Are You A Servant of The Network?

Personal Possessions?

After reading a few of the recent comments on several discussion threads I have noticed that some people seem to view their facebook network almost like a personal possession that they need to protect. I have been wondering about this concept and would like to open it up for deeper discussion.

Stewards Rights

First of all I would like to point out that ultimately facebook owns the whole network and as Jim Turner so rightly made us all aware we are just stewards and have very few rights. Facebook can pull the carpet out from under us all anytime we choose.

I'm Bigger than You!

The second point I would like to make concerns network overlap. When you have a certain network of friends in common with another person does it automatically mean that the person with the larger network can automatically claim ownership of those friends or see them as belonging to them more than to the other. And does having a big network make you somehow better or more powerful than those with smaller networks. It raises the question when people complained that they were tagged in a note and the message was spread throughout "their" network.

Artificial Limitations Of A Scarcity Mindset

I think people need to realise that you don't own your facebook network in the same way you might own your autoresponder list. Where there is overlap between my network and your network only people who maintain a scarcity mindset will try and draw lines and say this part is mine, this part is yours and this part we share. They are placing artificial limitations on something that doesn’t obey the laws of linear perception. The real value of a network is not measured in such simplistic terms its is measured in terms of relationship, connectivity and responsiveness.

Feeling Protective

There are people who have worked hard to build a quality based network who might feel protective about the asset that they created. It is pointless to try to conjure walls around something that can’t be boxed in this way. It goes against the very nature of Facebook. With 6 degrees of separation you can always find anyone if you know who the connectors are.

You Can't Force People

Facebook has the required protection levels already in place. No on can force anyone to become friends so for those who might be worried about exposing their network to undesirables they can put their minds at rest. If someone acts inappropriately you always have the choice to remove them if you feel they have abused your friendship.

Further Ripples

What often happens is that a "wrong doer" might still be connected to a large portion of your network. Their actions will still cause ripples. So it is up to your friends to exercise their own discretion and judgement to decide what policy they choose to adopt. You don't need to worry or concern yourself on this matter except perhaps to inform the person of the consequences of their actions if you have the time and the compassion.

Schizophrenic?

You attract what you focus your attention on. Thanks to Brian for so eloquently pointing this fact out in his recent Note. I have been split on this subject myself so I understand the dilemma. Constantly worrying about spam will only tend to attract this to you. Instead it would be better to concentrate on the types of people who you would like to influence and attract into your network

Servants of the Network

We are already starting to realise the power and potential within facebook. Different tribes are forming made up of people who share the same values and want to build a new social media culture. Those who are truly shining are those who have become servants to the network they understand that by serving others all their needs are met. That by adding value their reputation and standing is increased and that by participating in discussion threads they are helping strengthen the tribal bonds.

"Ask not what your network can do for you but what you can do for your network"

Tribal Music

I remember reading a book that describes village life in Western Africa and says that when people play music there are no distinctions between the performers and the audience. Everyone in the tribe participates in some way, whether it is dancing, drumming, singing or just clapping along to the rhythm. Similarly on facebook there will always be more talented drummers and dancers but that doesn't mean that the singers or clappers are not important. If you take them away something very valuable has been lost. It’s the participation in a group experience that is recreating those tribal connections and what gives that sense of community an belonging.

Tyrant Taxation

Those who want to hold onto outdated hierarchical models of organisation will find themselves marginalised. Those who want to define strict boundaries between the leaders and the followers might miss the real potential that is emerging. I am not saying leaders won't be important its just that they will wield their power in a different way. It is the difference between a tyrannical king who lays down rigid laws and regulations and imposes heavy taxes and an Enlightened Ruler who is adored by his people because of his character and his sense of justice, A king who truly serves his people will build loyalty based on love and trust and be transparent in all his actions.

If you have enjoyed this post please consider subscribing to my full RSS feed.

You can find me on facebook by going to http://profile.to/ianchapman

You can also follow me on twitter - http://www.twitter.com/ian_chapman

Facebook S.W.O.T Part 4 - Threats

This is part 4 of a four part series that explores the new look facebook and examines it using a S.W.O.T analysis

Part 1 - Strengths

Part 2 - Weaknesses

Part 3 - Opportunities

Part 4 - Threats

Facebook Is Now In Control

Facebook now has total control over what people see when they land on your page. So whatever is currently in your wall/mini feed will be there for all to see. You might not want what either you or some of your friends are doing presented so openly to the world. A spammy wall post or an embarrassing photo that someone tagged you in might not look so good to a potential employer, client or JV partner. Of Course facebook may argue that you can adjust your settings but how many normal users ever take the time to explore the maze of controls and adjustments.

Spamming

Wall spam has now become a much bigger issue with the merging of the mini feed and wall. Before any ugly links and signature tags could be relegated to the bottom of your profile now they are brought to the forefront. And its up to you to take the time to edit them and delete anything inappropriate.

Go away on holiday for a couple of weeks and who knows what might have been on display for all to see. Also users who are less active on facebook but who want to keep a presence can't safely leave their profiles unattended unless they set their privacy restrictions so high that no one can see anything.

Allow More Choice

This is a major design flaw in the new system and I think it would be a good option to allow users to decide if they want their news feed to be merged with the wall and at least have an option to display them separately, maybe even on different tabs.

Self Expression

To be able to pick exactly what page is displayed to new visitors would also be a good option to add. The more sociable people could have the standard layout with the wall as the landing page. People who want to express more creativity and express their individuality or those who want to present a carefully designed business profile could have the option to do so. I believe user control and choice is what made the old facebook so great.

Tagging

There is also a bigger danger in upsetting you friends when you tag them in a note, this goes directly into their profile page so you need to become more sensitive and take a few moments to decide if its appropriate. I discussed this issue in my previous blog post. If you want to restrict what comes into your newsfeed from a certain person but don't want to take the drastic step of removing them as a friend you can adjust your wall settings. Your news feed can be adjusted by scrolling to the bottom of the Home page. Click on preference for top stories .From there you have the options to adjust who you want to hear more about and who you want to restrict.

No Email Controls

Facebook still haven't implemented proper filters and controls for messages and emails that it sends. Consequently facebook's message service can no longer be relied upon as many users who have not kept up to date with their inbox are overwhelmed. Important messages are being lost and users are moving away to use other services such a twitter or skype. I often switch to these services when I want to be sure a message gets through or just to receive a confirmation. Skype is also much faster are more reliable than facebooks in-house IM service

What Happens if Facebook Sell out

If Facebook choose to sell to another company all the structures are in place to turn it into a much more commercialised network like myspace. Full of animated flash graphics and a constant bombardment of offers and advertisements. Utube is also set to go this way too with adsense being presented along with their videos. If you have built your business within facebook you face the real danger of losing all your customers if they choose to migrate to another service. And also you lose the control to decide what adverts will be presented alongside your products. For people with strong ethical principles this may be an issue.

Build Your Business Outside Facebook

It makes it even more imperative if you have a prescence on facebook to build your business outside its walls. That way if anything too drastic happens you still have everything in place to switch activities to greener pastures. It seems clear to me the direction facebook is moving in and it is aimed at monetising the masses of normal users who just use facebook to communicate with their friends and stay connected. People who use facebook for business are in a small minority. This will probably increase over time once more people realise the opportunities that are available but You should not expect facebook to design the system solely for your needs.

A Missed Opportunity

Facebook had the opportunity for setting the new standards for social networks in the future. But I believe they have fallen far short of the mark. While I agree there is some improvements with the new design it is far from perfect and could be made much more intuitive and user friendly. The new profile layout is confusing and many features are hard to find and difficult to configure.

An Open Market

This market is still wide open and I wouldn't be surprised that a new contender emerges in the next few years that utilises facebook connect and integrates all the social networks into one place or control panel. The new browser by flock and services such as Ping FM and Hellotxt are maybe precursors to this next generation of web 3.0 tools.

If You Still Really Hate It...

For some people change is difficult to adapt to, I myself got very frustrated when I first saw the new profile and thought that Facebook had unknowingly castrated this amazingly powerful tool . If you still hate it with a passion you can switch back by clicking in the top right hand corner. I myself will be staying. I believe facebook are intent on forcing all its users to adopt the new look profile so the quicker I learn to adapt and discover how to utilise the hidden potentials the better.

Please take the time to make your comment on this subject, its important to know the threats that might affect us all so we can take the necessary precautions.

Part 1 - Strengths

Part 2 - Weaknesses

Part 3 - Opportunities

Part 4 - Threats

If you have enjoyed this post please consider subscribing to my full RSS feed.

You can find me on facebook by going to http://profile.to/ianchapman

You can also follow me on twitter - http://www.twitter.com/ian_chapman

Facebook S.W.O.T Part 3 - Opportunities

This is part 3 of a four part series that explores the new look facebook and examines it using a S.W.O.T analysis

Part 1 - Strengths

Part 2 - Weaknesses

Part 3 - Opportunities

Part 4 - Threats

A Great Place To Network

Regardless of the changes facebook is still a fantastic place to network and share information with your friends. You can make valuable business contacts just as easily as before and you can use facebook to promote yourself, your business, your product or any services you offer .The strategies that you need to adopt are generally the same and you still need to avoid certain practices, for more information check out my facebook made easy guide

Facebook Pages

Facebook pages have become somewhat easier to find as they are now appearing in the search box with a little yellow flag on them. With the obvious refocus on advertising those who learn how to use facebooks social adds will have a great opportunity to get very targeted advertising.

Marketing Tools

Facebook has a range of powerful marketing tools like polls and surveys that you can use relatively cheaply to test your markets before investing too much time and energy into a project. With all the demographic data they have collected they will be set to compete with google as they know everything about all their users likes, dislikes and online habits.

Integration With Other Services

Facebook recently announced what they call facebook connect this allows users to link all their social media activities together sites like Digg . For more info check out this recent article on techcrunch . In the future they will all flow seamlessly together and your friends will follow you regardless of what site you are on. This will really unleash the full power of Web 3.0 and will make the internet a much more Tribal place. Knowing this smart marketers and business people will be positioning themselves to serve these communities not as an outsider looking in but as a full member and participant. This forces even greater transparency and also a higher quality of service. Poor products and bad services will quickly be exposed because of the power of word of mouth. Scammers and con artists can also quickly be excluded from these types of networks. The Cream will naturally rise to the top and peoples identities will be more determined by the communities and tribes that they belong to.

Power structures will Change

As facebook matures the structures of power will change. People who are within your network are not all equal in the strictest sense. Those people who have popularity, or large networks and groups have a much greater viral visibility and influence. Their messages, thoughts and Ideas will spread further because they have the structures in place to do this. With so much information available the normal person will pick a few people to follow who will act as their filters. They will follow their recommendations and trust that they will inform them of the latest changes and strategies that they need to adopt and keep them updated with the latest news and gossip. Malcolm Gladwell terms these people Connectors, Mavens and Salespeople in his excellent book the tipping point.I will be exploring these concepts in much more detail in a later post.

Facebook is clearly going to be a major player in the social media world of the future. There are huge opportunities available to those who know how to take advantage of them.

I would appreciate your comments and your views about any other opportunites and potentials that I have ommited in relation to the future of Facebook. Participation is an integral part of social media so feel free to add your voice.

Part 1 - Strengths

Part 2 - Weaknesses

Part 3 - Opportunities

Part 4 - Threats

If you have enjoyed this post please consider subscribing to my full RSS feed.

You can find me on facebook by going to http://profile.to/ianchapman

You can also follow me on twitter - http://www.twitter.com/ian_chapman

Facebook S.W.O.T Part 2 - Weaknesses

This is part 2 of a four part series that explores the new look Facebook and examines it using a S.W.O.T analysis

Part 1 - Strengths

Part 2 - Weaknesses

Part 3 - Opportunities

Part 4 - Threats

Vista or XP

Some users have made the comparison that the new look facebook is like using windows Vista, it looks fancy but its full of bugs and problems that still need ironing out. I was quite surprised that I found so many obvious issues that hadn't been solved and also many omissions and functions that had apparently been taken away. It makes me wonder how the beta test group hadn't picked up on them and what sort of demographics they chose for this test group (100,000 college kids???) I also wonder if facebook actually listen to feedback from their users. I should maybe apologise for the rather strong language that I included when I posted my initial feedback after my first 4 hours of frustration on the new platform.

Initial Teething Problems

I was reminded by one comment I read on the facebook page that in the early days people could go and change things on other peoples walls and even delete things on other peoples profiles. Maybe I should just have a bit more patience and not be so quick to criticise. I have also found that a lot of things have been moved around so you need to go and find them again. Mari Smith has made some great camtasia videos that take you through the new look profile, you can check them out on her fan page

Harder To Customise

While researching for this blog post I spent a long time reading all the comments and complaints on the facebook group page. From this I gathered that a lot of people felt that facebook had taken away their ability to express their individuality on their profile page. By forcing everyone's profile to look almost identical. Many users had custom skins for their applications and bumper stickers, pictures and videos so their profile had become almost a work of art. Many users were furious at this forced uniformity and even went on to accuse facebook of big brother like tactics

At the time of writing almost all the applications that I would want to be show on my main page can't be sent there. Instead they are left hidden inside my boxes tab where no one will ever find them. I hope that in the future this will change

Harder To Judge by First Impressions

For business users this is a big disadvantage of the new look facebook. On the old system if you knew what you were doing you could create a very powerful presentation by combining the right types of applications. People could instantly see in a glance what type of business were in and what type of networker you are . It now takes longer to decide who you want to accept as a friend. You have to hunt around for the telltale signs that attract and also repulse. Instead of scrolling we are now forced to click around different tabs. I suspect that with time I will still able to make the same assessment within 30 seconds that I can on the old facebook. It just takes a bit of getting used to

No shortcuts on the Profile page

Facebook has removed the shortcuts menu that used o be to the left and below your profile picture. It is now relegated to a position to the right and low down on the Home Page. I used this shortcuts menu all the time to access the groups pages. Making it harder to get to places will obviously reduce the numbers of people who go there so I foresee a potential decline in group activity, especially among new users who might not even know that groups exist.

Facebook have supposedly given you the option to create your own new tab on your profile but you are limited to a few applications that they recommend. I suspect that this is just a bug right now and will be changed in the future

Viral Potential Restricted

Facebooks new look has definitely reduced some of facebooks viral potential by making things harder to find and not immediately visible. This is especially the case for 3rd party applications if you can't see them you can’t spread them so easily. A good friend who works for one of the top applications developers sent me some screen shots of how my profile was going to look 6 weeks ago. She warned me of how bad it was for application developers who have been abandoning facebook in droves. Facebook seems intent on courting the big money from major advertisers who will be utilising all that extra white space in the future.

Application Developers

Facebook applications developers have also been hit because you can no longer share you applications with friends. Admittedly this might reduce the number of forced application invites that people receive but it takes away the easy ability to share something of value. I suspect this will change as this is an important part of the facebook experience and also an integral part of some of the game applications. There were a lot of complaints about this issue on the facebook group page.

Designed for Advertising

The new profile is a much wider. Wide pages go against the natural tendencies of our foveal vision you can't take it all in in one glance, so physically it makes the design uncomfortable to use, your eyes keep jumping around all the time

The Money Spot

Facebook has switched the advertising to the right hand side of the page, clearly to take advantage of the natural tendencies of people to focus on this area of the page. Marketers have already proved by using eye tracking software and split testing that the top right of a page is where the money spot is

Flash Distractions

I also found the animated flash graphics to be very distracting . One of the reasons I have always hated MySpace was because of this. But again, tests have shown that people click on things that move more because they grab your attention. When I was using the facebook chat facility the flash banner add was running right through the chat box and to get it out of the way I was forced to scroll the page downwards. I found this very annoying.

Please feel free to comment and add any other weaknesses that you have spotted in facebooks new design. Maybe someone will take notice. I saw that since Jim Turners recent note where he commented on the missing ignore all button that it has now been reinstated. Jesse Stay an author of two books on facebook also made an interesting blog post where he explored some of the missing features, New Facebook Design Confuses Many, Obscures Feature

Part 1 - Strengths

Part 2 - Weaknesses

Part 3 - Opportunities

Part 4 - Threats

If you have enjoyed this post please consider subscribing to my full RSS feed.

You can find me on facebook by going to http://profile.to/ianchapman

You can also follow me on twitter - http://www.twitter.com/ian_chapman

Facebook S.W.O.T Part 1 - Strengths

Do You Love It Or Hate It?

The new look facebook has now been live for a few weeks. It rolled out across the globe at different times so depending which part of the world you live in you might have had longer to explore than others. I am assuming that by now most of you will have probably got over the initial shock and started to find your way around. Some people seem to love it, others hate it with a passion. There are many differing opinions and I wanted to give you my take on it and invite all my readers to share their own personal experiences

S.W.O.T

In this blog post I will be using a standard S.W.O.T analysis in relationship to how the new look facebook will affect people who are using social networking for business purposes and examining its Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. I will break it up into four parts to make digestion a little easier. And allow you to comment on each aspect. I hope that some of the developers and programmers take note so that facebook can be improved for all its users

Part 1 - Strengths

Part 2 - Weaknesses

Part 3 - Opportunities

Part 4 - Threats

Initial Negative Experience

I must admit that my own first experiences with it were not so pleasurable and I wrote quite a long and negative blog post about my frustrations. I decided to wait before I published and on reflection I am glad that I waited. After a week of playing around with it I now feel in a much better position to give a more balanced overview of the changes and include the benefits and not just the problems that the new design creates.

Part 1 - Strengths

Clean Layout

One of the major strengths of the new look facebook is the clean layout and the simplifying of the profile page so that when you click on a friends profile you immediately have access to their wall/news feed and can quickly see what they have been up to recently and send them a message directly.

Tabbed Browsing

The Profile has been divided up into tabs so that all your personal information is in one place and all your applications are on one tab now called boxes. For many people this has been of huge benefit. You now don't have to wait for ages for a profile to load if a friend has installed 200 applications. Overall the platform seems to be running a lot faster than it did before. Although the tabbed feature is only limited to the profile and doesn't yet extend to other areas where it is desperately needed.

Integration of Wall and Minifeed

Facebook have integrated the wall and the minifeed into one aggregated feed that takes up 70% of the space on your profile page. This major prominence is because facebook has always been designed to focus on creating and maintaining real relationships and building a sense of community. Quickly being able to know what all your friends are doing plays an important role. It has a number of settings and wall filters so you can see only posts made by yourself, others or you can see the stories that facebook has selected for you. You can edit your privacy setting to make sure you only display what you really want to the world.

Makes Sharing Even Easier

Facebook has made the sharing of videos and photos even easier with one dedicated tab and a host of new features to play around with. For more information you can check out a recent blog post facebook the unofficial guide. This clearly shows that facebook can see the future and want photo sharing, video chats and video postcards to be on their system and not on other external services like flickr, ooVoo or Skype.

New Features

Facebook have brought in a lot of new features that help to make facebook the pivotal part of your daily life. They have introduced a new blog subscription service where you can join your favourite blog and enjoy all its content without ever having to leave facebook.

Another nice feature is the ability to create a profile badge that you can place on your website or blog that can show your current status and act like a business card and pull people from outside of facebook to become your friends. To access this feature you can find a link on the bottom left of your profile page.

This still had a few bugs in when I last tested it but I am sure Facebook will iron those out pretty soon. I would also like to be able to customise what is displayed a bit more.

Facebook Notes

The Notes feature has increased in prominence, which is great because it gets more people involved in conversations. Anyone who has a blog can import their posts automatically and then tag their friends to come and make a comment. This runs straight into the wall feed and you can make comments directly on your wall/minifeed and keep updated on the topic without having to go back to the post and scroll down to the bottom each time a new person makes a comment.

I would like to hear your positive comments about the new look facebook, what you consider to be its greatest strengths and any other new features you may have discovered that you would like to share.

Part 1 - Strengths

Part 2 - Weaknesses

Part 3 - Opportunities

Part 4 - Threats

If you have enjoyed this post please consider subscribing to my full RSS feed.

You can find me on facebook by going to http://profile.to/ianchapman

You can also follow me on twitter - http://www.twitter.com/ian_chapman

Leverage Your Friends on Facebook

Overwhelmed?

While some people are rushing to build a huge friend list, and others are feeling overwhelmed as their inbox fills up faster than they can clear it. How many of you have taken the time to go back to those relationships you established right at the beginning when you didn't have so many friends.

Re-Connect With Your Existing Friends

If you have over 200 friends you are already at the point where you might have problems managing all the friendships and relationships you have developed. Recently I have been getting messages from people I met a few months ago on facebook, people who I had a really good connection with and had found we shared a lot in common. Somehow with all the other demands for my attention I neglected many of those relationships and only now realise the value in them that I need to go back and cultivate

Leverage Your Existing Platform

Jay Abraham a very famous business guru and marketing wizard often suggests to his clients that instead of looking for new customers that they look at their existing customer base, the people who have already bought from them and work out ways to build on that relationship and sell them other products and services, what is often termed in sales as the Back End.

Segregate You Friends

I want to explore this concept and apply it to facebook friends and contacts that you might have made on other social networking sites. If you have been carefully segregating your friends onto smaller lists this task will be a lot easier as you will already have all your most important and valuable contacts grouped together by business niche or common interest. If you haven't done this then I suggest you adopt this strategy immediately as it helps to keep your friends list more manageable and also allows you to quickly find important people again.

Back And Forth Exchanges

I would like to suggest that you make it a regular part of your social networking to go back and re-establish those friendships and contacts that you made in the past and see if there is any way that you can be of service. To build a real relationship takes more than a single wall post when someone has accepted you as a friend. It takes time to nurture and establish trust. Noticing what other people are doing and giving them your attention is a good beginning.

Lessons From Marketers

Direct Response Marketers noticed that the average number of exchanges before a customer bought from them was between 5 and 7 times. This is where the power of following up leads really comes into play and by building in automatic sequences and email exchanges so that those contacts and touches are carried out they dramatically increased their conversions.

I suspect that what applies in direct response marketing also applies to Facebook friends. And while I am not suggesting you adopt an automated strategy to go and turn all your friends into customers I think the same principles apply to building relationships.

What the marketers discovered and took advantage of was the natural tendencies of human beings and the process of how they establish trust and rapport through repeated contacts.

If you only use your friends as platforms to promote yourself and their walls as a free advertising space you might find when you really need them they are not so willing to co-operate.

Viral Visibility

One way that I find very powerful is to use the Notes feature in facebook, I have set it to pull in all my blog posts onto my facebook profile. Each time I publish something it pushes out into my newsfeed and all my friends newsfeeds. For a great summary of how to do this check out Mari Smiths blog post

The next step is to tag a few friends in the note, it’s a way to show that you remember them and also to show that you appreciate their opinions and comments. You are providing a platform for them to express themselves and also allow them to get to know your other friends who you also tagged.

Make Your Network More Powerful

This is a way to make your network much more powerful because when all your important friends and contacts know each other and regularly interact together you increase the viral effects that any of your actions will have. Brian Campbell explained The mathematical theory behind this and other important strategies In his trainings for premium members of the Social Media Marketing System. And we proved it through real time observations when building Facebook groups I will be summarising this in my Facebook Advanced Strategies handbook that I am currently writing so I wont go into detail here, you will just have to believe me when I say that its true.

Share what you find beneficial

If you get tagged in someone's note, its always good practice to press the share button, of course only share a post if you feel it will add some value to your other friends. You can share directly to your profile or you can select specific friends, this is your chance to connect more people and draw them into the conversation

Sharing Is Important

This is a feature that most people don't really use, I have only noticed the really effective social networkers using this strategy on a regular basis. Often they are people who have their own blog and understand how the viral effects of facebook work. You can do this for Videos, Groups, Events, anything that you discover to be of value. Facebook is so cluttered with junk that it takes this type of peer voting to allow the quality content to rise to the top.

Become a Connecting Node

Even if you don't have your own blog and don't feel comfortable writing or making videos if you regularly use the share button you will build up a resource of useful information on your profile page that any new friends can instantly have access to. They will keep returning to you because you are acting as a an important connecting node.

Study Your News Feed

Get into the habit of studying your news feed every day and see what pops out, facebook is so cleverly designed that you can even adjust the setting and tell them which friends you want to hear more about.

Using your segregated friend lists go and adjust your settings and push the sliders to the top for the people you care about. Take the time to participate in conversations and always thank people when they have taken the time to leave a comment. Study how some of the social media experts operate. copy the essence of how they communicate but infuse it with your own style and personality. Be original, have a sense of humour, look at any messages that made you take notice. What was special about it? Why did it leave such an impact on you?

Press That Share Button

The objective in any social network is to keep the information and communication flowing smoothly. This means that anyone, regardless of how little time they have for their facebook activities can play their part in making this happen. Every time you see the share button make sure you press it. It is giving you as much visibility as the the person or information you are sharing . It’s a way of paying it forward that will pay you dividends in the long run. Then send a mesage out on Twitter and update your status in Facebook. If you have all your systems linked together by pingfm or hellotxt this becomes even easier.

Go on do it now, what are you waiting for…..?

If you have enjoyed this blog post then you might like to consider signing up for my full RSS feed
and following me on twitter.... http://www.twitter.com/ian_chapman

ian_chapman

Make Your Facebook Profile Magnetic

Anyone who has been on Facebook for over a month has probably accumulated a lot of extra weight on their profile page. This is quite normal but if you want to network more effectively it’s a good Idea to treat your profile like your resume and to keep it clear from clutter. Regular housekeeping will save you having to do a complete overhaul and rebuild. And if you set everything up in the right way your profile will become magnetic and you will automatically attract the friends you are looking for. Here a few suggestions that I came up with

Make Your Profile Fit Your Target Market.

If you want to target a specific niche then your profile should reflect this. A quick way to make a convincing profile is to go to Amazon.com and type in your keywords and see what books pop up. You want to make sure that you list these books on your profile. Next you need to include the names of some of the most famous people in your niche and the things that you would expect a person from this niche to like. Type in these names in the facebook search box and see what profiles come up, check out what other people have on their profiles and copy the style of a few of your most typical targeted prospects.

Target and Attract

You need to optimise you profile so that not only will you quickly be accepted as a friend by others in your niche but you will also attract the people who are looking for you when they use the search function. This is an important principle to remember. Target and Attract at the same time. All your personal information is hyperlinked so keep everything short and make sure you spell everything correctly. Writing long wordy sentences describing all your favourite things means you will miss out on others finding you though the search function and people might not even bother to read what you have written. Remember, most people only take a few seconds to scan through your profile, you need to make it as easy as possible for them so see what you have in common

Tidy Up You Groups

One tell tale sign that gives a lot of information about a person is the groups they have joined so if you want to make the right impression go through your group list and get rid of all the ones that are unsuitable. Also think about joining groups that will enhance your image and make you look like a well rounded individual. If you have a long list of groups only devoted to MLM, network marketing and making money online you might scare people away because you have made a clear statement about who you are. If your niche is making money online then this will of course be Ok, but it is a good idea to join some other interesting groups that also reflect well on your personality and interests.

Get Rid Of All The Apps

One of the most annoying things I find is when I come upon a persons profile who has been on facebook for a while is when their profile page is filled with about 100 applications and the page takes about 2 minutes to load. If you fall into this category you need to go through them all and decide if you want to keep them. Delete all the ones you don't want and hide all the ones that are unnecessary

If you enjoyed this post or any others on my blog why not consider signing up for my full RSS feed, just click on the orange button.

Going Viral - Understanding The Difference Between Viral Marketing And MLM

Can you tell the difference?

In this first post I would like to explore just what going Viral means and to point out the difference between MLM pyramid marketing and Viral marketing. They are not the same even though they are often billed as the same.

Viral Marketing

Viral marketing leverages the principles of exponential mathematics, In its most simple form its one thing doubling to make two things and then those two things double and you have four things

This is how cells reproduce themselves which is the root principle behind all biological life on this planet. Viral marketing is taking this principle of replication and repeating the process in many different forms and mediums. The intention is to create a type of growth that is independent and continues on its own without any need for external energy input. Something that causes a chain reaction or moves like ripples in a pond spreading outward from the initial event.

Digital Duplication

With the advent of the internet and the ease with which digital media can be reproduced an understanding of the principles of Viral Marketing and advertising becomes very important. What is also important is the ability to distinguish a true viral business as opposed to a pyramid or MLM structure.

Viral Traffic Generators

A few weeks ago I got a message from a friend on facebook, he was offering another one of those viral traffic generators schemes. I don't normally bother with these things but as I respected this friend I took the time to check out exactly how it worked. I was impressed with this one because it was so clean, and direct and told you exactly how it was going to work. And had an interesting hook that in order to sign up you had to spend 10 seconds on each advert to get a secret code number. It works the same as a chain letter. I realised that if you had your website on here the quality of the traffic would be very low. And most people wouldn't be interested in buying anything from these websites. I thought that I could add my Blog to the list so that I might interest some of the people clicking on all the links.

A big promise

The Viral Scheme promised millions of visitors so I signed up got my affiliate link and shot out a quick mail to one of my groups. I was a bit wary of promoting something like this but I decided to do it just as a test to see what sort of results I would obtain.

Promises are meant to be Broken?

Anyway, 4 weeks later and I haven't got the millions of visitors to my site, I have had a few trickle through but overall it has been disappointing. The only viral part of this scheme is the actual viral site itself, not the service it provides. This is what is actually being spread, and the benefits are going only to the owner of this site as they build up a massive list of people who have signed up hoping that their dreams of free traffic would be fulfilled.

Only the Top Promoters Benefit

What I suspect happens in most cases and this is what happens in most MLM and Network marketing companies is that the only people who benefit are those who promote this scheme to thousands of people below them. And because only a few of them will pass it on to their friends, after a while it just fizzles out. If you want to make it work, you need to promote it to people with huge lists who only promote to other people with huge lists who only promote to other people with huge lists. Very soon the mathematics hit a critical point and there is no-one left to promote to.

Unwanted Spam

Any of you who have signed up to a few of the many business groups on facebook are probably sick of all the offers of free traffic that are being touted. The only way you are ever going to get the free traffic is if you promote the scheme with the same vigour and determination as the person who got you interested. What that would result in is a load of unwanted spam, and only trash traffic to your site. which is what is happening right now on facebook, check out my article facebook spam slam for more details. Of course if your niche is MLM or network marketing then you might benefit because you can build a list of gullible people who are attracted by your incredible offers.

Does it add Value?

What you always have to ask is does it add any value. Is what you are promoting giving anything away that will enrich people lives. This is what really differentiates a pyramid scheme from something that has truly gone viral. A viral scheme promotes itself based on its own quality. You have given people something of high enough value that the choose to promote it freely

It Doesn't Need Pushing it Spread's on its Own

It doesn't need constant pushing to get it moving. It spreads because what it is offering is interesting to people and people tell others about it because they enjoyed or benefited. Viral schemes work best when there is no self interest from the referrer it then becomes true word of mouth and social proof rather than affiliate promotion, not that there is anything wrong with affiliate marketing its just that it is not Viral no matter what people try and tell you.

A Pyramid Scheme

Years ago when my dad was made redundant from his Job, he got pulled into an MLM marketing scheme, designed to sell powdered milk. It came from New Zealand and It was actually a great product, it tasted just like normal milk when it was made up and It might possibly have been a success if large supermarkets hadn't begun selling huge containers of milk for such low prices.

Financial Investment Required

In order to participate my Dad had to pay quite a large sum of money to get all the promotional material, training manuals containers and products. It seemed quite a lot of money for what he actually received, Now he had to go and convince all his friends that they should change their milk drinking habits and buy from him instead of the local milk man (England still had milk delivered daily in those days)

Failure is often Inevitable

I knew my dad was going to fail right from the start, and I think this is what is so sad about most pyramid schemes. Firstly although he had quite a large network of friends and contacts he didn't have enough who might be interested to join his down line or become regular repeat customers, they might buy once to humour him or just to escape the awkward situation but He is also not a sales type person. I don't believe he was passionate enough about this product in order to convince others that they should buy it. His motivation was to make money so his opinions were always biased and people could always sense this when he was making his presentations. He also didn't have the determination to keep at it when things didn’t go as well as he had been promised and so after a couple of months he gave up and we were left drinking up the remains of his product stockpile.

Who takes all the Risk?

This is probably quite a typical example. The company who manufactured this product had hoped that it would go viral since it was very good for people with allergies and worked out cheaper than normal milk. They chose a way to test and promote it that put the burden of the advertising cost on the shoulders of the agents. They extracted money out of people who were often desperate or in difficult financial circumstances and sold them dreams of riches and success. What they forgot to tell everyone is that unless you are a pushy sales type person who can convince and persuade others to join or to buy your product then you actually stand no real chance of making a go of it.

Is it Unethical?

There is something deeply unethical about this type of dealing and which is why I always steer clear of any MLM type offer. Its not that I couldn't become very successful at it, I probably could, I just wouldn't want my success built on other peoples failures. I suspect that most people involved in MLM and Pyramid Schemes would not see It this way because they have to convince themselves that the goods and services are of great benefit. They fail to see the underlying mathematics that governs these things and sell people something that they don't really need or convince them to join a down line without giving them the necessary training they need to succeed.

Win-Win or Lose-Lose?

Most MLM and Pyramid schemes that require an upfront investment to join have always got their bases covered. If you are successful they are happy because you make them more money. If you fail they are happy because you are the one who is carrying the burden of risk and they have all their costs covered by your initial investment.

Viral Wannabees

MLM and Pyramid schemes are always going to be "Viral Wannabees" but they rarely ever really go viral because of the way they are structured, a virus needs to be able to perpetuate and reproduce itself once it has left the parent or host. Any MLM or pyramid scheme that claims to have a viral effect built in is probably lying. Unless they give you all the components to set up your own identical business that could run independently from the original company and you could replicate their marketing strategies without being dependant on them for a key product or resource then you will always be vulnerable and if the parent company fails so do you. What this would be is typified by a franchise and franchises definitely can and do go viral quite easily. A franchise is something totally different, Here you get to be independent and keep all your profits you just buy the blueprint and learning curve from those who have gone before and also get instant brand recognition.

You have to Pay your Dues

If you succeed in MLM then you have to constantly pay your dues along the umbilical up line to people who have done little to deserve it. They profit from your hard work. Of course you can get the same benefits from those below you, which is what makes this type of business proposition so attractive. The people who will always fail are the greedy and the lazy and these are who the marketing of most disreputable companies is aimed at. Don't get me wrong, there are some great network marketing opportunities and I am sure there are some great companies, but did you every meet any Amway millionaires. You an get moderate success if you have the right type of personality and you enjoy selling and being social. But the statistics show that almost all of the people who start out eventually fail.

Not all MLM's are the same

To be fair, I don't want to paint all MLM and network marketing companies with the same brush. I just want people to be more aware of what they are getting into before they sign up. I think extra care needs to be taken in the make money/get more traffic schemes. You need to look carefully to see just how the company proposes to add value to you and to your future customers, some may provide you excellent tools and training but If you can't clearly see where that value is then it is probably nothing more than a pyramid chain letter trying to scam you. If the company is selling physical products, make sure you try them out yourself first for at least a month, and only put your money if you feel that they live up to their claims and that you can wholeheartedly endorse them. People will always sense your authenticity when you make a pitch or presentation so you need to be sure you fully believe in what you are promoting.

In part two of this article I will discuss a personal story about a product that I knew was going to make it big and how I still to this day passionately endorse it

Creating A Viral Monster

Two days ago a new group was formed on Facebook. It's name is P.R.I.S.M., some of you might already have joined. I have been tracking the incredible growth of this Viral Monster.

Rapid Growth

Within 24 hours the group had over 200 members and over 100 posts on its wall. Such a rapid growth and so many impressions rippling through facebooks news feeds created a buzz that sucked people into the new group and motivated them to write blogposts, upload videos and share their experiences. At the time of writing this has grown to 422 members and 208 wall posts.

A brand new community has been formed out of nothing

Giveaway

The originator and creator of this group is Brian Campbell, who many of you know from the training videos he's been releasing. This is the place where the playing field is levelled as Brian announced that he will start giving away a further £15,000 on top of the $10,000 he gave to John Chow. So anyone no matter what their financial circumstance could get access to the same training if they showed they had the motivation and the qualities that are needed to become a member of P.R.I.S.M.

Social Proof

Social Proof is a powerful motivator because for most people because word of mouth recommendation is one of the best forms of advertising. Check out any sales letter on the Internet and you will see testimonials play a major part. If you are new to my blog you may not know that I went into great detail explaining the Power of Testimonials. You can also see all of the SMMS testimonials in one place on my Squidoo Lens. To find out more about using other peoples opinions to establish your reputation check out this insightful post by Stuart Tan. He explores in great detail why recomending people is so important.

Coming Soon

Over the coming days I will give you a behind the scenes look at how Brian made this rapid growth possible and to the conclusion he is ultimately driving towards. If you have read my blog post about scarcity tactics then you will know that there are only limited places available for the Social Media Marketing System. Brian already made a claim that he will make $100,000 from this launch and anyone who has taken advantage of his free training and put it into practice will already be waiting eagerly in anticipation.