Everybody Writes With Ann Handley | Episode 026

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Converge Podcast Episode 026

AnnHandley

You are a writer.

Sure, you may not be a writer in the traditional sense as it relates to publishing books or articles for publication. Maybe you don’t even have a blog or website where you publish content. Maybe you do. Either way, writing is a core human technology. It’s something we all do on some level. It’s a necessity.

Ann Handley, author, speaker, curator, marketer, taste maker and generally awesome person, joins Dane in this episode of Converge. They talk about Ann’s journey from college, to publishing her latest book and many things in between.

They also get into ideas around writing and content marketing. Ann shares her thoughts about the myth that writing is only for the chosen few. They also talk about Ann’s new book Everybody Writes and it’s applications for both marketers in large companies and soloprenuers trying to reach their audiences.

If you want to find more of Ann’s work you can find her at annhandley.com, Marketing Profs and on Twitter @annhandley or @marketingprofs. Also, if you’re in Boston in October, I’ll be speaking at her B2B Marketing Forum. Come say hi!

Last thing: If you catch this episode before her book launch on September 15, 2014, you may still be able to get the free prize pack she is sending out to those that pre-order. Her swag is killer! Find out more at everybodywrites.com.

Thanks to Triple Scoop Music for providing the music for today’s show and thanks to our wonderful audio producer Anna Queza of AQreative.

FREE *LIVE* Marketing Education for Photographers

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You’re going to find this hard to believe. I know I sure did. In just two weeks, I’m participating in the world’s largest FREE photography educational event. Hands down, it’s the can’t miss event of the year. And it’s FREE!

I’ve joined my friend Sarah Petty and 14 other photography marketing gurus to bring this unbelievable event to you at no charge.

Not only that, you don’t have to leave home or your studio to attend this two-day, 16 hour extravaganza. All you have to do is take a few quick seconds to register right now by clicking here! We’ll shoot you an email with your dial in number for the event once you register.

Don’t miss out! Really what do you have to lose?

Here’s the schedule of headliners with the timing of their talk! Yup… Edward Zemba, Kent & Sarah Smith, David Ziser, John Hartman, Rod Evans, Vicki Taufer, Kevin Kubota, Tim & Beverly Walden, Sarah Petty, Jen Hillenga, Allison & Jeff Rogers, Lori Nordstrom, Marilyn Sholin, Kia Bondurant, Julie Klaasmeyer and me.

Can you believe this is all FREE?

Join Dane for Free Teleseminar!

What’s the catch? There is none. The organizers believe that the value of this FREE *LIVE* event is so strong, many of you will want to purchase the downloadable recording. That’s what will pay for the thing. I think they are really smart because it creates a win for everyone especially if you just tune in *LIVE*!

NOTE: If you can’t catch it *LIVE* and/or if you’re the kind of learner that knows you’ll take in more at your own pace, just know that the recordings will be offered for ONLY $99 (seriously!) but just between September 29 – October 2. Plan for it.

You seriously don’t want to miss this one. To my knowledge, this kind of offer is without precedent.

… but you must register now!

See you there!

 – Dane

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Indirect Marketing to Fast Track your biz | Ep. 31

 

 

Today’s Fast Track Coaching starts at 4:00PM PST!

There’s certainly no shortage of options on how to market ourselves as photographers. Resources are a plenty.

But despite all the pleas to advertise, develop word-of-mouth/mouse, facebook, twitter, blog, network and everything else, not much time is spent on explaining why certain tools make sense more than others depending on what you want to accomplish.

Today’s show should fix a lot of that as we tackle Indirect Marketing & why you need to care! You don’t want to miss it.

For more, follow @twitphotominute to check out today’s video preview!

To get the answers you need right now, simply Twitter your question with @danesanders in the text. We’ll get ’em and get to ’em LIVE!

To make sure you never miss a week of coaching, be sure to subscribe to Coaching or the Forums to receive the password each week. If you can’t catch the event *LIVE*, you can always catch the replay later.

See you then!
– Dane

PS… CLICK HERE to see the larger DaneSanders.tv UStream Channel. For the replay, click the player & enter the password. Cheers!

PPS… Again, all the details on how to subscribe for AskDane/Coaching is here. To get it FREE, sign up for the Fast Track Forums, here.

Coffee Shop Love

Love like coffee

Not too long ago, Chris Brogan shared some fascinating insights on the nature of social media relative to branding. More specifically, he seems to make the case that the use of social media (SM) may yield different results for folks than what they intend.

The big idea is that most people treat these vehicles or tools as means for direct marketing to the masses (think soft-spam). I know I’ve made that mistake before. But, his analogy that social media connection is more akin to café-shaped conversations really struck a chord for me.

The implications of that idea are subtle and significant.

If that’s true, then when we’re communicating, we might need a little more nuance… and a bit more care… at least if we want to expand and deepen the scope and depth of our relationships.

But, if our main goal is to sell rather than solve (a far more valuable asset than a quick sale), all our blog posts and twitters and forum threads may ultimately be for not. It may actually result in erosion.

If you’re thinking, “What?! I thought social media was supposed to make my branding and marketing easier! Are you saying we shouldn’t leverage these tools to propel our brands??”, then I say you’re asking a good question.

The answer is we must use these tools. But, how we use them is what makes all the difference.

It turns out that branding and marketing is harder than it looks. Of course, we get this pretty quick when we liken it to buying a new camera. We know owning the tools will not get us great results on their own. We need to use the tools… and use them well. For some reason, at least for me, it’s easy to forget this idea when it comes to social media.

So, I’ve got some homework for us:
1) Go take a look at your online messaging over the last month. Assess it. Are you enrolling people in the idea of you? Are the messages for you or for your audience?

2) Try something new for the next 7 days… come up with one message a day through whatever vehicle you like (blog, twitter, video, fb, whatever) and commit to a week of messaging only for those who are listening… like a good conversation at a coffee shop. You get extra credit if you cross-pollinate your social media.

3) See if you notice a difference.

Bonus: Feeling alone in all this? Check out today’s episode of AskDane to get some help!

For a LIVE version of AskDane, join in for Fast Track Coaching by CLICKING HERE!
To get Coaching for FREE today only, CLICK HERE for the password!

Can’t wait to connect with you guys!

– Dane