About Me 0072: Making Money Tips

Corporations are free to lobby against your interests – and to fire you if you fight back.

The short suspension of MSNBC on-air personality Keith Olberman is over. He was suspended for making candidate donations without the permission of his MSNBC boss, Phil Griffin. The public reaction to the Olberman suspension was nuclear, and the NBC walk back was lickety-split. But during his victory lap (on last Tuesday’s Countdown,) Olberman made one important mistake – he called NBC’s donation rule “probably not legal.”

GE, owners of MSNBC donated over $1.5 million politicians on both sides of the aisle. There may be more, but the Supreme Court recently ruled that we no longer have a right to know. The Court says its Citizens United ruling merely puts corporations on equal footing with citizens — a nutty goal even if that were the extent of it. But it does much more.

At first blush Olberman’s point might have seemed obvious. What right does an employer have to require you to disclose your private political donations, “in advance” or afterward? And a requirement for “permission” seems to fly in the face of the very notion of free expression, doesn’t it?

But that’s not how the law sees it. Well-settled law allows your employer to make most any rule it wants, thanks to a doctrine called “At-Will Employment.” In thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia, employers are free to fire any employee whose politics differs from the company line. Under At-Will, It is perfectly legal to terminate your employment if your employer considers you ugly or doesn’t like your lipstick. An employer can dictate which side you must part your hair, and fire you if you don’t comply. An employer can fire you just before you like to watch Keith Olberman. It’s perfectly legal.

This principle of law (combined with the Supreme Court decision) leads to an overwhelming advantage for corporations — they both have free speech and have a free right to stifle others. Corporations are effectively granted superior status, simply because they can tell you to “shut up or be fired.”

Continued on the next page

Tactics are specific actions, steps or decisions that you can use to execute your chosen strategy.

For example, if your objective is to “increase net profits” and your chosen strategy is to lower overhead by lowering your cost per lead, then your tactics might be:

Build a presence online.

Build a branded, customized blog.

Start building a list by using our blog’s content as bait.

Create a high-converting opt-in section in our blog. Make it convert well by creating an irresistible freebie to give away.

Social Media Platforms

After you have formulated your M.O.S.T. plan, it’s time to identify, assess and select the appropriate social platforms to use.

The most popular social media platforms for business are LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The best ones to leverage are those where your target audience is already active and engaged. So go to where they are, interact with them, build a relationship and then drive them to an appropriate website of yours (for best results, send them somewhere that continues the conversation, like a business blog).

Your choice and prioritization of platforms should depend on how well they fit into your strategy and how regularly your target audience uses them, NOT which brands are currently generating the most hype on them.

For example, a common trend identified by Marketing Sherpa is that there aren’t many businesses that blog because they perceive it as difficult to initiate and maintain when compared to the investment in Twitter, Facebook, social bookmarking, etc. As a result, these businesses make the mistake of focusing on using specific media just because they are perceived as easier to set up and use, not necessarily because they generate the best return.

Marketing Sherpa’s Social Media Marketing Report 2010 revealed that tactics related to blogging and microblogging earned the highest ratings among social marketers in terms of the most effective tactics for achieving objectives.

Blogging for Business

Once you’ve established your presence on the appropriate social media platforms, the best way to profit from those relationships you’ve built is to drive them to your blog (NOT your company website) and engage with them even more.

In your blog, aim to:

Post valuable, useful content that demonstrates your expertise, and encourage your audience to spread your message.

Encourage interaction with your market. Instigate conversations. The more participation and involvement you can generate from your audience, the better.

Pre-sell, NOT sell. Many business blogs make the mistake of posting exclusively about their sales, promotions or discounts.

Exude your brand.

Give a taste of what it’s like to work with you or buy from you (fun/enthusiastic/easy, etc.).

The above are key reasons why it’s best to direct Internet users to your blog, not your website.

As long as your target market can be found online and as long as you’ve identified specific platforms that your prospects actively use, you’ll need a business blog to effectively market online.

But wait a second.

We’re not talking about just any business blog, we’re talking about a blog that’s designed, configured and optimized to:

Attract traffic.

Convert visitors into leads on autopilot by getting them into your sales funnel.

Establish you as a trustworthy thought leader in your niche.

Convert leads into loyal, raving fans.

Help spread your message and generate buzz by digital word-of-mouth marketing.

Create Your Sales Funnel

Your sales funnel is the process you’ll use to take a prospect from unfamiliarity (”I don’t know you”) to loyalty (”I love you!”) or even fanaticism.

One of the most proven and best ways in our experience to get prospects to become leads can be summarized in this process:

Opt in -> Relationship building -> Make an offer

Opt-in: When a prospect arrives at your blog, offer them something of massive value in their eyes (maybe an ebook, report, video series, etc.) in exchange for their name and email address.

Relationship building: Using an auto-responder, send them an email every week or twice a week. Your email should also contain something that gives massive value. It could contain tips, links to tools, strategies, reports, updates, etc. Make sure to give value and build your relationship with your audience before you try to sell them anything.

Make an offer: We recommend a ratio of 80% free, valuable content and 20% selling. This means that 80% of your emails give value (no selling) and only 20% of them are invitations to take their experience of you to a higher level and buy from you.

bench craft company rip off

bench craft company rip off
bench craft company rip off

bench craft company rip off

Corporations are free to lobby against your interests – and to fire you if you fight back.

Continued on the next page

Tactics are specific actions, steps or decisions that you can use to execute your chosen strategy.

For example, if your objective is to “increase net profits” and your chosen strategy is to lower overhead by lowering your cost per lead, then your tactics might be:

Build a presence online.

Build a branded, customized blog.

Start building a list by using our blog’s content as bait.

Create a high-converting opt-in section in our blog. Make it convert well by creating an irresistible freebie to give away.