You Have a Great Story.. Share it

Do you have a product that people love?

“the best way to tell a story is to let others tell it for you”

The Roger Smith hotel has been attracting the social media in crowd, so you might have been wondering how to get this crowd to come see you.

That’s one idea.

But why not take the next step and let your own fans do this?

As more and more people are creating media, blogging, shooting video and telling their friends about what they love, every business can find opportunities to empower more of them to share.

The video above is comprised of clips from user content. While some of these people have huge followings online, there are millions more who have connections with them and each other.

Old media strategy – get a big audience

New media strategy – EVERYONE HAS AN AUDIENCE

What ideas does this create for your business?

Networking at a Seminar. How I Did it.

I’ll be speaking at UnSeminar 8 coming up in Austin Texas.

image There is plenty to learn from the speakers, but the best reason to attend events like this is the long term relationships that develop from interacting with other attendees.

As I go through my preparation to network, I thought it would interesting to document some of the way the networking with speaker and attendees works so well for me.

Know Who Will Be There

As soon as I book a trip, I look for social media connections.

Let’s start with a list of speakers

I have been doing this for a while, so most of the speakers are already friends on and off Twitter. For the few that I couldn’t recall, I used a Google search. Here is the syntax I use do find a user on Twitter using Google.

twitter.com “warren whitlock’

This all goes in the search box.

Google searches for occurrences of the text between the quotes on Twitter. Usually, you’ll get only the most active use with that name. You click on the link, see the profile and FOLLOW the person.

While on Twitter, be sure to read their recent tweets and click through to their blog and bio links.

Making a List and Checking it Twice (a day)

I created a list of these user handles to follow. I use PeopleBrowsr where I’ll keep a stack (column) open between now and June 20th to see what others are tweeting about. I’ve found that PeopleBrowsr is the fastest way to add people to a group and it allows me to keep it outside of Twitter, where the limit to lists is only 20.

You can use a Twitter list (if you do, let me know and I’ll refer others to it) or a group in almost any Twitter client for this. The Twitter search tool has improved, you may be able to find, follow, and list people as fast as the method I described.

Or, just follow this list I created Unseminar 8 Speakers

I’ll add other attendees to my PeopleBrowsr list as I find and follow them.  The speaker list above will likely be left as is to help you get started.

I use this for people I want to know better. I do not wait for them to start talking about the event, and actually prefer to find out what they are talking about besides UnSeminar since I want to have a relationship before and after that event.  I already know we have that in common, so I look for what else we can connect on.

Building Relationships Before the Event

Using the links I get from Twitter feeds, I’ll find links to blogs post about whatever expertise the person has, along with other interests on Facebook, LinkedIn and anything else they talk about. 

What I’m looking for is their passion. I’ve learned that it’s best to put off my interests for as long as possible and focus on what the other person needs and wants. Many of the famous people I network with are more interested in a charity, cause or avocation than you might think. Some might spend all their time talking about their niche or making money.. that’s okay, but what I’ really want to know is what passion they would follow if they had all the money they ever need. That’s where the real connections lie.

Attack With a Preemptive Love Strike

Here’s where the real fun begins.

Once you have spent a few minutes getting to know a person and their passions, you’ll find at least one thing to love about them. Now we get to put my listen and love marketing strategy into play.

Look for a question asked, a poignant comment, a shared life story or desire from the person you want to know better.  I rarely need more than a few minutes to find at least one question or something to provoke a positive comment.

Now do something nice for them. Instead of reading and thinking “that’s nice”  TELL THEM in a comment, tweet, or message. Please don’t settle for “nice post” or “I’m a fan (I use that when I’m nervous.. it rarely gets a positive reaction). Take a couple of second more and think of something specific and personal that you can say. It doesn’t need to be long, but it has to show you really mean it.

My friend Dr. Ben Mack is calling the a preemptive love strike which means that you don’t wait for others to reach out to you, you look for ways to show love.

Since I’ve used Twitter and social media to help me show love and appreciate to others, I’ve learned to do it much more often… and now find ways offline to do the same.. handwritten notes, a book from Amazon with a note enclosed, a phone call when it’s not expected.. I can’t imagine ever running out of opportunities.

This works. I just set up a joint venture from sending one post card, I have sold consulting to someone who watched how I tweet positive ideas and made new friends while strengthen bonds with many others from using these love strikes.

Watch for the HashTags

Attendees to UnSeminar 8 will be encouraged to tweet and talk about the event and add “#UN8” to the end of each post. This will trigger a link in their posts and allow others to click and see a stream of every tweet with that tag.

You can view this on the web using cool tools like TwitterFall

image You can click on the photo to see the current stream for #UN8 or use this site to set up your own instantly updating stream with whatever search term, list of people you want to see.  It’s great for projectors or monitors at events.

Using the hashtag, you can also set up a stack or column in nearly every Twitter client. On the web you can follow us from any browser with Twitter Search

Attend the Preview Webinars

Anyone can attend the free preview webinars to spend time with Pat and the Speakers before the event. Listen to what they teach, but watch for ideas of where you might send a preemptive love strike.

UnSeminar 8 previews are available free online. Most other events offer similar pre-event training. When we do this, it’s a preemptive love strike on attendees and many others who won’t be able to make it.

Event promoters tell me that this doesn’t hurt attendance. In many cases, attendance as the following event goes up due to people hearing the training and deciding they want to get in on the best part.. the live networking.

Come to the Tweet Up

Many events have pre-events the night before the official start time. This is often the best way to get a leveraged fast start on meeting speakers, promoters and experienced attendees for a head start.

Austin Tweet Up expert Kate Buck will be setting up a Tweet up on Thursday June 17th for Austin locals, UnSeminar 8 attendees and you. Follow @KateBuckJr on Twitter and watch for announcements. When you see the invite, you’ll be able to access a list of attendee and follow them.

By the time you get to the Tweet up, you’ll already be seeing friends you met online.

Help Promote the Event

When you tweet about the event, you’ll be doing a preemptive love strike on the promoter, the speakers and other attendees who will benefit from meeting you network.

This can be done even if you can’t make it to the live event.

When you tweet about #un8, point your follower to http://UnSeminar8.com and let them know the handles of the cool people who are speaking or attending. When you tweet something like this:

image

you know that Pat will see it and appreciate you. This preemptive love strike is about as direct as you can get.

Keep in Touch After the Event

As you begin to use these tips, you’ll find that it takes a lot less time that you might have though before you start. Pretty soon, you’ll have new friends and connections, a network of people that will remember your preemptive love strikes and be looking for ways to help you.

It’s natural to think that you have to sell something to them or perhaps it might be a waste of time. Actually, the reverse is true. The more times you can reach out and help (love) your contacts, the more apt they will be to ask you how they can help you.

When they do, be ready to engage them and move into whatever you need.

Of course you want to keep your goals and desires in mind. I know we can’t do an individual love strike on every contact every day, but I have doubled, doubled again and still increasing my capacity to do this. So far, I can’t see any time that I will want to love less.

These are just a few of the quick steps I take when attending a seminar, and every day. I know each of these work because I’m using them. Do you have other ideas? Please share them with me. Leave a comment, Tweet about this post and let’s discuss what works and what hurdles you see. When you do, I feel your love 🙂

Imagine a time when you’ll have so many asking to engage you, wanting to reciprocate for the love you’ve show and anxious to see you do well.

Listen and Love.. it’s as simple as that.

Your Business Has More Potential Than You Know

On the radio show, we were talking to Peter Winick about author platforms.. how he leverages the content of authors and experts to create new streams of income.

Since many of the people I talk to about social media have specialized knowledge they use in their businesses, I know this goes well beyond books and thought you’d learn from what Peter shared.

Here’s a short segment from Profitable Social Media Radio.


Peter and I have combined forces to offer a very special program for author looking to learn how to make more money as so many best selling authors do.
 
If you have a book, are considering writing a book, or just want to make more from what you give to the world, look at:
 

“What the World Needs is More Connections”

Connections and our social networks are like a super organism that allows us to spread good and bad.

What you do affects those around you. We know that.. but recent work by Nicholas Christakis tells us that it’s in the structure of our networks

This short video explains so much

Since I first encountered Christakis’s ideas, I’ve looked at almost everything in a new light.

Instead of worrying about selling something to someone, I realize that helping him connect someone he knows to someone I know will build cluster of profitability. The ROI looks like serendipity, but is it?

Social Media Revolution

When we wrote Twitter Revolution two years ago, we were laughed at a for calling the change in marketing and selling a revolution.

Now Eric Qualman updates a video tied to his excellent book Socialnomics with data we didn’t have just a few months back.. and I wonder Was I underestimating.

image

Be the Change You Want to See

I’m an optimist.

I refuse to believe that there are problems in the world that can’t be solved or resolved in ways we have not yet considered.

Some men see things the way they are and say “Why?”

I dream of things that never were and say “Why not?”

George Bernard Shaw

Change of attitude is what my college mentor Clyde Johnson would teach us in every class If you don’t like the answer, change the question.

Barry Nalebuff, co-author of Why Not? How to Use Everyday Ingenuity to Solve Problems Big And Small  strikes me as an optimist. Watch this video, and I promise you’ll be thinking of him every time you see a banana for the rest of your life

Watch it on Academic Earth