This was written by my Fripp Associate Ian Griffin who is President of the National Speakers Association of Northern California. Can you believe I founded NSANC in 1980? Have I really been a professional keynote speaker for that long? Yes! I have.
Ian is a speech writer for corporate executives and a valuable part of the Silicon Valley speaking world. This is what he wrote about Ford Saeks session. For many years I have been a fan of Ford and I was still blown away at the practical advice. More important I was inspired to do something with the information.
Thanks for letting me reprint this Ian! http://www.frippassociates.com/iangriffin.html.
Using Social Media Marketing to Grow Your Business
NSA/NC Meeting Report: Saturday February 28, 2009
Marketing expert and larger-than-life character Ford Saeks flew in from Wichita, Kansas to share his ideas on how to use Social Media to make money.
Ford is best known for positioning people and their products and services for profit through proven marketing and innovative publicity campaigns. The sold-out crowd at the National Speakers Association Northern California Chapter meeting were treated to four hours of Ford’s high-intensity ideas on how to start making money on the internet and leverage Social Media Marketing to build influence, reputation and brand within communities of potential customers. Some core principles:
“What problem do I solve that people will pay to make go away?”
“The purpose of business is to generate a customer. The purpose of a customer is to generate a profit.”
‘Nuff said. Here’s some of what Ford shared.
Creating an online cash machine
Speaking and training + Digital and physical products + consulting and coaching = a fully-rounded revenue model. Web 2.0 places a dialog with customers and prospects at the center of business today. Sharing opinions, comments, and other content in the form of audio podcasts, video, links, bookmarks, articles and slides makes a site successful.
Research the top keywords for your niche and use them relentlessly to help the search engines find your site when a customer is looking for your solution to the pain they are feeling. Learn the all-important modifiers that people use to focus search results
Know the answers to three core questions about your business:
- Why should someone pay attention to you – what is your message?
- Who are you trying to market to?
- How are you getting the word out – what is the method?
It’s a FEATURE if it’s about you, your products or services or your company. Ask “Which means…” and you get the BENEFIT that describes an emotional or intangible result the customer gets.
Social Media Marketing
- Helps you expand your internet footprint
- Makes it easier for prospects to find you
- Improves your search engine ranking
- Establishes you as an expert
- Improves communications and feedback
- Builds relationships and networks
- Drives a steady stream of prospects to your online business
There’s a gazillion (or so) Social Media sites listed at go2web20.net. Ford recommends you start by:
- Building a blog with WordPress.org – hosted on your own website to optimize SEO
- Establishing your Channel on YouTube – peppered with relevant keywords
- Building a profile on Facebook and LinkedIn – with posts from your blog and YouTube videos
- Experiment with Twitter. Start by reading Randy Gage’s recent assessment of the uses of abuses of Twitter.
If you’d like to see the slides he used, Ford has kindly made them available. What you won’t get from the slides, or this report, is any of his incredible energy and specific insight into the ways these tools can work for you today to make money on the Internet.
For that, you had to have been there.
