Please enjoy this true story of … “Persona Enlightenment”:

Never regarded in school as much of a writer, and with little more then a computer, internet access, and an idea, a young man decided to “enter the unknown blogging corridor” in search of the next chapter. Little did he know it would lead toward a special form of enlightenment…

During his first few months, he simply blogged about what inspired him. Often this included life lessons, stories plump full of gratitude and perspective. Moments of tears, laughter the insight was his bread and butter. Views for some of his early posts, ranged from 30-50/day. Not bad for a beginner right? And when he saw his post, Homeless Man Eternally Changes My Perspective, achieve a record high for 58 views in one day, he danced in elation about the feat, in complete amazement about how powerful blogging is.

(Even though he had no idea what he was doing, haha).

Six months later, with a bit more experience, this newly “found” young blogger attended Michael Drew’s Book Publishing 2.0 (now known as BeKnown), in Calgary, Alberta, and learned some fascinating stuff! Namely, that there’s actually 4 main personality types, or as Michael calls them “Personas“. The Competitive type likes logical facts, with a focus on results; the Spontaneous type wants fun, fast, exciting; Methodicals want details, processes and systems to take them efficiently from point A to B. And last, but absolutely not least, Humanistics, want compelling stories, with emotion, meaning and evidence that others are being cared for.

The picture was now clear and apparent that so many people (including himself – a Humanistic) write to themselves. Also he started to understand that without any form of a platform or gravity well, or focus, his blogging efforts would create all forms of “feel good” experiences, but do little for business. Leaving him working all the time trying to catch up, with no time for friends, family, or the 12-year old boy he mentors. All things that really matter to him!

Since that weekend, and with Michael Drew’s focused and clear guidance, this young blogger is getting better everyday. Still not perfect, but truly, what real story is ever perfect?

What’s your story?

This young blogger hopes you enter the corridor and find Persona Enlightenment too via this starting point. You can also write him personally at kyle@promoteabook.com.

THE END…

It seems as if telling someone to be prepared for success shouldn’t be necessary but it is.  We spend a lot of time convincing the world that we are right and far less time on what to do once the world agrees with us.  Sometimes our self confidence can lead us astray and cause us to not look ahead at what’s coming.

The reality is that rapid growth is just as much of a danger to a business as slow growth is. When you have rapid growth you need the ability to control that growth as well as systems and processes in place to manage the business on a day-to-day basis.

Growth control- This is important particularly in a manufactured goods business.  Resources are oftentimes limited and you must be able to grow at a rate that your business can feasibly maintain.  Even a service business needs to be aware of their financial constraints as the need arises for more infrastructure and employees.  Don’t outgrow your resources.

Systems and Processes- Systems are so critical to your business.  A good first step to systems is to look at how much your business can grow as it is now without having to change and when do you anticipate that happening.  That’s your first benchmark.  Then look at what will be needed as your organization grows.  How big is your staff going to be?  What technology will you need?  Do you have a procedures outline for new people that are brought on?  And the list goes on and on.

When it comes to being prepared for success one quick thing that you can do right now is map out your vision for the idea or process.  And I mean write it down.  It can’t exist solely in your head, it must be articulated on paper.  Once you have that down you can start building a loose framework for how the vision can become a reality.

What is your biggest challenge when it comes to planning?  How much planning is too much?

Spam from ‘friends’ on my Facebook wall is very different matter.

My Facebook wall is almost a holy place, where I interact with friends, family, and soon to be better friends. So when marketers decide to place an ad on my wall, it feels worse and is a true violation of the unwritten rules of common decency on FB.  It the equivalent of  someone putting a Billboard on my front yard without my consent.

Usually when this happens I just delete their wall post and remove them from my friend list, which is what I was about to do yesterday morning.  Then something switched in my brain. I decided to use the very same tool the ‘spammer’ used to fight back.

Below is the series of back and forth’s I had when I got ‘spammed’ by Paul Cutright yesterday morning. It is raw and unedited, includes typos and is just as it happened.

It started with this post on my FB Wall.

Paul Cutright Hi Anthony – Dr. Joe Vitale is so inspiring! I just watched

this interview he did with Ryan Higgins from Mind Movies and Nick Ortner from World Tapping Summit. I know both of these guys and thought you might like to check it out and get the free audio – just click EFT and Mind Movies below . . .

Then I replied on my wall…

Anthony C. Garcia Jr. If you post your spam on my wall, you get removed from my friends list, and I broadcast your douchebaginess to my 3000+ friends here. Paul you posted an ad on my lawn without permission. Not cool.

Friends, if you don’t like douchebags, and Paul Cutright is on your friend list, I suggest you remove him as I have.

When will marketers get a clue?

Harsh? Maybe.  But do you disagree?  Shortly after this post(and a dozen likes and comments on my post), Paul sent me a message on FB.  Here is the thread from beginning to end.

Subject: Please accept my apologies

Paul Cutright August 9 at 11:57am

Hi Anthony — please know that I meant no offense in sending you that message. I see you unfriended me already.

I guess I don’t understand your hostility, though, when a simple request to not do anything like that again would do.

I don’t expect us to be “FB friends” again, but I would appreciate you deleting the unecessarily nasty “douchebag” message you posted. Makes me think you have no idea who I am or what I am about.

Paul

Anthony C. Garcia Jr. August 9 at 2:59pm

Paul,

Placing an unsolicited ad on my wall(or anyone’s) is a hostile act. Just because it is possible doesn’t mean you should. I only responded in proportion to the initial hostile act taken by you.

And tell me why I would want to know someone who would place something on my wall without my permission? You were clever enough to see that you could expose your message on my wall, are you not clever enough to understand my response? I was only using the same tool that you were to get my message across.

Has nobody called you on this before? Will you stop spamming people’s walls? Or are just sorry because someone actually did something you didn’t expect and you feel like you have egg on your mug?

I am ready to listen and hear you out put please know that I will share our conversation with my FB friends if you do choose to reply.

Anthony.

Paul Cutright August 9 at 3:17pm Report

Anthony,

Thank you for responding to my message. I understand you interpreted my post as a hostile act. The perception of hostility is in your interpretation, not in my intention. And your assumption of hostile intent without checking it out first is, in my opinion, over the top and uncalled for, especially with your vulgar epithet.

As a matter of fact, I have NEVER posted anything like this EVER before, for what it’s worth. No one has ever called me on this because it has never happened before. Again, you have made an incorrect assumption about my behavior as a social media participant and business person without any grounding whatsoever.

This was simply a mistake, plain and simple. Where I come from mistakes call for correction, not judgment or punishment. But, that’s just where I come from.

I am more than willing for you to share this conversation with your friends. I am also more than willing to clear this up, but I am not sure you are.

Paul

Anthony C. Garcia Jr. August 9 at 3:59pm

Paul,

I make mistakes, and if you were the unwitting recipient of the end of my patience with spam on my FBwall, I can accept that and broadcast that as well. As most of my friends can attest, my heart is bigger than my mouth.

If you are indeed a spammer, people will know and call you on it, if you are not, then good for you and good for everyone.

As you can guess, I am simply defending my wall and others who complain and just accept it as part of their FB experience. Somebody has to.

There are lessons everywhere you look, and if you and I can turn this into something that will help others have a better experience on FB or even market themselves better, I would vote for that. How about you?

Enjoy the day,

Anthony

<End of thread>

If you are a marketer or social media guru that recommends posting unsolicited advertising on a ‘friends’ Facebook wall, please rethink your tactics.    It won’t be long before people understand what I did.   That my Facebook wall is a more powerful weapon in MY hands than it is in yours.

Of course, this is not the only reason you shouldn’t do it. Bottom line, it just doesn’t work.(More on that in a separate post)

I am not convinced that Paul isn’t a spammer, are you?

What are your thoughts?  What part can you play in turning down the digital noises and spam during your FB Experience?

If you are a marketer, would you recommend or participate in posting ads on other’s walls without their consent? Why?

What simple statement about your business or brand — just a quick, clear sentence or two at most — tells your prospects that you are the only alternative for them? Sounds like a response should just jump out at you. Yet most businesses (on- and offline) cannot provide an answer that simply rolls off their tongues or, even more appropriately in the case of e-commerce, appears on their home pages.

By USP, or unique selling proposition, I don’t mean a slogan or a phrase that will appear in your advertising, although that’s one potential use for it. Rather I mean the concise and memorable phrase that answers your prospect’s always-implicit question, “Why should I do business with you and not somebody else?”

A unique selling proposition is mucho importante. And I’m not the only one who thinks so. Linda Bustos, an e-commerce consultant at the Get Elastic blog wrote:

Why should your ideal customer purchase from you rather than from anybody else?

I would even go so far as to ask yourself, what one thing about your company, your product selection, your customer service or your customer loyalty is so compelling, that even if a product was out of stock, or some functionality were broken on your site, a customer would stick around and buy something?

The folks at Marketing Experiments believe so strongly in the importance of the clarity of the value proposition that Dr. Flint McGlaughlin was bold enough to say if you get your value proposition right, you can get many other things wrong on your landing pages and still improve conversion dramatically.

Several years ago at our company, we adjusted the term a bit by replacing “selling” with “value.” What we didn’t change was our work with clients, helping them clarify or even create a unique value proposition for use on their site (among hundreds of other factors).

I was reminded of this recently when our newest conversion analyst and one of his clients turned in their most recent optimization success story. A single test on this client’s unique value proposition increased overall conversion rate by 33.8 percent. What did this client do that worked so well? It hired a good writer (at our suggestion) who wrote several suggested unique value propositions, as this company didn’t have one at all. Then we tested the several unique value propositions, until we had a clear winner. Not only did our client see a conversion rate increase, it gained customer insight that can be used to optimize other site areas.

Every Landing Page Needs One

In recent years, I’ve even started suggesting clients use unique campaign propositions (UCP). These are meant to reinforce your offer from banner ad or PPC (define) campaigns by enhancing the landing-page scent. When visitors take their precious eight-second first impression, you want them to know why they should buy from you and not your competitors.

Strengthen Your Unique Value Proposition

Creating a unique value or campaign proposition isn’t for chumps or posers. Your value proposition must be clear, relevant, and easy to understand. Here’s a quick, easy process for writing a more powerful unique value proposition:

• Ask your personas what they value most about your product/service/campaign; make a list. (If you don’t have personas, you can ask a few dozen of your most faithful customers. Yes, you can ask both if you want).
• On your list, look for repeating themes and list those separately.
• Hand the list to a good writer. Ask that person to write 5 to 10 versions of a potential unique value proposition based on the list.
• Test three to five of the most promising unique value propositions.
• Pick the best-performing unique value proposition.

How strong is your unique value proposition? It could be the key to a better conversion rate.

A few weeks ago, we posted five tips to help you be in top form for TV appearances. Here, courtesy once again of Marsha Friedman, are ten more tips to help you capitalize on valuable air-time when you appear as a TV guest.

1) Use “Tips” as part of your segment! If your topic offers helpful advice then tips are a great way to communicate your message. Television producers want to provide their viewers with useful content presented in a manner that is easy to understand. Develop five tips that solve a problem your topic addresses. Are you a fitness guru with a unique formulation for fat loss? Then offer five fat burning tips! Does your book offer advice about how to live a happier life? Then come up with 5 ways to live happier today!

2) If you’re pitching local TV, find the local angle. Local network affiliates are extremely valuable, so a great method to grab the producer’s interest is to find the local tie-in for your topic. If you are a real estate guru, before going on air do your homework and find out what the real estate market is like in that city. Have you written a book about the American economy? Be prepared to talk about the economic climate in that particular city. By highlighting a local angle, your interview will resonate more with the host and the viewers.

3) Don’t be monotone. It doesn’t work. The alteration of pitch and tone in your voice will keep your audience interested. Stay animated. It’s not only what you say, but how you say it that counts!

4) Prepare for personal questions. The job of a producer is to do research for the host about you and your topic, in preparation of your interview. If simple web research unearths two previous bankruptcies and you are promoting a CD series on how to make millions . . . be prepared! Often the best comeback is a real and even comical answer. It will not only endear you to the audience but can deflect the tone of an antagonistic interviewer.

5) Don’t overload your interview with statistics. Use stats and numbers wisely. For example, if you have written a book about natural methods of preventing diabetes, the fact that 20.8 million Americans are diagnosed with diabetes is important. But if you also mention that 85,000 diabetics have their feet amputated and 12 million people will go blind from it, these statistics will create more of an emotional impact on the host and viewers.

6 ) Double-check your contact information. Before you go on-air, make sure your website is up, your toll free phone number is working and you have a list of the retail outlets where your book can be purchased. Why? If you share the incorrect contact information during your interview, you defeat the whole purpose of your appearance. Also, if you give a great interview and viewers can’t find your book, the TV station will get overloaded with calls from viewers asking for information—and reflects poorly on you as a guest.

7) Record and critique your interviews. Watch your interview numerous times and observe the different elements of your performance. How well did you answer the questions? Did your clothes send the right message? What did your body language say about you? Did you seem natural or rehearsed? Did you remember all of your sound bites? Did you interrupt the host? Identify the points you felt were weak and do whatever you can to strengthen them before your next interview.

Look good / feel good. Sleep and good nutrition are obviously important to our daily mental and physical well being; it makes us look better, feel better, and think clearly. But these health points are even more important when you factor in the stress of an important media interview. So try to get a good night’s sleep—and a healthy breakfast before your interview. Don’t overdose on the caffeine either! You want to be at the top of your game for your TV appearance.

9) Be gracious on and off the air. Remember to thank the host for the interview while you’re still on-air. Make sure to thank the producer as well. It’s also a good practice to send a brief thank you note to the host and the producer. It’s good manners and presents you as a consummate professional. It can also increase your chances of being remembered in the future, when they need to interview an expert on your topic.

10) Prepare for the pre-interview. When it comes to national TV, you may be asked for a “pre-interview”. Don’t take this lightly. Be prepared with your message; be energetic, informative and appropriately entertaining. The interview isn’t completely secured until you pass this test!

Marsha Friedman has been a leading authority on publicity for authors for nearly two decades as CEO of Event Management Services, Inc (EMSI). To find out more about her, visit emsincorporated.com.