Social Media

5 Ways To Use SnapChat For Your Business

July 29, 2016 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Thinking about using SnapChat for business?

With more than 100 million daily active users and 400 million snaps per day, Snapchat has come a long way. What began as a messaging app quickly became the most popular social network among teens and it’s now a powerful force for global companies trying to connect directly with customers on the platform.

More and more influencers are using Snapchat as well. John Lee Dumas shares daily tips and inspiration on Snapchat. Author Daymond John used Snapchat to invite fans to follow him on a recent book tour.

And brands are using Snapchat in creative ways, from teaser campaigns to product launches. Cosmetic company Nars used Snapchat to release a preview of its new collection – individuals had to add NARSissist as a friend on Snapchat to access the preview.

World Wildlife Fund’s Snapchat campaign #LastSelfie raised awareness about endangered species. Audi collaborated with The Onion to Snapchat the Super Bowl live. And GrubHub found a summer intern via Snapchat.

Here are five ways to use Snapchat for your business:

#1: Give Users a Behind-the-Scenes Look Into Your Company

The more people get to know the people behind your business, the more they will trust it. That’s one reason why people include personal information in their bios.

In my Twitter bio, for example, I let people know I’m a Red Sox fan, runner and dog lover. That way I make immediate connections with people who share my passion for the Red Sox, running and dogs.

Snapchat lets you take this information to the next level by providing more context. For example, I can share snaps of my dog or scenes from a Red Sox game.

I know this will sound crazy, but even the clothing you wear gives users a better idea of who you are as an individual. You may wear a suit or collared shirt in your YouTube video, for example, but when you’re using Snapchat throughout the day you will likely capture those moments when you’re still in your sweats or a t-shirt.

You can provide your audience with snaps of your company culture by sharing moments of a team-building exercise, people working on a product, funny moments at the coffee or Xerox machine, practical jokes, staff spotlights, your founder’s work habits, etc.

The result? You’ll connect with people on a personal level.

#2: Provide Daily Tips

I really like what John Lee Dumas is doing on SnapChat. He shares what he refers to as “JLD rants” in which he provides his followers with interesting insights.

The great thing about Snapchat is that its bite-sized format is easily digestible. Each snap can expand upon one tip or offer a new one. Or you can combine multiple snaps into stories throughout the day resulting in an ongoing video message.

It’s easier for you, and more useful to your audience, if each snap provides quick insights that can be understood in 10 seconds or less.

These short insights facilitate sharing, keep your audience interested and provide a new level of interaction. Users can also send you 10-second videos, text messages, and pictures via Snapchat.

#3: Host a Q&A

To encourage people to engage with your snaps, host the occasional Q&A. Simply post a story inviting your audience to pose questions. You’ll receive notifications containing pictures, texts, and 10-second videos of people asking questions.

You can choose answer questions directly (i.e. to the person who asked a particular question) or share several 10-second stories with all of your followers to introduce the person who asked the question, and provide your answer.

You can also use the platform to offer access to live events and for crowdsourcing ideas. Your fans will appreciate having a say in your business decisions and will be more motivated to participate. Ask users to come up with a new product name, for example, or provide feedback on a new campaign or promotional idea.

#4: Inspire Your Followers

No matter what your niche, users are always looking for inspiration, so make a point of doing something every day to inspire your followers.

It can be something as small as reading one of your favorite motivational quotes. Or it can be as big as creating an ongoing story about your brand, a new product or service, or asking people to share their own experiences with your brand.

You can also offer promo codes or discounts to the fans who watch your entire Snapchat story, or ask them to take a snap while holding your product.

People crave inspiration and something to believe in, and there is always a way to deliver. Tune-in to the daily lives of your followers and try to be there when they need a dose of inspiration.

#5: Communicate With Other Snappers In Your Niche

Right now, top people and brands in your niche are engaging with their followers on Snapchat, even though they may have millions of fans spread across multiple social networks.

It’s actually easier to engage with your followers on Snapchat than Twitter. Why? It’s easier to connect with your followers on Snapchat because they are likely interested in your brand and will respond to your messages.

Many individuals and brands with millions of Twitter followers are trying to grow their Snapchat following to the first few thousand. Interactions on Snapchat help you target your most valuable ambassadors and build stronger relationships.

The 10-second or fewer formats make people more likely to engage with your snap while already on the platform; people are willing to spend a few seconds engaging with your content. And it is also more likely that you will catch the attention of an influencer.

There is a marketing rule that says it takes between 7-13 touch points to make a sale. A qualified lead is more likely to convert if he or she is exposed to your content 7-13 times.

Here’s how that applies to SnapChat: if you engage with influencers 7-13 times on Snapchat, you’ll build key relationships as they get to know you.

Continue interacting with influencers after the 13th touch point, but never make direct requests to share your content, Indeed, take the focus off how you can convince influencers to share your content and focus instead on how you can make yourself or your company interesting enough to get to know on a personal level.

If you view relationship building as a way to make new friends instead of simply trying to gain exposure to bigger audiences, you’ll master relationship marketing. And you might even find yourself in front of bigger audiences in the long run.

To build relationships on Snapchat for business, think of connecting with influencers as ways to build partnerships. Partnering with influencers will let you spread awareness and reach a demographic that is hard to access via traditional media.

Tip: only recommend one piece of your own content, and only if you truly believe it will benefit the influencer.

In Conclusion

As Snapchat continues to gain momentum, it will become just as saturated with advertisers as Facebook and Twitter. Now is the time to get on board.

It’s exciting to think about what Snapchat will look like a year from now. The rule with any social network is that the best time to strike is when the network is new and growing. So don’t waste time!

So if you’re focused only on sending out tweets and optimizing your Facebook ads, you may be missing out on an even bigger opportunity.

Also check out: 10 of the Best Brands on Snapchat Right Now (And Why They’re So Great).

What are your thoughts about using Snapchat for business? Have any tips for growing Snapchat followers? How do you engage with your fans and influencers? Sound off in the comments section below.

4 Ways To Use Blab For Your Business

April 22, 2016 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

Blab for business — Another social network gets thrown into the mix

A few weeks ago, I was invited to speak at the Authority Super Summit. I looked at some of the info about the event and was hooked. Here’s some of the facts that caught my eye:

Guinness World Record for longest live event
Hundreds of other speakers (I knew several of them, and speaking at the same event as them was an honor)
It would be all on Blab.

Wait, Blab. What’s that?

Blab seemed to be the only social network that I missed. It was still new, I heard little about it, but now I was forced to use it. If I didn’t use Blab, I couldn’t speak at the Authority Super Summit.

And then my eyes were opened.

After my 6 am presentation, I thought more about how I could use Blab for my business. I had a great time interacting with the audience in a way that I never thought was possible. I had a fun time during the Authority Super Summit and enjoyed using Blab.

Now that I had done my first Blab (technically speaking), I had an idea for how it worked. The wheels in my mind started turning, and I thought of how I could use Blab to take my business in a completely different direction.

Goals that once seemed impossible were now light work—all because of Blab.

Okay, I’m giving a solid testimonial about Blab. I’m sure Blab’s CEO is very happy with me right now. But less raving about Blab’s potential.

It’s time for me to provide you with the information. More specifically, four ways that you can use Blab for your business.

#1: AMA Session

AMA stands for “Ask Me Anything.” Your audience asks you questions, and you answer them. However, Blab provides an interactive chat section that rivals all of the other chatting methods on the web.

Example of the Blab chatting sections on the left and right

Since the chat section gets updated in real-time as you do the video, you can easily read questions as they appear in the chat section.

I know this isn’t something revolutionary. Webinars also have this feature where you can ask questions. However, it is easier for people within the audience to interact with one another as you give your presentation.

You want this type of interaction to happen because each person in the audience is giving someone an additional reason to continue watching the presentation. It’s easy to feel alone when watching a live presentation on your computer screen. You don’t get the same impression as being at a local event in a room of 100 people.

However, the interactive chat section Blab provides makes it difficult to feel alone. Suddenly your viewers have other people to talk to. As your viewers make new friends through the chat section, they are also watching your presentation.

That’s a win-win for you and your viewers. Better yet, Blab makes it ridiculously easy for the speaker to engage with people in the audience. The speaker can post something in the chat section at any point during the presentation.

Speaking of posting something in the chat section during the presentation…

#2: Get More Subscribers

During my first ever Blab, I was focused on nailing the interview. The Authority Super Summit was one of the most prestigious event I had been invited to speak at, so it took me a while to fully appreciate Blab.

However, I gained appreciation for Blab when it was my time to promote myself. I mentioned the landing page for my free Kindle training series. However, the problem with promoting a landing page at an event like this is that you must provide the link.

Long links filled with dashes are easy to forget. People who want free training won’t want to go through the hassle of typing in URL after URL until the free offer shows up.

So I decided to post the link to the landing page in the chat section. Out of the 67 live viewers, 9 of them signed up to receive the free Kindle training series for a 13% conversion rate.

This was a last-minute, spur of the moment thought that resulted in 9 new subscribers in less than a minute of additional work. As I host Blabs more often, I will be aiming to increase that number and eventually get over 20 new subscribers from each Blab.

However, considering my first Blab brought in 9 new subscribers, I was happy with the results.

#3: Host A Summit

After my interview during the Authority Super Summit concluded, I wondered how difficult it would be to create my own summit. Now, a 65 hour summit like Authority Super Summit would be very difficult for me to do (and stay awake for). I would need a lot of help to even get close to that record.

However, I didn’t see the problem with hosting a shorter summit. Part of the success behind Authority Super Summit was that each of the speakers promoted the event a few hours before they went live.

That meant Authority Super Summit would always have a big crowd. By the end of the summit, thousands of people had tuned in at certain points throughout the summit.

If you host a summit of superstar speakers and get them to promote the summit, then you too will generate a lot of exposure for your Blabs.

It’s a win-win for both of you since you have a Blab with a lot of exposure and the speaker has a chance to highlight his/her expertise and where you can find him/her on the web.

#4: Podcast AND YouTube Channel Content

Here’s a cool thing about Blab: when you are done with the Blab, they automatically send you a video file and an audio file.

Most people freak out when they think about leveraging every platform—tweeting, posting on Facebook, uploading videos to YouTube, putting pictures on Instagram, and all of that stuff.

Let alone live a life outside of work.

But Blab makes that part of the process as easy as pie with those two valuable files. You can use the provided audio file to create a podcast episode and the video file to create a YouTube video.

So the one Blab interview you did is now a part of your YouTube channel AND your podcast.

The cool part is that you didn’t do any extra work. The content was literally given to you since you did the Blab.

Successful entrepreneurs understand how valuable their time is. Being able to feed three birds with one scone is a game changer, especially when those three scones are the emerging Blab, the well-established YouTube, and podcasting which connects you with the iTunes audience (among others as well).

In Conclusion

Blab is a game-changing social network. It allows you to spread your awareness on three platforms at once by putting in the same amount of work to produce one video.

The interactive chat section is beyond-this-world awesome. Viewers get to engage with each other, and that interaction will result in them watching you speak for a longer period of time. You can also engage with the viewers and even post links within the chat section.

What are your thoughts about Blab? Do you see yourself using it in the future? Sound off in the comments section below.

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5 Ideas For Your Next Blab

April 15, 2016 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

A new social network. Yes. Another new social network…as if there weren’t a lot of them already. Each social network brings its own set of promises, but if you use them all, you risk spreading your time too thin.

But this new social network is THE social network that you must make time for. It’s called Blab, and it’s changing the way we use social media.

It came out in April 2015. I have always heard good things about it but thought I could use my time doing better things…until I was forced to use Blab.

I was invited to speak at the Authority Super Summit about how I use social media to drive more Kindle book sales. This summit was an online event…entirely hosted on Blab.

We broke a Guinness World Record for the longest live event, but the more important thing is that I finally used Blab.

I finally learned why so many people were talking highly about the new social network. Blab is more than just another live streaming social network. It (along with SnapChat) is changing the way we use social media.

I don’t want to talk too much about my excitement for Blab. I could probably write a book just about my excitement towards Blab. You may be hearing about Blab for the first time, or you have heard about it before, but now you are ready to dive in.

If you are ready to dive in or just want to create more Blabs, here are five ideas for your next Blab.

#1: Valuable Insights

No matter which social network you use, providing a valuable insight is a great Blab idea. You can discuss a tip or a few of them within the same Blab.

The valuable insights you provide should be related to your niche. I know that sounds very obvious, but being reminded of the basics allows you to perform the basics flawlessly without any thought.

#2: Interview An Expert

Here’s where Blab gets really cool. Blab gives you the option to have up to four people on the same call (including yourself). That means you can interview an expert and ask them questions.

However, you can also organize panels and ask each expert within the panel a series of questions. You can get insights from multiple experts within your niche, but using Blab to host panels has other benefits.

You get to know more experts within your niche. When I look at people who have shared my content, I immediately remember the people who interviewed me on their podcasts.

These experts will remember you in the same way, and you’ll also get more traffic from these experts since they’ll promote the Blab to their audiences.

Some of these experts may decide to interview you.

#3: Q&A

You can use Blab to host a Q&A in which your audience gets to ask you questions. This will be a great experience for your audience because when they ask you a question, and you answer that question, the relationship between you and those individuals within your audience gets strengthened.

I don’t buy a lot of online training products. One of the few products I bought was offered during a webinar in which I asked my question and then got a response.

I remember feeling great that my question was being answered since it felt tailored towards my specific question. Of course, I wasn’t the only person who got value from the answer, but you can make certain people in your audience feel great when you answer their specific questions.

And some of those people may end up buying your products in the future.

However, if you intend on hosting a Q&A, make sure you can attract a large enough audience to the Q&A. My recommendation with a Q&A is to tell your audience about it a few times before it actually happens.

A few email blasts specifying the time and date will do the job.

That way, you’ll have a large enough audience which means you’ll get a lot of awesome questions to answer.

The last thing you want on a Q&A is to not receive any questions. If you aren’t sure if your audience will provide you with enough questions, ask some of your friends prior to the Blab to ask their questions.

If some of your friends ask questions, then other listeners may decide to ask their questions later on.

#4: Share Your Goals

What do you want to accomplish this month? Sharing your goals online can be fun, and people get to see the raw version of the work that you provide.

If you state your monthly goals to your audience, there’s no turning back. Accountability at its finest.

However, if you don’t accomplish all of your monthly goals, people get to see the human side of you. I believe that one of the beliefs people have is that certain celebrities or role models are perfect and flawless.

The thinking is that certain people have so much aggregate success, but within that success are many mistakes. I’m sure you can find a typo somewhere on this blog. It’s hard, but they probably exist.

I have found typos on some of the most excellent blogs and media outlets. They are rare, but they do exist.

Sharing your goals lets people see what you are trying to do. Sharing your goals will inspire your audience to share their goals while giving themselves more ambitious goals. While the idea is to accomplish all of the goals that you set for yourself, being honest about the goals that you accomplish and don’t accomplish lets people know that you aren’t perfect.

“But I know I’m not perfect. Why would anyone think I am perfect?”

As you audience grows, you’ll get people from all sides of the spectrum. Some will want nothing to do with you. They’ll make it a point to insult you in front of your face. Other people will think that you are perfect.

In my opinion, showing your imperfections lets your audience know that it isn’t as hard as it seems to accomplish what they want to do. The goals will be more tangible.

But most importantly, people get to see your personal side. They get to know you as the person, not just for your profession.

#5: Make Predictions

Do you think aliens are going to take over the world? Is Blab a fad or a big deal? You can make your predictions via Blab and let people know what you think about your niche, the world, or something else.

Making predictions is fun because you get to put your prediction out there and get engagement. Some people may agree with you while others may disagree with you. Regardless, you are getting engagement from your Blab, and people will be back to hear your other predictions.

With this said, don’t make outlandish predictions just for the sake of attention. Make predictions that you would make if you were only talking with your friends. Which social network will be important this year? Will the Cubbies win a World Series?

If you do enough predictions, your Blab account can turn into quite the time capsule.

In Conclusion

The live streaming capabilities combined with the chat section make Blab a different kind of social network. If you are thinking of your first Blab or want to think of more Blab ideas, then you can use these five ideas to come up with several ideas.

If you feel like you are in the middle of the Blab equivalent of a writer’s block, you can always interview experts within your niche. You can also interview experts in your niche if you want to connect with them and provide your audience with additional value.

What are your thoughts about using Blab? Have any Blab ideas for us? Sound off in the comments section below.

Want To See How I Distribute Blabs Across All Of My Platforms

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