Check out our latest Fox 25 Interview about social media pros and cons. The golden rule applies: Be careful what you say because it never goes away.

Click here to watch the video

No related posts.

To read this post on our site: Fox Interview - Social Media Pros and Cons To read all of our posts: Focus Consulting & Training

I was lucky enough to be invited to the Oklahoma City chapter of the Project Management Institute. Here is the video from that session. Make sure you sign up for our email list (on the right) after you watch the video. You will get our free 25 page social media workbook, and get our regular Social Media Mojo newsletter that will transform your prospect pipeline from being flat to skyrocketing.

Here is the video for Social Media for Project Managers

No related posts.

To read this post on our site: Social Media for Project Managers To read all of our posts: Focus Consulting & Training

This week we covered: Google plus, End of Year marketing, Our new mastermind group, our new CD and the  show on KSBI 52.

Click here to view the embedded video.

No related posts.

To read this post on our site: Video: Google Plus, Mastermind, and the new CD To read all of our posts: Focus Consulting & Training

Motivation is a constant challenge but if you follow some of these tips it doesn't have to be. Here are my four tips on how I stay motivated.

Click here to view the embedded video.

No related posts.

To read this post on our site: Video: 4 quick tips on how I stay motivated To read all of our posts: Focus Consulting & Training

Before you ever dip your toe in the world of social media and online marketing you'd better know what consumes you. What will you obsess over. What do you want to be doing the day you die.

Let's talk about that for 3 brief minutes. Watch the video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

How are you doing? It's another quick video from Patrick at JustAskPatrick.com and Focus Consulting.

I did a great seminar a couple of nights ago for a group of brand-new business owners who were interested in getting involved in social media. We had about 120 minutes to spend together. What I spent most of my time on was not the technicalities of creating a Facebook page or how you should create your Twitter profile or your LinkedIn profile. As new business owners, it was very important for me to communicate to them that there are some other things you should be doing first in social media.

One of the first thing you should be doing before you ever think about getting involved in any of those social media sites is to make sure you have your own website and your own email list. Most of them didn't, so I talked about how you can go to the resource page at JustAskPatrick.com and click on "Patrick Recommends". There I give you some links as to how you can get a free email list and how you can get a website and a domain name for next to nothing.

Probably the most time was spent on emphasizing to them how important it was to first find what they really want to do for the rest of their lives. A lot of us have jobs that we may have just fallen into after just getting out of college or high school, or some people have a job and they think, "You know what? I'm eventually going to do what I find interesting. I don't have time to do it now, but I'm going to eventually find it." I told them that before you ever get involved with social media, you need to figure out what you want to do and then get your ship heading in that direction.

People use social media to communicate a lot about their company, about their business, about what makes them different. Occasionally you'll find someone who is really passionate about what they do and how they do it. It's something they want to talk about from when they wake up at 6:00 in the morning until 8:00 at night. If you can find that job, if you can find that career, if you can find that kind of day and that kind of occupation, then once you decide to get into social media, people will be able to see that you believe in what you're talking about, and your passion, your belief and your conviction will come across in social media.

So before you ever decide to make videos like you see me doing, or hop on Twitter, or get on a Facebook page, make sure that you've really figured out what it is that you want to do. Once you get that figured out it will come across in everything you do and your passion will just ooze out for people to see.

That was important information for that group of new business owners to know. It's important information that I want you to know. For this and other videos, make sure you hop on over to JustAskPatrick.com. We have the videos page there and a "Patrick Recommends" page there.

Until the next video, have a great day and we'll talk to you again soon.

No related posts.

To read this post on our site: Video: What Consumes You To read all of our posts: Focus Consulting & Training

(Text-based blog posts are going to be more and more rare on AllAboutFocus.com and JustAskPatrick.com. So this is a treat. I don't have time for text, and I express myself much better when I open my mouth and speak the words I mean. You can see my point in my tone, my volume and my body language. So you will me expanding my video page/YouTube channel more in the future. )

Anyways.

Here is a quick post with two simple questions you can use to measure your internet marketing efforts. They will not take long to answer. If you ever hire me to be your personal social media expert or you ever join one of my paid, industry-exclusive mastermind groups (let me know if you are interested) these two questions will be the yardstick that I use to measure how well you are doing.

1. Do you have a website, and 2. do you have an email list?

If you answer NO to either one of those questions then don't even ask me about what you should be doing in social media. Don't come talking to me about mobile marketing. And don't start a discussion with me as to whether or not you should be blogging. If you don't have both of those items answered with a YES the online marketing conversation stops before it even gets started. Those are the  the basics of any online or brick-and-mortar business. And you cannot give me any good reason why you don't have both.

Fix it right now. Fix it with the links below. Fix it before you read another blog. Fix it before drinking any more coffee.

Get a website right now.

Get a website domain and hosting account. It will cost you less than $10 / month. Use BlueHost. Why? Because I said so. Web hosting is a commodity. There are 10000 places you can host a website. If you don't know anything about hosting then take my advice - because I know plenty about hosting. I've hosted tons of places, and I've run my own hosting company. BlueHost works as good as any, and they have a very common control panel that you will see at many other hosting companies. And I don't care what your friends tell you - don't host at GoDaddy. They are slow and there are other reasons that they are terrible.

After you get your account use your new control panel to install WordPress. Why? Because I said so. If you don't know the difference between all of the content management systems, use the one that I say is the easiest. Wordpress is very common and you will have no trouble finding help on how to use it. If you get a BlueHost account with my links in this post I'll even install Wordpress for you for free. I am just that nice. Please just get the domain, hosting account and Wordpress started today. Not tomorrow. Today.

Get an email list right now.

Visit Mailchimp right now. Sign up and use their free mailing list plan. You can stay at Mailchimp and email your customers as long as you want for free as long as your list stays below 2000 people. If you do what I say and click on the word Mailchimp someplace in this post you will have your own email list started before the sun goes down today.

That is all I have today. Please take these two steps above. They are the two important first steps you can take to stop all over your competition.

These great resources and more can be found on my brand new Patrick Recommends page at JustAskPatrick.com 

No related posts.

To read this post on our site: Why You Should Not Be Doing Social Media To read all of our posts: Focus Consulting & Training

I am curious - does display social proof number on your website really attract more followers or are they a waste of time? I am going to be added those numbers soon but I'd like to get your opinion before I get started. Watch the video for more. And then leave comments below to let me know if you are pro or con on social proof and why. Thanks - Patrick

Note: If you'd rather read the text transcription scroll below the video

Click here to view the embedded video.

Hey there, its Patrick Allmond from justaskpatrick.com. Today's video is more of a question for the community. And I'm going to pose the same question to you that's been posed to me recently. And that is when you see the number of followers that somebody has on Facebook, or the number of followers that somebody has on twitter, or the number of RSS readers, or the number of newsletters subscribers on someone's website; does that make a difference, or does that affect your decision as to whether, or not to do business with that person, or to also follower that person's Facebook page or like that person's Facebook page or follow that person on Twitter. That's a question that's been asked for me a couple times and now I'm starting to wonder myself. That number or those numbers up there showing a company's validation or an individual's validations is called social proof. And there's been some debate as to whether or not you should be putting social proof numbers on your website or not. For example: if you see that somebody has thousands and thousands of followers on Twitter would that make you more likely to follow that person on Twitter? I've been wondering myself. First of all, how that applies in real world and I think when you go to McDonalds and you go to the arches and you see billions and billions served. I don't recall any other restaurant I see that on, but I'm just kind of curious, does that make you more likely to eat at McDonalds? Anyways, now that people have been asking me this question, I've been wondering that for myself. My e-mail list has a decent following as does my Facebook page and my Twitter account. So what I may start doing is on my two websites allaboutfocus.com and justaskpatrick.com starting to share some of those numbers at the top of the banner and see if that decreases my bounce rate, which is the number of people that comes in one time and leave, and increases the number of followers, or Facebook fans, or e-mail subscribers. So check out the two websites allaboutfocus.com and justaskpatrick.com and let me know when you see those numbers on there. By the way, while your there yourself, I'm going to go ahead and make a blatant plug. Make sure you get on our e-mail list by going to the Patrick Recommends page and one of the first links on there is to get our free E-Book and that will also get you on our e-mail list. You can also find links around there to our Twitter account, which is just my name @PatrickAllmond on Twitter, or our Facebook fan page, which is Facebook.com/focusconsulting. Thanks for your time this has been Patrick Allmond from justaskpatrick.com. We'll see you during our next video. Make sure you subscribe to our cool Youtube channel. We'll see you soon.

No related posts.

To read this post on our site: Video: Does Social Proof matter? To read all of our posts: Focus Consulting & Training

Here is the video that the local Fox affiliate came by and taped at the house. The topic: Breaking up on Facebook

Click here to watch the video

No related posts.

To read this post on our site: Video: My Fox 25 Story about Breaking up on Facebook To read all of our posts: Focus Consulting & Training

Click here to view the embedded video.

No related posts.

To read this post on our site: Video: What do you do on Fridays? To read all of our posts: Focus Consulting & Training

Click here to view the embedded video.

No related posts.

To read this post on our site: Video: Why haven't you started your business yet? To read all of our posts: Focus Consulting & Training

Click here to view the embedded video.

No related posts.

To read this post on our site: Video: Why aren't you doing this? To read all of our posts: Focus Consulting & Training

Click here to view the embedded video.

No related posts.

To read this post on our site: Video: Hate email marketing? Don't watch this video To read all of our posts: Focus Consulting & Training

Another great video in our weekly Thursday Marketing Mojo Series. Here we cover the first steps you need to be taking to become an Email Marketing ninja.

After you are done watching scroll down on the page and sign up for information-packed weekly emails.

No related posts.

To read this post on our site: Video: Finding your Email Marketing Mojo To read all of our posts: Focus Consulting & Training

(This is a sidestep from my normal posts about Online Marketing Mojo. I hope you will excuse the sidestep, but I promise you will still find great information in this post)

On Saturday October 8th I was lucky enough to watch Darren LaCroix in action not once, but twice in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Once at my monthly NSA (National Speakers Association) meeting and then later in the afternoon at a Toastmasters gathering (where there was standing room only). Both sessions just blew me away, and well worth the time and the trip from Oklahoma City.

Darren LaCroix is doing exactly what I want to do, and speaking to the groups I want to speak to. When seeing other people share their material I usually gather one or two good nuggets of information. Everything Darren said was golden. I regret that I could not buy everything he was selling on the table (he is also selling like I am selling).

Here is my quick video review in the car (hence the "moving" review) on the way back to Oklahoma City. I promise I did not upload it until I found the next gas station and was completely stopped Enjoy!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Head over to his website if you get a chance and check out some of the great training packages he offers. Darren LaCroix is the man.

What do you think? We don't do blog comments, we discuss everything in the forums. Come check it out.

No related posts.

To read this post on our site: Video: "Moving" review of Darren LaCroix- @DarrenLaCroix To read all of our posts: Focus Consulting & Training

Another great video in our weekly Thursday Marketing Mojo Series. Here we cover the first steps you need to be taking to become a Search Engine Optimization ninja.

After you are done watching scroll down on the page and sign up for information-packed weekly emails.

No related posts.

To read this post on our site: Video: Finding your Search Engine Optimization Mojo To read all of our posts: Focus Consulting & Training

11/9/2011 Update: I think I found a video on YouTube that my blog post below talks about. Watch the video, and then read the blog post below. I am fairly certain this is the same guy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Last night I had a cleaning fluid pitchman hit me hard at the front door. Not literally hit me (I'd hit back), but came at me hard with his product pitch. For the line of work he was in he was great. It was like a little one-man informercial. His words were slick - he had rhymes for everything. He could have easily come up with a rap for what he was doing. He took out the product and had it sprayed on my window before I knew what had happened. He had answers for every objection. And he even had some guilt trips built-in every time I shook my head no.

The problem was with every word I was more and more annoyed. I said  "No thanks" ... and then again.... and then "You can stop now"... and then "Save your time" .... and then "Have a good night" . And he kept on going. I am in the online marketing business, and a picture-perfect example of someone who hates to be sold to but loves to buy.

After he left I started thinking about why he kept going. Deep down inside he probably knew two of the many factors that he needed to close the deal:

How long he kept the door open (Time on your website)

I am sure Mr. Pitchman knows the longer he can keep me at the front door the greater the chance of his success. In the online world this is measured as how much time visitors spends on your site. The longer you can retain somebody on a single page or any number of pages affects the chances of them taking the action you want. If you don't have analytics in place to measure the average page views per user then get that fixed ASAP. Google Analytics has this built-in, but most of my new clients don't know about it or why they should measure it. This is also a great reason to create finely tuned niche pages and blog posts (like this one). When people come to your site and find what they want instantly the Trust factor has already started. There is no better way to begin a long, wonderful relationship than with Trust.

I have goals about time on-site for each visitor that I measure and rate. Anything over a minute is great. Anything over 2 minutes is awesome. And 5+ minutes is just amazing.

How much information he was able to share (Pages per visitor)

Mr. Pitchman had a great story for everything, and a great comeback for every objection. He had a plethora of great content. In the online world this is measured as the average number of pages per viewer. This lines up pretty closely with the time spent on your website. Every visitor will view at least one page. So that is a "gimme". But you need to have great content and a great structure to get someone to click on that 2nd, 3rd and 4th page. This is another area where I have goals set up in Google Analytics that I measure. This is also where I learned something important about my traffic: I get two extremes with very little in the middle. I have a lot of one-pagers, and I have a lot of visitors that hit 5-10 pages of content. So I need convert those one-pages to two-pagers.

Start paying attention to these two factors in your analytics report today.

Humorous Follow-up : I tried to call my neighbor after the pitchman left to warn him of what was coming. People always hit my door first and then his door so I try to give him a heads-up. I could not get a hold of him, but my neighbor had the best solution of all: He didn't open the door. I need to take a hint from my neighbor more often.

No related posts.

To read this post on our site: The pitch man from last night, and metrics you need to measure To read all of our posts: Focus Consulting & Training

I just finished taping our September 2011 monthly segment on KSBI TV in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Click, watch and share (Facebook button and discussion area right below this). Thanks.

This video might also help answer any of the following questions:

"you have to pay for facebook now"

"do you have to pay for facebook now?"

"news pay for facebook"

"facebook news pay"

"pay for facebook now?"

"now have to pay for facebook"

"facebook now have to pay"

Other pertinent searches:

"www.facebook.comw"

"unblock facebook"

"facebook.com facebook"

"face book"

"facebook questions"

"facebook games"

"facebook.cpom"

"facebook pages"

"facebook chat"

"Facebook Timeline"

No related posts.

To read this post on our site: Social Media TV Monday - September 2011 To read all of our posts: Focus Consulting & Training

In case you missed it here is the Social Media webinar we did earlier this month. This is as one of twelve webinars in our series on finding your Online Marketing Mojo.

No related posts.

To read this post on our site: Video: Finding your Social Media Mojo To read all of our posts: Focus Consulting & Training

Come check out our webinar on 21st Century Branding with our graphic designer Angela Tapley-Allmond from Allographics and Design.

No related posts.

To read this post on our site: Video: Branding in the 21st Century (with @allographics) To read all of our posts: Focus Consulting & Training

Have you see the newest kind of fan page on Facebook? It's called the "Raving" Fan page.

Don't go looking for a Facebook fan page creation link. The process for getting a Raving Fan page is the same as getting a regular fan page. What make it different is what is done by the owning company.

To get a Raving fan page you have to create amazing content for your fans. Your service or product has to be so wonderful that when people see what you share they tell their kids to quiet down so they can take in what you have just labored to produce. When you are the owner of a Raging fan page you don't have to work so hard to create new content every day because the Raving fans will take care of it for you. They will get on your Raving fan page and scream at the top of their lungs about what a great company you have. If a hater gets on your Raving fan page and starts complaining you can sit back and relax. One of your Raving fans will step in to defend you. A Raving fan is worth 20 regular fans. Your Raving fans are your biggest proponents, and your harshest critics.

Do you have a regular fan page or a Raving fan page? Are you doing everything you can for your fans to show that you care about them?

As soon as you prove that you care just as much about your community as you do about your own self-promotion you are on your way to having the next great Raving fan page.

What are some of the other ways you can create a Raving fan page? Let me know in the comments below.

No related posts.

To read this post on our site: Have you seen the new raving fan pages? To read all of our posts: Focus Consulting & Training