Summer is almost over and the fall is about to begin. This time of year tends to be quite a rush in my business, and I imagine it’s a good time for you to get focused as well.
So this weekend, I’m recharging my batteries before the Back To School rush (planning and hosting SIMPLE 2 will dominate the next 7 weeks for me). I’m in Jekyll Island, Georgia for a few days, and thought I’d send you a quick video postcard.
Also, to help you get geared up for the 4th quarter of 2010, I’m putting something together for you on Monday.
Enjoy the video!
After the video, please share your answer to this question:
What do you want to see happen during the last quarter of 2010? What’s missing or would prevent you from doing that?
Bob Jenkins
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Whether you attend industry conferences, or even local Chambers of Commerce meetings, what you do after the event can be as important as what you do while you there.
Here are a few hot tips for your post-live-event social networking efforts.
Upload Photos To Facebook
As soon as possible, upload photos you took during the event to your Facebook profile and fan pages. Create an album for the event. Add captions that make people smile – not just reporting the news. You may also want to link to the websites of the people in the photos to help them get more exposure. Be sure to tag your friends who appear in the images. This will make sure your photos show up on their profile – otherwise the images are virtually invisible to everybody else.
Tag Photos Other People Took
To be honest, tagging photos is a bit of a hassle if you took a lot of pictures. But this is an opportunity for you more than it is a challenge. Since a lot of people still don’t take the time to tag photos, or they may not be friends on Facebook with those in the pictures, you have a chance for added visibility.
When you’re looking through photos from an event and you see someone who hasn’t been tagged – go ahead and tag them. This will help the person who didn’t have the time to tag, will give the tagged person more exposure, and your profile picture and name will appear on the tagged person’s wall for connecting them. Just be sure that the person actually IS in the picture!
Upload Tips Video From The Event
Hopefully, during the event, you shot some video using a Flip or some other camera. Perhaps it was just a quick pan of the crowd, or maybe you created a tip video like this one.
Of course, it won’t do you any good if the video remains on your camera. So be sure to upload the video to YouTube, Facebook, etc. Make sure it’s uploaded directly to Facebook, by the way – not just posted as a link from YouTube. This is the only way you can tag the video with people inside (just like the photos above).
Create A Mashup Video Of Event Photos
A day or two after the event, you should see enough photos online to do this big post-event strategy. Using your images, and those that have been publicly posted, create a mashup video.
This can be done with simple tools like Windows Movie Maker, iMovie, or Camtasia. But I prefer the speed and style of Animoto. Use their music, or upload your own royalty-free music clip and let Animoto do its thing. They have a free version, and a paid version (which I use so I can make longer videos).
Here are two examples of videos I’ve made with Animoto.
This one is from Willie Crawford’s Birthday Bash, March 2009
Both of these videos were made in mere minutes with Animoto. And the second one features a song written and performed by my mastermind partner Bobby Medina.
Take Action Revise Later
My final tip for you is to make sure you take action and revise later. Speed is a critical element to the success of these strategies. If you wait more than a week to get these things online, they will lose a lot of their impact. When people get home, they are most excited about the event they just attended.
Got another tip for making the most out of an event once you get home? Post it below!
Bob Jenkins
p.s. Hope to see you at a live event soon, and get our pictures together. To see where I’ll be next, check out my internet marketing events schedule.
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After creating the new squeeze page yesterday, we’re all set to begin some small scale prmotion steps. It’s been a busy week, so I’ll be doing just a couple of things today.
Every time I visit Poland, I get to stop by a specific gas station.
This is no ordinary gas station, as it’s put the mark in marketing better than any other gas station I’ve ever seen anywhere I’ve been.
So during my most recent trip, I decided to share the big ideas that make this such a big hit in Poland, and (I have to assume) a massively profitable business for the owner(s).
Click the HD button to watch in High Definition – and try to
shield your eyes around 1:56 into the video…
The big takeaways here of course are that you’ll be well served to provide your existing customers with more opportunities to buy from you.
Now, obviously people don’t want to be sold a bunch of crap. So you have to listen to what they want, predict what they will want in the future, and deliver additional solutions to problems that need addressed.
You don’t need to do this all at once. That’s a mistake too many people make. When they try to put all the pieces together at one time, they wind up with a big, confusing mess.
Instead, you grow your empire, keeping your eyes and ears open for the next direction of your evolution. This way, you can have a very profitable business with a small number of customers.
I’d love to hear your comments below!
Bob Jenkins
p.s. The CANPOL gas station I showcase in the video is on highway 22 between Człuchów and Jaromierz. If you ever stop by, take a picture and remember to feed the llamas!
p.p.s. Want to see more of CANPOL? Here’s a more “official” video by a Polish video production firm.
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My friend Lynn Terry over at ClickNewz nudged me to start playing around with Animoto, and I figured for my first video mashup should be photos from live events where I’ve met so many great people.
Hopefully, if you are not in this video, we’ll get a picture at a live event soon. You can check out my schedule over here. I’ll be in New York City at the end of July, and London at the end of August for meetups.
Bob Jenkins
p.s. If you have a picture of us together, make sure it’s on Facebook, and tag me in it. This way, when I create another video like this, I can include it!
p.p.s. Want to know the secret to how I made this movie in under 25 minutes? I used Animoto. Make your own music videos with Animoto. Make unlimited 30 second videos, or get a commercial pass like I did to make longer vids with a redirect button at the end and no logo.
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I’ve been traveling all over the place thinking of how to help you improve your business. Here’s another geographically inspired business tip that I hope you enjoy and learn from.
So what’s blocking your progress? I’d love to hear about it with a comment below.
And if you’d like to learn internet marketing strategies that you should be focusing on, head over to IM Success Library!
Bob Jenkins
p.s. Be on the lookout for more tips like this from different landmarks in the US and around the world. These are a lot of fun for me to film, and I hope you find the video tips helpful!
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During the road trip to Vegas, we decided to stay in Sedona for a night and explore the area. Joanna and I took a Pink Jeep tour through the Honanki ruins in western Sedona. Here are some pictures from our tour, which was led by Lance (you’ll see him in one of the later pics).
By the way, I picked Sedona as the detour because of a bed and breakfast there. My parents own a bed and breakfast in Ellicott City, Maryland, and recently became part of the esteemed Select Registry. So I looked in the SR book and found the Inn On Oak Creek – which was a fabulous place to stay. Wish we could have stayed there longer!
Bob
p.s. What’s your favorite place to visit?
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Lightning, wind farms, burgers, mini mountains were the order of the day yesterday – the 3rd day of our Las Vegas road trip from Leland, North Carolina.
After leaving Oklahoma City in the morning, the drive through the western half of Oklahoma and northern Texas was remarkable. Although I probably wouldn’t find it too intriguing going through it often, the vast openness of the area could not be exaggerated.
A few oil wells dotted the landscape, but all but one was stationary when we saw them. However, the huge wind-generators were spinning. I had seen some of these wind farms from the air the last time I flew (through Dallas), but seeing them up close was even more impressive.
As hunger progressively took over, we found ourselves in a relatively desolate areas. Good thing I had brought along some excellent beef and turkey jerky to tide us over until we could get to Amarillo. However, not being local, we weren’t sure what we were going to find there.
Luckily, I have my iPhone on the trip, and surprisingly a “lot of bars” along the AT&T network here. So I pulled up one of my new favorite iPhone Apps – Yelp! – and looked for a good burger joint.
The top pick among Yelpers in Amarillo (and those like me passing through) is Coyote Bluff Cafe. The reviews said basically whatever you do, don’t judge a book by its cover.
I’m off on a road trip to Vegas to teach at Mike Filsaime’s Butterfly Marketing conference. Should be a great event.
But I need to get there first.
I live in Leland, North Carolina, across the bridge from Wilmington, NC. So it’s quite a ways to drive. But nevertheless, my partner Joanna convinced me how cool it would be (plus she hates flying).
So earlier today we set out for our first stop – Birmingham, Alabama.
Along the way, I’ve been shooting video of what we’re seeing, which will be loaded up soon (I’m writing this from a hotel whose connection is not quite fast enough to upload vid clips).
Unfortunately, after the first hour or so, we hit rain. And then more rain, and then even more rain. Pretty much torrential madness. Evidently there was a wannabe tropical depression that came up from Florida that stalled out over the Southeast.
My friend Chris Morris has been doing an awesome job this week blogging about getting products created quickly (Read more here).
And it got me thinking that I haven’t told you about an important reason that events are so helpful for your business. Obviously they’re a great way to meet new people, learn some marketing ideas, etc.
But it’s also a great opportunity to make products and content for your audience. When you go to a seminar, conference, workshop, or local meeting, bring along your video camera.
You can use any video camera you can get your hands on (even many digital cameras have a video feature), but I personally love using the Flip Ultra. I haven’t picked up the HD – the old school Ultra is fine for most users.
Now the question you likely will have is what should I do a video about?