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No, it’s not the thumbnail (although it’s a significant improvement from past videos).
The secret behind engaging YouTube videos will surprise you. You’ll either hate it or love it.
If you hate it, you have to learn how to love it because it’s the difference between engaging and non-engaging videos.
If the video is not engaging, regardless of its value, people won’t continue watching.
[Tweet “The Hidden Secret Behind Engaging #YouTube Videos.”]
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.
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Instagram is booming. With over 300 million users, Instagram has quickly emerged as “just another social network” to one of the top social networks on the web. Brands have capitalized on the opportunity and have accrued large audiences on Instagram.
However, not everyone uses Instagram for business. While Twitter and Facebook are established as great social networks for business, Instagram is usually left out. Although Instagram gets left out, it has a lot of firepower.
Instagram recently rolled out paid ads, and these ads should soon enough bring forth sensational results. Why? Facebook owns Instagram, and Facebook ads are the best type of social media ads today. You can get highly targeted likes for less than $0.01 per like.
Facebook has mastered the social media advertising game. Instagram is next. Imagine how game changing it would be if you could get highly targeted Instagram followers for as little as $0.01 per follower.
It’s going to happen, and at this stage of the game, you can grow a large Instagram audience without paying a penny. While a post on a Facebook Page is seen by a small percentage of your fans, an Instagram post will get seen by a large chunk of your audience. The average photo or video posted by an Instagram brand reaches 25-35% of that brand’s followers.
You don’t want to wait any longer. Instagram is the social network that needs your attention now. Regardless of whether you’ve been focusing on Instagram all along or Instagram for business never crossed your mind, these are the four things you must do on Instagram right now.
#1: Post Daily
Each time you post a new picture on Instagram, your audience sees your content. As you begin posting pictures more often, the people within your audience start to remember you. Some people in your audience will remember you so well that they will go to your profile for new posts.
In other words, they won’t wait for your posts to show up in their home feed. They want to see your latest Instagram posts the moment you cross their minds.
When you post every day, you become a familiar face to the people within your audience. As more people engage with your Instagram posts, there will be certain people who you also become familiar with. This is how relationships on social media are built.
The relationships you build on social media can lead to great opportunities. Some of the relationships I built on social media led to podcast interviews, guest blogging opportunities, and more.
Finally, by posting daily, you have a stronger incentive to grow on that social network. If you have thousands of pictures on Instagram, that is an incentive to make all of the work you put into your Instagram account worthwhile. That same incentive is not as powerful for a Twitter account with only five tweets.
Posting daily lets you embrace Instagram, see its potential, and grow an audience of people who appreciate your content.
#2: Use Canva To Create Awesome Pictures
One of the main reasons people don’t post on Instagram every day is because they don’t believe they have that many pictures worth sharing. There are only so many pictures within the camera roll. What do you do when you run out of awesome pictures to share?
There are two solutions.
I prefer creating my pictures and then posting them to Instagram. Canva is the best free tool on the web for creating pictures. You get numerous templates, background colors, and add-ons to choose from.
If you don’t like their add-ons, you can always upload your own pictures (or pictures from the web) to Canva’s dashboard.
#3: Consider Outsourcing The Work
The largest barrier that held me back from utilizing Instagram was time. I saw Instagram’s potential but would never have the time to get to it. With the mix of growing my Twitter audience and now focusing most of my time on Udemy, my time was spread too thin for Instagram.
Now most of my work is outsourced. All I do on Twitter now is engage with my followers because everything else has been outsourced. All of that time I once spent following people and scheduling tweets gets devoted to other parts of my business.
Now I am putting more time and effort towards Instagram. But even now, outsourcing still reigns. I hire people to create the pictures for my Instagram account and this blog. I didn’t create the picture you saw at the top of this blog post.
And I have no shame in admitting that. Outsourcing some of your Instagram activity allows you to buy back valuable time that you can repurpose into other parts of your business. Even if you don’t outsource your Instagram activity, you need to outsource something in your business immediately.
#4: Use HootSuite To Schedule Posts From Your Desktop For Free
The second largest barrier holding me back from utilizing Instagram was poor desktop compatibility. Since I do most of my work on my Mac Book Pro, and Instagram isn’t as optimized for the desktop as it is for mobile, I didn’t spend much time on Instagram.
Then HootSuite came through in the clutch (again) by making Instagram a part of the dashboard. Now it is possible to schedule Instagram posts for free straight from the HootSuite dashboard regardless of whether you are using a mobile device or a desktop.
The bridge has finally been connected and made free for everyone. But if you do not cross that bridge to Instagram Domination, then the bridge serves no purpose.
If you don’t have time to schedule your Instagram posts, you can easily outsource that work to someone else so you can focus on your Instagram account’s growth.
In Conclusion
Instagram is a booming social network that is only going to get bigger and better for business. If you do not utilize Instagram yet, then now is the time to start. Right now, I want to hear from you. What are your thoughts about Instagram for business? How do you use Instagram? What tips do you have for us? Sound off in the comments section below.
Social media and blogging are my jam. I have over 300,000 social media followers and get hundreds of thousands of annual blog visitors. I’m also getting a lot better with Facebook ads. In less than a month, my Facebook Page went from 300 likes to over 10,000 likes. And I average $0.01 per like.
But social media and blogging are just two slices of a much larger pie. They are critical pieces of the pie, but if you exclusively rely on blogging and social media, you will be disappointed.
Two years ago, I aspired to surpass 100,000 Twitter followers. I eventually surpassed that milestone, but my income didn’t skyrocket in the same sense. I quickly went from 1,667 Twitter followers to over 100,000, but the changes in my income were minuscule at best.
Getting all of those Twitter followers resulted in a big increase in my blog’s traffic. Social media is the main reason this blog became successful, and seeing that social proof every day boosted my confidence.
So I was successful on social media and getting a ton of blog traffic. Why was my income at the same level?
I didn’t look at the rest of the pie. I was missing out on some great opportunities. And yes, I’ll say it. Many others already have.
I SHOULD HAVE FOCUSED ON MY EMAIL LIST EARLIER!!
I was getting traffic, but I wasn’t getting sticky traffic. I wasn’t building strong enough relationships with my audience. Creating an email list is the best way to strengthen the relationship between you and your visitors. Some email lists are also highly profitable.
When I focused on my email list, I started getting better results. Each of my product launches was more successful than the last because my audience continued to grow. So far, my most profitable months on Udemy were because of email blasts.
But I’m about to turn the tables and flip the world upside down.
Your email list isn’t enough either!
You need to make money. More specifically, you need to make money by creating your own products. Affiliate marketing is an option, but if you rely on affiliate marketing, then your income depends on other people creating products and giving you good rates.
Most of the money I make comes from my books and training courses. The best part is that this is passive income. I create the product, market it, and then people buy it. I make money in my sleep.
Blogging and social media get the ball rolling—you can grow a large audience. Your email list and products allow the ball to roll in the right direction—you build the relationship and promote your products.
The best part with this strategy is that you can scale up. That’s why each of my product launches has been more successful than the last. My audience continues growing each day. Across all of my social networks, I gain over 1,000 new followers per day. This growth leads to more subscribers and more revenue for each of my product launches.
Since we are on the topic of product launches, I want to discuss one important thing about product creation. It is tempting to look at the most recognized entrepreneurs in the world promoting one product for a long period of time. They may go on numerous podcasts promoting this one product for many months before finally launching it.
For these entrepreneurs, it’s a great strategy for getting a massive amount of sales. Some of these entrepreneurs are also authors who use this strategy to turn their books into bestsellers.
However, I don’t recommend that approach (unless you are one of those entrepreneurs with millions of subscribers. Then go for it). The reason is that if you only create one product and focus on it, it either makes or breaks you.
I focused on one product for six months. I didn’t spend any of my time creating other products. That one product broke me. Luckily I didn’t lose money, but I lost a lot of time.
Now I create four Udemy courses each month. Not all of my Udemy courses become successful, but some of them bring in a bulk of my income. I get to learn what works and what doesn’t work.
Creating more products also makes it mathematically easier to reach income goals. Let’s say you want to make $1,000 per month from Udemy training courses. If you have 10 courses, then each course needs to make $100. If you only have one course, then that one course must make the entire $1,000 per month.
I’m not saying to trade quality for quantity. However, you don’t want to gamble your success on one product launch.
In Conclusion
Social media and blogging allow you to grow a large audience. It takes a lot of time and effort to accumulate that large audience. That’s why you want to make sure you pay attention to the other slices of the pie. While having hundreds of thousands of social media followers and blog visitors helps, you must also build your email list and create products.
What is your stance on blogging and social media? What other slices of the pie do you take seriously? Sound off in the comments section below.
The answer is that there are plenty of ways to make money on social media. You can promote sponsored posts and tweet affiliate links. However, those aren’t long-term methods to make money on social media.
So how do you make a good profit from your social media efforts? The answer is to view social media as an indirect way of generating a massive amount of sales.
This is the three step formula to using social media to indirectly boost your sales:
#1: Promote Your Landing Page To Grow Your Email List
Grow your email list on social media consists of two basic steps:
Most people only focus on building the relationship. The reason some people don’t see themselves growing their email lists is because they don’t create the call to action.
Every day, I promote my landing page several times per day. I promote one of my landing pages on Facebook every day. On Twitter, I tweet about my landing page every hour. Each social media post that promotes your landing page is a call to action.
If you don’t have a landing page yet, they are easy to create with Optimize Press. Optimize Press is the best WordPress plugin known to man because it lets you create landing pages, membership sites, and just about everything else.
#2: Use Your Email List To Strengthen The Relationship
Now you have people on your email list. What happens next? Relationship building.
While social media is great for building relationships, nothing beats email. Conversations get longer and more meaningful. People are used to seeing your content often and get to know you better.
As you continue growing and communicating with your email list, you will start to become an authority within your niche.
To make a full-time income as an entrepreneur, you need a massive email list. That way, you have your own audience. As you continue to grow your audience, you will continue gaining momentum. A constantly growing audience allows each of your product launches to be more successful than the last.
Speaking of products…
#3: Promote Products To Your Email List
The popular saying on the web is that “The Money Is In The List.” However, if you don’t promote any products to your subscribers, then you won’t make any money.
While you provide your subscribers with free value, you must send the occasional promotional email. Every 6-12 weeks, let your subscribers know about the product you recently launched. If you don’t create products, you can promote someone else’s product through an affiliate link.
Bonus Tip: Feed The Beast
Each time I accomplish a major goal, I always ask myself, “What’s Next?” I celebrate the goal for a day and then look at new horizons. When you make the revenue from your email list, you should set your eyes on new horizons as well.
One thing you should consider doing with your extra revenue is to invest it into online advertising (newspaper ads are just about dead). Social media advertising makes it possible to turbocharge your landing page’s exposure which results in more people on your email list.
If you know how to make a profit following a certain blueprint, it only makes sense to feed the beast. If you can spend $1 to make $5, why not spend $1,000 to make $5,000?
Once you master the three step formula, I recommend you take a look at social media advertising. Social media advertising is a way for you to scale up your results and success.
In Conclusion
To make a full-time income on social media, you can’t think of it as direct income. You can’t use social media to directly promote affiliate links and sales pages. People aren’t going on social media thinking about buying things.
They go on social media to socialize with friends and catch up with the latest news. Some social media users are on the search for valuable information, but when on social media, they don’t have their wallets out.
But they do have an email address ready to go. If you create a landing page with an irresistible offer, people will enter their email addresses and join your list. Then, you can build the relationship with a series of emails.
While people aren’t looking to buy stuff on social media, they are more open to buying products that show up in the inbox. Chances are at some point, an email you opened inspired you to buy something. You may have recently bought something you saw in your inbox a few weeks ago.
The reason emails lead to sales is because the way we communicate builds a sense of trust. If we authentically show up in someone’s inbox long enough those people will trust us. They will believe in the value our products provide. Then they will buy those products and tell their friends about them.
How do you use social media to generate revenue? Do you have experience with social media advertising? Sound off in the comments section below!
One of my pet peeves is when people say social media doesn’t generate ROI. There is a comic on the web that encapsulates my pet peeve very well. It’s a hit on social media “gurus”—only few people are actually experts.
Just because most people don’t get an ROI from social media doesn’t mean social media can’t generate an ROI. Without social media, I would not have an audience. Take a look at one of most recent days of blog traffic:
Most of my blog’s visitors are coming from Twitter. As these people continue visiting my blog, the relationship between me and those people will continue to grow. Some of these people will decide to subscribe to your blog while others will decide to buy products.
In other words, social media alone can’t give you an ROI. I’m not going to act as if social media is the magical, stand-alone medicine that makes you go from zero to millionaire. I know what it means to be on both sides of the coin.
Now I have over 250,000 social media followers, and I am very happy with my ROI. When I had my first 100,000 Twitter followers, my income stayed the same. I wondered if I could ever make money from my social media strategy. It was a BIG wake up call.
In less than a year, I turned my social media strategy from an ROI nightmare to an ROI sensation. It was helpful to have over 100,000 Twitter followers and a lot of engagement. But the large audience isn’t necessary to turn your social media activity into an ROI sensation.
To start turning your social media activity into an ROI sensation, follow these methods:
#1: Promote Your Landing Page More Often
Your landing page is the most valuable page on your blog for growing your email list. Landing pages are dedicated to getting more subscribers because they only let a visitor perform one action: enter the email address.
I have created several landing pages like this one.
The landing page does not have any tabs or navigation. While you can just click the “x” in a pop-up, there is no “x” button for a landing page. However, just because you create a landing page doesn’t mean you are going to get more subscribers.
You get more subscribers from your landing page by promoting that landing page. I promote my landing page in my guest posts and on social media. All of this promotion leads to dozens of daily subscribers.
So where does the money come in? You use social media to get more people to your landing page. That results in more subscribers. Then, you communicate to your subscribers with an autoresponder and email blasts.
At the end of all of my autoresponders is a promotional email of one of my products or a consultation session. For some services, I charge well over $100 in the autoresponder, and I make sales. I can tell that social media is responsible because most of my customers tell me that they found me on Twitter (or another social network).
#2: Engage With Your Audience
If you are not engaging with your audience on social media, then you are not using social media properly. It’s the equivalent of wanting to be a faster runner but not running. The reason few interactions occur is because most people focus more on the media part than on the social part of social media.
Engaging with your audience lets you know the individuals within your audience. Knowing individuals in your audience better will allow you to know what your entire audience wants. Knowing what your audience wants will help you create better products.
When I say engaging with your audience, I am referring to having actual conversations with several people in your audience. Scheduling tweets and pins isn’t engaging. That’s providing value. Say hi, thank your followers for sharing your content, and ask them questions. That’s how real engagement works.
#3: Reach Out To The Right People On Social Media
Did you know that some people with less than 5,000 Twitter followers get more opportunities than people with over 100,000 Twitter followers? That’s the same for the other social networks. Some people with 5,000 Pinterest followers get more opportunities than the people with 100,000 Pinterest followers.
There are two components that determine how many opportunities from social media
The “right people” consists of the people in your audience and people who can present you with an opportunity. Contact the people who have podcasts, can get you into the big media outlets, or can help you reach out to a new audience.
You can use social media to tap into these types of opportunities and get involved with several joint ventures. Tapping into other people’s audiences with the help of social media is great for you to expand your own audience while providing someone else’s audience with additional value.
Don’t immediately go for the people with hundreds of thousands of social media followers. Practice with people who have smaller audiences and are more likely to notice you.
Ideally, you want to be the big fish in the small pond. That way, you will get noticed. If you have a few thousand social media followers, you may not be the big fish in the small pond for Pat Flynn’s podcast. He’s getting people like Tim Ferris on his podcast. However, you may appear as the big fish in the small pond on a new podcaster’s show.
Guest blogging is a different animal. To some guest bloggers, all that matters is valuable content. To other guest bloggers, highly regarded bloggers are the only ones with entry.
Before you contact someone on social media to ask for an opportunity, do some quick research on the person. You want to see whether this person is likely to give you an opportunity or not.
After you get the opportunity, continue to build upon the relationship. Continuing the relationship may open the door to more opportunities, but it’s more important for character. You don’t want to be someone who takes an opportunity and then disappears from the person who gave you the opportunity.
#4: Leverage Your Credentials Whenever You Can
As you continue growing on social media, you will eventually reach a point where you can use your social media audience as a credential.
If I tell people who don’t know me that I want to become successful on social media, they may look at me funny. I am a 17 year old who can be mistaken as naive. When I mention the size of my social media audience, the conversation takes an entirely new direction.
The way you articulate your social media audience’s impact and your expertise will determine how seriously people take you.
Not only does a large social media audience help at networking events, but it has a significant impact on how people view your online presence. We tend to gravitate towards the people with large social media audiences because of social proof.
Social proof is the reason why we skip the restaurant with the empty parking lot and head over to the restaurant with the crowded parking lot. Since so many people are a part of something, it must be phenomenal.
In the same way, if you have so many social media followers, what you are doing must be phenomenal. Of course, that isn’t always the case. Some people with large social media audiences don’t do phenomenal things. However, if you do phenomenal things, the social media audience will help a first-time visitor understand that and appreciate what you do.
Every time I promote one of my products about social media, I always mention that I have over 250,000 social media followers. It is a valuable credential that lets people know they are learning from someone with a large social media audience.
You don’t get a dollar each time you mention the credential. But you can get someone to buy one of your books or training course if you properly include the social proof. You get that social proof by growing your social media audience and interacting.
In Conclusion
Social media won’t help you make direct money. However, social media is the best platform for generating indirect sales. If you are not leveraging social media now, then it’s time to get started.
Just think of social media as a platform to build the relationship with your audience. The relationship is what results in sales.
How do you use social media to generate ROI? Does your business use or dodge social media? Do you need help with social media? Sound off in the comments section below.