something To Happen

What Do You Want To Be Remembered For?

Every Blogger Needs To See This Picture

New Year’s Resolutions: Memory Or Lifestyle?

Esurance Won The Ad Bowl By A Landslide. That’s what everyone was raving about when Esurance did its giveaway. The follow-up blog post is “Reanalyzing The Day After The Super Bowl: Was The $1.5 Million Giveaway Worth It?”

What The New York Times, Apple, Twitter, And JetBlue Have In Common

As a bonus article, I present Why Fast Food Restaurants Are Successful.

Which one was your favorite?

The Three Types Of Products You Need To Make A Six Figure Income

August 2, 2014 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

Every time I look at the extra money I could potentially be making, I look towards ads. Then, I quickly realize that there is a better way, and ads are not the answer to making six figures every year. The answer to making money with a blog and more money in general is with products. By having more products available to your potential customers, the more likely they will become returning customers. There are three products you need to sell. Having these three products available will guarantee that you get more returning customers and bigger commissions.

The inexpensive product. Depending on the product you are selling, the price of that product can be anywhere from $1 to $49. You want this product to be one that generates a high volume of sales so people read your content and become interested in what you have to say.
The subscription based product. This type of product generates a recurring revenue because members pay on a monthly basis. If you have 10 members who are each paying $100 every month, you would be making $1,000 every month. You need to have a recurring revenue strategy added to your business plan so you can rest assured that a product is going to bring in more money.
The high-priced products. A high-priced product gets less sales than an inexpensive product but brings in more commission. It is easier to make $1,000 every month selling a $500 training course than it is to sell a $10 book. You only need two sales for the training course while you need 100 sales every month for the book. High priced products make it easier for you to reach certain goals with less sales, but in order to have a high-priced product, you need to put in an immense amount of work and effort.

These three product options will satisfy your potential customers. Many of them will look for a low-priced product. That’s when the inexpensive book or training course comes in. In addition, others will want a subscription based product that gives them value so they can avoid an expensive product. Finally, there is the high-priced product for anyone who has enough money in their pockets to get the best product you have ever launched (it has to be your best one). Having these three products and creating more in the process will allow you to make six figures every year. That definitely beats advertising!

3 Ways To Know Whether You Have A Powerful Presence Or Not

July 30, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

There are many definitions for what a powerful presence on the web means. To some people, it means more blog traffic. To others, it means having big numbers. That means a big number of followers, a big number of shares, and a big number of views. The bigger they are the better they are. When it comes to knowing whether you have a powerful presence on the web or not, all of those things I just mentioned get thrown out of the window. There are three ways to know whether you have a powerful presence on the web or not. Some of them will sound familiar to the ones I told you to throw out of the window, but they are distinct compared to the typical metrics people use to determine whether they have a powerful presence or not.

People are honored when you respond to their emails. That’s how you know you’re a celebrity in your niche. There are few people that can make you feel honored by responding you an email. If one person was able to tell you how honored they felt to receive your email, that means there are other people who were honored to receive an email from you but did not tell you. In many cases, the greatest things often go unsaid.
Grow an audience that matters. I did not say get big numbers. There is a difference between having a big audience and having an audience that matters. It is possible to put together a big audience and an audience that matters, but you need to know what kind of audience matters first. An audience that matters is one that shares your content, values your content, and appreciates what you do.
People only buy products because you made them. Chances are there are dozens of other products for people to choose from. As your presence grows, some people will admire you to the point where they will favor your products over other people’s products. If you buy a Seth Godin book, you’ll end up buying as many as you can. That’s how you can tell he has a powerful presence on the web. Some people would buy a book just because his name is on the front cover.

By growing your presence on the web, you also grow your presence outside of the web. You will get the recognition and applauses each time you make a public speech. Big numbers have the power to make your presence look bigger than it really is. Your powerful presence come down to the three things on the list.