Online Thought Leaders: Social Media’s First Magazines
I’ve been saying “Connectivity is the NEW Currency” for years now.
The power of the network effect is undeniable in this case.
Due the the Network Effect, these four magazines are launching with a higher circulation than the previous business category leaders, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Businessweek and Fortune combined.
I’m just posting the release as is for now. Will come back later and give some commentary later in a few days…
Stay Connected – Michelle P.
Partnerships Create World’s Leading Circulation Business Magazines with 13.8 Million Distribution
NEW YORK (September 7, 2011) – With social media’s influence growing at a rapid pace, entrepreneurs are embracing it to stay ahead of the curve – and their competition. And now social media’s first magazines – set to debut in October 2011 – are partnering with professional communities EFactor.com and The Pro2Pro Network to expand their business circulation to 13.8 million at launch. This circulation surpasses previous business circulation leader, Wall Street Journal, with 2.1 million subscribers.
EFactor is the world’s largest entrepreneurial community, with members spanning 180 countries. They are a social network and one-stop shop for entrepreneurs, providing them with free resources such as access to funding and savings through exclusively negotiated member discounts.
The Pro2Pro Network is the largest professional-to-professional referral network in North America. Pro2Pro is where doctors and professionals go for referrals. Their network of entrepreneurs, doctors, attorneys and other professionals is like Match.com for professionals, bringing together like minded geo-targeted professionals who want to establish mutually beneficial referral relationships.
Associate Publisher and best-selling author Eric Yaverbaum says these partnerships reflect the mission of the social media magazines. “These networks really walk the walk of serving their members. By providing our four social media magazines to their constituents for free, they are allowing their members to play the social media game as an informed player. Without this kind of instruction they would find it more difficult to attract customers, translating into lower visibility and lost sales.”
“The influence and power of social media is critical for entrepreneurs,” says founder of EFactor Adrie Reinders. “Our partnership with the four Social Media Magazines is an excellent example of how we provide the most up-to-date information on how entrepreneurs can engage with their customers and increase their profits.”
The four social media magazines, FB & Business (Facebook), Tweeting & Business (Twitter), LI & Business (Linkedin), and The Big G & Business (Google) include a team of the nation’s most influential social media and business minds. The magazines are designed to help businesses and executives leverage the power of the four leading social media platforms, services that are immensely important for entrepreneurs to master.
“Prior to partnering with EFactor & The Pro2Pro Network we already had millions of readers through our exclusive distribution partnership with Office Depot,” says Larry Genkin, GSG WorldMedia’s founder, publisher and CEO. “Now each of our four publications will launch with a higher circulation than the previous business category leaders, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Businessweek and Fortune combined.”
“The combination of EFactor.com and Pro2Pro Network’s vision, with our experts’ knowledge allows us to give 13.8 million entrepreneurs and business people access to the best minds in social media today and for free. As an added bonus, the print publications will also be available in digital format at no cost,” adds Genkin.
Further solidifying the magazines as the “go-to” resource on social media for entrepreneurs and business executives, the publications have signed top experts to contribute editorially. Such masters include entrepreneur and NFL great Fran Tarkenton; Guerrilla Marketing author Jay Conrad Levinson; Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, who Forbes named one of the world’s top 15 most influential business thinkers; Robert Scoble, who gained fame as Microsoft’s “Geek” blogger; Yanik Silver, known as the “godfather of Internet marketing;” and behavioral economist and the best-selling author of the business classic Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely.
About EFactor: EFactor.com was founded by a team of successful serial entrepreneurs. At EFactor.com, entrepreneurs exchange ideas with experts, receive exclusive discounts on business tools, interact with potential partners or clients, and discover funding for their startups. EFactor offers a unique mix of online and offline events in the US and internationally. Members join EFactor to make relevant connections, taking their businesses to the next level.
About Pro2Pro Network: Provides strategic business-building marketing solutions for doctors and professionals by scheduling pre-screened, pre-qualified mutually beneficial meetings for professionals with other local professionals who want to establish referral relationships.
About Social Media Magazines: The four social medial publications include FB & Business (Facebook), Tweeting & Business (Twitter), LI & Business (Linkedin), and The Big G & Business (Google), and will be available at launch in 8 formats, including iPhone, iPad, Android, tablet, BlackBerry, Kindle, multimedia and print. All digital subscriptions are free, courtesy of Office Depot, EFactor and The Pro2Pro Network, with a subscription to the monthly print edition, priced at $179 per year per magazine. Free digital subscriptions are available online at www.socialmediamags.com
Online Thought Leadership: Can Twitter Put You in a Trance?
Do people who know how NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) or hypnosis works have an unfair advantage on Twitter & Facebook, among other social networks?
I think they DO. (Ummm…I KNOW they do. Some of my best friends are master NLP and persuasion artists and they have LOTS of Twitter followers who do what-ever-they-tell-them-to-do 
.
If there was anyone who would know for sure, it’s Richard Bandler.
You know, THAT Richard Bandler. The one considered the “Grandfather” of NLP. And a REALLY great hypnotist.
I was talking with a colleague and she happened to mention his new book, Richard Bandler’s Guide to Trance-Formation (she’s his publicist). I mentioned how fascinated I’ve always been with NLP and the ability to understand someone’s mental map and how they think. And how cool it would be to actually meet Richard Bandler.
What I told her I didn’t have was a simple explanation for what NLP actually is, and how it works.
I’ve read a lot of books that went into laborious details about it, gave all these long drawn out explanations on all of the terms, complete with illustrations of eyes looking up, looking down, looking left and down, looking right and up (reminding me of that rhyme we used to say in elementary school “Look UP, Look DOWN, Look at my THUMB, Gee You’re DUMB…LOL!). I think they called them “accessing cues”…
All it did was make me dizzy and not want to think about it. So many unread pages….
So she sent me an email one day not long after and asked if I would be interested in interviewing him. (umm..YES!!)
I got a copy of the book, and I must say that in the first 3 short chapters, I actually GOT what NLP is. Forever.
If you’re interested, it’s how we represent the world in our own mind – the map or model we create to make sense of and navigate around the world AND the distinct way we each process our experiences.
Does understanding how you process experience give someone an unfair advantage on Twitter when they want to persuade you to “click here” to “see”, or “listen” to or “download and read”?
Does knowing how to use certain words that are more hypnotic and trance-inducing than others make a difference in whether you actually take any action at all?
Good questions. Listen to my interview on The Business of Online Thought Leadership Radio with Richard Bandler and hear what he has to say about social media, hypnosis, trance and NLP.
It’s right here:
Does Twitter Put You In A Trance? Dr. Richard Bandler tells you the truth
read moreFacebook Fatigue? Start Your Own Social Network
I think I have a slight case of Facebook Fatigue… If I get one more group message inviting me to an event 4,000 miles away I don’t really want to say what I will do, it’s not polite for ladies to say such things (as my mother would say).
Please (she ducks) don’t throw rotten tomatoes at me just yet…I think Facebook is still the most “fun” social network for business I’ve ever seen.
It just also has the ability to quickly fritter away MEGA time (a nice way of saying “time-suck) if you don’t have what my friend Kevin Nations calls a “Profit Strategy”. In other words, a real business model, with a sales system that can turn all that socializing into bottom line dollars and cents – eventually, after you’ve established your social hierarchy, trust and likeability.
Because at the end of the day, we all know that people buy from people they know and people they like – and how can you not like someone who has the audacity to throw Paris Hilton at you? (umm, yep, I’m talking to you Rodney Rumford, FaceReviews Guru )
It’s been my observation over the past 4 years of working with mega-entrepreneurs (John Assaraf, Les Brown, Scott Martineau, most recently, Jerry Conti, my Purpose Posse over at HUB – Humanity Unites Brilliance) that the truly successful 7 & 8 figure + business owners create the sandbox and invite others to play with them, not the other way around.
In other words, they throw the party (or seminar) and collect 50% from the people they put on the platform in front of their audience.
Or better yet, they are the ONLY ones speaking on their platform, it’s their platform, and they aren’t afraid to use it. When you think of it, when have you ever seen Tony Robbins share his stage with someone else? VERY seldom. And if he does, they’re usually delivering his programs, not theirs.
There’s something to be said for continuity and a gated community.
I’ve been quietly playing over at Ning.com, where you can create your own social network with ease.
Now I’m “easing” several of my clients into developing their own private online communities where it’ll be all them, all the time. And, as Lady Fortune (or Law of Attraction would have it, my “Diamond Rolodex” delivered the ideal connection once again – a client introduced me to my new best friend, who is a “Ning Ninja”, and very good friends with Ning.com co-founders…if that isn’t attraction in action, I don’t know what is!
What’s really cool about Ning is the fact that you can private label it for your business – use your own domain name, display your own ads, and even remove their branding. The main consideration in setting it up is what your strategy will be to:
- Get people to come (for what will they come?)
- Get them to engage (why will they stay?)
- Get them to come back
- Get them to tell their friends
- Get them to buy your stuff
Another way to use the private label function is to use it as your own membership site – I know of at least one very well known spiritual teacher who is doing this with great success. She charges a monthly subscription that includes weekly audio, a monthly teleseminar and ongoing access and conversations.
And she gets their full attention, because they’re paying her for what she has that they want. Can we say “social network profit model”?
Works for me. What say you?
Update: I’ve since launched a consulting package called Instant Platform 2.0 to strategize and launch niche social networks/online communities for experts, and help them get their first “1000 True Online Fans”.
Here are a few of the ones under way…
www.SocialNetworkingSalon.com
Training wheels playground for my Social Networking Boot Camp for Women Entrepreneurs to learn how to play in the social networking scene in a supportive environment. Will start to conduct ongoing teleseminars with experts in social networking and social media, also business experts.
www.ContributionNetworkingParty.com
Virtual companion site for a live event that happens every three months)
www.TheSingerLink.com
Goal is to link hundreds of thousands of singers around the world, and meet at live Choirfest events that host up to 22,000 singers at a time!
www.WakeUpGirlCommunity.com
Author community built around the topic of getting over a bad-breakup: “Wake Up Girl! From Break-up to Wake-Up”
Launching Soon:
Business Black Belt Network – an online community for JIAN.com business planning software company with 180,000 existing customers. This will allow customers to network and will have a nice Marketplace to list services/products. If you are a consultant who works with small business owners, email me to find out how you can participate.
read moreSocial Media Live Lab: How To Turn Your Expertise into an”Experience” That Pays Off
I saw this blog post titled “How do you turn your web ideas into experience?” and it’s very timely – it generated the title for this post. I’ve been meaning to get a post up for about a week now, and the reason I haven’t is because I’ve been deep into being a “social media practitioner”, helping 3 women entrepreneurs turn their expertise into web ideas then into social media experiences. (And into profits sooner rather than later). Yeah!
Key word here is “experience”.
In the new Network Economy and increasingly networked, always-on world we live in, it’s not enough to think that you can join a social network and take, take, take before you give. You really have to step up your game. In other words – Commodities are out, Dynamic Value is in. (ask Marshall Thurber – he rocks the DyVal concept in his Success Secrets for the 21st Century seminar)
I’m seeing the same old marketing tactics slapped on a “new” Face(book) page and it was getting really tiring. It’s what triggered my post here on Facebook Fatigue.
Examples are better than precepts, so here’s a few from my email inbox (it’s kinda like The Twilight Zone – same emails, different day, week…)
- A friend sent me a “Buy my social media marketing “system” link being sold by a person I’ve never heard of before, and as much as I read about this topic daily, researching what’s working and what’s not, that’s saying something. Gotta hand it to him though, he’s got one helluva sales letter, complete with “social proof” his “system” is the one to get (don’t get me started about the “S” word – first, I’m a systems-thinker, and second, systems, the real ones – the ones that good ol’ W. Edward Deming taught – are hard to come by. There are about 4 bonafide systems marketers I know online who actually know what a system is, maybe 5 if I count myself and I don’t market myself as a systems marketing person…yet)
- The ubiquitous free teleseminar offered by the latest person trying to catch up and jump on the social media bandwagon cuz they are on the “late freight” (oops, 70′s lingo slip – I’m dating myself again . And on the line are the same people over and over and over…(like The Neverending Story or Twilight Zone). Now, I love free teleseminars as much as the next life-long learner, and even paid ones. Just not ones that look like they might be the sames ones I just saw or maybe even listened in on the other day (week).
- You are cordially invited to my event in Australia or New Zealand…or Kansas or the U.K. Facebook makes you join a network geographically – I guess people don’t know that I’m in Sunny Southern California and not likely to fly 20 hours to get to your event. (even if it is the first, last, only time it’s happening). Or even better – attend your YTB Travel Business Opportunity Meeting– isn’t everyone on the planet a YTB Travel Agent by now?
But keeping hope alive…(note: as a general rule hope is NOT a strategy for business) I revived my own interest when I inspired myself – I turned my dis-interest into a question…
“What IS a better way? How can you turn what you know, your expertise, that special thing that people pay you for – into an experience that creates curiosity, attracts interest, and generates desire to engage and connect?” which then has the opportunity to turn into profit for your business, provided you aren’t a one trick pony.
As luck would have it…when opportunity meets preparedness – I am fortunate to have a live “social media” lab – my expert colleagues and clients. (“Hahaha!” she rubs hands together and cackles diabolically as the palm trees wave outside her window in Sunny Southern California)
So without furthur suspense, I’ll introduce you.
Here is the first of the three expert women entrepreneurs I’m working with to turn her expertise into ideas for social media experiences that lead to business…I’ll blog the others later this week. This turned into a really long post…sorry, you’ll probably thank me for it soon.
Michelle Price’s Social Media Lab Experiment #1: Face Reading for Facebook
Lynn Scheurell is arguably one of the most *interesting* women entrepreneurs I know (inside joke, Lynn and I both share the same meaning for *interesting*).
She has “the gift” of intuition that she has chosen to use to help entrepreneurs who are more creative and soul-driven vs. the other kind we won’t talk about here (you know, greedy, mercenary and soooo last millenium). And we don’t call her the “Woo-Woo Guru” for nothing. Seriously, she has some really cool tools to help get you unstuck and moving your energy for business. Even if you don’t believe there is a Secret Behind The Secret. Behind THAT Secret is Lynn.
Take the ancient art of face reading. The first time I ever met her, we sat in a Starbucks for hours and she read my face, eyes, ears, nose, read my Tarot, read my energy and it was just so much fun. And had real value because the information she gave me was all right on target. I used it to launch a new direction for my business and it’s paid off, literally.
She even told me that this little notch/bump I have had on the top of my right ear ever since I can remember, came from a traumatic event that happened when I was TWO. Funnily enough, I immediately thought about the fact that my baby brother was born at that time and I stopped getting to be the youngest…(I have a brother who is 6 years older). It put me in the middle instead and you know what that means – the peacemaker and fairly invisible – except, I was still the only girl so that helped a bit .
So remembering that experience, when we were chatting on the phone about how she could be leveraging social networking (she was resisting to say the least) to find more soul-driven entrepreneurs to join her tribe, when conversation turned to Facebook, this huge light went off in my head… “Lynn, FACEbook, FACE reading – get it???”
Nowhere on earth will you find more faces to read than on social networks, and Facebook being the popular kid on the block right now…hmmm.
Plus, I’ve seen some faces only a mother could love on there, and it’s amazing how many sane business people will put up ridiculously cheesy pics and think they pass muster. For a minute we laughed at what she could do with that.
Still, how to execute and make the experience real for people? That’s where I come in with MY web 2.0 social media toolbox – there are so many delicious ways you can combine and layer web 2.0 in combination with your social networking to transform your expertise into an experience. YouTube, Facebook Pages, Facebook Groups, YouTube Box for Facebook (is your head spinning yet? ).
In this case, video is the obvious choice! Plus, video is really hot online now too…
Yes. Facebook and YouTube + online video distribution to increase Googleability – our 1-2-3 knockout combo for this idea.
Anyway, we quickly came up with a 10 step plan for how someone could vicariously experience Lynn’s face reading and what it can tell you, that can help you accelerate your business, the first 3 are below:
1. Lynn finds 3 friendly faces to read – clients who already say “yes”.
2. Also pick out some high-profile faces to read
3. Fire up her web-cam and get to reading those faces. Short 3-5 minute clips.
(4-10 not included – made the post way too long – maybe I’ll share in another post later after results are in)
11. THEN, perhaps you might want to get a longer more in-depth face reading of your own – 60 minutes of pure focus on your beautiful unique mug, instead of only 3-5.
Will it work? I don’t know, you’ll have to be the judge and tell us. It’s working already to get curiosity and attract interest from some pretty good influencers.
Here’s the Intro to Face Reading she recorded, to explain what it is and why it’s invaluable:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3UbIiTLcFA[/youtube]
Here’s my Face Reading on Facebook, watch it, then go befriend Lynn on Facebook, tell her I sent you, and see if she picks your face next!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe_zOW6XKKc[/youtube]
read moreUpdate: At the time of this posting, it’s only been 3 days and she’s already been profiled over on Entrepreneur.com by someone in the network – our mutual colleague Michelle Anton (who just got active on Facebook and saw what Lynn was up to without either of us saying anything to her at all!) was intrigued enough to want to interview her about it – you can read that here:
Social Media Live Lab: How To Turn Your Expertise into an"Experience" That Pays Off
I saw this blog post titled “How do you turn your web ideas into experience?” and it’s very timely – it generated the title for this post. I’ve been meaning to get a post up for about a week now, and the reason I haven’t is because I’ve been deep into being a “social media practitioner”, helping 3 women entrepreneurs turn their expertise into web ideas then into social media experiences. (And into profits sooner rather than later). Yeah!
Key word here is “experience”.
In the new Network Economy and increasingly networked, always-on world we live in, it’s not enough to think that you can join a social network and take, take, take before you give. You really have to step up your game. In other words – Commodities are out, Dynamic Value is in. (ask Marshall Thurber – he rocks the DyVal concept in his Success Secrets for the 21st Century seminar)
I’m seeing the same old marketing tactics slapped on a “new” Face(book) page and it was getting really tiring. It’s what triggered my post here on Facebook Fatigue.
Examples are better than precepts, so here’s a few from my email inbox (it’s kinda like The Twilight Zone – same emails, different day, week…)
- A friend sent me a “Buy my social media marketing “system” link being sold by a person I’ve never heard of before, and as much as I read about this topic daily, researching what’s working and what’s not, that’s saying something. Gotta hand it to him though, he’s got one helluva sales letter, complete with “social proof” his “system” is the one to get (don’t get me started about the “S” word – first, I’m a systems-thinker, and second, systems, the real ones – the ones that good ol’ W. Edward Deming taught – are hard to come by. There are about 4 bonafide systems marketers I know online who actually know what a system is, maybe 5 if I count myself and I don’t market myself as a systems marketing person…yet)
- The ubiquitous free teleseminar offered by the latest person trying to catch up and jump on the social media bandwagon cuz they are on the “late freight” (oops, 70′s lingo slip – I’m dating myself again . And on the line are the same people over and over and over…(like The Neverending Story or Twilight Zone). Now, I love free teleseminars as much as the next life-long learner, and even paid ones. Just not ones that look like they might be the sames ones I just saw or maybe even listened in on the other day (week).
- You are cordially invited to my event in Australia or New Zealand…or Kansas or the U.K. Facebook makes you join a network geographically – I guess people don’t know that I’m in Sunny Southern California and not likely to fly 20 hours to get to your event. (even if it is the first, last, only time it’s happening). Or even better – attend your YTB Travel Business Opportunity Meeting– isn’t everyone on the planet a YTB Travel Agent by now?
But keeping hope alive…(note: as a general rule hope is NOT a strategy for business) I revived my own interest when I inspired myself – I turned my dis-interest into a question…
“What IS a better way? How can you turn what you know, your expertise, that special thing that people pay you for – into an experience that creates curiosity, attracts interest, and generates desire to engage and connect?” which then has the opportunity to turn into profit for your business, provided you aren’t a one trick pony.
As luck would have it…when opportunity meets preparedness – I am fortunate to have a live “social media” lab – my expert colleagues and clients. (“Hahaha!” she rubs hands together and cackles diabolically as the palm trees wave outside her window in Sunny Southern California)
So without furthur suspense, I’ll introduce you.
Here is the first of the three expert women entrepreneurs I’m working with to turn her expertise into ideas for social media experiences that lead to business…I’ll blog the others later this week. This turned into a really long post…sorry, you’ll probably thank me for it soon.
Michelle Price’s Social Media Lab Experiment #1: Face Reading for Facebook
Lynn Scheurell is arguably one of the most *interesting* women entrepreneurs I know (inside joke, Lynn and I both share the same meaning for *interesting*).
She has “the gift” of intuition that she has chosen to use to help entrepreneurs who are more creative and soul-driven vs. the other kind we won’t talk about here (you know, greedy, mercenary and soooo last millenium). And we don’t call her the “Woo-Woo Guru” for nothing. Seriously, she has some really cool tools to help get you unstuck and moving your energy for business. Even if you don’t believe there is a Secret Behind The Secret. Behind THAT Secret is Lynn.
Take the ancient art of face reading. The first time I ever met her, we sat in a Starbucks for hours and she read my face, eyes, ears, nose, read my Tarot, read my energy and it was just so much fun. And had real value because the information she gave me was all right on target. I used it to launch a new direction for my business and it’s paid off, literally.
She even told me that this little notch/bump I have had on the top of my right ear ever since I can remember, came from a traumatic event that happened when I was TWO. Funnily enough, I immediately thought about the fact that my baby brother was born at that time and I stopped getting to be the youngest…(I have a brother who is 6 years older). It put me in the middle instead and you know what that means – the peacemaker and fairly invisible – except, I was still the only girl so that helped a bit .
So remembering that experience, when we were chatting on the phone about how she could be leveraging social networking (she was resisting to say the least) to find more soul-driven entrepreneurs to join her tribe, when conversation turned to Facebook, this huge light went off in my head… “Lynn, FACEbook, FACE reading – get it???”
Nowhere on earth will you find more faces to read than on social networks, and Facebook being the popular kid on the block right now…hmmm.
Plus, I’ve seen some faces only a mother could love on there, and it’s amazing how many sane business people will put up ridiculously cheesy pics and think they pass muster. For a minute we laughed at what she could do with that.
Still, how to execute and make the experience real for people? That’s where I come in with MY web 2.0 social media toolbox – there are so many delicious ways you can combine and layer web 2.0 in combination with your social networking to transform your expertise into an experience. YouTube, Facebook Pages, Facebook Groups, YouTube Box for Facebook (is your head spinning yet? ).
In this case, video is the obvious choice! Plus, video is really hot online now too…
Yes. Facebook and YouTube + online video distribution to increase Googleability – our 1-2-3 knockout combo for this idea.
Anyway, we quickly came up with a 10 step plan for how someone could vicariously experience Lynn’s face reading and what it can tell you, that can help you accelerate your business, the first 3 are below:
1. Lynn finds 3 friendly faces to read – clients who already say “yes”.
2. Also pick out some high-profile faces to read
3. Fire up her web-cam and get to reading those faces. Short 3-5 minute clips.
(4-10 not included – made the post way too long – maybe I’ll share in another post later after results are in)
11. THEN, perhaps you might want to get a longer more in-depth face reading of your own – 60 minutes of pure focus on your beautiful unique mug, instead of only 3-5.
Will it work? I don’t know, you’ll have to be the judge and tell us. It’s working already to get curiosity and attract interest from some pretty good influencers.
Here’s the Intro to Face Reading she recorded, to explain what it is and why it’s invaluable:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3UbIiTLcFA[/youtube]
Here’s my Face Reading on Facebook, watch it, then go befriend Lynn on Facebook, tell her I sent you, and see if she picks your face next!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe_zOW6XKKc[/youtube]
read moreUpdate: At the time of this posting, it’s only been 3 days and she’s already been profiled over on Entrepreneur.com by someone in the network – our mutual colleague Michelle Anton (who just got active on Facebook and saw what Lynn was up to without either of us saying anything to her at all!) was intrigued enough to want to interview her about it – you can read that here:
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