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If It Were Easy

August 21, 2013 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Everyone would be doing it.

If being a bestselling author was easy, everyone would be writing their own book and becoming the next bestselling author.

If having a million Twitter followers was easy, everyone would be on Twitter talking with over a million followers.

If having a mansion was easy, everyone would move into a mansion or turn their house into a mansion.

If having a successful business was easy, everyone would be an entrepreneur, and none of them would quit. Sadly, over 90% of them quit within the first 5 years.

If coming up with a big idea was easy, everyone would be thinking of big ideas. The people who can’t think of big ideas sell products similar to their competition.

If running the mile was easy, everyone would be running that mile without stopping. It isn’t as easy as it appear.

However, it’s not easy. That’s why few people do the difficult tasks. The safety zone is not safe at all. Everyone is in the safety zone which makes individuals in the safety zone become invisible.

Becoming a bestselling author, having a million Twitter followers, having a mansion, having a successful business, coming up with a big idea, and running the mile are not easy. As we get more experience, these tasks become easier.

After writing a lot of books, an author can build a following and eventually become a bestselling author.

After consistently tweeting for years and going viral, it is possible for someone to reach a million followers without knowing how to sing well or buying a million followers.

Everyone who started with a business started at the bottom. Macintosh computers were first made in garage. Now Apple is a multibillion dollar company that pays billions of dollars in taxes. They can pay those billion dollars in taxes and still make a profit with their Macs, iPhones, iPads, and more. Amazon started out as a bookstore. Now Jeff Bezos is a billionaire who recently bought the Washington Post. Not bad for “another bookstore.”

When someone thinks of a big idea, and creates a business based on that big idea, that person has a good chance of becoming successful. Twitter, Facebook. Instagram, Pinterest, and Google are some of the big ideas. The person who came up with an idea for any of these social networks (or Google) is either a millionaire or a billionaire. That’s not bad for an idea that started out on paper. Back in 2004, people would have looked at you funny if you talked about Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest. Google was around at that time, but Google+ was not.

Running the mile becomes easy after a lot of practice. People give up when they run the mile for the first time because it’s excruciating. The people who run day after day will be able to easily run the mile.

It’s not easy, but with practice, dedication, and commitment, you will make it easy.

3 Problems That All Newbies Face With Social Media (And How To Fix Them)

August 15, 2013 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Social media is powerful. With social media, small businesses and entrepreneurs are given a stronger presence than at any point in history. Social media is a powerful tool that can cause any unknown business to become the next big thing.

It is possible, and it’s easier than many people think. There are 3 top problems that people face on social media, and I will provide solutions for each of those problems.

Getting more followers. You have to be patience in order to get more followers. There are plenty of ways to get more followers such as tweeting frequently, engaging in conversations, and so on. My next blog post will list 10 universal ways to get more followers with any social network.
Quickly becoming overwhelmed. There are too many people who are thinking Competitor A has over 100,000 followers, Competitor B has over 50,000 followers, and I just started using social media. These people may not even know much about using their social network, yet. That last word, yet, is the most important word in the sentence. You will learn a lot about social media by subscribing to this blog, but I encourage you to explore other options as well. Business2Community, Social Media Today, and Techcrunch are some of the many places that you can find valuable resources and posts about all of the social networks. However, don’t try to do too much in a single day. Take social media one day at a time until you have learned a lot about your social network and others as well.
No sales or clicks. What’s the point? You will start to see those sales and clicks when you get more followers and engage with them properly. However, people are worrying about their sales, clicks, and the ROI (return of investment). You’re not spending money in this investment. You’re spending time. After a couple of hours, there aren’t any sales or clicks. Remember that becoming successful on any social network requires a lot of patience. It’s my go-to piece of advice that I would give anyone about becoming successful on social media. If you have the following, but you still aren’t getting any sales, try the 80/20 rule. Tweet about other people’s content 80% of the time and your content 20% of the time. Better yet, when you tweet your content, tweet about your blog 15% of the time and one of your products only 5% of the time. People don’t want to see your product unless they trust and respect you. I finally bought Seth Godin’s book Purple Cow. I have been subscribed to his blog for more than a year, and I finally decided to buy the book. Some people will take months to build trust while others will take a year. You don’t get the return on investment right away. It takes time.

People Are Still Climbing The Vine

August 7, 2013 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Vine was a genius idea by Twitter which involved recording 6 second videos. Vine ended up becoming its own app and social network. Instagram jumped on the Vine video with an option for an Instagram video which records for 15 seconds and has more features than a Vine video. If you make a mistake on an Instagram video, you can take out some of the video. If you make a mistake on a Vine video, it’s time to start over.

Instagram videos are longer and have more features, but why is Vine still alive? In fact, the words ‘Vine Will Die’ were trending on Twitter when Instagram came out with its new videos. Some people were tweeting things like this:

“Vine (2013-2013).”

But people are still climbing the vine. People are still looking at Vine videos and sharing them with their friends. In fact, I was looking at my Facebook timeline and saw someone sharing a link to a Vine video.

There is a reason why Vine videos are still getting shared. Even though there are a lot of people now using Instagram videos, there is one prime reason that Vine videos are surviving. They aren’t getting shared as many times as Instagram, but when Instagram seems like the better option, why doesn’t everyone just move from Vine to Instagram?

The answer is that whether Vine is better than Instagram videos or not, Vine came first. The first option is the one that gets looked at the most. The second option, the Instagram videos takes time to get used to.

I don’t think Vine will be dying in 2013. The only way Twitter messed up with Vine was by making Vine its own social network. Instagram videos were added to Instagram which meant all 130 million users. Twitter has half a billion users which outnumbers Instagram..by a lot. If Twitter made Vine an application on Twitter, the conversation about Vine today might be different.

What comes first becomes habit. What comes second is different, and it takes time to get used to what comes second if it’s worth getting used to.

Yahoo! Offered $1 Billion To Someone ELSE Back In 2006

May 21, 2013 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Yahoo! made a great move buying Tumblr for $1.1 billion. Advertising will allow Yahoo! to make more money from Tumblr, and combined with Flickr, Yahoo! is definitely something to watch for. Yahoo! took on the challenge of turning Tumblr into a profit. Tumblr made about $13 million in revenue last year, but that won’t be enough to get a profit, especially since the price was $1.1 billion.

Google was able to buy YouTube back in 2006, and it has turned into a big success story. Google has profited immensely from buying YouTube. Yahoo! offered someone $1 billion for his Social Media website–Mark Zuckerberg.

Buying Facebook would have led to a huge profit assuming Facebook would have been the same either way. However, Zuckerberg turned down the $1 billion even when Facebook wasn’t the Social Media powerhouse it is today. When Zuckerberg was offered $1 billion, Facebook did not have over a billion members. By the way, Facebook now easily generates billions of dollars every year.

There are times when we have to back off and let a deal be done. Tumblr wasn’t going to make $1.1 billion in the direction it was going. Tumblr still continues to be successful, but with Yahoo’s purchase, Tumblr can be monetized more properly. There are also times when you have to stick it out and say no to a really good deal. Zuckerberg said no to Yahoo’s offer, and it was a great decision for him.

#Hashtags

April 16, 2013 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

If you use Twitter, then you have probably heard of hashtags. Hashtags add emphasis to a tweet by highlighting main words. By highlighting the main words, you will be able to give your visitors and followers an idea about what you talk about. Hashtags can be thought of as an exclamation point. Since a hashtag has a different color from the rest of the tweet’s text, it will be the first thing the visitor sees. However, having too many hashtags in your tweets is just like having too many exclamation points in the same paragraph–they will get overemphasized. This will result in less followers and visitors which is something that can’t happen. Don’t use too many hashtags in your tweets, but don’t avoid them either.