Impact 101 Challenge Social Media Reality Check

Impact 101 Challenge Still Not Seeing Results Online? It's time to take a look at the REAL world of blogging, social media, and online marketing. Learn why you're not getting the results you've been promised and what you can do about it! Start a journey to get your marketing mind right with a social web reality check. Discover how to go beyond marketing blueprints and 1- 2-3 systems to leveraging the power of Impact on the social web. You’ll learn about: • The Impact Marketing Mindset • What’s Changed and Why • Today’s Social Internet Marketing Possibilities Who cares? You should! This guide is a challenge for all small business owners, non-profits, ministries, and professionals … if you’re using the social web to market, you need to know… Stop marketing. Start creating Impact.

The Impact Marketing Mindset teaching will get you on the right track to understanding the reality of social internet marketing today, as well as provide you with guidance on the set-up and delivery of the entire 101 Challenge. We highly recommend that all those new to the Challenge review this information before moving through the report. Impact! What Say You? The Impact Marketing Zone was born out of several conversations, in an effort to figure out why so many, of all walks of life, were failing miserably at using social internet marketing to go far beyond building demographic based email lists. We knew what we were doing. We knew what our clients where experiencing in success. Yet, we knew so many all across the world were not enjoying the same success that we saw in our circles of the world. Why? Why was there such a divide in success and failure stories? Why were so many making an obnoxious amount of money selling social internet systems that failed to deliver on their promises? And so the Impact Marketing Zone was born. It’s a long story and someday we’ll share it in detail… But for now, we’d like to take you on a journey to help you navigate the shark infested, stormy waters of social internet marketing. Not to say only we, the incredible Impact team, have all the answers. No. We’re here to say, there’s a better way -- a way that makes much more sense for you AND your audience. One that will not, and should not, cost you tons of money to learn from so-called “gurus.” There is a better way and now we begin that journey… This, the first module of the Impact 101 Challenge, is the primer to everything that is to come as you travel through the challenge at your own pace. There are many things to clarify at this point, to help you understand who we are, what the Impact Marketing Zone is all about, and why we’ve set-up everything in the manner that we have. Why is this important? (Good question teacher’s pet.) It’s a lesson in transparency and relationships! Talk @ Impact: Transparency in the relationships you build with your audience is paramount to your marketing success. Transparency requires that you be clear and concise about who you are, what you do, and why. It’s about saying what you do, doing what you say, with no gray area in between or reason left to doubt in the minds of your audience. It’s just a better way of doing business and a core idea behind what we teach in the Zone. 1 © 2009 Impact Marketing Zone www.ImpactMarketingZone.com

What the Heck is the 101 Challenge? A primer. A starter. The beginning – not the middle or the end, but a start to getting you back on the right track to social internet marketing success. In the case of those new to the social web, it’s a fresh start. We believe many fail because they simply haven’t gotten off on the right foot. It’s as simple as that. Much like waking up on the wrong side of the bed, you also need to start your social internet marketing with the right mindset, assumptions, and knowledge, because all of this will impact your entire journey, for good or for bad. This is not the end all to everything you’ll need to know to achieve success in social internet marketing. Contrary to popular belief, no program can promise that. Our goal in the 101 Challenge is to help you get reacquainted with the right path and simply get you started in rethinking your online marketing. The path less traveled these days, but with far more rewards than you can imagine for you and your audience. Who the Heck Cares? You should. Small business owners, solo-professionals, authors, non-profits, ministries, and yes, even individuals using the Internet as part of their positions with these various entities. You should all care. Why? Because chances are you’ve been on a wild goose chase, implementing system after system, tool after tool — not ever really clear how it all plays together AND more importantly how it applies to your goals and needs. If you can say yes or resonate, with even one of these statements, we believe you need to take a fresh, new look at what you’re doing and what you’re really achieving online: • Over half of the time, at the end of the day, I’m not able to achieve my to-do list, it seems I get sidetracked throughout the day simply having conversations. • I do not have a system or consistent schedule that guides my online activities. I’m not even sure what is truly worth my time and investment and how to prioritize my activities. • I spend over 2 hours a day posting tweets to resources in an effort to gain massive visibility. But, I’m not really sure where that traffic is going, if it even lands on my blog or landing page. 2 © 2009 Impact Marketing Zone www.ImpactMarketingZone.com

• I do not have goals set for my social internet marketing activities. But I do know how much I need/hope to make from my next launch. • I learn everything I know from free teleseminars, preview calls, and sometimes from eBooks and virtual events that range in price from $97 to $497. • My audience communication/messaging tools include email marketing (a really cool html newsletter) and Twitter. I’m not really sure how to leverage content marketing or RSS marketing at all (I do have a RSS button though). • Right now, I outsource much of my social media activity to my VA. In fact, my VA is directing me in where I need to be and how I build my presence, because she knows much more than me and I’m just too busy. • I’ve never even considered offering a no-strings attached value packed download. How the heck can I sell to people if I can’t push my message to them through email communication. Ok, so what’s the point? Oh, we’ve got one and it’s simple… It just might be you’re following rules and systems that simply do not apply beyond the fishbowl of the internet marketer perspective. Yes, we meant to say what we said… Look, there are obviously a large group of people who are tremendously successful, making an obscene amount of money selling IM systems, ebooks, virtual events, and the like across the Net. There is no arguing that what they do has a place in the world of marketing online. Clearly results are being achieved and by golly, more power to them! We’re not haters, we’re educators on a mission to empower the rest of us who live outside of that world. What we’re saying is, those same strategies likely do NOT apply to the real world where your audience lives. It’s one thing to make money selling to individuals teaching them how to make money by selling to individuals. Its an entirely different thing to sell an idea, service, or product to an empowered consumer who is not phased by long copy sales letters and an inundation of hyped email blasts. And an even more difficult task to engage or mobilize an audience to support your cause… welcome to the real world friends. 3 © 2009 Impact Marketing Zone www.ImpactMarketingZone.com

Impact Marketing Mindset 2 Everything created by our team, the Impact 101 Challenge and the Impact Marketing Zone, is created with one thing in mind — to teach and guide, in a way that changes your entire outlook on social internet marketing. We’re not here to teach you systems. And, we know, you may not be used to this type of teaching. Many experts told us we were crazy, because: People want it simple. People need a system. People aren’t smart enough to go beyond systems. You’ll never make any money if you don’t have a system. You’re giving people way too much benefit of the doubt, they simply won’t get it. Only give them just enough, otherwise you’ll lose them down the sales cycle. We won’t divulge who these experts are (you know who you are!) but we will say we respectfully disagree. 4 © 2009 Impact Marketing Zone www.ImpactMarketingZone.com

We believe people are intelligent, far more intelligent than marketers give them credit for. Believing in their intelligence is all about respect, people pick up on that. We believe people deserve the full picture and real reality of success, delivered in an honest and timely manner – not in segments that allow us to pocket more money. We believe marketers assume people want cookie-cutter systems, because they lack the depth to deliver intelligent, timely, valuable information in a way that allows people to grow. We believe marketers are scared of intelligent people, enabling them might lower revenues as thinking minds are no longer reliant on their systems of revenue. We believe people just want to be successful. When you are an instrument to their success, facilitating that process, you build life-long relationships that are beneficial for ALL parties involved. Everything we believe, and built the Impact Marketing Zone on, rests in the fact that every person in our audience (and yours) is intelligent, free, and worthy of respect. We are now in the world of empowerment. We, and you, no longer operate in a fishbowl where you can magically manipulate your audience. Talk @ Impact: When you change your mindset and how you view your audience, it will reflect in everything you do online. Treat your audience as intelligent beings with freedom of choice and the ability to discern positive relationships. Become a part of their world in a valuable, positive way… you will have create Impact that lasts far beyond your next launch. 5 © 2009 Impact Marketing Zone www.ImpactMarketingZone.com

The Impact Set-Up and Learning Philosophy Learning is a process. Online that process can be pretty grueling and overwhelming. We’ve set up the Impact Challenge not only to teach you what we know, but to help you learn and grow beyond that. We’ll guide you in a four- step process that you can apply in the real world, to move beyond chasing gurus and systems. Philosophy and Principles: Learn the fundamental knowledge you’ll need to create the right strategies. Foundation and Basics: Learn the basics of technology and build a foundation to implement your plan of action. Application and Implementation: Apply what you know, starting small, mastering small steps to move in the right direction. Evaluation and Improvement: Evaluate what you’re doing, look at what’s working, what’s not, and other opportunities for improvement. Rinse and Repeat Philosophy and Principles Every guide and tool provided in the 101 Challenge (and Impact Zone) will begin with an exploration of philosophy and principle to guide you in the implementation and application of its use for your specific needs. The point is to teach you how to really leverage a strategy’s power, not simply teach you a step-by-step “how to” that is supposed to be one-size-fits-all. Teaching in this way will help you expand your knowledge past the tactics of social internet 6 © 2009 Impact Marketing Zone Impact Wisdom: Give man a www.ImpactMarketingZone.com Teach him to fish fish (system) and he’ll eat for a day. (knowledge) and he’ll eat for life. — Chinese Proverb

marketing and into the realm of strategic thinking. Why? It’s simple, that’s where the magic happens. Foundation and Basics In every lesson, we will provide you with the fundamentals needed to help you as you navigate the massive landscape of possibilities. There can be no cookie-cutter approach, but you will learn the necessary information to help you utilize every strategy in your Impact plan to its full effectiveness. We’ll share tips and tricks that will help you dig deeper, applying strategies in an effective and creative way. The basics will include detailed “how-to” guides, videos, and inside information, from experience, that will not only save you time, but also money in Impact Question: How many projects and strategies have you launched in the past 6 months that you have now abandoned completely — whether out of frustration or overwhelm? On a smaller scale, how many social media profiles do you now have that haven’t had any update in over 90 days? Do you know where your efforts are best concentrated? Do you have a system for monitoring what’s working and what’s not, that isn’t based solely on revenue streams from launch to launch? You could be missing many opportunities for real growth and profitability online, by not focusing your efforts. learning the hard way. Plus, we’ll show you how to connect the dots so that you’re learning isn’t in vain as you struggle to put it all together. Application and Implementation As you move on into the Impact Zone (beyond the 101 Challenge) we’ll explore how to integrate each new Impact strategy into your current plan, with ideas and helpful information that can save you and your team a ton of headache. You’ll learn how to go from “chasing-the- guru-syndrome” to “custom-design-my-own-plan,” because you’ll understand how a strategy 7 © 2009 Impact Marketing Zone www.ImpactMarketingZone.com

works, who it benefits and what benefits it will bring to your online activities (given your business, your goals, and your audience). Evaluation and Improvement Where other systems and gurus leave off, we continue in the Impact Zone. At every applicable point, we’ll help you determine your measures of success — what to measure, how to measure, and what to do beyond that — so you’re never left hanging not knowing if what you’re learning and applying is actually working. You’ll also learn how to know its working, what didn’t work, and how you can improve on a strategy AND when it’s time to move on. Impact Question: Do you ever feel like your marketing strategies are simply in place to “keep up with the Jones’?” At the end of the day, do you still feel like you’re not moving forward in a real plan towards success, often more confused and overwhelmed than the day before? We call this “shiny-object-syndrome.” Rather than focusing on people and goals, you end up focusing on technology and the “latest and greatest.” You keep adding cookie cutter systems and “blueprints” to your marketing arsenal, but never really connect the dots from system to system, task to task. We see it time and time again, and we’re here to help you get past the devastation caused by this often misdiagnosed illness. Consistent evaluation is necessary for continuous improvement in everything you do, and it’s certainly the case here too. You’ll never gain real traction in your social internet marketing without understanding where to best focus your efforts. That understanding comes from evaluating what’s working and what’s not, recognizing plans do fail, what matters is that you learn from it. Our goal is to enable you to not only learn new tools and strategies, but to understand how to evaluate and improve upon everything you implement. Impact Wisdom: Remember the two benefits of failure. First, if you do fail, you learn what doesn’t work; and second, the failure gives you the opportunity to try a new approach. — Roger Von Oech 8 © 2009 Impact Marketing Zone www.ImpactMarketingZone.com

Taking off from the Impact Marketing Mindset, let’s take a look at the world of social internet marketing as it stood yesterday, as it stands today, and what’s coming down the pipeline. We’ll paint a clear picture for you of why you need to change your perspective and strategies to avoid the thousands of failed attempts that occur on a daily basis. You’ll learn the old versus the new, what those changes mean to you specifically and much more. The Good Ole’ Days Those of us who’ve been around for a while (well before the days of MySpace and Facebook), remember the so-called good ole’ day: slapping up long copy, building an email list, marketing the crap out of that list – are over. You scheduled newsletters, auto-responders, and everything ran on auto-pilot while the money just rolled in… Well, it wasn’t that glorious, but I’m sure you’ve heard the legends of Internet riches. Impact Reality Check: Friends, we’ll say this as gently as we can… THOSE DAYS ARE OVER. In fact, they’ve been over for quite some time. Even the big boys and the good ole’ boy networks of big companies and Internet marketers are seeing the very real effects caused by the now transformed social web and empowered consumer. And now that it’s been brought up, even in those days some of the tactics that were pushed then didn’t work for all goals and audiences… and guess what, they still don’t work. And yes, they are never going to work. It doesn’t matter how much money you spend on training, masterminds, or virtual events — some tactics will never work, because they are based on the wrong assumptions and strategic thinking. 10 © 2009 Impact Marketing Zone www.ImpactMarketingZone.com

Why has the online marketing environment changed so much? Well, it’s a long story with many contributing factors. Technology has contributed – people now have access to technology that is literally changing the way we all think and live. The pending rise of Generation Y has contributed – in fact, much of the technology we enjoy today was created by and for this new Impact Reading: We won’t bore you with a lengthy history of the world and what has driven the changes we’re going to explore. If you want to dig deeper, here’s a great list of books that can help you: Recommended Impact Reading List group of empowered individuals who function as powerful collectives. Societal changes, economic changes, global economic changes, and more have all contributed. Be careful now… you don’t need to go out and purchase every book you can find on social internet marketing. In fact, we highly recommend you don’t. We do recommend that you start to take bites you can chew on, and slowly start expanding your knowledge beyond the fishbowl you’ve been drowning in. Impact Recommendation: Select one book/resource at a time. Read and explore it at a comfortable pace. Use a reading log, a notebook, a voice recorder — whatever you feel most comfortable with. Don’t focus on absorbing every single line of information you read — focus on information that “clicks” as you go through it. Make a note of it and at the moment it clicks brainstorm around that idea and its application to your business/organization/cause. Don’t worry about it working or not working, just let your understanding and thoughts flow. This record of “epiphanies” will become invaluable as you explore and strategically plan your next move. 11 © 2009 Impact Marketing Zone www.ImpactMarketingZone.com

So What Has Changed? So glad you asked. We’re going to cover that in the next section, taking a look at the Old versus the New and what it means for you and creating Impact in your marketing. Go ahead, we double dog dare you, dive into the reality of social internet marketing. Generate versus Co-Create The shift from simply generating to co- creating is a massive one that can be the most difficult for some to wrap their head around. This shift is happening at many levels, from your ability to simply create and control your brand, to not having to face the feedback of your audience. Why is this so hard? Because once you realize this shift is happening, you soon realize that you control nothing and if you think you do, your audience will eventually let you know you don’t. The changes in marketing, as a result of shifts caused by the social web are fundamental. Mindsets held over form the old school are simply no longer valid today (and moving forward). 12 © 2009 Impact Marketing Zone www.ImpactMarketingZone.com

You believe in cookie cutter production of content, just produce it and distribute it. The reality today is, if you simply produce and distribute without any feedback or contribution from your audience — you will eventually fail. Your audience is and always will be empowered to know what they want, what they expect, and how to bypass you to get to someone who does value their input. Impact Reality Check: You see this new power everywhere on the Net today — product reviews, ratings, and comments. In fact, there are entire communities built around letting your audience talk about what they like and what they don’t like. Producing products, content, and the like without this valuable consideration will hinder your success greatly. The key to success in this is to diligently seek, find, and listen to your audience — they might not speak to you directly, but they are speaking and boy do they have a ton to say. Listen and learn friend. You believe that you still control what people think about you and if not, you can change their perception by creating hype and other manipulative tactics. The reality is, you no longer have ANY control over perceptions and branding. Yes, you can contribute — but that’s about it. People are talking and if they aren’t talking about you now, they will be. What will they say about you? What will they say about your products and services? The harsh reality is, what you contribute to that conversation is only a fraction of what will influence that conversation. 13 © 2009 Impact Marketing Zone www.ImpactMarketingZone.com

Impact Reality Check: Outside of your fishbowl view of yourself, there is a conversation that will co-create the perceptions your audience has of you. In fact, the outside influences will often times have more influence than what you contribute. More and more studies are showing that it’s not what you say that matters, it’s what a person’s closest friends, colleagues, and family members say that will influence them. All you can do is contribute and co-create. What does co-create really mean? It means being open to feedback, embracing the idea that your audience has valuable input into what you do, sometimes more so than your own team of brilliant marketers. At every point possible, you should be listening to feedback and actually seeking it out throughout your contact with your audience. It also means embracing the idea that you are co-creating alongside your audience, accepting their contribution is critical to your future success. Stop creating products and services on an island, than heading to the mainland to mass distribute your brilliant idea. Practical ways to embrace co-creation: Set up a system where you collect and listen to important information from the conversations you’re audience is already having about you and related areas. Google alerts, RSS feeds, and social data like Twitter search can all help you listen to your audience. Include listening activities as a regular part of your daily activities by setting aside time specifically for that task. Impact Idea: Simply listening to your current customers, or your mastermind buddies, or those from within your organization will not cut it. You might as well be listening to your mom, who’s genetically programmed to love everything you do! You’ve got to broaden your horizons and listen to your potential audience, those within your industry and those outside of your own sphere of influence. Ask for feedback. And, ask for it often. Ask for feedback after every purchase. Ask for feedback on your blog, by soliciting comments. Always include a link to give you feedback with every email you send out. Create a feedback page on your blog or site that is always available. Place a weekly poll on your blog or site that asks simple yet insightful questions of your audience. Give your audience multiple opportunities to provide you with ad hoc feedback. Provide incentives 14 © 2009 Impact Marketing Zone www.ImpactMarketingZone.com

for feedback, because it is valuable to you. Do whatever makes sense for your audience to give you feedback. Accept the good, the bad, and the ugly of feedback. Many of us will glady accept the good feedback we receive, we all love to hear about how good we are. But, if that’s all you’re willing to listen to, you’ll soon be in big trouble. Criticism sucks! Some have a harder time than others in accepting criticism. If you’re going to succeed in today’s social web — you better get used to it. In fact, you better embrace it. View negative feedback and criticism as an opportunity, because that’s exactly what it is. Impact Wisdom: Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. – Winston Churchill Accept the fact that, in some cases, your audience will help you create better content than if you created it yourself. What? Yes, smart marketers are now realizing that facilitating your audience’s contribution to the content you use to market yourself is not only wise, it’s a necessity. What say you? You see it all around you, videos uploaded on YouTube, comments placed on a blog that add insight into the original topic, wikis that gather collective resources from your audience, and much more. The idea here is, when you’re developing your content or presence online, are you imagining ways your audience can contribute to the core of that content. You’ll not only survive, you’ll take a step toward thriving – because you’ve involved your audience at a level that facilitates mutual growth. When the tough times hit, if you’ve built this capital into your relationship, your audience will be there to help you through. Impact Wisdom: Resilience is really about collaboration and mutual understanding. – Roger Simpson 15 © 2009 Impact Marketing Zone www.ImpactMarketingZone.com

Showing Off versus Showing Up You’ve seen ‘em, the high-profile experts that seem almost untouchable. At every turn on their blog or website you hear about their accomplishments, their awards, and beyond. And, while it’s somewhat comforting and confirming that you’ve found the right expert, somehow you feel totally disconnected from them, from their world. Often times you wouldn’t even dream about contacting them directly to ask a question or seek advice. In fact, chances are you’d have to go through a myrad of virtual assistants and support centers to even get in front of them. That, my friends, is showing off. It’s a state of mind experts want you to take on, that somehow they are so important, so knowledgeable that you, little follower, could only dream of communicating with them directly. There’s a barrier between you and them that is invisible yet powerful, because it’s made to be that way. Some mentors will tell you that barrier is necessary so that you can charge more and do less. They cloak themselves behind mastermind groups and elusive application processes to work with them one-on-one. They also consistently communicate all the reasons they are in the expert position and you are not. Impact Idea: When you set up an invisible barrier around yourself, your business, your ministry — you ARE placing barriers that can hinder your ability in creating Impact. Expertise speaks for itself, if you’re a true expert or leader, you don’t need to declare it at every turn in your online presence. Your audience will eventually recognize pompous self-promotion for what it is. 16 © 2009 Impact Marketing Zone www.ImpactMarketingZone.com

A severe case of “showing-off-itis” also includes your favorite mastermind buddies and others who have a financial incentive to promote you. If you’ve paid attention across your journey online, you’ll notice this pattern quite clearly. Examples include: Mastermind buddies or other colleagues closely associated with each other providing testimonials and affiliate linked promotion. I know I’m upsetting some that teach this is a normal practice and part of doing business online. If you work from a mindset of complete transparency, you might use these testimonials – but you’ll always disclose your exact Impact Reality Check: If what you’re contributing creates Impact for your audience, you no longer need to solicit testimonials from your peers (and edit them to fit your needs) you’ll actually receive plenty from your audience along with other valuable feedback. relationship with those that are promoting you, rather than make every attempt to hide it. Editing of any feedback received would also be out of the question. Tweets disguised as conversations talking about how great you are and how great your service is, actually coming from an affiliate who has a financial incentive for saying so. Your audience sees right through that and the few that don’t eventually will. As the social web expands, the world in which you connect with your audience is shrinking, don’t believe for one second your audience doesn’t see right through your hidden pitches. Impact Reality Check: The reality of trust is this, once you have it, you have to work to keep it. But, once you break it, you’ve lost it for good. Your audience, with so many other options available to them, will be less forgiving as time goes on. Once they start to see through your feeble attempts at influencing them in a non-transparent way, you’ve lost them and good luck getting their attention back. In today’s social web, ego-driven self promotion is counterproductive to creating an Impact. You end up creating artificial influence that quickly dies down as your audience loses interest or is swayed in another direction. In order to create loyalty and longevity, you have to remember the focus is never about you and always about your audience. Your job is to show up with your 17 Impact Idea: You need to be a© 2009 Impact Marketing Zone than an ego-centric know- resource to your audience, rather it-all. You have to understand www.ImpactMarketingZone.com to have a conversation that your audience and simply show up is based around them… not you.

best, consistent, purposeful content – truly adding value to your audience by not only meeting their needs but exceeding their expectations. Broadcasting versus Aggregating and Facilitating A huge mistake often made on the social web is to mistake social technology as a broadcasting tool — rather than what it is intended for. You mistake reach with success, likely because there is no system in place to track the reality of results not being achieved (more on that later). You shout, publish, push and broadcast for the sake of massive visibility. Like a fisherman casting a huge net to the ocean to catch whatever comes in. The goal of broadcasting is to tell as many people as technically possible. Broadcasting is solely about telling and publishing whatever promotes you and your goals (those words again), without the consideration of your audience’s needs or facilitating the spread of messages and growth of conversations. Experts promote this tactic as massive visibility to get found. They falsely believe that quantity trumps quality in connections and relationships. Impact Reality Check: The more you connect, the more you’re bound to make money right? Sadly, many flounder across the social web seeking massive visibility only to find out for themselves — 5,000 friends on Facebook and thousands of followers on Twitter won’t make you money or advance your cause. This is especially true if all you’ve done is broadcast. To be successful you must go beyond broadcasting to help facilitate the messages already being published and community sharing of those messages — along with your own valuable 18 © 2009 Impact Marketing Zone www.ImpactMarketingZone.com

contributions. You will need to focus on creating and sharing valuable content, whether your own or from others. In the end, it is always about adding value. Impact Idea: Value is an operative word on the social web. For impact, value must be met from your audience’s perspective — not your own or that of those inside your loop. If you truly understand your audience and if you’re connected with them in meaningful ways, you’ll understand the value they need and how to exceed their expectations without all the hype and hoopla. Imitate versus Originate Systems and duplication — these are the marks of the old school mindset. The belief is that you can achieve the same success of others by simply following a system or duplicating a strategy. Many who follow this mantra imitate right down to the tiny details like robots, because they are told it’s as simple as 1-2-3 or A-B-C. Systematic, one-size-fits-all, competitive stances with a focus on building whatever will build revenues, never really looking to solve problems, except their own lack of money. These tactics lack creativity, authenticity, and real value. You end up looking like every other business 19 © 2009 Impact Marketing Zone www.ImpactMarketingZone.com

or organization, with nothing unique using the same old systems and styles whether they work for your client base or not. Today it’s all about going beyond duplicated systems to creating a unique user experience that is uniquely yours – matched to the unique problems of your audience, as stated by them — not demographic, database driven assumptions. This is about truly understanding your audience and meeting their needs/wants/problems with valuable solutions like no other solution can. When you originate, you understand your audience and continually create unique solutions just for them. Focusing on the old school imitate mindset, brings the mistake of misunderstanding the difference between goals, strategies, and tactics. You end up duplicating tactical systems — rather than creating unique plans of action (strategies) to achieve your unique goals. • Goals (Why): The end result you want to achieve for your business or organization. • Strategies (What): The plan you’ve created to achieve your goals. • Tactics (How): The actual steps you’re going to take and tools you’re going to use, as part of your strategy. Impact Reality Check: Your unique goals and strategies should always direct the tactics you choose and the unique way you apply those tactics… never the other way around. When you duplicate and lack originality you lose Impact in your efforts… and results. To provide your audience with an experience that is unique and compelling – it cannot be formed on the ideas and experience of another. You can not duplicate or simplify Impact. Impact Wisdom: Trust yourself. Think for yourself. Act for yourself. Speak for yourself. Be yourself. Imitation is suicide. – Marva Collins (American Educator, 1936) 20 © 2009 Impact Marketing Zone www.ImpactMarketingZone.com

Exclusive versus Inclusive At the core of this change is the idea that your audience will no longer accept barriers to find the information and resources they need. If they do now, chalk it up to momentary insanity — they will wise up eventually, its inevitable. Every barrier you place in front of your audience in order to experience the value of you and your content is only damaging the potential relationship you could have with your audience over the long-term. Why? Because guess what, you’re not the only expert in your field. You’re not the only ministry on the block. Why would you think that you’re the biggest gig in town and your audience needs to meet your needs to get access to you. I land on your site and in order to get to know you, I need to give you my name and email? Let me interject here to say, there are times when it is appropriate to collect information about your audience or have barriers, such as purchase. In the beginning and during the “know” and trust building time in your relationship, barriers hinder the quality of relationship you build. Relationships take time and an open willingness by both parties to get involved with no barriers, no drama, no strings attached will greatly increase your results. It’s important to understand, there is a difference between barriers that qualify your audience to take the next step in a process and those that are based on inflated, ego-centric appearances or facades. A perfect example would be a high-priced, exclusive club in Los Angeles. Anyone who has ever been to the Viper Room in Los Angeles, knows — there are long lines outside and unless you’re on “the list” you won’t get in. Once you do get in, often times, you’re expectations are soon deflated as you realize it was all part of the facade. 22 © 2009 Impact Marketing Zone www.ImpactMarketingZone.com

Unless you live the lifestyle of jumping through hoops and partying with people simply because of status or superficial factors — this gets old quick. You eventually go back to hanging out with real friends who value you for what you are, not who you know. The entire process is made that way to create an impression… not an Impactful experience. The difference between requiring your audience to jump through hoops and qualifying them: Jump through hoops: In order for your audience to gain access to a special report, you require optin (name and email) first. And ONLY after they take a second step to confirm their request will you send them the download link. After all, you have to collect their information to utilize later when you send them affiliate linked offers that make you money. Qualify: After giving your audience no-strings attached access to a white paper that helps educate them on your expertise by providing valuable information — you include a special link throughout the report that allows your audience to qualify themselves by requesting more information. The difference here is the barrier at the front. Yes, you might get takers. Yes, might get them on your list. But are you building a relationship that will become more profitable as it develops over time? Are you building trust? Or, are you saying, “I’m more important than your needs and your problem and I need you to do something before I can do something for you.” What this says will speak volumes to your audience. Especially if these kind of tactics are all they know of you. Take the Impact Marketing Zone as another example. What would we achieve by requiring action on your part (other than a willingness to learn) in order to receive this valuable information? Even more important, what are we saying by freely sharing information that will help you make a decision as to our expertise and whether you’d want to move forward into the Impact Zone? By the very fact that we chose not put up barriers and make you jump through hoops — we differentiate ourselves from every other marketer who pushes and pulls you to take action on their behalf… now that’s Impact. Impact Idea: Chew on this for a moment. What is the real purpose behind the marketing barriers you’ve grown so fond of? For you to collect names and emails to market further… for you to build your list… the operative words in those statements are you and your. Guess what, it’s no longer about you and what your needs are. And, really it never was about you – 23 your audience has power now to realizeImpact Marketing Zone fundamental differences © 2009 that. This is one of the between those who achieve success or failure today — a mindset that respects your audience www.ImpactMarketingZone.com as equally important (if not more important) as you and your needs.

Meet versus Exceed Did you know there are marketers and mentors that teach the principle of only meeting the needs of your audience that you absolutely have to? Some will advise you to calculate everything you deliver based on numbers, most of them related to revenue. And, some will even teach you exclusive (there’s that lame word again) formulas for calculating how much you give, when you give it, and how often you give it. The paradigm shift here is that, in order to really connect with your audience and gain their loyalty, you’ve got to get beyond meeting bare minimum needs. You have to start stepping out into the area of actually exceeding their needs at every point possible. Your communication, your online presence, your services, your products… everything you do must be designed and implemented to not only exceed their needs but also exceed their expectations. This is how you create Impact. Impact Reality Check: Based on the price of your product or service, some marketers will teach you to calculate how much “preview” content you can give, in order to make the transaction as profitable for you as possible. And to clarify, that “preview” content isn’t really that, it’s ultimately a pitch to get you to sign up for the product or service. Can you really calculate value from a pure profitability perspective? Could there be a better way to calculate value and profitability that is not a win-lose situation, solely in your favor? We believe so. 24 © 2009 Impact Marketing Zone www.ImpactMarketingZone.com

Obviously, there is a business side to everything, even if you’re in ministry or non-profit work. Yes, you have to be reasonable in setting out to exceed expectations and if you’re in business, you’re in business to make money. We get that and hope that you get that fact too. We believe you can be profitable and exceed expectations, they are not mutually exclusive. In fact, thousands of businesses, organizations, and individuals do it every day – with the most successful and profitable ones being those that consistently exceed expectations. Impact Idea: Setting out to exceed is a long term strategy, it’s a mindset — it is a fundamental belief that will come back around to you, not only in profits or growth, but also in a lasting, loyal relationship with your audience. The question here is, are you focusing on short-term, launch by launch profits (giving just enough to get you by)? Or, are you focused on the long-term view of building a business (or ministry, or…) that has the opportunity to grow and be profitable by doing what really matters in the first place, exceeding the needs and expectations of your audience? Look, you’ll always be chasing the next launch if all you do is base your marketing efforts on opportunity, profitability, and other short-term goals. 25 © 2009 Impact Marketing Zone www.ImpactMarketingZone.com

Navigate the Waters of Possibility So, now you know — everything is different and there is no way the world is going back. It is what it is, and it’s time to move forward. Let’s take a look at a long list of possibilities available to you; from blogging to social media and far beyond. You’ll learn about the landscape of social internet marketing, how all the pieces work independently and together, and how you can leverage the mighty power of the social web to create an Impact. Social Internet Marketing Map There are essentially four dynamics within social internet marketing. You’ll find that much of the social web technology overlaps — and you guessed it, the technology changes everyday. The biggest advice we can give you is to focus on your goals first, the technology always second. Impact Reality Check: The goal of these explanations is to get you thinking strategically, rather than tactically about your social internet activities. You need to think like a captain and act like a soldier that has clear direction. There is no way we could expand on every possibility imaginable on the social web. Our goal is to help you learn how to navigate the possibilities, so that you can move forward, learn and adapt in a way that isn’t overwhelming or tedious. 26 © 2009 Impact Marketing Zone www.ImpactMarketingZone.com

There are exceptions to every rule, however, much of the activity you’ll need to be involved in on the social web will include these: publishing, collaborating, engaging, and integrating/managing. As mentioned in the previous section, you want to focus on your goals and finding tools that will help you achieve your goals. To do this, you need to understand the landscape of social tools based on what they do and can accomplish for you, rather than the hottest tool of the moment. Publishing Publishing is the new Internet marketing with a dynamic that’s multi-dimensional. Remember, publishing is not broadcasting — it goes far beyond that. In today’s social web you must not only publish exceptional, value-packed content for your audience, you also need to promote the exceptional content of others and facilitate ways for your audience to publish as well. Publishing ninjas take all this to the next level by making it easy for their audience to share and contribute to what is being published. 27 © 2009 Impact Marketing Zone www.ImpactMarketingZone.com

Examples of publishing tools these days publishing tools pretty much include any technology that lets you share content, images, videos, thoughts, ideas, and whatever else you can think of. Think blogging, micro-blogging with Twitter, video sharing sites like Youtube, podcasting, and many more. The goals that can be achieved with publishing tools include: awareness and visibility, getting found in the search engines, communicating with your audience, educating your audience, and building targeted traffic by publishing content that build leads or interest from your audience (and far beyond). Collaborating Collaborating is one of the key dynamics created by the social web. Your audience is not only collaborating among each other through sharing resources, voting, reviewing and the like — they also expect leaders (Impact Agents) to collaborate with them and each other. Collaboration is one of the key aspects of the Impact marketing mindset discussed earlier. Examples of collaboration tools can overlap each other. Popular tools include those that allow you to share resources through social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon to micro-blogging like Twitter and FriendFeed. Everywhere you turn online you can also rate, review, give the thumbs up, embed, and much more. You’ll find collaboration tools built right into your audience’s favorite online hang outs too, like Facebook and LinkedIn. The goals that can be achieved using collaboration tools include: resource sharing, community building, conversation development, expanding your network, partnering and cross-promoting with other Impact Agents and more. One of the keys to collaboration is realizing that the social web is all about co-creating not generating and showing up not showing off. When you embrace these two mindsets you’ll naturally build collaboration into everything you do. Engaging Engagement is where the magic of the social web happens. You can publish, you can collaborate, but if you don’t engage your audience and those within your community you’ll be dead in the water. Engaging your audience will help you build the bridge between publishing, collaborating, and integrating. Engagement involves all aspects of participating on the social web — listening, connecting, conversations, and community. 28 © 2009 Impact Marketing Zone www.ImpactMarketingZone.com

Examples of engagement tools, like everything else on the social web, are overlapping. You’ll be able to engage your audience all across the Net: • social networking sites (think Facebook) • professional networking sites (think LinkedIn) • online communities, big and specialized (think Ning and Social Media Today) • video sharing sites (think YouTube) • micro-blogging (think Twitter and FriendFeed) • and an insanely large list of other possibilities Any social web tool that will allow you to connect one-on-one, whether in conversation or through your content (and beyond), is an engagement tool. These tools come in many shapes and forms, with many being added to the mix every day. The goals that can be achieved through engagement tools include connecting one-on-one with your audience, connecting with other Impact Agents, building trust, listening to your audience, gaining incredible insight about your audience, and so much more. The important aspect in choosing the best engagement tools for your goals is to always line them up with your audience — find where they are, use tools they use, and dive into their online world to create Impact. In some cases, you’ll also build communities for your audience to facilitate their engagement. It’s all about them, period. Integrating & Managing Integration and managing your social web presence can be the most important part of the entire journey. Mismanagement of time can reduce your effectiveness across the board. Not properly integrating your social marketing activities within your entire online marketing efforts can also reduce your results. Improper management that does not include consistent evaluation of results and improvement, again, will reduce your effectiveness. Our limited time and resources require a step further than most so-called experts teach. Sadly, jumping in without thinking of these important considerations will be suicide for many on the social web. Integration and management tools consist of everything that can help you before, during, and after your social web activities. These tools help you evaluate, plan, implement, and circling back to re-evaluating, adjusting your plan, and implementing improvements to the plan. Rinse and repeat. 29 © 2009 Impact Marketing Zone www.ImpactMarketingZone.com

Examples include: • high level listening tools (remember, listening is also a part of collaborating and engaging) • analytics and measurement tools (think Google Analytics) • time management tools (think Google Calendar) • information tracking (think Google Reader) • forum and message board monitoring tools (think Board Tracker) • social networking monitoring tool (think Lexicon for Facebook, login to view) • keyword tracking and monitoring (think Google Trends and Google Alerts) Just like other areas on the social web, there is an almost endless list of tools for integration and management. Again, the tools you choose should fit the purpose you are using them for — going back to your goals. Sounds common sense, yet we’re amazed at how many get lost in the maze of tools chasing one thing or another. What does this all mean? We hope you’re starting to see the dynamics of the social web from a new perspective, rather than through the rose colored glasses of shiny-object-syndrome chasing the latest hot trends. When you take a step back and start evaluating your social web activities based on your audience and goals you’ll quickly find yourself starting down the right path… Has something clicked? We understand that some people may not be ready to explore the possibility of the new world order on the social web. It’s a scary thing to realize you can no longer manipulate your audience and shove your pitch down their throats. After all, if you can’t do that… what can you do? So much more than you can imagine. If we’ve peaked your interest and if you know that you know there has to be a better way — a way that would enable you to create Impact in the world while growing the success of your small business, non-profit, and ministry … you are an Impact Agent. We invite you to explore the opportunities that await you in the Impact Agent Zone >> 30 © 2009 Impact Marketing Zone www.ImpactMarketingZone.com