Laying The Foundations (Part 2)

FREE eBOOK ALSO AVAILABLE!! www.GlobalSocialMediaCoaching.com/eBook This next podcast is all about laying the foundation. Your Website (The is “Home Base”) Your Blog (A Place To Tell Your Story) Your Free “Teaser” (Builds Trust & Momentum) There’s no point being on Twitter if you don’t have a good foundation, let me explain why... Your website is what I call your home base. You own it... It may take years to build and refine but like a house, once it’s built, you can live there forever. If you’ve got all of your content on a particular or on various social media platforms, consider this: what happens if the site shuts down for some reason? More realistically, what happens if the admins or owners of that particular site decide your content isn’t fit for public consumption? Remember, they don’t really need a reason to make this move. Make the time and spend the money to get yourself a website that Google recognises and you own. There’s another key element here too... what I call Google juice. There’s no point in having a website if Google can’t see it. After all, most people just Google their way through life... it’s the top search engine and not having a presence on it is likely to hurt your business dearly. So, once you’ve got your website, what next? Get yourself a blog (running with the house analogy, this is your ‘spare room’). A blog is where you can communicate with your audience and share stories via short stories, articles, podcasts, videos... whatever you like. It keeps you top of mind with your audience and it’s fantastic for SEO (we’re back to Google now... the more quality content you post that’s relevant to your area of expertise, the higher your site will rank on Google). There are three main blogging platforms to explore: WordPress (My Favourite) www.WordPress.org Tumblr (Also Awesome) www.Tumblr.com Blogger (Easy To Use) www.Blogger.com While your blog sees you posting fresh content on a regular basis, the rest of your website will feature ‘hero’ text. It’s likely to remain the same for a good while and when it needs to be changed, you’ll need to call in your web guru (unless you’re far more tech-savvy than I am). As for your teaser or freebie... this is an item that acts as a preview or snippet and encourages people to trust you enough to commit to a product. For example, a podcast may entice people to attend an event, an eBook may secure someone’s position in a course... you get the drift. The online world is all about building trust. In return for this freebie, people input their contact details which rewards you with an automatic email database to use moving forward. Now, before I go, I wanted to share a teaser example that’ll blow your mind and perfectly illustrate that when used correctly, freebies work. You’re probably one of the people hooked on Candy Crush – it’s downloaded via Facebook and quite a fun little game. It’s completely free... what’s not free is assistance to make it to the next level. It’s only a $1 to get help... who can’t spare a dollar? Imagine people playing this game at Starbucks, while waiting at airports, while they’re supposed to be working (shhh, we won’t tell!)... that $1 purchase earns the Candy Crush crew over $300 million a year. Just staggering!!!