This clever YouTube video explains, in numbers and percents just how much social media is changing the face of everything. Communication, advertising and sharing. We are becoming more connected and there’s a beauty behind it all.

Social media is not a fad. It’s how we communicate now.

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“Independent Social Media Administrator?” A lot of fancy words that mean something very simple, yet very poweful!

You own a business or have a product/service you’d like the world to know about. You’d like a way to stay in touch with hundreds, if not thousands of current and potential customers. But let’s be realistic, between running your business and your personal life, you probably don’t have the time to keep up with it all. Having me as your social media administrator can help you. I believe in it and so does David Meerman Scott.

There are hundreds of sites being used my millions of people. Traditional advertising like print, radio and TV just aren’t making the same impacts that social media does. The price of traditional advertising is astronomical, yet free services like Twitter and Facebook are thriving. Millions of users are interacting with each other every minute of every day. They are discussing current news, events and sharing links to web pages and YouTube videos. Every large company has gotten on board with this concept and have saved millions of dollars utilizing free services to make the impacts that traditional and expensive media used to promise. Traditional print ads in some of New York’s most popular publications cost anywhere between $500 – $10,000 per ad. Sometimes some of those ads only run once!

With social media and certain Internet tools, your computer or mobile device can become an instant portal to who is talking about you. Instead of just passive advertising like print, you can immediately interact with your customers and spur conversation. A social media administrator can have up to the minute data about who is talking about your brand and can respond right away. It’s instant customer service. In only 10 hours, singer Amanda Palmer made over $10,000 using Twitter. And even the comedian Drew Carey is trying to raise $1 Million via Twitter!

It’s a lot for a young or even seasoned business to keep up with. New companies work hard gaining new clients and improving their products. Older companies are doing their best to maintain their expected income and gain more ground. Hiring an independent social media administrator can be a great way to help.

I’ll be there alongside you helping you thrive, connect and stay ahead of your competition. I’ve personally been studying influential psychology and social media and have been working on a business plan that will help any business use social media to their advantage. Utilizing free services like Twitter and Facebook, I can help you stay in touch with thousands per day. I will monitor the Internet for brand mentions or keywords so you can keep the conversation going as well as stay up to date with trends. I’ll make sure the world knows about your events and I’ll share your content across multiple websites. You will be able to saturate the web, but not drown it.

Being able to connect with customers instantly is key. Being able to react and adapt to trends will give you an edge.

Contact me now to get information about what services I offer and price discussion. I’ll create a custom plan and pricing for you depending on your needs, goals and income.

PS: The best time to start with social media is now. Save time and money trying to figure out social media and hiring someone who costs more than your normal employees. My plans and techniques are the combination of Internet, marketing and psychology research. The rules are always changing and it’s good to have someone on your side who is riding the wave. Contact me now and let’s do what your competition isn’t.

And don’t forget to add my Facebook Fan Page to keep up to date with all my postings, links and discussions!

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I’ve been pretty lax with how I’ve been using Twitter as far as a marketing tool. As part of the classes I’ll be teaching next month, I decided to start apply what I’ve been researching on myself. Last night I tried using the technique I found to get at least 50 – 100 new followers on Twitter a day. So how did I do?

I received over 140+ new followers instead! This makes me feel confident that what I’m teaching will be effective! I’m excited! I’m even more excited about TwitterCounter.com‘s prediction that I may have 3,000 followers in 30 days time! Let’s hope!

I’ll post more experiments in the coming days!

EDIT: This image is now out of date. Two days later, the number jumped to 464! Over 200+ new followers all in less than an hour’s work!

And don’t forget to add my Facebook Fan Page to keep up to date with all my postings, links and discussions!

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1. DO MORE: Learn How To Use Twitter! Part TWO!

Or “Are A Lot Of New Marketers Information Spamming?”

Short answer: yes.

I’m your typical Gen-Yer. I grew up around technology, follow the latest trends, buy the newest gadgets and read A LOT of blogs. My RSS reader is packed with blogs. I have them all categorized into my favorite areas of interest: Art, Music, Tech, Friends and Marketing. It’s the last one that has changed my life recently. Because of all the new social media information I’ve been reading, there has been an overflow of new ideas rushing into my brain. It’s all brand new to me and that’s very exciting. I read a lot of blogs and look at tons of tweets a day about marketing. Some bloggers have been keeping a constant flow of information to all their readers and then there are some who are overpopulating the pool. A lot of so called “experts” who are taking the ball and running with it. Much too fast and in no particular direction.

I get the idea of “always be closing.” I understand that a good salesperson takes what they know about sales and applies it to their entire life. It can be beneficial to living a good social life as well as keeping up a good business. I get that. Marketing is quite another beast. A good salesperson is always closing because that mentality yields results. Be it money, progress, connections or any sort of gain, there is a clear purpose behind the idea of “always be closing.” That in mind, I can also understand the idea of “always be marketing.” However, social media is such a new frontier that a lot of people don’t have the battle hardened, tried and true calluses of experience. I’m the last person on Earth who can say they are “experienced” in any way, however, I know the importance of purpose behind what you do.

In any given day, I read tons of marketing blog posts written by people who are old school marketers that have rode the new wave of social media and are sailing. Dispensing priceless nuggets of info to the masses. I also read 5 to 10 times more tweets a day about the same topics. It’s the tweets that are a major issue. The bloggers are the seasoned, anecdote wielding kings and queens of the industry. They watched new social media flower blossom and helped cultivate into a large, sprawling garden of information and ideas. While some writers may blog or tweet in a large capacity, their words carry so much more weight because of their backgrounds. I don’t mind sifting through hundreds of tweets a day from certain bloggers because these men and women know what they are talking about. They’ve been around the block more times than anyone.

It’s these new waves of “social media experts” that get under my skin.

Tweeting about things doesn’t make you an expert. Sharing knowledge is great and valuable. We can all agree there. But information isn’t valuable if it isn’t applied. “Expert knowledge” is hard to trust when the person telling you doesn’t seem to have any legs to stand on. Links, tips and quotes are fine and dandy, but I think some people are missing the point behind social media. You are sharing information and trying to sell your supposed know how to people the old fashion way. It’s an oxymoron. Many of the new marketing “experts” are sharing new marketing ideas by using old fashion, “top down,” one way communications. I really think the idea of Web 2.0 and social media is flying way over their heads.

They don’t blog either. They hardly communicate on other people’s blogs. If they actually have a website, it’s not as user friendly and interesting as their “expert knowledge” would lend you to believe. Filling your site with useful metadata tags and keywords to make it an “SEO goldmine” doesn’t really mean much if you’re not really saying anything. Many of these people dole out information like so many Post-It notes trying to follow in the footsteps of those who seem to get it. I think information should be shared when you truly understand what you’re doing. When there is a strong purpose and reason behind what you do. When there is a passion to share this knowledge to help others and change lives.

These people are sharing information with the strength and weight of a handful of disorganized Post-It notes. While others are pulling anecdotes from their work experience, sharing stories from true professionals with experience and writing concise books based of all of the above. I know I’m a little Gen-Y fish in big, ever expanding pool and I like it. I enjoy challenging myself by learning new things and trying out different walks of life. The mistake I always try to avoid making every time I switch gears is to not only bite off more than I can chew, but to never output more than I know. I understand modeling yourself after those that are doing it right. But assuming their behavior is only really valid until you too have a good idea about what you’re doing.

What I’m really saying is this: I’ve watched a lot of martial arts movies my entire life. You can say that I “know a lot about martial arts.” I technically know how to throw a good punch, a good kick and how to jump down a flight of stairs. But do I really know how to fight? Of course not. I would never consider myself a martial artist until I gained all the bruises and belts to prove it. The sad thing I’ve noticed lately is that there are a lot of so called “marketing martial artists” out there that think they can kick a lot of ass but most of them are still flailing around.

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1. DO MORE: Learn How To Use Twitter! Part One!

Let’s face it: There world of marketing is different. New technologies like the Internet and social media have changed everything. Don’t believe me? Just grab any of the over 3,000 books on Amazon.com that will tell you so. It’s time for a new marketing plan.

The marketing experts know this already. They’re the ones that have written all these books. But let’s face another fact: Many independent creatives and business owners are either not aware of this or don’t have the time to read all these books. Thankfully, I do. While a lot of these ideas are relevant to any market, product or service, the average under 30-something wouldn’t really know where to begin. I’m making it my job to find out what works for people like us. While we may understand the inner workings of all these great social networks, we may not have the know-how that the average marketing expert does. They saw the change coming and applied their years of knowledge to ride the wave and continue business as usual.

Fortunately, I was sitting back and watching them do it. And I’ll tell you how to do it too.

To really sink your teeth into the idea of using current (and totally free!) technology to your marketing advantage, you need to recognize two very important foundations. The first one is realizing that things have changed. Traditional marketing has taken the back seat to the speed of social media as a marketing tool. No one illustrates that point better than David Meerman Scott.

David Meerman Scott had done a great social experiment to illustrate a powerful point: there are new rules in marketing. They cross all social classes and nations. Watch him prove his point all over the world:

He proves that what used to work doesn’t work as well as it used to. I’m sure if you played along with the questions, you had the same responses. This video proves one of the first foundations of what I want to teach: The rules of marketing have changed. Now is the time to take advantage of it!

Once you can accept that, then you need to take part in the second foundation. You need to have a frame of mind change. And by that I mean you need to realize something within yourself as an artist. If you are an artist, have you had this thought: “I would like to make money off of my art!” If you have, you need to have a frame of mind change! The moment you consider making a profit off of your “art,” it is no longer “art.” It has now become a “product” and you need to treat it as such! You need to become a “business person.” You need to realize at that point you have to find effective and relevant ways to market and sell your “product.”

It may be a rough pill to swallow. I believe if you can plant those two foundations in your mind, those alone can really help you get on your way to tapping into the power of social media and marketing. I’ll be by your side in this journey so let’s get ready to do it together, okay?

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