Social Media Training: Lesson 24

I've just completed the 24th PDF Lesson in my 6 month
training program on social media marketing.

This Graduation Lesson titled, "Where to from Here?",
is designed to help participants explore how they can
best use the ideas in the SquidooRoo Program which
covered content creation, social networking and promotion,
including press releases and social bookmarking.

In the final Lesson, we explored how to create a Fixed
Term Membership Program and offered a process for
evaluating your own Internet marketing activity.

The final Graduation Bonus is an MP3 I developed in which
I share what I have learned in creating the SquidooRoo
Program as a Fixed Term Membership. While Lesson 24
covers the mechanics of creating such a Program, the audio
focuses on the inner journey and ways to overcome
obstacles.

It has been a long haul researching and writing weekly PDFs
over 6 months and locating or creating bonuses to go with each
week's Lesson.  However it was a rewarding experience and
members of my Fixed Term Membership Program have
commented that the Program is excellent.

Here's a testimonial from Allan James, the Start Business Mentor:
For someone like myself, with over 5 years experience online
and a fair degree of success, it's rare for me to find a
membership site and tutorials that adds to my knowledge,
stimulates my thinking, and provides practical ways and means
that I can put into action immediately to grow my business. 
Your excellent SquidooRoo course does all of that!

If you want to  master social media marketing for your own
business or to devleop your skills as a social media manager,
this Program is for you.

Click the link below to find out how you can grow in confidence,
competence and income with the SquidooRoo Program:
http://www.squidooroo.com

Ron Passfield,PhD, is a Giant Squid100, social media
consultant and dedicated educator with 30 years experience.

Social Media Strategy: What will you give up in 2011?

Social media strategy implies a direction, a path or purpose.

Fundamentally, it implies a choice - choosing one focus other
another.  So, social media strategy implies exclusion as well as
inclusion.

The challenge is to make the choice - decide what you will focus
on and what you will give up (or exclude).

If you try to cover all social media for example, you are not
being strategic.  You will not achieve your goals because your
focus and energy will be too dispersed.

Two top marketers have gone public recently to explain what
their marketing strategy is for 2011.

Seth Godin has stated that (after 12 New York bestsellers)
he is giving up writing books for traditional publishing
to focus on publishing "in whatever form" works for his readers.
The Wall Street Journal suggests that this will take the form of
"electronic books, via print-on-demand or in such
formats as audiobooks, apps, small digital files
called PDFs and podcasts".  Seth indicated that the majority
of his blog readers have never bought one of his books
in a bookstore.

Dr. Mani - Infopreneur, heart surgeon and creator of The
Children's Heart Foundation - has decided to give up
traditional email marketing as a primary marketing approach
and focus more on social media marketing. He expressed
considerable disappointment at the low opening rate of
his emails in 2010.

These two top Internet marketers have changed their
social media strategy to reflect changes in audience response
experienced in 2010 and earlier.

So the question remains about your social media strategy:
What are you going to focus on in 2011 and what will
you give up to make this happen?

If you want some guidance in that choice, why not join
us in the SquidooRoo social media training program where
we take you through the choices re content creation,
social networking and promotion - all elements of
social media strategy.

***********************************************
Ron Passfield, PhD, is a Giant Squid100 and
social media consultant.

His 6 month social media training program
is available at:
http://www.squidooroo.com

Sign up now for a FREE ecourse
in social media marketing:
Social Media Marketing Tips

Social Media Marketing: How Squidoo Builds Community

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***********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Giant Squid100 and
social media consultant.

His 6 month social media training program
is available at:
http://www.squidooroo.com

Sign up now for a FREE ecourse
in social media marketing:
Social Media Marketing Tips

Social Media Marketing: Growing with Squidoo

I joined Squidoo in 2007 and I have been reflecting on what this
social network has meant to me.

What I value is the encouragement to pursue your own interest
and passions and to share them through the creation of Squidoo
lenses (of which I now have 100+).

Squidoo itself is highly innovative and very supportive of innovation,
so I found that I could give expression to my creativity.  This has
been a particularly rewarding aspect of Squidoo.

The Squidoo community is exceptionally supportive and willing
to help at every turn - whether you are a newbie or an experienced
Lensmaster trying to become a Giant Squid (50 excellent lenses).

Squidoo has helped me grow in confidence in my online endeavors
and to create my own online products.  The work of  other very
talented Lensmasters and writers is a constant source of inspiration
and stimulation.

I value the friendships I have made on Squidoo and the
shared experience of working within this nurturing environment.

I think we all need a home within the social media environs
and I consider Squidoo home.  From there I can actively
engage with other social networks - such as Facebook,
Twitter, Hub Pages, LinkedIn and Redgage - and feel
comfortable that I have a contribution to make.

So in a very real sense, I feel as though I have been growing
up online through Squidoo and its evolution.

Why not join the hundreds of thousands of people who have
now built over 1,800,000 Squidoo lenses (websites)?:

CLICK HERE to add Squidoo to your social media marketing

***********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Giant Squid100 and
social media consultant.

His 6 month social media training program 
is available at:
http://www.squidooroo.com


Sign up now for a FREE ecourse
in social media marketing:
Social Media Marketing Tips
 

Social Media Marketing : The Third Tribe

There appears to be two opposing "tribes" that inhabit
social media.

The first tribe, the goldiggers, consider social media
a goldmine to be mined mercilessly without any consideration
of the impact on the community environment within the
various social networks. For this group, it is okay to
auto-generate thousands of artificial user identities and
spam blogs with auto-generated posts. It is okay to deceive
people with misleading headlines or trap them into
auto-subscription to heavy monthly payments. It is the
tribe of false promises that is full of hype and deception.
The Golddiggers war cry is "crush the competition".

The second tribe, the moralists, focus only on the
community dimension and consider any form of marketing on
social media to be sacrilege. This tribe adopts the moral
high ground and emphasizes community at the expense of
commerce. They overlook the fact that many people nowadays
(because of forced layoffs and the economic climate) earn
their living online. They consider it immoral to ask people
to pay for information or advice (that has often been
generated through years of trial and error and considerable
expense in time and money).

The Third Tribe subscribes to the view that social media marketing
is a means of building relationships, developing a customer base,
optimizing websites and blogs and creating personal wealth.
Beneath this assumption is a values set that reinforces
truth in marketing, collaboration, sharing, genuine and deep
relationships, personal rights, mutual learning and community
capacity building. Members of the Third tribe believe that
it is appropriate and necessary to offer people in social networks
valuable information and resources that meets their needs
and to do so at a reasonable (not inflated) price. At the same time,
they are willing to use their knowledge and skills to build up
the confidence and capability of other people (at no charge)
and readily work to support various charities or Tribal Leaders
who are actively working to make a difference in our world
and communities.

The Leaders of the Third Tribe are Darren Rowse, Brian Clark,
Chris Brogan and Sonia Simone, some of the world's top bloggers.
These leaders are dedicated to bringing together people who
share the Third Tribe values and aspirations and offer a
platform for this to occur. They charge a monthly fee but
over-deliver in terms of value with their sharing of their
knowledge of what works in Internet marketing and social
media marketing (and they have the track record).

I joined the Third Tribe at the time of its launch and have
valued the monthly interviews, the Q & A calls, the links to
resources and the active Forum. It is a real experience to
become immersed in the sharing of knowledge and skills of
people who are ethically building their wealth (both
financial and social equity) through social media marketing.

JOIN TODAY to get instant access to the wealth of resources
and information available:
Join The Third Tribe

Here's a sample of the resources (podcasts, transcrips and action
worksheets) that you can access immediately:

• Product Launch Strategies: What Always Works and What's
Working in 2010 -Jeff Walker & Sonia Simone
• How to Get Your Customers to Do Your Best Marketing for You
- John Jantsch & Chris Brogan
• Email Marketing Strategies that Work - Sonia Simone
& Brian Clark
• Action Email: Copywriting Tips for Insanely Effective
Email Marketing - Dave Navarro & Sonia Simone
• Internet Business Models: Part One — the Problogger model
Darren Rowse & Brian Clark
• Internet Business Models: Part Two — the Chris Brogan model
Chris Brogan & Sonia Simone
• Internet Business Models: Part Three — the Copyblogger model
Brian Clark & Sonia Simone
• Internet Business Models: Part Four — the Zen Habits model
- Leo Babauta & Darren Rowse
• The Quick Start Guide to Making Money Online
- Johnny Truant & Sonia Simone
• Advanced Affiliate Marketing with Social Media and SEO
Glen Allsopp & Brian Clark
• Traffic Jam: Brian Clark and Jon Morrow on Traffic-Building
Strategies - Jon Morrow & Brian Clark
• Behind the Scenes of an Online Product Launch -
Johnny Truant & Sonia Simone
• Become a Better Writer - Chris Brogan
• Capturing the Power of Video Marketing - Darren Rowse
and Dave Kaminski
• How to Translate Ideas into Action - Chris Garrett
and Sonia Simone
• Five Strategic Ways to Use SEO for Public Relations
Brian Clark and Lee Odden
• The Critical Keys to Success with Google AdWords
- Brian Clark and Geordie Carswell
• Advanced Link-Building Strategies for SEO
- Brian Clark and Greg Boser

********************************************************

Ron Passfield, PhD, is a Giant Squid100 and
social media consultant.

His 6 month social media training program
is available at:
http://www.squidooroo.com

Sign up now for a FREE e-course in
social media marketing:
Social Media Marketing Tips

The Web 2.0 Mindset: collaborative marketing

Marketing on Web 2.0 sites through social networking requires
a change in mindset away from the traditional Web1.0 mindset.

Unfortunately many traditional Internet marketers have
been contaminated by the thought processes embedded in
Web 1.0 technology.

The change in mindset for Web 2.0 requires a shift to:

• a collaborative mindset - away from the competitive mindset
• natural organic growth - away from an obsession with SEO
• long tail, tag approach - away from a small number of keywords
• community consciousness - away from self-centredness
• web ring orientation - away from individual, disconnected sites
• open window mentality - away from a trap-door mentality.

Increasingly Web 2.0 involves collaborative marketing - you "like"
my Facebook Page and I reciprocate.  You comment on my
Squidoo Lens and I reciprocate. You rate my photos on
RedGage and I reciprocate.

The focus with Web 2.0 and social networking in particular is
very much about participating in, and contributing to, the community.

...and yet many top marketers today, steeped in the old ways of
doing business online, tell us that we have to "crush the competition".

It seems we are confronted and confounded by two conflicting
paradigms and the confusion is intensified by people using the
competitive mindset of Web 1.0 to promote Web 2.0 tools
and resources.

Explore how to develop a Web 2.0 mindset
and build your skills in social media marketing
with the SquidooRoo Training Program:
Social Media Training

SquidooRoo Lesson on Facebook

The SquidooRoo Program offers 6 months training in
 social media marketing.

The social media training covers content creation, social networking
and promotion including social bookmarking.

Weekly PDF lessons and bonuses are focused on helping you
to take real action to achieve your online goals.

For example, the Facebook Marketing lesson covers Personal Pages,
Fan Pages and Facebook Ads.  The bonuses for this lesson
provide eBooks and videos designed to show you how to take action
to create each of these aspects of Facebook Markeing.  The cost of
the bonuses for this lesson alone exceeds the total cost of the course.

Why not try out this social media training to help you achieve
your online goals and realize the income you desire?

The training program helps you achieve focus, improve
your productiivity and overcome the problems of information
overload.

*********************************************
Ron Passfield, PhD, is a Social Media Consultant, Top 100 Squidoo
Lensmaster and Giant Squid100.

He is the Creator of the SquidooRoo Training Progam, a 6 month
course in social media marketing:
Social Media Training Program

Sign up now for a FREE ecourse in social media marketing:
Social Media Marketing Tips

How to develop your social network on Redgage

Redgage is not just a social bookmarking site for
uploading photos, links and videos. It is very much
a social networking site. The richness of the online
content is more than matched by the richness and
diversity of the network.

RedGage facilitates the building of your social network
through the add a friend button, the ability to store content
in Collections and the capacity to develop a comprehensive
profile.

Top Web 2.0 experts, like Mari Smith and Percy Belcher,
stress the importance of transparency on social networks.
Your RedGage profile page enables you to share a
lot of your self - your work, education, history, interests,
passions and the things you like. Additionally, you can add
web links to your blogs, Squidoo lenses and other sites.

Your Collections, in turn, provide insight into your passions,
preferences, hobbies and online goals.

By sharing something of yourself through your profile and
Collections, you enable others to identify common areas
of interest and connect with you.

RedGage can thus help you brand yourself - to show
something of who you are, what you believe in.

As Mari Smith argues, authenticity and transparency
enable others to relate to your humanness and to build
trust and rapport.

Adding genuine and transparent comments
to others' content helps to build on that rapport and
trust and establish a lasting connection.

Social networks such as RedGage are not just information
exchange centres - they are very much centers of
human connection. By sharing something of yourself,
you invite the other person to reciprocate and so
a genuine relationship can develop.

As you explore the RedGage site, you will find heaps
of Giant Squids and a host of excellent writers
from sites such as eHow.com, Gather.com, Scribd.com
and Associated Content. You will encounter photographers
ranging from the amateur who just loves taking photos
to the professional engaged in glamor photography.

RedGage enables the creation and sharing of all forms
of creative expression including art, photography or
writing.

So why not share and connect on RedGage and enrich
your life? Create a revealing profile, build your Collections,
add friends and make quality comments on Redgage content.
You will be amazed at how many people from diverse parts
of the world share your interests.

CLICK HERE to sign up with RedGage

For more information on how to make more money on RedGage
and build your social network, visit:
http://www.squidoo.com/redgage-money

**********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
Giant Squid. He provides free resources
for Squidoo affiliate marketing on his Squidoo authority
site:
http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

To learn more about Squidoo Affiliate Marketing
check out:
http://www.squidooaffiliatemarketing.com

Subscribe to Ron's free Squidoo Marketing e-course:
http://www.smsecourse.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Ron is the author of the e-Book:
Squidoo Marketing Strategies

************************************************

RedGage: pays you for your content!

One way to get good traffic to your Squidoo lenses
is to create backlinks on social bookmarking and
social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook,
MySpace, and HubPages.

I was recently introduced to a new, unique site,
RedGage, by PotPieGirl, the creator of the
Squidoo weekly marketing plan.

RedGage claims to be "the first-of-its-kind web site
that pays people for their online content and monetizes
their social activity".

The basic principle is that you get paid per 1,000 views
of the content that you submit (there are also bonus
payments).

Content can be pictures, videos, blog posts, documents
and links to websites, blogs or Squidoo lenses.

An interesting concept - leverage and monetize
further the content you already have on the web!!

RedGage is working towards automatic import of material
from your other social networking sites.

The content uploads are attractively presented so
they provide a constant temptation to linger and look
further.

However, I predict that RedGage will grow rapidly. It
combines social bookmarking, social networking and
revenue sharing - elements it has in common with
Squidoo.

I have already linked up with lots of Giant Squids
on the site and more are joining every day. They will
also be promoting RedGage to their lists.

You can join up here (please record ronpass as the
referrer when you complete the sign-up form):
http://www.redgage.com/

Here's some RedGage helpful hints when you join up:

1. work on getting your profile set up first
(with links to your Squidoo lenses, blogs, etc
and include your interests - this encourages more
friends/readers).
2. progressively invite others on the site to be
friends
3. upload blog posts, pictures, videos, links to your
Squidoo lenses, etc (and use the tags provided so people
can find your content)
4. promote RedGage to others
5. comment on, and rate, other people's content.

RGHelp is a RedGage member who provides tutorials on all
aspects of RedGage. You can check out the resources here:
http://www.redgage.com/RGHelp

Work at this progressively and you will gradually build
up heaps of backlinks, generate income, expand your
subscribers and create a reverse traffic flow to your
Squidoo lenses.

P.S. The site may be slow as the owners adjust capacity
to meet the unexpected splurge in demand. A lot of people
want to earn money for their content!

**********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
Giant Squid. He provides free resources
for Squidoo affiliate marketing on his Squidoo authority
site:
http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

To learn more about Squidoo Affiliate Marketing
check out:
http://www.squidooaffiliatemarketing.com

Subscribe to Ron's free Squidoo Marketing e-course:
http://www.smsecourse.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Ron is the author of the e-Book:
Squidoo Marketing Strategies

************************************************

How to build a local community through Squidoo

Local communities grow by exchanging information and resources,
developing ways to interact and keeping abreast of current
community activities and planned events.

The Squidoo platform is ideal for meeting these needs. The simple
point-and-click technology makes it easy to exchange
information and build interactivity.

The following elements can be added to a Squidoo lens to
facilitate local community development:

1. Explanation of the focus, purpose and character of the community
2. Photos and images
3. Videos illustrating community purpose/activities
4. Blog feed with up-to-date information
5. A noticeboard
6. Links for access to information and resources
7. A means of interaction

In the full article on this topic, I explain which Squidoo
modules can be used to meet these needs:
How to Build a Local Community With Squidoo

By way of illustration, here's Ron's award-winning
Squidoo lens for the Morningsong Community Choir, Bulimba:
http://www.squidoo.com/morningsong


**********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
Giant Squid. He provides free resources
for Squidoo affiliate marketing on his Squidoo authority
site:

http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

To learn more about Squidoo Affiliate Marketing

check out:

http://www.squidooaffiliatemarketing.com

Subscribe to Ron's free Squidoo Marketing e-course:

http://www.smsecourse.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Ron is the author of the e-Book:

Squidoo Marketing Strategies

************************************************

Visbilty: free resources to boost your profile

Visibility Consultant, Nancy Marmolejo, provides
a free action report to help you expand your visibility
and increase your Internet profile:

Why Social Networking: 4 Remarkable
Strategies to Grow Your Business, Expand
Your Referral Network, and
Increase Your Visibility.

Nancy is a Visibility Consultant who offers a
wide range of services to support you to
develop your profile and brand yourself.

Her free resources include podcasts that
are valuable insights into strategies for
developing visibility.

One has to be impressed with her choice of niche
given the timeliness of "visibility" within the
context of the explosion in social networking.

Nancy's choice of podcasts as a major marketing strategy
lines up with the busyness of her target audience
and serves as an appropriate medium for her
message.

Nancy offers a solid affiliate program for her product
offerings which include coaching and teleclasses.

Some lessons here for product developers and affiliate
marketers:

1. choose a focus that builds on an emergent trend (so
you grow with it)
2. choose a medium that matches the message
3. be mindful of your audience and how they access
information.

For more information about Nancy's approach,
visit:
Viva Visibility

Related Posts:

• How to become a Giant Squid
• Twitter Traffic Machine: Build your profile and followers
• Squidoo lens: Who are YOU?
• Top 7 reasons why you should build an authority site

**********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
Giant Squid. He provides free resources
for Squidoo affiliate marketing on his Squidoo authority
site:

http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

To learn more about Squidoo Affiliate Marketing

check out:

http://www.squidooaffiliatemarketing.com

Subscribe to Ron's free Squidoo Marketing e-course:

http://www.smsecourse.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Ron is the author of the e-Book:

Squidoo Marketing Strategies

************************************************

Why Create an Authority Site?

In his recent e-Book, Authority Site 2.0 Blueprint,
Mike Paetzold identifies the search engine benefits of
an authority site.

Mike argues that an authority site will enable you to
gain top search engine rankings, attract free traffic
and boost your income accordingly. He suggests
that Web 2.0 with its social networking capabilities
makes it even easier today to create an authority
site that is attractive to Google and the other search
engines.

I could not agree more and this has been
confirmed by my own experience with my
Squidoo Marketing Strategies authority site
(Google PR4 ranking and no1. position for a
number of search term results on Google).

But how do you use Web 2.0 to gain recognition
by Google as an authority site?

Well that is the subject of Mike Paetzold's
comprehensive, 159 page e-Book
(that is going for a steal at the moment).

What I want to concentrate on is what I think
Mike underplays - the value of creating
an Authority Site.

Starting your own authority site is perhaps
the critical ingredient for success in Internet
marketing. Think of any successful marketer...
and what comes to mind?

You know them and buy from them because they
are recognized experts in blogging, social
marketing, AdSense, Google AdWords, SEO, list
building, affiliate marketing, article writing,
weight loss or Squidoo.

They have established their reputation
and gained recognition through their
authority sites.

An "authority" by definition is someone who
exerts influence, has credibility, gains followers,
leads by example and commands attention.

People are attracted to "authority figures",
respect their opinions, want to be associated
with them, quote them, talk and write about
them and voluntarily promote the authority's
expertise through buzz, blogging and social
networking.

Once you have established yourself as an authority,
people begin to trust you and follow your
recommendations. Your conversion rate soars
and daily income becomes a reality.

If you are recognized as an expert, people want
to associate with you and want to listen to
what you have to say. They will seek you out
for joint ventures, product development,
interviews and collaborative marketing.

When you think about it, the Internet would
not exist if people had not first created authority
sites to make it worthwhile for others to use the
Internet to search for information.

Those early pioneers offered information because
they were passionate about their topic. It was only
later that we learned to monetize this information
provision.

The sure road to success on the Internet is to become
established as an authority in your own right -
to create your own authority site.

Mike Paetzold has shown the way to create an
authority site within a Web 2.0 environment:
Authority Site 2.0 Blueprint

**********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
Giant Squid. He provides free resources
for Squidoo affiliate marketing on his Squidoo lens:

http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

To learn more about Squidoo Affiliate Marketing

check out:

http://www.squidooaffiliatemarketing.com

Subscribe to Ron's free Squidoo Marketing e-course:

http://www.smsecourse.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Ron is the author of the e-Book:

Squidoo Marketing Strategies

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