Strategies, tools and tactics to help the people just getting started with Social Networking

They key to success is action. Immediate action produces immediate results. Delayed action produces delayed results. Thinking about action produces dreams about results.

There are hundreds of motivational quotes services out there. And they are wonderfully inspiring. However they don’t translate to action. When I created QuoteActions, that was one of the elements that was a differentiator. That’s because inspiration + action is a wonderful combination.

Read Copyblogger’s  wonderful post on this topic.

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Yesterday I blogged about about a research project that I’m doing on LinkedIn. I received the following question:

“I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to ask this question, and you’re elected.  How do you send an email (like the one you just sent) to all of your LinkedIn connections?”

So here’s how you do it:

There are two ways you can send a message to your LinkedIn contacts. There are advantages and disadvantages to both.

1- You can export your contacts from LinkedIn. Once exported you can do a mail merge or a blind carbon copy message and communicate with them using your own external email client.

The advantages of this method are:

• It is faster and easier to communicate with your entire network since the only restriction you have is how many outgoing messages your ISP allows you to send.
• It also allows you to personalize the message by putting the person’s first name in the message — if you know how to use the mail/merge function.

The main disadvantage of using this method is that you lose the credibility of the LinkedIn brand. When you send messages inside of LinkedIn, people automatically know where the message came from and that you are connected via LinkedIn. This is especially effective when you have very casual contacts that you want to reach.

2- You can communicate inside the LinkedIn system and send a message to 50 LinkedIn connections at one time – they have this restriction to make it harder for people to spam. So if you wanted to communicate with your entire network, you would need to repeat this process.

The main advantage of this method is that you can take advantage of the LinkedIn brand.   This is practically the only advantage of using this method. However it is a HUGE advantage.

The disadvantages of this method are:

• It takes much longer to send messages to your entire network
• You can’t personalize the messages

You can click here to watch a video tutorial I created on how to use both methods.

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I just posted a new discussion on several LinkedIn groups I belong to.  I’m looking to find out if I can use the discussion feature on these groups as a way to generate some interest in a Joint Venture proposal. I’m interested in gaging people’s reactions as well as the results I receive.

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OK, here’s the scoop …
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We’re about to conduct a public launch of QuoteActions.com … my daily quote delivery service.

If you’re not familiar with QuoteActions, it’s basically a quote-a-day delivery system where you can allow prospects, customers, and clients to get a daily (or weekly) email sent “from you” to their inbox with a meaningful quote and an “Action Step” based on that quote. The system helps keep your name in front of your contacts so they “remember you” when they’re ready to BUY. (You can watch a video about the service at QuoteActions.com)

Back to the launch …

I’m looking to recruit affiliates who have an email marketing list (or a strong presence in social media like LinkedIN, Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, etc).

The most OPTIMUM prospects for QuoteActions are entrepreneurs, sales professionals, service professionals, managers, executives, and anyone else who might benefit from using QuoteActions.com to stay in touch with their customers, clients and prospects.

So if you sell to, and have a list of those types of individuals, I’d like to have you on board as a JV/affiliate partner.

It’s easy, really.

I’ve partnered with JP Maroney — an internet marketing strategist with a proven track record — to orchestrate this launch. (You’re going to LOVE how low key — but EFFECTIVE — this launch strategy is.)

All you have to do is send out emails giving away good AND useful, free information — mainly videos that are PURE eduction (no selling).

From there I’ll give even more cool stuff to your leads … build up some bonding with them … and then make an offer for a free 30-day trial to QuoteActions.

The free stuff teaches your leads how to get more referrals, generate more new business, and sell more to existing customers.

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HOW YOU MAKE MONEY
ON THIS PROMOTION …
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You’ll receive ongoing, recurring 20% commission for all your leads that convert into paying QuoteActions subscribers.

And, you’ll keep getting paid as long as they remain a customer.

OH, and one more thing: If you know other people who have an email subscriber list you can recommend them as an affiliate, and get an additional 10% 2nd tier affiliate commission from any subscribers they send to QuoteActions.

Sound fair enough?

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IT’S EASY TO GET
SIGNED ON …
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Just reply to me and SAY “YES!” and I’ll “hook you up” and get you the emails to promote.

When you reply, include the following info so we can put you in the affiliate program:

First & Last Name: 
Email Address: 
Paypal Email (if different): 
Physical Mailing Address: 
City, State, Zip: 
Best Phone to reach you: 
Approx list size: 

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HEADS UP …
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If you have any questions or need further assistance, feel free to email me or call 858-456-7653

Talk soon,

Rick

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A friend of mine sent me the following video. It offers a great lesson on the actual mechanics of building a movement. It has an interesting perspective on leadership. Would welcome your comments and your opinions on this topic.

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Sean Nelson talks about Social Media’s missing ingredient in this excellent post. He also offers three courses of action you can take. I highly recommend doing all three of them if you are serious about capitalizing on this exciting – and rapidly evolving – marketing channel.

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If you practice any kind of awareness training, you already know the power of questions. However, what you’re probably missing is that you may be asking the wrong questions – without you knowing it! The following excerpt from Dr. Neil Postman, the celebrated Chair of the Department of Culture and Communications at New York University, superbly illustrates this:

“A question, even of the simplest kind, is not, and never can be unbiased. The structure of any question is as devoid of neutrality as its content. The form of a question may ease our way or pose obstacles. Or, when even slightly altered, it may generate totally different answers, as in the case of the two priests who, being unsure if it was permissible to smoke and pray at the same time, wrote to the Pope for a definitive answer. One priest phrased the question ‘Is it permissible to smoke while praying?’ and was told it is not, since prayer should be the focus of one’s whole attention; the other priest asked if it is permissible to pray while smoking and was told that it is, since it is always permissible to pray.”

So what biases are you suffering from when you ask questions about networking? With your questions, what beliefs are you reinforcing?

I’ve been a member of Business Networking International (BNI), the world’s largest business networking organization, for 11 years. I have also been involved in Social Networking (SN) for the past four years. I see a remarkable synergy between both the offline and the online networking worlds. And yet I’m constantly amazed by the reluctance people from each world have about embracing the other world.

Here are a few of the questions I get asked during my presentations on combining online and offline networking to maximize results. Can you recognize the biases in them? What’s my return on investment (ROI) with networking? How much time do you waste driving to and from events? You have a big network online, but how many of those people do you REALLY know? You claim that I can triple the number of referrals I receive, but what about the quality of these referrals? With these questions do you start to see common “judgmental” threads?

Compare the questions above with these. How can I increase the odds that my social networking will yield a solid ROI? How can I maximize the time I will be investing at this event? How can I capitalize on the value I’ve built with my network? How can I educate my referral partners to receive better quality referrals?

Which set of questions is more likely to yield higher dividends?

Asking better questions is an essential skill in becoming a better communicator. It is also the key to discovery. A great place to start honing this skill is by being aware of our own biases. With awareness, we can purposely examine the biases and see if they are helping us achieve our goals. If they’re not, we can toss them and replace them with new questions that will.

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Debbra Sweet is a good friend of mine and a great marketing professional is giving away an Audio CD and some “How to” marketing videos she just made for women entrepreneurs. These are f’ree. The CD is full of her very best marketing secrets that produce results super fast.

The videos are online but the 77 min CD she has to send to you in the mail. Learn more about it and click here if you want to order yours.

She has a limited supply available so order yours now.

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Social Networking is all about building relationships. It is about gaining Visibility and earning Trust. Eventually this leads to sales. That’s the 40,000 foot view. I will now share with you an actual situation I had earlier this week so that you can see it in action.

I posted a Twitter update about me saving three lives as a result of donating blood. This was a personal tweet that had zero to do with business. One of my Twitter followers re-twitted the post. For those of you who don’t know how I found this out, I had set up Twitter alerts that automatically scan all tweets that contain my Twitter name.

I proceeded to thank her by sending a direct message via Twitter – it is a good practice to respond to communications from people who engage with you via the same channel. She responded back to me and we now had a conversation going. She mentioned to me that she was also checking out the QuoteActions email marketing system that I developed.

I then went to her website, found her phone number and called her. We had a nice chat and she mentioned to me that she had been following me for quite some and that she really enjoyed my QuoteActions tweets. She then asked me some questions about the QuoteActions system and I encouraged her to take the free trial. Which she did.

I just got a notification that she purchased a 1-year subscription to QuoteActions.

As you can see from the example, I first built my Visibility and then I gained my Credibility with her. I was building a relationship with her without me even knowing it. The relationship got closer when she came onto my radar because of her re-tweet of my post. And it is now at the point where she has become one of my customers.

So was there any particular action that led to this sale? No. It was a combination of ALL my activities that caused this result. And therein lies the power of Social Networking. No activity by itself in Social Networking will lead to success. However when you aggregate all of the activities together, they become a very powerful force.Malcolm Gladwell does a great job of explaining this in his book The Tipping Point.

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This is the title of an excellent post by Sean Nelson on the four types of strategies to use LinkedIn. Click here to read his post. After finishing, I would love to read which strategy you employ.

I started out as a Turtle, moved to a Hound Dog, thought about becoming a LION and finally settled on an Alley Cat. What about you?

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