This is freaking brilliant!
Almost no one now dabbling in social media has a clue what they’re doing. Which means a tsunami of wasted time and — worse — the almost daily evaporation of what should be VERY LUCRATIVE OPPORTUNITIES to parlay these new tools into fame, fortune and happiness as a marketer.
And here, a click away, are the answers and tactics to zooming to dominance in your market.
Wow.
I was an early adopter of Twitter (johncarlton007) — and I’ve got a nice fat audience there. But I’ve been neglecting my FaceBook page.
Why? Because I’ve just been unclear on how to USE these social media tools as anything other than a way to keep in touch with friends, colleagues and the most wired-in section of my followers.
I’m actually ahead of the game, because so many of my colleagues have been sharing their experiments with me… so I’ve been able to get some results when I want to wring some action out of social media. I get re-tweeted a fair amount, and I’ve built loyalty and weaseled my way into the attention span of my market.
Today, however, I see how BLIND I’ve been to how social media REALLY works.
Suddenly, I GET IT. This more than makes sense — this is a major breakthrough for any marketer who knows that staying near the cutting-edge of fast-changing technology is where all the monetization happens.
And I owe it all to Ed Dale.
Who — if you’ll dig into this tele-class here — will get YOU up to speed, too.
This is good.
This is the stuff that will allow you to smoothly slide past everyone else in your niche, and settle comfortably into the red-hot center of the action.
Where all the moolah gets generated, and where fame and happiness prevail.
First: Let me tee this up for you with a simple question:
Are you using social media as part of your business plan?
If not, you probably should be. I can’t think of a market niche that isn’t getting cornered by savvy engagement with people through Twitter and FaceBook. (Including major news organizations, national politicians, financial institutions, monster corporations and probably the entrepreneur who’s your biggest competition.)
And if it IS part of your biz plan… but, in an honest moment, you gotta admit you’re not using social media very well (and not earning a dime off it)…
… then you probably need to hear what Ed Dale has to say in this tele-class we did a few days ago. And you need to hear it NOW.
He’s essentially spilling the inside secrets of how to monetize social media.
Ed has been the go-to-guy for getting the inside story on cutting-edge marketing technology for years now. (He was Frank Kern’s partner in the “Underachiever” program… and is currently the beloved instigator of the notorious “30-day Challenge”.)
(Ed’s “geek” credentials go deep. He was, a while back, the global champion of the online game “Magic” — perhaps the most hotly-contested Web-based contest around. This dude is smart, and totally wired.)
In this interview, Ed drops a few bombshells about social media that could fuel a mass breakthrough for anyone smart enough to listen.
Like, for instance:
How to quickly figure out your “Market Leader Potential” in your niche… right now. (Knowing where you sit at this moment is critical if you’re itchy to make a move for the top role… where all the respect, credentials and customers accumulate.)
How to simply and easily make Twitter “work” for you and your dreams of market domination. (Hint: This is tied directly to the ancient “social media” filter in our brain… an anthropological realization that puts ALL social media into context… and instantly reveals how to USE it in the sneakiest and most effective way.)
How to test headlines with Twitter. (Beats anything else I’ve ever seen for testing headlines fast, simply and CHEAP.)
Why Twitter and “reality TV” are connected at the hip in the way they grab our attention. (Hint: Once you learn from Ed how to use this “full frontal assault” tactic correctly, your ability to monetize social media will transform into something truly scary.)
And… the ONE “right” way to use Twitter as a marketer. (You want to be able to brag about your success? Here’s the key.)
Plus, Ed reveals specific iPhone applications you must grab immediately.
It’s all jam-packed into a tight, fascinating, fairly short tele-class here.
Check it out. We’re making it available here for a few days… then, it goes bye-bye. So climb in now, while it’s on your mind.
Hi John, thanks for this really useful (as usual) interview with Ed. I’ve just been through the 30 day challenge and it’s been a real eye opener. I actually managed to get a niche site on the front page of Google in 8 hours and it’s stayed there, slowly moving to the top spot.
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Comment by Chris Green — 13 September 2009 @ 12:03 pm
To have wrapped it up with becoming the “biggest servant to your marketplace” was perfect.
So many wonderful psychological and “physics” explanations of the big “why” I know many have struggled with when trying to understand why we as a mass are participating in social media. Excellent correlation to reality tv. Yes, we can watch, observe and become a part of the scene in front of us while maintaining the safety of distance. It is human nature to want to look. Twitter provides this unique opportunity to observe and watch the lives and thought processes of many. And when we’ve had enough we are still in control by simply turning off our computers or walking away from our desks.
Both you and Ed made some great points about striving to be the one who gets retweeted the most because of the significance of your long-term investment and strategy of being a thought leader knowing there is true marketplace value as the market leader.
It used to be projected that the one with the most toys wins, but in this arena it is one with the most influence and impact on mind share who will enjoy extended profitability. Twitter is a great platform for getting your ideas out there.
It is all about the words, isn’t it? It is still all media, a vehicle to communicate an idea.This is where even the slightest understanding of headline writing, copywriting, and creating an impact with words will give the user an advantage. Even though we have only those 140 characters, it is still an opportunity to drop original content, to provide a simple slice of value for that posting.
Twitter presents a great opportunity to develop relationships, not unlike those we build with our local merchants, of seeking out those who have answers or new perspectives to the current issues in our personal and professional lives. I wonder if in fact we will discover through our customers if we will have to create fewer outbound messages to bring them into our sales funnel. Is it possible that the free line is being nudged and altered somewhat because of Twitter? Our stats will tell that story soon!
I did have to laugh a bit about the significance of most communication being about the parent / child relationship. How terrific for us to learn that Twitter is that great environment where the filtering mechanisms are not brought into play as much because Twitter is such a passive voyeuristic environment where there are no frontal assaults which need to be filtered out. We are there, looking and peering and wanting to see and to know what is being put out there – and we are kept safe via our monitors from having to really be involved beyond what we choose to do.
And the monetization factor that those of us who have been at this for a while understand was perfectly clarified. I agree with both you and Ed that social media is the perfect environment to become “Known” and a true market leader as is evidenced by the power of the ReTweet.
Thank you for taking the time to provide this interview. I appreciate the value of it, and will of course, retweet it because it has once again re-validated for me what I’ve known all along, you two are the market leaders in your respective fields!
Best regards,
Cheryl C. Cigan
http://www.known.com
@known
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johnc Reply:
September 14th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
You’re welcome, Chery. And that was a nice wrap-up piece of attitude adjustment, wasn’t it. Ed’s always coming up with cool insight like that…
John Carlton
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Comment by Cheryl C. Cigan — 13 September 2009 @ 2:18 pm
John & Ed, really groovy content man.
I love the headline testing method as well. Great ideas. Oh, did you have to get up super-early or late to do that call since you are on the West Coast and Ed’s in Oz?
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johnc Reply:
September 14th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
Yes, I did have to interrupt my vampire sleeping habits to make that call, Lawton. Thanks for noticing — I mean, I really go to amazing lengths to bring you guys this excellent stuff…
John
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Comment by lawton chiles — 14 September 2009 @ 1:05 pm
Great interview with Ed. I also just finished the 30dc. Social media has become my #1 traffic generator. Ed is spot on with his idea that twitter is a prefect vehicle to develop a list in which to establish your presence. Another way to look at twitter is like a continual party. You come you go but the party is still going strong. You interact with what you brought as you intertwine with whats happening when you return. I am going to watch all the videos. Have a great one.
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Comment by william — 16 September 2009 @ 12:07 am
Hi John.
What a great interview with Ed! I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Kylie Doak
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Comment by Kylie Doak — 16 September 2009 @ 6:42 am
Hi John,
I really enjoyed your interview with Ed Dale. I am just starting to “understand” the value of social media and Ed’s insights and lessons on how to use Twitter correctly are invaluable. After he said one should only follow the people one actually knows, I dropped the number of people I was following to 16. Now I enjoy opening Seesmic Desktop because I know what I’ll find there will be relevant. Before, I would just scroll through the tweets, not really reading anything. Thanks again!
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Comment by Renee Benzaim — 16 September 2009 @ 7:12 pm
John has the knack of pulling the true gems from the talus.
Ed is as Ed is…A Maestro.
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Comment by William K — 17 September 2009 @ 12:26 pm
Hey John, you know how you give people incredibly valuable stuff for free… and then they ask for MORE?
I’m wondering if you could allow us to download the audios. The “video” of Ed Dale, for instance, is not really a video; there’s nothing to watch. I find it damn near impossible to sit at my computer and listen for more than a few minutes (regardless of how great the conversation is) without giving in to the temptation to check my email or do other things while an audio is playing. When I do those other things while “listening,” I’m not REALLY listening… and I’m sure I miss key points of the audio. My favorite place to listen to audios is my car (I have a long, slow, boring commute with few distractions), so is there any way you can let us download these awesome audios as MP3s?
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stand Reply:
September 19th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Hi Bonnie,
I appreciate your request.
I don’t think our tech-team is going to have time to reformat and re-post these interviews.
It takes a LOT of time to provide what we have. I know it’s not everything, but we think it’s pretty good. Especially at the price point — FREE.
There are several audio-capture options out there. Allowing you to press the play button and walk away (or turn down your speakers.) You’ll be able to save the MP3 when the interview is finished and listen to it anywhere / anytime you like.
– Stan
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Comment by Bonnie — 18 September 2009 @ 12:26 pm
genius…
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Comment by Olivier — 19 September 2009 @ 5:48 am
Not a day goes by plenty of people talk about being social media masters or gurus. These are the same people who still have a job and their websites have Alexa rankings of 10 million+. So, even coming from you, John, I was a tad skeptical. Needless to say, this BLOWS THE DOORS off everything else I’ve learned -combined!
Ed Dale is one smart marketing madman!
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Comment by Luke Brown — 19 September 2009 @ 5:59 pm
thanks for the link to the interview – it could help me a lot – I enjoyed it
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Comment by Elizabeth Johns — 20 September 2009 @ 2:26 am
Thanks, John. That was a great interview with Ed Dale. I learned a lot about what you great minds know about social bookmarking.
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Comment by Bruce Marten — 20 September 2009 @ 3:14 pm
I know I am missing something here. I don’t mean to go negative, but I see his site http://tubbynerd.com/ and it’s mostly twitter posts and stuff sent from his iPhone!? Funny and irrelevant, but …mostly the kind of stuff that seems more of a time-dump than benefit to me.
This site http://www.cornwallseo.com/search/2008/04/04/how-ed-dale-hammered-in-the-final-nail-of-the-twitter-coffin/ is from 4-8-08 and extols the import of Twitter for headline writing development. An interesting comment shows the marketing potential, but definitely not a profit motive with these guys:
“If someone doesn’t like the inane conversations I have with my buddies on Twitter, they can always unfollow me. I won’t be hurt. I know we can be annoying. We’ll start a conversation on Facebook, refer to it on Twitter, take it to email and then make obscure references to it for the rest of the day.” (Commenter = Jane).
Ed posted here: “Damn It TWITTER!!!! This Follow Thing Has Gone TOO Far!!!” (4-1-09). The gist of his comment (and 12 min video), “Follow You Follow Me has the potential to DESTROY Twitter. CRUSH the best marketing tool created since email.”
Which is my view of the whole thing. Voyeurism (Reality TV market) is popular because of the base appeal, yes. But, it is undeniable that it is also a very lucrative and cheaply produced in comparison to series dramas or comedies. We are consuming what is offered.
How many articles now are about dropping a couple of thousand we follow? Like this from the site Ed contributes to, http://www.cornwallseo.com/search/2009/09/07/twitter-killzone-leaves-2000-casualties?
My belief is it is so like the old days of Internet marketing by email. Get a few affiliate links, copy (or produce) an email, join a couple of hundred ’safelists’, open a “Contact” email box and a “List” email box with auto-delete. I operated on the premise that hundreds of thousands on those lists were eagerly reading my brilliant, compelling emails. But, the majority were just like me, sending . . .and not even opening their “list” boxes – the auto-delete boxes. (Paid mails to contact boxes then became popular.)
All I know is I have referred to my Twitter account very few times since I opened it 4 months ago. I have 3 tweets I read, very funny, irreverent stuff (a guy posts things his elderly father says and another a ’supposed youngster’; Mr. Carlton the other) – genius comedic stuff like John refers to in his “Story Telling” presentation. Otherwise, I find myself running helter-skelter on tangents that produce zip for me. For me, time invested for my personal growth or knowledge is better spent with ‘Feedly” and perusing my RSS feeds than being bogged down in the Twitter ‘noise’.
Regarding “headline writing practice”, I like the quote by Mark Twain, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” (It compels me to be concise and use my thesaurus.)
I seem to be on the wrong side regarding the power of this marketing tool, but I still see it as a marketing fad and a time waster. It seems one puts on a mindset that ‘my information is foremost in my mind’s eye’; and fail to acknowledge the fact that only with those one is truly close to that a tweet holds a whit of significance. In that case, I prefer IM and one of the many products that will keep several services open when I wish to log in.
Then I control when I am ‘available’ for an intrusion. I don’t have the all-powerful iPhone either, which I believe is another marketing tsunami that goes hand-in-hand with twitting and egoism.
The issue for me is simply filtering the massive input of information available the most effectively. Twitter has yet to hit my “sweet spot” nor even tickle it. What is wrong with me and am I being closed-minded because of my perceptions to this point regarding Twitter?
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Comment by Allen C. — 21 September 2009 @ 12:35 am
John,
I finally freakin get it! The podcast with Ed was fabulous stuff. I took notes and will be putting this stuff to use. I have been struggling to figure out how to use this social media the right way and you just made it exceptionally clear to someone who had no clue.
I have been trying to figure ways to get myself into a profitable business on the internet for several years now while still working at my sales job in corporate America. About 1 month ago, I finally stepped it up a notch, and decided I would truly learn to sell. I started my new affiliate marketing and MLM business, and have been getting up 3 or 4 every morning, working full time (and then some) on this business and putting everything else on the back burner. I decided I needed to learn to write and write copy.
I’ve got every resource sunk into this biz, or would have bought the simple writing when you offered that super deal a couple of weeks ago. Regardless, I’m going to take all this free stuff you are giving and first utilize that to make some money in my current biz. As soon as I’m generating cash you’ll see my order. You’ve already made another simple writing system sale with me. I’m just writing articles now (no paid marketing, and I’m a tech dummy) and have gone from 60 million on Alexa to my current 7 day average of about 570,000 in about 1 month of writing.
I cannot wait to begin applying your copywriting tips and the other incredible stuff like this call, now that I’m beginning to have an audience. If I can go from 60 million to 570,000 in a month as a novice writer, just think what I can do once I actually have the skill to write phenomenal copy and know how to use social networking. THE SKY IS THE LIMIT! See you at the top.
Thanks for everything you are giving from the bottom of my heart,
Scott
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Comment by Scott Blasczyk — 5 October 2009 @ 3:53 pm
I absolutely loved the assessment of a Business Plan….”A Total Toff!!!”
No truer words have been spoken!
Thanks John
You and Ed have great chemistry and I learned a great deal.
Keep up the credibility
all the Best
Bill
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Comment by Bill Whetstone — 26 October 2009 @ 10:59 am