Hey,
It's 7:45 AM
Wednesday
I'm sitting on the couch, with Dodie and Calli Lynn, getting ready to make a post.
I was searching the internet today and I ran across a post by one of my female mentors. Yeah I have female mentors as well as male mentors, so deal with it.
HA HA
Anyway, here's what she wrote. I'm going to be writing my own ideas as well, but you're going to learn alot today in this post, so settle in and make sure you take some good notes.
Kim wrote: Growing up, Oprah Winfrey was a staple in our family. My grandmother taped
Oprah’s show every day religiously at 4 o’ clock. So I got lots of ‘Oprah Time’. I was generally just an innocent bystander – but my grandmother was a hard-core Oprah Fan!
Now that I’ve grown up, I must admit I’m becoming a bit of an Oprah groupie myself :)
Not only for the show itself but also for the brilliance behind Oprah’s strategic
business vision. The iconic brand she has built. And the authenticity that has built a cult-like fan base.
Oprah has built her community of raving fans simply by being Oprah. By being
real and authentic. We don’t think of Oprah as locked away in some Ivory
tower. We think of her as someone that we could chat with over coffee. This to me was something that stood out. We think of her as someone that we could chat with over coffee. If you can get your patients and clients to think that, then you've hit a home run.
She is one of the most influential people of all time but yet undeniably human. Her transparency is what attracts people. If you don't get that, you'd better because it can make you very successful.
What separates Oprah is her willingness to be completely human. Oprah has
never shied away from sharing the more intimate, personal details of her life.
I have to tell you from my own personal experience, it's not a good thing to be that transparent in most cases, but because she is who she is, Oprah can get away doing this.
She has openly shared incredibly difficult and personal topics such as being
raped when she was nine, using cocaine in her twenties, as well as her
ongoing battle with obesity.
Like all of us, Oprah has a story.
Here's the lesson of the day. If you can tell a story and a transparent one at that, people will connect with you and want to be around you.
And her willingness to share that story is a big part of what has made her a household name. Heck I'd be more transparent if it made me a billion dollars.
Just kidding.
This is also why I think Oprah is uniquely positioned to become the next social
media rock star. Now I don't use social media but this is or can be huge for someone that likes to dable in FACEBOOK, etc.
Oprah joined Twitter back in 2009 – attracting 5.4 million followers with less
than 200 tweets under her belt.
But she just recently started truly engaging with her Twitter community on Sunday night when she created her very first Tweetathon! Hmmm, that does sound interesting.
#OprahLiveTweet quickly became a top trending topic.
Can you believe it?
Oprah is now using Twitter hashtags! This girls got skills :) I don't know what they are, but hey, if they help, then by all means, use them.
In fact, Oprah was even tweeting out videos on TwitVid.com – leading up to the premiere of “Oprah Behind the Scenes”.
She created videos from her home, in the kitchen, and even on the treadmill!
Wow, she needs to talk to me about losing weight. I could be Dr. Carney, Chiropractor and Weight Loss Expert. I could be like Dr. Phil. LOL, yeah right.
Oprah’s very own brand of authenticity ;)
Do you have your very own brand of authenticity? I don't unless you consider my M.E.N.'s newsletter...
Back to Oprah...
But it’s not just Twitter!
Oprah is flexing her social muscles across the web with her own Facebook page, YouTube account, mobile applications, and ever her own “Oprah Community“. And I'm going to tell you a little secret. Oprah is not coming up with all these ideas. She has a team of people working and masterminding for her, but... when you're Oprah, almost anything you do is going to be successful.
Oprah is combining the power of traditional media with social platforms to widen
her audience and engage with her community on an even deeper level.
Using the very same tools that are available to you!
You have the opportunity right now to create your own brand
network, broadcasting your content via social media and building
a community around your brand. (If you want to)
And I’m going to show you the top 10 social sharing tools to
help you do just that!
Oprah is already using quite a few of these and I’m sure she’ll be adding a few
others to her social toolbox soon.
Someone send her the memo ;)
Hmmm, bet she'll respond to it on Twitter. yeah right!
1. TweetMeme Button – You’ll find the all-important ‘retweet’ button on every page of Oprah.com – along with the Facebook Like button (which we’ll be
getting to in a moment.) But the first key to going viral is making sure that
your content is easy to share. The two most important social sharing buttons
you’ll need on your site are Facebook and Twitter.
These two are like Big Foot and his kid sister, respectively. And when it comes
to Twitter, my favorite plugin for increasing your ReTweet power is called the
Tweetmeme Retweet button.
This powerful little plugin is used by some of the biggest websites online,
including TechCrunch.com, Mashable.com, CNET.com, Wired, Times Magazine,
and just about any website with a pulse.
2. Facebook Like Button – Facebook surpassed Google last year as being the top dog online. Facebook is allowing us to not only increase our traffic but also
to engage with our community and create conversations around our brand. The
easiest way to integrate Facebook into your blog is using the FB Like Button.
Using this plugin, you can position the Facebook Like Button at the top
and bottom of every blog post. Plus, what’s also really cool is that
for visitors who are logged into Facebook, the button is personalized to
highlight friends who have already liked the page – adding an additional
layer of social proof.
Whenever someone clicks your Facebook Like button, it automatically
posts a status update on their profile with a link to your article as
well. So now you instantly have increased exposure and visibility.
Are you starting to see why Facebook is becoming THE social powerhouse
online?
Social media is allowing us to build an extra layer of engagement that
WAY too many people are taking for granted. And those who start building
social equity now, are going to be the one’s to win the game. But even
more importantly, those who provide REAL value and build REAL relationships
are the one’s who are going to see exponential growth from the built-in
viral nature of social media.
3. Wibiya Sharebar. Here’s a cool tool that allows your visitors to
interact with your different social profiles WITHOUT leaving your website.
The Wibiya toolbar allows your readers to tweet, write on your Facebook
fan page and share your content directly from your website.
Wibiya also provides you with a feature-rich dashboard with full
statistics on how people are interacting with your toolbar.
Some of the top blogger’s using Wibiya include Mari Smith, Darren
Rowse’s Digital Photography School and Social Media Examineer.
They also have a number of add-on applications that allow you to add
lots of additional options. One of the cool one’s I saw was called
Notifier Pro – which allows you to create live notifications on your website.
4. Facebook Like Box
You’ll also find this little doozie on Oprah.com :)
The Like Box allows your visitors to like your Facebook Page directly
from your website. You can see ours in the right sidebar.
The Facebook Like Box is one of the easiest ways to increase your
fanbase.
You can create your own custom Facebook Like Box at
http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like-box/
If you want to customize the look and feel of your Facebook
Like Box with css, check out this cool tutorial at:
http://www.daddydesign.com/wordpress/how-to-customize-your-facebook-fan-box/
5. Facebook Comments – I have to admit, this one has me pretty excited!
The Facebook Comments Box Social Plugin has recently added some
new features that have massive implications for us as marketers.
Each time someone ‘comments’ on your page, that comment appears on their
News Feed, which also links back to your website. Pretty cool, huh?
Each comment creates a built-in viral sharing effect as long as the user leaves
the “Post to Facebook” box checked when posting a comment.
Plus, the really cool part here is that you can put comments on ANY page.
It doesn’t have to just be your blog. You can put the Facebook Comments
on your webinar registration page, the thank-you page, the replay page,
Pre-Launch pages, and anywhere else your heart desires.
For example, let’s say I do a free webinar for my subscribers, I would add the
Facebook Comments Plugin to the registration page, the thank-you page, and
the replay page. Each page would include the same comments and social share
buttons. So you’ve now tripled your opportunity for increased engagement and
social sharing.
Sports blog network SB Nation reported a 4x increase in Facebook referral traffic after switching to Facebook Comments on their blog network. Examiner.com
saw Facebook referrals double. The traffic potential of Facebook comments is
incomparable to ANY of it’s current competitors.
However, I have to admit I haven’t switched my blog over yet because of the
limited login capabilities. The Facebook comments systems requires you to
login via either your Facebook account or your Yahoo Id. So still a bit
limited. But I’m sure additional options will be coming soon.
But I’m still hoping Disqus finds a way to integrate the new Facebook Comments system.
However, I will be using Facebook Comments extensively Live Webinar Events
and Product Pre-Launch Events.
6. Twitter Follow Badge – Looking for a really simple way to grow your Twitter followers? The Twitter Follow Badge is one of the easiest ways to get some
extra exposure. This Wordpress Plugin creates a nifty little button that always
remains on the page as your visitors scroll through content. A quick and easy
way to instantly grow your Twitter following.
7. Digg Digg – This Wordpress plugin creates a fully customizable floating ShareBar for your blog. Digg Digg is an all-in-one social voting plugin. It
creates a vertical toolbar that flows down the page as you scroll through
the content.
You can see the effect in action on every post at Mashable.com.
This simple plugin allows you to easily increase your exposure on sites like Digg,
Twitter, Facebook, and more. But you don’t want to add ALL of the buttons. I
like to keep it limited to the critical few that are going to give me the most bang
for my buck. So I keep it limited to sites like Twitter, Facebook, and StumbleUpon.
8. TweetChat.com – There are lots of ways to use Twitter to increase your
traffic. However, one of the more untapped avenues is a cool tool called TweetChat.com.
A TweetChat is basically a chat room based around a particular hashtag.
TweetChat.com allows you to host live Twitter Chats with your community.
They’re kind of like LIVE Webinars – but instead of being hosted through
something like GoToWebinar – they’re hosted through Twitter. Tweetchat
participants meet on Twitter at a set day and time and use a specific hashtags
to identify their topic.
Each TweetChat also gets it’s own dedicated ‘room’ at TweetChat.com. Now, I
know that can sound kind of complicated but it’s not. TweetChat simply allows
you to isolate the hashtag discussion from everything else going on at Twitter.
Simply go to TweetChat.com and enter your hashtag at the top.
A ‘virtual room’ is then automatically created with a continuous flow of
conversation that includes that specific hashtag.
This tool is a ‘must-have’ for the event organizer so that they can follow the
conversation of their event (i.e. TweetChat) without all of the other distractions
on Twitter.
TweetChat is a great tool for adding an extra layer of engagement and social
sharing for your events, webinars, and live trainings.
To learn more about how to best utilize TweetChats, check out some of the
articles below…
TweetChats – The Cool New Way to Network and Learn on Twitter
9 Tips on Moderating a Tweet Chat
Tweetchats: How They Help Grow Your Business
Follow-Up for Your TweetChat to Make It Continue Working for You
9. Vpype – If you want to take things to the next level, you can do LIVE
broadcasts with Vpype. Vpyp is the only live, interactive video broadcast
application made just for Facebook!
All you need is a webcam and a microphone to create your own show and chat
with your community in real-time.
This simple app allows you to add LIVE broadcasts to your Facebook page in
one click!
The web is becoming personal and social video is one of the best ways to
engage your community and build loyal fans.
10. Networked Blogs
My favorite Facebook App for automatically submitting your latest blog posts straight to your Facebook Fan page is called Networked Blogs.
Their syndication feature allows you to
automatically publish your new blog posts
to Facebook Pages and to your Twitter account.
Now is the time to start building your social equity on sites like
Facebook and Twitter.
We are living through one of the golden
ages of entrepreneurship.
Anyone with an Internet connection has the opportunity to build their brand online.
The gatekeepers have been demolished and the playing field is wide open for
those who are willing to put in some sweat equity.
You’ve got the tools… now build your empire!
Listen if you're not using social media, it's probably a good thing for you to get into or hire someone to do it for you. I know you're in a business and you might think it's not for you, but hey, if you're in a business don't you want some new customers or patients?
Hey, Kim did a great job and she gave you a lot of content, so use it if you can and I hope you keep reading my blogs. I may not think of everything, but I'm always looking.
Dr. Carney
Life is good when you know what marketing can do for you!!
It is a GREAT LIFE!
