[Gary] Peeples Helping People, LLC

Viral hit: Facebook Song by Madelaine Zammit

She's 16. She wrote a tune calling out everything we all think about Facebook from time to time. And now she's gone viral. Taadaa.

This proves once again that creating good content is all you need to focus on. It will find it's way. 

PS. I love this.

 

How content fits into the buying cycle [Greatest Infographic Ever]

A very simple visual representing:

types of content and distribution channels;

across the spectrums of business objectives, prospect goals, and performance indicators;

throughout the stages of the purchase cycle. 

Well done.

Found on B2B Bloggers; an infographic from Eloqua and Jess3.

9 Examples Of Facebook Welcome Pages

To me, this is the new must-do for any brand, or anyone trying to build a brand, on Facebook.

It's a gateway, that can be built using an iframe application, that gives you more control over the user experience. You can learn about popular iframe apps from this post titled: 3 Tools To Create New Facebook iFrame Pages.

And here is a step-by-step guide on How To Build A Facebook Landing Page With iFrames as well. It required becoming an official FB developer, but even that is explained.

That said, here are 9 examples of brands that are using them to give you some ideas:

1. Oreo

2. Coca-Cola

3. Burt's Bees

4. Red Bull

5. Ford Racing

6. Under Armour

7. Skittles

8. Volkswagen

9. Social Media Examiner

If you know of some other good ones, I'd love to see them. Tweet me some links: @garyawesome.

How to use Twitter [Great Infographic]

This is a brilliantly done Infographic from @Partyaficionado [Cheryl Lawson]. You can check her blog out — www.partyaficionado.com — for more great content.

I love this for three reasons:

(1) I'm a sucker for infographics;

(2) It gets right to the main points;

(3) this is useful for a newbie, a basic user, or a master. 

Enjoy!

13 business fundamentals every leader should focus on

There are some basic fundamentals that every business owner or operator should keep a pulse on. 

And it amazes me how many businesses fail to focus on those fundamentals.

Now I know it could be for any number of reasons [one man show, focus on distribution growth], but it’s like getting Randy Jackson’s autograph on a samurai sword:

If a samurai sword is all you have, you’re not gonna NOT get Randy Jackson’s autograph [Step Brothers reference].

Point is: NOMATTERWHAT, you can’t NOT focus on these things, unless your goal is to fail.

So here is a list of 13 fundamentals. This isn’t all of them; they aren’t in perfect priority order; and some may disagree.

I can tell you though, as an owner operator, if you are focusing on any of these things at any given time, you’re headed in the right direction.

1. Setting goals

2. Defining and targeting the appropriate audience

3. Maximizing search, social, and content marketing [and integrating]

4. Collecting data that matters

5. Measuring efforts

6. Making decisions and taking action on results

7. Studying the P&L for opportunities to optimize

8. Stopping things that aren’t working

9. Testing new opportunities

10. Listening to customers and employees

11. Focusing on customer service

12. Focusing on employee engagement and morale

13. Setting new goals

I was going to link out to different posts on each of these, but I'm having a hard time finding ones I like, so I'll try to write my own posts for each of these over the coming days.

In the mean time, if any of you know of good posts on the above topics, please tweet them to me [@garyawesome].

Find your target audience—and how many of them there are—on Facebook in 4 easy steps

You know they are on there; I mean, Facebook just hit nine-hundred trillion subscribers. 

The questions are: how many? how do I find them? how do I target them?

Facebook makes that super easy, and — best of all — at $0 cost, you can get a precise number of people that meet your ideal criteria. 

For example, you want 25-35 y/o males that are interested in triathlon that also follow the Ironman brand page. The following 4 steps will tell you how many of those dudes exist on Facebook right now.

Here's how:

Step 1: Go to http://www.facebook.com/advertising/.

Step 2: Click "Create an ad".

Step 3: Pick your destination [can be your page or an external url, if external you will need to enter some basic data].

Step 4: Put in your targeting criteria. Notice as you do this, the "estimated reach" on the right hand side adjusts, showing you the potential. 

Note: you can even do advanced targeting for super exclusive criteria and see what the reach is.

Have any of you used Facebook advertising? How did it go? Leave comments below!

Connect with people through these 5 rules of Improv

I'm not an Improv actor or anything, but I am fascinated by it. I have read up on it; I've known people that do it; and I've even considered "getting into it" myself.

I believe there is a LOT that can be learned from the basic principles the art follows — and not just for business — I'm talking: for life, for friendships, for relationships, and anywhere else you "connect" with people.

Here are 5 basic rules that may help you in building connections with people:

1. Don't deny — Say "Yes(!)-and".

In Improv:

Denying or disagreeing will cause the scene to come to a halt. A scene beginning with "I'm Gary and the view from this mountain is great" will be killed if the response is, "this isn't a mountain it's a living room and you are Patricia". 

In Life:

It does the same thing. Accept the content or story or argument that is given to you as a reality [it often is for whoever gave it to you]. Agree and add.

2. Don't ask open-ended questions — it makes the other person do all the work. 

In Improv:

After the Yes(!)-and, add new information. "Yes, and the fresh air is probably really helping our simultaneous cases of athletes foot."

In Life:

Same thing; don't make the other person do all the work by continuing to pound them with open-ended questions. Add value to the conversation; state your opinion; help them help you. 

Personally, I think people in sales are over-taught the open-ended question process. It has it's place, but how quickly you can come off as passive-aggressive, if you never add value to the conversation. In my opinion.

3. Don't TRY to be funny — focus on here and now and on creating an interesting scene.

In Improv:

The process of creating an interesting scene, between two people working with each other, who have no idea where the other will go next, will create the comedy. And it won't be forced. Let it happen naturally.

In Life:

Replace "funny" with whatever the context is. Don't TRY to sell them a car. Don't TRY to win the argument with your significant other. Don't TRY to get a raise. Focus on here and now — and on doing the right thing — and whatever IT is, will happen naturally.

4. You can look good if you make your partner look good.

In Improv:

Don't get too caught up in your own character. Figure out how to help your partner advance their character. It will be funnier then trying to get all your jokes in about your own character.

In Life:

Don't get too caught up in your own character. Figure out how to help your partner advance their character. 

That was perfect, I didn't need to change it.

5. Tell a story.

In Improv:

Establish a location and provide details that add to the story. The audience is looking for a good story. And again, the natural details — that are being created between two individuals, on the spot — will be funny on its own.

In Life:

A story "humanizes" the situation. You want to connect with your audience — your boss, your loved one, your son or daughter, your customer — give them a story about you. You know, "about a time when..." Tell it from the heart. Emotion builds connections. Usually.

 If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there. 

-Lewis Carroll, "Alice in Wonderland"

Your tweets might suck if you don't do this

I'm still "new" at Twitter, but here's something I realized today.

So, you're gaining followers — and let's assume your doing it "by the book".

You know: following people and sources of interest to you, following back, responding when you're mentioned, RT'ing, engaging, etc. 

And you have an idea of your brand.

You know: "I'm focused on" social media, or sports, or humor, or cat-ladys.

And you're active and frequent, posting 10 - 15 times per day; checking it every hour; etc.

BUT look closely. Are you kind of doing what everyone else is doing — within that same social circle you are creating?

Are you RT'ing mashable articles to people following @mashable?

Are you tweeting links to the latest Jeff Bullas post to people who are following @jeffbullas?

Are you tweeting how @Ochocinco likes the new Chris Brown/Busta Rhymes/Lil Wayne song to people who follow @Ochocinco?

Simply RT'ing and tweeting links might not be enough — if you really want to make an impact and be relevant.

Why? One reason is that, within a month — if they are not already — all of your followers will be following your sources. And at that point your tweets are less important.

It's like that time Johnny Depp cut out the middlemen on the movie Blow. Then went on to be a trillionaire. Then went to jail. But it was cool for a while. Point is, he went to the source.

My suggestions:

Think about how you can add value to the tweet you are RT'ing. Maybe add a hint of your personality.

Blog about your opinion of Jeff Bullas' latest post [and link to his blog]; then tweet about your post.

Add some context to Ocho's favorite song, or add another song that is good too — like the new Ke$ha ft. Andre 3000 [just saying].

And I'm not saying you need to do this everytime. Just like anything, a mix is good.

Sometimes just go with the ole RT or link. If for nothing else, for speed. Plus the idea of Twitter needs that support anyway — the constant retweeting — because tweets get lost when there are thousands of followers.

But I am saying, you'll be more likely to create sustainable relevancy among your Twitter community — despite sharing content they already have access too — by being original in some way. 

How do you get 17,429 people to like your status on facebook?

Become one of the most well-known rappers of all time and post the word "What?"

 

What is the future of social media?

Okay, so this is tough to predict, but here's how I think about it.

Most everything we see come out, year after year -- at events like SXSW -- is some form of a convergence of ideas already created. And designed to increase speed -- make something more 'now' then it was before.

GroupMe is texting meets thread chatting, but in real time. 

Quora is Q&A meets opportunities for connections between industry, thought, and business leaders. In real time.

Klout is quantitative measuring meets abstract social influence. In real time [and is constantly calculating]. And is totally awesome. Just sayin.

These examples aren't perfect, and you may have a different opinion on the definitions of them, but it's probably safe to assume we all agree they are converging ideas for faster results.

And ultimately, life is an endless circle of earn-purchase-enjoy; so all of this is designed for us to do more of those three things.

So that said, I imagine the future of social media will be rooted in leveraging the convergence of current ideas -- or parts of ideas -- so that we continue to get info, money, and personal enjoyment faster. 

Maybe that means eventually connecting our financials with the networks within which our money exchanges hands for speed of earning, spending, and shifting.

Or maybe combining video chatting with a site like Quora, creating face-to-face Q&A with business leaders for speed of networking, relationship building, creating legacy.

Or maybe the barrier between celeb and average joe will be further eliminated [twitter has chipped away at that] by some celeb-avgjoe-Quora site where people engage directly with celebs.

Which could provide opportunities for people to be even more influenced directly by those they idolize or follow. And feel more directly connected and a part of their lives. 

I should patent that.

So, again, I can't claim to know the answer, but I can suggest a way of thinking about it:

The future of social media is a converging of ideas to get everyone closer to what they are trying to get out of social media. And faster.