It’s really quite amazing when you think about it. Mike Stelzner founded Social Media Examiner a short 18 months ago. Today,the site spans more than 75,000 email subscribers, 700,000 page-views per month, 60+ blog contributers, and is recognized as one of the world’s Top 100 business blogs on Technorati and AdAge.
If you’re a small business and you want to learn how to best use social media tools like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to find leads, increase sales and generate more brand awareness…this is where you go.
The site doesn’t monetize through advertising but rather Mike and the team hosts 2-3 Summits per year such as the Social Media Success Summit and the Facebook Marketing Summit spanning thousands of attendees.
How did he do it? Content. Content. Content.
All principles that Mike discusses in his latest book, “Launch” (you can download a free sample book chapter on the site).
Here’s my video interview with Mike Stelzner at LinkedOC below…
(If you can’t see the video, click here)
Key Takeaways from Mike’s Presentation:
- Think of your business as a rocketship and people are the what moves your rocketship.
- You need to set proper goals early on in order to navigate your ship to new heights.
- People want three things: 1.) Insight (to learn something), 2.) access to great people (think interviews with industry experts), and 3.) they want recognition (at Diverse Solutions for example, we do a monthly Client Spotlight Series).
- Stop treating people like fish – in other words, build relationships first. Seek to be helpful, selling comes later.
- You have two huge obstacles to overcome: 1.) Channel syndrome overload, 2.) the default position of customers is distrust! So how are you going to reach people through all of the noise and what are you doing to earn their trust?
- Primary Fuel = regularly produced content (blog posts for example). This type of content generally has a 72 hour shelf-life.
- Nuclear Fuel = Reports, Contest, Webinars, etc.
Now here’s the million dollar question…
Does your company have a content strategy? More importantly, are you sticking to it?
Thanks for the great interview Richardo
Michael: Thanks for taking the time. Great presentation and looking forward to reading your new book!
P.S. Photos coming your way shortly 🙂
Hey Ricardo, this is some great stuff Mike has shared with us today — thanks for sharing this video/interview : )
Hey Mark, What @mike_stelzner:twitter has done with Social Media Examiner in such a short period of time really is quite amazing. It was fun to hear how it all started and learn about some of the mechanics that go into powering their site. 75,000+ subscribers in 18 months blows my mind. Just goes to show you, anything is possible with a little vision, drive and some amazing content!Thanks for the comment Mark!
Yes, powerful. I hear some old timers say blogging is dead – hehe, it’s just getting started in my mind. @mikestelzner:disqus – Social Media Examiner has set the bar and that bar will be broken many times during the progression of this burgeoning industry.
Everyday the virtual web is becoming part of our real life. In the future, there will be no distinction. That’s a pretty big paradigm shift, eh Ricardo?
All the worlds’ information used to be contained in books, on paper, in the physical world; but now it’s all digitized and that information is now in the palm of your hand. All they need to figure out now is how to download that info into a human brain – I’m sure someone is working on that right now 😛
You have all the power in your hands to do something brilliant that could change the world… Many will – and I like that a lot : )
I say all that to say the social web’s future is very bright indeed my man!
Cheers to you Ricardo
Great interview, Ricardo! Mike’s really created something special with his site. Just goes to show you that anyone can build a media empire these days with the right attitude and concrete goals.
Amber: You said it… Concrete Goals are key!!
Here’s my recipe:
1.) Clear Goals,
2.) Hard Work,
3.) Unwavering Focus
Mike has done a phenomenal job executing on all three to get there!
Great interview, Ricardo! Mike’s really created something special with his site. Just goes to show you that anyone can build a media empire these days with the right attitude and concrete goals.
Hey Ricardo
What a great interviewer you are.
And Mike is a super speaker.
“…is recognized as one of the world’s Top 100 business blogs on Technorati and AdAge.”
Pretty impressive.
Useful post, great interview.
Hey Keith,
Thanks my friend, Mike did all the heavy lifting 🙂 I love doing these types of interviews… Though I should have taken the time to edit the video with a sub-title – lesson learned.
Thanks for watching and for the compliment my friend!
Hey Keith,
Thanks my friend, Mike did all the heavy lifting 🙂 I love doing these types of interviews… Though I should have taken the time to edit the video with a sub-title – lesson learned.
Thanks for watching and for the compliment my friend!
Interesting; the one take away I have is engage first and then find your direction. You can have the best platform and business plan in the world but if nobody sees it or shows up, what good is it. Fortunately or unfortunately the social part I can do and established my community first but it was more from having lack of direction initially than anything else.
I’m here via my buddy @JohnFalchetto and glad I took the time to stop by.
Re: “the one take away I have is engage first and then find your direction.”
I can certainly agree with that. That’s how your community is built…that’s how it grows. Without engagement, you have nothing. You’re talking to a brick wall that doesn’t talk back. Heh. After all, people don’t like to be talked “at” – if that makes any sense.
Where I see most businesses err, is they talk “at” people instead of “with” people and ultimately, well, that just isn’t very interesting.
Bill, thanks for the comment, thanks for watching the video and welcome to the site! I’ll have to give @johnfalchetto:twitter thanks for the shout-out 🙂
Happy to support great content @ricardobueno:disqus Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts on my TF post. It’s creating quite a stir in the blogosphere 🙂
Re: “the one take away I have is engage first and then find your direction.”
I can certainly agree with that. That’s how your community is built…that’s how it grows. Without engagement, you have nothing. You’re talking to a brick wall that doesn’t talk back. Heh. After all, people don’t like to be talked “at” – if that makes any sense.
Where I see most businesses err, is they talk “at” people instead of “with” people and ultimately, well, that just isn’t very interesting.
Bill, thanks for the comment, thanks for watching the video and welcome to the site! I’ll have to give @johnfalchetto:twitter thanks for the shout-out 🙂