In my first post about Pinterest, I provided a basic overview of what Pinterest is and how to use it. In my second post in this series about Pinterest, I gave you some fundamental rules and a few general ideas of how you can use Pinterest to market your business. And last week, in a “hey, this is an interesting topic post,” I talked about ways to protect your content in Pinterest (and all social media, for that matter).

Today, as I complete this series on Pinterest, I want to start out by sharing something interesting that happened as a result of having posted this article series about Pinterest on Pinterest. One of my Pinterest pals asked me, “I have a sign shop and was thinking about doing some type of advertising on Pinterest but I definitely don’t want to turn people off. I’m going to read your pin but I’m just curious if you have some feedback for me.”

I wrote:

“The real key is the same for Pinterest as for all social media: focus on the community, not the advertisement. It’s not about flooding the site with a one-way broadcast, but about engaging in conversation with your audience.

What kinds of things do sign customers want to know? What can you teach them? Post in your blog on those topics. Best practices for signs, what makes a great sign, how to make your sign stand out, etc. Then pin the blog post and tweet about the pin.

I’d also recommend that you create a board dedicated solely to crazy signs. You could also run a contest asking people to create a board with your business name on their accounts and pin weird signs, the weirder the better. Weirdest sign wins…I don’t know, something awesome.”

One thing I really like about social media is that blog posting initially feels a little abstract or isolated…until someone comments and a conversation can begin. Blogging is only the start of the conversation. And sharing this blog post on Pinterest turned a general post into something quite specific. I love that! So I’d like to encourage you to think about how you can write blog posts for your business that can initiate a conversation, once you share the posts in social media, including Pinterest.

Look, Pinterest is cool. It’s fun. It’s addictive. But at the end of the day, it really is just like every other social media platform, in that the rules are the same across the board. Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, G+, and whatever else comes along, the rules are the same. 

So whatever new platforms emerge, while there may be some sort of learning curve associated with the new technology and perhaps some fun and exciting new ways to leverage the specific platform for marketing, the rules of engagement probably won’t change. They won’t change because the rules for social media are the same rules we use in person, and those haven’t changed for eons. We’re talking about things like: When you’re in a room full of people, don’t talk about yourself exclusively. Ask people about themselves. Get to know people. Focus on them and not on you. Build your KLT Factor (know, like, and trust). Engage, converse, discuss. Don’t broadcast or advertise. Deliver value, bring something to the table. Be interesting, but more importantly, be interested.

Break these rules, and you’ll be perceived as obnoxious and your business will suffer. Follow these rules, and you’ll be a welcomed member of the community and you’ll see  a return on your efforts. It’s really just that simple.

I try to keep my personal politics and my faith out of my business. I think these topics are just too… personal, so more often than not, unless there’s something that I simply can’t help speaking out about, you won’t find me talking politics or religion. Make no mistake about it, I love politics. I find it fascinating…but this post is not about politics.

This past Sunday, while watching political commentary, I had a realization: Mitt Romney is teaching us a heck of a lot about business and personal branding right now. In fact, every entrepreneur and small business owner should be watching this guy and looking at exactly what happens when you can’t connect to your target market.

Again, this isn’t about politics. This is about what happens when you, as an entrepreneur, miss the mark with your target audience- when you speak to them in a language they can’t connect with, when they can’t see any way that you can possibly relate to them and their problems, and when, ultimately, you fundamentally fail to help them to build that all-important “KLT Factor.”

What’s the “KLT Factor?” Most entrepreneurs by now have heard that one of the golden rules of doing business is that “people do business with those they know, like, and trust.” Working to build relationships with people so that they can know, like, and trust you is what I call “building your KLT Factor.”

Now, starting with the “K” in the KLT Factor, it’s fundamentally important that your audience knows you. How do you let them know you? By sharing, wisely and strategically, parts of your life and yourself in an authentic way. And as you share more and more with your audience, they develop a mental picture of who you are, a picture that they add detail and color to, the more they get to know you.

Politicians, as a rule, are fairly scripted and calculating about trying to create a picture of who they are for the voters. And while they’re creating these images, their opponents create alternative pictures. Getting to know any candidate in an authentic way is increasingly difficult. Some politicians are able to appear less scripted and more authentic, but as most analysts agree, this is an advantage that Mitt Romney doesn’t really have. And as it’s become more and more apparent, Republicans are increasingly concerned that Romney doesn’t appear to be connecting with the people or letting them in so they can get to know him.

So if we can’t know him very well, what about liking him? This is the “L” in the KLT Factor, and getting your target market to like you means creating a brand that people look at and say, “I’m like the person that brand represents,” “I want to be like the person that brand represents,” or  ”I want to hang out with the person that brand represents.”

Mitt Romney fails to connect with his audience in large part because his net worth has afforded him a certain lifestyle that makes his life experience vastly different from the majority of voting Americans. As a result, few people are likely to look at Mitt Romney and say, “I’m like that guy.” And since much of his wealth was inherited, and Americans generally dislike those they think received their wealth without putting any hard work into it, it’s also unlikely that most people will think, “I want to be like that guy,” when they look at Mitt.

That leaves us with “I want to hang out with that guy” as the only reasonable alternative for Mitt Romney to build the “L” part of his KLT Factor, getting people to like him. One thing that George W. Bush did pretty well was that he seemed like a guy you could go have a beer with. Even if you hated his politics, “W” seemed like he had a sense of humor and like he’d be a little goofy if you were just hanging out with him, shooting the breeze.

Now ask yourself…can you imaging hanging out with Mitt Romney? Or do you get the vibe that he’d be pretty stuffy, perched uncomfortably on his barstool, adjusting his tie, politely waiting for you to finish your beer while he eyed his mug suspiciously, worrying that the glass wasn’t clean?

Finally, how about the “T” in the KLT Factor? Do people trust Mitt Romney? Probably not, now that he’s been portrayed as a “flip flopper” on the major issues.

So, unless I’m misreading virtually everything that’s being said about Mitt Romney, from both the left and the right, his chief failure is to connect and relate to his target market…the one thing every entrepreneur should know is at the very heart of the success of any business.

Lest you think I’m showing my political colors here, let’s look at a brand that handles the KLT Factor brilliantly, Nike.

Do you know what Nike stands for? You sure do. It’s in every single ad and every single commercial. You see those driven, intense, sweaty athletes and you know exactly who those people are.

How about liking them? If you’re one of those athletes, you look at a Nike ad and you think, “Heck, yeah, that’s me!” If you’re not one of those athletes, you most likely look at a Nike ad and you think, “That could be me, if I just got my butt up off the sofa!” And as for trust, well, somehow, you trust that Nike gear is good enough to get your feet on the street, running, sweating, and getting you closer to the goal of being that athlete.

That is what we want to create as entrepreneurs. That’s the kind of connection we want our audiences to feel to our brand, to our products, to us. That’s what draws more people in, makes them want to know more, makes them choose us, choose to buy our products and become our brand ambassadors. It’s always about the connection and the engagement.

Granted, a brand like Nike isn’t exactly the same as the brand of a politician, but they’re not as different as you’d think. And thus far, politics aside, Mitt Romney is giving us a great example to learn from…of exactly how not to build a brand.

Welcome back! Last week we covered the basics of Pinterest, a new social media bookmarking site that’s taking the online world by storm. This week, I’ll cover ways to use Pinterest in your marketing, what to pin, and how to get your stuff into Pinterest without being obnoxious about it.

The first thing I want to address is the issue of how to use Pinterest for business marketing. Marketers have gotten a bad reputation on social media. Plain and simple, there are folks out there who get it wrong and blanket social media with advertisements that feel a lot more like demands than the conversation that social media is intended to be. And that group of marketers have given marketing in general a bad name, because their advertisements and “in your face” commercialism have, at least according to some, ruined sites that others found to be pretty enjoyable on a personal level.

So let’s talk about how to avoid that with Pinterest, because Pinterest is one of the coolest, most enjoyable sites out there right now. Let’s not ruin Pinterest with a bunch of marketing junk! Instead, let’s join together to bring quality content and a higher level conversation to Pinterest that enriches the community, instead of transforming it into a much less-appealing, commercialized marketplace.

1. Don’t be all business. Create boards that are business-oriented, but also create boards that are personal and let people get to know you. Also, bear in mind that Pinterest does not want you using the site for self-promotion, as they tell you in the rules.
2. Don’t be spammy. Whatever you post, post it only once. Don’t repeat-post on Pinterest. See Rule #1.
3. Be a part of the community. Don’t use Pinterest just for marketing and SEO. It’s great for those things, but if that’s the only reason you’re there, you’re missing the point. This holds true for every other social media site, by the way. Join in the conversation. Use the comments field on pins to engage in dialogue with other users.
4. Contribute in multiple ways. Maintain a new pin to old pin ratio of anywhere from 5:1 to 10:1, just make sure you’re both repinning and adding new content.
5. Don’t be the only one pinning from your own site. Make your blog more “pin-worthy” by creating fantastic content, using amazing images in your blog posts, and adding a “Pin It” button on your site (in WordPress, you can use the “Pinterest “Pin It” Button” plug-in, or the “Social Discussions” plug-in, which includes Pinterest, Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.). The “Pin It” buttons make it easier for people to pin your stuff and the quality content makes it more likely they’ll do so.
6. Use the Pinterest-provided “goodies” to let people know you’re on Pinterest. Pinterest provides “follow me” buttons and all kinds of other cool stuff for free here. You can also use plug-ins in WordPress to display your latest pins, which makes it more likely you’ll build a following on Pinterest.
7. Display your pins. You can install the “Super-Simple Pinterest Widget” plug-in in your blog to let people see what you’ve been pinning. This also helps to build your Pinterest following. You can also connect your Facebook presence to Pinterest. Connecting all these social media platforms really helps you to build a tribe. I’ve gotten to know people on Pinterest in a way that I haven’t known them on Facebook or Twitter, and vice versa.
8. Pin first, tweet second. Pin cool stuff to your Pinterest boards, then tweet about the pin. This serves the purpose of expanding your Pinterest following while also delivering your web site or blog content to both social media platforms.
9. Check your web analytics. Pinterest will give you great data. Facebook, not so much, because clicks go through a script filter before heading to your site. On Pinterest, you’ll know exactly what pins sent people to your site. That’s great information!

That’s it for now on the Pinterest front. More next week. Got more ideas about how to use Pinterest? Share ‘em!

Yesterday, on Andrea Mitchell Reports on MSNBC, Rick Santorum’s main supporter, Foster Friess, had this to say about Bayer aspirin:

(if you don’t feel like watching the video, Friess said, “This contraceptive thing, my gosh, it’s so inexpensive. Back in my days, they used Bayer aspirin for contraceptives. The gals put it between their knees, and it wasn’t that costly.”)

Regardless of where you stand politically, one can imagine that Bayer Aspirin can’t be too thrilled with these comments (unless you think “gals” are going to run out to buy Bayer now). Just last May, Time Magazine reported that Bayer is really only well-known among a particular demographic- older Americans with heart conditions. The reason? Due to some pretty outstanding marketing strategies in the late ’80s, Bayer aspirin became known as the go-to preventative for heart attacks and strokes in older adults, and people pretty much forgot that originally, Bayer was intended to be a pain medication.

That article inTime Magazine pointed to a new marketing strategy by Bayer to expand their 14.6% market share with faster-acting aspirin and brightly-colored packaging that might appear to a younger demographic in their 40s. But now, a 71 year-old man has made what even Rick Santorum is calling a “bad joke” and tied Bayer to archaic notions of contraception and angry mobs. What would you do if you were Bayer? Well, Bayer is an old company formed in the 1800s in Germany, and they’ve certainly weathered worse storms in their lifetime as a company. So they might be tempted to ride this one out.

But if I was in charge of handling this problem at Bayer, I’d have a few suggestions as to what Bayer could do to turn the tide of this one:

• Put out an entertaining, “old school style” educational video on YouTube, featuring the President or CEO of Bayer, or at least a high-ranking executive, preferably a woman, talking about responsible birth control and emphasizing that there are many, more effective options than holding a Bayer aspirin between your knees.
• Create a marketing campaign around the fact that Bayer actually helps create a need for effectively responsible birth control options, as with Bayer, the “Honey, I have a headache,” excuse won’t work anymore, because Bayer relieves headaches so darned well.
• Start partnering with groups like the National Organization for Women and Planned Parenthood to develop programs to educate young women and men about birth control options.

Those are just three of the ways that Bayer could take this potentially damaging and awkward connection to an inappropriate (at the least) remark by Foster Friess and turn it into an opportunity.

The question is…will Bayer ignore Friess’ comments and hide their collective heads under their pillows or take their own medicine, as it were, man up, and leverage this moment?

What would you recommend Bayer do?

Happy Valentine’s Day! In honor of today, the day of love, I thought I’d share a few insights into what I’ve learned about business from the one who knows more about love than anyone else: Cupid. Why Cupid? Well, first of all, he’s build an extremely successful personal brand for himself and has been around forever. Second, he’s a cute little baby…and who doesn’t like babies? So here goes…

1. Do what you love, but don’t let passion get the better of you.

Love matters in business, believe it or not. In fact, it’s so important that I made it the first lesson of Mega-Successful Entrepreneurs: Find Your Fervor – find what you love and what you’re really fervent about and that’s the first step to finding success. It’s not the only thing that matters, but if you don’t love what you do, you’ll wake up dreading every day. In contrast, when you do what you love, you wake up excited about what you get to do every day.

However, you don’t want to let passion get the better of you, which is why I try to avoid using that word, “passion,” when I talk about business. I reserve passion for things like my family and personal life, so that I can keep a cool head in business and make decisions from a place of calm.

2. Age is irrelevant to success.

Cupid is a baby and he’s mega-successful. So…why should age matter? It doesn’t matter if you’re young and it doesn’t matter if you’re a senior. You’re not too young and you’re never done. Take a cue from the baby with the arrow and follow your dreams, no matter what your age.

3. Good PR can overcome an ugly history.

Before Geoffrey Chaucer, St. Valentine was a name that actually referred to a few different guys, all of whom were martyred. The head of one of the Valentine’s was even preserved. Seriously, I read it on Wikipedia. Point is, as soon as Chaucer showed up in the High Middle Ages and he and his friends started giving each other candy and flowers, nobody remembered the bloody history of Valentine. Even if you make a few mistakes or don’t get things right at first, history can be pretty forgiving with the right PR.

4. Success in business requires good aim.

If Cupid misses with his bow and arrow, people don’t fall in love. What a sad, lonely, loveless world we’d live in if Cupid had bad aim, right? Likewise, if you have bad aim, you’ll miss your target market and no one will find your products or services or know you exist. Success in business requires good aim- there’s a reason they call it a target market.

5. Sometimes a good thing needs a little nudge.

Love isn’t always easy- sometimes a little help is required to move things along. That’s what Cupid is for. Likewise, business isn’t always easy- sometimes a little help is required to move things along. That’s what coaches and consultants are for. Sometimes you need a little help to create a structured plan for your business growth, to learn new marketing strategies, to gain insight into the ways that mega-successful entrepreneurs become so mega-successful.

Believe it or not, even though I help entrepreneurs to create and grow mega-successful businesses, I have a business coach/consultant of my own who can see the forest of my business when all I can see is the trees. Lovers turn to Cupid when they need a nudge…you can turn to a trusted business coach or consultant.

There are lots more business lessons you can learn from Cupid, I’m sure, but these are the first five I learned. And stay tuned…next month, I’ve heard St. Patrick will be stopping by! Until then, have a very happy Valentine’s Day! May you receive many bouquets of roses and chocolate hearts!!!

Lately there’s been a ton of blog posts, conversations, and more about Pinterest, the social bookmarking site that’s growing crazy fast. I’ve been using Pinterest for several months and knew right away I wanted to leverage Pinterest as a business-building tool…but before I shared my ideas with you, I did what I usually do when I want to come up with a new marketing strategy for you- I studied how big brands re using Pinterest to build and market their brands so I could translate their big business ideas into small business strategies.

As we’ve been working on the new Business in Blue Jeans web site, I’ve given quite a bit of thought to how I can make the site and the blog more Pinterest-friendly. But maybe you’re not yet familiar with Pinterest or maybe you’re still trying to figure out how a site like Pinterest can benefit your business…or maybe you think that the recent proliferation of Pinterest-related posts are really just awesome justifications for Pinterest addicts to justify all the time we’re spending pinning spectacularly beautiful images to imaginary boards.

Well, let’s break it all down, shall we? We’ll start with the basics this week, then move on to more advanced “how to’s” of marketing next time.

What Is Pinterest?

They’re calling Pinterest a social bookmarking web site, but it’s far more than that. Imagine a cork bulletin board where you use pushpins to hang all kinds of things you love- beautiful images that inspire you, photos of places you want to go, ticket stubs from events you enjoyed, hairstyles you ripped out of magazines, home improvement projects and recipes you want to try, articles with diet tips or social media how-tos, etc. Pinterest is pretty much just like that, only in a digital, web-based medium.

Why do I want to use Pinterest for business?

On the surface, let’s be honest, Pinterest seems like an enormous time-suck. But once you dive into the research, you’ll be amazed at what Pinterest is doing for businesses. First, Pinterest is growing. Massively. In fact, it’s the fastest-growing site ever. Ever.

With well over 10 million members and more signing on every minute, Pinterst is The Place To Be. So your audience is probably already there.

Pinterest is also driving a lot of clicks, so if your content is good and your images are pretty, your stuff will get shared, re-shared, and every share will deliver referrals to your web site.

And, if you’re a micro-entrepreneur and building a personal brand, Pinterest is a great way to get a little more personal with your audience. I spend most of my time writing about business, but all you have to do is hang out with me on Facebook for a few minutes to find out that I have a lot more going on in my life than just business. But there’s a lot in my life that I don’t get to share in a meaningful way with my audience, simply because it doesn’t come up. Pinterest is a wonderful way for me to connect with people in a new, more intimate way that allows people to get to know me and my style a little better than they would otherwise.

Pinterest also offers a lot of creative, interesting ways to connect with other professionals and reach your target audience in entirely new ways. You can hold contests, offer special promotions, do a giveaway to reward users who repin and share your content, and much more.

Plus, Pinterest offers an entirely new way to get to know your audience, what their interests are, and what they find appealing. Looking at the number of repins you receive should give you a good way to gauge what content your audience likes…so that you can create more of it.

How do I get an account on Pinterest?

Pinterest is invitation-only, which means you can go to Pinterest.com and request an invitation, or you can find somebody who has an account and request an invitation from them, which is usually the faster route.

What do I do, once I have an account?

First, I suggest the same thing I recommend for all social media sites- take some time to look around. Click on the Pinterest logo in the middle of the top of your screen, then roll over “Everything” and just start looking around. Find some people whose pins and boards you like and connect with them by following them. Get a sense for how things work in this social medium.

Note that, just as with other social media platforms, the brands that are building the strongest visibility on Pinterest aren’t just pinning their own stuff. The goal is to build community- just as with Twitter, where you build relationships by retweeting and commenting on others’ tweets, build relationships on Pinterest by commenting on others’ pins and repinning them.

Once you get a sense of how things work, set up your profile. Some marketers have been suggesting that you use your business name as your Pinterest username. I strongly disagree with that idea. Definitely include your business name in your profile (see below) and link to your web site. But unless you’re a larger-scale business with staff contributors/pinners or a magazine, use your own name.

People want to connect with you on social media. For example, I have a business page on Facebook, but I find that more people want to know me than my brand. And especially if you’re in a service industry, people do business with people. Remember that old, “Know, Like, and Trust Factor?” Well, if you hide behind a brand and don’t give people the chance to know you, it’ll be hard for them to build that KLT Factor with you.

Just as on Twitter, my user ID on Pinterest is SueBMoe.

Once you’ve set up your profile, start setting up your “pinboards,” which are like those cork boards I was talking about earlier. You can create as many as you want. Topic-based boards work best. For example, I keep recipes I like in my “Nom Nom Nom” board and business tips in my “Business Tips” board. Then start pinning stuff you like.

How do I pin stuff on Pinterest?

To pin stuff that you find outside of Pinterest, I highly recommend the Pin It bookmarklet. You’ll find that in your “About” menu under “Pin It Button.” The bookmarklet allows you to pin anything from a web site (except Facebook, unfortunately) by just clicking “Pin It.”

*Pinterest Secret Tip*
If you highlight text on the page before you click “Pin It”
then the text appears in the description field of your pin.

You can also upload your own stuff by clicking “Add +” from the top right corner of your screen. This link allows you to enter a web site address or upload your own images from your computer.

Finally, you can look through the overall feed or, once you’re following people, your own feed, and re-pin others’ pins to your own boards by rolling over the top of the image and selecting “Repin.” You can also Like pins and Comment on pins, and all of your activity will show up in your feed so every single one of your followers will see all of your activity (so don’t pin anything you don’t want everyone to see- currently there’s no way to create private boards).

(For more details on how to use Pinterest, especially if you’re a techie newbie and need more help than I’ve provided here, make sure to check out Neil Patel’s post. He’s got some great step-by-steps and also has a list of how several companies are using Pinterest in their marketing and branding strategies.)

Next time, I’ll cover some more advanced strategies- ways to use Pinterest in your marketing, what to pin, and how to get your stuff into Pinterest without being obnoxious about it.

Santa knows a lot about business! Even if, say, this particular guy looks slightly sinister.

This time of year, many of us are thinking about Santa Claus and looking forward to his visit down the chimney (and trying to remember not to light a fire on Christmas Eve!)It occurred to me this morning that Santa is a deliverer of quintessential customer service.

Is anyone truly unhappy with Santa’s work? Not really. People return year after year to Santa to put in their holiday wishes, and he rarely gets complaints. So I thought it appropriate to share with you some of the business lessons I’ve learned over the years by observing St. Nick.

Pay attention to detail.
Santa makes a list and checks it twice. He really pays attention to detail and makes sure no mistakes are made. Are you as careful? Be diligent with your customers and clients and give the same attention to detail as Santa, and you’ll have loads of happy customers, which translates to repeat business.

Hire good people.
The elves always do amazing, impeccable work. They have a strong work ethic, they know how to get things done, and they put a lot of care into creating the best toys possible. These are the qualities you should look for when you hire people to do work for your business, too, even if you’re outsourcing. Your employees and contractors and their work product represent your company. Make sure they represent you well.

Do what you say you’re going to do when you say you’re going to do it.
Santa promises to deliver all toys on Christmas Eve, so that when you wake up Christmas morning, your stocking is filled and your biggest wish is granted. You never wake up on Christmas, only to discover that Santa just didn’t make it. You never get an e-mail from Santa saying, “I’m sorry, we just couldn’t make our deadline this year.” Likewise, always deliver what you promise within your projected timeline and you’ll make your customers and clients very happy.

Love what you do (or at least look like you do).
Did you ever notice how Santa is always smiling? Whether he’s asking children what they want for Christmas, checking off his “naughty and nice” list, or delivering the toys, he’s always smiling. You get the sense that Santa really loves what he does, and that makes it so much nicer to receive gifts from Santa, because you know he’s getting joy out of doing good. One imagines that Santa wouldn’t frown, even if the elves revolted or the reindeer just weren’t behaving properly that day. Your customers and clients should always feel like you love what you do, no matter what’s going on in your day (or the day of your customer service reps). They should never feel like a burden, but always like a joy.

Market yourself well.
Santa does an amazing job of marketing himself, doesn’t he? You can’t pass a grocery store without hearing the clang clang of the Salvation Army Santa, and you can’t visit a mall without seeing a line of children waiting to talk to Santa. You see, Santa has wisely set up a network of outsourced Santas who deliver exceptional PR for him, plus he’s made strategic partnerships with charities so he appears just about everywhere. And don’t get me started on merchandising. You can market yourself just as well as Santa does by setting up your own marketing campaigns and strategic partnerships. Get yourself out there and increase your visibility.

Do good.
Speaking of strategic partnerships, Santa does good in the world. He delivers toys to children who live in poverty and brings a certain measure of comfort to millions around the world. He lends his image to thousands of charitable causes and makes a difference in the world around him. I hear that every one of Santa’s elves is required to volunteer a certain number of hours each month. You can do good in the world, too, through your business. Business in Blue Jeans donates a portion of our profits to a list of charities that are meaningful to me, but you can make a difference in a ton of different ways. Always be on the lookout for ways to do good in the world.

Santa’s not the only one who can do an amazing job, delight people around the world, and make a big difference. You can do the same thing with your business…you just have to have the spirit of the holidays. Enjoy!

Ever since I gained a certain level of visibility and credibility in the marketplace, I’ve been bombarded with private messages and e-mails from people who want me to promote their books, products, teleseminars, live events, telesummits…

I’m particular about who and what I promote. I only share people and products I have personal experience with. I only share things that have helped me and improved my business. If I connect with someone or read a book that just didn’t help me, I’ll be darned if I’m going to promote that to my subscribers and followers, just to get a fat commission. I’ve never believed in promotion for profit. It’s just not my style.

But what bothers me most is that I regularly receive requests for help from people who have befriended me on Facebook, never said “hello,” and then sent me a message a couple of weeks later asking me to promote their new book and help them get to “bestseller status” on Amazon.

Why would I do that??

Why would I ever promote someone I don’t know? Why would I promote content I haven’t reviewed? How could I possibly recommend someone I don’t know and maintain my own integrity and authenticity?

I imagine there are people who will promote anything, thinking that associating themselves with someone they perceive as more successful makes them look more successful. It doesn’t.

So here’s the scoop: if you want people to promote your products, here’s the way to do it:

1. Create really solid content. Don’t hold back. Give everything you’ve got and make sure you have a good editor (for print or audio).
2. Form strong relationships with other entrepreneurs and small business owners who have the same target market. Look for complimentary businesses to form alliances with.
3. Talk to people. Get to know them. Comment on blogs, Facebook pages, articles, and show your support.
4. Bring value to the table for other people before you ask them to do something for you. Believe it or not, things like what I mentioned in #3 are ways of bringing value and forming a relationship with someone. I remember the people who post comments on my Facebook status updates and blog posts.
5. If you want someone to promote your product or book for the first time and they haven’t seen your content before, send them a copy of your work before asking them to promote it. You might end up with a great blurb for your book cover or web site and you might also gain a fan.

Ultimately, the most important point I can make here is that if you’re using social media as a business networking tool, make sure you use it the right way. Remember to focus on the “social” part of social media. It’s all about the connection and the conversation.

These days, anyone and everyone are calling themselves an “expert” and there are tons of business “coaches” who are promoting the idea that you don’t need experience, education, or training to be an expert. So…what is an expert, anyway?

Let’s start with the dictionary definition:

Expert.
noun. a person who has special skill or knowledge in some particular field; specialist; authority.
adjective. possessing special skill or knowledge; trained by practice; skillful or skilled (often fol. by in or at).

Okay, that gives us a lot to go on.

To be an expert, you must have special skill or knowledge in some particular field.
How do you acquire special skill or knowledge in a particular field? First and foremost, I recommend reading. I’ve read over 3,000 books on small business, marketing, branding, personal growth, success, and profitability. But believe me, it’s not enough just to read. You have to read with a critical mind. You can’t read every single book and think they all contain The Answers. In fact, many books I’ve read contain one or two great thoughts, and the rest of the book simply builds on the theme. Other books have so many gems and wisdom, they tend to look like they’ve been through a war, with all the underlining and dog-eared pages. You have to learn to discern quality and substance, more than anything else.

Second, I recommend training. Take classes and courses in your area of study. I started my career as a web developer and I took tons of classes to acquire the skills I needed to be successful. Later, I taught classes in web development, and believe me, you become an expert very quickly when you teach! When I got carpal tunnel syndrome and had to change careers, I took a ton of training to be a coach. I didn’t take one course and call myself a coach. I took several courses and relied heavily on my Master’s degree in social psychology as well. And when I transitioned in to business consulting, I studied marketing and branding, startup and growth, and worked with mentors who taught me what they knew as well.

And that leads me to the third recommendation: study with the masters. Study with people who have vast amounts of experience in your field. Ask them to mentor you, as I did, and see if they’ll teach you or allow you to apprentice.

To be an expert, you must be trained by practice.
In Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers, he shares a number that many of us know: 10,000. 10,000 hours is the number of hours it takes to become a master at something, to be truly proficient. So if you’re a chef, it takes 10,000 hours (or 10 years) to become a master chef. If you’re a violinist, it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become truly proficient. Likewise, if you’re a coach, it’ll take you 10,000 hours or 10 years to be a master (not in title, but in practice). I didn’t call myself an expert in small business until I had 10 years under my own belt. You just need time in the field and lots of practice to get beyond theory and to really know what you’re doing.

To be an expert, you must be an authority.
You know, there are lots of ways to become an authority. People all over the net are showing you how to become an “authority” or achieve “expert status” by marketing articles and using strategic PR…but you become a true authority when you have studied and trained and practiced, and achieved credibility and legitimacy. Ultimately, you achieve authority status when you achieve the respect of your peers and of those who have less experience and practice than you.

At the end of the day, anybody can call themselves an “expert.” But authentically, are you really one?

“We’ll show you how to get on the Oprah show”
“Some of the graduates of our program have gone on to appear on Tony Robbins’ stage!”
“We’re always getting calls from publicists who want to know who’s hot right now so they can put them on Oprah.”

Have you heard any of these claims before? Maybe someone was trying to sell you a public speaking course, a public relations program, or your very own internet radio show, and they used what I call the “Oprah and Tony Marketing Strategy” to do it.

What is the “Oprah and Tony Marketing Strategy?” It’s a sales and marketing technique that’s based in another old strategy I like to call the “overpromise, underdeliver” strategy. They promise you the sun, moon, and stars, but deliver very little in the way of usable content or implementation. The Oprah and Tony Marketing Strategy is basically the “overpromise, underdeliver” strategy on steroids.

Let’s face it, if you’re a writer or an expert of any kind, if you have a message and you think it’s your life purpose to deliver that message to the world, then getting on Oprah’s show or Tony’s stage is your path to greatness, right? After all, Oprah changed the lives of Dr. Phil, Rachel Ray, and Dr. Oz, among many others. And Tony Robbins’ stage is the Holy Grail of public speaking, shared only by the best of the best.

Of course you want to get noticed by Oprah and Tony. And that’s what smart marketers and salespeople are counting on.

Let me tell you what happened to me the other day:

I received an e-mail on Facebook from a producer of an internet radio show company, subject line “Media Request.” He said that his company was developing a new internet radio show about small business and that I’d come up on his “radar” as a credible expert. He said he wanted to talk to me to see about having me host the show.

Luckily, I had heard of this company before, otherwise I might’ve been flattered by the “media request” (which, btw, is typically reserved for interview requests). I have to confess, I already didn’t like this company to begin with, because they named their company specifically to take advantage of a well-known classic in American radio, in the hopes, I think, of confusing people into thinking they were going to be appearing on that program or station.

But the thing is, I wanted to know what they were selling – I know some people who have been taken in by them, so I wanted to know how much they charge and what they promise. So I set up the meeting with the guy and settled in for the sales pitch.

As expected, this was a perfect example of the Oprah marketing strategy. I heard all about the many famous authors this guy had produced shows for, the implication being that if I did the show, then I’d become a famous author just like them, nevermind that none of them were currently paying him a dime, nor could I get confirmation that they had paid this particular company for this particular service. The fee was $6,700 for a 13-week internet radio show, and the guy said they’d help me produce it and then market it for me, so all I would have to do is call in each week, do my show, and then go on my merry way, doing nothing whatsoever to market the show after that. And by the way, publicists, PR reps, agents, and producers for shows like Oprah listened in on this particular company’s broadcasts all the time to find new talent, and they call this guy all the time to find out “who’s hot” and who they should bring on their shows for interviews.

See how slick that is? So basically, for a mere $6,700, I could get famous with my own radio show, have to do virtually none of the marketing stuff we all hate, and get on the Oprah show??? And you know that’s what most people hear.

But you have to listen in between the lines and know enough to know when you’re getting scammed. The marketing services they offered were minimal, some were unnecessary, and frankly, you could do much better yourself.

More importantly, there are companies that offer the same services for free, or with cool add-ons, up to $999 for an entire year of your own internet radio show. So why would you pay almost seven grand for this? Oh yeah…because you might get on Oprah.

Let me tell you another story. This time, a woman who found me on Facebook contacted me and set up a phone meeting to talk about a public speaking training program she was developing. She wanted to ask me (as well as several others) what I would want in such a program, so she could make sure to include stuff that people really wanted to learn. When we talked on the phone, she dropped several well-known names and bragged about how she can get people on Tony Robbins’ stage.

People? Seriously? When someone is trying to sell you something and they tell you they can get you on stage with Oprah or Tony? Hang up. Delete the e-mail. That is one of the biggest red flags of all time. Unless you’re talking to Oprah’s producer or reading an e-mail from someone with an e-mail address ending in tonyrobbins.com, stop falling for this nonsense! None of the big names you know were overnight successes because they paid for an internet radio show, a public speaking program, or anything else.

And I hate to say this, because for some of you, this might sting a little. It might seem harsh, but it’s the truth, and you need to hear it.People use the Oprah and Tony Marketing Strategy to prey on people who believe that the world is waiting to discover them. These are the same people  who have been told that all they have to do to be successful is find their “life purpose” or their “passion” and then everything will be easy.

Small business is not easy. It requires work. You have to work hard and you have to work smart. Don’t be fooled into thinking you can build a million-dollar (or multi-million dollar) business on a 4-hour work week! Sure, there are ways to work smart so that you don’t have to work a 40 or 60 hour work week, but please, stop looking for the easy way out. Stop looking for the easy answers or for the magic bullet and start taking responsibility for yourselves and for your success, and remember that unless you’re hiring a reputable publicist with a solid, proven track record, the likelihood of you getting on Oprah is…unfortunately…slim to none. Not impossible, but unlikely. And Oprah is not the only path to becoming notable. So settle down and pay your dues wisely, and it’ll be easier to spot the scams.