I’m going through the Dale Carnegie Immersion program this month and will be sharing my experience. But before we dig into what I’m learning in this seminar, I want to share with you my experience with Dale Carnegie over the last 23 years ago. This is my first introduction:

I was 19 years old and had just moved from Billings, MT where I had lived since I was 2 years old to Massachusetts to live with my Dad who I barely knew. I had managed to get myself in a little bit of trouble with credit already and living with my Dad was a way for me to earn money to pay things off and get back into college.

Shortly after I moved out to my Dad’s my half brother Danny moved back from California where he had been living since he left the Army a year or so earlier. Danny was jealous of me spending time with Dad because he had been raised by Dad alone his entire life. This caused us to have an uneasy relationship. That relationship was not able to grow into a real brother relationship because my brother Danny died a couple of months later in a crazy, stupid accident.

Danny’s death was very tough on my Dad. Dad had raised Danny by himself since he was just a baby. He had a very rough grieving process and needed time alone to grieve.  I went through my own grieving process as well. I was 19 years old. I had just lost a brother who I didn’t really know.  I was used to being surrounded by friends and family. Suddenly I knew no one and the one person who I had expected to lean on needed me to support him. I was more alone than I had ever been in my life.

To help me get through this period I dove into books searching for an answer. I read all sorts of self-help books that mostly came across as fluff to me.  Then I found Dale Carnegie’s “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living.”  It was my first introduction to his work and I was amazed at the way Dale uses stories to explain his principles. It made everything make sense to me and I went out and used what I learned.

Learning to live in “day tight compartments” alone had an immediate impact on my life. I had been spending a lot of time alone and doing what people do when they are alone “thinking.” It wasn’t good, positive productive thinking. It was a negative spiral of self pity that only built upon itself.

Following the principles in the book enabled me to step back and honestly take stock of my life.  I had been fuming over the past and the things that I could not control. Following Dale’s advice I learned to focus on what I could control and to take action on what I could control without worrying about things that I couldn’t control. Once I started focusing on what I could control, my attitude changed and I quickly pulled myself back up and turned my life around.

Over the last 23 years I’ve read my Dale books a dozen times and always have a copy nearby during good times and during times of turmoil. While I’ve read and learned from many other great teachers in the subsequent years, I will always remember Dale Carnegie’s books for helping a lonely 19 year old put his feet under himself and move forward with his life.

Tomorrow I will share more about my journey with Dale Carnegie

Explaining Twitter to a Non-Techie

Have you ever had to explain witter to someone who has heard of it, but doesn’t know what it is? I dread it, because saying that it’s like texting, but people follow you and you can make lists… goes right over many people’s heads. It can be difficult to get a frame of reference. In the video below Kevin Spacey explains Twitter to David Letterman. It’s pretty funny. Enjoy it and let me know what you think of the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z1aZ7Gs46A&feature=player_embedded

One of my pet peeves is people who leave comments on content or share share content with comments that show that they didn’t read the article. I had a situation a couple of days ago where I saw an article posted by someone who I used to respect. I read the title and his comment and then read the article. The first paragraph proved that he had not read the article and was commenting solely on the title which showed me he has no respect for his audience.

I think this happens for many reasons. In today’s market far too many people are trying to put themselves out there as experts. Most of these self proclaimed experts have been told that they need to leave comments and add value. But that takes too much effort so they leave short, no value,  cut and paste comments or comments simply based on headlines. They don’t realize that they are doing more damage to their brand every time they leave a bad comment.

Too many people are seeking shortcuts and much of the training that is available focuses on those shortcuts. The way to earn respect and followers online is to create value. Creating value differs by your audience and who you want to attract. You attract one audience through thought provoking in depth analysis and a different one by sharing the latest funny YouTube video.

Here are my thoughts on creating value more or less in order:

Create unique content that others will want to share

This takes far more work, but it delivers the most long term value. You are seen as the expert because you have proven yourself through your content. Before you say I can’t do that you need to understand that everyone is an expert at something. Trust me you are. But it’s not always what you want to be an expert in. We’ll explore that in more depth in another post.

Add value to others content.

Take short snippets of someone else’s content and add value. With a blog post you could use a trackback. You can add value providing more in depth analysis of the subject, you can extend the article, you provide your opinion, you can even disagree with the original article, but you need to add value and extend the conversation.

This shows you as the expert and is easier than starting from scratch. This is a good way to get started on those mornings that you just can’t get focused on a topic. If you use a trackback you will attract some attention from the original post and may even get the original blogger/author to come over and start a discussion on your blog.

Commenting

Adding value through comments is a great way to get noticed both by the content producer and by their audience. What you want to do is read the post. Find one or two specific things that you can comment on where you can provide unique value. Then I like to scan the comments and see if there is a good comment addressing the same points. If there is I reply to that comment with my thoughts. If there isn’t I leave my own comment.

Do not leave comments like “Great post” or comments that prove that you did not read the post. Also use your name, don’t be “Montana SEO” keyword stuffing your name in comments is spammy and makes you look like an idiot.

This is valuable because it can help you get noticed by the original content producer and their audience. I know people who have built followings simply by being the top commenter on one or two of the big names in their industry.

Sharing on Facebook on other social networking sites

This is good because it provides an opportunity for you to share great content with your audience. When you do it you want to make sure that you add value to the post even if it’s just one or two sentences. “I liked this post because,  I found this part interesting etc…”

Do not share content with comments that prove that you didn’t read it. It proves that either you are an idiot who can’t read or you have no respect for your audience. Either reason is more than enough for someone to quit following you.

If you don’t have time to leave a good comment either don’t share it or at the very least just share it without a comment . There are many times that I read an article and share it without a comment, but I rarely share anything that I haven’t read.

The key component is that you need to add value. While there is some value in being an aggregator of information, if you don’t add value to that content why do people need you?? Reading Chris Brogan and sharing all of his posts does not make you a social media expert.

Seven things you must do

if you want to be successful in Social Media Marketing

1. Control your schedule

Too many people allow themselves to get buried in the fun social aspects of the social media sites and forget that they are there for business. You need to schedule a block of time every day to spend on your social media marketing efforts and stick to that time. Ideally first thing in the morning so you don’t miss it.

2. Limit your number of Social Media Sites

People jump into dozens or hundreds of sites and try to maintain their profiles on all of those sites. It doesn’t work because it takes too much time and dilutes your focus. Stick to the 2-3 sites that provide the most benefit and automate or forget all of the rest.

3. Learn to write…or speak…or do video

Ideally you do all three, but you must produce content on a consistent basis. The more you write the better you will get. The more you hear yourself speaking the better you will get, the more you see yourself on camera the better you will get…trust me. You should read my earlier material or watch some of my videos. Some of those are really bad 

4. Have an easy to remember, consistent username

Ideally your real name, your brand name or your keywords. Some sites like Facebook, frown upon keywords in your username. Use the same username on all of your sites.

5. Develop a thick skin

The more you build your reputation the more likely you are to have someone come after you. Sometimes they do it in the open and to your face most times they do it when they don’t think you’re listening.

Always be listening and respond appropriately without overreacting.

6. Control the searches on your username

The easiest way to do this is to have a blog your name and profiles on a number of the big social media sites.

If you Google Doug McIsaac everything on the first page is from me and there are only a couple of results in the first four pages that aren’t mine.

Obviously this is easier for me than if my name was John Smith, but there are ways to have a unique username without resorting to luckylady73. Your business username shouldn’t be like your Match.com name.

7. Know who you are and what your goals are from social media.

Too many people get online and just spin their wheels because they didn’t start with a plan. If you’re struggling to figure out where to start go read my mentor Simon Ford’s great post called “Who am I? Who am I not? Who do I want to be? What am I doing about it?” http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=136734128482

What other items do you think are MUSTS that I missed?

As a marketer I’m always intrigued by other people’s marketing and try to learn from what they are doing. This gives me ideas for my clients and my own companies.

I found an innovative company in an unlikely place today. In an industry that I had not expected to see it happen in; school fundraising. My daughter is selling a catalog of products from a company called Innisbrook.

They have their physical catalog that she brings around to show everyone. But they also allow them to order online and to send out emails from the website to friends and family. My ex-wife was asking how that worked so I explained that

have the schools set up as affiliates and the students as sub affiliates.

Here’s the email I received from my daughter. Of and if you’re interested in some great gift wrap or some choicolates feel free to click the link an order it’s for a good cause

Hello!

I am Deborah McIsaac’s daughter (if you have not met me yet…).  My school’s annual fundraiser with Innisbrook has begun.  Innisbrook Wraps has beautifully designed gift wrap printed on quality recycled paper, coordinating gift wrap accessories,  gourmet foods and fine Helen Grace Chocolates that make great gifts, Time Inc. magazine subscriptions, and more.

For every item that is purchased, Innisbrook donates up to 50% of the purchase price to my school. We are going to buy playground equipment. I also earn a prize credit for every item purchased except school supplies.  The more prize credits I earn, the more prizes I win!

Please consider visiting the Innisbrook website and making a purchase on my behalf.  A link is included below. Our sale will be over Monday, October 5, so don’t wait. Place your order today.

Thanks for your help!

Seller: JACQUELINE   Seller ID#  R332979E
School: ELYSIAN SCHOOL
School Number:   118751

Click the link below to visit Innisbrook.com and they will recognize me and my school automatically.

http://www.innisbrook.com/index_students.cfm?id1=R332979E&id2=&id3=

If the above link does not work:
1.  Click below
2.  Enter the Seller ID#  R332979E
www.innisbrook.com/id.cfm

One of the main points here is that you need to ask yourself the question. Am I being creative enough in my marketing? and Am I exploring enough channels to build my business?

I decided to share this video from Gray Vaynerchuk because it reminds me that effort really does pay off. Too many people let themselves get caught up in their concerns about not being smart enough or not having the skills to do something. Skills matter far less than effort and implementation.

One thing you will learn when you reach out and surround yourself with successful business owners is that most of them aren’t any smarter than you are and most of them don’t know as much as you do BUT all of the successful business owners I know share on trait. They have put in the effort necessary to be successful.

The most successful have modeled other successful business owners and reached out for the best coaches because they understand that value that can be found when they implement that one new distinction and one more idea.  Notice I bolded implement, that’s because no amount of raw talent and no amount learning has ever made anyone successful. It all comes down to puting in the effort and implementing.

Enjoy the short video from Gary  V.  If you haven;t heard of him before go to his blog and review some of his other videos. He is one of the thought leaders that I follow and learn from.

This list is slanted towards SEO tools so I will be doing follow-on post that digs into some of my favorite Social Media tools. I also tried to keep this as a toolset that someone with average web skills could use and skipped some of the geekier tools that I use less frequently.

1.       Mozilla Firefox

I was a Microsoft partner for a decade and it took months to get me to switch to Firefox, but now it’s by far my favorite browser.

2.       SEO for Firefox

If you are interested in understanding how your website ranks and why all from one interface the SEO for Firefox tool is one of the best free tools available.

5.       Roboform

Managing passwords is one of the hardest things for those of us who work online, especially if we are managing client websites and social media sites. Roboform helps me manage the hundreds of logins/passwords that I have to manage. You can get a free 10 site version here

6.       Quantcast

Quantcast.com has detailed traffic statistics and estimates for websites so you can get a feel for how big a site is when looking for sites to place ads on. Compete.com is a similar site with free and paid versions .

7.       Google Reader

a.      There are a lot of readers out there, but Google Reader has the best set of tools for segmenting and sharing blog and other RSS feeds.

8.       iGoogle

a.       With iGoogle  can get a quick glance at what is important to me. The modules I use are

i.      Google reader

ii.      Google docs

iii.      Digg

iv.      SEOBook competitive research tool

v.      What’s popular

vi.      Duct Tape Marketing

vii.      Seth Godin

9.       Google Analytics

a.       If your website designer doesn’t share some sort of analytics from your website with you they are an amateur or they don’t want you to know.

b.      I find GA is better than 90% of the paid tools that I’ve tried, yes there are tools that are better and if you control your own server and have a big budget you can purchase them, but none of the low end tools come close to the results you get form Google’s free tool.

10.   Google Keyword tool

There are two ways I use the Google external keyword tool:

a.    Find out if a market is getting any search traffic

Just because a market doesn’t get search traffic doesn’t mean that there isn’t a potential business there, but it does mean that you will need to find another way to get to your market – that will affect tour strategy and your marketing mix

b. To find out what Google thinks a website is about

When we type in a website address we can see what keywords come up. With our own website we find quite often that Google has a very different idea of our site than we have. It can also help when setting up a website you can

My Top ten social media marketing mistakes

Mistakes I made following other Guru’s advice BEFORE I found Social Traffic

Facebook Mistakes

1.    Friend everyone that they find on their favorite gurus friends list or group without so much as explaining why they are friending them. I actually said where I saw them on most of the friend requests.

2.    Accept friend requests from people like the ones above –if someone isn’t interested enough in you to tell you where they met you then the odds are you will never have a real conversation. Most of my real interactions on Facebook are with people I’ve at least talked to on Skype.

3.    Slap up a group and start inviting everyone in my friends list. – worked a little, but I didn’t get any get real traction because I didn’t give people a good reason to be engaged in my group.

4.    Send out info about affiliate products without first asking my audience what they were interested in.

5.    I didn’t engage my audience enough – with my group of 500+ would get  one or two comments if I was lucky when I posted something on the wall

Twitter Mistakes

6.    Went down the wall of my favorite Guru and added everyone following them.

7.    Set up a DM that was something like the following – “Thanks for following me, I have tons of free information at Online4Offline.com” – I received a couple of hundred newsletter sign ups from a thousand or so friend requests.  Before someone reads that and thinks it’s a good idea that was a year ago before everyone and their dog was doing spammy DMs.

8.    Signed up for a friendadder service that FLOODED my DM box with spam. I left that quickly and stopped auto-following everyone back.

Digg and other social bookmarking site mistakes

9.    Bookmarked my own sites across multiple accounts. Occasionally I would slip in another link or two.

10.    Digg banned three of my accounts including my main which I wasn’t using for the spammy stuff. This happened when using strategies and software recommended by a well known Digg guru.
Since finding Simon Ford and Social Traffic I’ve learned to focus on creating and sharing good content that other people will read, share and comment on. Tell me some of the things you were told to do when you got started with social media:

My Mentor, Simon Ford, recently released a teaser video — Facebook for Business Marketing. The facts about Facebook are staggering. I’ve been doing presentations to local business groups and I’ve updated my presentation monthly and will need to do it again.  Enjoy the video there’s a lot more to come.

“United Breaks Guitars” is a great story of how one determined man with the right connections can make a large multi-national pay attention using social media. Here’s the short version of the background story from Dave Carrol.

In the spring of 2008, Sons of Maxwell were traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour and my Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. I discovered later that the $3500 guitar was severely damaged. They didnt deny the experience occurred but for nine months the various people I communicated with put the responsibility for dealing with the damage on everyone other than themselves and finally said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss. So I promised the last person to finally say no to compensation (Ms. Irlweg) that I would write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world.

The long version can be viewed here but wait until you’ve watched the videos they’re pretty good.

This first one is fun and edgy. United sat up and paid attention when it broke a million views in about a week.  As I write this post it’s past 5.5 million views and has helped the Sons of Maxwell, Dave Carroll’s become much more of a known quantity.  It would be interesting to find out how many copies of the songs have sold on iTunes.

Here was the second video that was produced. This was done after United contacted Dave Carroll.

Here’s the final video. It’s a lot less edgy and hasn’t received the viral push that the first video received.  So far it has only received 248,000 views and has been up for a little over a week.  Part of the reason the number of views is so much lower is that this video was delayed and took almot 6 weeks to get out which allowed the buzz to die down. Had this video been releases within 2 weeks of the first video it would have millions of views. That’s one thing about viral buzz, it doesn’t last, you need to keep it going.

Enjoy the video: