Joel Comm's Blog, page 39

SXSW 2015 – Has It Jumped the Shark?

Grumble grumble grumble. That’s what I heard from a number of people who used to attend South by Southwest, Austin’s massive interactive, music and film festival. “It’s not like it used to be.” “It’s so commercial now.” “No one goes any more.” In 2014, I attended the event for the first time. I was all set to attend in 2015 once more, but the nice people in charge of issuing press badges told me that I wasn’t going to get one this year. Apparently, I didn’t qualify because I didn’t give them enough coverage last year. Bogus. Totally bogus. But that’s life. It’s not my job to tell them how to do their jobs. So I wasn’t going to attend in 2015. However, my friend Martin Jones at Cox Business contacted me and asked if I would like to attend as a brand ambassador for Cox. Essentially, I’d survey the landscape and interview key influencers at the event. The video would be used as content for CoxBlue.com. So, with the bad juju of being rejected as media brushed off my back, off to Austin I went to discover if SXSW was really a thing of the past. Here’s the short version… It’s not. Now I’m not saying SXSW hasn’t turned into a massive commercial lovefest. I’m not saying that SXSW isn’t full of itself. And I’m not saying that things haven’t changed from the early days. I’m sure all those things are true to some degree. The fact is that attendance hit an all-time high of nearly 85,000 people. That’s a lot of people. And a whole lot of bad stench on 6th street. But here’s the thing. SXSW isn’t about the event itself. It’s not about the sessions (which number way too many, and I didn’t attend a single one. Who can sit still for it?) It’s not about the expo floor, which I thought was kind of weak this year. And it’s not about the arguments of what once was or what is. It’s about people. It’s ALWAYS about people. My experience at SXSW was packed with great experiences fueled by my friends and associates. I’m grateful that SX provided the venue, but the real value came from those I spent time with. People like Bryan Kramer, Ekaterina Walter, Ted Rubin, Brian Fanzo, Angus Nelson, Sarah Evans, Amber Armstrong, Eric Tung, Courtney Kramer, Martin Jones, Michelle Killebrew, Scott Monty and John Nosta, to name just a few. With the Meerkat live streaming app in hand and professional filmmaker Eric Latek along to capture it all on video, I went from place to place capturing the sights and sounds of SXSW. Here are a few photos from my exploits in Austin… 6th Street is always a sight to see. The smell.. oh, the smell! Finally acquired my own Meerkat shirt, straight off the back of their community manager, Ryan P. Cooley! The Paypal Social Lounge was a frequent hangout, with plenty of live interviews taking place. Daymond John, of Shark Tank fame, was on hand for one session. I got to participate in a live #H2H Tweetchat with several of my friends. We streamed the entire thing on Meerkat and I topped 300 simultaneous viewers. It’s always a pleasure to see @PRSarahEvans. I gifted her a flying monkey. Sprinklr had a great party and I got to hang out with their Global Evangelist, Ekaterina Walter. Eric Latek is a talented filmmaker and he came equipped with the same camera that Peter Jackson used to film The Hobbit. Holy cow! Love hanging out with Kramer and Fanzo. These guys understand that social is all about relationship. I was asked to do a “Pedicab Confession” on my way to a filming of Jimmy Kimmel Live. Great fun! After arriving on location, we took some memorable photos. The Meerkat snuck into the show. Julia Louis-Dreyfus was Jimmy’s guest. She brought whiskey on stage and they got snookered while filming the show! These were just some of the experiences I was privileged to enjoy at SXSW. To those who say SXSW has jumped the shark, I say stop being a curmudgeon. Wherever you find people coming together to build friendships, you’ve got a good thing going on. We filmed about 20 interviews with leading influencers while at the show. Here’s one of them with my friend Bryan Kramer (with a special surprise appearance by Ted Rubin.) You can see more interviews on the official CoxBlue.com site.

Audvisor Provides On-Demand Content from World’s Greatest Thought Leaders

We live in an age of on-demand content. We want what we want when we want it in the format we want it. From the success of the iPod and the natural transition to digital music delivery through services like Spotify and Pandora to the live video streaming systems such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime, it’s clear that consumers want their content delivered on their schedule and through multiple channels. It’s one reason audio books and podcasts are a great way of consuming the spoken word. We can listen just about anywhere we want, whether at home, in the car, for a walk in the park or while flying coast-to-coast. However, we are still very busy people and don’t always have time to listen to as much content as we like. And let’s face it. While some content is created purely for entertainment value, as business people we are really looking for the main takeaways in the books we read and programs we listen to. That’s why it’s awesome to see an app like Audvisor come along for both iOS and Android devices! Audvisor describes itself as an app that “brings you short and powerful insights from the world’s top experts for you to listen to anytime, anywhere. Thousands of insights from hundreds of experts – all under 3 minutes.” I was introduced to the app before they launched a number of months ago by co-founder Rajesh Setty. An accomplished author, speaker and entrepreneur, Rajesh is a great thinker with some big ideas. So when he shared the concept with me and asked if I wanted to have some of my content available in the app, I immediately jumped on it. After all, who wouldn’t like to have their content alongside such luminaries as Seth Godin, Sally Hogshead and Tom Peters? Imagine that you are getting ready to head into a big sales meeting. You’ve only got a few minutes. You open Audvisor and immediately get a three-minute insight from Ted Rubin that helps you remember the key reason that you are heading into that meeting room. Perhaps you are managing a team of people and you want to inspire them. A 2-minute insight from Chris Brogan on how to define success could be just the ticket! Or it maybe that you are creating a marketing campaign for a new brand. Spend just 90 seconds with Sally Hogshead and you will walk away with a key nugget to help you think about your product in a different way. Once the app launched, I began to experience first-hand the project which Rajesh and his partner, Mike Martin, had visualized. In an instant, I told them that Audvisor is the Spotify of the learning and wisdom world! This is an app that brings great content to people on-demand in a way that lets them consume the content as they wish, even with very busy schedules. This is an app that can be enjoyed by millions of people, not just in business, but in any realm where consuming content in meaty soundbites would be useful. Upon further discussion with Rajesh and Mike, I was extended an invitation to join the Audvisor advisory board. I’m pleased to announce that I have accepted the position and am already sharing ideas with the team to improve the app experience and to help spread the word. Rajesh and Mike have also invited Bill Henderson, the former COO of Netflix and former Postmaster General of the United States, to the advisory board. Both Bill and I were introduced to the public via this news release. I see big things ahead for Audvisor, and publications such as Techcrunch and Cult of Mac are already talking about it. You can download Audvisor to your device for free right now. Click here to download. To give you an idea of some of the experts whose insights are being shared through Audvisor, check out the following infographic which just appeared in Inc. Magazine online. What kind of content would you like to be able to hear on Audvisor? Who are some of today’s leaders that you believe should have their insights in the app? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments form below!

Social Media Shenanigans Meetup 2 with Chris Brogan

You know those moments when you are so excited that you don’t know where to start? This is one of those times. Last Friday, I was privileged to host my second meetup in Denver, called Social Media Shenanigans with Joel Comm and Chris Brogan. After the success of my first meetup with special guest Ted Rubin, I immediately began planning a second meetup to take place three months later. Chris Brogan, being the awesome friend that he is, agreed to fly to Denver from Boston to attend and be my special guest. With help from Sabrina Risley of CERTUS Professional Network, Tara Jacobson of Marketing Artfully and Dave Galegor of Kicking Cow Productions, along with a number of volunteers and sponsors, we were able to pull off an ever greater success with our most recent meetup! The venue was The Living Room on Broadway in Denver. It was a great place to host the 150 people who came and went throughout the evening. If a picture says a thousand words, following are several thousand words to give you the vibe of the evening. Many of the photographs were taken by Anne Barhyte, of Photographer Of Life and Roger Williams Photographer. A packed house at The Living Room for Social Media Shenanigans Meetup 2 Me sharing the agenda with the attendees The view from the back Networking in a festive atmosphere makes it more fun! It’s all about connecting with friends. Can you feel the love? Selfies? At a meetup? Nah… One of the different things I opted to do was to conduct a live video stream during the entire event. When Chris or I weren’t on stage speaking, attendees were being interviewed for those who couldn’t be there that night. Meghan Conter interviewing Eric Cell Wonderful Northern Colorado-based people! I love this guy. Chris delivered great material and had a really great time with everyone. Chris and I gave away a couple dozen door prizes that night. Many shenanigans took place in from of our giant banner. Giving away copies of Chris’ book, The Freaks Shall Inherit the Earth: Entrepreneurship for Weirdos, Misfits, and World Dominators Even my brother, Michael, came in from Chicago for the event! That made me very happy. Tracy Malone brought red noses, which people were all-too-happy to wear. And The Denver Balloon Guy made fun balloon hats and animals! Fun… More fun… And yet still MORE fun! Not only did Shenanigans attract some local business superstars such as Viveka von Rosen, Tamara McCleary and Debra Jason, but you never know who else might turn up. For example… Tom Terwilliger, a former Mr. America, and his wife Dawn, both flanking Brogan. Emmanuel Weyi, who may be the next President of the Democrat Republic of Congo (just to my right) Several people offered up their thoughts on the evening. Here’s what Jennifer Tracy had to say. Already people are asking when the next event will take place. I suspect we are going to do another in the fall, but we’ll have to see. If you want to see all the photos that we collected from the meetup, click here!  (Warning! There are a lot!) And if you’d like to see the entire video stream of the event featuring Chris Brogan’s talk and all the interviews as they happened, you may watch below. There are so many more people to thank for their participation in the event, including our sponsors: Tito’s Handmade Vodka – Guests were ordering #Proudfreaks (Don’t know what was in there with the vodka, but I’m sure it was good. ORBTR Torq – The most important email tool in your sales arsenal! A Sales Guy – Keenan is one of the top sales people anywhere! Prosperent – Affiliate tools that help you make money! Email Delivery Jedi – To help you get your email into their inbox Extra-special shout-outs to Mike Baltus for being a fantastic volunteer and supporter, and Greg Hickman, Meghan Conter, Mia Voss and Brian G. Johnson for stepping up to the microphone to conduct fabulous interviews for our livestream. Mia wrote a great blog entry documenting her experience. I always tell people that showing up is half the battle in business. Mia confirms it with this piece. What thrills me most is how the local community of social and business leaders came together for face-to-face networking. It’s all about building relationships and supporting one another. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Social Media Shenanigans. Not by a longshot. If you are local to the Northern Colorado area or if you are from outside the area, would you be interested in coming to a future meetup? If you have comments or questions, please use the form below!

And Now, the Moment You’ve Been Waiting For

What happens when more than fifty top social influencers share photos of themselves with your book and blow up the social space so you become virtually unavoidable? As promised in my prelude to the three-part series on the Twitter Power 3.0 book launch, I enjoy doing every book launch a little bit different. It’s not necessarily about the result as much as it is trying a new approach. In part one, I revealed my plan. In part two, I shared what people saw on launch day. Today, I’m prepared to provide initial results and my analysis of what happened. Let’s hop right into it… We’ve already seen how my book showed up again and again in the social space via photos, shares, likes, comments, tweets and retweets. So what did all that sharing amount to? First, let’s look at the Thunderclap stats. I grabbed a screenshot directly from their interface. Well over seven million people were potentially reached by the 218 tweets that went out from my Thunderclap posse. The reach numbers are obviously overblown because it just counts the total number of followers for those who participate. So while I have over 80,000 followers on Twitter, it’s likely that only a couple hundred will actually see a tweet if I just share it one time. Regardless, it’s a lot of potential eyeballs. But as you can see, out of everyone that DID see the share, only 542 clicks to the book site were tracked. It’s a conversion rate so low as to be negligible. Moving on to the next indicator, we come to hourly bookstore rankings. While there are plenty of people who purchase from Barnes & Noble (and we encourage people to go to their local bookstore, whether chain or independent to pick up a copy), Amazon is often the greatest indicator of how well a book is selling. That’s because they display a ranking for every book in the product details section. A number with overall ranking, as well as rankings if your title appears in the top 100 of any category or subcategory, will appear here. I knew things we were likely in for a slow day when I saw the ranking numbers around 10 am MT. Having seen a lot of social sharing already, I lamented to a friend that “it doesn’t look good.” As I share this, please know that I’m not wishing to diminish the results in the eyes of those who would love to accomplish what I accomplished, nor of my fellow authors who have had similar results. Understand that I’m coming from the perspective of someone who has had a New York Times Best-Seller and has hit #3 on all of Amazon.com. I set my bar quite high, so my disappointment is in relation to my personal expectations. Amazon updates their rankings hourly, and Twitter Power 3.0 peaked out at #524 of all books sold on the site. And as you can see, the book hit #1 in a couple subcategories, one of them being Retailing. When you hit #1 in an Amazon.com subcategory, Amazon calls you a best-seller. In fact, they highlight by placing a little badge by your title that says “#1 Best-Seller.” Let’s discuss that for just a moment, because the language on what it means to be a best-seller has been changed by Amazon. In the past, being a best-seller (recognized by the New York Times, Business Week, USA Today, Wall Street Journal or Business Week) meant that you sold a LOT of books. We’re talking thousands in any given week. While the NY Times and others do have categories they award best-seller status to, Amazon has redefined the term by awarding it to books in sub-categories. My book hit #524 in the overall rankings, but I can still say it was a #1 best-seller because Amazon called it a #1 best-seller. As a marketer, I can choose to omit that it was in the subcategory of Books > Business & Money > Industries > Retailing. If we take it to the most extreme, you can technically have a book anywhere in the one-hundred of any sub-sub-sub-category and still call yourself a best-seller because that is what Amazon calls it. For example, I went to Best-Sellers on the top menu bar on Amazon and clicked on the following categories and subcategories. Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Beverages & Wine > Beer The Top 100 Amazon Best-Sellers in this category include Kindle books and Audiobooks. I scrolled down to #100 in the best-sellers and came to this title. I’m sure it’s a great book and the positive reviews are well-deserved. However, at this moment that “best-seller” was actually ranked #112,463 of ALL books in the Amazon Kindle Store. Not exactly what you think of when you think of a best-seller, is it? Again, I’m not seeking to take anything away from those who have an Amazon best-seller. As authors and marketers, it is wise to leverage that which we are given. If Amazon says I am a best-seller, who am I to dispute it? So what was the net result of the book launch? While I have no idea how the book sold in stores, I suspect only a few hundred copies were actually moved by the orchestrated promotion. On one hand, I could view it as an utter disaster. On the other hand, I could see the results of my experiment as a learning experience, and turn those lemons into lemonade. That’s one of the reasons I wrote this series. I wanted you to know that not everything I touch turns to gold. And sometimes what appears to be gold is really just fool’s gold. Even though the Twitter Power series has sold more copies than any other book on the subject of Twitter, it’s possible that things don’t always go as planned. I’m human and fallible. As I watched the results come in (or not come in as the case was), I recognized a […]

You Can’t Avoid Me

Try as you might, you can’t avoid me. All you have to do is go to Facebook or Twitter and… BAM… there I am. Or there I was, at least. The date was Thursday, April 2nd, and the social media sphere erupted with shouts of “Twitter Power 3.0!” Welcome to the second part of my “Behind-the-book-launch” series. In part one, I set the stage by sharing how we prepared for the launch. In this part, I’ll tell you what I observed on launch day. A couple hundred of my friends and peers had received review copies, and some choose to write a review on Amazon.com. I was glad to see that the book was resonating with people. The day started early with photos of peers holding my book popping up on Facebook. Each one came with some sort of personal recommendation and a link to TwitterPower.com. Many also used the hashtag #twitterpower. It was a great start to the day. We scheduled the Thunderclap to hit at Noon ET (9 am PT), which would automatically send tweets out from the 218 people who said they would share our tweet. The reach of this broadcast was to be over 7,000,000 people. And thunderous it was! Over the course of the day, and well into the next two days, social media truly BLEW UP with photos, posts and shares of Twitter Power 3.0. If you were following me or any of the people who were sharing, it was impossible to avoid seeing the book, my name, a link to the site or the #TwitterPower hashtag. The tweets just kept coming! The photos were fantastic, featuring many familiar faces in a variety of poses. There were the standard “I’ve got Joel and Daves’ book” photos. Then there were the “This is so good I’m stunned!” pictures. Next we had the “I’m hiding behind the book” shots. Some thought their pets would consume the material and share the information with them. Some got particularly creative with their photos. And others misunderstood the correct way to consume the information. Then there was one whom without the proper placement of the book I would not be able to share on this blog. Jason Moffat’s photo got more attention than anyone else’s, netting a ton of likes, comments, shares, favorites and retweets. You’ve got to admire his courage Here’s a montage of some of the photos that were posted. And here’s a link to a Facebook album which contains many more. It was impossible for me to keep up with all the posts. It was a great problem to have. As the day went on, I watched the Amazon.com rankings, which are updated hourly. There are millions of books on Amazon.com, so when your book moves into the zone of being in the top 10,000, you know it is selling. Every hour, the ranking went up. Higher and higher with each social share that put my name and book in front of anyone who happened to be even remotely connected to me on Facebook and Twitter. As the book edged into the top 1000 books shortly after noon MT (cause Denver is the center of my universe), I was excited to see just how high it would go. One week later, people are still posting photos and sharing the book on social. And in the final part of this series, I’ll reveal where the book peaked, the estimated sales results and my personal perspective on what it all means. If you’ve got a friend who is an author, engaged in social media or just would find this interesting, please click one or more of the SHARE buttons located at the top of the entry! Of course, I welcome your comments in the form below. Coming soon, Part 3: The Aftermath

Launching a Product with Social Media Shock and Awe

If you are writing a book, you are working hard to create something that will bring value to others. You may be writing to inform, inspire or entertain, but odds are you are fully vested in your material and want nothing more than for others to consume it. As you may have read in the preamble to this three-part series on the launch of my new book, Twitter Power 3.0: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time, this first entry is all about preparing to launch the book. It’s my hope that this behind-the-scenes commentary will give you a better idea of what goes on before the book goes on sale. As mentioned in the previous piece, I enjoy taking different approaches to all my book launches. Experimenting with new ideas is great fun. It had been five years since the launch of Twitter Power 2.0. While there was certainly some social sharing involved in this launch, the book sold well mainly due to brick & mortar bookstore sales. However, since that time social media has become a ubiquitous part of our daily activity. I thought it would be interesting to go full-steam ahead on an online launch that would seek to create a great deal of chatter around the book. The Players On this third edition, I invited my good friend Dave Taylor to co-author with me. He’s a prolific author in his own right and also super smart. Together, we were able to bring Twitter Power up-to-date and introduce many new elements into the manuscript. The two previous editions included a foreword by Tony Robbins. Since Dave and I were doing a major overhaul of the book, we thought it time to bring in a new contributor for the foreword. We invited Guy Kawasaki to take up the challenge and he graciously said yes. I also recruited Matt Clark of Tweetpages.com to update the cover and handle all graphic design related to the official site at TwitterPower.com and all related promotional banners. Matt’s the very talented guy who designed my blog as well as all my social profiles. With my project manager, Amber Vilhauer, up to the task, I began formulating a plan that wouldn’t be a complete time suck, yet would accomplish the goals of bringing attention to, and sales of, the book. The Promotion Being a book on social media, I opted to contact my friends, peers and associates in the social space to assist with the book launch. While the list could have been as long as 500 people, I choose to send a direct message to nearly 275 of the people on my list. I am not a “you scratch my back, I scratch yours” person. I believe every promotion needs to be viewed on its own merits. This means not every promotion is a right fit for everyone. I am not offended if someone doesn’t wish to promote my products. Nor will it preclude me from considering a promotion of their product or service in the future. If it’s a fit, it’s a fit. If not, no problem. My message asked if they would like to receive a review copy of Twitter Power 3.0 in advance of release. It also provided information about the book launch and gave options for participating in a number of different ways. 1) An honest review at Amazon.com. It’s a good idea to prime the pump for launch day and having legitimate reviews on the site is always a good idea. 2) Contributing a photoquote (like the ones in my book Social Poetry) for a multi-author effort that would feature an educational, inspiring or entertaining message. The idea was to create a bonus for those who purchased Twitter Power 3.0 which would bring together a community of social media and business leaders in one book. We also encouraged sharing of images from within the PDF so others could easily post their favorites on Facebook and Twitter. 3) Sharing a photo of themselves with Twitter Power 3.0 on the social sites. 4) Sharing the book via social media on launch day, which was April 2, 2015. We would provide images, tweets, Facebook posts and pre-written email copy to make it easier to share. 5) An invitation to share in a Thunderclap campaign, which would automate the social sharing on launch day by prescheduling it so that all tweets and shares would hit at one time. In retrospect, the message to my friends and peers was too long. If I could go back, it would have briefly asked if they wanted a review copy and if they wanted more info on how to share the book on launch day. If they answered affirmatively to the latter, a more detailed “here’s how to participate” email would have been sent. I’ve been in this business for twenty years and I’m still learning. I persuaded my publisher (John Wiley & Sons) to send 230 copies of the book to those that said they would like to receive a review copy. My hope was that enough people would share on launch day to drive significant sales to TwitterPower.com, where people could learn about the book, the multiple bonuses we were offering and how to purchase online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Books-A-Million. Apart from some of my peers that signed up for the Thunderclap campaign, I also invited my Facebook friends and Twitter followers to participate. 218 people signed up to share via Thunderclap with a promised reach of 7,112,923 people. With review copies sent and all prep work done, we would be ready for launch day on April 2nd. To be continued…

The Truth about Social Sharing (or What I Learned from My Book Launch)

For many authors, a book is the end-all-be-all in their career. They want nothing more than to see their work published and to stand back while the royalties flow in. The sad truth is that the vast majority of authors never make much on sales of their books. But savvy authors understand the credibility and authority that having a book can bring, and they seek ways to leverage their work to more profitable ventures, such as speaking engagements, joint venture opportunities, guest-blogging, podcast and mainstream media interviews and consulting gigs. I’m going to be honest with you about some things. The first is that the book industry is messed up. It’s a mishmosh of boys’ club, pay-to-play and numbers manipulation that is largely unconcerned with the author. It’s about selling books. In the old days, publishing houses would work diligently to market the books they were publishing. While some of that still takes place, more and more publishing houses are depending on the author to bring their own marketing to the table. Unfortunately, most authors are not marketers. I’ve a lot to say about the book industry, but perhaps I’ll save that for another day depending on the reception that this piece gets. With or without publisher support, it’s important that authors work to launch and present their book to the public, both online and offline. That’s why I have always marketed my books using a variety of methods. Each book I launch has a different approach so as to be unique and keep me interested in the process. For example, when I launched The AdSense Code in 2006, I used a bonus program approach that had fifty or so of my peers providing some sort of free report, video series or member site in order to add extra value to the purchase of my book. In 2009, with the first release of Twitter Power, I conducted a live 12-hour Tweetathon that demonstrated the power of social media to do social good. 2010 was the release of KaChing: How to Run an Online Business that Pays and Pays. I produced a television commercial to share the message and created an actual KaChing Button to send to editors and associates. (The button still sells at least one unit per day at Amazon!) Releases in 2013 and 2014 were multi-author books titled So What Do You: Discovering the Genius Next Door with One Simple Question. By having so many authors involved in these projects, the reach of the book expanded significantly. All of these launches can be dissected to examine what worked and what didn’t work. But for the purpose of the series I’ll be writing about, I’m going to specifically discuss the launch of my latest title, Twitter Power 3.0: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time. I want to be transparent about a few things, in particular my experience with taking a social sharing approach to the launch, and I’m hoping this information will prove useful to other authors who may be releasing a title in the future. Rather than create one extremely long post, I’m going to serialize it and break it up into multiple posts. So over the next week, I’ll be pulling back the kimono, so to speak, and sharing some specific details about what I did, what happened as a result and what I learned in the aftermath. Part 1 – The Pre-Launch effort: My Plan for Social Media Shock and Awe Part 2 – Launch Day: The First 24 Hours Part 3 – The Aftermath: What I Learned from the Book Launch If you are an author, want to write a book or just find this interesting, you’ll enjoy what I am going to share with you. To be notified when I publish these and other updates to this blog, simply subscribe by entering your name and email address below. You’ll also get a free gift from me when you subscribe. Yup, it’s one of my books. Name: Email: Watch for Part 1 coming soon!

Twitter Power 3.0 Now Available!

It was May 2007 when I signed up for Twitter. My first tweet was much like most first-timers. In 2008, with approximately 5000 followers to my name (that was a lot back then!) I was approached by publishing giant, John Wiley & Sons, to write a book on how businesses could use Twitter to engage with customers and grow their business. The result was Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time, and it was an instant hit. The first edition of the book had a foreword written by Anthony Robbins and sold more copies than any other book on the subject of Twitter since that time. I launched the book with an internet first, a live Tweetathon featuring top personalities (such as MC Hammer, Robert Scoble, Pete Cashmore, Mari Smith and Wil Wheaton) that broadcast live video for a 12-hour period. The Tweetathon was designed to demonstrate the power of social media to affect social good. Over $25,000 was pledged by viewers for the designated cause, WaterIsLife.com. Twitter grew quickly and my publisher asked for an updated and revised edition to be published in 2010. Twitter Power 2.0 came out to much critical acclaim, once again securing its place at the top-selling book on the subject of Twitter. FIVE years have passed since this last update, and while Twitter is still a 140-character micro-blogging site, MUCH has changed! With over 280 million active users, a full adoption by all forms of media for Twitter integration in their promotions and many businesses leveraging the platform as a primary form of engaging with customers, Twitter is more important than ever. While there are other very good books on the subject of Twitter in the marketplace, I’m pleased to say that according to reporting stores the Twitter Power series has still sold more copies than any other book. It’s been translated into at least six foreign languages, is available in audiobook form and continues to be read by marketers and business people all over the world. And so, I am pleased to present you now with the completely updated and revised third edition of Twitter Power, titled Twitter Power 3.0: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time. This time around, I recruited my good friend Dave Taylor (of AskDaveTaylor.com) to join me in penning this edition. Former Apple Computer Chief Evangelist Guy Kawasaki has contributed the foreword to the book. And we have packed this edition with 270 pages of current Twitter strategies designed to help any sized business leverage the power of this social media giant to engage with their customers and dominate their market! The book is already receiving rave reviews on Amazon.com and is being presented by some of today’s top social media leaders as the go-to guide for doing Twitter right. What’s more, I’ve got some fantastic never-before-seen bonuses for you when you purchase your copy of Twitter Power 3.0 from your favorite bookseller. You’ll receive an instantly downloadable version of Social Poetry 2: Wisdom and Inspiration from Today’s Business and Social Leaders. With contributions from over 150 people like Mari Smith, Bryan Kramer, Sally Hogshead, John Lee Dumas and many others, this special book features the largest collection of modern-day leaders in one guide! You’ll also get access to a special webinar hosted by myself and Dave Taylor, a free report on how to use LinkedIn to grow your business from Cox Business, a special offer from TweetPages.com (who designed my Twitter profile as well as my website) and more! So what are you waiting for? Go and grab your copy of Twitter Power 3.0, and discover how you can get ahead of your competition by unleashing the power of Twitter for your business!

Twitter Increases Tweet Character Limit, Breaking Long-Standing Tradition

It had to happen. In fact, I was just talking about this the other day when I spoke at Social Media Marketing World 2015 in San Diego. Since Twitter launched in 2006, the microblogging social media site has had a strict 140-character limit to all tweets. The are a number of sites that allowed you to make your tweets longer by linking out to them, such as TwitLonger.com. But to date, Twitter has remained firm on the 140-character limit, stating that brevity and easy-to-consume tweets are the foundation of the site. All that changed today. And it’s about time. Twitter has announced that for the first time ever, they are increasing the character limit. However, it’s not nearly as dramatic a change as you might think. Your tweets can now be 141 characters. Certainly there is a good reason for this seemingly insignificant increase. I contacted Twitter HQ and was able to get the skinny from a source who preferred by remain anonymous. “Look,” he said. “So many people write out their tweets and they get to the end only to discover that there isn’t room for one more character. They have to go back and figure out if they can risk changing “to” to “2” in order to save space. Sometimes the exclamation point at the end provides essential context, and if they are out of characters the whole tweet can get flushed before it is ever shared.” My source went on to say, “By allowing people to tweet up to 141 characters, we feel the problem is solved. It’s a small concession for us to make, yet one that the Twitter community will really appreciate.” When I asked what would happen if someone wanted to tweet 142 characters instead, my source was silent for a few seconds before he told me that he needed to go. I must confess that I’ve had run-ins with the 140-character hard limit more times than I can count. It can be frustrating. Just today I went to quote the modern-day teeny-bopper philosopher Taylor Swift and ran up against the 140-character wall. Houston, we have a problem. “Shake it of”? What does it mean? But with the new and improved Twitter 141-character limit, all is right with the world once again. I honestly can’t say what impact this is going to have on the social space overall. Only time will tell. For now, we can all enjoy the freedom that one more character in our tweets allow us. If you want to learn how to leverage the power of Twitter to engage with customers and grow your business, pick up a copy of Twitter Power 3.0 by myself and Dave Taylor. Newly revised and updated for 2015, this 3rd edition of the top-selling book on Twitter is packed with useful strategies for dominating your competition. Click Here!

The Secret to My Success

If I had a dollar for all the podcast interviews I’ve done in the past couple years, well I’d probably have $100 or so. I know, it’s not a lot of money. But it IS a lot of interviews! I love being on podcasts and sharing my stories as long as I have time to fit them in. Sometimes I have to say no just because I’m too busy. But more often than not I eventually getting around to being on most podcasts I am invited on. There is a common theme among the questions I am asked, with one of the biggest ones being “Joel, what is the secret to your success?” I’ve stated it many times, but in case you’ve missed it I’m going to spill the beans right here. It may sound simplistic, but allow me to explain. I believe that we all have gifts, talents, abilities, passion and personality that make us unique. And with that uniqueness comes the opportunity to bring value to people around us. When we are seeking to bring value, the goal is to do good for our family, our friends, our customers and those beyond our boundaries. It’s not rocket science. Whether it’s serving a family member, helping a friend, volunteering in your community, creating a product or service that meets a need, sharing an encouraging word with someone who needs to hear it or any other thing that drives you to make a difference, you are doing good stuff. And when you seek to do good stuff, I believe good stuff comes back to you. It’s the law of sowing and reaping. When you plant negative things like complaining or hate, odds are you are going to harvest those same things in return. But when you sow good seeds that are the best you have for others, you’ll be amazed at the crop of good things that can come back at you. You may have heard this phrased differently. “What goes around comes around.” I believe my success hasn’t come from building one particular site, partnering on one specific deal or focusing on one business relationship. Rather, it has come from a lifestyle decision to be open to opportunities and to use whatever gifts and talents I have to produce good stuff. Many people use a standard sign-off such as “to your success” at the end of their emails. I adopted “Do good stuff” a number of years ago, and people have come to know me for this. In fact, people relate that tagline back to me so often that I’ve decided to do something about it. Today I’m pleased to announce my new apparel brand which is designed to inspire positivity both in the wearer and in those who will be encouraged by the message. The brand is, not surprisingly, called “Do Good Stuff” And to launch this brand, I have released a Limited Edition T-shirt with the message and logo proudly displayed on the front! See it here! In the spirit of doing good stuff, I will be giving 10% of the net proceeds for all sales to a charitable organization that is doing good stuff. This is how I want to pay it forward. I can only guarantee 50 shirts available, so you will want to move quickly to secure yours now. If the demand is as high as I anticipate, I will be releasing new designs in the future. Here is the first design in the Do Good Stuff line of apparel. Click here to see ordering options As a special bonus, readers of my email and blog automatically receive a 10% discount when you click this link and enter coupon code JCMEMBER at checkout! The secret to my success isn’t a secret. It’s a lifestyle of seeking to do good stuff no matter what I am doing. I encourage you to do the same, and I hope you’ll be able to secure your own Do Good Stuff t-shirt while they are still available. And one more thing… Do good stuff!