Focus and Action for Online Entrepreneurs» Build a Blog

Building Your Brand and Network Using Twitter Chats

Jackie Lee — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:23:12 +0000

We’ve been talking social media all month and I’ve managed to write every post about Facebook. I had an interesting conversation with someone the other day. I was saying to me Facebook is the more serious, business site and Twitter was the fun, cocktail party kind of site.

When I say that I mean I feel uncomfortable posting something about watching the Bachelor, or Grey’s Anatomy on Facebook, and yet I can have an hour long conversation about it, back and forth with a bunch of people on Twitter.

The interesting thing about this conversation was the person I was talking to felt the exact OPPOSITE. To her, Facebook was the cocktail party and Twitter was all business.

Either way… it works ~ the point is to get some clarity around what part each site plays in your marketing and your business.

So today, let’s talk about twitter. I’ve talked about creating connections on twitter, and how to provide great content on twitter so I’m not going to talk about those things today. What I do want to talk about is twitter chats, and how you can use them to build your brand and your network.

What is a twitter chat ~ aka Twitter Party

A twitter chat or twitter party is a conversation at a designated time about a designated topic. What’s really amazing is there are twitter chats about EVERYTHING… literally EVERYTHING!! Which means you can find a twitter chat related or relevant to your niche to participate in.

How does a twitter chat work?

It depends on the chat, but generally it’s just a conversation with a bunch of people about a specific topic. You just participate in the conversation. However, so everyone can see you’re participating you’ll want to add the chat’s hashtag to the end of your tweet.

How do I follow the conversation?

Following a twitter chat can be very overwhelming the first couple times you try! First of all you’ll need to know the hashtag. For example, Blog Chat is supposedly the BIGGEST twitter chat on the web. It’s run by Mack Collier at 9pm Eastern on Sunday nights. The hash tag is #blogchat.

So on Sunday night you can do a couple things to follow and participate in this chat. You could use tweetchat.com which is a site built for following twitter chats. You simply put your hashtag in at the top of the site and it will start pulling in the whole conversation. You can reply and participate directly from this site. This is probably the easiest way to follow a chat. You could also use tweetdeck and set up a column using a search for the hashtag ~ then you can follow the conversation and participate via tweetdeck. Either way works. Just remember to add the hashtag after your comment so people will see it.

What’s the point?

Participating in a twitter chat gives you an amazing opportunity to meet and connect with other people in your niche, possible clients/readers/jv partners… they’re all there chatting away about the topic you blog about! As you see people participating in the chat you can follow them, many will follow you back ~ especially if you are PARTICIPATING in the chat… this is again another area where just watching doesn’t pay. The more you can participate the more people will see your name! So follow the people, maybe even make a twitter list for them, so you can keep up with what their doing, retweet their stuff, comment on it, create a deeper connection with them ~ ask them to connect over on facebook! The point of all this is to grow your network ~ to get to know more people ~ make more connections.

How to build YOUR brand with twitter chats

Host your own! You don’t have to participate in a twitter chat ~ you can create your own! You can host a chat on any topic at any time. Just decide to do it! Then start letting people know. If you have a list, send them an announcement. If you’re on related forums, let them know. Make regular (but not obnoxious) posts about it on twitter. If you have a facebook page or group let them know as well!

Easy ways to fill out a twitter chat

It may feel completely overwhelming, the thought of hosting a twitter chat, but really it’s not too tough!! The easiest way to do it is to come up with about 5 questions that are relevant to your topic. What are the biggest questions people ask you about what you’re doing? Then you can answer/discuss those 5 questions for your chat. Simply post Q1. then the question, and then your chatters will retweet the question, and will answer it, and converse about it. If you have 5 questions, just start a new question every 6 minutes or so. You’ll be amazed at how fast it goes. If you’re feeling stuck, as follow up questions, and reply to what people have said. Even if you only have a few people on your chat you can get a lively discussion going and it will be great!

Another chat I sometimes participate in is #commenthour. This chat is all about meeting new people and getting new comments/followers on your blog. The host picks 25 random blogs (from those who have signed up for the chat) and then announces them and everyone runs over to check out the blog and leave a comment. It’s an INSANE hour. Very fast, very hectic, but you meet a lot of great people.

So it’s not always just asking questions, you can make your chat anything you want it to be. Thing about your audience, what do they need? What do they like to do? I know a group of moms who get together for #winewednesday and chat. It can be as formal or as informal as you want it to be.

When you host a chat people will be retweeting you, and replying to you. You will be building your brand, and your reputation simply by having the courage to jump out there and do something not everyone is willing to do. AND it’s fun!!

How often should I host a twitter party?

That’s completely up to you. You can do it weekly, or monthly, or every other week or you could do it ONCE! If you have big news you do an “announcement party” to spread the news. That would be fun. If you’re going to do regular parties though make sure you’re consistent. Your party will grow as word spreads ~ remember every time someone tweets with your party hashtag their entire network can see it. As more people see it, more people will start asking questions and start coming to the party. That’s when things get really big and really fun. I suggest if you’re going to make this part of your marketing strategy you try to do a weekly party… but start with one and see how you like it.

Where do I find twitter parties?

Here’s a twitter chat schedule. This has been around for a long time. You’ll see I wasn’t kidding about all the topics there are for twitter parties! AND if you start a twitter chat you can add YOUR party to this list as well! Here’s a list of 25 chats for entrepreneurs.

I can’t wait to hear about your twitter party ~ so when you get one set up make sure you come back and tell us when and the hashtag!

6 Quick Tips to Drive Traffic From Facebook

Jackie Lee — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:32:51 +0000

Let’s start this off with this… it is a process, not a one time event. Facebook traffic will take some consistent effort on your part ~ but it can happen in just a few minutes a day.

Here’s the steps to take if you’re going to consistently use Facebook to drive traffic back to your site.

1. Set up a fanpage.

Yes, you’re going to want to set up a fanpage, because if you’re going to be talking “business” you don’t necessarily want it cluttering up your profile page.

You also want to be able to connect with people who are looking for the information you have to share.

Fanpages are also open to search engines, where your profile pages are not. So… the content you post on your fanpage can be found and indexed by search engines to send you even more traffic.

Here’s some great instructions on how to set up a facebook fanpage if you need some help. Don’t get fancy. Don’t set up opt in boxes, and lock people out until they give you something… it’s not about that. Just set up a page where you can connect with the community you’re building around the topic you’re writing about.

2. Publish new and excellent content regularly on your blog.

Yes, this has everything to do with getting traffic from facebook. The more regularly you create content and publish it to your facebook page the more you’ll have people connecting, and following you back to your blog.

3. Post new blog posts to your fanpage wall.

Each time you publish a new post on your blog MANUALLY go to facebook and post a link to your fanpage wall. There are services like networkedblogs that will do it automatically for you, however, it’s been my experience (and the experience of a lot of other people) that those automated posts will NOT make it into your friends newsfeeds… so take a minute and do it yourself.

Make sure you add an image to your blog post ~ when you post the link to your fanpage it will pull in the image from your post. This will make the post much more noticeable in someone’s timeline, and if you have a great image it will draw attention and the clicks.

4. Connect with others as your page.

Like other fanpages that are related or relevant to your topic. BUT before you do, make sure you’re using facebook as your fanpage and not yourself. It’s really simple to switch over. Just go to the top of any page on Facebook, and look for the little arrow in the top right hand corner. Click it and you’ll see all your fanpages. Just click on the fanpage you want to use facebook as and it will switch you over.

The benefit of doing this is when you add to a conversation on another page instead of linking to your profile it will link to your page. If people want to get to know you better (because you’ve made a valuable contribution to the conversation) they’ll click through to your page where they can connect (and like you).

When you first get started you’ll want to switch to using Facebook as your fanpage and go out into the facebook world and “like” other pages AS your fanpage. Here’s some tips for choosing fanpages to like…

1. Find BUSY fanpages with a lot of “likes”.

2. Find fanpages that have a lot of conversation going on… people are commenting on posts, and the posts have a lot of likes.

You want to do this because when you comment on a post EVERYONE who has already commented on the post will get a notification that YOU have commented as well… it gets your name in front of a lot of people. So there is a benefit HERE to NOT being the first person to comment (unlike when you’re blog commenting and you want to be first so everyone sees you right at the top).

3. Find fanpages that are really aligned with the topic YOUR fanpage discusses. That way the fans of these pages will also be interested in the things you share.

Once you’ve liked some pages it’s pretty easy to connect with people, and comment and interact with the page. Go to the top right hand corner of the page you’re on (which will be your fanpage since you just switched to using it as your page) and you’ll see the word “home”. When you click that it will bring up the newsfeed for your fanpage. From here you can simply comment/like things that are in your newsfeed, just like you would if you were on your personal profile.

This is an important step because it gets your name and your fanpage in the community, and can help attract people to you.

Facebook is a social community. You have to give and be part of it before you can expect results.

5. Connect in relevant groups.

While you can’t join groups as a fanpage you can switch back to your personal profile and join groups relevant to your niche. Again, you have to be social. You need to not only post links to your blog posts, but provide other value to the group. Answer questions, welcome new members, ask questions to create conversation. All of these things will help you become well known and liked in these groups which will also help you get more clicks and drive traffic to your site.

6. Join sharing groups on facebook.

These groups are set up to help get more “likes” and comments on your posts. When you join the group you agree to go to a few of the posted blog posts and comment or share the post with your network, and others will do the same for the blog posts you add to the group as well. This is a great way to get more eyes on your posts, and more likes and tweets. This builds your social proof, and with Google really starting to look at social sharing as a way to rank content it’s a great way to help your google ranking as well. Here’s a couple of these groups I belong to. Empowered Tribe and Blog Mastermind Comment Tribe You will have to ask to join these groups, and if you don’t play by the rules you’ll get kicked out, but they are a great way to build new relationships with other bloggers ~ which can also lead to some guest blogging gigs as well.

All in all if you want to get more traffic from facebook you have to get out there and participate. It’s not as simple as just posting your link on your wall and then going and doing something else. You’ve got to find people who are interested in what you’re doing, you’ve got to connect with them and be part of the community. The cool thing is though… that when someone likes your post, or they comment it goes up on their wall, and their friends can see it. Your facebook friends become a venue for word of mouth connecting and that’s the best kind of promotion you can find. You reach their entire network, and just from connecting with one person your can reach thousands, or even millions.

So tell me… do you have your own fanpage yet? I’d love to see it! Feel free to leave a link to your fanpage in the comments section, and let’s connect on facebook if we haven’t already.

How to Make Socializing Pay Off

Jackie Lee — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:40:21 +0000

So many internet marketers look at social media with some disdain or even as a complete waste of time. I’m here to disagree… although that wasn’t always the case.

Here’s the deal…

Times are CHANGING… social media is no longer about wasting time, and just making friends, it’s now one of the best ways to drive traffic, AND, a great way to get your blog coming up in the search engines.

You don’t think Google created its own social media site for nothing right? Google searches are changing, they’re incorporating more “personalized” searches, and starting to show results based on who you know and what they like.

If you’ve not jumped into social media… you’re going to have to.

**take note** Big font**

THERE IS A RIGHT WAY TO DO THIS!!

Social media is just that, about being social, and connecting with others. You can not go into a social media setting and just start blasting your stuff. It takes a little mindset adjustment to make socializing payoff.

You have to stop thinking about yourself and what’s in it for you.

Instead you have to start thinking about what’s in it for your readers. You have to provide quality content, (whether written by you or someone else) you have to start creating an environment where when people hit your page (whether on FB or twitter) they can get to know you, and what you’re all about. You have to start building yourself up as a resource ~ and doing that means you have to do a lot of giving. But don’t worry ~ from the giving will come traffic, and sharing, and linking ~ and all the things we internet marketers love… but it all comes from the giving first.

So what does that look like?

It depends what network you’re on. Different networks seem to respond to different things. You will have to test things out a little bit to find what exactly works for you, but here’s some things to start with.

Twitter…

People on twitter love links ~ they love to check out what other people are checking out.

So make sure you share links with your network. Your own links, but also great content you’re reading elsewhere that you find interesting.

You can use a service like tweetdeck or buffer to schedule your tweets through out the day. This works especially well if you spend a block of time reading blogs and commenting. Instead of blasting out 5 or 10 links in 30 minutes you can spread that great content out over the day.

Retweets ~ if you see something you like, or floats your boat on twitter, retweet it! It’s a great way to connect with other people as well as provide value to your network.

Facebook…

Facebook is a whole other ballgame. I’ve found people do NOT respond as well to links on Facebook, unless it’s super relevant to a conversation and sometimes on a fanpage.

However, pictures, quotes, comments ~ those work GREAT on facebook. I get lots of likes on that type of content.

You might be wondering how that helps you get traffic if people are just liking a picture or a quote…

Well, it gives you the opportunity to really connect with that person. Turning random “friends and followers” into true connections is what it’s all about. It’s super simple… when someone likes something you’ve posted, just send them a quick message. Hey thanks for the like, what are you working on these days? A simple message can start a conversation and from conversation comes friendship, and from friendship can come raving fans who spread the word far and wide about you. That personal touch will set you apart from 99% of all the other bloggers/people on Facebook.

Does it take some extra time?

Yes, but the return on that time can be huge, and well worth it.

Soo… there are some tips to help you make socializing on twitter and facebook pay off for you. While I’ve not delved into all of the social networks and other possibilities in this post realize the rules are the same no matter where you go.

80% personal

20% business

Keep it real. Share yourself. Get to know people.

With that in mind you may have noticed I’ve made a switch in commenting platforms. I’ve been adamantly apposed to a third party commenting system FOR.EVER. but realized my goals have changed and it’s not the number of comments I really care about… it’s the quality of comments.

I want this site to be a real community, where we can connect and help each other. The time spent weeding out crap comments, and those where people simply reiterate what I’ve written in a post are just too time consuming. I’m going to go with the assumption if people want to be part of the community and take part in what we do here, taking 30 seconds of your life to sign up at livefyre will be worth it.

I went with Livefyre over any other system because I like the “live” element. You can literally have a live chat with people within the comments ~ and so many of you have said you wished their was a way to “like” a comment… and now there is.

It is my hope that we will create a community where everyone helps each other, and we lift each other up together. This change is one way I think I can start making that happen.

So… let’s talk about it.

What are you doing to make socializing pay off for you? What’s your favorite social media platform? AND if we’re not personally connected on Facebook, please shoot me a friend request.

Creating an Editorial Calendar for Your Blog

Jackie Lee — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 13:39:07 +0000

Here it is almost a new year, and I’m sure you have big plans for your blog and your business. As we discussed last week having a strategic business plan going into the new year is always key. This week we’re going to take that plan and put it into practice! Because action is where your profits come from.

If you’re creating an authority type site, whether it’s about a niche in general or even product reviews, your content is the foundation of your site. If you’re not creating new content, you’re not going to succeed. Content is KEY!!

What are you going to write about? What if you get writer’s block? What if you run out of ideas? What if you’re just too scared to write anything, and the longer you look at that “hello world” post sitting on your site the harder and harder it gets to even start.

PHEW.

I have a solution.

The first step is this:

Decide content is a non negotiable element of your business.

I can’t even tell you what an important step this is… it will be the difference between success and failure when it comes to your content production this year.

The second step is this:

Decide when you’ll be posting your content to your site.

Once you’ve made those two decisions you can start creating your calendar. Here’s the technique I use to keep myself, and my content creation on track.

1. Set up month long topics/series.

In my handy dandy notebook (if anyone can tell me the reference…), I’ve lined out each month for the next year. I’ve decided on a topic for the month. Now on this site I only post once a week, so I now have to come up with 4 topics related to my monthly series topic and then my content is planned for the month.

I hate to be completely tied into something specific, so I’ll leave the topic rather general, so I can frame it in a way that feels good when I sit down to write.

Here’s an example:

January is going to be social media month here on IMM.

So my four posts might look something like this:

facebook tricks to share content

what not to do on facebook

how to create a community using facebook

how to drive more traffic back to your site with facebook

You see how easy that is?! Now I have a topic, and I can write about it in a way that resonates with me next month or even if this was scheduled 9 months from now, I’m sure I’d have opinions and ideas on those 4 topics.

The other cool thing about this is, I didn’t have any twitter topics, or linkedin topics, or youtube topics, so that just gave me a TON more ideas on topics I could use.

NOTE: If you’re building links and writing articles to use off site, you can take all those extra ideas and turn them into articles.

The key to this working is being organized, and sticking to the plan. Here’s some of the tools I use to stay organized.

1. Day Planner:

I have a day planner on my desk where I write down what blog I’m posting on, and the topic for the day. I also add in any other events/activities for the day, as well as phone calls and follow ups I have for other business matters. I’ve also used Charlie Gilkey’s planners ~ which I liked very much.

2. A handy dandy composition notebook.

I have a composition notebook for each element of my business. So for my blogs, I have a notebook, for the new project I can’t wait to tell you about I have a notebook, and for the other arm of my business I also have a notebook. This is where I write down ideas, make plans, create mind maps, etc… This makes it really easy to find any ideas I’ve had about a particular element of my business. Post it notes get lost. Write it all down in one place specific to that element.

3. Pomodoro Technique

This is relatively new, and I’m not using exactly as originally intended, but here’s the pieces I love.

The daily to do list… I write down everything I want to get done in a day on the list. (A pomodoro is a time period of 25 minutes ~ with 5 minute breaks between sessions, and a 30 minute break after 4.) I don’t necessarily use the timer, but I do in some circumstances.

The unplanned and urgent list: Here’s the key to what makes this work for me… I am easily distracted. So when I get distracted, or something comes into my mind and I think I need to go take care of it RIGHT NOW I write it at the bottom of my to do list. This urgent and unplanned section goes from the bottom up.

I DO NOT deviate from the current task at hand, I simply write this distraction down. When I’m done either with my 25 minutes or with the task at hand I will then go and take a look at the distraction and see if it needs to be added to today’s list, or maybe tomorrow or Friday’s list, or maybe it really wasn’t important at all and my mind was just messing with me because I didn’t really want to do what I was doing. (yeah, it happens!) So that has been VERY helpful for me to start getting more done in less time.

3. Editorial Calendar plugin

I don’t personally use this one, I prefer paper and pen, but there is a free editorial calendar plugin for wordpress where you can just plug your topics into the calendar and it will track it all for you. Easy cheesy and if technology is your cup of tea then it might be a great addition.

When you have productivity tools in place to help you keep on track, as well as an editorial calendar so you know exactly what you should be writing you’ll find it’s much easier to keep your content on track and coming. Trying to wing it with your content is like planning to fail. It’s so easy to let it slide, to leave it to later, to just skip it… but as you know… your content is the KEY to your business. Don’t plan to fail… create a plan.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and how you create an editorial calendar. Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

If you’d like some personalized help with your blog or ideas for your editorial calendar join us in the KISS Club. Where we keep it simple so you can take action.

Build Some Buzz to Propel Your Business

Jackie Lee — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 17:48:26 +0000

Take a minute… stop and look at your business.

All of the actions you’ve taken thus far have gotten you where you are in your business. Are you still growing? Have you reached a plateau? Have you not even begun to grow?

Wherever you are in your business if you want to make more money you’ve got to GROW!

That’s where the concept of buzz comes in… you can create buzz about your business to get more traffic, build your brand, and propel your business forward!

It’s easy to think your business is too small, or too inconsequential to build buzz… but I bet you’re wrong! I bet even YOU can build buzz!

Here’s some tips to creating buzz for your business:

1. Come up with an event or concrete activity that is buzz worthy.

It can be a challenge, a contest, an activity in the community… I’m doing a fundraiser with my kiddo’s school! If what you’re doing is helpful or interesting to the community (online or off) it will be buzz worthy!

Take a listen to today’s episode of Around the Kitchen Table... we did some brainstorming and came up with some fun ideas for buzz worthy events.

2. Get offline.

We get so focused on driving traffic to our websites, and being online we forget we can get traffic and HUGE buzz from offline sources! Most newspapers now have blogs, ask to guest post, send out a press release about your event, contact your local radio or TV station and let them know what you’re doing, write guest posts for related blogs!

Get the word out. It may seem intimidating to go to offline sources, but think about it this way. They are content producers, just like you! Every day they have to produce content… why not give them something to talk about?!

Over the summer I did an interview with Lisa Leake from www.100DaysofRealFood.com she exploded her website using offline resources… take a listen, she’s got a lot of helpful advice!

3. Identify a strategy.

If you’re going to say… do 30 guest posts in 30 days to build buzz, or do a in community activity you need to know what all is going to go into making it successful. You’ll have to do some planning, some connecting, some logistical stuff.

Make sure you give yourself time to get all the pieces in place before the event. Doing a guest post blitz doesn’t happen without pre planning!

The new year is a perfect time to get excited about your business again. It’s a great time to get people’s attention, and create buzz! What are YOU going to do to use buzz to propel your business forward?

I can’t wait to hear! Tell us in the comments.

If you want to use Buzz to propel your business but have no idea where to start… Join us in the KISS Club. We can brainstorm and get a plan created to get you going!

Planning a Website Project

Jackie Lee — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 14:41:16 +0000

Back in the day you could easily throw up a 1 page site, target a single keyword, build links and pull in money. That just doesn’t work anymore. Google wants more.

If you’re going to give Google what Google wants, so you can get organic traffic from them you’re going to have to have a plan before you start any website project. It doesn’t matter if you’re creating a site for affiliate marketing, or social media marketing, or even a site to create leads for your network marketing business… you’re going to need a plan.

I must say… the planning stage of any website is my absolute FAVORITE part. Here’s how how I handle planning a website project.

1. Get a HUGE piece of paper and your colored markers. (yeah, I’m old school like that)

You could also use a mind map program if you want, but paper is really fun.

2. Identify your target market ~ the more specific you can be the better.

Busy moms vs. stay at home moms with multiple kids who need to earn an extra income ~ is better.

3. Identify 4 to 7 very general topics your target market would want information about.

for example… If I’m targeting stay at home moms who want to earn extra income ~ I might choose, cooking, budgeting, kiddos, online business, self

4. Break those general topics (now your categories) into more specific topics. (I like to have 3 to 5 more specific topics)

cooking = 5 ingredient meals, crockpot cooking, menu planning

5. From those more specific topics (now your subcategories) you’re going to come up with specific ideas ~ which will be your posts.

5 ingredient meals = several recipes made of only 5 ingredients

crockpot cooking = tips to use a crockpost, saving money using a crockpot, recipes for crockpot cooking

menu planning = weekly meal plan, tips on meal planning, monthly meal planning, weekly meal planning

Once you’ve come up with these specific post ideas you can use your keyword tool to find the specific words/phrases people are using to look for that topic. ie… your targeted keywords

6. Create a posting schedule.

There are blog posting calendars around… I generally use Charlie Gilkey’s planners for my posting schedule. There is also the wp editorial calendar plugin which many find wonderful.

Once you’ve gone through this process you will have tons of content ideas in front of you. If you started with 7 large categories, and came up with 5 subcategories, and then came up with only 5 specific topics for each you’d already have 175 post ideas. What’s really great about it, is the content is completely and utterly directed toward your target market. Doing this work up front helps you really stay targeted, focused and on track to provide content your target market will love.

Now you just have to write them.

You have a couple options here as well. You could just bust them out. Write them all, schedule them to publish regularly and move on to link building. You could also set up a publishing schedule for yourself and write a new post on each of your publishing days. Once you’re post is written and published then jump on link building for that post.

Gone are the days where one page sites targeting single keywords are going to work… you’re going to have to be in it for the long haul, and prepared to write LOTS of content.

Here’s the cool thing though… you’ll end up ranking for a BUNCH of keywords you never expected or could have dreamed of and those seriously unexpected long tails can bring in quite a bit of traffic.

If you need help planning a website project, or getting one you’ve already started off the ground join the KISS Club. I’d be glad to help you get your project moving forward.

How to Overcome One of the Biggest Struggles In Internet Marketing

Jackie Lee — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:32:00 +0000

I’ve had plenty of struggles over the years. Some of my struggles I’ve just had to “accept” and keep going, and others I’ve found ways to get around. I’ve recently found a solution to one of my biggest (and worst) struggles in internet marketing.

If you’ve been working from home for any length of time I bet you’ve encountered this struggle as well.. take a look.

If you haven’t signed up for the webinar yet… do it now! Space is limited and I am absolutely STUNNED by the response I got yesterday! (thanks.)

1 Quick Trick to Overcome Being Camera Shy

Jackie Lee — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:58:26 +0000

I’ve gotten emails, and comments all week that people want to start video marketing, but the biggest problem is they are camera shy… don’t like how they look… don’t like how they sound.

For the don’t like how you look/sound I only have one thing to say… get over it. You sound and look totally different to yourself then you do to anyone else. If you want to video market ~ just do it.

One thing you can do to get over the look/sound thing though is this… make a video and then edit the hell out of it. You’ll have to keep listening and looking while you’re editing and at some point you’ll stop caring, because you’ll be focused not on YOU but on the task at hand… and it will be totally different.

As for camera shy ~ I have a HUGE tip for you on that one:

You can go to my other website for more video marketing tips… and connect with me on Facebook ~ I’ve been giving a lot of video marketing tips to people over there ~ if we’re not friends on facebook yet ~ shoot me a message and we’ll connect.

If you’d like to start using more video in your marketing efforts but are running into roadblocks I’d love to help you get on track. Join the KISS Club and we’ll work through it together.

Your Videos Will Not Convert Without These 4 Things

Jackie Lee — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 13:36:47 +0000

You can quickly create a video and upload it to youtube… but before you do that it’s really important to know, in your mind, what you want this video to accomplish. You’re not just making videos because they’re fun… they’re part of your marketing strategy. So… what do you want this video to accomplish? Do you want it to get people to like your fanpage? Do you want it to get people to opt in to your list? Do you want it to let people get a good feel for who you are and what you’re about?

It doesn’t matter what you want your video to do, but it does matter that you know what that thing is! If you want your videos to convert ~ which just means getting people to take a desired action ~ then there are 4 elements you MUST include in every single video you make.

For you non watchers out there… here’s those 4 crucial elements:

1. An intro

Introduce yourself, and where you’re from. People don’t buy products, they buy people… the more real you are the more people will connect with you.

2. What’s in it for them.

Tell people right up front why they should watch your video, what are they going to get out of it. (and make sure you’re creating a video they’re going to get something out of!)

3. The content.

This is what you’ve promised them in #2 so make sure you give it. I suggest 3 tips for videos because you want to keep your videos relatively short ~ preferably under 3 minutes… it’s an ADD world out there these days.

4. Call to Action.

Remember, you decided before making your video what you wanted it to do for you? Well here’s where you tell people how to do that. If you don’t tell people what to do next, they’ll just do nothing. So tell them… like my page, comment below, go to my site… whatever it is you can have them do to accomplish the mission of your video ~ do that.

So there you have it 4 crucial elements every video must have to convert. Stay tuned next week when I’ll give you some tips on making videos that actually get watched.

I hope you don’t just read this post, and watch this video and go on your merry way. Video is POWERFUL. Find time TODAY to create a video, and post it to youtube!! Then come back and leave a link. We’ll check it out and give you some social love, and get more eyes on your video.