Marc's Blog

5 Reasons To Give StumbleUpon A Try

February 27, 2015 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

StumbleUpon is one of the most underrated social networks on the web for getting blog traffic and growing your presence on the web. You do not need to have thousands of followers on various social networks for your content to be seen by thousands of people.

One of the most common reasons people do not give StumbleUpon a try is because of its reputation for a high bounce rate. Many people who visit your blog through StumbleUpon only visit for a few seconds and then move on to the next webpage. However, some marketers have noticed long-term relationships with visitors that come from StumbleUpon. Other than that reason, here are five reasons why you need to give StumbleUpon a try.

#1: Old Content Can Go Viral Too

You can make the same argument for any social network. The only difference about StumbleUpon is that it is extremely easy for content to go viral there, and old content can go viral too. Some content that was posted on StumbleUpon weeks, months, or even years ago may suddenly become viral. Therefore, if you are posting on StumbleUpon, and the post does not go viral, it is a seed that can grow and become viral later.

On other social networks, the chance of an older post going viral are not as likely. Tweets quickly go out of view on a feed (they get shoved down to the ever-growing bottom of the feed), and within a few weeks, most YouTube videos go from new to old. On StumbleUpon, it does not matter how old the content is. It still has a good chance of going viral.

#2: Posting On StumbleUpon Is Easy

StumbleUpon is by no means a difficult social network to post on. While YouTube requires a good video, all you have to do on StumbleUpon is take the link from any webpage, paste it, put the link under a category, and then write an optional comment. You can send out a few posts on StumbleUpon every day, and as you write more posts, you will have a higher probability of one of your posts going viral.

[tweetthis url=”http://bit.ly/1wb8HUO”]It’s easy to post something on StumbleUpon, and it’s not difficult for posts to go viral.[/tweetthis]

#3: StumbleUpon Is A Different Type Of Community

StumbleUpon is not the type of community commonly associated with social networks. Unlike Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, StumbleUpon allows you to surf through other people’s websites while socializing in the process. It is a different social network with a different community for you to engage with.

#4: StumbleUpon Is Growing

The same case can be made with other social networks, but StumbleUpon is growing fast. StumbleUpon quickly went from another site on the web to a social network that gets more than one billion stumbles every month. As StumbleUpon continues to grow, going viral will present a greater impact in your traffic. When you go viral on StumbleUpon, you will get a big spike in traffic. Some content on StumbleUpon stays viral, and that spike in traffic may suddenly become the new norm.

If the traffic you get from StumbleUpon slows down, you may gain more traffic from other places because of the exposure you got from StumbleUpon (i.e. search engines, someone who saw your blog post on StumbleUpon mentioned it in a tweet or one of their blog posts). The more StumbleUpon grows, the greater the impact is of going viral, and the impact of going viral is already remarkable.

#5: Your Content Can Go Viral On StumbleUpon Even If Someone Else Share It

It is true that we can’t do everything all by ourselves. We need help from other people. Having a StumbleUpon button at the bottom of all of your blog posts gives your readers a chance to help spread the word on StumbleUpon and possibly make your blog post go viral.

In Conclusion

StumbleUpon may be different from the other social networks, but it is a social network that bloggers and entrepreneurs alike can no longer afford to overlook. StumbleUpon is a great social network for getting more blog traffic, and this social network makes it easier for your older blog posts to go viral. Even a blog post that was written years ago can still go viral on StumbleUpon and get a lot of attention.

Do you use StumbleUpon? Are you going to create a StumbleUpon account? If so, be sure to follow me on StumbleUpon so we can interact with each other.

How I Wrote Five Short Books In One Month

February 25, 2015 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

Write books fast

Writing content has been a passion of mine for a few years now. I have written over 1 million words that have been published on the web as blog posts, tweets, product descriptions, and books. To think less than 10 years ago, I would have never considered writing as a career path. Now, I write thousands of words every day.

The strategy many Kindle authors take is they write books in bulk so they need fewer sales per book to make a certain income. It is mathematically easier to make $1,000 per month with 16 books than it is to make $1,000 per month with one book (assuming these books are all at the same prices).

However, I have another goal as well: become a New York Times bestseller. I knew that the approach I was taking was a good strategy for mathematically making it easier for me to reach certain income goals, but I knew this path would make it more difficult for me to become a New York Times bestselling author. I wanted to get the best out of both worlds, so what I decided to do is write as many books as I could in one month. That way, I would still publish books at a frequent rate even though I was focusing most of my attention on one book.

The result was writing five short books in one month. The shortest one was 7,000 words while the longest one was over 25,000 words. Some of these books have already been published while other ones are in the process, and in other months, I wrote anywhere from 2-3 books. All of this effort was designed to carve out a giant chunk of time working on a book that I aspire to see on the New York Times Bestsellers List. The rest of this blog post will be about the methods that worked for me, and by implementing these methods, you may end up writing five short books in one month too.

The most important way to write five short books in one month (one book every six days) is to have a passion for what you write about. The amount of passion is the making or breaking point of your journey. That sounds dramatic, and it should sound that way. All of my books cover some area of digital marketing because that is one of my top passions. In fact, most of the time I spend writing, I spend writing about Twitter, Pinterest, blogging, YouTube, or any other area of digital marketing.

Once you know what your passion is, the next thing you need to do is write a list of ideas. The longer this list of ideas is, the better. At one point, my list of ideas exceeded 50 books. However, after a closer examination of your ideas days later, you will realize that some of your ideas are good while others are duds. Some ideas that I was previously excited for look ridiculous a few days later while other ideas continue to have a place in my realm of excitement. Many of those ideas turn into my books.

Once you write down the ideas, you need to choose the top five and write about them. However, you never want to write multiple books at the same time because main points can be confused amongst your works, and there may be overlap in the content (two books essentially saying the same thing). Choose the order in which you will write your books. Know your first book, second book, third book, fourth book, and fifth book. The most successful businesses have marketing strategies and product launches planned years in advance. You should take considerable time planning out when you will publish your books.

The rest of the process can only be taken one book at a time. If you apply this process to all five of your books at the same time, then you risk overlap and lower quality content. It is great to publish books at a great frequency, but if they are all duds, then there is no point.

[tweetthis url=”http://bit.ly/1wVkwzI”]It is great to publish books at a great frequency, but if they are all duds, then there is no point.[/tweetthis]

Once you identify your book idea, create an outline for that book. In this outline, identify the chapters and the key concepts you want to write about in each chapter. Take considerable time planning your outline because it a good outline makes writing the book easier. One of the most common reasons authors take a long time to write a book is because their minds wander, trying to think of ideas, while trying to write content. Human beings are horrible at multitasking. Plan out your book first so that when you write it, you are not trying to think of ideas to write about. Writing the outline first will allow you to write about ideas that you have already come up with in advance. That’s much easier.

Having an outline for your book is a great start, but some writers with outlines still take a long time to write their books. The reason it takes most writers a long period of time to write books is because they never have a sense of urgency to finish their books. The publication date is simply left as, “One day.” The problem is that there is no deadline.

When I write a book, I always give myself a deadline to finish that book. When I wrote five books every 30 days, I gave myself a six day deadline to complete my books. Naturally, some got finished quicker than others. One book took me eight days while another book took me four days. However, the average comes out to the desired deadline: one book every six days.

The only thing you have to do at that point is write more words when you are actually writing. My book How To Publish More Kindle eBooks Faster will show you how you can write more words every day. Time management has one of the biggest factor towards how many words you write in a given day.

In Conclusion

With the right mindset and planning, it is possible to write five books in one month. You cannot simply rush into writing without thinking of the content in advance. When you write, you are in the flow. It is important for you to stay in that flow for as long as possible. If you are struggling to think of ideas as you write the content, then it will be difficult for you to write at the necessary pace to finish five books in one month.

Which of these tips did you like the most? Do you have any other tips to write more books? Please share your thoughts below.

The Six Main Reasons Why Most Blogs Don’t Make Money

February 23, 2015 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

Why Blogs Do Not Make Money

It is a well-known fact that a majority of blogs (about 90%) make little to no revenue. The saying that 10% of the people in the world make 90% of the revenue is similar to the blogging model. A handful bloggers are making the bulk of the profits.

The main reason many blogs are not making money is because most bloggers do not know how to effectively make money with their blogs. All these bloggers need is the right knowledge and the ability to implement that knowledge. This blog post will identify six of the main reasons why most blogs don’t make any money. Then, it is up to you to act upon this knowledge so your blog can become successful.

#1: No Traffic

One of the most common reasons why blogs do not make revenue is because they do not generate traffic. Without traffic, no one will know who you are. You can write the best blog posts on the web and provide your visitors with the best products, but that won’t matter if your blog does not get any visitors. This article goes into detail about several methods you can use to increase your blog traffic.

#2: No Subscribers

Having no subscribers for your blog is another telltale sign that your blog is in trouble. The money is in the list. That’s what the bloggers with six figure incomes say. You need to optimize your blog so it converts more of your readers into subscribers. Of course, your blog needs to get traffic to get more subscribers, but not all popular blogs get numerous subscribers.

There was a point when I got over 500 daily visitors but only 1-2 subscribers every month. That was not because my content was bad (you, as the reader, are the judge of that). Instead, it was because I poorly optimized my blog for collecting email addresses. When I started to optimize my blog, I quickly went from gaining 1-2 subscribers every month to gaining 10-20 subscribers every day. You can learn some of the methods I use to gain subscribers in this article.

[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@MarcGuberti” url=”http://bit.ly/1yPt2VJ”]Your email list is a big part of your success as a blogger.[/tweetthis]

#3: No Social Proof

Regardless of whether you sell products, promote other people’s products, or make money with advertisements, you must have social proof to make you stand out from the crowd. Social proof indicates that you are popular, and people love to gravitate towards popular things. If you see enough people doing or buying something, you may follow through in that process (sometimes, it is this action that can bring negative consequences, but this knowledge is useful for marketers). Would you rather go to the #1 restaurant in the world or the restaurant that opened for the first time? Would you rather hear advice from Bill Gates or some random entrepreneur? Would you rather buy products from successful individuals or individuals who are starting out?

#4: No Income Streams

One of the worst mistakes a blogger can make is having no income streams set up on his blog. Income streams allow bloggers to bring in revenue that make it possible to become a full-time blogger. There are a variety of income streams to choose from. You can create your own training courses, write your own books, promote other people’s products as an affiliate, and do a variety of other things to create more income streams for yourself.

#5: No Products

Some people, in a quick rush to have an income stream on their blogs, often stuff their blogs with affiliate links. First off, you should only use a few affiliate links. Overstuffing your blog with affiliate links will look like a desperate plead for the sale, and it will ruin your blog’s reading experience. Instead, you need to create products. Creating your own products leads to more sales, higher commissions (maybe even a 100% commission), and most importantly, a strong relationship to build between you and the customer.

#6: Reliance On Advertisements

I understand that some bloggers make strong incomes from their advertisements. However, these bloggers are typically the ones with hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors. Most bloggers are lucky if they earn over $10/month from their advertisements. The revenue generated from advertisements is generally low since few blogs are getting hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors.

In addition to producing a low revenue, advertisements also take your readers away from your blog. Instead of promoting an advertisement on your blog, why not promote one of your products? That way, the relationship between you and your readers will be strengthened. People want to see you and what you stand for, not another car ad that generates $0.02 per click.

In Conclusion

Making money on a blog is not an overnight success. Yes, another blogger said the same phrase, and it might drive you crazy. When I was a newbie and read other bloggers’ articles every day about blogging, the tip almost every blogger said was that blogging is not an overnight success.

It drove me crazy just as much as it might be driving you crazy. However, realizing that blogging is not an overnight success represents a simple approach instead of a complex one. That one sentence represents a simple approach that says, “Don’t give up on the journey you wish you pursue with your blog.”

It is important for you to avoid making these same mistakes. If you are making these mistakes on your blog, the first thing you need to do is fix them. Just launch your own product. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Then, launch another one and improve the process as you go. Grow your traffic and convert more of that traffic into subscribers. Build your social proof. And don’t forget to stop relying on those pesky advertisements all together. They drive your readers away from your blog.

Which of these mistakes do you make? Do you have any other suggestions for bloggers who want to make more money? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

5 Ways To Tap Into The Power Of Social Media

February 20, 2015 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Social media presents a powerful way to do the following:

Grow an audience like never before
Spread your message like never before
Procrastinate like never before
Insult people like never before

I think that out of all of the opportunities we have been presented with to take charge, never has there been an opportunity with such beneficial and disastrous consequences wrapped into one. The key way to tap into the power of social media and get the first two results is by knowing what to do, and then implementing that knowledge. There is really no other way to around it. These are the five ways you can tap into the power of social media:

#1: Identify The Best Social Network For You

Not all social networks are created equal. Each social network has a different set of functions and rules for success. On YouTube, you need to create high-value YouTube videos while on Twitter, you need to provide valuable content and follow targeted users who are likely to follow back. For those two social networks, that’s success in a nutshell.

Many people create multiple social media accounts and split their time amongst those accounts. This is one of the most common but also one of the biggest mistakes people make. If you split up your time amongst different social media accounts and try to master them all at the same time, you would have to read countless articles and turn yourself into a workhorse (never mind the fact that at the end of the day, your social media accounts need to promote people to revenue generating websites such as an optimized blog and landing page). The solution is to choose one (yes, just one) social network and master it. Once you master one social network, you can move on to mastering another social network. If you have multiple social media accounts (I’m sure you do), then there is no reason to delete any of them. Just be inactive on them for a while and focus most of your time on one of them.

#2: Do Research

No matter how much you know about one social network, you can still learn more about that social network. To this day, I continue to learn more about Twitter, and my quest for learning more about Twitter won’t stop for a very long time (if it ever stops at all). In order to learn more about a social network, you need to do research on that social network. You need to learn what it takes to be successful on that social network (which alone has dozens of smaller components), how you can use social media to boost your productivity, and more. When I do research, I type in a phrase into Google such as, “How To Get More StumbleUpon Followers” (I am intrigued by StumbleUpon and want to learn more about it), and then I read a bunch of the articles that come up. I took this approach to obtain my knowledge about Twitter, and I continue with that approach to this day.

#3: Implement

The only research that adds up to any value is the research that you implement. Chances are ideas that rival Facebook and Google have already been thought of, but those ideas don’t get implemented, so the research and time put into those ideas do not matter. You may know what you do, but knowing and doing are two different things. Once you have the knowledge, you need to apply it. Find time in your day to experiment with new ideas, tinker with old ones, and track the results. Knowing which methods have the biggest impact on your social media audience will present you with the knowledge you need to move forward.

#4: Interact

One of the few rules that applies to every social network is that interacting with your audience is a great way to build connections and get more blog traffic in the process (assuming that you promote your blog on social media). The word social is in “social media” for a reason.

Not only does interacting with your followers make it possible for you to build more connections, but you can share valuable insights with each other. Some of the insights your followers share may inspire your future blog posts. Other followers may ask questions that you use in your information products. Social media allows you to interact with these followers so you can build connections, provide insights, and answer their questions. It’s a win-win for both of you (you get more ideas and your followers get their questions answered).

[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@MarcGuberti” url=”http://bit.ly/17Eb6mk”]Interacting with your social media followers is a win-win![/tweetthis]

#5: Keep At It

The best way to grow your social media audience is to keep at it and learn new techniques along the way (don’t forget to implement). It takes a long time for you to grow a large social media audience. It is important to note that when I reached 100,000 Twitter followers in 993 days, I was not consistently gaining 101 followers every day.

On the day I got my 100,000th Twitter, I mathematically gained an average of 101 followers every day, but on most of those days, I was getting anywhere from 0-5 Twitter followers. Then, I went on to gain 10-20 followers every day until I made my way to gaining over 500 Twitter followers every day. You get to reach the colossal milestones by sticking with the social network you choose (but only stick with a social network if you have a passion for it. Don’t choose to grow on a social network that you despise).

In Conclusion

It would be impossible to cover all of the knowledge you need to know in one blog post. These five methods provide the basic surface needed to take your social media achievement to the next level. Always strive to learn more about what you are trying to master as well as what you have already mastered. Knowledge is power.

Which of these tips was your favorite? Do you have another method for tapping into the power of social media? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

The 7 Step Process To Stay Calm Through The Chaos Of Being An Entrepreneur And Take Action

February 18, 2015 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Process To Stay Calm As An Entrepreneur

When you become an entrepreneur, you sign an oath, and one of the things on that oath is to accept that there will be chaos in the journey. The chaos people experience varies by the individual. Steve Jobs’ version of chaos was getting fired from Apple, and Richard Branson founded Virgin Vodka, which failed. Then are the bloggers who experience many problems throughout their journey such as the blog not displaying properly, an error page instead of a landing page, and plugins with a negative impact on the blog.

If you continue with the journey as an entrepreneur, you will have to go through chaotic times to reach the end goal. That is why the beauty of success is not in the success itself, but in the struggle. However, getting through the chaos is just as challenging as reaching success. The key to getting through the chaos is by staying calm. Here are seven ways to stay calm through the chaos of being an entrepreneur.

#1: Think About How The Chaos Struck

One of the main reasons chaos is despised is because chaos represents uncertainty. If there is a problem on your blog (maybe it suddenly decides to redirect to the homepage every five seconds. That happened to me once), the uncertainty is the cause of the problem. When chaos strikes, ask yourself what you did prior to the chaos that could have created the chaos in the first place. When something happens to my blog, I ask myself which plugin I activated recently.

For some people, it may be more difficult to pinpoint the root cause(s) of the chaos since some chaotic moments in an entrepreneur’s career are based on events that happened weeks, months, or even years ago. However, I encourage you to spend as much time trying to identify the root cause(s). Identifying those root cause(s) will bring back a sense of certainty into the chaos.

The more uncertain chaos is, the stronger it becomes. By bringing back certainty, not only do you weaken chaos, but you also get closer to approaching the solution. You can’t fix a problem without knowing what caused the problem in the first place. Other tips in this blog post will go into detail about how you can get out of the chaos, but before that, you need to have the right mindset. The second and third tips are designed to strengthen your confidence so you can attack chaos with the right attitude. Having an optimistic attitude is essential towards getting out of any type of chaos that you encounter.

#2: Think Of What You Have Already Done

Many times, entrepreneurs feel bogged down about where they are and desperate to get out of the chaos. It is at this point when entrepreneurs need to take a step out of the chaos and look at the good things they have accomplished. In It’s A Wonderful Life, George Bailey finds himself trapped in so much chaos that it affects the way he acts and thinks about himself. Then, George’s guardian angel fulfills his wish of never wanting to be born.

In the classic movie, George quickly realizes all of the things he has accomplished, and how the lives of people he knew fell apart since he was never born. He saved his brother’s life, the drug dealer from getting arrested, and he married his wife. Since George was never born, the drug dealer accidentally killed a customer, George’s brother died at a young age, George’s mom was a wreck, his wife was unmarried and worked at the library, and his kids were never born.

When Clarence gave George his life back, George embraced the chaos and gleefully said he was going to jail. Not everyone has a transformation like that, but thinking about what you have already done as an entrepreneur and a person can weaken the chaos and make it look less frightening.

#3: Think Of The Stepping Stones You Have Taken To Reach Your Destination

Part of looking back at you have already done is looking at what steps you have taken to get closer to your goals. Instead of looking at goals that seem so far away, look at the progress you have already made to get to where you are. This will ignite the motivation you need to continue making progress.

#4: Think About Where You Want To Be

After you weaken the chaos by thinking about what you have already done, think about where you want to be. When you think of where you want to be, have an optimistic attitude that you will reach this destination.

#5: Identify The Next Stepping Stones You Need To Take

Once you know where you want to head, identify the stepping stones that will allow you to reach your goal. Identifying the stepping stones allows you to see where you are heading instead of you trying to go all in with blindfolds. Stepping stones further establish that sense of certainty that is essential towards wiping out chaos.

#6: Take Those Stepping Stones

Once you identify the stepping stones, the only way to move forward is by taking those stepping stones. You have to put in the work to get the results you want to achieve.

#7: Repeat

Throughout your journey as an entrepreneur, chaos will come up multiple times. There is no magic bullet journey that avoids chaos, but there are entrepreneurial journeys that effectively cut through the chaos. You can constantly use these steps to get through any chaos you have in your business or life for that matter.

In Conclusion

Chaos thrives on uncertainty. The less we know about what we are dealing with, the easier it is for us to get overwhelmed and belittle all of our accomplishments in life. It is an unfortunate truth that people fall so far down into chaos that they become their own prey, and their own predator. People become predators when they think badly about themselves, and they become prey since they are being surrounded by self-induced negative thoughts.

Instead of being the predator of your own actions and the prey of your predator side, champion around yourself, your accomplishments, and where you want to go.

What are your thoughts on this seven step process? Do you have any additional tips for getting through the chaos? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

20 Ways To Amplify Your Social Media Reach

February 16, 2015 by Marc Guberti 6 Comments

Social media is one of the most powerful tools I have come across to grow a large audience and spread your message. In less than three years, I went from no audience to hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter alone.

Social media is an opportunity that people can no longer afford to take for granted. Social media is not a fad. It has redefined how we share information, interact, and grow our audiences. Amplifying our reach on social media has become more important than ever. In order to amplify your reach on social media, follow these 20 tips:

#1: Grow A Targeted Audience

A targeted audience consists of a group of people who are interested in the niche that you tweet about the most. My targeted audience consists of people who are interested in digital marketing advice. You can grow a targeted audience by finding influential people in your niche and following those people’s followers. When you do this, be sure to follow the people whose ratios indicate they are likely to follow you back.

#2: Follow People

It does not hurt to follow people, temporarily sacrifice your 1-to-1 ratio, or eventually follow hundreds of thousands of people. When you follow someone, you are sending an invitation for that person to connect with you. I know that sounds a lot like LinkedIn, but both Twitter and LinkedIn are social networks which means they have similarities. Following someone else, and then that person following you builds a connection between you and that other person. Imagine having hundreds of thousands of these types of connections. I would rather have 100,000 followers and follow 100,000 people than only have 1,000 followers and only follow one person. You can take this approach on nearly any social network, and I saw great success when applying this process to my Pinterest account.

#3: Post More Often

The entire concept of posting too often being bad is a myth mixed up with what some would call fury posting. Fury posting is when someone sends dozens of posts in about five minutes. Although this type of posting is annoying and ineffective, scheduling numerous posts throughout the day is not as annoying, and it can be very effective. I schedule one tweet every 15 minutes, and although I know that annoys a small handful of people (you can’t please them all), many of my followers like the added value of my tweeting once every 15 minutes.

#4: Post More Pictures

Including a picture in your posts is one of the easiest ways to boost engagement. Posts with pictures have been proven to get more engagement than posts without pictures…on every social network on the web. You can find a picture on Google or create one with Canva to match what you want to talk about. As long as you provide a picture that complements the post’s typed content, that post will be sure to get more engagement.

#5: Post Better, Stunning Pictures

We don’t want blurry pictures. We only want the cream of the crop. Since millions of pictures are posted every day across all of the major social networks, social media has a fair share of good and bad pictures. Therefore, a decent picture will no longer make the cut anymore. You must focus on including stunning pictures in your post. Take the time to look for the best picture available, and if you decide to create your own picture, make sure you take the time to see if any improvements can be made. Don’t just go for the first picture you see in Google’s search engine or the first picture idea you think of when you are on Canva.

#6: Post Valuable Content

Many visitors who visit a social media account for the first time never visit it again. In order to prevent that from being you, it is essential for you to constantly post valuable content on your social networks. The value of your content determines how many people revisit your social media accounts, and how far your content spreads.

When you share content on your social networks, be sure to only share valuable content. If you read an article that you thought was fascinating or valuable, feel free to share it with your followers. Those are the types of articles that encourage followers to stick around, revisit your social media accounts, and share your posts.

#7: Use Multiple Social Networks

Billions of people use social media, but not everyone uses the same social networks. Some people only use Facebook while other people use Twitter and Pinterest, but not Facebook. The combinations vary based on the individual, and few people spend an equal amount of time on all of their social networks.

Being active on multiple social networks will allow you to reach to a larger active audience. Many people who are active on one social network are inactive on other social networks. Being on all of the major social networks will allow you always interact with an active audience.

#8: Focus Most Of Your Time On One Social Network

Although it is important to use multiple social networks, most of your time needs to be focused on one social network. For me, that would be Twitter. It is so important to focus on one social network because of the learning curve. It is difficult to learn how to master 10 social networks at the same time. However, it is easier to learn how to master one social network at a time.

I like to compare social media mastery to mastering the romance languages. The romance languages have the same general structure, just like social networks. If you know how to be successful on Twitter, then you almost have all of the knowledge needed to be successful on Pinterest or a social network similar to Twitter.

As you become more successful on more social networks, it will be easier to become successful on other social networks. Let the sentence sink in, and read it again. It is better to take social media success one step at a time than trying to take 10 steps at once.

[tweetthis url=”http://bit.ly/14tgjvd”]It is better to take #SocialMedia success one step at a time than trying to take 10 steps at once.[/tweetthis]

#9: Share Other People’s Content

Did you know that it is statistically proven that people unfollow the ego maniacs? If you are constantly talking about yourself, promoting your own articles, and promoting your own products, then you need to take the time to share what other people have done. Your timeline does not have to be taken over by articles from other people’s blogs, but if you share someone else’s blog post here and there, your followers would greatly appreciate it, especially if the blog posts you share are valuable.

#10: Interact With Your Audience

Interacting with your audience is important towards growing that audience and building quality relationships. Regardless of your audience’s size, there will be people in that audience who will be grateful that you took the time to respond to one of their posts. One conversation has the potential to start a strong relationship.

Getting a conversation started is as easy as thanking someone for sharing one of your posts, saying hi, or jumping into a conversation (without coming out as brash).

#11: Add The Personal Touch

The personal touch is one of the most underrated ways to increase your reach on social media. As more people get impacted by your message and enjoy the value you provide, some of them will want to know what you do when you are not on social media. You don’t have to give every second of every detail of your life, but you can let people know things about you that are important.

If you watch baseball games every night, your followers may occasionally want to know that. If baseball is not your niche, you wouldn’t send daily posts about you watching baseball. For these types of activities, you should only talk about them 1-2 times per month. You can talk more freely about events in your life that you believe are important enough to get the spotlight on your social networks (in other words, don’t tell us what you ate for breakfast. Tired of seeing that breakfast example on so many blogs?).

The personal touch will allow people to know more about who you are. It is okay to branch out of your business to add the personal touch because your followers will feel more connected to you than ever.

#12: Do Research

Most of the knowledge I obtained about digital marketing came from hundreds of hours of research. I would look up popular, valuable, niche-related blogs and read through all of the articles on those blogs. To this day, I continue to read a variety of articles from fellow bloggers in my niche to learn more about expanding my social media reach. I also recommend subscribing to their blogs so you get notified every time they come out with new blog posts. That way, you will be able to stay up to date with the latest trends in your niche.

#13: Read Social Media Books

I wish I could say I read many social media books, but that is not the case quite yet. I have been making progress though. I started reading What The Plus!: Google+ For The Rest Of Us by Guy Kawasaki. I have read various books in the time management field even when I knew (thought I knew) how to effectively manage my time. I was productive, but reading a few bestsellers about productivity dramatically increased my ability to get more done faster. You can never know too much about social media, and as you gain more knowledge about social media and different social networks, you will have a better idea of what you need to do to grow your reach.

#14: Automate Your Content

When I send out one tweet every 15 minutes, you better believe I’m not up at 4 am eastern time sending out those tweets. However, while I am sleeping, other people are having their morning coffee, attending school, enjoying the afternoon, or having an evening dinner. All of those things happen in different places in the world while you sleep.

Therefore, people are reading my tweet at 4 am eastern because it’s a different time of day in Germany, England, Russia, China, Japan, and any other timezone out of the east coast. You don’t need to master geography to be successful on social media, but if you strive to grow an international audience, you need to be aware of the fact that our world is filled with many timezones.

#15: Tweet At The Moment

Automating your content allows you to consistently provide content to your followers over a long period of time without you being on a computer, mobile device, or tablet. In some cases, tweeting at the moment will prove to be an effective tactic towards growing your social reach, especially if you take advantage of current events.

Few businesses were prepared for the blackout in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome during Super Bowl 47. Oreo was prepared, and it was on this day that Oreo sent its famous tweet about still dunking in the dark. This tweet made marketers all over the world pay more attention to tweeting at the moment, and it is a tweet that has been discussed and analyzed in thousands of presentations all over the world. I have analyzed this one tweet in multiple blog posts and videos. It’s amazing what 140 characters can do.

#16: Turn Social Media Conversations Into Email Conversations

Social media conversations only last for a long period of time, and some conversations are forgotten about due to the countless distractions that social media throws at us. If you can turn some of your social media conversations into email conversations, then you will remove all of the distractions and character lengths that prevent a conversation from growing in size. Sure, there are distractions in the inbox, just like any social network. However, we have been hardwired to make sure we look at every email (for some of us, even the spammy emails) in our inbox. If we don’t look at every email in our inbox, then we’ll definitely click the “Mark All As Read” button.

Email conversations are the best conversations to have with your followers because email conversations tend to be the most sincere, and they typically last for a longer period of time than social media conversations.

#17: Promote Your Landing Pages On Social Media

Having a big email list allows you to connect all of the promotion of your social networks in one place. On this email list, you can promote your latest Pinterest boards, YouTube videos, Instagram photos, your Twitter account, and more. Landing pages are critical components towards growing your email list, and what better place to promote your landing page to the audiences you have already built on your social networks?

#18: Have A Good Avatar

The picture you choose for your avatar has a big impact on how many people follow you after taking a look at your account. If you are using a personal account, have a picture of you. That means no egg, cartoon character, or anything else. The best picture to have for your personal account’s avatar is a picture of you. If you manage or own a business account, the ideal avatar for getting more followers would be a picture of the business’ logo.

#19: Improve Your Bio On Your Social Networks

It is always worth checking your bio every once in a while because it could be outdated, or it may not highlight one of your most recent accomplishments. You should improve your bio to highlight your credentials and the hobbies that you do outside of your business.

When you don’t have many characters to play with, use commas to list credentials and hobbies one by one. Sentence fragments and not including a period at the end of the sentence are okay. If you have more characters available, use periods at the end of sentences (if you want to write in complete sentences, the social network you are using must allow you to use at least 300 characters). Make sure all of your bios on your social networks are similar or identical. When people transition from one social network to the next, they’ll recognize you by your avatar and bio description.

#20: Have A Stunning Background/Header Picture

Some social networks call it a background picture while others call it a header picture. Regardless of what it is called on the social network you use, the picture behind your avatar needs to reflect what you do and promote one of your products.

On my Twitter header, I promote my free eBook 27 Ways To Get More Retweets On Twitter and make my message stand out (Age Is Not A Limit To Success). Your background/header picture can’t just be a random picture from Google. It needs to be a picture that lets people know more about you or your business.

In Conclusion

Amplifying your social media reach is not as challenging as it seems, especially if you have the right knowledge in place. One of the most important tips I could ever give it to be patient on social media. There were times when I wanted to give up on Twitter because I was practically frozen at 1,667 followers for 1-3 months. I’m happy I stuck with it. If you stick with social media and learn new techniques (by reading books and conducting your own research) you will grow your social media reach and spread your message farther on the web.

Which of these tips was your favorite? Do you have any other tips for amplifying social media reach? Please share your thoughts and advice below.