Too often Internet Marketing newbies unintentionally sabotage themselves by making things more complex than they really are.  With some understanding, the the right game plan and some action almost ALWAYS follows results.  So why is it that newbies tend to fall off the tracks?  I’m going to get to that later.  For now, I wanted to introduce the guy I’ve been marketing to the entire time — literally — and is someone you’ll want to consider modeling.

As an instructor, one of the biggest joys is seeing a student flourish.  Not only is it awesome to see someone’s confidence and lifestyle change for the better, but (selfishly, I guess) it feels good knowing that I was able to connect the dots and make sense of things for someone.  And when I know that the person I’m working with is genuinely working hard, has a the right game and is taking action, it’s great to see a good guy succeed.

The student I’m talking about is Gus Cawley.  Gus had been a Quick Video Marketing client and had also gone through our intensive Wingman Webinar series.  I recently had the absolute pleasure of meeting with him in person at a seminar, and I got a chance to hear how he had taken what he’d learned and just stepped out and made things happen for himself.

Turns out that it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy!  In fact, as a result of us meeting, I’m happy to be working with him to better develop his funnel and improve his business.  I thought he was a fascinating story of how you have a choice to make this stuff complex…or, like Gus, pretty straightforward.

I hope you find this interview inspiring…

Herschy

P.S. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on where You are at and what we can do to help make Your Personal Success Story a Reality….and believe me, we’re listening

Simply click the Comment link on the top or bottom of this blog.

Here’s my thoughts and stand on the subject:

Facebook – Some ( not all ) Marketing Guru’s and Social Media Scam Artists, as I so kindly refer to them as, for the past 18 months, or more, have been preaching Facebook solely as a monetization platform. I completely disagreed and still do on that approach. In my opinion, Facebook is great for relationship building and some networking but I’ve always kept mine private and pretty limited to anyone other than friends.

If you own a small business or are looking for targeted relationships (local area networking) Facebook is great. Just adding hoards of friends and making fan pages isn’t the way to go though. If you are looking to monetize Facebook, monetize the relationship long term. I haven’t seen one person claiming ( or better yet showing) they make thousands off of Facebook marketing. What I have seen personally though are stronger bonds, relationships, trust, and interaction for businesses, my clients, customers, etc. which are all EASILY monetized over the long term.

If you want to make REAL MONEY on Facebook, run targeted ads, screw relationships.

There’s a link at the bottom called “advertisers” or something similar, and almost no one talks about it. Now that’s MY idea of social media marketing. Target highly qualified prospects on the cheap, in their leisurely environment, by running small ppc type ads. If you run ads on Google, MSN, or Yahoo, this should be cake walk. If you haven’t, go to Google Adwords and use their free training ( Yes, there is FREE PPC training) to learn the basics and try it on Facebook.

Remember – Start small, test your ads, and scale once you know the metrics.

More recently, like in the past 30 days, tons of other gurus and almost every honest social media “expert” have joined in on or reaffirmed my now finally popular stance on mass friending, auto following, and large numbers. The verdict – They are worthless numbers and followers. My question…Why did it take so long? Maybe it was because there was nothing new and exciting to talk about.

Twitter - There are a ton of new courses on how to make $500 a day or add 10K followers a month/ year / whatever. While I haven’t purchased all of them and can’t speak with 100% accurately, remember this…If it seems too good to be true it usually is. No one can blindly add thousands of people and make sales happen organically.

The ones that are actually doing it use their already established authority over the communication medium of Twitter and often back up the twitter message by blasting out an email to another large group of people on their list. In my opinion, while twitter is fun, nothing is yet to beat good old fashioned email. If it did, our inboxes would be empty…and they clearly aren’t. Just last month I was getting EMAILS about making money with Twitter. Further proof that you have to monetize across all mediums.

Just like getting quick video view spurts (dozens or hundreds within 10 minutes after posting) or an insanely large “empty” number of views on your videos, a large number of worthless friends and followers gets you Nothing!

To use Twitter, or Facebook, and even video marketing correctly, build an organic follower-ship over time building a relationship with your customers, potential customers, or any social media voyeurs that are asking for more information. An easy way to do that is plugging your twitter account on your blog, traffic generation postings, and emails.

I honestly have no idea how many Twitter followers I have, I just never cared. What I did care about was who I followed and who had worth while information to see daily. I talk to friends, fellow marketers, and even customers who have a question. I will unfollow close friends, marketers, and even family if they post too much, bother me, or provide no value.

You can use Twitter wisely to grow relationships, build bonds, and communicate with people that would otherwise be unreachable. You’d be surprised who will spend the time to answer you on Twitter that you’d NEVER get a response from via email or phone. The easiest way to start a conversation is to use the “@ reply” function. For me it’s Twitter.com/JeffSchwerdt or @JeffSchwerdt.

I may sound like a Twitter snob, but I’ve easily made more connections, relationships, and money through communication and partnerships then I have from ever posting a new link for an affiliate product on Twitter or Facebook.

Social Media Overall

Think about how you are using Social Media, and if you’re losing more money than potentially making by hanging out all day with Twitter and/or Facebook or have a feeder app open all day long.

When talking to private clients ( All who’ve paid me at least 20K upfront to work with them), I have been careful to educate them of the correct way to use Facebook to build relationships and how not to sound “salesy” in their message. I usually have to hold a reminder training session a month or so later (it’s easy to fall into the “salesy” trap).

Recently I’ve personally even gone so far as to delete old High School friends and other strangers that friended me and provided no communication. Family and crusty old fighter pilot friends got to stay. While I’m not the best at staying in touch, I do better on Facebook and Twitter than in the real world.

The real problem with teaching all this ‘social media’ stuff is that it doesn’t teach the fundamentals of what brings in the REAL money – Sales…

You have to remember all this social media marketing stuff is based in MARKETING.  And it’s derived from good old fashioned Direct Response. And before you go out trying to build these so-called ‘relationships’ using the above web 2 properties, you *need* to learn the fundamentals of being able to (ethically) persuade people to give you money.

My good friend Luke is a MASTER of this…Here’s some amazing examples I came across recently and wanted to make you aware of. While I may be losing money by not posting an affiliate link to either or even informing Luke or Rich I am doing this ahead of time, I think you can learn a lot from their videos.

HIGHLY IMPRESSIVE SALES VIDEO

My good friend Luke Jaten  from www.PostCardProfits.com is amazing when it comes to direct sales strategy and post cards. His Post Card Profits course is one of only 3 courses I have ever gone completely through more than once.

Recently he showed me his newest video and I told him this. “Luke, That was the best cold traffic sales video I have seen to date, here’s why…”

I’d rip the video right off of his page at www.PostCardProfits.com and post it here but I don’t think it’d be fair to YOU if you didn’t experience how he and Matt Trainer tied the site together when you watch the entire video. Pure Genius.

I’ll leave it at that. Bring a note pad and paper.

GREAT TESTIMONIAL VIDEO

Changing Gears. I met with another good friend of mine, Rich Cook, (www.RichCook.com) for brunch last Sunday and we were goofing off talking about how we should start a funny blog making videos for our own entertainment.

As we were talking videos he brought up a story of this testimonial video he has on his Facebook page that a buddy basically did for him without him knowing for his business.

What basically happened was his friend wanted to make an advertisement/testimonial video of his work and use it for promotional purposes.

I finally got to watch the video last night on Facebook and wanted to share it with you.  It’s put together extremely well and I can’t wait to see it on his main site.

This is a great example of social proof in a video, how to structure a sales video with good testimonials, and do it without being pitchy. Enjoy and take notes on the story blending, testimonials, and I know you’ll be blown away by the amazing photos.

Again, there’s a lot on this page to learn and comment about. I’d love to hear your thoughts below regarding how you use Social Media and your thoughts the Videos – I look forward to hearing from you.

Simply click the Comment link on the top or bottom of this blog.

Talk Soon,

Jeff “Herschy” Schwerdt

This video is the second in a multi part series of a Behind the Scenes look at an Internet Marketing Launch primarily using video. In this video we’ll discuss how powerful a Quick Video Marketing video can be while lasting only 2 minutes. This video took 6+ hours of editing but really drives the point home and will have a ROI a thousand times the effort put in.

This video presents the “Magic Bullet” solution to the recession. Notice how there is no proof at the moment and the video ends with a question. That is an intentional decision that will play out over the next 2 weeks as the pressure is applied to the Magic Bullet prospect with testimonials and results just prior to release. There was no selling in the video, just a solution to the recession. Our next video will be completely different…Stay tuned!

You can follow along with the launch at http://www.ForexAutomator.com to watch how the launch time line and pressure stacking progresses over the next few weeks. PLUS keep returning here to stay up with  the behind the scenes play by play and launch dissection.

Enjoy the video,

Jeff “Herschy” Schwerdt

Follow me on Twitter

Get 2 more Free videos and more here

P.S. I just received permission to allow you access to their VIP Only Partner’s Page. Notice

how it’s all about the potential partner and how what they gain from being a JV Partner.

P.P.S. NEWBIE AUDIO INTERVIEW – I uploaded a new audio file for you that I will post later this week. It will answer a lot of questions and help guide a Newbie or Struggling Marketer along the correct path. I will try and squeeze it in before the next Behind the Scenes Video is released.

WARNING: This video is 42 Minutes Long and is filled with tons solid information.  Grab a pen, some paper and enjoy.

As promised here’s the first of a multi-part  series covering video basics, some video psychology, structuring, and a behind the scene look at a product launch utilizing video. This video was created as a free bonus for our subscribers and Mass Control 2.0 buyers.

This video will cover:

1.  Our Planning Overview for the Video Shoots

2. Using Subtle Hints of Wealth without Mentioning it

3. How to state your experience and gain credit “Under the Radar”

4. The Integration of Royalty Free Music

5. Some Editing Basics

6. Camera Angle Selection

7. Integrating a “Common Thread”

8. Emotional Triggers

9. Lighting and Audio

10. Tons of good info for Beginners and Intermediate Video Marketers

I Highly Recommend following along at http://www.ForexAutomator.com to watch how the launch time line and pressure stacking progresses over the next few weeks. PLUS keep returning here to stay up with  the behind the scenes play by play and launch dissection. Since we are working with the Quantum Research company on this potential (OK, highly probable) 7 figure launch I may be able to pass some swipe files and explanation to the email series as well. No promises though

Enjoy the video,

Jeff “Herschy” Schwerdt

Follow me on Twitter

Get 2 more Free videos and more here

P.S. I just received permission to allow you access to their VIP Only Partner’s Page. Notice

how it’s all about the potential partner and how what they gain from being a JV Partner.