Aimee Davison introduces the concept she created called You-commerce, and instructs on how to create entertaining and engaging web projects to promote yourself online, and generate business offline.
Originally presented at Marionopolis College in Montreal, Quebec.
9. You-commerce You-commerce is a concept that I coined that is the [shameless, awesome, kick-ass] promotion of one’s talents, skills and abilities via the social media and self-broadcasting platforms available online for FREE. You-commerce is Web 3.0: a personalized approach to the web that improves and enhances your life and your career.
11. STRATEGY: How can I do this? You need to become a “one man business” and “dominate the online” as he says in “New Dork” because “hustle makes the data pay.” YOU can do You-commerce! You also need to “Do what you love” in order to have the focus, energy and drive to persist at your goal, even in the face of possible failure (which is not the end of the world!) A word on failure…
15. STEP 1 Define your goals: “I want to be a famous baker”. Do what you love!
16. STEP 2 Consider creating a project to suit your goals: nothing focuses like a commitment Write your elevator pitch, two lines at most: “I am baking a new kind of cookie every day for a year” If your concept is not simple and succinct, chances are your project is either unfocused, too complicated or a bad idea. Business plans function much in the same way: so get to the point and be FOCUSED!
18. STEP 3 Don’t make it too complicated but DO MAKE IT INTERESTING for your audience and the clients you want to connect with: “I am baking a new kind of cookie every day for a year and giving it to strangers to rate and hate” Make it funny: “I am baking a new kind of cookie every day for a year, eating them all, and seeing how much weight I gain”: REMEMBER THE 8Fs of the NET!
19. The 8 F’s of Net Success FREE FUN FUNNY FLIRTY FLUFFY FILTHY FREAKY FAIL (AND F*%K’D) WRITE YOUR OWN PITCH AND ANGLE NOW FOR 5 FUN MINUTES!
20. STEP 3 cont’d, 4 realz! Social cause strategy: “I am baking a new kind of cookie every day for a year and giving it to homeless shelters” (Traditional Media loves social causes and human interest stories: MILK IT!) Monetization strategy: “I am baking a new kind of cookie every day for a year and selling them on E-bay”: $100, FTW!
21. Cookie Dresses: Business WIN! http://www.flickr.com/photos/artisancakes/ Because he has a you-commerce strategy and is broadcasting the clever cookies he bakes, I am advertising for him for free.
22. STEP 4 Launch your multiplatform You-commerce accounts with an appropriate name based on your project and your goals: what is yours? COOKIES4FREAKZ: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Numubu, Linked-in, Etsy, E-bay, Printfection, announcement: KEEP YOUR NAME THE SAME ACROSS ALL SOCIAL MEDIA AND SELF-BROADCASTING SITES! BRAND YOURSELF! YOU-COMMERCE! Also: lock the .com B4 you tell anyone!
23. STEP 5 BROADCAST: Start publishing content on your blog, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook and other networks, on a regular basis: keep your friends, fans and followers interested and entertained! This will take discipline! WHIP IT! Make sure you find others who love cookies and connect with them: network and share traffic Promote your media (and yourself) on StumbleUpon, Digg, Facebook, and BuzzFeed! Get noticed, get traffic, get ad revenue and business!
24. STEP 6 BE PATIENT: “It’s a marathon, not a sprint”. It took me a year to get 1000 followers on Twitter. FOLLOW ME! @onehundredjobs It takes time to set up and groom your accounts and that’s okay. The most important step in You-commerce is to DO IT and the networking, connections and success will follow. YOU need an online presence no matter who YOU are. The paper resume is DEAD.
25. If Snookie can do it, so can you!(shameless you-commerce branding and self-promotion)
26. STEP 7 (ADVANCED) Find a sponsor: this is the highest level of money, aside from merchandising (“The Cookie a Day” cookie) that you can hope for. Companies like Grasshopper.com, in the case of the “New Dork” video, are dying to get on board and advertise to your traffic Brands shake hands by having similar values: Maybe Peak Freens wants to rejuvenate its image and launch a special cookie that YOU bake. You charge them for a branded video, ad units on your site, and the production cost: easily $1000s of dollars just for baking a S!@*tload of cookies
27. STEP 8 Marketing and Networking: once you have created your product online, be sure to advertise it somehow and take it offline Tech conferences, workshops, networking opportunities, meet-ups, facebook groups: Cupcake Camp, Podcamp, TEDex etc. Bottom line: YOU are CREATING all this content for REAL PEOPLE and REAL RELATIONSHIPS with HUMAN BEINGS
28. STEP 9 Reap the rewards and when one project closes, launch another You don’t have to be an entertainer to have this benefit a traditional career: launch a political education webcast, a science blog, a pet grooming style Flickr, etc. WORK ON YOUR WEB PRESENCE 4 WORK! What ideas did you guys come up with before?
29. You-commercify! YOU are the product of YOUr choices and the ultimate resource and power of YOU-commerce. You write your destiny, so make it a damn good story. Use technology to your advantage to build your career and kick some butt, dollar billzyo!
30. The Beginning. What ideas do you have? Start tonight. Fortune favors the bold. E-mail me and I’ll gladly consult: aimee.davison@gmail.com I’m still looking for more $100+ Jobs! Aimeedavison.com OneHundredJobs.ca
Editor's Notes
Give them 5 minutes to write this down own ideas… launch it tonight. (another funny)
Get people to volunteer ideas and help evaluate their You-commerce ideas