Social Media TV – Mari Smith

Some may think this is going to far, but in the interests of learning video can be very effective.  Mari Smith is a world recognized expert in all things Facebook, teaming up with Social Media Examiner they have launched Social Media Examiner TV. 

The first episode, featured here, focuses on 3 areas.  The first is an IPAD app called Flipboard.  Becoming efficient as you browse all your online streams of info becomes important and Flipboard allows you to do just that.  The second is about Facebook, not just that they have reached 500 million active users, but that they are really moving towards users controlling their fanpages via thier own web site using the social plugins.  The third is all about my favorite Foursquare.  This location based service has huge potential for business owners if they embrace it.

Take alook and let me know what you think. Mari is a very personable speaker with a wealth of knowledge. if you like her check out her facebook page!

In Calgary during the Stampede this year I noticed some interesting tactics they employ that would work well in any business let alone a rodeo!  So here is my top 3

1.  Get the people passionately behind you. – Almost all of the people of Calgary are dressed to the nines at this time of year. What compels them to do that? For some they are dressing up for work (restaurants etc) for some its what you do during Stampede. The single simple act of wearing a cowboy hat and boots this week keeps the Stampede in the top of everyone’s mind.  Every time you see a Stetson you are reminded “oh right the Stampede”.  Many of the people dressing up will never go, but they are behind the event 100%.  What can you do in your marketing that is easy for people to get behind, emulate and embrace. Does it start with your staff? Are they behind you? How will anyone else be behind you if they aren’t.  Then how can you make that a visual reminder of your business. What is your Stetson?

2.  Go to the people and make it easy. – Everywhere you go you can get tickets, discounts on rides etc.  This makes it very easy for the locals to get in for what they perceive to be a good fair deal.  Attendance is up avg 15% so far this year so is it working? I would say so. How do you make it easy for your customer to find and interact with you? I was just on web site for templates for web sites. I wanted to know how to get one customized. You would thing that would be an easy thing to find. I had to call their customer support to find out they have a separate web site for that. How many people would call or would they move on to the next company?  Have you experienced your business from the customers perspective? Are the answers there when they need them? do you make it hard for them to be your customer? How well do you serve them?

3.  Celebrate the good. – there are  a lot of things that can go wrong at the Stampede. Not the least of which are deaths of animals and most recently golf ball sized hail.  How do you recover and get back to business the next day?  here the show must go on, they are kind of forced to move on respectfully.  What speed bumps do you hit in your business that stop your marketing dead in its tracks? You have a lot to celebrate but do you celebrate those things publicly?  Staff anniversaries, awards, mentions, testimonials. Don’t let the negative outweigh the positive. In our sign shop we print the positive comments our customers give us and put them on our wall of fame and when we have “one of those days” we can use those comments to motivate us forward. 

4.  Be unique and interesting. – There is not a day that goes by that is uneventful and boring at the Stampede, even if you are not into Rodeo’s.  This show gives anyone an experience they cannot get anywhere else. Right from the entrance you are immersed in their culture, excitement and they shape your experience. It may not be the co ordinated experience of Disneyland however that is not what they are trying to do. Underneath the chaos is a plan to make sure that every attendee will be entertained and have gotten their money’s worth.  Do all your customers feel they have their moneys worth? Do you know if you keep them engaged and interested? Give them an experience and they will tell the world.

OK I know that is more than 3, but I could not leave the experience part out, its critical to the success and growth of the event from a big city Rodeo to the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth!

Does this describe your referral marketing efforts to date? You know you need to generate referrals and you even know how, but you just don’t – something always gets in the way of you taking the time to develop a referral marketing system. Introducing. . . Referral Engine Pro Groups – Coaching, Accountability and Feedback Referral Engine Pro Groups are a way for small business owners, independent professionals and sales people to come together in a group setting with a marketing coach to get the feedback they need to actually get their referral marketing system on track.

Watch this intro with John Jantsch!    Click on this link     http://vimeo.com/11807331 How it Works •  each member receives the Referral Engine Pro manual as the basis for the Power Group work •  in person once a week for 3 weeks • Each session includes an action assignment. Prior to each session all group members are asked to submit their assignment to be distributed to and commented on by each group member and your coach What You Will Accomplish in a Group • Create a step-by-step, documented referral marketing system based on your very specific target market • Develop referral marketing tools, letters, and offers that will help you generate a flood of new business • Devise a precise strategy for making referral marketing your core marketing weapon • Give and receive timely feedback on every aspect of your referral marketing system

REgister Now for the Earlybird Pricing!

Week by Week Sessions Week 1  - Introduction, goal setting and system action plan for the program                         Define target referral market and core referral message Week 2- Create referral education and strategic partner plan                 Create referral marketing offers, tools and follow-up system

Week 3 – Follow up and Review Get started with a Duct Tape Marketing Coach! REgister Here today

Following the launch of the wildly successful follow up book  to Duct Tape Marketing, The Referral Engine,  we are pleased to announce the first Referral Engine Pro Workshops in Grande Prairie Alberta starting Aug 14, 2010.

The course will be 4 weeks long covering how to set up your referral system using ourReferral Engine Pro system.

Check out here for more information

In Person http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e2y8q1j1c1a0b457

Online http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e2ye3lvv051cf7f9

Listening to a radio show this week I was listening to Dr Oz of Oprah fame. He said something that is really profound to me. He said his biggest lesson in learning how to have a successfull TV show came from Oprah (of course) and what she taught him was that when your show is about you its boring, when your show is about the people the audience its engaging.

That is what I have been “preaching” about marketing for a long time. When you make your social media, your advertisements, your brochures etc about the customer its engaging…. when your marketing is all about you it’s boring. Do you have boring marketing? One of the top ways to get referred more often is to stop being boring. Not just in your marketing but in how your business operates.

This theory is obviously working for Dr. Oz, first year of his new show and he wins a daytime emmy!

If you asked your customers would they say you are boring?

80% of businesses say word of mouth gets them the most business yet less than 75% of those businesses have a system in place to get those referrals more often. Which boat do you fall into?

If you want to learn from the master how to set up a referral system, please sign up for John Jantch’s FREE webinar on Tuesday July 6th. Register for this webinar here. The new book “the Referral Engine” is still going strong on the best sellers list and is packed full of ideas, examples and more on how to make your business market itself!

Here is the registration link – https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/923654456

Today is Make a Referral Monday and this week I want to refer Priority Chainlink.  They are a local chainlink fencing company in Grande Prairie. They make simple work of the installation and and timley and quick.  They support the community by volunteering and sponsoring.  We recently had some work done by Priority and were very pleased they were very fast and there was no debris or anything after they had installed the fence. 

Make a referral Monday is an initiative that John Jantsch with Duct Tape Marketing began to encourage people to refer those businesses that are referal worthy.  Make a Referral Monday is gaining new popularity with the release of John’s new book ” The Referral Engine: Teaching your business to marketing itself”.   Here is his vision of MARM!

Please join me in kicking off something I call Make a Referral Monday. The idea is to bring the practice of making referrals into focus every week, all year long.

One of the ways to keep this idea alive and top of mind is to use the awesome reach of Twitter as a weekly reminder and accountability tool. If you participate on Twitter you are probably aware of something called Follow Friday. Follow Friday asks folks to share the names of people on Twitter that you like to follow, with the idea that other might as well. Follow Friday participants use what’s called a hashtag to designate their Follow Friday listing – #FF (More on Twitter hashtag use here)

To participate in Make a Referral Monday (#marm) I would like ask you to a) make a referral and b) tell the Twitter world about it using #marm as a hashtag each and every Monday. Something like: I just referred @AcmePrinting to my BFFs at @ZetaGraphics both do awesome work #marm

I think we have the ability to create a bit of a movement out of the act of making referrals. Spread the word, retweet this post and make those referrals!

Online event registration for Marketing Summer School – July Edition powered by Eventbrite

Take a look at some of his advice

Q What advice would you offer young entrepreneurs just starting out?

A Make sure you are following your passion — not someone else’s. And don’t fear failure. There is a lot less shame in failure than most people put on it. I have celebrated being able to invest in people who have failed in the past because failure is better described as challenges with a learning opportunity embedded.

Read more: http://www.financialpost.com/small-business/advice/getting-started/story.html?id=2227778#ixzz0nirZ1hZ4

If your business is locally focused it is more important than ever to get on line and take advantage of the free tools that help you win the search engine game (SEO).

Over the past decade the search engine have changes the rules of the game majorly only twice really. Back in the early part of the decade it was all about your content and how your keywords and metatags were don’t that placed you in the top of the searches. It was a frustrating time. You would search for an answer to your problem but if it didn’t match the text on a site it was hard to get answers. Then the game changed a bit when Google came along and started favoring sites that had the metatags etc AND lots of links to their sites. This was to offset the people that would cram as many keywords as they could in their content. Lately there has been another shift and we can see this as an evolution of searching if you want.

Now the game has less to do with keywords (although they are still important) and about links (again still important) but now they are combining social searches and it will only get more and more important.

For example imagine 2 sites selling the same services. Lets call them ACME and ABC. When using a search term like home renovations here is how this will look in the near future. IF, you are friends with people that are fans of ACME then you will get ACME over ABC. IF you are friends with people who follow ABC on twitter, you will get ABC over ACME. Lets say you aren’t on any social media sites and ACME has 5,000 fans and ABC has 200, you will get ACME over ABC.

As we have seen some shifts in the Facebook machine lately you will start to see more and more changes in sEO. It will become more about who you are, where you are located than just typing in the right keywords.

If you are looking to see how your site does in the SEO game take a look at the WEBSITEGRADER.com site by Hub Spot. Great tool to get the basic overview of how well you do. I listened to a webinar recently and was really impressed with their point of view and how open they are.

ACTION STEP Go get found locally …. go to Google.com and search for local business center. You will need a google account (free!) then you can claim your listing. Put in your hous, pictures etc. Make this free service work. Good Luck!