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2010-09-23
Elwanda L.
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Hi Simon,
I’ve just finished Social Traffic. I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in Social Media. I printed it out so that I can reread and highlight.
Not to long ago it cost so much to advertise any type of an event. Now with the Internet the costs can be cut drastically. It’s about building trust, quality not quantity. Keep in contact before and after an event. Give something of value and think about continual business not just a one time event.
I don’t want to give anything away for those that have not read the book but you’ve given step by step directions on how to market any event and where to go on the net to build your campaign (blogging, videos, forums).
I can see that you practice what you preach. With the VIP ST Evangelists you have created excitement urgency and trust!
Thanks for the blueprint,
Elwanda
PS I wrote this and had put it on the Social Traffic webpage under ebooks...
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2010-09-23
Katy P.
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I now know how to connect my twitter, with my blog to gain visibility and authority as a business builder. Not only that, I will incorporate articles into my blogs. And, yes no orphaned articles! If you don't know what that is, I suggest you buy the book - Social Traffic. Just doing this one tactic will increase my business by 10 fold.
I have always been a nervous wreck about writing. It is not one of my strong suits. I mean who likes writing articles? How does one get the skill for writing? To me that is letting everything out on line. If I write a bad article, then what will people think of me... She's dumb! I know the secret now. Its called a ghost writer. Yeah I laughed at myself, when I found out there are people who will write articles for you. When using a ghost writer, just make sure they are using the right keywords in the articles. Using the keywords in the opening paragraph, in the body of the articles and the conclusion of the article is very important. Don't over use the keywords and make sure you only use four to six keywords when publishing your articles. Using article marketing is a must, because people will syndicate your articles for you on their own websites, blogs, etc. This translates into more visibility, marketing and best of all: authority in my own niche. Now, that's using resources to your advantage.
There is so much more to the book, but these are the keys strategies that will help increase my business sales immediately. Other strategies to implement in the near future will include YouTube and affiliate marketing. Once these strategies are nearly perfected, then it will be time to launch event campaigns and really drive business home.
Interesting that there are a lot of comments on how long it took to read the book and TRY to absorb the information in this book. This is the golden goose of Social Marketing. It is a book to be bound, hard backed and placed at the corner of your office desk on its own pedestal. A reference guide that will be used for sometime to come. Social media, traffic, marketing (all of it) will change over a short period of time, but this will be the best reference tool for years to come!
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2010-09-23
Thomas V.
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Very good indepth book. I do applaud!
This book takes the most basic common sense ethics for socializing to developing long lasting relationships around the world. This is the new bible of social marketing, social media, social bookmarking, etc. Weather it is creating friends on Facebook to developing campaigns and structuring businesses that will be future multimillion dollar companies.
I thought I was doing pretty good in my own right as a marketer on the Internet. I now know that I was only achieving 5 to 10% capitalization on my market. The island shore line just increased 10 fold, since my education in Social Traffic. Yep, I had my virtual butt handed to me with this book.
My vision of building a solid foundation in Social Marketing has been torn down to build a new blue print. The old blue print consisted of a house in the neighborhood. Now with a new vision, it's a master plan of cities on every continent. That's the power and information in this book. Obviously, I can not build the master plan since the opening of my eyes to this education, but I can choose a blue print that is succinct with my resources.
This is not an arena that I suggest you just jump in and start marketing (blabbing) a product or service. This takes a lot of effort to properly build a campaign and build your reputation. At it says in the bible, you only get one chance to make it out here. You are completely transparent and your past reputation does precede you. No doubt about it!
I will take this information and apply it the best I can to start revamping the blue print to social marketing. I do know one thing for sure. Spending as much money as you can on the best consultant in the world is going make you more money in the long run than going the road by yourself. Its to big a world out there... I know the other social marketeers will eat you alive. Simon you hear that - you are hired :)
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2010-09-23
Henry A.
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Simon, I have been quite lost for the past few months as to what I was going to go with this and this is the first time, I'm going through the book unfortunately my retention is very low when reading. I am a more hands on learner, thank God for the videos.
But even reading through the book it has put a clear prospective as to what direction I want to take. Making it very clear as to how to launch my campaign thru twitter, blogs, FB, Google, Youtube, bookmarking and EL, also the proper way to market and not spam like most other courses out there suggest.
I must admit I still have about 50 pages to finish the book and I will not put it down till I'm done. Just wanted to share my experience thus far and thank you for the wealth of knowledge you have provided us with. As I read the book the fog is lifting and everything is starting to make sense. I especially like all the twitter tools, tweet scan is awesome, also the clear explanation of the event launch strategies (Hype building, launch, re:launch), and a very important thing for me as well would be the mind mapping segment, really helps keeping strategies in an orderly fashion.
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2010-09-23
Steve B.
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Hi Simon
Quick Read – thanks a lot! For a newcomer to the environment – this was not a quick read at all. I spent a good couple of hours mindmapping all the different media to get a handle on them. It really helped I must say. Shout if anyone wants this mindmap.
However, I loved reading the first part of the book where I was able to glean a helicopter view of how all these different components of Social Media. What fits into the different categories and how the various components fit together and complement each other as parts of the same jigsaw puzzle.
I also got insight into the importance of words and how some thought and clever selection makes all the difference.
But where I really got hooked, was the idea of the Revolving Door and particularly Gorilla Marketing in the Social Traffic book. This has the potential of using a Gorilla on steroids in your marketing campaigns. Gorilla Marketing using unconventional methods has been around forever, but to inject your Gorilla with the Social Media virus, is like turbo charging the steroids that you feed your Gorilla with. And this book Social Traffic is the active ingredient. Lets create an epidemic.
So now as Steven Covey said when he released his “8th” Law of Highly Successful People – its about Actioning all this knowledge.
Lets Do IT!
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2010-09-23
DeeJay H.
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Hi Nicole,
No one can doubt your reading of Simon's book! You're very thorough in your addressing of the several points included in your post.
Two things struck me as I was reading it -- things I seen addressed by Simon here and there in his many, many posts:
1. Re the idea of moving your well-established forum to your new blog: I believe he has said by way of this very forum as a living example -- why not have both going. That is, forums don't exclude or replace blogs. My take then is to encourage your established forum participants to join your blog via GFC. Suggest to them that this will be the way to keep up with the latest news, development and thinking re Paintball doings.
2. Re Twittering with your own name or not. Again using Simon's own living example, why not do what he's done, i.e. he has at least two accounts, one under his own name, another for EL, and still another for Social Traffic. If you develop a Twitter account under your biz name, when time comes to sell your business (if you do make such a decision down the road) you will be able to also sell the good will and name recognition with it, thereby raising the overall selling value of the biz.
OK, that's my two cents worth. I hope you find it helpful.
Peace and Love to You Both,
DeeJay
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2010-09-23
Nicole VJ A.
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I am proud to be able to read this book and be on the cutting edge of social media. This last week for example, I took a look at all of the twitter phrases for our main competitors and only 2 of the 5 had twitters about them and the 2 remaining had 1 tweet each.
I was happy to see the emphasis put on credibility, as my husband and I have been working on creating that since before I even read the book. What was useful was information about how to use that established credibility to our advantage marketing-wise using social platforms.
I especially loved the idea about tagging people in photos on Facebook. We will be implementing that strategy as part of the close out for our most recent past event.
Although I had already seen the section on articles, I was wondering how it would be best to structure my articles. My end goal is to rank #1 in Google for the phrase scenario paintball, and just reading it gave me all sorts of ideas about what articles to write!
On page 69, you mention that forums are better suited for discussing and solving practical problems, but what do you do when you have a very well-established active forum and a new blog? I was thinking that it was time to move everyone out of the forum and on to the blog, but is that the best course of action considering the fan base we have established in the forum?
Regarding the mention of using your real name in social and article sites, I don't plan on being in the paintball niche forever, so how do I manage that? My goal is to create a system of transparent processes for marketing the paintball events so that I can move on to my dreams and aspirations.
Do I consistently use my name across platforms, even when my niche will change?
The words section made me giggle because it reminded me of a lesson my dad taught me about words. He always said that there are many ways of saying the same thing, and the example he always gave was: telling a person, "go to hell," is the same as saying, "you are cordially invited to the eternal place of damnation." Both elicit completely different responses, so you should always choose your words wisely!
Thank you for being specific on your recommendation to only use up to 4 tags per article!
Have you ever tested placing a call to action at the beginning vs. the end of a video? I was thinking that it would be a good idea to say watch in it's entirety and then post a comment (of two or more sentences) at the beginning and would love to get your thoughts on that.
The links to the different websites you recommend are very helpful because event though I note them in our weekly calls and from the videos, the book provides one easy convenient place to retrieve the info later.
Anyways, thanks so much for granting us access to the book Simon! I can't wait to go in for my second pass!
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2010-09-23
Jeff C.
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I have now read the book twice. Each time, I found things I did not know.
First, the explanation of how to Facebook. I now know I was dabbling in Facebook. One simple thing I do now - I write a reply to every friend request. Now, it seems so logical to do, but I never did it before. In fact, I have expanded that to every social media I am a member of.
Second, I have added several websites to my social traffic bookmarks.
Third, I am going to be adding an intro video to my blog site. I am also thinking of doing a vlog for blog on public relations. Reading the sections on videos got me thinking about how much more effective a video with charts and links might be.
Fourth, with my webmaster's help, I am going to be adding Track Boost to my blog. It seems to be a valuable tool I will use.
I was also pleasantly surprised to find I was doing some things right. Linking from my blog comes to find. It has increased traffic. This was also the first explanation of a Meta Tag that I have ever read.
There are many other things I am doing as a result of the book. I would fill up pages with the changes I have made, the changes I will be making and the new things I am doing.
In general, this is a very comprehensive overview of social media and its uses. I don't know of any other book out there to which I could compare it. I am not sure one exists. Frankly, I would bring this out in a print edition. I think it would sell very well.
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2010-09-23
Lisa L.
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HI Simon,
I know it took some time to come here and post, here I feel it's appropriate to RAVE.
I am reading your book for my second time, this time I am highlighting, systemising information and devouring. When I first got this book I run out of paper, in my haste, I grabbed the sheets already printed and printed the rest on the back so I have had papers everywhere, which is apparently part of my personality with analysing everything.
Ok personally, I learnt big time in your use of keywords but when you used the example like a tree with many branches, the top being your main keyword then the rest being branches off this. Then I was opened up how squidoo, blogs, microblogs, hubs can do this for me. The relation to an event I did not get at first, but at the end I was having my ah ha moments.
So personally, I have beefed up what I was doing, I have analysed all my little posts. To the point this week I am taking off all garbage on my site unrelated and treating it with more respect for the content it gives out.
Saying this however, my biggest learning curve with the book was "engaging your audience" realising I had much at my disposal but never using it correctly and for what power it holds. Even your example when explaining microblogging.........to me what you stand for has to show in all now after reading this.
Like I say there I am on second time around, not finished yet, but this was my first reads impressions, I am sure I will have more and get more out of it for years to come.
By then you may of written your next best seller.
Kudos to you Simon, I have enjoyed the privilege.
Yours sincerely
Lisa Lomas
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2010-09-23
Jonathan R.
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Simon,
I didn't really realize how much this book had affected the way I think until I read it a second time. The way you framed old media and the future of marketing has changed the way I think.
The really amazing part is the way you lay out the launch strategy. The revolving door technique to build hype is a beautiful thing. The first time I read it I had never seen the eventslisted platform. Now, after seeing it I realize you not only gave us the ENTIRE strategy, but using eventslisted we have the tools to make it happen.
We're actually living this book whether we realize it or not. The first time I read it was in December when we were just gaining momentum with the Christmas Cheer campaign. Since then we've gone through several cycles of the revolving door. We've gotten new people, gotten rid of others and we're moving forward to the BIG launch. You described all of this in the book and here we are actually practicing what you've taught us.
Not only have you provided the strategy and the tools, but you've given us Real World practice by getting us involved in this campaign. I admire you for being so transparent while giving us everything we need to succeed.
This book and this campaign have changed the way I do business online forever. Thank you!
Sincerely,
Jonathan.Rivera
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2010-09-23
John E.
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I must agree that the book has a wealth of knowledge and look forward to applying the plethera of tactics.
I am motivated to write about what excited me. I do like the advice of thinking of yourself as an attendee and plan everything from that view. The goal when forming a community is to become a respected authority on a niche. Engage others in conversations and comment with well thought out opinions. Giving the community the most valuable information will spawn out respect and credibility.
Building an event with excitement and involving customers in communication before, during, and after the event can turn many into evangelist.
The beauty of this is that businesses can repeat this process which can successfully lead from launch to relaunch (revolving door).
I also want to employ the article writing and linking strategy. The sophisticated way of linking, without orphaned links, is definitely a strategy I have not heard of.
The Facebook strategy of adding value to a group after weeks of interaction where you will entice them to connect with you and that can lead to having them ask about your products and
lead them into your sales funnel.
There's a big paradigm shift from traditional marketing to using social media to attain sales.
I liked this statement: "Remember people still want to buy, but in today’s world they won’t be sold to."
There is more to cover but these are some of the key points that I enjoyed reading about and want to remember and employ.
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2010-09-23
Chicke F.
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I "read" the book the first time by listening when I was driving and found myself wishing I had a printed copy with a highlighter or at minimum, a notebook.
The most impactful things for me were the following:
* Realizing the role that events can play in social media and how everything is an event
* Seeing for the first time how I could take events in the US, market them over eventslisted and also knit in the technology that I just spent $7m building over the last three years. Events listed could very well be the missing link to our success
* I too am sad that companies don't realize that investment in social media marketing makes sense.
* I appreciated Simon sharing all of the tools that are available, beyond what we looked at in the various lessons (e.g. freelinereport.com, tubemogul.com, traffic geyser), plus the object oriented view of the social map.
* I know that I need to dig deeper into how to use Facebook to market my company, putting into practice what is outlined in Engagement
* I appreciate also the social interaction side of how people react to blogs and microblogging, versus just the mechanics of what to do and not to do
* Keywords and linking are two areas that I want to dive into with the printed book and highlighter in hand and do some testing on my own sites, as I know I can improve my tagging and syndication of my content
* My favorite part of the book was the section on what is being done by Social Traffic in collaborative guerilla marketing
* I need to invest time in my lists and my feedback mechanisms, particularly as I have multiple lines of businesses with multiple targets, both B2B and B2C, so that my conversations are appropriate to what I'm trying to accomplish
Now if we can just multiply the hours in the day...
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2010-09-23
Karin B.
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I was relieved to see that most of you needed more than 2.5 hours to read the book. I am definitely one of them. I have gone through it once and even though I learned a lot, I feel that there is a lot that I have missed. I will certainly read this book a few more times.
Having said this, what stands out most for me about this book is that it is very complete and detail oriented. There is so much to get out of it. Regardless whether you are at the beginning of a new project or working on a launch you will find what you need to succeed in this book.
I really like the pointers that are given at the end of most topics. I have printed those out and use them as a summary. It helps me to create actionable lists and it also helps me organize my actions.
The one I picked to get me started is the list of tips to get others engaged in the conversation (something I am not good at at all) on page 51/52 of the book.
A little earlier I mentioned that I like the fact that the book is detail oriented. Besides the big picture you can get detailed tips, like how to get the first 100 (or so) views on your YouTube video. Priceless little gems!
Needless to say, I am enjoying it. So, I am going back to reading and finding more gems.
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2010-09-23
Alexander A.
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The way you described old media really paints a picture and road map for where things have been. This is important when considering where we're going and how to take advantage of the shift and stay out ahead of it.
Choosing the right platforms which give maximum reach of message without diluting it and which don't suck up too much time will be the key driver of future productivity and results. Social media done wrong is a huge time waster.
It's also got huge potential to 'clean up' the search engine results with more human edited style content. The number of votes, time on page and other human consumption factors are going to be key components of Search algorithms in the future.
You hit the nail on the head with the mental shift from old marketing to marketing in this space. It has to be a 2 way conversation where feedback is LISTENED TO AND ACTED ON.
Event marketing is going to be a huge strategy...in this ever fragmented world of bombardment maybe the STRATEGY. Those businesses who do it well will get attention and be prosperous. Those who don't do it or do it poorly will be drown out in a sea of red and fade away into the dust.
Figuring out a perma launch strategy is critical.
As you've stated many times, storylines which engaged and fascinate are the only way your launch will be a big success.
And you have to plan this out before you can execute it because it's very difficult to do this solo. So bringing others on board will require visual maps and your ability to impart your message to them so they understand the plan, believe in its success, and will implement it.
The actual launch phase requirements technically with messaging, having a meeting place, building anticipation and having everything centralized has mostly been solved by the eventslisted platform.
I learned a great many things from this book especially about the importance of events and how to launch and build them properly. And of course the final piece...leveraging the power of the work done and continuing the momentum in the post-launch phase.
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2010-09-23
Marcus S.
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I must start by saying I have not read the book completely yet... I am about 50% there, am already blown away and look forward to finishing it asap.
That said I would love to share a thought:
People (me included) have long been marketing online mostly taking computers and algorithms into consideration. The concept of building solid relationships with people when doing old school SEO is alien, and all that used to matter was if Google like your pages and ranked them highly.
Now the world has changed.
Google listens to people all around the web and bases it's decisions about your site on what other people think of it. As Simon said, there isn't a computer that would do it better than millions of people around the world. The approach of marketing to the social masses and taking human behavior into account is the way we should have been doing it in the first place....
On a final note, the one interesting point to take into account though is that Google has always said that content is king, and if you focus on building a quality site traffic and rankings will follow. Scary how they always get it right eh?
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2010-09-22
Neil A.
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I agree there is a time when quality has to form a part of your marketing strategy and I think Simon would acknowledge this also. In fact, in the section on video marketing one tool discussed is TrafficGeyser which is an automated video submission tool designed with the intention to submit and resubmit video content to numerous sites with the sole purpose of increasing traffic.
The balance of quality is found in the way relationships are built within communities like YouTube, Viddler, Metacafe and other video sharing sites in order to move your tribe to act and vote or share your video content.
Can you do both? Yes.
I see it a little bit like a moving library. Google is constantly changing the books it puts in front of those who search for content and offering freshly served items to see which we will pick up. It's fairly easy to get ranked using a tool like traffic geyser and some good keywords but the next guy who comes along and does the same will soon overtake you in the search engines. If you can get your tribe to rate the video, rank and comment on it and share it then it will continue to be served up by the search engines and will avoid being thrown back into the sea.
Quantity sometime yes, but quality always.
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2010-09-22
John K A.
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This is an amazing book. It is so comprehensive. It is not for me, a quick read and I am happy about that. This for me is similar to getting to know a foreign land. I know it is out there. I can look at a map and see it is there. Now, I am going there and find it is a lot more than what is shown on the map. I am learning a new language. I am learning a new culture. I am seeing that this is a far richer and varied place than I had thought. I am wanting to learn to speak social media fluently and move about this space as a native. Yes, I could read it quickly, but then that would be all I would have done, read it and that is not the same as know it.
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2010-09-22
Duncan B.
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Maybe I'm just a slow reader, because contrary to the suggestion one can read through Social Traffic in a single sitting of 2.5 hours, I required several reading sessions which probably took in excess of 5 hours.
I think it was time well spent. Packed with quite a bit of detail, I think for me the book will be a resource to which I can turn as required (which will be frequently). But I did take away some insights, including:
* conceptualizing the marketing of 'things' as an event, complete with pre and post-launch phases thoughout which a story is told
* that with good planning social buzz can be choreographed to pulsate up and down (but never allowed to die) with the launch of a product or event timed to occur at the top of each pulse, and with a story linking them all together over time (revolving door)
* that online tribalism differs from the offline variety, with community based on authority, thought leadership and recognition rather than race etc.
* that keywords drive everything including website structure, marketing and social media strategy
* that it's possible and possibly even preferable to build an online presence and community without having a website, using Web 2.0 services and focusing on content versus technical aspects of SEO etc.
I need to review the discussion of the sales funnel to work out a 'fit' to market 'things' with EventsListed.
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2010-09-22
Pierre F.
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I'm pleased to recommend "Social Traffic" because I know how highly Simon values what he learns and how much he loves to share it. I met Simon in STOMPERNET's state-of-the-art social marketing course last winter. I was caught by his no-nonsense congeniality and eager mind, and he quickly became a friend and mentor. He reviewed and applied the SMART'S instruction toward a massive social media campaign to launch his new portal site, EventsListed.com. A true entrepeneuer, he put his heart and soul into it, focused to learn and test everything he could to create best effect. For 10 months I've watched as he laid out this campaign on multiple levels across all platform and media types for almost 200 keywords, everything tested and refined for best effect. And still he made time to scout out new experts and academics of web culture and dug into the major networking platforms for their undiscovered potential. "Social Traffic" represents Simon's hunt for quality knowledge through the nitty-gritty details of the web to acheive a big picture view of its emerging values and process; uniquely powered by a commitment to find and stay ahead of cutting edge social web practices. Because of this he knows that your web credibility like his own is gained by sharing the highest value knowledge most effectively. Simply put, this is what "Social Traffic" is all about. Pierre Faillettaz, with DepthEvents.
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Five years from now, you will struggle to get a simple marketing message in front of the masses by simply posting advertisements in a newspaper, on radio, or even TV. There will always be a place for traditional advertising, but our highly responsive, mobile media landscape has changed forever. This is not an impulse trend!
You have my absolute guarantee that once you've read this book, you will have a deeper perspective and understanding of how things work online. If you diligently apply the knowledge and insights you learn from reading this book, and the efforts do not result in increased customer-base (both volume and quality) over the next 12 months of launching your first campaign, then you can state your case for a complete and immediate refund.