Archive for the ‘Entrepreneur & Small Business’ Category


Web Marketing Influence: Social Proof

Monday, January 9th, 2012

Social Proof in Web Marketing & Social MediaWhen we are uncertain of how to behave or react, we look to others to guide our reaction. This is a powerful tool for web marketing and social media.

The first two tenets of Robert Cialdini’s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, are reciprocation and commitment & consistency…two items that are hard-wired into us. The next tenet is all about external forces: Social Proof.

From laugh tracks to tip jars, we are influenced by the actions and reactions of others. This is especially true when we’re unsure of how to behave in a given situation.

In Cialdini’s chapter on social proof he includes a number of examples of social proof gone haywire, from Jonestown to the murder of Catherine Genovese and the lack of action or reaction from 38 witnesses.

There are a number of variables that impact social proof’s influence over us.

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Web Marketing Influence: Commitment and Consistency

Friday, January 6th, 2012

Drive SafelyPeople are hard-wired to be consistent, especially when they’ve publicly committed to a belief. How does that impact your web marketing & social media?

In chapter 2 of Robert Cialdini’s masterful Influence: The Psychology of Persuation, we learned that people have a knee-jerk reaction to responding in kind (or better) to favors…a trait referred to as reciprocity. Now, in the next chapter, we learn that we also wish to be seen as consistent.

Cialdini has a wealth of examples of this in his chapter, but one example that stuck with me is the story of people who agreed to put a giant, ugly sign on their front lawn, in front of their gorgeous home, that said Drive Safely. Not surprisingly, only 17% agreed.

However, in another group, they got an astounding 76% to agree to the same ugly signs! What was the difference?

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Web Marketing Influence: Reciprocation

Wednesday, January 4th, 2012

Paper.liAs humans, we are hard-wired to reciprocate a favor. By building favors into your online marketing you can ethically grow your business.

One of the major tenets of influence, according to Robert Cialdini’s Influence: The Psychology of Persuation, is reciprocity. Cialdini says:

“We are trained from childhood to chafe, emotionally, under the saddle of obligation. For this reason alone, then, we may be willing to agree to perform a larger favor than we received, merely to relieve ourselves of the psychological burden of debt.”

This is why Hare Krishnas give flowers to travelers at airports before asking for money; they know it’s difficult for people to receive a gift–no matter how small–and then refuse to give a donation.

In another example, the Disabled American Veterans organization sent a donation request mailing that got a respectable 18% response rate. They did another mailing and included those self-adhesive address labels and nearly doubled their response rate to 35%!

These are interesting examples of human behavior, but how can you use them to market your business? (And to do it ethically!)

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Marketing With ‘Weapons of Influence’

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012

Robert Cialdini InfluenceUnlock the secrets of influence and improve the effectiveness of your web marketing and social media efforts.

Robert Cialdini’s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion starts off with the story of a gift store owner at a tourist destination trying to sell some turquoise jewelery. It’s of good quality and she’s offering a fair price, but no one’s buying.

She tries putting it on sale. No dice.

She moves it to the center of the store. No dice.

She has her sales force push the jewelry. Still, no dice.

In frustration, as she’s leaving for a show, she scrawls a note for her store manager to sell all the jewelry at half-off. When she returns, she’s amazed that it all sold, every last piece.

What’s even more amazing is that her manager misread the handwritten note as DOUBLE the price, which she did.

At the higher price, the jewelry immediately sold out. Why?

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Marketing Your Small Business with MarketingProfs

Monday, December 5th, 2011

MarketingProfs LogoLearn how to market your small business, generate tons of online leads, and reach your business goals for 2012.

The “small” in Small Business doesn’t represent your dreams, your goals, or how big you may want to grow your business. However, many small business owners hit their collective heads against budget or human resource limitations.

That’s why MarketingProfs University is offering Marketing Your Small Business, an 11-class course tailor made for small businesses.

Here’s how it works:

  • Each class airs live and is recorded so you can watch later, or as many times as you wish
  • You get access to the class and plenty of support materials
  • You get a certificate of completion (of course, if you run your own small business, you know that the knowledge is what you crave)

You’ll also get these beneies ($813 worth of goodies!):

  • A 3-month MarketingProfs PRO Membership (we get this at flyte…invaluable!)
  • Access to new report DIY Marketing Essentials for Small Business
  • Access to Take 10: How to Build a Twitter Following in a Week
  • Access to Take 10: Creating a YouTube Channel Page that Reflects Your Brand
  • Plus 5 additional popular classes hand-picked from 2011

If you’re ready to grow your business we can save you $200 off the cost of the course. Just use FLYTEMEDIA as your discount code when you register.

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FLYTE TRAINING: Personal Training for Web Marketing & Social Media

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011

Do you need a personal trainer for your web marketing and social media?

I know, this guy should be on the left because of the way he's facing. I just didn't like the way the words wrapped. Sorry!Most of the people I talk to about web marketing are excited by its promise: increased visibility, traffic, and leads. What’s not to like?

A lot of them are also excited by the opportunity of sharing their expertise, helping people and growing their business.

So why do so many of them fail at it?

It’s been a question that’s plagued me for years. We build a site, set up a blog, and help someone get started on Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn. There’s an initial burst of activity, and then…nothing.

The excuses are varied.

  • We got busy…
  • I can’t find the time…
  • I’m not sure what to blog about…
  • No one responded to my tweets…
  • I don’t know what to do…

What I finally realized was that a lot of people need a guide to help them succeed with web marketing and social media. (File under “duh.”)

What people need is a personal trainer for their web marketing.

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How to Setup Your Google+ Business Page in Under 3 Minutes

Thursday, November 10th, 2011

Google+ Logo (Google Plus Logo)Google Plus recently opened up its platform for businesses. Here’s how you can get started with your own page.

Yesterday I created a Google+ page for flyte. I turned on ScreenFlow, my favorite screen capture tool for the mac and created the following video.

Thanks to some fancy editing, some enhanced typing skills, and a trough full of Red Bull, I created this video that will show you in less than 3 minutes how to setup your own Google+ business page.

You can watch it below or check out How to Create a Google+ Business Page in Under 3 Minutes on YouTube.

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Why You Should (Or Shouldn’t) Attend Our Session at Blogworld #bwela

Friday, November 4th, 2011

BWELA SlidesHey Bloggers! How to Package, Promote & Profit from Your Expertise

On Saturday, November 5th, Denise Wakeman and I will be presenting at Blogworld. We’ll be teaching bloggers–or people who want to blog–how to package, promote and profit from their expertise.

If you’re at Blogworld, or if you bought the virtual ticket, you can attend. But should you?

Our session is on the monetization track.

If you’re not into making money this might not be the right session for you. Of course, you could also take our session, create some information products and raise money for your favorite charity or change the world. I know a lot of people who do that.

Our session is geared for the non-web marketer.

Denise and I are both web marketers by trade. We love Internet marketing, we hang out with Internet marketers, we talk about Internet marketing. However, what we want to do in this session is teach every day folks–small business owners, entrepreneurs, professionals–who don’t consider themselves web marketers–how they can create products that will generate passive streams of income.

Our session is for people who are busy.

When we first started coming up with the idea for this session we were talking about doctors, lawyers, massage therapists, and other professionals who may have maxed out their hours–and their earning potential–with paying clients. We wondered if we could teach them how to think like an Internet marketer: to package their knowledge, to promote their information product, and to profit from the experience.

To create multiple streams of income that would help pay their bills, generate some ongoing income, and in general make their lives easier.

Maybe we could teach a dentist how to create an ebook on Everything You Need to Know About Teeth Whitening: What the Ads Don’t Tell You. Or maybe we could help an administrative assistant with a passion for cooking to create a Kindle book called The Gluten Free Kitchen: 100 Recipes for Your Family.

If you’ve got a blog–or are serious about starting one–and want to turn your passion into a profitable product, this session may be right for you. If you feel like you’ve got a product in you, and want to generate multiple, passive streams of income, we hope to see you at 12:15 in room 411.

Oh, and one more reason why you might want to attend: room 411 is a theater and has the most comfy seats at the LA Convention Center.

Just sayin’.

Rich Brooks
Blogger

 


What I Learned In My Website/Social Media Experiment

Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011

The Cozy LibraryReady to start generating some passive streams of income? So was Gloria, one of our web developers. Here’s what she learned.

Today’s guest post comes from Gloria Maher, one of our web developers here at flyte.

The Goals: Learning, SEO and Social Media Experiment, (and possibly get some passive income without investing much money).

As a developer, I’ve probably built or worked on several hundred websites at my current job.

As the company has grown and our offices have become more spread out, the exposure to elements of a project that are not part of development has naturally narrowed. (I do sometimes miss our “one room schoolhouse” office). Flyte has been on the leading edge of Social Media and I’ve become a convert, but haven’t done a lot with it beyond my Twitter and Facebook pages.

I thought it might be fun and interesting to see what my learnings would be while working through a new project of my own.

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Small Biz Success Summit: From Social to Sales

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

Discover how to quickly attract quality customers, build loyal fans and grow your revenue with social media.

One of my biggest pet peeves with a lot of social media advice is it seems to be targeting big corporations. It requires big budgets, expensive monitoring software, and dedicated staff that’s beyond the reach of most small businesses. And yet small businesses are the group that can benefit most from social media.

That’s why I was really excited when Mike Stelzer, the guy behind Social Media Examiner, told me he was putting on a new success summit that is 100% focused on social media strategies for small business.

This is the same guy who put on those fantastic Social Media Success Summits, Facebook Success Summits, and even a Blogging Success Summit. And now he wanted to put the spotlight on how small business owners and entrepreneurs could use social media to attract customers, build fans and generate revenue.

Tickets will be $597, but currently they’re only $297! I was never good at math, but that’s like 50% off!

I’ve attended every one of the Success Summits, and I always get some amazing takeaways. This isn’t fluff. This is very specific advice from small business experts who have succeeded using social media.

Here’s a short list of some of the 25 presenters at the Small Biz Success Summit:

  • John Jantsch, Duct Tape Marketing
  • Anita Campbell, Small Business Trends
  • Mari Smith, author of The New Relationship Marketing
  • Brian Clark, Copyblogger
  • Lee Odden, TopRank Online Marketing
  • Lewis Howes, author of LinkedWorking
  • Amy Porterfield & Andrea Vahl, co-authors of Facebook Marketing All-in-One For Dummies
  • James Wedmore, Video Traffic Academy
  • Rich Brooks, he’ll write a book one day.

Yes, that’s right! I’ll be one of your presenters! My presentation is Social to Sales: 4 Steps for Growing Your Small Business Revenue.

The Success Summits are perfect for small biz owners; here’s why

One of the best thing about the Small Biz Success Summit is that it’s a completely virtual event. Why is this good?

  • Attend in business casual, your pjs, or au naturel, it’s up to you. 
  • You can attend live and ask questions of the presenters at the end of each session
  • If you miss a session you can download the slides, audio and/or video after the fact
  • Download the audio to your iPod for travel time or watch the videos multiple times so you don’t miss a thing
  • No travel expenses
  • You’ll still have an opportunity to network! The Success Summits have vibrant, active, attendee-only discussion groups at LinkedIn where you can ask your questions, network, and engage with the presenters
  • You won’t miss any work (I know for some people that’s a negative, but we small business owners stress over any lost productivity!)

Two reasons why you should act now

  1. The Small Biz Success Summit runs from February 1st, 2012 – February 23, 2012, but the early bird discounts end soon! You can save 50% off the regular priced tickets if you order now! Save $300 by ordering today!
  2. Despite the fact this is a virtual event, seats are limited. The last Success Summit sold out! Don’t get left out…get your seats now.

If you’re a small business owner, or work for one, this is the event that will help you grow your business in 2012. See you there!

Rich Brooks
Small Business Owner