Last weekend I had the privilege of attending Blogworld, Los Angeles and watched some of my favorites in the Social Media landscape speak on their strengths. During the event, I asked some of my wonderful friends if they had any questions for two of my favorite social media experts, Mari Smith and Michael Stelzner.
Mari Smith is one of the top Facebook and Relationship Marketing Experts around.
In 2008, FastCompany.com dubbed Mari “the Pied Piper of the Online World.”
Michael Stelzner is the founder of Socialmediaexaminer.com.
In less than 5 months, Social Media Examiner was declared the #1 small business blog in the world by Technorati, added more than 13,000 email subscribers, brought nearly 100,000 people a month to the site and is ranked as one of the top 4200 websites in all of America by Alexa.
Today we answer two questions that were narrowed down from Carol “The How2Girl” Dodsley and Keith”Ask The Tipster” Everett for Mari Smith. (expect Michael’s interview in a few days)
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Carol’s question was:
“With all the noise and information overload in the social media arena right now – what advice would you give Mari, to newcomers that will enable them to cut out the noise?“
Mari:
“Ok, well hello Carol. First of all I think there is something huge to be said for being a Personal Brand, and I am assuming you are! (In being a personal brand), look to see what makes you unique and play your strengths. Less is more. Better to say fewer things that are high quality and relevant. Scale it back. Don’t be a contributor to the noise. Quality over Quantity. Focus on the quality and the quantity comes. ”
Keith’s questions was:
“My question to Mari is, what is her most successful traffic technique she uses to get people to opt into her list?“
Mari:
“Oh, I have my Ninja tricks. I offer free Webinars. I look for timely topics. Back in Feburary teaching my 7 point strategy system for success on Facebook, we had 7500 opt ins. 30% coming in is pretty good and that is what we had. About 2k live. We could have had 3k to 4k if we had the right technology. That was one of my most successful opt ins. Then you can’t just go do a free webinar and say, “Ok thanks guys, bye, we’ll see ya later”. As a marketer you need to think strategically. When you have live people tuning in, make an offer; an irresistible offer; send them to a link. Make it really obvious. Give them the link and have maybe a discount code for the offer if they sign up by a certain time. Make it totally authentic and for real without any kind of shenanigans.
Me:
“Thanks Mari, I am so excited that you said that because I am very into Webinars, in fact I created an automated Webinar Software. So thank you Mari Smith, proof is in the pudding!”
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I had such a great experience talking to Mari and many other experts in their respective fields at Blogworld.
In a few days, you can expect to see Michael Stelzner’s Interview and the couple of questions we asked him.
Again I was very excited that Mari mentioned Webinars, because that’s what I’ve been devoting my time to for the last 6 months. When she said that the technology didn’t lend itself to having more people on the Webinar, it confirmed one of the very reasons why I created Easy Webinar Plugin in the first place. Wow-thanks a ton Mari for really hitting home a great way to get opt ins!
Super Important: Mari just released her new book “The New Relationship Marketing” For more information on that CLICK HERE.
Are these questions similar to ones that you may have had about Social Media and Online Marketing?
If so, you may have more questions. Feel free to leave them here. I might try to get Mari to give us a bit more fresh and relevant tidbits on Social Media and Relationship Marketing. 
Cheers everyone!
Casey
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Great interview Casey really love your style.
You really need to stand on a box though next time.lol.
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