If you checked out the social media activity of 100 businesspeople, do you think you would find many leaders?

Leaders lead: They have the courage to offer their own unique opinions and views.  They act like leaders, from the front.

Followers follow: They copy what others do and share what their leaders have the courage to say and do.  They act like followers, hidden within a crowd.

Personally, I see VERY, very few businesspeople in social media with leader profiles.  However, I see a LOT of businesspeople, who seem to follow the crowd and just say / do what’s safe – especially on Twitter. They tend to retweet whatever people such as; Chris Brogan, Guy Kawasaki, Gary Vaynerchuk etc have to say - But are less inclined to offer their own individual opinion.

The reason for this post

I’m curious what type of message it sends out to prospective clients or customers, when businesspeople sit back and play follow the leader, rather than displaying leadership themselves.

Would that kind of profile impact YOUR decision to hire a consultant or coach? If so, would that impact be positive or negative? I would REALLY value your opinion, so what do you think?

Photo: Sheffield Tiger

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1. Scoble, Twitter and the wisdom of the crowd!
2. Twitter junkies and social media addicts

Here’s a question for you:
Why do millions of people own exercise machines, which they used for a week and then packed away somewhere, never to be used again?

The answer is simple, yet it contains a valuable lesson.

The reason people bought those machines, is because the ‘perfect’ people in the TV commercials advertising them, promised 6-pack abs in weeks with just 3 minutes of fun exercise a day. Why did the marketing team behind that machine promise those amazing results in just 180 seconds a day? Because they know that the average person wants results without the pain.  They want the washboard abs, just so long as they can still eat crap and avoid exercise for the remaining 23 hours and 57 minutes of each day.

In business, I see examples every day of people who want the results, without paying the price.  However, as my mentor, the late great Jim Rohn used to say; “for every promise, there’s a price to pay.” In other words, if we want a particular end result, we need to take the actions required to get that result first. We need to pay the price in advance.

• Want marketing that works, so that your business thrives in 2010? Stop relying on generic, free advice to grow your business.
• Want better cash flow?  Hire a better accountant.
• Want people to spread great word of mouth publicity about your business? Make your business worth talking about.

This really is nothing more than common sense – yet the failure to apply it is putting people out of business, every hour of every day.

Chris Brogan – Paying the price in advance

As I watched Chris Brogan speaking at LeWeb yesterday, I recalled a chat we had a few weeks ago.  I commented how he seemed to spend so much time travelling, away from his home and his beautiful family. His reply was perfect. He said that it was hard, but that he had an end game! Chris is paying the price for success in advance, just like every successful person I know.  By doing what’s required today, Chris plants the seeds that will provide the harvest he has planned for tomorrow.

If there’s something, which someone wants from their business in 2010, that was missing in 2009; they have a decision to make.  They can either decide to start paying the price for success or they can continue to count the cost of failure.

Photo credit: Billfromesm

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In this post, I am going to share one of the success factors behind; Seth Godin, Robert Scoble and Chris Brogan with you.  It’s all about one word; contribution.

A few weeks ago, I had a problem with this blog.  So, I got in touch with two experts, who I knew would be able to help; Robert Scoble and Chris Brogan.  In no time, both were kind enough to get back to me with some excellent advice and the problem was solved.

For those of you who don’t already know; Robert is the former ‘technology evangelist’ for Microsoft and is now one of the best known figures in technology.  Chris is, in my opinion, one of the world’s leading authorities on ‘social media.’  Between them, they have a dedicated following of hundreds of thousands of people.  These are two very busy people!

Of course, these guys gave their help without a second thought.  They also did so privately, OUT of the public gaze; so no one knew how helpful they had been to me, except me. That’s because they gave without expecting something in return. Neither of them know I have written this post or that it will be read by thousands of people today.

Seth Godin and contribution

As marketing expert and best selling author Seth Godin once told me;

“If you have an ulterior motive, your generosity is suspect.”

Wise words – especially as Seth shared them with me freely and in private! That’s right, these were not comments Seth made on a blog or in a Twitter message observed by thousands, to show how smart he is.  No, it was just Seth taking time-out from a very busy schedule, to share an idea with me. (Thanks Seth!!)

I genuinely believe that it is not a coincidence, that each of the three people I have mentioned in this post, are at the very top of their chosen professions.  For example, I was first made aware of Seth’s work, not by an advertisement or by his marketing blog – but after a good friend recommended him to me.  I was first made aware of Robert’s work, after Leo Laporte recommended him to me.  Again with Chris, he was recommended to me by a client of mine, who’s a fan of his work.

I would LOVE to think that after reading this post, some of you check out Seth Godin, Robert Scoble or Chris Brogan for the first time.

Seth, Robert, Chris – Thanks!

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Would you like to gain a massive marketing advantage and boost your sales? Then find a way to market your services, which is NOT already being used by your competitors!

Take a look at the businesses in your local area and you will notice something interesting.

You will see that businesses in the same industry, advertise in the same places, to the same potential clients, using the same kind of marketing messages and the same kind of promises!

As a result, their marketing pretty-much cancels each other’s out. This is a shocking waste of money and extremely low leverage.

Creative marketing

To gain a competitive marketing advantage, you should think of ways to creatively market your services, which are not already being done-to-death by your competitors.

A great way to find new marketing ideas, is to look at the marketing methods common in other industries, which are not being used in your own. Then, think how you can adapt those forms of marketing for your business!

For example, a number of stores are now paying bloggers to write posts about their stores and their ‘special offers.’  Regardless of your industry, if your competitors are not already doing this, it could be well worth considering for your business!

Just imagine a well-known blogger, who has the respect of your future clients, telling them how brilliant you are – that’s powerful!  Before you ask, I don’t offer this service myself. However, popular blogger Chris Brogan did a ‘sponsored post’ for a store on one of his blogs last week, for just $500!

Another example.  If you provide a service that has a national or international client base, like; web design, copy writing, SEO, coaching, consulting – or you sell products via a website, you might want to consider sponsoring a podcast aimed at your core prospect group.  This can be extremely powerful and yet, it’s a form of marketing that’s totally overlooked by most small businesses – including your competitors!

The bottom line

If you want your business to ‘stand out from the crowd,’ stop marketing it where all the competition is!

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Occasionally, a blog stands out to me as being a little bit extra special and when it does, I think it deserves a special mention.

Today, the blog I highly recommend you take a look at is ChrisBrogan.com.

Who is Chris Brogan?

The full answer is here.

However, as a marketing specialist, I’m recommending his blog to you because of his use of Social Media as a powerful form of marketing!

Social media is an effective way for people, businesses and organizations to connect and build relationships.

In fact, I used social media exclusively, to develop jimsmarketingblog.com

If you are new to social media, ChrisBrogan.com contains great ideas, tips and insights into the possibilities social media holds for your business or organization.  Chris is also a gifted writer, so I am sure you will find yourself entertained as well as informed!

You can also catch up with Chris via Twitter. His username is @chrisbrogan

Photo credit: ChrisBrogan.com

Nice work Chris – We love you!
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If you want to lower your costs, increase your sales and boost your profits, you need to get the most from online marketing.  This post focuses on 2 forms of FREE online marketing, which you can use to achieve amazing results for your business; Blogging and Newsletters!

Online marketing is changing

Not that many years ago, online marketing reached a relatively small, fairly select group of people.  These were either technology enthusiasts, businesses run by technology enthusiasts or multinationals.  Because only certain groups of consumers and businesses used the Internet regularly, online marketing was of limited use to the average small business.

Of course today, that’s all changed! Almost everyone in a ‘developed’ country now has Internet access at home, work or both. This means it’s now possible for you to use online marketing to generate either sales or leads, for just about any kind of product or service.  It also means it has never been quicker, easier or less expensive to market your business!

Free online marketing

Right now, armed with nothing more than an Internet connection and a blog, you can generate leads or sales for your business for free.  Moreover, these can be highly targeted leads and highly profitable sales too.

Practising what you preach

I have not used any form of paid marketing for my business for years.

That’s right – 100% of my non-referred business comes from either my newsletter, my website or this blog!

All I have to do is make sure I give away as much valuable marketing information as possible, to as many small businesses as possible.  Then, when these small businesses want someone to help them market their products or services, they give me a call.  When they want their blog or website transformed into a goldmine, they already know my work and that I get results – so they get in touch!

Fast results?

Oh yes – You can see results in seconds! For example, once you build a list of newsletter subscribers or a group of regular blog readers, you can start generating either sales or leads, less than a minute after you send a message or post something to your blog!

Of course, most people with newsletters or blogs have very few readers. Just as with everything else, you need to do the right things, in the correct way, if you want to achieve the desired results.  That’s why it’s important that you spend a little time doing some research, before you start!

Blog marketing

There are lots of online networking sites and ‘social media’ tools you can use, to build up a targeted network of prospective clients or valuable contacts.  In fact, the number of websites offering these facilities is so vast, that it has become a problem in itself.

In my experience, the foundation of your free online marketing should be a blog.

A simple blog, if used correctly, can help you develop a massive community and allow you to showcase your talents to your prospective clients / customers.  It can help you find out about the needs of your marketplace and also develop a special relationship with thousands, hundreds of thousands or millions of prospects.

Getting a blog

You can get yourself a free blog right now, from wordpress.com or blogger.com, and be blogging in minutes.  Each blog platform has pro’s and con’s.  I use a paid-for version of wordpress for this blog – you can see the benefits of a paid wordpress blog here.

However, before you invest your time starting a blog, make sure you get some advice from someone with a successful blog.  I recommend you take a look at Chris Brogan’s blog, which covers business blogging (and also other forms of social media.)  It’s a great resource and well worth a read.

Blog marketing is a massive subject and I can only scratch the surface in this post, but there’s going to be a LOT more information to come – So subscribe to my RSS feed, using the button on the top right of the page and make sure you don’t miss a thing!

Newsletters

By far, my biggest ‘network’ is the readership of my marketing newsletter.  The newsletter has been going for almost three years and has thousands of valued readers, spanning over 100 countries around the world.  Each newsletter is sent just a couple of times a month and contains an original marketing article (like this one).

I use the same principle to grow my newsletter, as I use to grow this blog.

I provide high value content, so people share it with their contacts. These contacts then subscribe and they share it with their contacts…

Which businesses can benefit from Newsletters & Blogs?

Any business, in any industry can benefit from a Newsletter and / or a blog.  That’s because the same process outlined above is universal.  Just make sure your blog or newsletter content is designed exclusively for YOUR target market.

In other words, if your business offers web design – write about great web design ideas, tips and tricks.  If your business offers insurance, write about how people can lower their premiums or get better cover or share some funny insurance stories.  If you are a coach or consultant, blog about your subject and give great tips and ideas to your readers. Most newsletters are little more than advertisements and because of this, people do not forward them on and they fail to grow.

Make sure you pump as much valuable information as possible into everything you write.  This showcases your talents, positions you as an expert and shows the real value of your products or your services.  It also makes choosing you as a provider almost risk-free to your readers.

Conclusion

I know people in just about every industry, who get the vast majority of their leads or sales through free online marketing.  I also get emails from people every day; who are wondering how to generate the leads or sales their business needs in order to survive.

If you want to know more, take a look at the free resources mentioned above and also check out the guides and articles in this blog.  You might also want to look that this, it’s all about how to build a successful newsletter.

If you have found this post useful or you have anything to add, please leave a comment and share your feedback with everyone!

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