Notes from “Social Media Success: Business Models” by Brian Clark at SOBCon08

www.inkthinkerblog.com — Over the next several posts, I’ll transcribe my notes, and my Tweets, from the eight sessions at SOBCon08, Business School for Bloggers. All sessions have notes, but not all were Tweeted. Just fair warning. :)

Social Media Success: Business Models
Brian Clark

A lot of what used to work won’t be tolerated anymore.

Revenue source, traffic strategy, and blogging are components of a business model, but not the model itself.
product/service –> audience –> price

Content = Marketing = Selling = Solving

Content is a social media attraction strategy

Your revenue model should be, “Yes, please.”

The Triple A Model for Social Media

  1. Attention.
  2. Authority.
  3. Acceleration.

Trying to give people what they don’t want is the quickest way to fail.

Attention

  • not getting it
  • doing the wrong things to get it
  • getting the wrong kinds

Authority

  • expertise creates authority
  • don’t be shy about the fact that your in business — a subscriber who’s not interested in buying something is not good for your business

Acceleration

  • maximizing the asset while removing yoursef from the day to day

Choose a high-demand area and carve out a niche via remarkable positioning: that is, the opposite of the Long Tail
own a portion of a high-demand market segment

Positioning defines editorial approach
– content must stands on its own to become authoritative and make you money

Use copywriting to get people to take action immediately
– make your content stand out
– Michael Gerber’s The E-myth: It’s not what a business sells, but how it sells it

Transform attention into authority by social proof. “Social heuristics.”
– the more popular you are, the more popular you are

Links are key to search engine optimization. Technical SEO is very useful, but links build authority

Segment your audience
– interest
– demographics
– obtain revenue via targeted offers without annoying the rest of the people. Tell people what they want to hear at the right time.

Test what the market wants with affiliate marketing

Observe and people will tell you exactly what you want

Acceleration means making it more profitable and less work

Use pages:
– Landing pages
– Thematic pages
– Google-friendly pages

Backend pages and spin-offs build traffic and revenue potential
– minisites — selling satellites
– thematically related authority sites…
… get your network to promote your new projects for you
… are not competitors but cooperators
– new niches (but start with a core first)

TEST, TEST, TEST. The barrier to selling is lack of trust, but the key to conversion is refining the offer.

Maximize return on investment from creating and selling your own products and services

Virtual reality vs. “augmented reality.”

Make your business an ASSET not a JOB
– simplify, streamline, automate, outsource
– money without freedom is hollow

Strategically partner with others

Find ways to remove yourself from the equation without making the business suffer

What did I miss? Leave a comment and let me know.

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