How to Use Social Media Effectively: A Lesson in Overlap, Privacy, and the Power of a Tweet

Social media is the newest toy, a fad, a phase, a resource, a platform for social expression, a political weapon, a marketing platform, a symptom, a pathology, a paradox, a conundrum, a black hole….

A MYSTERY!

Social media may be all of the above and more. In fact, social media is whatever you want it to be…because you define your experience!

Or do you?!

Ultimately, only time will tell. As with everything new, and in the grand scheme of things social media is in its infancy, in geological terms an instant in time (or less), there will be myriad changes before anything approaching its final expression will emerge.

The ultimate social media question, particularly interesting from an anthropological perspective may be:

What will social media look like in its final form, if a final form is indeed possible, or will it simply evolve until it eventually goes extinct? Will social media go the way of the Yo-Yo, the hoola hoop, console televisions, the Sony Walkman, the Commodore computer, Atari, the American Football League, the USFL, the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the Milwaukee Braves?

Think of all the things that were “here to stay” in your lifetime. I’ll bet you can name quite a few. Where are many of them now?

If we can bank on one thing, it is the attention span of the public, or lack thereof, the public here in the USA and around the world. It is fleeting!

Doubt it? For those of you who have been using Twitter for the last couple of years, how many of the people you connected with, “tweeted” with on a daily basis two years ago are still around? Of the ones who disappeared, I would be willing to bet many are still following you…they have simply vanished! And I am talking about people you really hit it off with, not the plethora of entrepreneurs engaging with you in an attempt at “relationship marketing” (a.k.a., social media marketing – an oxymoron), I am talking about people you conversed with daily about everything!

They are gone! Lost interest. Didn’t pay. Whatever!

Retention is social media is beyond the scope of this post but it is in the mix. Why? Because as social media continues to evolve on its way to a final form or extinction, it is going to reveal a lot about its users and about how society uses information.

And that is the reason for this post dealing with social media!

I came across this slide presentation dealing with social media at length on SlideShare and it is brilliant, thought-provoking, and even a bit frightening. I guarantee you haven’t thought of everything this man has. This SlideShare presentation is worth your time to read and digest because it is instructive, informative, and…a warning!

Social media is all of the above and none of the above mentioned manifestations. But whatever it is to you, it is a resource for others, an information base that is being compiled for a myriad of reasons.

So, be careful what you share on social media because regardless of how you perceive social media, there are others who will USE what your share differently; and, ultimately, for their own purposes!

Enjoy the slide show! It is worth the time!

John Zajaros
The Ultimate Internet Image
Lakewood, Ohio 44107
216-712-7004
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@ultimateinternetimage.com

PS, Please leave a comment if you like it…or if you don’t!

How to Build a Social Media Presence: The Use of Autofollowers and Other Mistakes

As more and more Internet marketers hop on the social media band wagon, chasing social media riches, many focus on building huge followings using the various autofollowers.

With all the hub-ub about Twitter, and social media in general, that people would attempt to shortcut the system in order to get the most out of it, or simply because the alternative is too labor intensive, is not suprising in the least!

Regardless of the reason or reasons for the various shortcuts (e.g., shortage of time, personnel, greed, pie-eyed optimism, whatever), many people have resorted to various pick and shovel resources, the resources sold to the “gold miners” of social media, the “49ers” if you will, the men and women, even boys and girls seeking their fortune via social media.

Some of the more common ‘picks and shovels” are autofollowers, autotweet platforms, and even entire Twitter management systems. I am going to leave the numbers two and three alone, for now anyway, and focus on the auto-followers and their use…or abuse.

Twitter has been working hard to deal with the avalanche of spam complaints and much of it stems from the shortcutting enaged in my individuals and companies attempting to gain and edge.

Significantly, much of the spam and many of the resulting complaints stem from those individuals aggressively, some would argue too aggressively, building their following, connections, friends, and so on with the various “tools” being sold to the “miners” as the next-best get rich quick with social media ploy.

The ironic thing about all of this is that Twitter and the other social media platforms do not work like that, they aren’t Web 2.0 or 3.0 slot machines. In other words, you can’t simply post a link, or “link up,” and expect the Heavens to open, manta to be delivered from On-High, and gold to be discovered in “them thar hills!”

Yes, once in while someone may purchase something but it is rare and the ROI just plain sucks! The time spent posting links can be better spent writing articles, making videos, and doing the real work of Internet marketing. There are no shortcuts and a huge following without brand recognition is just about worthless…it is the connection, that’s the real power of social media!

We all want to make the most with the least amount of time and effort, the 80/20 Rule and all of that, but certain things just don’t work and linking up with every tweet or post is not only ineffective, it is the kiss of death!

Social media marketing is an oxymoron, marketing within social media, and I am talking about all day every day linking up from morning to night, will not only NOT lead to sales, it will lead to social media suicide.

Social media mugging is a concept I am in total agreement with. You simply cannot link up on the first encounter, with every link and/or in every situation. I have referred to it as the ” Psst! Hey Buddy, wanna buy a watch?” syndrome! It is just as alienating and just as ineffective.

Don’t do it!

Build your following like you are building a foundation for your own home, do it one brick at a time, one follower, connection or friend at a time. The nice thing about this approach is that, although it will take more time, you will know where all the bricks are and you will know exactly what you have. And, that is what yields results, knowing your following, not simply having an amorphous mass of strangers, unresponsive, cold, and totally unaware of you you are and/or what you are about!

Build one person at a time, review profiles, send invitations before, during and after your follow each other and you will achieve success in a way most people using the shortcuts only dream of!

18,000 followers in 18 days or 18,000 in a year? The former is useless, the latter is responsive, engaging, and fun…they are friends! 18,000 social media friends is incredible…18,000 strangers is a mess! Which would you prefer?

Thanks and contact me anytime!

John

Professor John P. J. Zajaros, Sr., The Bad Back Guy
216-712-6526
216-539-7412
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@thequestrevealed.com

Dan Hollings was brilliant tonight, talking about the Twitter marketing portion of StomperNet’s new Internet marketing platform.

As has been the case with every member of the StomperNet faculty over the past month, Dan was fantastic! The ladies and gentlemen of the StomperNet faculty have defined Internet marketing and online business success; and, they have also demonstrated the professional way to launch an Internet marketing product, with first-class information and a quality platform!

If you follow me anywhere on social media, you know that I am a big advocate of implementation. In other words, taking action using the proper tools, and to do so in the most efficient and effective way possible. I am talking about an Internet marketing business system, combining the necessary tools to make money online, along with those necessary to run a business effectively, not just in the sort run…but for years to come, should that be your desire.

I am always skeptical when I read some of the sales letters written by people calling themselves “gurus.” In some instances, these tomes are written by people barely able to keep their businesses afloat, offering this program or that, many of the words bandied about are:

Guru, and you may already know how I feel about that term as a descriptive adjective for most marketers!

Mentor, always at a prices that would make a Vegas Madam blush!

Coach, I wonder what John Wooden or Joe Paterno would say?

“Life” Coach, as opposed to what?

And many more!

Many of the people using these appellations have never built a lasting business of their own, in good times or bad, and fewer still have any real idea what it takes to be successful in the long-term. Yet we are bombarded daily with parroted advice from those among us…

“Faking it, until making it!”

Don’t get me wrong!

I am 100% behind people making a go of it online, in Internet marketing proper or in affiliate or niche marketing, because it’s all really the same thing (or is it?), they have my respect and admiration!

The problem I have is with people attempting to run before they have a good understanding of what it takes to walk…and attempting to lead others over the same cliff you may be heading for. The drop is steep and unforgiving.

So, my question is this:

If you aren’t sure of what you are doing, how in the world are you going to teach others?

The answer:

You can’t, at least not without pulling the both of you down together!

You see, sales and marketing is a lot more complex than most people maintain in their books with the catchy phrases. While many throw around names like Hill, Nightingale, Ziglar, Hopkins, Girard, and now Robbins and Tracy, they have little understanding of what drives people to act on a consistent and continuous basis, on both sides of the equation; sales/marketing; and, the purchasing-target audience/market.

Unfortunately, certain Internet marketing “gurus” have created an air of positive expectancy that doesn’t always match up with reality.

Some marketing “gurus” claim the “chosen few” will make from $10,000 to $100,000 per month in a matter of a few weeks, implying that all you have to do is:

1) Spend $X dollars for an application fee…that one kills me!

2) Spend $Y dollars an ebook…usually written in vague generalities in order to sell more, you guessed it, stuff!

AND

3) Spend $Z dollars for a monthly membership…and we get what for that? More stuff!

FINALLY

4) The heavens will open and all will be made clear from one high!

After all, their sales letter maintains…just look what Gee Willacres did in just 6 months after:

1) Having a leg removed…the wrong one!

2) Being trampled by a horse…a pony from the traveling carnival really!

AND

3) Having open-heart surgery…when he was supposed to have a kidney transplant!

If Gee can do it…well, gosh…so can you!

Pile on top of this line of whooey, whooey being a technical term I learned at the George Carlin School of Internet Marketing and Online Shenanigans Annual Conference, in suburban Tehran, the idea that a web presence (nice word for mass produced website) set up as some sort of a cookie-cutter, big scheme Internet marketing (Read: MLM) template is going to do draw the thousands to tens of thousands of victims, I mean visitors, per month necessary, based on even the best conversion numbers online, to generate that sort of income is flat out tom-foolery!

Another Carlin school term! Being a graduate, I am allowed to thrown them around!

And I am being very kind with the descriptive adjectives…sans the four letter ones!

Reality?

The reality of an individual with no clear idea of what to do and how to do it, just laid off from his or her job at Bob’s Burger Palace and Horseshoeing Emporium, a gig they’ve had for the last 20 years, and turning to the Internet in desperation is very different from the reality of an individual who has a marketing background, a stable home life, time to build a proper foundation before going full time, which includes the time educate one’s self, the moxie to network properly, and plenty of resources to spend on education and to fall back on if he or she takes a header off of one of those Internet marketing, online business cliffs!

Yet Internet marketing “gurus” seem to focus on the target market en mass…without realizing that Joe Palooka’s Internet marketing needs are very different from Betsey Homecki’s online business aspirations! Very few people (read: gurus with a small “g”) actually take the time to build any version of “Bob” (watch The New Money Masters with Frank Kern and Tony Robbins, brilliant!), and if they are, they must be way off the mark, because most of the people I talk to are frustrated, angry, disenchanted, and even bitter…tracking back to their experiences with the “gurus!” They want to make it, many want it with a white hot desire! The problem is with the delivery of information at a reasonable cost and in a way that is truly user friendly.

I don’t believe many of the “gurus” have a clue how people learn, much less what it takes to teach them! The end result is a support nightmare, a lot of people referring to “gurus” as scam artists, and a stadium full of people (Read: Joe Girard) screaming don’t buy from so-and-so! More to come on this topic!

So, getting back to Internet marketing, online business success, coaching, mentoring, and implementation!

The problem most people have starting out is not a lack of information, there is plenty of good information available if you know how to research and know what you are looking for; it’s not that there isn’t a proven template for success, there are several successful online business models available; and, it’s not that there is a lack of quality software to implement even the most ambitious strategies, there are some great Internet marketing implementation platforms available. The challenge is in knowing who to listen to, understanding what they are saying, which means cutting through all the hype; and finally, which program to invest in…in order to pull it all together…or at least start on the right path.

Who: Who to listen to and, more importantly, who to believe!

What: Understanding what they are saying. This means understanding the basics of marketing in general and Internet marketing specifically!

Which: Which way to go! There is no shortage of voices in the wilderness, some as soothing and convincing as any Siren’s call! Knowing which program to invest in has with it its own set of qualifiers and traps to avoid!

Beware!

Or better yet: Buyer Beware!

The reality…ah, back to reality…is that you can go any which way and get to where you are going. Or, as the old one-liner goes:

“You can’t get there from here!”

Ultimately, you have to put your faith, if trust is too big a word right now, in someone and something…both of them!

You must deal with the 3 Ws:

Who
What
Which

Back to Stompernet!

I have recommended a handful of programs over the last year, the ones I have wholeheartedly endorsed, and still use, I can count on one hand!

Enter StomperNet!

At $10,000 per year, it was just not in my make-up to invest that kind of money, even at $800 per month, in a marketing program, particularly at the stage of development I was in when StomperNet appeared on my radar. I have followed Brad Fallon, and he back, almost from day one of my involvement on Twitter, so I knew of Brad and StomperNet…and had heard nothing but good about both the man and the Internet marketing opportunity, because StomperNet is much more than a program, it is a complete system!

Ah, finally! The final piece of the puzzle:

System!

Like TrafficGeyser, a much more specialized system, one I endorse wholeheartedly, StomperNet is not only an Internet marketing system, it is a community, a university of sorts…in a very real way, a bit of academia on the Internet.

StomperNet is perhaps the only true Internet marketing university!

For that reason, and because I am so impressed with the StomperNet system and it’s community, including its amazing faculty, I am going to make the following offer:

If you purchase StomperNet using my affiliate link, you may contact me at any time, day or night 24/7 for the next 365 days, no kidding, for the next year, and we will work through the implementation together! I will always get back to you in short order, always!

PLEASE!

Do not take this as some sort of a “I am the greatest, I will lead you” ego trip!

I will be starting with StomperNet just like you, from the beginning! However, I do have experience with some of the components as individual products, so we will not be flying blind. What I am offering is a mastermind of at least two, open almost at your beck and call, and all you have to do is make your purchase through my link.

We will do the rest together.

In fact , I will make this even better:

For the next 90 days, we will meet online, via Skype, 3 evenings a week…for at least an hour a session…perhaps longer!

After the first 90 days we will see how things go. You never know, we may find we enjoy the mastermind sessions and simply expand upon it.

That’s my offer! I am so impressed with StomperNet, I think this is something that can serve to push a bunch of new “stompers” up all at once!

Once you get your email confirmation, and I get mine, we will set up our first session!

I am looking forward to having you as a fellow Stomper, as a colleague, and as a member of a mastermind focused solely on our collective success in Internet marekting!

John

Professor John P. J. Zajaros, Sr., PhD
216-712-6526
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@thequestrevealed.com
excellencepaidforward@gmail.com (my very personal email address)

PS, In case you missed it, the links toward the top of the article above are for the webinar series, the ones down the page are going straight to the StomperNet main page! Either way, see you soon!

How do we to get the biggest bang for our social media buck? In other words, understanding the metrics of Twitter is on everyone’s mind these days. As marketers attempt to determine the efficacy of their overall social media marketing strategy and how “the new kid on the block” fits into it, the challenge becomes, how do we optimize and monetize our efforts? In other words, how do we quantify Twitter?

As noted in the first two articles in this series, Twitter has taken the world by storm. Or to use a corny pun, < Twitter has the Internet a-flutter! The fact is, the growth rate of Twitter is nothing short of phenomenal. The mini-blogging phenomenon has taken the social media world by storm, 140 characters at a time. On Thursday, June 25, 2009, Alexa ranked Twitter #17 in the world, up 66 in 3 months, with an average rank of 36. The growth has been steady, with quite a few peaks and very few valleys. In fact, the valleys seem to be reflective of daily usage patterns rather than any sort of a dip in popularity. The only two areas of decline are in Pageviews/User and Time on Site, down 14.2% and 5%, respectively. The popularity of Twitter in the United States is immediately apparent, with 43.5% of all traffic coming from the States. However, the social media phenomenon is also ranked high in South Africa at #10, #13 in Australia with 2.6% of all traffic to the site originating Downunder, #14 in the US and UK, with 6.2% of all Twitter traffic originating in the British Isles. Significantly, Germany is ranked #20, contributing 8.7% of all traffic to the site, second only to the US. Finally, Japan #137, Russia #153, France #161, and China #169 are at the bottom of the list, in terms traffic rank for those countries listed by Alexa.