Last night Coach Deb was live with Mike Filsaime at the MarketingDotCom command center in Long Island, NY. In a fun and light “Friday Night Live” format Deb and Mike share a wealth of strategies and tips from successes achieved with New Social Media.

Watch the replay below now and you’ll learn things like:

• How to get hundreds of people to LIVE! off-line events using twitter and other Social Media

• Tips on hastags and FriendFeed

• How to get 23,000 visitors from Twitter

• A sneak preview of the NEW New Media online marketing software & social site-building system — Quan$ite™

The first few minutes start out slowly as the crew gets things set up, but I promise you it’s worth the wait once Deb and Mike get rolling.

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n this bootleg New Media marketing audio podcast, multiple best-selling author Keving Hogan interviews Coach Deb on what it takes to be a success using Social Media.

This 62-minute audio podcast is JAM-packed with tips, strategies & tactics on the fastest way to grow your business using New Media channels like Facebook, Twitter, blogs & mobile media. You’ll get the answers to questions like:

• What are you doing that could be making you UN-successful in today’s New Media marketplace?
• Are you making personal branding Faux Pas on a daily basis?
• What do you need to do different to be successful selling and marketing with using New & Social Media channels?
• What’s the fastest, easiest, funnest way to create, attract & grow a Tribe of raving fans?
• …And much, much more in this fast-paced Tribe-building hour of insightful interview

The conference Deb and Kevin mention is Kevin’s world-renowned ‘Influence: Boot Camp‘. She’ll be giving a rockin’ presentation & playshop in Las Vegas at this event this March. The bonus $297 DVD set (”Social Media Simplified” with herself, Mari Smith, Simon Leung, Denise Wakeman & Nancy Marmolejo) offers in the audio as a FREE bonus is only vaild when using this link for the March Influence: Boot Camp.

Listen in or download to your iPod/mp3 player to listen in on the road. *Note: the echo in the beginning goes away after 1st 45-seconds. It is a bootleg after all.

Enjoy!

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Splitting!? Really!? Yep… actually in TWO different ways. Splitting in a business-sense, and splitting as in “outa-here.”

You gotta watch the video to see how BIG of a move this really is. And we’ll share a little known fact that will forever transform your goal-setting — at New Years and all year long.

Watch it now, enjoy the warm Trade Winds… then we want to hear from YOU!

So what’s your BIG move for 09′… and your 7-year target

So now you know what our plans are for helping solopreneurs and business owners like you in 09′. And you know the most common mistake people make in setting and achieving goals — they over-estimate what they can achieve in one-year, and under-estimate what they can achieve in seven.

So now it’s time for YOU to take action…

Action, winners & reward

Why do we always share our BIG moves publicly with family and friends? Simple! It’s because it helps to hold us accountable in taking action.

It’s a practice I learned from a mentor when starting my 2nd business at age 20. It was instrumental in my selling two businesses, Deb leaving her Corp job and our moving 5,000miles to Hawaii. We use it all the time for added leverage on ourselves.

See, the problem is most people dream in silence, in their head. Winners create an environment where they’re accountable for action.

So with that in mind – what is your BIG move for the next 12-months, and the next 7-years? Don’t let your life be defined by “what coulda been.”

We’ll be rewarding the owner of the best “BIG move” posted 60-days paid membership on the http://BLOGi360.com Hub Site system! But be prepared to be held accountable. We want your life to be defined by the journey to “what will be.”

Happy New Year!

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My latest column is up for you at Entrepreneur Magazine:

When Blogging Advice is Bad for Business Owners

Read the column and let us know what things have held you back from using a blog more effectively for your business. What are some of your wins? Who do you learn from to use a business blog more effectively?

Enjoy!

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You don’t need to have a techie or online business to benefit from the power of New Media marketing. A bigger prospect list, more sales, and higher profits are possible for just about any business — even the oldest profession in the world. The difference between winners and losers when using New Media marketing strategies is not in intelligence, technology, or industry — it’s in the strategy, mindset, and skills of influence employed.

The world’s oldest profession shows you how to (and how NOT to) market with New Media

As some of you know, the way we got to live our ideal lifestyle in Hawaii is by my starting, growing, and selling two 7-figure companies in the horticulture industry. Both were generating healthy cash flow, but my passion was always with the design/build work we did for affluent clients and owners of private estates.

Because of that, I still keep my finger on the pulse of the Landscape Design/Build industry. That includes monitoring how companies are using New Media to market their off-line business. This case study is based on one of those companies and will show you how virtually any company in any industry — online or off-line — can use New Media to market and sell more.

If you were to pick the most unlikely industry to use New Media, why not chose the oldest profession in the world. And if you’re thinking prostitution, that’s not it. Besides, I’m sure you’d agree that industry pretty much figured out how to use the Internet.

The world’s oldest profession is actually gardening. After all, that’s what God had Adam doing to keep busy before Eve ever stepped foot in the Garden of Eden, right? Well, in this case study you have some very powerful lessons laid out based on what some people in this profession have done right and wrong online with New Media.

One company used New Media Marketing to influence, persuade, and connect with new prospects and their existing client base in a memorable way. The second company got it all wrong.

The business that got it right

The landscape design/build firm Rosenlof/Lucas in Minnesota had a project that was featured in an HGTV program. But instead of relying on a single episode of a cable show to generate buzz, they created a simple four-minute video that has allowed them to maximize leverage with a single project to attract new prospects and clients using online video.

First – watch the video and the read on to learn from what they did right using the New Media marketing channel of online video. Then – we’ll take a look at what they left out and what they could have done better.

OK, so it may be pretty obvious what they did right at the end of the video, but let’s start at the beginning and go through the online persuasion strategies they incorporated with this New Media foray.

Online Persuasion done right

1: Use a personal/informal tone. The video starts with an informal and completely “personal” intro to the company. You feel as if you’re riding along with Matt Olsen.

2: Grab your target audiences attention up front & disqualify tire-kickers. The initial intro to Rosenlof/Lucas is brief and immediately defines what differentiates their design/build firm from the competition.

Don’t be afraid of losing people. If you don’t turn off (and turn away) some people, you’re not going to really turn-on anybody either. For example; not everyone likes contemporary design. But Rosenlof/Lucas specializes in that styles, so they’d be foolish to not make that clear. Who cares if people who don’t like contemporary design tune out. That’s not their target audience.

With my Design/Build company our style was based on French Provincial estates of Europe. We specialized in that style for several reasons, but one was to immediately turn most people away.

The French Provincial design style is inherently elite and costly, which helped to prospects to disqualify themselves before any of our time was required. Simultaneously, because of a strong stand on exclusivity, we were building rapport with the truly affluent before they even picked up the phone to schedule a consultation. Influence and persuasion not spoken is the most powerful.

3: Tell a story. Matt starts the story feel right in the beginning of the video and that continues throughout the four minute clip. He and the owners of the subject property (owners of Hive Modular Homes) share their personal thoughts, inspirations, and most importantly — their passion for what they do.

4: Unique camera shots. The video uses a simple yet edgy New Media shooting and editing style. Angles are unique, transitions are rapid and different, and there is a good blend of music and voice overlays. All work to keep the viewers attention from wandering throughout the four minute video.

5: Engage and capture the attention of your target audience. Throughout the entire video the things that make Rosenlof/Lucas unique are highlighted. And the passion of Matt stacks on top of the more practical visual displays of their expertise.

6: End with a congruent call-to-action. Notice that Rosenlof/Lucas didn’t go the mass media route and end their video with an infommercial-style boardwalk pitch. Rosenlof/Lucas didn’t offer a free consultation or anything so drab and boring. They invited people to take a much more natural step in taking the relationship to the next level. Viewers were invited to a “Showcase Party.” Obviously the invitation to enjoy the landscaping, the home, food, drinks, and music is lot more inviting than getting a “free consultation.”

Stepping It Up

Let’s take a look at three simple things Rosenlof/Lucas could have added to their video foray into New Media Marketing. Three things that would have had an even greater impact on their bottom line.

#1. Encourage immediate action: Along with the invitation shown at the end of the video there could have been a URL added to a simple landing page where an “Invite Acceptance” was completed by the viewer. They could have motivated the viewer to get to the page and complete the registration by offering a special gift that they’d get when they show up to the live event.

This one added step would do three things very powerful things from a marketing standpoint –

A. The pre-qualified viewers contact info would be captured for later follow-up whether he or she actually shows up at the party or not.

B. By completing the “Invite Acceptance” the viewer will have taken a small action that psychologically motivates them to follow through and actually show up on October 5th. Plus they get a special gift by pre-registering and showing up.

C. With full contact info collected, all confirmed attendees could be mailed a post card confirmation and sent an email reminder the day before the party.

#2. Reward immediate action: To really create anticipation and excitement Rosenlof/Lucas could have added a contest to the “Invite Acceptance” process. Something as simple as offering all “Confirmed Guests” the chance to win one $5,000 design/build certificate would go a long way in getting people jazzed about the event. And a further note that the winner would be announced at 8pm the day of the party, and that the invitee had to either be there to win the prize.

#3. Leverage the Hub Site: This is the simplest addition to this entire optimized process – linkage to Rosenlof/Lucas’s business Hub Site*. (A Hub Site is a single destination where attraction, connection and conversion can all take place.) Sadly they don’t even have a blog, never mind a New Media based Hub Site.

Look, this is one of the easiest ways to continue the rapport-building momentum. If you were to employ the two online persuasion strategies highlighted above, then after the registration form for the “Invite Acceptance” was completed, you’d set the system to take the new registrant to a special post on the company business blog where they are encouraged to share their opinions on the video or what they’d like to see more of.

If Rosenlof/Lucas had done this, they would have boosted interaction and participation and built more rapport and trust before the prospect even met Matt or his partner.

Also, I can’t comment on how much (if any) effort Rosenlof/Lucas put into using this video with their existing client list, how they used other New Media channels, or if they took advantage of any off-line PR, publicity, or promotional opportunities. I know that with a solid click-and-mortar marketing approach this New Media Marketing blitz would be the type of HUGE list building event that would have kept their business swamped with new work for months.

How NOT to use online video

Now, to save the second company in this case study the pain of humiliation and shame with deep analysis let’s just take a look at their video and make a quick summary. Watch this one minute video and be prepared for a BIG difference.

Obviously this isn’t much different than some boring old-school commercial you’d see on your local cable station. And actually, that’s probably where this video came from. It looks like a recycled cable commercial for this landscape company.

What’s worst is that they are CLEARLY using stock photos in the video that are not photos of their actual work. And even with that shortcut, the photos they chose STILL have no congruent message. These two mistakes alone are complete trust-killers and rapport breakers.

From a New Media Marketing standpoint — why would anyone pass this video along and share it with family or friends? There’s no online persuasion here. Heck, there’s not even any clear call to action at the end of the video other than “Stop by today…” so even by direct response marketing standards, it’s useless.

Apply what you learned in this case study

If a landscape company can use New Media to market their business so can you!

You see here how there’s no excuse for missing out on the impact and effectiveness of marketing with any New Media channel; whether it’s online video, blogs, podcasts, social networks, or social filters. If the oldest profession, and lowest tech industries, in the world can effectively market with New Media to get new business and new profits — so can you.

What’s your take?

• What were the new ideas for YOUR business that you got from this New Media marketing case study?
• Did you see some other things that Rosenlof/Lucas could have done better with their online video? Differently?
• Have you done something similar practicing online persuasion through video? Share your story with some graffiti in the comment area down below.

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Authenticity and transparency. Are they important marketing in today’s New Media marketplace? You bet! Are they, as some have proposed, the “currency” of social media? Not if you’re a business owner or marketer. Here’s why this currency concept can slowly suck your energy and profits, and what the cash-creating alternative is.

Do buzz-words equal bucks?

Authenticity & transparency are Social and New Media buzz-words. That’s fine.

The dangerous thing is when these buzz-words are used by Social Media “experts” in a way that leads people to think they are cash creators. But are they really?

There are literally billions of POOR “authentic” people around the world who are completely “transparent” in their daily lives. Most of these people struggle from day-to-day trying to make ends meet. Many are simply struggling to survive.

When’s the last time you paid your mortgage or car payment with authenticity? Are you earning interest on your transparency account at the Social Bank of America? Of course not.

Come on, currency is just a word… isn’t it?

Now you may be thinking I’ve gone too far here. That “currency” is just a word. But words do have power. The power to focus. To stir up emotions. To make connections between what’s known and what’s new. And that’s why the currency concept is a profit killer.

Look, the definition of currency is a unit of exchange that facilitates the transfer of goods and/or services.

When people say authenticity and transparency are a “currency” it’s a direct implication that there is transactional value there. Authenticity & transparency cannot be exchanged, stored or compounded as currency can. Putting the focus on authenticity and transparency creates a fuzzy financial future for business owners and marketers.

So what’s a better way to look at authenticity and transparency?

Authenticity and transparency are merely the lenses by which people perceive congruence, character and trust. To harness their power you must act like an optometrist who adjusts a person’s vision using their Optical Refractor (yep that’s what that funny machine is called.) Instead of using a complex machine with lots of numbers, you develop the skills to control and adjust what people see when they look through the lenses of authenticity and transparency.

• Authenticity and transparency are the LENSES
• Self-Influence and persuasion are the ADJUSTMENT DIALS

Self-Influence and persuasion are (and should be) the things you can actually control. The most successful people in business, entertainment and politics know these controls are the root of power and profit.

For you, understanding the inter-relationship between these lenses and adjustment dials is what will make the difference between success, struggle or failure in today’s marketplace.

Is “manipulation” a bad word?

Self-Influence, being obviously self-focused, identifies and gives you control over your strengths. Persuasion allows you to influence others. Is this manipulation. Damn right! But you’re manipulating your mouse to read this page right now aren’t you? Since when did manipulation become a bad word?

Remember those billions of POOR “authentic” people around the world who are completely “transparent” in their daily lives? They think manipulation is a bad word too. This puts them at the mercy of anyone who understands the power of the lenses and dials. Is that the position you want to be in?

Ultimately you determine what manipulation means by how you use it an what you achieve with it. With the power to focus people on your strongest assets, and the ability to control transparency — you’ll increase rapport, trust and connections. Once you’ve mastered these skills, you’ll have the ability to attract, stack, and spend as much REAL currency as you want.

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What’s the secret to attracting attention and winning over people’s hearts, minds and pocketbooks? It’s the ability to influence and persuade. It’s what all business owners, sales pros and politicians want — but most start from the wrong place

Persuasion start with Self-Influence™

Mention persuasion to the average person and ask them where persuasion is focused — outward (on other people) or inward.

99 out of 100 will say "on other people." After all, isn’t the idea to win friends and influence people? Isn’t that what we should be focused on?

Yeah, sure – that’s the ultimate goal. But unless you master Self-Influence™ your persuasion skills will always come across as mechanical, un-natural.

Think about it. If you can’t influence and motivate yourself to take action — how can you ever effectively motivate anyone else?

The fact is you won’t. People’s perception will immediately be one of suspicion. Not a good place to start a relationship, I’m sure you agree.

Have you ever heard of Harry Houdini?

Well he wasn’t like today’s magicians, only interested in filling a theatre in Vegas. He was an artist. He could make an elephant disappear in the middle of a theatre filled with people, and do you know how he did that?

By controlling people’s perceptions.

Until you control people’s perception of you, your brand, your persona, and who you really are at your core – you will never attain the levels of influence and persuasion that you want.

And yes! That applies online too because there is NO hiding behind your screen. Not anymore!

Online persuasion

It’s easy to see influence and persuasion at work in the off-line world. You meet people and immediately begin either building or breaking rapport with your first face-to-face meeting. You’ve got all five senses working for you.

At first glance online persuasion of that same level may appear to be a near impossible goal. At best, most people see online persuasion as a process of mechanical manipulation; tricks and black-hat triggers used to induce people to hand over their cash.

If we were still living in the online world of Web 1.0, true online persuasion would be difficult. That was an online world where conversations were limited, and being a Marketplace Molester was the bastardized definition of begin “persuasive.”

But have you noticed that going online is a different type of experience today?

With the New Media marketplace powered by people and participation, a more natural form of persuasion can be employed. Audio and video along with instant interaction and ongoing conversations simply make online persuasion another dimension of the off-line face-to-face world.

“The catch”

Online or offline — you can’t just jump in and start trying to influence others. That’s like building a pyramid from the top down.

(For a full-size printer-friendly version, download the Tribal Seduction Power Pyramid™ PDF here.)

Far too many people start from the wrong place and fail to establish the foundation that will support their successfully persuading an ever growing Tribe in today’s marketplace.

You need to start from the bottom up, inside out.

Here’s why…

If you want people to trust you and fall under your spell, it’s not about “making up” a persona or image. You need to take your strengths and the magnetic aspects of your persona and make them larger than life.

To maximize your ability to persuade in marketing, sales, management, or any area of life – that means starting with understanding your natural communication style.

We each have our own unique Communication Code™. That code determines how we communicate with the outside world, how others perceive us, and how we talk to ourselves. It’s an essential element in the Self-Influence formula. And it’s the easiest place to start.

The good thing is that, when it comes to your natural communication style, you can adapt. And that ability to adapt gives you control. Control over how others perceive you, and control over how you manage and motivate yourself.

The better you understand yourself, the better you will be at getting what you want. In fact, what you don’t know about yourself could keep you from getting what you want.

Today’s New Media Marketplace isn’t Romper Room

Focusing on Self-Influence first takes patience and maturity. It’s not for everyone. It’s a matter of doing things a little differently to make a LOT more money.

Some people are still looking for the easy way to riches. The magic bullet or secret potion. And that’s ok for people who want to end up struggling and eeking out a living waiting for that pie-in-the-sky payday.

But if you’re serious about achieving the wealth and lifestyle you want, sorry – playtime is over!

Houdini used Self-Influence to survive his life-threatening illusions and win over the world. Moguls like Oprah and Trump have mastered it. Branding power-houses like Gene Simmons and thought leaders Seth Godin know it, live it and profit from it.

They all know their practical strengths, Communication and Motivation Codes™. They mastered Self-Influence long ago and excel at persuading though perception… the reason they are where they are today.

How are you doing?

If you’re trying to persuade your Tribe and influence groups of people, have you worked your way up the Power Pyramid™; constantly working to improve your Self-Influence™ and Personal Persuasion?

• If not, what’s holding you back? What is your greatest challenge in creating a persona and packaged perception that will persuade your Tribe?

If you’re not happy with the results you’re getting at the top of the Power Pyramid, what are you doing about it?

• Are you willing to focus on influencing yourself BEFORE trying to win the hearts, minds and pocketbooks of millions?

• Have you identitifed your practical strengths; the abilites and skills that will add value to other people’s lives?
• Have you broken your Communication Code™ to determine how the stress of challenges, interaction with people, details and even day-to-day tasks impact how others percieve you?
• What about your Motivational Code™? Do you know exactly what gets you jumping out of bed in the mornign ready to roll without any coffee?

• How are you packaging those together with your Persona to create a Personal Brand that creates the perception you want people to have?

Spill your mind. Share your thoughts in some graffiti down below.

>> To see how Self-Influence translates into the power to persuade crowds and create raving fans, download the Tribal Seduction Power Pyramid™ PDF here.)

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Madison Avenue advertising firms do it. Mainstream marketers do it. Political campaigns do it. They all piggy-back on the emotional anchoring created by famous singers, actors, and sports figures. It’s a marketing strategy with a proven track-record. People bond emotionally with people, with personal brands, and with your Primal Key™.

But what about online you when you’re marketing with New Media? How can you harness the momentum created by emotional anchoring and piggy-back off of words, quotes, images, or sounds that people are already familiar with?

It starts by understanding the simple truth of why emotional anchoring works in marketing. That is…

People buy what they like, and they like what they know

Familiarity breeds comfort. When you’re familiar with something or someone, you know what to expect. That makes things comfortable. More importantly (for marketing and sales purposes) familiarity and it’s offspring comfort both act to turn off the natural defense mechanism (skepticism) we all employ to protect ourselves.

Leveraging emotional anchors works so well in marketing because it accelerates familiarity and comfort. Its’ impact is instant, subconscious, and undeniable when it comes to boosting conversions.

Now, you may not be able to afford to pay Beyonce or Tiger Woods to appear in commercials for you. But you CAN leverage existing visual and auditory anchors, and using New Media Marketing — tie them to you, your product or your service. And you can do it in much easier, and much more cost effective way!

Here’s an example to get those Tribal Seduction mindset wheels spinning in your head.

A few good marketing ideas…

If I say "You can’t handle the truth!"… what movie do you immediatley think of?

"A Few Good Men." Right! It’s one of the most often quoted movie lines.

On the outside chance you haven’t actually seen the movie, you probably know what movie it came from and the context in which it was said. It’s familiar and it’s comfortable because it’s known.

The line was used in the climax of the movie. In what also was the most emotionally charged scene of the movie.

So where does New Media come in on this?And how does this help you with your marketing?

Well, lets take a look at a couple examples of how this famous movie quote was used in online videos. A few notes on what was done right. What could be done better. And what creative ideas you can come up with after looking at this mini-case study.

First the original clip

Let’s put things in context with the actual unedited clip from the movie.

OK, pretty powerful scene right? One of the most memorable in recent movie history.

So what can be done with this in New Media?

Follow along with me for a few minutes and find out.

Now, two examples: the good, the bad, and the "could be better"…

First; here’s funny adaptation that you’ll get a kick out of… especially if you’ve ever been attacked for being a good creative marketer.

Video Example #1:

The Good:

• Excellent voice over impersonating Jack Nicholson for Anchor Bridging
• Professional editing
• Emotional bonding with target audience through humor that anyone in marketing or advertising will "get".
• Using the "language" of the Tribe (in this case marketing and advertising pros)

The Bad:

• Questionable use of copyrighted material
• No Tribal Call-to-action

The "could be better"

The lack of a Tribal Call-to-action could easily be overcome by adding a "Holy Grail Trail" for the target audience to follow.

For example: Get viewers involved by running a contest that is promoted with a non-intrusive footer and/or closing credits screen. The contest could be as simple as an invitation i.e.: "Got a inter-departmental power struggle story? Share your story at www.CreativeMarketersUnite.com/contest/ and get a shot at winning a new Apple iPhone!"

Even a simple "More creative humor brought to you by…" as closing credits would have been better than the lack of any Call-to-action as this video had.

FACT: unless the lack of an obvious call-to-action is strategic (a good thing, especially with a Holy Grail Trail) — the number of views on a video doesn’t mean diddly to you as a New Media Marketer. It’s your Tribe taking action that puts dollars in the bank.

Video Example #2:

Next; another funny variation… this one completely original

The Good:

• No issues with copyrights
• Anchor Bridging and humor with the obvious baldness of the CEO of Tyco
• Emotional bonding with target audience… in this case Traders and Investors, best described by their tag line "Stock culture meets pop culture."
• Using "experiences" the Tribe can relate to. A totally different take on why a stock is trading at all time highs or lows.
• Channel congruity when viewers visit the WallStrip.com site. (Video leads to video.)
• Seducing the audience into discovering what Wallstrip’s main site has for them. By strategically creating a "hidden" trail for your audience to discover on their own, you can trigger a stronger commitment since the visitor feels that they are taking action on their own.

The Bad:

• No clear Tribal Call-to-action. A simple tagline in addition to the WallStrip branding would clraify that this is for investors, brokers and traders. People are pressed for time. Unless you create a direct bridge from the video content to a relative benefit waiting for viewers from your ideal audience, they’re not likely to go on the Holy Grail mission I just mentioned above.
• On some WallStrip videos on YouTube they had non-congruent, interruption-style advertisement overlaid on the video player. This is a distraction from the WallStrip brand, and more importantly — a weakening of the emotional anchors they are trying to leverage.

The "could be better"

• This is better than the first video, even though it still has no clear Tribal Call-to-action. WallStrip is looking to attract their Tribe of investment-types with their humorous parodies of corporate life. And based on their dozens of other custom content videos, it seems their lack of a clear call-to-action is strategic. Again; something as simple as a tagline added to the WallStrip logo would have a stronger pull on their Tribe.
• I came across some other Wallstrip videos that had a lack of congruity between the "tone" of the videos and the advertisements slapped on to the end. Their videos are fun, loose, and humorous and then they have some corporate looking person closing it out with an advertisement. That causes a break in rapport.

Your ideas…

• So what do you think? Which style video did you like better? Why?

• Did this mini case study give you a couple ideas to use in your New Media Marketing?

• What established emotional anchors could you piggy-back off to grow your Tribe?

Share your thoughts and ideas in a comment below. We’d love to hear what you’re thinking.

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It’s a mistake I see far too many marketers and entrepreneurs making. They are being lured into seductive social media communities, wooed by and caught up in the passion of these interactive environments. They without the right strategy, they invest hours of their time forgetting that the only tangible benefit (their database of friends or followers) is controlled by a 3rd party who can change the rules of the game at any time.

A perfect example is how most users of Twitter have had a rude awakening over the last 48-hours or so. They awoke yesterday to find their “following” and “followers” lists slashed in half… or more! Hundreds and even thousands of contacts gone! POOF!

Twitter’s explanation:

Poor excuse, but who’s to blame?

Twitter’s “spam” excuse is a poor one. I and several other people I know on Twitter personally visit the page of each new Follower as new requests come in. So to see several hundred followers disappear and have Twitter say they “spammers” is clearly BS.

That’s to be expected and nothing to get upset about. It’ a danger you should expect. Twitter can do and say anything they want. And so can any other Social Network. Any of them can change the rules of the game whenever they want. They can arbitrarily put caps on the number of followers or friends you can have. Even delete people from your list at their whim.

See, the problem is not with Twitter, Facebook, or any other “free” Social Networking channel. The blame rests with you if you leave it to these services to have control over your contact list. Harsh, but true.

Some people learn the hard way that Social Networks are merely communication channels, not storage facilities. Let’s help you avoid any hard lessons in the future.

Protecting yourself and safe-guarding your hard work

So how do you protect yourself from the painful loss of contacts and connections you’ve worked hard to gain from Social Networks? It’s simple!

Keep the focus on your New Media Marketing Hub!

Social Networks are ONLY channels to leverage. They are NOT to be trusted with your most valuable asset; your contacts. They are conduits through which you attract and connect — but the core of all your efforts, the home base for all your Tribe – must be your Hub!

Your New Media Marketing Hub is where the ever-upwardly spiraling Tribal Seduction ™ Action Trinity (Attract-Connect-Convert) yields the greatest long-term results.

Your New Media Marketing Hub is the Alpha and the Omega of ALL that you do online. It is what will grow and protect your Tribe, your business, and your bank account. Your Hub is the home where your love, passion and primary attention belongs. Not out on the streets of the Social Networking communities.

What a New Media Marketing Hub IS and IS NOT

Before we take a look at the 5 simple steps to maximizing the profit impact of your New Media Marketing Hub, let’s get clear on what a hub is and is not.

• A New Media Marketing Hub is NOT a blog.

  A blog helps with two parts of the Tribal Seduction? Action Triad: Attraction and Connection. Conversion cannot be done efficiently on a regular blog.

• A New Media Marketing Hub is NOT a regular sales site.

  This type of site may be optimized for Conversions, but no matter how well written the copy, no matter how persuasive the videos, no matter how shocking the offer is – it will fail miserably when it comes to the Attraction and Connection of the Action Triad. (And in many cases, this type of site works against you no matter how you send people there, even from your blog.)

• A New Media Marketing Hub IS a single site that combines Attraction, Connection, and Conversion.

  By having one central destination for your Tribe, the hard pitch can fall away. Instead, with a little bit of careful planning, application of Tribal Seduction principles and an understanding of human nature — you can strategically hide “pathways” to conversion that your Tribe will discover on their own.

These seemingly hidden pathways are a core component of Tribal Seduction mastery. When you leverage your Hub this way, people discover offerings on their own. And when you have automated persuasion triggers that are activated when they arrive on those particular pages – they own the decision. You are only there as the trusted provider, not hard-pushing salesperson.

When it’s done properly, no rapport is broken…
And even if you don’t make a sale, trust is actually increased!

More on this important Tribal Seduction principle in the future. But for now, suffice it to say that if you have people jumping around to different URLs, you will break rapport, lose sales… and most damaging of all – chip away trust!

How to keep a profitable perspective and make your “Hub” work for you

So how do you maximize the profit impact of your New Media Marketing Hub?

I’ve kept it real simple here and broken things down into 5 steps. Some require you to take action, other things happen auto-magically. And I’ve provided some images to help you envision how this would work for you.

Steps 1 and 2

In Step 1 you start at your hub with the creation of content that’s valuable to your Tribe. You choose a media format, post it and you’re off!

In Step 2, like the rays of the sun shining out across the sky; you begin to radiate additional sources of exposure for your new content. Some of these destinations you may have to actually take action yourself. (BLOGi360 members are lucky since most all of Step 2 is automated within the system as soon as they hit the “Save” button.)

Step 3

In Step 3 you (or one of your team) must go out and actively interact in the New Media channels available online. There is no cheating here. Step 3 requires personal interaction.

You don’t necessarily have to hit every one of these channels. Depending on your Tribe, your Communication Code™ and your Persuasive Selling Platform™ – the channels you use here can be pre-set. Or they can vary based on your content or the media used to share that content.

Step 4

This is an easy step because this is happening auto-magically for you behind the scenes. Whether you build and maintain a New Media Marketing Hub on your own, or put a BLOGi360 Hub to work for you – the key thing to focus on here is the automated service to your subscribers.

Streams of new visitors and traffic are great. But the most important people are your current subscribers and customers. The only way to build trust, rapport and deeper relationships with your Tribe (and turn them into raving fans,) is through repeated NON-sales contact.

When you’re leveraging your New Media Marketing Hub properly, you can see below in Step 4 how you’re getting BOTH new exposure and relationship reinforcement automatically. Something you can only do with a Hub.

Step 5

Once again, a drop-dead easy step – enjoying the fruits of your action. As your engagement radiates out from your Hub into the New Media Marketplace, the energy you put out returns back to your Hub in the form of tangible results.

Deeper relationships with current clients, more trust with new members of your Tribe, and new visitors – which you immediately focus on welcoming into your subscriber family.

Wrapping it up

We’ll expand more on the New Media Marketing Hub concept in the near future. But for now, use these charts and the Hub overview presented here to remind yourself of where your focus should always start and return to… no matter where you may roam in the New Media Marketplace.

• Always be focused on executing the Tribal Seduction™ CHARM Formula™ and Action Trinity™.
• And most important of all — persuasively, influentially and seductively — move people from interaction with you on social networks over to your New Media Marketing hub.

How can the New Media Marketing Hub concept help you?

- Have you gotten a new (or renewed) perspective on what you main goal is when marketing online?
- What profit or list building ideas have you gotten from the Hub concept?
- How will you change the way you spend your time, energy and resources marketing with New Media?
- Do you have some other ideas we didn’t cover here?

Spill your mind. Share your thoughts in some graffiti down below.

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Big Brother is good… when YOU are Big Brother on your own site.

Ever wonder exactly what visitors do when they land at your site? What they’re looking at and clicking on? How they’re moving around?

Knowing the answers is the only way you can fine tune your site layout, links, sign-up forms… anything that is interactive on your site! It’s the only way to refine your New Media Marketing skills and become a truly effective Tribal Seducer. And that takes a takes a little bit of Big-Brother-like watching.

But data will only put money in your pocket when it’s easy, intuitive and actionable!

Good news is you don’t need a complicated expensive tracking system to get the info you need. And it’s really simple too. You can even get started for free! All when you use the powerful visual-based analytics service called Crazy Egg.

When you’re marketing with New Media every single visitor counts.

Tracking visitor movement on your site, especially your home and sales pages, is essential for optimizing your profits. It’s true whether you have a regular blog or a BLOG i360 New Media Marketing site.

Up till now a lot of the on-site tracking solutions out there have been cumbersome at best. (Downright useless in their eye-blurrying complexity at their worst.)

Crazy Egg is a simple solution for optimizing your site and your marketing, New Media or otherwise.

We’ve been testing Crazy Egg on several of our sites blogs and the results have been very helpful. I’m going to share some examples from a 14-day test we ran on the 1st page of the BLOGi360 sign up process so you can see how much insight you can gain from this tool.

Let’s take a look at some things Crazy Egg can do for you…

Once you’ve setup a page tracking campaign and start playing Big Brother, you’ll have several ways to slice-and-dice visitor actions. You can choose from different views that give you different info.

We’ll start with Crazy Egg’s newest view called Confetti.

Confetti view

In the image above you see colored dots. Each one represents a click. You have control over what data is displayed. You can display referrers, search terms, time-to-click and more.

Even more helpful in Confetti view is the ability to hover/click on each dot to see the full details for that click (and that visitor.) Where they came from, what browser they were using, what screen resolution they had, etc.

Overlay view

The overlay view in Crazy Egg is the easiest view to work with. Each “+” symbol you see expands to the initial view (as in the screen shot above) showing the number of clicks for that area of the page. Another click on the “more +” of the tab opens all the referrer info for that area of your page.

It’s clean, simple and will give even the newest marketer ideas on how to optimize their pages.

Heatmap view

(non-clickable areas)

Another cool view in Crazy Egg is the heatmap. In the example above I selected to view clicks on “other” areas. These are essentially non-clickable places where people tried clicking. This option is available in any view, but I’ve found it most helpful in the heatmap view.

Sometimes seeing where people try to click is just downright hilarious. ) But in other instances — it can put money in your pocket.

For example, in the image above you can clearly see quite a few people tried clicking on the “ONE DOLLAR” coupon code. It is just regular copy reminding them again what was mentioned on the sales page about getting their first 30-days for one dollar.

We didn’t think that people might be coming directly to this page and were seeing that mention of the “ONE DOLLAR” coupon for the first time. So now, with what we learned from this heatmap, we’ll make those two words a link that opens a pop-over or AJAX hover window with a little more info on the $1-for-first-30-days offer.

Simple, but we’d never know that without Crazy Egg tracking things people try to click that are not clickable.

List view

Of course, you can chose to see data in a more traditional view too. This is the list view shown above. You can chose between identified page elements and unidentified ones. Pretty simple and straight forward here in this view.

Start boosting your New Media marketing for free

Crazy Egg is simple to use. And the insight you gain easy to apply. Best of all — you can even get started testing Crazy Egg for free! As you can see in their plan structure above, it’s dirt cheap when you’re ready to kick your tracking up to the next level.

It’s never been easier to optimize your blog or New Media Marketing site for maximum attraction, connection and profits.

What do you think of the Crazy Egg service based on the quick review above?
Are you going to give it a try?
What difference do you think it’ll make in your site activity and conversions?

Are you using Crazy Egg already? How’s it working for you?

Did you use it and stop? Why? Would love to hear what your opinion is.

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