Holographic Life Mapping

My Blog Has Moved

noreply@blogger.com (Holographic Life Mapping) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:23:00 +0000

My Blog has now moved, check out my latest posts by going to http://www.iandavidchapman.com or by clicking this link Holographic Life Mapping

You can also follow me on Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/iandavidchapman

Are You A Servant of The Network?

noreply@blogger.com (Holographic Life Mapping) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 09:47:00 +0000

Personal Possessions?

After reading a few of the recent comments on several discussion threads I have noticed that some people seem to view their facebook network almost like a personal possession that they need to protect. I have been wondering about this concept and would like to open it up for deeper discussion.

Stewards Rights

First of all I would like to point out that ultimately facebook owns the whole network and as Jim Turner so rightly made us all aware we are just stewards and have very few rights. Facebook can pull the carpet out from under us all anytime we choose.

I'm Bigger than You!

The second point I would like to make concerns network overlap. When you have a certain network of friends in common with another person does it automatically mean that the person with the larger network can automatically claim ownership of those friends or see them as belonging to them more than to the other. And does having a big network make you somehow better or more powerful than those with smaller networks. It raises the question when people complained that they were tagged in a note and the message was spread throughout "their" network.

Artificial Limitations Of A Scarcity Mindset

I think people need to realise that you don't own your facebook network in the same way you might own your autoresponder list. Where there is overlap between my network and your network only people who maintain a scarcity mindset will try and draw lines and say this part is mine, this part is yours and this part we share. They are placing artificial limitations on something that doesn’t obey the laws of linear perception. The real value of a network is not measured in such simplistic terms its is measured in terms of relationship, connectivity and responsiveness.

Feeling Protective

There are people who have worked hard to build a quality based network who might feel protective about the asset that they created. It is pointless to try to conjure walls around something that can’t be boxed in this way. It goes against the very nature of Facebook. With 6 degrees of separation you can always find anyone if you know who the connectors are.

You Can't Force People

Facebook has the required protection levels already in place. No on can force anyone to become friends so for those who might be worried about exposing their network to undesirables they can put their minds at rest. If someone acts inappropriately you always have the choice to remove them if you feel they have abused your friendship.

Further Ripples

What often happens is that a "wrong doer" might still be connected to a large portion of your network. Their actions will still cause ripples. So it is up to your friends to exercise their own discretion and judgement to decide what policy they choose to adopt. You don't need to worry or concern yourself on this matter except perhaps to inform the person of the consequences of their actions if you have the time and the compassion.

Schizophrenic?

You attract what you focus your attention on. Thanks to Brian for so eloquently pointing this fact out in his recent Note. I have been split on this subject myself so I understand the dilemma. Constantly worrying about spam will only tend to attract this to you. Instead it would be better to concentrate on the types of people who you would like to influence and attract into your network

Servants of the Network

We are already starting to realise the power and potential within facebook. Different tribes are forming made up of people who share the same values and want to build a new social media culture. Those who are truly shining are those who have become servants to the network they understand that by serving others all their needs are met. That by adding value their reputation and standing is increased and that by participating in discussion threads they are helping strengthen the tribal bonds.

"Ask not what your network can do for you but what you can do for your network"

Tribal Music

I remember reading a book that describes village life in Western Africa and says that when people play music there are no distinctions between the performers and the audience. Everyone in the tribe participates in some way, whether it is dancing, drumming, singing or just clapping along to the rhythm. Similarly on facebook there will always be more talented drummers and dancers but that doesn't mean that the singers or clappers are not important. If you take them away something very valuable has been lost. It’s the participation in a group experience that is recreating those tribal connections and what gives that sense of community an belonging.

Tyrant Taxation

Those who want to hold onto outdated hierarchical models of organisation will find themselves marginalised. Those who want to define strict boundaries between the leaders and the followers might miss the real potential that is emerging. I am not saying leaders won't be important its just that they will wield their power in a different way. It is the difference between a tyrannical king who lays down rigid laws and regulations and imposes heavy taxes and an Enlightened Ruler who is adored by his people because of his character and his sense of justice, A king who truly serves his people will build loyalty based on love and trust and be transparent in all his actions.

If you have enjoyed this post please consider subscribing to my full RSS feed.

You can find me on facebook by going to http://profile.to/ianchapman

You can also follow me on twitter - http://www.twitter.com/ian_chapman

If Your Headline Sucks No One Will Listen

noreply@blogger.com (Holographic Life Mapping) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 21:26:00 +0000

Strong Headlines are Vitally Important

In the world of social media your headline is the most vitally important aspect of your efforts to get noticed and if it sucks you can be sure that no one is going to pay much attention to your message no matter how good your content is or the quality of your product

This is something that so many people seem to forget or don't even realise the full importance and is what separates the successful from the failures.

Its Responsible for 80% Of Your Success

Direct response marketers have already shown that the headline is responsible for 80% of the success of any advert, article or email response. It often becomes the determining factor in the title of a book or the name of your website and is something you need to get right. Its not just your words that are important its your graphics and visual impact above the fold that will decide if people stay to read what you have written or will bounce out after only a brief glance

Stickiness Factor

Marketers have coined a term that they call the stickiness factor, I got a great insight about this while listening to a Rick Butts recent interview with Coach Deb, the undisputed Queen of Twitter about the importance of names. Rick was commenting about the great name Deb had chosen for her blog - "Tribal Seduction" and it had impressed him so much he had signed up to her mailing list while at the same time recommending to others to unsubscribe from all the marketing lists that clutter up their inboxes and distract us from the work we really need to be doing.

A Group Orgy?

"Tribal Seduction" is such a good name because it is short and direct and has a number of levels of meaning. Its also poetic in a certain way by juxtaposing two words that would not normally go together and using a sexual adjective it conveys the image at the unconscious level of a group orgy.

Sex Sells

As all marketers know sex sells. The website had another shocking image of a naked woman sitting on a chair facing us but with her head turned 180 around. It’s a very sexy image and doubles up the sexual implications that the title also suggest. Again its another multileveled image that excites and entices while at the same time has a certain artistic tasteful quality. It keeps enough covered up so as not to offend. And jars you into paying attention in a different way because the woman's head is not facing the direction you would expect it to. Again a symbol of how they hope to make you look at social media in a unique way and reveal new perspectives within this world.

Advertising Magic

The combination of all these factors gives a name that stickiness factor, and is why large companies pay advertising agencies millions to perform the same magic to rebrand and repackage their products and services so that their names stick in a customers mind and instantly returns whenever they make a purchasing decision.

A Personal Lesson

Last week I wrote a blog series about the changes Facebook have made to their design and the implications it would have to people using facebook for business purposes. I was struggling with the title for the posts and following a strange twist of my intuition I settled on a title that I knew was less than satisfactory. It was boring and had none of the usual excitement or interest that I usually chose for my blog posts. The content of the article was great, I was happy with the results and what had started as a quick outpouring of my anger towards the new facebook design had turned into a lengthy and detailed analysis that I had to split into four parts

Bad Strategy

I finished the blog post on a Friday and instead of waiting to optimise the time of publication I released them all at same time heading into a weekend. Again my intuition said this was the right thing to do even though my conscious mind was complaining that it was a bad move strategically and I was wasting all the work and effort I had put into those posts.

A Poor Result

As I expected no one took much notice and I only had about 80 visitors to my blog and received only 2 comments. On Monday I tagged all my friends on the note that had been imported and started to get some response.

Beaten By Brian?

Meanwhile my close friend Brian Campbell had made some almost identical posts and had given his much more powerful titles. The Funny thing is that the titles were very similar to ones that I had originally considered using.

"New Facebook Layout - beginning of the end?"

"New Facebook Changes – A Wake Up Call for marketers"

Are much more sticky than my titles

Facebook S.W.O.T Part 1 - Strengths

Facebook S.W.O.T Part 2- Weaknesses

My article series is full of great content but it never had the impact that I had originally intended and the payoff was unimpressive considering the time I spent writing them. This is all the result of choosing a poor headline

Don't Cripple Yourself

I am really happy now to realise that there was a purpose behind choosing weaker names because I now get the opportunity to use this as a teaching example to others. What often happens in marketing is that someone might have a great product but have no clue how to present it to the world. Its very difficult to be objective about your own work and I think a lot of people get stuck or don't realise their full potential because they have crippled themselves from the start with a weak name.

Facebook S.W.O.T Part 4 - Threats

noreply@blogger.com (Holographic Life Mapping) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:35:00 +0000

This is part 4 of a four part series that explores the new look facebook and examines it using a S.W.O.T analysis

Part 1 - Strengths

Part 2 - Weaknesses

Part 3 - Opportunities

Part 4 - Threats

Facebook Is Now In Control

Facebook now has total control over what people see when they land on your page. So whatever is currently in your wall/mini feed will be there for all to see. You might not want what either you or some of your friends are doing presented so openly to the world. A spammy wall post or an embarrassing photo that someone tagged you in might not look so good to a potential employer, client or JV partner. Of Course facebook may argue that you can adjust your settings but how many normal users ever take the time to explore the maze of controls and adjustments.

Spamming

Wall spam has now become a much bigger issue with the merging of the mini feed and wall. Before any ugly links and signature tags could be relegated to the bottom of your profile now they are brought to the forefront. And its up to you to take the time to edit them and delete anything inappropriate.

Go away on holiday for a couple of weeks and who knows what might have been on display for all to see. Also users who are less active on facebook but who want to keep a presence can't safely leave their profiles unattended unless they set their privacy restrictions so high that no one can see anything.

Allow More Choice

This is a major design flaw in the new system and I think it would be a good option to allow users to decide if they want their news feed to be merged with the wall and at least have an option to display them separately, maybe even on different tabs.

Self Expression

To be able to pick exactly what page is displayed to new visitors would also be a good option to add. The more sociable people could have the standard layout with the wall as the landing page. People who want to express more creativity and express their individuality or those who want to present a carefully designed business profile could have the option to do so. I believe user control and choice is what made the old facebook so great.

Tagging

There is also a bigger danger in upsetting you friends when you tag them in a note, this goes directly into their profile page so you need to become more sensitive and take a few moments to decide if its appropriate. I discussed this issue in my previous blog post. If you want to restrict what comes into your newsfeed from a certain person but don't want to take the drastic step of removing them as a friend you can adjust your wall settings. Your news feed can be adjusted by scrolling to the bottom of the Home page. Click on preference for top stories .From there you have the options to adjust who you want to hear more about and who you want to restrict.

No Email Controls

Facebook still haven't implemented proper filters and controls for messages and emails that it sends. Consequently facebook's message service can no longer be relied upon as many users who have not kept up to date with their inbox are overwhelmed. Important messages are being lost and users are moving away to use other services such a twitter or skype. I often switch to these services when I want to be sure a message gets through or just to receive a confirmation. Skype is also much faster are more reliable than facebooks in-house IM service

What Happens if Facebook Sell out

If Facebook choose to sell to another company all the structures are in place to turn it into a much more commercialised network like myspace. Full of animated flash graphics and a constant bombardment of offers and advertisements. Utube is also set to go this way too with adsense being presented along with their videos. If you have built your business within facebook you face the real danger of losing all your customers if they choose to migrate to another service. And also you lose the control to decide what adverts will be presented alongside your products. For people with strong ethical principles this may be an issue.

Build Your Business Outside Facebook

It makes it even more imperative if you have a prescence on facebook to build your business outside its walls. That way if anything too drastic happens you still have everything in place to switch activities to greener pastures. It seems clear to me the direction facebook is moving in and it is aimed at monetising the masses of normal users who just use facebook to communicate with their friends and stay connected. People who use facebook for business are in a small minority. This will probably increase over time once more people realise the opportunities that are available but You should not expect facebook to design the system solely for your needs.

A Missed Opportunity

Facebook had the opportunity for setting the new standards for social networks in the future. But I believe they have fallen far short of the mark. While I agree there is some improvements with the new design it is far from perfect and could be made much more intuitive and user friendly. The new profile layout is confusing and many features are hard to find and difficult to configure.

An Open Market

This market is still wide open and I wouldn't be surprised that a new contender emerges in the next few years that utilises facebook connect and integrates all the social networks into one place or control panel. The new browser by flock and services such as Ping FM and Hellotxt are maybe precursors to this next generation of web 3.0 tools.

If You Still Really Hate It...

For some people change is difficult to adapt to, I myself got very frustrated when I first saw the new profile and thought that Facebook had unknowingly castrated this amazingly powerful tool . If you still hate it with a passion you can switch back by clicking in the top right hand corner. I myself will be staying. I believe facebook are intent on forcing all its users to adopt the new look profile so the quicker I learn to adapt and discover how to utilise the hidden potentials the better.

Please take the time to make your comment on this subject, its important to know the threats that might affect us all so we can take the necessary precautions.

Part 1 - Strengths

Part 2 - Weaknesses

Part 3 - Opportunities

Part 4 - Threats

If you have enjoyed this post please consider subscribing to my full RSS feed.

You can find me on facebook by going to http://profile.to/ianchapman

You can also follow me on twitter - http://www.twitter.com/ian_chapman

Facebook S.W.O.T Part 3 - Opportunities

noreply@blogger.com (Holographic Life Mapping) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:33:00 +0000

This is part 3 of a four part series that explores the new look facebook and examines it using a S.W.O.T analysis

Part 1 - Strengths

Part 2 - Weaknesses

Part 3 - Opportunities

Part 4 - Threats

A Great Place To Network

Regardless of the changes facebook is still a fantastic place to network and share information with your friends. You can make valuable business contacts just as easily as before and you can use facebook to promote yourself, your business, your product or any services you offer .The strategies that you need to adopt are generally the same and you still need to avoid certain practices, for more information check out my facebook made easy guide

Facebook Pages

Facebook pages have become somewhat easier to find as they are now appearing in the search box with a little yellow flag on them. With the obvious refocus on advertising those who learn how to use facebooks social adds will have a great opportunity to get very targeted advertising.

Marketing Tools

Facebook has a range of powerful marketing tools like polls and surveys that you can use relatively cheaply to test your markets before investing too much time and energy into a project. With all the demographic data they have collected they will be set to compete with google as they know everything about all their users likes, dislikes and online habits.

Integration With Other Services

Facebook recently announced what they call facebook connect this allows users to link all their social media activities together sites like Digg . For more info check out this recent article on techcrunch . In the future they will all flow seamlessly together and your friends will follow you regardless of what site you are on. This will really unleash the full power of Web 3.0 and will make the internet a much more Tribal place. Knowing this smart marketers and business people will be positioning themselves to serve these communities not as an outsider looking in but as a full member and participant. This forces even greater transparency and also a higher quality of service. Poor products and bad services will quickly be exposed because of the power of word of mouth. Scammers and con artists can also quickly be excluded from these types of networks. The Cream will naturally rise to the top and peoples identities will be more determined by the communities and tribes that they belong to.

Power structures will Change

As facebook matures the structures of power will change. People who are within your network are not all equal in the strictest sense. Those people who have popularity, or large networks and groups have a much greater viral visibility and influence. Their messages, thoughts and Ideas will spread further because they have the structures in place to do this. With so much information available the normal person will pick a few people to follow who will act as their filters. They will follow their recommendations and trust that they will inform them of the latest changes and strategies that they need to adopt and keep them updated with the latest news and gossip. Malcolm Gladwell terms these people Connectors, Mavens and Salespeople in his excellent book the tipping point.I will be exploring these concepts in much more detail in a later post.

Facebook is clearly going to be a major player in the social media world of the future. There are huge opportunities available to those who know how to take advantage of them.

I would appreciate your comments and your views about any other opportunites and potentials that I have ommited in relation to the future of Facebook. Participation is an integral part of social media so feel free to add your voice.

Part 1 - Strengths

Part 2 - Weaknesses

Part 3 - Opportunities

Part 4 - Threats

If you have enjoyed this post please consider subscribing to my full RSS feed.

You can find me on facebook by going to http://profile.to/ianchapman

You can also follow me on twitter - http://www.twitter.com/ian_chapman

Facebook S.W.O.T Part 2 - Weaknesses

noreply@blogger.com (Holographic Life Mapping) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:36:00 +0000

This is part 2 of a four part series that explores the new look Facebook and examines it using a S.W.O.T analysis

Part 1 - Strengths

Part 2 - Weaknesses

Part 3 - Opportunities

Part 4 - Threats

Vista or XP

Some users have made the comparison that the new look facebook is like using windows Vista, it looks fancy but its full of bugs and problems that still need ironing out. I was quite surprised that I found so many obvious issues that hadn't been solved and also many omissions and functions that had apparently been taken away. It makes me wonder how the beta test group hadn't picked up on them and what sort of demographics they chose for this test group (100,000 college kids???) I also wonder if facebook actually listen to feedback from their users. I should maybe apologise for the rather strong language that I included when I posted my initial feedback after my first 4 hours of frustration on the new platform.

Initial Teething Problems

I was reminded by one comment I read on the facebook page that in the early days people could go and change things on other peoples walls and even delete things on other peoples profiles. Maybe I should just have a bit more patience and not be so quick to criticise. I have also found that a lot of things have been moved around so you need to go and find them again. Mari Smith has made some great camtasia videos that take you through the new look profile, you can check them out on her fan page

Harder To Customise

While researching for this blog post I spent a long time reading all the comments and complaints on the facebook group page. From this I gathered that a lot of people felt that facebook had taken away their ability to express their individuality on their profile page. By forcing everyone's profile to look almost identical. Many users had custom skins for their applications and bumper stickers, pictures and videos so their profile had become almost a work of art. Many users were furious at this forced uniformity and even went on to accuse facebook of big brother like tactics

At the time of writing almost all the applications that I would want to be show on my main page can't be sent there. Instead they are left hidden inside my boxes tab where no one will ever find them. I hope that in the future this will change

Harder To Judge by First Impressions

For business users this is a big disadvantage of the new look facebook. On the old system if you knew what you were doing you could create a very powerful presentation by combining the right types of applications. People could instantly see in a glance what type of business were in and what type of networker you are . It now takes longer to decide who you want to accept as a friend. You have to hunt around for the telltale signs that attract and also repulse. Instead of scrolling we are now forced to click around different tabs. I suspect that with time I will still able to make the same assessment within 30 seconds that I can on the old facebook. It just takes a bit of getting used to

No shortcuts on the Profile page

Facebook has removed the shortcuts menu that used o be to the left and below your profile picture. It is now relegated to a position to the right and low down on the Home Page. I used this shortcuts menu all the time to access the groups pages. Making it harder to get to places will obviously reduce the numbers of people who go there so I foresee a potential decline in group activity, especially among new users who might not even know that groups exist.

Facebook have supposedly given you the option to create your own new tab on your profile but you are limited to a few applications that they recommend. I suspect that this is just a bug right now and will be changed in the future

Viral Potential Restricted

Facebooks new look has definitely reduced some of facebooks viral potential by making things harder to find and not immediately visible. This is especially the case for 3rd party applications if you can't see them you can’t spread them so easily. A good friend who works for one of the top applications developers sent me some screen shots of how my profile was going to look 6 weeks ago. She warned me of how bad it was for application developers who have been abandoning facebook in droves. Facebook seems intent on courting the big money from major advertisers who will be utilising all that extra white space in the future.

Application Developers

Facebook applications developers have also been hit because you can no longer share you applications with friends. Admittedly this might reduce the number of forced application invites that people receive but it takes away the easy ability to share something of value. I suspect this will change as this is an important part of the facebook experience and also an integral part of some of the game applications. There were a lot of complaints about this issue on the facebook group page.

Designed for Advertising

The new profile is a much wider. Wide pages go against the natural tendencies of our foveal vision you can't take it all in in one glance, so physically it makes the design uncomfortable to use, your eyes keep jumping around all the time

The Money Spot

Facebook has switched the advertising to the right hand side of the page, clearly to take advantage of the natural tendencies of people to focus on this area of the page. Marketers have already proved by using eye tracking software and split testing that the top right of a page is where the money spot is

Flash Distractions

I also found the animated flash graphics to be very distracting . One of the reasons I have always hated MySpace was because of this. But again, tests have shown that people click on things that move more because they grab your attention. When I was using the facebook chat facility the flash banner add was running right through the chat box and to get it out of the way I was forced to scroll the page downwards. I found this very annoying.

Please feel free to comment and add any other weaknesses that you have spotted in facebooks new design. Maybe someone will take notice. I saw that since Jim Turners recent note where he commented on the missing ignore all button that it has now been reinstated. Jesse Stay an author of two books on facebook also made an interesting blog post where he explored some of the missing features, New Facebook Design Confuses Many, Obscures Feature

Part 1 - Strengths

Part 2 - Weaknesses

Part 3 - Opportunities

Part 4 - Threats

If you have enjoyed this post please consider subscribing to my full RSS feed.

You can find me on facebook by going to http://profile.to/ianchapman

You can also follow me on twitter - http://www.twitter.com/ian_chapman

Facebook S.W.O.T Part 1 - Strengths

noreply@blogger.com (Holographic Life Mapping) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 13:16:00 +0000

Do You Love It Or Hate It?

The new look facebook has now been live for a few weeks. It rolled out across the globe at different times so depending which part of the world you live in you might have had longer to explore than others. I am assuming that by now most of you will have probably got over the initial shock and started to find your way around. Some people seem to love it, others hate it with a passion. There are many differing opinions and I wanted to give you my take on it and invite all my readers to share their own personal experiences

S.W.O.T

In this blog post I will be using a standard S.W.O.T analysis in relationship to how the new look facebook will affect people who are using social networking for business purposes and examining its Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. I will break it up into four parts to make digestion a little easier. And allow you to comment on each aspect. I hope that some of the developers and programmers take note so that facebook can be improved for all its users

Part 1 - Strengths

Part 2 - Weaknesses

Part 3 - Opportunities

Part 4 - Threats

Initial Negative Experience

I must admit that my own first experiences with it were not so pleasurable and I wrote quite a long and negative blog post about my frustrations. I decided to wait before I published and on reflection I am glad that I waited. After a week of playing around with it I now feel in a much better position to give a more balanced overview of the changes and include the benefits and not just the problems that the new design creates.

Part 1 - Strengths

Clean Layout

One of the major strengths of the new look facebook is the clean layout and the simplifying of the profile page so that when you click on a friends profile you immediately have access to their wall/news feed and can quickly see what they have been up to recently and send them a message directly.

Tabbed Browsing

The Profile has been divided up into tabs so that all your personal information is in one place and all your applications are on one tab now called boxes. For many people this has been of huge benefit. You now don't have to wait for ages for a profile to load if a friend has installed 200 applications. Overall the platform seems to be running a lot faster than it did before. Although the tabbed feature is only limited to the profile and doesn't yet extend to other areas where it is desperately needed.

Integration of Wall and Minifeed

Facebook have integrated the wall and the minifeed into one aggregated feed that takes up 70% of the space on your profile page. This major prominence is because facebook has always been designed to focus on creating and maintaining real relationships and building a sense of community. Quickly being able to know what all your friends are doing plays an important role. It has a number of settings and wall filters so you can see only posts made by yourself, others or you can see the stories that facebook has selected for you. You can edit your privacy setting to make sure you only display what you really want to the world.

Makes Sharing Even Easier

Facebook has made the sharing of videos and photos even easier with one dedicated tab and a host of new features to play around with. For more information you can check out a recent blog post facebook the unofficial guide. This clearly shows that facebook can see the future and want photo sharing, video chats and video postcards to be on their system and not on other external services like flickr, ooVoo or Skype.

New Features

Facebook have brought in a lot of new features that help to make facebook the pivotal part of your daily life. They have introduced a new blog subscription service where you can join your favourite blog and enjoy all its content without ever having to leave facebook.

Another nice feature is the ability to create a profile badge that you can place on your website or blog that can show your current status and act like a business card and pull people from outside of facebook to become your friends. To access this feature you can find a link on the bottom left of your profile page.

This still had a few bugs in when I last tested it but I am sure Facebook will iron those out pretty soon. I would also like to be able to customise what is displayed a bit more.

Facebook Notes

The Notes feature has increased in prominence, which is great because it gets more people involved in conversations. Anyone who has a blog can import their posts automatically and then tag their friends to come and make a comment. This runs straight into the wall feed and you can make comments directly on your wall/minifeed and keep updated on the topic without having to go back to the post and scroll down to the bottom each time a new person makes a comment.

I would like to hear your positive comments about the new look facebook, what you consider to be its greatest strengths and any other new features you may have discovered that you would like to share.

Part 1 - Strengths

Part 2 - Weaknesses

Part 3 - Opportunities

Part 4 - Threats

If you have enjoyed this post please consider subscribing to my full RSS feed.

You can find me on facebook by going to http://profile.to/ianchapman

You can also follow me on twitter - http://www.twitter.com/ian_chapman

Tagging Etiquette On Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Holographic Life Mapping) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:21:00 +0000

In my previous post I talked about how to build a relationship with your network and how to increase your viral visibility by using the Share button.

Dangers Of Spamming

What I maybe didn't emphasise enough is the danger of overusing this tool and also of the potential for abuse by spammers who might choose to tag everyone who has a large network in order to utilise their wall space. With the new look facebook and the wall and newsfeed combined this becomes even more of a problem and is something I will be discussing in a future post.

A Valuable Lesson

I got a direct twitter message from Mari Smith, asking me to remove her from one of the tags that I had made on a post that was not directly relating to her.

marismith Ian - I need to ask you to remove your latest FB Note tag for me. It is not appropriate to tag peeps not mentioned in a note, imho

Mari made me aware of the dangers of abuse for this function so I would like to apologise if I have done something that is inappropriate and also use this as a valuable lesson so that others don't make this same mistake and facebook turns into a spam festival.

Ask People First

If you tag people make sure they are really your friends first and actually want to be tagged, maybe a good practice would be to send a person a personal message and ask them if they mind you tagging them in a note, That way you cover yourself and you don't abuse other peoples networks. I think that this would be a much more appropriate way to go and also stop what I can see as a real danger of abuse.

Differing Opinions

Each person has the right to decide where they stand in regard to tagging. There are definitely differing opinions. Some may want viral visibility others may want to keep themselves more private. Others only want to be tagged if the note directly mention them. Its up to you to find out first before you tag people. You face a real risk of being removed as a friend if you don't follow the correct

In my previous post I talked about how to build a relationship with your network and how to increase your viral visibility by using the Share button.

Knowledge Can Be Dangerous

Knowledge in the wrong hands and used in the wrong ways can be dangerous and have the opposite effect of keeping communication flowing. So I would like to urge people to uses extreme caution when tagging and sharing on facebook and to be respectful of each other. Only share something if you truly believe it is going to add some value to peoples lives.

In my previous post I talked about how to build a relationship with your network and how to increase your viral visibility by using the Share button.

Leverage Your Friends on Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Holographic Life Mapping) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:17:00 +0000

Overwhelmed?

While some people are rushing to build a huge friend list, and others are feeling overwhelmed as their inbox fills up faster than they can clear it. How many of you have taken the time to go back to those relationships you established right at the beginning when you didn't have so many friends.

Re-Connect With Your Existing Friends

If you have over 200 friends you are already at the point where you might have problems managing all the friendships and relationships you have developed. Recently I have been getting messages from people I met a few months ago on facebook, people who I had a really good connection with and had found we shared a lot in common. Somehow with all the other demands for my attention I neglected many of those relationships and only now realise the value in them that I need to go back and cultivate

Leverage Your Existing Platform

Jay Abraham a very famous business guru and marketing wizard often suggests to his clients that instead of looking for new customers that they look at their existing customer base, the people who have already bought from them and work out ways to build on that relationship and sell them other products and services, what is often termed in sales as the Back End.

Segregate You Friends

I want to explore this concept and apply it to facebook friends and contacts that you might have made on other social networking sites. If you have been carefully segregating your friends onto smaller lists this task will be a lot easier as you will already have all your most important and valuable contacts grouped together by business niche or common interest. If you haven't done this then I suggest you adopt this strategy immediately as it helps to keep your friends list more manageable and also allows you to quickly find important people again.

Back And Forth Exchanges

I would like to suggest that you make it a regular part of your social networking to go back and re-establish those friendships and contacts that you made in the past and see if there is any way that you can be of service. To build a real relationship takes more than a single wall post when someone has accepted you as a friend. It takes time to nurture and establish trust. Noticing what other people are doing and giving them your attention is a good beginning.

Lessons From Marketers

Direct Response Marketers noticed that the average number of exchanges before a customer bought from them was between 5 and 7 times. This is where the power of following up leads really comes into play and by building in automatic sequences and email exchanges so that those contacts and touches are carried out they dramatically increased their conversions.

I suspect that what applies in direct response marketing also applies to Facebook friends. And while I am not suggesting you adopt an automated strategy to go and turn all your friends into customers I think the same principles apply to building relationships.

What the marketers discovered and took advantage of was the natural tendencies of human beings and the process of how they establish trust and rapport through repeated contacts.

If you only use your friends as platforms to promote yourself and their walls as a free advertising space you might find when you really need them they are not so willing to co-operate.

Viral Visibility

One way that I find very powerful is to use the Notes feature in facebook, I have set it to pull in all my blog posts onto my facebook profile. Each time I publish something it pushes out into my newsfeed and all my friends newsfeeds. For a great summary of how to do this check out Mari Smiths blog post

The next step is to tag a few friends in the note, it’s a way to show that you remember them and also to show that you appreciate their opinions and comments. You are providing a platform for them to express themselves and also allow them to get to know your other friends who you also tagged.

Make Your Network More Powerful

This is a way to make your network much more powerful because when all your important friends and contacts know each other and regularly interact together you increase the viral effects that any of your actions will have. Brian Campbell explained The mathematical theory behind this and other important strategies In his trainings for premium members of the Social Media Marketing System. And we proved it through real time observations when building Facebook groups I will be summarising this in my Facebook Advanced Strategies handbook that I am currently writing so I wont go into detail here, you will just have to believe me when I say that its true.

Share what you find beneficial

If you get tagged in someone's note, its always good practice to press the share button, of course only share a post if you feel it will add some value to your other friends. You can share directly to your profile or you can select specific friends, this is your chance to connect more people and draw them into the conversation

Sharing Is Important

This is a feature that most people don't really use, I have only noticed the really effective social networkers using this strategy on a regular basis. Often they are people who have their own blog and understand how the viral effects of facebook work. You can do this for Videos, Groups, Events, anything that you discover to be of value. Facebook is so cluttered with junk that it takes this type of peer voting to allow the quality content to rise to the top.

Become a Connecting Node

Even if you don't have your own blog and don't feel comfortable writing or making videos if you regularly use the share button you will build up a resource of useful information on your profile page that any new friends can instantly have access to. They will keep returning to you because you are acting as a an important connecting node.

Study Your News Feed

Get into the habit of studying your news feed every day and see what pops out, facebook is so cleverly designed that you can even adjust the setting and tell them which friends you want to hear more about.

Using your segregated friend lists go and adjust your settings and push the sliders to the top for the people you care about. Take the time to participate in conversations and always thank people when they have taken the time to leave a comment. Study how some of the social media experts operate. copy the essence of how they communicate but infuse it with your own style and personality. Be original, have a sense of humour, look at any messages that made you take notice. What was special about it? Why did it leave such an impact on you?

Press That Share Button

The objective in any social network is to keep the information and communication flowing smoothly. This means that anyone, regardless of how little time they have for their facebook activities can play their part in making this happen. Every time you see the share button make sure you press it. It is giving you as much visibility as the the person or information you are sharing . It’s a way of paying it forward that will pay you dividends in the long run. Then send a mesage out on Twitter and update your status in Facebook. If you have all your systems linked together by pingfm or hellotxt this becomes even easier.

Go on do it now, what are you waiting for…..?

If you have enjoyed this blog post then you might like to consider signing up for my full RSS feed
and following me on twitter.... http://www.twitter.com/ian_chapman

ian_chapman

Twit Tease - Rick Butts Gets Naked!

noreply@blogger.com (Holographic Life Mapping) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:03:00 +0000

Viral Video
Rick Butts just posted a great video on his blog from his uptream TV show, He promised to reveal the secrets of Twitter squeeze, which he hopes will revolutionise Internet marketing in the coming future.

You have to watch the video to understand because he has some very important content within it and you need to watch all of it.

Finding The Right Metaphor
I thought I would take a few steps back and see if I couldn't pin down what Rick was doing. I needed to find a good metaphor to express the way I have observed him and others using Twitter to drive traffic into their sales funnel.

Strip Tease Artist
A Strip Tease artist is the closest thing I could come up with, A worker in the Sex Industry who takes off their clothes for money, I know Rick enjoys Sexual Metaphors so he will probably like what I have written

A Hooker
Rick entices people with the sexy tag lines to his blog posts. He's like a hooker sitting in shop window in Amsterdam dressed only in his underwear flaunting his offerings with sizzling copy and promises of dark and dirty secrets.

Fishing For Attention
Rick is a master at creating link bait and getting people onto his blog and taking part in the discussions
Those who step through his door are rarely disappointed. He had me riveted for two hours when I first stumbled upon his Blog. Like a basement fight club for all of the Internet Marketing Gurus. You leave feeling soiled and breathless, hungry for more and now part of that secret society even though you may not have stepped into the gladiatorial arena yourself.

Internet Whore?
You know that Rick isn't frigid, he puts out all the time, he still gives it away for free because he obviously enjoys it. Does he have an ulterior motive, you bet he does, he wants your attention, and he manipulates masterfully in order to secure it

Addictions
He's like a drug dealer who offers you a taste because he wants you as a long term customer.
You can get your fix of free links as he hooks you up into following all his tweets and before you know it you’ve becoming addicted , knowing he has one of the purest and best supplies on the market. An Internet Veteran with his razorblade on the jugular of the online world. Only too happy to shed a bit of blood knowing it will attract all the sharks to come and feed.

Twit Tease
Rick uses Twitter and his blog in combination like a strip tease artist might use her fan. You think all is going to be revealed only to find him still wearing his G string. As you click closer and closer to his money site or affiliate links you get drawn in to the carefully laid web he has prepared. Its so smooth you don't even notice the transitions.

Seeing Him Naked Will Cost You
He takes off just enough clothes to get you excited enough to follow the next step as he leads you into his sales funnel. If you want to see him fully naked you have to pony up twenty bucks, He doesn't go all the way for free at some point you need to make a commitment. Not that you have to get married or anything, he doesn't even want to know your name. He just wants to make an honest living he has bills to pay like everyone else and he's worked damn hard to get you to this point.

You Get Paid When He Gets Laid
He will show you how he does it and not only that, he will pay you too, you get to become another of his link pimps, sharing the profits in the twitter squeeze cash cow. Shortened URL's hide the deals so no one even knows that you get paid when he gets laid.

Viral Venereal Disease
Social proof is the best form of advertising so having others recommend you and post your links is vitally important for spreading your viral venereal messages.
The new Twit This button at the bottom of each of Ricks blog posts make this even easier, you dont even have to get your hands dirty.

Consummating The Relationship
Seducing people to become twitter followers is like building an autoresponder list. The difference is this one has the potential to grow exponentially. What you have to say and how you say it will determine how quickly you can get people into bed with you and the length of your courtship period. Consummating a relationship will finally come from the press of a paypal button or credit card transaction. You had better be as good in bed as you claim to be because poor performance is quickly exposed and your shortcomings will be revealed for all to see.

If you have enjoyed this blog post then you might like to consider signing up for my full RSS feed
and following me on twitter - ian_chapman

Women Making Waves

noreply@blogger.com (Holographic Life Mapping) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:23:00 +0000

At The Cutting Edge

I think one of the greatest things about facebook is how quickly you can discover the people who are at the cutting edge and leading the way in the world of Web 2.0. You can instantly have access to their wisdom and experience through their profile, fan page and blogs and begin to develop a real relationship through the communication channels that are available.

The Aztec Warrior Queen

Yesterday I was accepted as a friend by Nancy Marmolejo, She came highly recommended from a number of my Facebook friends. I found a treasure trove of great information on Nancy's profile page and one of her blog posts inspired me to write this article

Women Leading The Way

In Nancy's Blog post she explores why Women Are Leading The Way in Social Marketing. She gives a number of reasons based on the obvious differences in approach.

Men tend to adopt an aggressive hard sell, pushy, combative way of relating to people whereas women are more prone to the softer sell, attraction marketing and passive ways of building relationships based on a real heartfelt desire to connect to people in a genuine way.

Masculine And Feminine Styles

Not that all men and all women fall into these two neat categories but rather there is a masculine way of doing things and a feminine way. Women who have had to fight to get to where they are now in the business world are having to unlearn the masculine habits and internet sales training that they previously adopted as they enter the new WEB 2.0 World of Social Marketing.

Flexibility Is The Key To Rapport

It doesn't matter what sex you are its your personality and style that make all the difference. Having the flexibility in your behaviour to be able to gain rapport with anyone regardless of gender or style of approach will mean you will have a much wider appeal.

Destructive Criticism

I saw a good example yesterday from a person who was commenting on a friends Video that I had shared on my profile. It was basically a very aggressive negative criticism from a woman who claims to be in Marketing. Obviously she has no clue about marketing herself as her bitterness and bitchiness left me wondering if I really want to have someone like this as a friend. It would have been easy for her to offer the same advice but to deliver it in a way that gives constructive criticism and support instead of such a negative putdown. I deleted the comment as its added no value to the conversation

Getting Noticed For The Wrong Reasons

Another pitfall that Nancy highlighted was the way some people don't think carefully enough about the first impressions that they are making. Aggressively marketing and promoting yourself can often damage your reputation and can be likened to a person entering a room where a party is taking place and talking to all the guests through a loudhailer. The noise is so loud that everyone in the room is disturbed. If you adopt this approach you will get noticed, but for all the wrong reasons.

Teleseminar Series

Erin Blaskie a female social marketer who specialises in virtual assistant services has put together a one month series of teleseminars and has rounded up an impressive line up of speakers. I saw a Tweet from Mari Smith pointing out the Demographics of that list. 29 are women and only 3 are men. That's quite a huge discrepancy. I don't think its because men weren't invited just that those that were chose not to participate.

A Heart Oriented Approach

It's clear that women have now found the platform where they don't have to become like men in order to succeed. As Web 2.0 spreads itself around the globe women will find themselves more at the forefront of this new media revolution. And the men that are successful will be the ones who adopt a softer more heart oriented approach.

The Tubby Nerd

Ed Dale is probably one of the few male internet marketing gurus who has truly understood social marketing and embraced it with a passion. He has an army of followers watching his every move on Facebook, Twitter and in his 30 day Challenge that will start in August. He says that many of his male peers in the internet marketing world hate facebook and other social networking sites. Most male marketers make the mistake of transferring their manipulative sales skills from direct response marketing and google adwords campaigns and fall flat on their faces when they try the same tactics within Social Media where conversation marketing and relationship building is what is actually required.

Demographic Differences

Ed points out that for sites like Facebook the demographics show that women outweigh men quite considerably. You can see this very easily if you ever check out Facebook's Social Adds, you can see the exact number of males and females in any country. I googled and discovered one facebook user who had taken the time to work out all the figures globally.

I did my own research as his figures were slightly out of date

In the USA there are 11.6 million men registered and 14.5 million women

In the UK the ratio is 4.5 million men to 5.5 million women

Women Are More Regular Users

In places like Ireland and China women make up 70% of the user base. The question also has to be asked of all those people who have registered for facebook what proportion are actually regular users. I suspect the true demographics are even higher when you view it this way as women use it much more to maintain their family and social relationships.

Statistical Analysis

What Ed does point out and I believe is very important is that those that are really successful in Internet Marketing and business are the ones that study statistics and test and track everything they do. Analysis is more of a male quality so while there might be many women who rise to become New Media Stars, based on their personality, The people who will actually make the most money in the nuts and bolts world of traffic and conversion will be the ones that can understand and translate the analytics reports and optimise their performance based on these results.

Important Details

The really smart marketers will be the ones that measure and quantify the qualitative aspects of social media. Knowing that the clothes you wear or the background colour of your YouTube video can affect your conversion rates and having hard data to back it up might make all the difference between success and mediocrity.

A Dating Guru

Eben Pagan, the guy who runs a $20 million dating advice company, spends a lot of his time going to conferences. His whole business revolves around understanding women and teaching men these secrets.

He told a story about one conference that he attended that was focussed on Marketing to Women and was surprised that he was one of the only men to show up. Why are so many men in the marketing world ignoring the fact that women control the purse strings and are the main driving force behind the global consumer economy?

If you enjoyed this blog post you may want to consider subscribing for my full RSS feed.

A lot of very valuable comments have been left about this post on facebook, I seem to have struck a chord with a lot of women and several men. You can view these extra comments here.

I also have a PDF report that I am giving away, You can pick up your Free copy by following either link.

Part 1 - How To Avoid Having Your Account Disabled - The Definitive Guide

Part 2 -How To Build A Targeted High Quality Friend List

Death Comes In Many Shapes And Forms

noreply@blogger.com (Holographic Life Mapping) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 23:22:00 +0000

A Dying Snake

I saw an unusual thing yesterday, I came across a large snake that had just been run over by a car, It was still alive but was going through its death throes. I have a great affinity to snakes, so I picked it up and moved it to the side of the road and watched as it died, I stroked its warm skin as the life ebbed away from it's body. It was unusual because you don't normally see such large snakes where I live, and its rare to get the chance to watch something die so closely.

Dead Trees

Later that day I took my girlfriend to see the body, and as we walked back to our house we inspected the tree's we had planted recently on our land, We have had a drought for the past 3 months and many of them have died, some are struggling and others seem to be doing quite well considering the conditions.

Struggling To Survive

I always wonder when I am meeting new people online which people are still going to be around this time next year. A lot of my friends are trying to start their own businesses online and are facing the same challenges that my trees faced. Thrown into a new environment and not getting enough of what they need to survive. Struggling to get their roots established and sustain themselves through those initial challenges

The statistics are not so promising, depending on what sources you use 95% to 99% of all small businesses fail within the first year. What separates that small percentage from all the rest? What is the difference that makes the difference?

A Different Mindset?

I know that it can't just boil down to luck there are a few key issues that will be the deciding factors and maybe the most important is Mindset. Having the courage and determination to keep going when things get difficult shows through in peoples characters. Its easy to give up and walk away and blame your failure on the faults of others. Not taking full responsibility for all your actions will always undermine what you hope to achieve.

Even in the past few months I have seen many friends fall by the wayside, disheartened or distracted into doing something else, or still jumping from one Idea to the next and never able to commit and move forward. Making excuses to themselves so that they can feel good about not fulfilling their potential. I know it’s a natural process that is occurring and my bonds of friendship gradually grow closer to those I have travelled furthest with. And I quickly forget those that drift out of my life never to be seen again.

Decisive Action

I was listening to Mari Smith and Kevin Nations yesterday and one of the concepts that I took away was about the need for taking decisive action. Making decisions and following through with action is a key factor that separates those that will succeed and those that fail. Even if the decision is to not take any action, it needs to be clear and decisive so that you can focus on what you need to do and not what you might have been doing, worried if it was a right or wrong choice. As Kevin said, if you come to a fork in the road, take it.

Death Is A Positive Force

Death comes in many shapes and forms, it makes way for new growth to take place. Each time you take decisive action you are killing off many other potential futures, you don’t need to dwell on the past, you embrace the death of all those other possibilities and keep focussed on the direction that you have chosen to take.

Embrace It

You might find yourself caught at that fork or crossroads in life and feel like the snake that I saw writhing in pain as it struggles to hold on to life. Unable to make the choice of which direction to take, unable to embrace death because you want to keep all your possibilities and options open.

Another Death

My Last post about the relaunch of SMMS threw up a lot of interesting issues and I had some great comments and feedback. There is a major shift taking place and old methods and ways of operating are now in their death throes too, we can see them dying by the roadside and nothing we can do will be able to bring them back to life. Social Media has brought about a much needed transformation in the way people relate to each other and do business together. Honesty, Integrity and transparency are the new currency. Those who can build solid long lasting relationships and establish their own credibility will be the ones who will reap the long term profits and rewards.

If you enjoyed this blog post you may want to consider subscribing for my full RSS feed.

When The Universe Is Trying To Tell You Something

noreply@blogger.com (Holographic Life Mapping) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:33:00 +0000

Many people who teach law of attraction and abundance are faced with the issues that it always brings up in their lives. Just what are they attracting to themselves and can they listen to the messages the Universe is trying to teach them.

Social Media Marketing System
This article will explore the recent re-launch of the Social Media Marketing System (SMMS) and explain from an insiders perspective some of the issues and controversies that were brought to the surface during this process.

I spent four hours last night on the phone to Brian Campbell going over these details and analysing the successes and failures, taking the lessons that we learned so that we can improve on what went well and to avoid some of the tactics that are now obviously outdated and no longer as effective

Free training
Brian Campbell began the re-launch of SMMS over a month ago, during the first week of June, he had intended to bring the launch to a conclusion around summer solstice on 21st of June. Everything was running smoothly and in the first week about 800 people had signed up for the free training that he was offering.

A Spanner In The Works
Brian hit the first major snag just as he was just about to release a new set of trainings. His internet hosting company had let him down and he was forced to migrate servers. Which meant shutting down SMMS for 2 and a half days while he worked non stop to get the system up and running again. His main concern was to ensure the quality of service to all his existing paying members and he had no choice but to put the launch on hold while he dealt with these technical difficulties.

This was like putting a bucket of water on the fire, the momentum that he had built up until then was frustrated and he was forced to re-schedule his plans.

Tickets Already Booked
Brian Had already set the date for handing over the $10,000 cheque to John Chow in Vancouver , his flight tickets were booked weeks before and all the arrangements were set. He was forced to improvise and the media publicity that he had hoped from the $10,000 cheque couldn't be used as effectively as he had once intended

A Change in Direction
Brian then decided to change tactics and instead of going for the soft launch that he had had originally planned he chose to go for the all out in your face full frontal attack . Using the aggressive marketing tactics that have been so prevalent in the internet marketing world in the past.

A Viral Buzz
He launched P.R.I.S.M and created a huge Buzz on Facebook, the group grew extremely rapidly and had a massive viral effect because of the number of people who were posting on the group wall and making videos. His main leverage this time was not based on the quality of what he was teaching but was more focused on using scarcity tactics, exclusivity and the carrot of giving away another $15,000.

Old Tactics Leave Some People Jaded
It was a masterful display of the power that these psychological marketing methods can have over some people. And the were successful to an extent

I am not a personal fan of this type of marketing and in my opinion I think he may have turned a lot of people off. I had my reservations and maybe even damaged my own reputation by supporting him and promoting what he was doing to many of my own group members. It was a good learning experience and I know for future situations how I will choose to respond.

Many of those who have been around for a while are jaded by these old school strategies of false scarcity and emotional manipulation. Its exciting to watch but when the dust settles it leaves a strange taste in the mouth because they are not rooted in the principles of wealth and abundance that underlies a lot of what Brian normally teaches

The Rules Have Now Changed
Social Media has changed this whole game. Everything is much more transparent and real time comments and analysis expose the fact that a lot of people don't appreciate this way of operating.
What might have worked for the past 5 years no longer has the same effect, this was clearly revealed in the recent Stompernet launch and the subsequent backlash that was expressed on Rick Butts blog

John Reese who just launched his Traffic Secrets 2 course deliberately avoided using any type of scarcity tactic in his sales presentation. As a guy who tests and tracks everything you can be sure he is aware of the latest trends and this was the reason for his decision.

Bad Timing
The final difficulties that Brian faced were due to the setbacks and timing of his launch. This had pushed him up to the fourth of July Weekend and he needed to bring it to a conclusion before then.

The massive attention that he had hoped would go towards his sales letter was distracted by the holiday period which meant that the results that he had hoped for were slightly less than he had anticipated and while it was still successful and many new members joined SMMS there are still many people who could greatly benefit who chose not to participate. Let this be a lesson to all those who plan on launching a product or service in the future pay careful attention to the public holidays and social calendar so you can have everyone's full and undivided attention.

Health Issues
After 3 months of burning the candle at both ends Brian finally took a short break over the holiday weekend and gave himself the rest that he needed and deserved. He discovered that he needed more time to recharge himself and so instead of doing what most marketers would do, which is to bring in all those who were still sitting on the fence. Brian finally chose to sacrifice his original goals rather than burn himself out and damage his health. Having made this mistake in the past and being forced to take a year off from work and walk away from a $2 million business, he was not going to make the same mistake twice.

A Difficult Dilemma
When faced with the option of making more money as opposed to being fit and healthy which would you choose. This is a difficult dilemma and one that many people face because their financial success influences so many other areas of their life, and their family are lifestyle are often dependant on their income. Some are often tempted to choose money and work to the detriment of their physical health and well being and I will explore this topic in greater detail in a future blog post

Victim Of Your Own Success
Anyone who makes themselves publicly available can sometimes be the victim of their own success. With too many people demanding his attention and the pressures of running his existing membership and training program, Brian could no longer offer the personal connection that had been a major factor in the success of his initial launch. I know that in the future that he will be slowing down to focus more on the success of the existing SMMS members and building a solid base with PRISM and his recently released MIND programs

Takeaways and Conclusion
This article is a summary of my own personal opinions I am sure Brian will soon respond with his own version of events and while there are many minor details I missed out I hope you get the general drift. I learned some valuable lessons which are summarised below.

○ Honour the relationships that you have already spent time developing,
○ Concentrate on giving value to as many people as possible
○ Maintain the core principles that you stand for in everything you do
○ Always question whether a short term gain is worth risking your reputation
○ Health and well being are much more important than money
○ When the universe throws obstacles and barriers in your path pay close attention maybe you are missing something important
○ Timing and momentum are vitally important concepts to understand and apply
○ Even the best plans have to be changed at the last moment so learn to be flexible and improvise

I have received a lot of extra comments on my imported facebook notes you can read them all by clicking here - Extra Comments

Leane Gerber wins the $10,000 prize on Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Holographic Life Mapping) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 08:30:00 +0000

Yesterday I participated in the final stages of a competition that had been running for the past few weeks on Facebook. Kev Mcauly Announced that he would be investing $10,000 to help someone kick-start their own home business.

All you had to do was join Kevs groups become a fan on his fan page and then write to explain why you thought you deserved to get the money.

A Sceptic

My Friend Leane Gerber was the first person to tell me about this offer and I explained to her then why I wouldn't be joining. I thought it was a great Idea as a publicity stunt and thought that Kev would probably grow a huge list for his MLM business as lots of hopeful people jumped on board expecting to get a free handout. I had just finished writing about MLM and pyramid marketing so my scepticism was even higher.

Not All MLM Is The Same

In the following weeks Leanne single-handedly build up Kevs groups by promoting what he was offering and right at the last minute with 5 minutes to spare and just before the competition closed I jumped on board for the fun of it. I had no real expectation of winning but I had seen the sincerity of Kev Mcauly and realised that he didn't fit into the normal category of MLM promoter, there was something different about him and his attitude that I liked.

Leane Wins $10,000

I spent the next half an hour having an IM conversation with Leane and Kev at the same time. I told Kev who I thought should win and I soon realised that he had already made the right decision.

He finally released the name of the winner in his excellent Blog post where he talks about his challenges in MLM marketing and how he came to learn the hard way that if you want to succeed in business online....

1. You must have a business or something to sell or promote with which you receive commission.

2. you must know how to generate traffic to websites

3. You must brand yourself as a leader in this industry.

Leane was chosen from all the other hopefuls because she had actually done something of value to earn it. By actively promoting she showed her talents and by being so down to earth and genuine she has built her own following on facebook

Brian's Protégé

Leane Gerber wins $10,000 prize on Facebook

Leane was one of the first people to follow Brian Campbells teaching, right at the beginning when no one had even heard of him. She threw caution to the wind and started her first facebook group, branding herself as Brian Campbells protégé. Even though she was inexperienced in internet marketing and had no product of her own to sell she took action and proceeded to build several large groups on Facebook.

Video Expert

It was only later that her real talents and skills were revealed and she started to build her own niche groups to teach Video Editing and Production.

A Great Sales Pitch

When she finally made her pitch to Kev Mcauley explaining her ideas she outlined a clear plan of action showing how she will use the money not just to help herself but to add value to other peoples lives

“I believe if you help enough people get what they want you will get what you want. I will use the money to help you and others...

I have 2 business ventures which I will give you the opportunity to invest in your $10'000 in.

1. As a film maker I am appalled at bad quality video's on the web.

I have 4 facebook groups with at least 800 people who want to learn more about using video to market themselves. I will use the money to buy the equipment I need to create high quality FREE training videos which I will post on fb and my video blog to teach people how to make professional video's. I will also help you spice up your health blog :)

2. My second venture is an amazing product called fuel freedom international. It helps you save 25% on fuel, reduces hazardous fuel emissions and have a great compensation plan. I will sign up 12 people as independent distributors and will invest my time to guide them and teach them to become successful using my marketing and your LOA knowledge.”

A Good Friend

I have really appreciated Leane's friendship on Facebook and she is one of the few people who I would actually consider a real friend, we have spent many hours chatting on Facebook's instant messenger sharing our Ideas and supporting each other through the psychological ups and downs that occur in this business

I am so happy that she is now getting the financial success that she has worked so hard for. Kev Mcauley made a good choice. He chose her for several reasons and I am sure he will get a good return on his investment

So why leanne?

• She applied the rules of the competition more than anyone and greatly contributed to the growth of the group.

• She has shown her ability in being able to build huge groups and traffic in social media.

• She has emailed, IM me and built a relationship, she has told me about her family, friends, dreams and goals.

• She is a leader in MLM and will able to help with my success.

Simple Strategies

Anyone no matter what their background or personal history can rise to the position of expert and leader if they have the commitment and enthusiasm and courage to move past their fears and take action implementing a few simple strategies, I outline them quite clearly in my free facebook advanced strategies guide

A New Type Of Guru

As more people become disillusioned with the big named Gurus I wonder if we are beginning to see a trend where people will follow those that have risen from the ranks because they maybe have a clearer understanding of the problems and issues that a newcomer might face since they went through it themselves much more recently.

Congratulations Leane I am proud of you for everything you have achieved in such a short period of time and I look forward to working with you closely in the future.

Make Your Facebook Profile Magnetic

noreply@blogger.com (Holographic Life Mapping) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:25:00 +0000

Anyone who has been on Facebook for over a month has probably accumulated a lot of extra weight on their profile page. This is quite normal but if you want to network more effectively it’s a good Idea to treat your profile like your resume and to keep it clear from clutter. Regular housekeeping will save you having to do a complete overhaul and rebuild. And if you set everything up in the right way your profile will become magnetic and you will automatically attract the friends you are looking for. Here a few suggestions that I came up with

Make Your Profile Fit Your Target Market.

If you want to target a specific niche then your profile should reflect this. A quick way to make a convincing profile is to go to Amazon.com and type in your keywords and see what books pop up. You want to make sure that you list these books on your profile. Next you need to include the names of some of the most famous people in your niche and the things that you would expect a person from this niche to like. Type in these names in the facebook search box and see what profiles come up, check out what other people have on their profiles and copy the style of a few of your most typical targeted prospects.

Target and Attract

You need to optimise you profile so that not only will you quickly be accepted as a friend by others in your niche but you will also attract the people who are looking for you when they use the search function. This is an important principle to remember. Target and Attract at the same time. All your personal information is hyperlinked so keep everything short and make sure you spell everything correctly. Writing long wordy sentences describing all your favourite things means you will miss out on others finding you though the search function and people might not even bother to read what you have written. Remember, most people only take a few seconds to scan through your profile, you need to make it as easy as possible for them so see what you have in common

Tidy Up You Groups

One tell tale sign that gives a lot of information about a person is the groups they have joined so if you want to make the right impression go through your group list and get rid of all the ones that are unsuitable. Also think about joining groups that will enhance your image and make you look like a well rounded individual. If you have a long list of groups only devoted to MLM, network marketing and making money online you might scare people away because you have made a clear statement about who you are. If your niche is making money online then this will of course be Ok, but it is a good idea to join some other interesting groups that also reflect well on your personality and interests.

Get Rid Of All The Apps

One of the most annoying things I find is when I come upon a persons profile who has been on facebook for a while is when their profile page is filled with about 100 applications and the page takes about 2 minutes to load. If you fall into this category you need to go through them all and decide if you want to keep them. Delete all the ones you don't want and hide all the ones that are unnecessary

If you enjoyed this post or any others on my blog why not consider signing up for my full RSS feed, just click on the orange button.

P.R.I.S.M Reaches 1000 Members and Brian Campbell is Snowed Under

noreply@blogger.com (Holographic Life Mapping) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:02:00 +0000

In my previous post I talked about risk reversal and how you can increase sales by taking all the risk away from your customer.

As many of you know, Brian Campbell is re- launching his Social Media Marketing System and has built in a solid risk reversal into his program so anyone considering joining really has nothing to lose and everything to gain

Ironclad, TRIPLE-CONFIDENCE 100% "Better-Than-Risk-Free" Money Back Guarantee!

I'll even allow you a full month to try my “Social Media Marketing System” training to determine if it's right for you. If you don't see how you can immediately begin building wealth easily by using these amazing techniques, I'll issue you a complete refund of your current month's membership fee, no questions asked. Just call my office and we'll cancel your membership. I'm convinced that you'll be completely thrilled with all the priceless training and won't ever need to ask for a refund!

Building Huge Buzz

He has spent the last week building huge buzz and growing a new group called P.R.I.S.M just for this purpose. When I last looked it had over 1000 members and 389 wall post, all in less than a week. He has used a variety of marketing tactics before he finally sent all the prospective P.R.I.S.M. members to his sales letter. I had read an earlier version but I must admit Brian has improved it beyond recognition. Even if you don't choose to join SMMS at least take a copy of this sales letter as a reference and study exactly how he structured it.

Taking Action Pays Off

Two things for me stand out Brian obviously gave some lucky people who had earned it scholarships into SMMS but what he also did was implement a very clever reverse scarcity time and money squeeze to get people to take action quickly. All those who have been following him on Twitter got a 2 hour head start to sign up for the paid program at a massive discount. As more people signed up and the limited places inside S.M.M.S. were taken the discount would rapidly decrease until the $13,000 was all given away. At this point the price will increase. I was impressed because who wants to take the chance of having to pay more at a later date because of hesitation. Brian hasn't released any details as yet but I know he was struggling with the pricing structure. He was worried he was giving it away too cheaply. This might just be a clever marketing strategy but it is also very difficult to ascertain the true value of membership to this program, especially the premium gold and silver memberships.

A Sell Out In 72 Hours

When he first opened the program it sold out in only 72 hours, how much longer he can keep the doors open this time is anybody's guess, from his twitter messaging it sounded like he was snowed under with applications and is busy processing them all right now. Already the first new members have entered the full membership area of the SMMS forum and are starting to interact with the other members.

If you are hesitating then you might miss the boat like the guy from one of my previous posts. You still may have time so go and read the sales letter right now.

Risk Reversal - How to Increase Sales and Build Relationships

noreply@blogger.com (Holographic Life Mapping) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:18:00 +0000

Risk Reversal is a way to increase sales and to make whatever you have to sell irresistible because your customer has nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Who Takes All The Risk?

When you are in business, and you are trying to sell something whether it be a product or service what often happens is that one of the parties involved is shouldering the burden of the risk, Usually this is the customer, They might buy the wrong product, or it might not be suitable to their needs, or your service might not produce the results that they need to justify the investment.

Take it Away from the Customer

What you need to do is find ways to take this burden away from the customer and shift it onto you. This effectively opens up the sales process and removes any objections or reservations a customer or prospect might have. You are effectively guaranteeing that you will meet their needs and that if certain criteria are not met they will be fully compensated.

30 Day Money Back Guanrantee

A simple example is the 30 day no questions asked money back guarantee. This gives anyone who is sceptical the chance to test drive what you have to offer while having the security of knowing that they can pull out at any time and not have lost anything.

More Than Money Back Guarantee

A further variation is the more than Money back guarantee where you offer a full refund plus a further offer or gift to appease the customer and make up for the time they spent and the inconvenience of choosing something unsuitable.

Define Criteria to Measure Effectiveness

If you are selling a service then you need to define certain measurable criteria that can be used to test whether or not your service has been effective.

A great example of this can be seen in what Frank Kern offered in his mass control program that he released earlier this year. He was so sure that his program would work that he offered to give anyone personal one on one coaching if after following his program and applying all the teachings they were still not able to apply what they had learned successfully to their business.

Another common example that most people will have heard of is Domino's Pizza, if they take longer than 30 minutes to deliver you get your Pizza for Free.

Starbucks have also adopted similar customer service policies as described so well in his Blog by Yaro Starack, If your drink isn't delivered or the service you receive is not to their high standards you get your drink for free and a voucher for a drink on the house at a later date.

Word of Mouth Builds Reputation

What this does is develop a strong bond with the customer and also build your companies reputation through word of mouth. If you receive a standard of service over and above what you are expecting it is the sort of thing you will talk about to your friends. This is one of the ways companies can start to go viral. People hear about them through word of mouth. This is why social media sites and online communities have become the new arena and market place which can make or break your business.

Build This Principle Into Your Own Business

It now becomes clear that is you want to convince more people to buy your product or service you have to make it as easy and risk free for them to do so. Developing guarantees, standards of quality and expected results need to be combined with clearly defined criteria that can be used to measure how effective you have been in meeting the needs of your customer. Risk reversal ensures quality and accountability and builds a basis for selling other products and services at a later date. People who know like and trust you are much more likely to become repeat customers.

Going Viral Part 4 - He Who Shall Not Be Named

noreply@blogger.com (Holographic Life Mapping) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:20:00 +0000

Relaunch

I Have a friend who shall remain nameless, he is in the process of re-launching his own membership site. He is following the advice given by Dan to the letter. He is also using twitter to communicate a lot of the important details about his launch and to generate Buzz. Many of you will know who I am talking about. Many of you will have had the sense to follow him on twitter

Buzz and Excitement

He has already launched a great product and generated a lot of initial buzz and the benefits of his product were so good that lots of his clients and customers started to promote it . He is now moving into the second stage. As far as I can see it has started to go viral because it has reached the critical mass and enough people are talking about it. Generating a lot of extra buzz and excitement which draws in people who have only just heard about what is happening, like Iron filings drawn towards a magnet. The members who are on board first will be the ones who truly benefit when the results of this product and its services are released to the wider internet and a more global audience.

The benefits are obvious, anyone who has read about what is being offered and has seen the inherent value and opportunity can only make one logical choice.

Don't Miss the Boat

It reminds me of another story about four brothers who had decided to sail on a ship to America , They had gotten up early and rushed down to the port. The first Brother had bought his ticket months ago, he knew exactly what he wanted to do and where he was headed in life. He had a cousin who had told him about the amazing opportunities that were available in America and he wanted to go and make his fortune there . When he arrived at the dock he ran quickly up the gangplank and immediately bumped into the captain who was welcoming the first passengers on board . He struck up a conversation and the captain liked him so much that he invited him to upgrade into first class and to have dinner with him and his fellow officers every evening.

The second brother also knew without a doubt that he wanted to sail to the new world, and had also bought a ticket beforehand. But as he was a bit more cautious than the first brother he had packed loads of heavy bags full of all the things that he thought he might need on the journey. Little did he know that most of the cabins came very well equipped and excellent food was provided on board. His heavy bags slowed him down but he made it on board without any trouble. Second class was crowded but comfortable and he was happy because he knew that he would get to his destination.

The ships engines started powering up and the third Brother was dawdling on the dockside watching everything that was going on. He was so distracted by all the hustle and bustle that he almost forgot to board the ship. They were just pulling up the gang plank when he ran and jumped across the gap and only just made it. He had to go in third class and didn't have a cabin because he had bought his ticket at the last minute, 3rd class was very crowded and he had to stand up for most of the journey, he was hoping that a space would become available in second class but there were lots of other passengers on the waiting list ahead of him.

The fourth Brother was watching everything that was going on. He wanted to go but he was afraid. He was afraid that everything might be too expensive when he got to America and that his money would run out. He hadn't even bought a ticket because he wasn't sure he could afford it. As he watched all his brothers board the ship he convinced himself that he didn't really want to go anyway and as it set sail he turned his back on the ship and walked slowly back to his house happy that he had made such a wise choice and still had the money that he would have spent on his ticket. To celebrate he went into a local pub and spent almost all of it in one evening of drunkenness.

This is the fourth post in a four part series, in order to fully appreciate it you should read the other posts as this sets the context and gives a lot of valuable background information.

Part 1 - Understanding The Difference Between Viral Marketing and MLM

Part 2 - A Personal Story

Part 3 - Making It Big On The Internet

Going Viral Part 3 - Making it Big on the Internet

noreply@blogger.com (Holographic Life Mapping) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:17:00 +0000

Viral Video's can make people laugh and also Spend

Viral Video on the internet has been the latest trend for marketers and advertisers,

One of the greatest forms of viral marketing comes through humour. Some videos are obviously just to make people laugh but others have been carefully crafted as part of a viral marketing campaign. And with paid video upload services like HeySpread and TrafficGeyser Its easy for anyone to get their videos massive exposure. Which can then draw floods of traffic to your business and websites.

One of the best examples I have seen is the Will it Blend campaign from Blend Tec where the host puts an ipod in a blender and shows how powerful the Blend Tec blender is in a very funny way. They have had over 5,000,000 views for this one alone. They have made a whole series blending lots of unusual things.

The Bionic Burger is another great example from the Best Day Ever, a health company that promotes its own membership site after their viral video exposes the dangers of eating processed food. Over 1,000,000 views and rising.

The value they add to a persons life can be education or entertainment, bringing a smile to someone's face automatically associates your product or brand with that positive feeling . Guess what name will first come to mind next time your customer wants to buy something.

Twitter Whore or Twitter Bore

Another great viral marketing tool that is being used a lot is Twitter. One of the things I like to do with twitter is follow people who have a sense of humour Like Fran Kern or his buddy Jason Moffat, I am always clicking on Jason's tweets because he often finds very amusing things and interesting websites. What he is doing is promoting his reputation as being a joker, rebel and surf bum and gets lots of fans this way plus a lot of traffic to his websites that promote his own video marketing business. His tweets go viral because people like me pass the best ones onto my other friends. And I am sure there are hundreds of others who do the same. A great one that he recommended recently was Twitter Whore. If you have spent any time on twitter you will enjoy it a lot. Here Lisa Nova cleverly manages to promote herself on Twitter and has pulled in over 300,000 views on this video alone

John Reese loves Twitter

When I first started this Blog I wrote about one of my Internet mentors, John Reese and how he got 5000 people on facebook to make friends with him within one week and then his buddy Ed Dale told him to get into Twitter, and he migrated and never really came back. At that time only about 1500 of Johns Fans on facebook followed him over. Yesterday John broke the 3000 barrier on twitter so I took the opportunity to shoot over a quick question

Ian_chapman @johnreese congrats on reaching 3000 friends. Do you use twitter because it is more viral than facebook or just more friendly?

johnreese @ian_chapman I do more with Twitter because it's naturally a better communications tool. Easier for conversations and consuming new info

John Just announced the launch date of Traffic Secrets 2 and he has promised some free videos to promote the launch with. This will be one to watch. As Johns last major project didn't live up to his expectations as he openly admits on his blog he has been taking the time to ensure that this next offering will . Maybe one of the reasons is that Blog Rush tended too far towards MLM and never had the viral effects that John obviously wanted built into its design. The free video's for the product launch are sure to go Viral so keep your eye's open they will be coming soon.

Tubby Nerd

Ed dale is another avid twitterer and also Viral Marketing expert, he has a horde of followers who track his every move because they know they can learn from someone who is so successful on the Internet. in his 30 day challenge last year his partner Dan Raine shared this on his Blog as he analysed his own success and described the way to build and launch a viral business online

"A real viral site usually has a high peak of sales at the beginning, but due to its offerings manages to create buzz. This buzz (and incentives) cause people to promote the site, and with a bit of luck you get growth, and finally long-term stability. Now every viral site goes through a decrease in numbers and a softening of the buzz and requires a bit of a re-launch at times to help stimulate the market again" http://www.15kchallenge.com/blog/

Ed and Dan are beginning the 30 day challenge pretty soon so if you want to get some tips from some of the best follow what they are up to

This is part 3 of a four part article series

Part 1 - Understanding The Difference Between Viral Marketing and MLM

Part 2 - A Personal Story

Part 4 - He Who Shall Not Be Named

Going Viral part 2 - A Personal Story

noreply@blogger.com (Holographic Life Mapping) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:20:00 +0000

In the first part of this article I tried to explore the subtle differences between Viral Marketing and MLM and Network marketing. This time I would like to show an example of a product that I knew was going to go viral and explore what made them so popular

A Real Viral Product goes Global

When I was in living in Israel 4 years ago I saw that a lot of people were wearing a new type of shoe, It looked ugly and clumsy but I was intrigued and asked one guy if I could try his pair on. He then told me how amazing they were and gave me a ten minute sales pitch. I instantly loved them and spent the next few weeks hunting out a shop for a pain my size. This was a lot harder that I had expected because everyone was buying them up and many shops had a long waiting list for the next order. I have quite large feet which made it even more difficult. I finally tracked down a place and bought the last pair. which I wore constantly for 2 years and still wear to this day. I knew that these were going to go global because they were so good. If I was on a commission I would guess I must have been responsible for at least 100 sales due to all the people I recommended them to

A Business Opportunity

When I looked around for Crocs in England no one had even heard of them. At that time I seriously thought about starting a business related to these shoes but I had other commitments and my life was too travel oriented for this to become possible. A year later I bought my second pair at a stall at the county fair. I spent a while chatting to the guy. He has just discovered them 2 months before in America and became an agent. He wanted to buy my shoes so he could show people what they looked like after wearing them everyday for over one year.

The Tipping Point

Over the next two years crocs reached the tipping point and went global and for me the real proof came when my parents arrived for a visit a few days ago and my mum was proudly sporting her first pair. She had laughed at how strange they looked and is now singing their praises just like I was 4 years ago. This is a great example of viral marketing. Crocs spread via word of mouth because they are great shoes. They have a great design, are lightweight and extremely comfortable. They add value to the life of anyone who wears them and it’s the happy customers who do most of the advertising. Now they have created a whole range of products but it is still the original style that continues to be most popular I even saw a great squidoo lens that someone had made that about recycling old crocs. They even had a survey and I became part of the 2%, that said "You'll never pry my Crocs away from me!"

Get People Passionate

To make anything go viral you need to get people passionate and excited about your product or service, You have to create enough buzz so that people choose to promote what you have to offer so you either have to have a great product or you have to give away something of high enough value to get others talking about it.

Going Viral - Understanding The Difference Between Viral Marketing And MLM

noreply@blogger.com (Holographic Life Mapping) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:33:00 +0000

Can you tell the difference?

In this first post I would like to explore just what going Viral means and to point out the difference between MLM pyramid marketing and Viral marketing. They are not the same even though they are often billed as the same.

Viral Marketing

Viral marketing leverages the principles of exponential mathematics, In its most simple form its one thing doubling to make two things and then those two things double and you have four things

This is how cells reproduce themselves which is the root principle behind all biological life on this planet. Viral marketing is taking this principle of replication and repeating the process in many different forms and mediums. The intention is to create a type of growth that is independent and continues on its own without any need for external energy input. Something that causes a chain reaction or moves like ripples in a pond spreading outward from the initial event.

Digital Duplication

With the advent of the internet and the ease with which digital media can be reproduced an understanding of the principles of Viral Marketing and advertising becomes very important. What is also important is the ability to distinguish a true viral business as opposed to a pyramid or MLM structure.

Viral Traffic Generators

A few weeks ago I got a message from a friend on facebook, he was offering another one of those viral traffic generators schemes. I don't normally bother with these things but as I respected this friend I took the time to check out exactly how it worked. I was impressed with this one because it was so clean, and direct and told you exactly how it was going to work. And had an interesting hook that in order to sign up you had to spend 10 seconds on each advert to get a secret code number. It works the same as a chain letter. I realised that if you had your website on here the quality of the traffic would be very low. And most people wouldn't be interested in buying anything from these websites. I thought that I could add my Blog to the list so that I might interest some of the people clicking on all the links.

A big promise

The Viral Scheme promised millions of visitors so I signed up got my affiliate link and shot out a quick mail to one of my groups. I was a bit wary of promoting something like this but I decided to do it just as a test to see what sort of results I would obtain.

Promises are meant to be Broken?

Anyway, 4 weeks later and I haven't got the millions of visitors to my site, I have had a few trickle through but overall it has been disappointing. The only viral part of this scheme is the actual viral site itself, not the service it provides. This is what is actually being spread, and the benefits are going only to the owner of this site as they build up a massive list of people who have signed up hoping that their dreams of free traffic would be fulfilled.

Only the Top Promoters Benefit

What I suspect happens in most cases and this is what happens in most MLM and Network marketing companies is that the only people who benefit are those who promote this scheme to thousands of people below them. And because only a few of them will pass it on to their friends, after a while it just fizzles out. If you want to make it work, you need to promote it to people with huge lists who only promote to other people with huge lists who only promote to other people with huge lists. Very soon the mathematics hit a critical point and there is no-one left to promote to.

Unwanted Spam

Any of you who have signed up to a few of the many business groups on facebook are probably sick of all the offers of free traffic that are being touted. The only way you are ever going to get the free traffic is if you promote the scheme with the same vigour and determination as the person who got you interested. What that would result in is a load of unwanted spam, and only trash traffic to your site. which is what is happening right now on facebook, check out my article facebook spam slam for more details. Of course if your niche is MLM or network marketing then you might benefit because you can build a list of gullible people who are attracted by your incredible offers.

Does it add Value?

What you always have to ask is does it add any value. Is what you are promoting giving anything away that will enrich people lives. This is what really differentiates a pyramid scheme from something that has truly gone viral. A viral scheme promotes itself based on its own quality. You have given people something of high enough value that the choose to promote it freely

It Doesn't Need Pushing it Spread's on its Own

It doesn't need constant pushing to get it moving. It spreads because what it is offering is interesting to people and people tell others about it because they enjoyed or benefited. Viral schemes work best when there is no self interest from the referrer it then becomes true word of mouth and social proof rather than affiliate promotion, not that there is anything wrong with affiliate marketing its just that it is not Viral no matter what people try and tell you.

A Pyramid Scheme

Years ago when my dad was made redundant from his Job, he got pulled into an MLM marketing scheme, designed to sell powdered milk. It came from New Zealand and It was actually a great product, it tasted just like normal milk when it was made up and It might possibly have been a success if large supermarkets hadn't begun selling huge containers of milk for such low prices.

Financial Investment Required

In order to participate my Dad had to pay quite a large sum of money to get all the promotional material, training manuals containers and products. It seemed quite a lot of money for what he actually received, Now he had to go and convince all his friends that they should change their milk drinking habits and buy from him instead of the local milk man (England still had milk delivered daily in those days)

Failure is often Inevitable

I knew my dad was going to fail right from the start, and I think this is what is so sad about most pyramid schemes. Firstly although he had quite a large network of friends and contacts he didn't have enough who might be interested to join his down line or become regular repeat customers, they might buy once to humour him or just to escape the awkward situation but He is also not a sales type person. I don't believe he was passionate enough about this product in order to convince others that they should buy it. His motivation was to make money so his opinions were always biased and people could always sense this when he was making his presentations. He also didn't have the determination to keep at it when things didn’t go as well as he had been promised and so after a couple of months he gave up and we were left drinking up the remains of his product stockpile.

Who takes all the Risk?

This is probably quite a typical example. The company who manufactured this product had hoped that it would go viral since it was very good for people with allergies and worked out cheaper than normal milk. They chose a way to test and promote it that put the burden of the advertising cost on the shoulders of the agents. They extracted money out of people who were often desperate or in difficult financial circumstances and sold them dreams of riches and success. What they forgot to tell everyone is that unless you are a pushy sales type person who can convince and persuade others to join or to buy your product then you actually stand no real chance of making a go of it.

Is it Unethical?

There is something deeply unethical about this type of dealing and which is why I always steer clear of any MLM type offer. Its not that I couldn't become very successful at it, I probably could, I just wouldn't want my success built on other peoples failures. I suspect that most people involved in MLM and Pyramid Schemes would not see It this way because they have to convince themselves that the goods and services are of great benefit. They fail to see the underlying mathematics that governs these things and sell people something that they don't really need or convince them to join a down line without giving them the necessary training they need to succeed.

Win-Win or Lose-Lose?

Most MLM and Pyramid schemes that require an upfront investment to join have always got their bases covered. If you are successful they are happy because you make them more money. If you fail they are happy because you are the one who is carrying the burden of risk and they have all their costs covered by your initial investment.

Viral Wannabees

MLM and Pyramid schemes are always going to be "Viral Wannabees" but they rarely ever really go viral because of the way they are structured, a virus needs to be able to perpetuate and reproduce itself once it has left the parent or host. Any MLM or pyramid scheme that claims to have a viral effect built in is probably lying. Unless they give you all the components to set up your own identical business that could run independently from the original company and you could replicate their marketing strategies without being dependant on them for a key product or resource then you will always be vulnerable and if the parent company fails so do you. What this would be is typified by a franchise and franchises definitely can and do go viral quite easily. A franchise is something totally different, Here you get to be independent and keep all your profits you just buy the blueprint and learning curve from those who have gone before and also get instant brand recognition.

You have to Pay your Dues

If you succeed in MLM then you have to constantly pay your dues along the umbilical up line to people who have done little to deserve it. They profit from your hard work. Of course you can get the same benefits from those below you, which is what makes this type of business proposition so attractive. The people who will always fail are the greedy and the lazy and these are who the marketing of most disreputable companies is aimed at. Don't get me wrong, there are some great network marketing opportunities and I am sure there are some great companies, but did you every meet any Amway millionaires. You an get moderate success if you have the right type of personality and you enjoy selling and being social. But the statistics show that almost all of the people who start out eventually fail.

Not all MLM's are the same

To be fair, I don't want to paint all MLM and network marketing companies with the same brush. I just want people to be more aware of what they are getting into before they sign up. I think extra care needs to be taken in the make money/get more traffic schemes. You need to look carefully to see just how the company proposes to add value to you and to your future customers, some may provide you excellent tools and training but If you can't clearly see where that value is then it is probably nothing more than a pyramid chain letter trying to scam you. If the company is selling physical products, make sure you try them out yourself first for at least a month, and only put your money if you feel that they live up to their claims and that you can wholeheartedly endorse them. People will always sense your authenticity when you make a pitch or presentation so you need to be sure you fully believe in what you are promoting.

In part two of this article I will discuss a personal story about a product that I knew was going to make it big and how I still to this day passionately endorse it

Creating A Viral Monster

noreply@blogger.com (Holographic Life Mapping) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 01:05:00 +0000

Two days ago a new group was formed on Facebook. It's name is P.R.I.S.M., some of you might already have joined. I have been tracking the incredible growth of this Viral Monster.

Rapid Growth

Within 24 hours the group had over 200 members and over 100 posts on its wall. Such a rapid growth and so many impressions rippling through facebooks news feeds created a buzz that sucked people into the new group and motivated them to write blogposts, upload videos and share their experiences. At the time of writing this has grown to 422 members and 208 wall posts.

A brand new community has been formed out of nothing

Giveaway

The originator and creator of this group is Brian Campbell, who many of you know from the training videos he's been releasing. This is the place where the playing field is levelled as Brian announced that he will start giving away a further £15,000 on top of the $10,000 he gave to John Chow. So anyone no matter what their financial circumstance could get access to the same training if they showed they had the motivation and the qualities that are needed to become a member of P.R.I.S.M.

Social Proof

Social Proof is a powerful motivator because for most people because word of mouth recommendation is one of the best forms of advertising. Check out any sales letter on the Internet and you will see testimonials play a major part. If you are new to my blog you may not know that I went into great detail explaining the Power of Testimonials. You can also see all of the SMMS testimonials in one place on my Squidoo Lens. To find out more about using other peoples opinions to establish your reputation check out this insightful post by Stuart Tan. He explores in great detail why recomending people is so important.

Coming Soon

Over the coming days I will give you a behind the scenes look at how Brian made this rapid growth possible and to the conclusion he is ultimately driving towards. If you have read my blog post about scarcity tactics then you will know that there are only limited places available for the Social Media Marketing System. Brian already made a claim that he will make $100,000 from this launch and anyone who has taken advantage of his free training and put it into practice will already be waiting eagerly in anticipation.

A Secret Society or a Conspiracy Theory....?

noreply@blogger.com (Holographic Life Mapping) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 15:03:00 +0000

Mastering Manipulative Magic - part 2.

Yesterday Brian Campbell wrote a shocking letter to of all those people who believe they can succeed in using social media but are not yet part of the secret alliance that has established itself on Facebook and other similar sites.

Dramatic Sales Letter

If you are reading this post and you don't know what I am talking about then I guess you should check out this link first, this is where Brian pulled out all the stops and went in everyone's face with a very dramatic sales letter

A Secret Society

Before I analyse what Brian is up to I would like to start with a story, one that dates back almost 1000 years it tells how a small group of people transformed the world forever. They were very secret and highly organised and no one really knew how they managed to get so successful so quickly and how they suddenly had the power to bring down kingdoms and left a legacy that still has people wondering even today. They are of course the Knights Templar. A secret brotherhood who exploded onto the scene in Europe and dominated the political and economic situation for nearly 200 years. They communicated through secret codes and symbols that only those who were initiated understood, they set up the foundations and structure for what later became the modern financial system known today as banking.

Threatening The Existing Structures of Power

How did they grow such a huge network starting from nothing? How did they become so powerful so quickly? Why is it that the Kings and Barons of the time were powerless to stop what they were doing and had no choice but to join forces? Why did they threaten the power of the Roman Catholic church so much and make the King of France conspire to have them arrested and killed? Why was it that they then continued to operate hidden and underground to this day and left a trail and legacy across several continents and their secrets still remain a mystery?

The Puppet or the Puppet Master

One thing about secret organisations is that they know something others don't, and they use that knowledge to their advantage. Stockbrokers call it insider trading. They act on information that is shared only in their network and this gives them a competitive edge over everyone else. Some people call these groups cartels or even mafia. They know how the system works and they play it like a puppet , pulling hidden strings and all you ever see are the effects you never know who the real puppet masters are.

Conspiracy Theory

Brian just released his modern day conspiracy theory, trying to motivate people into taking a certain action. Right now it is just to join his group and post on its wall. Do you know what the viral effects of 100 people posting on one wall does on facebook and how far that can spread? P.R.I.S.M. members are probably the only people who truly understand how to harness the power of viral marketing with social media, and are also the ones who know how to use it most effectively. "Prism is defined as a transparent glass that disperses light into a spectrum. Like prism, the knowledge we get from P.R.I.S.M. will be dispersed to help the many others succeed in Social Media. "(Ed. Tamondong Jr.)

Brians Communication

Lets take a look at the copy Brian uses in his letter and maybe we can learn what he is trying to communicate . He is using a very clever technique that amplifies the fear and pain of being the odd one out, the outsider, the one who struggles in vain, swimming against the tide.

They are many, you are only one.

They know the secrets, you hope to get lucky.

They control the social network, you react to it.

They are the lense through which opportunities pass.

They work effortlessly, while you constantly struggle.

You are powerless against them.

They exist, although you resist the truth.

They can't be matched, you're powerless to compete with them for any resources they want to control online.

Their secrets are so amazingly powerful, they aren't leaked out and taught anywhere else.

They exist and I can PROVE it!

As another clear but more subtle example of this technique take a look at another email and see if you can spot the similarities this is one that Martin Allsop used on exactly the same day to his group members.

Coincidence or Collusion

Why are two of the major players on facebook coming out with Identical tactics on the same day?

Brian clearly stated that Martin was one of the people who helped him the most when he was first getting started on facebook. Here is what Martin wrote, I'll let you judge for yourself.

Remember when you were in school and there was always something you didn’t get told or some secrets you didn’t get to find out?

In those early years there was always someone who knew more who you could learn from and yet they didn’t think you should know what other people know.

Didn’t that make you feel curious?

The Same Message Repeated

Now Martins approach is a bit more subtle and softer that Brian's and is not as direct and in your face but it effectively says the same thing, i.e there are people who know things you don't and they are making you feel inferior, weak and left out. Of course each of them are offering a way out of the dilemma, being such kind hearted gents they wouldn't want you to suffer or be left out in the cold. Here they show that the doors are open, you can see the warm fire blazing in the hearth and the others who are already inside are enjoying the banquet. You are hesitant, not sure if you want to join them or if you want to keep on your lonely cold journey alone. Going inside might take you on a whole new direction . Are you ready for the challenge? Are you ready for the success that is promised by crossing the threshold?

Ooops, I just caught myself doing the same thing, sorry about that I was supposed to be explaining how and why this technique works not testing it out on my unsuspecting readers. Back to the analysis….

Amplifying the Pain

Amplifying your pain is a marketing tactic that is hugely effective and is taught as standard to most sales people. First identify the prospects biggest problems and challenges. Now turn up the volume , increase the pain, amplify it by giving a lot of negative examples and place the prospect in the position of the person who is suffering. By doing this you tend to induce an unpleasant emotional response you are hitting them in their weakest spot, you are playing on all their fears and insecurities. Next the salesperson shows that there is a way out of this problem and offers you the solution. Now if you have a good salesperson they will recommend the solution that is in your best interests and not just their own. Because they know their reputation is at stake and they want customers coming back, satisfied customers give great referrals to their friends. Just check out a few of the testimonials if you don't believe me

Another Modern Day Example

I will give you a more modern day version that I experienced last year when I bought my girlfriend a new computer. The sales guy was great, he had manoeuvred us into buying the best laptop they had by some careful persuasion and we were just about to pay when he started trying to sell us insurance on top. Telling us about all the bad things that could happen like spilling a cup of coffee on the keyboard or dropping it etc,etc. I won't tell you the outcome but I was impressed with his persistence even when there was a long queue of people behind us.

An Old Strategy

This is not a new technique it has been practiced for centuries by all the influencer and persuaders throughout history. One of the earliest examples of this type of salesmanship was done by Guatama the Buddha when he stated his 4 noble truths. He Identified the nature of suffering , he showed the origin and cause of the suffering , he showed the cessation of suffering , and he showed the path to the cessation of suffering. I don't want to go into further details because you can follow the links if you want to know more, what I wanted to point out is that this technique is not good or bad in itself, it is just a very effective technique to get people motivated to take action. This is what Buddha wanted. He said you had to work for you own enlightenment, you didn't just get it wallowing in self pity and suffering. Equally Brian is making a call only to those individuals who feel they have what it takes and are willing to take the necessary steps.

Don't Sit on the Fence

He has promised me that he is not going to be subtle any more so if you are on one of his mailing lists, expect to be bombarded these next few days with all the powerful sales techniques he has in his arsenal. If you are sitting on the fence be prepared to get knocked off.

Mastering Manipulative Magic - Email Persuasion at it's best

noreply@blogger.com (Holographic Life Mapping) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:27:00 +0000

A Friendly Invitation

I got a letter a few days ago from Martin Allsop telling me about his new ezine that was coming out soon, at first glance it was just another email, and as I was already signed up for his ezine anyway I just skimmed over it. What struck me instantly though was the language patterns that he had used, take a look and see what you think.

A word of warning, don't click on his link until you have read the entire blog post or you will miss some valuable information that I reveal later on. You will be amazed when you discover what is hidden within it

Martin Allsop sent a message to the members of Social networking makes money for you. Too good to miss!.

--------------------
Subject: "Unlock the secret formula for Web 2.0 success.”

Can you remember a time when all sorts of exciting possibilities seemed to be available to you? And how that felt?

You may not fully realize it yet – as there may be many things undreamed of that await your discovery – but such a time is upon us now.

As more and more people are beginning to appreciate – Web 2.0 presents us all with amazing opportunities.

In the second edition of my e-magazine (e-zine) which is due out shortly I unlock the secret formula for Web 2.0 success.
And there’s lots of other interesting stuff!

If you go to:

http://www.martinallsop.com/

now you can sign up for the e-zine which is absolutely free.

You will then be one of the first to get access to the second edition – and you’ll also be able to read the first edition.

You’re intelligent enough to understand the value of this, so I hope you go to http://www.martinallsop.com/ sign up now and enjoy all the benefits.

Warm regards

Martin
--------------------

Hidden Hypnotic Commands

If you read the letter above it just looks like an ordinary email you might not notice anything untoward or devious about it. What you may not realise is that it's filled with hypnotic commands to get you make a certain response.

Brain Wipe

Before you read the rest of the article, see if you can even remember what the email talked about in the first 4 sentences. My guess is that it is totally blanked from your memory. Even if you go back and re-read it you still probably can't remember or explain it.

NLP gives a Secret Competive Edge

NLP or Neuro Linguistic Programming originated as an alternative approach to psychotherapy that was co-created by Richard Bandler and linguist John Grinder in the 1970s. It was based on the subjective study of language, communication and personal change. It later evolved and was utilised in Business, particularly sales and advertising. If you are in any of Martin Allsop's groups you will know that he is a Personal development and NLP Trainer, management consultant and entrepreneur.It is clear to me from looking at this email that he is using his skills to best advantage and most people don't even realise it.

Grown Huge

Maybe this is one of the reasons why Martin has been able to amass such a huge following and create such a large list in such a short period of time and why he has high paying coaching clients seeking him out to help them repeat the same success in their own business. He grew a Facebook network of 5000 friends in under 2 months and now has a total Facebook network of over 9,000.

Analysis

In this article I would like to explain just why these NLP techniques work by analysing his short email.

Which I think is a masterful example of persuasive writing

When you break it down you can easily learn the structure and elements that comprise this letter

The first line reads

"Can you remember a time when all sorts of exciting possibilities seemed to be available to you? And how that felt?"

This is asking you to look into your own memory and try to remember a time when you were excited about the future and the options that are open to you. He uses ambiguous language patterns so you can fill in the blanks. He doesn't specify when or where or with whom that is all left up to you. This type of ambiguous open structure makes it universally applicable to everyone.

The second sentence is getting you to connect that memory to an actual feeling. For many people who think in pictures, going to the feeling level amplifies the experience and also brings it into to the present moment. You can’t remember how it felt unless you reproduce the same internal experience again as you are reading the letter

"You may not fully realize it yet – as there may be many things undreamed of that await your discovery – but such a time is upon us now."

Feel Excitement Now

This second paragraph is telling you that you need to feel the excitement now. This is also confirming that you might not realise that you are getting excited and also acts as a way to pace and get rapport. These types of sentences talk straight to the unconscious mind. They have no real meaning thinking about something undreamed of that you have to wait to discover doesn't make sense and so the conscious mind ignores it and the other embedded command is delivered. "Such a time is upon us now", which links back to the first 2 sentences which were all about a feeling in the past and that feeling is being brought into the present moment reinforcing the effects.

So now you have a feeling of excitement and curiosity and you are "waiting to discover" something new.

"As more and more people are beginning to appreciate – Web 2.0 presents us all with amazing opportunities."

"In the second edition of my e-magazine (e-zine) which is due out shortly I unlock the secret formula for Web 2.0 success."

Anticipation

Now Martin introduces the amazing opportunities that are available in the world of WEB 2.0 and links this to his new ezine, where he promises to unlock the secrets. You are being forced to wait again, he won't tell you right now. What he has done is created a very real sense of desire. Secrets are enticing , you want to know what the secret formula to success is and that secret is only exposed in his Ezine

So now you have even more excitement and curiosity and anticipation.

Direct Commands

Martin now offers a way to fulfil your need to know, just go and sign up

"If you go to:

http://www.martinallsop.com/

now you can sign up for the e-zine which is absolutely free."

He uses "if you" implying that you have a choice whether to go or not and then gives the link and below the first word is "now". When you take away the fluff this is a direct command and reads

"go to http://www.martinallsop.com/ now"

It looks so sweet and innocent but is an extremely powerful way to get someone to click on a link and you don't even feel that you have been directly commanded. It all happens at the unconscious level. Which is the real power of NLP.

"You’re intelligent enough to understand the value of this, so I hope you go to http://www.martinallsop.com/ sign up now and enjoy all the benefits."

Martin finishes off with another direct command embedded in the sentence, can you spot it?

"go to sign up now"

You miss it consciously because of the URL and because it is placed carefully between two lines and within a larger sentence that has another meaning. Be intelligent and enjoy all the benefits.

The Real Meaning

So below the surface you are being told directly to

Feel excited anticipation about discovering the web2.0 secret formula that Martin will reveal in his ezine, go to http://www.martinallsop.com/now and sign up now.

Now you can click the link

Ok, now you can go and click the link, if you haven't done so already. I would suspect that at least half of you will have clicked the link before you even reached this point, I will report back in a few days when I analyse my blog stats and see if this post has an unusual number of click outs.

Warning

Please be aware that this is only one of many styles of hypnotic language patterns, if you want to find out more I would first suggest learning a bit about NLP from books before you try and repeat or copy what Martin has done. This is very powerful stuff and you really need to know exactly what you are doing or the effects that you achieve might not be what you expected. If you do it wrong then people will notice and might steer clear of what you have to offer or you might be unintentionally telling people the opposite of what you intended.

Manipulation and Ethics

It also brings up the issue of manipulation. Some people think that using NLP in this way is unethical or manipulative. They maybe tend to forget that almost all communication is manipulative in some way or another. It's just that with NLP the effects are aimed at the unconscious mind. One of my favourite trainers Chris Howard addresses these issues and says that you must always create Win Win situations and he refuses to certify people unless they are clearly operating from an ethical standpoint. As with any powerful tool there is a danger that it can be abused. It is up to you to make the right choices and your reputation and long term success can depend on this.

Modeling Others

I want to make it very clear that I believe Martin to be a very ethical person and a respected pillar of the Facebook business community. You only have to check out the testimonials on his webpage to see this. The purpose of this article was to bring to light just how powerful NLP patterns can be. I have been impressed by his success on Facebook and it has always been my philosophy to examine and model what others are doing well so that I can emulate this and integrate it into my own business and personal life. I carefully examine what people do and also what they don't do as this can be just as revealing.

Communication to Increase Response

Communication from a marketing or sales perspective is always about persuading someone to take action. You need to know the secrets that the professionals adopt in order to increase the impact and effectiveness of your own efforts. By using NLP techniques you can dramatically increase your response rate and can create a rapport and connection to you customers that you might not have generated otherwise.

How Many Facebook Friend's Are Enough?

noreply@blogger.com (Holographic Life Mapping) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:42:00 +0000

This post is in response to a discussion on JimTurners fan page, click here to view the original post How many facebook friends are enough?

Hi Jim

I would just like to add another opinion and explain a few of the reasons why someone would want a large network. Having a large friend list on its own isn't actually much use because facebook doesn’t allow you to mail more than 20 friends at a time and I guess it's clear from what others have posted it all depends what business you are in. I fully agree of the pointless nature of rushing to grow to 5000 friends just for the sake of it and without some end goal or reason for adopting this method

As a strategist I want to explore all areas without judgement to be able to asses the merits of each type of friending strategy. If you want to advise others you need to fully understand the pro's and cons and not condemn something you don't fully understand just because you haven't personally explored it. I guess with facebook this is a problem as you have to make a choice, you can’t do both, and this is all the more reason why sharing knowledge and information is important and why I think this discussion is so useful

Malcolm Gladwell in his book the tipping point said that researchers looked at many factors regarding human networks and even analysed the maximum size of tribal villages across all cultures throughout history and the number they came out with was 148. because this was the maximum number of people you could possibly maintain a relationship with. In modern times and by using technology to aid and speed communication I suspect that Mari is correct in her figure of 250 - 500 people

I myself have grown my network rapidly over the past 2 months, this is just how it happened and was due to the people I came in contact with. I think after about 400 friends I couldn't keep the same rigorous checking and personal messaging that I had until then. I was making a very targeted list with a specific objective in mind. As I grew larger my network has become infiltrated with more untargeted friends who added me just because I was quite visible in certain groups. After 700 friends I stopped adding any new ones and my friend list has grown on its own. What I have found is that the initial 400 friends have created a core of quality in my network that have attracted similar people so even though I am not targeting them they are attracted to me. Since most of the people who friend me are friends of friends and not random people who just stumbled on my profile. The people who I need to pay attention to naturally rise to the top. I just ignore all the background noise and concentrate on developing certain key relationships

The advantages of having a large network comes through the viral effects of the friend feed. If you have a product or service that you want to promote then under certain circumstances the further you can reach the better. Not everyone who uses facebook for business is looking for high end coaching clients or has a very small niche that they need to develop very personal relationships with. I think there is a very large area in between this and Macdonalds. And it is short sighted to infer that everyone who chooses to develop a large network is going to be a spammer. I also think that for many people one half of their business might need a small intimate network and the other a much larger less intimate network. Anyone who makes information products would always want to reach the widest audience possible. So I believe many people are split in their opinions because their businesses are not one dimensional and they might have different needs at different levels.

Having a large network means that if you want to launch a group on facebook and if you have targeted your friends carefully you will be able to grow your group quickly and the momentum of that growth can push your group to become viral. Take a look at the group "join the fight against cancer", it has 184,000+ members and the admin can fully control what is shown in the links, the videos and pictures, this could be used as a very powerful traffic generator and all those impressions are for free. The key is how to get your group to hit critical mass where it just grows on its own. Since facebook raised the limit from 1200 to 5000 this gives most group admins a lot of scope for developing a relationship with a large number of people. As long as you give valuable content people don't mind when you try and promote something and if they do they can always leave your group and join another one.

I think most people tend to forget that this is just a tiny corner of facebook that we inhabit and there is potential for many people to service different strata of the facebook population. The marketing tools for creating targeted lists in any niche are amazing and this has barely even been tapped. Too many are people trying to make a fast buck without thinking about the damage this does to their reputation. One friend likened it to a room full of car salesmen all trying to sell cars to each other.

I haven't even mentioned the power of working together with other people with large networks and leveraging each other for mutual benefit. Or the benefits of having an integrated network where all your friends are friends with each other and what benefits that can give. That will be explored in later blog posts