Content Marketing Magic e-book [2013]

Introduction by Adam Franklin & Toby Jenkins
Acknowledgement & Thanks
How to do ‘content marketing’ like the Godfather - Joe Pulizzi
Push vs Pull marketing - Tim Reid
Video Marketing for Dummies: what’s wrong with most videos - Kevin Daum
The New Rules of Marketing & PR - David Meerman Scott
Email marketing - James Adonis
Writing a book is an effective marketing tool - Andrew Griffiths
Social media, vlogging & the power of conversation - Kelly Olexa
Connect with the experts
Free Tools
Our Products
Recommended Reading
Thank You
Table of Contents
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DOWNLOAD: http://www.bluewiremedia.com.au/content-marketing-magic-e-book 01/10/2013 Version 1.7 2
CONTENT MARKETING MAGIC
How to use YouTube videos, e-books, blogs, books and email marketing to build your tribe.

We hope this e-book serves you
well. And if you like it, please feel
free to share it with your friends!
All the best,
Adam Franklin @Franklin_Adam
& Toby Jenkins @Toby_Jenkins
Founders, Bluewire Media
Content marketing is all the rage with companies large and small, and it really can
produce some magical results. Discover how to create this magic for your own marketing
by following the advice of the seven experts in this e-book.
It’s a pleasure to be able to share the interviews we’ve done with international content
marketing thought leaders like David Meerman Scott, Joe Pulizzi, Kevin Daum and
Kelly Olexa as well as the Aussie pioneers Timbo Reid, James Adonis and Andrew
Griffiths.
Whether your content platform of choice is blogs, e-books, video, podcasts, email, books
or social media, you’re in store to learn plenty from the very best in the business.
Introduction
by Adam Franklin & Toby Jenkins

If you find this e-book useful, please feel free to blog about it, tweet it, link to it and share it with the world!
The Content Marketing Magic e-book is free & licensed under (CC) Creative Commons License, Attribution 3.0.
Please Share
This means you may edit or build upon the work and even use it commercially, but you
must give the original author proper attribution.
The requested attribution is a link to this Content Marketing Magic e-book page at
http://www.bluewiremedia.com.au/content-marketing-magic-e-book
Content Marketing Magic: How to use YouTube videos, e-books, blogs, books and
email marketing to build your tribe. http://www.bluewiremedia.com.au/content-
marketing-magic-e-book

Thank you to Joe Pulizzi, Tim Reid, Kevin Daum, David Meerman Scott, James Adonis, Andrew Griffiths and Kelly Olexa. Your
generosity with your time and insights is truly appreciated.
Thank you to Montse Balbuena and Rob Mondolo for designing this e-book.
Thank you to Ann-Maree Lee and Angela Logovik for editing and proofreading this e-book.
Thank you to Kyle Zenchyson who compiled some of the original interview transcripts.
Thank you to Sarah McVeigh who interviewed Kelly Olexa.
Acknowledgement & Thanks

Joe Pulizzi ( http://www.joepulizzi.com ) is the godfather of content marketing - founder of
the Content Marketing Institute, Content Marketing World, Chief Content Officer, and the
author of Get Content Get Customers ( http://amzn.to/1270eWE ), speaker and blogger.
Joe Pulizzi
http://joepulizzi.com/
http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/
https://twitter.com/joepulizzi
https://www.facebook.com/joe.pulizzi

Blog Post URL:
http://www.bluewiremedia.com.au/blog/2013/05/how-to-do-
content-marketing-like-the-godfather-joe-pulizzi

Adam Franklin: Hi, it’s Adam Franklin ( http://www.adamfranklin.com.au/ ) and I’m very happy to
be here with Joe Pulizzi ( http://www.joepulizzi.com ). He founded the Content Marketing Institute
( http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/ ). He runs the Content Marketing World Events ( http://
contentmarketinginstitute.com/events/ ). He’s the Chief Content Officer magazine editor and he’s
got the book, Get Content. Get Customers ( http://amzn.to/1270eWE ).
So you’ve really got a stranglehold on the words ‘content marketing’ which I really love, and you
own the word ‘orange’ as well I’m led to believe. Whenever you’re on stage, you always have the
colour orange on.
Joe Pulizzi: Well, you won’t see me without, yeah... If you see me in public, you will not see me
without the color orange on in some capacity, so I take that very seriously.
How to do Content Marketing like the
Godfather Joe Pulizzi
Transcript

Adam Franklin: That’s excellent. I’m pleased to hear it. Now, I was reading and listening to
podcasts. You did a great one with Timbo Reid ( http://smallbusinessbigmarketing.com/content-
marketing-joe-pulizzi/ ) when you were over here in Australia. I really like the analogy about
content strategy; it’s like building a house. You don’t just push. You don’t start throwing bricks
around. You actually get an architect and a builder to put a plan in. And it’s a great analogy, but
if we’re getting specific - What does an actual content strategy plan look like?
Joe Pulizzi: Well, I like that you’re using that architecture mentality because when I go around
and talk about content marketing, the majority of the corporate marketers that I talk to actually
don’t have a plan. So we try to figure out - where do you start with your planning? And you
always start with, ‘Why?’ You always start with sort of, ‘What is that mission statement? What is
that takeaway for your customers? For example, what we want to get into our mission statement?’
and this is sort of the underlying . . . everything underlying when you build a content strategy.
So we want to say - Okay, who is our target audience? And be specific, like really - Who is that
target audience? What are we going to be delivering to that target audience? I mean, think
about it. Are we going to deliver textual content? Is it helpful resources? Is it entertainment?
Really get a feel for what it’s going to be.
Plan it, like
you would a
house

And then - What do we want that to do? Not - What do we want to sell? Not specifically more products
and services, but - What do we want the end result to be for our customer? Do we want to help them with
their small businesses? Do we want to help them be more profitable? Are we trying to help our IT software
consultant that we’re targeting? Do we want to help them save time in some way? Really figure out what
that unique value proposition is. I call that the ‘Content Marketing Mission Statement’. I love to start there
because, when you talk to marketers, they start to focus on ‘Yeah, we really aren’t talking about our
products and services; we’re really talking about content for our customers.’
Putting customers first
Now this is just one step of 20 that you’re going to take in the content strategy, but what I feel is
that - most marketers, they bypass that step and they do what I call, ‘filling buckets’. They’re like,
‘Oh, what are we going to put on Facebook today? What are we going to put on our blog today?
What are we going to put on Twitter?’ Instead of really thinking conscientiously about what we
are doing. And then, once we figure out that mission statement, then we can really get into the
objectives of what do we want it to do for our company? Is this customer retention? Is it lead
generation? But I always like to start with the customer first and thinking about the messaging for
the customer and the customer’s pain points first.

Adam Franklin: Well also once you’ve got the mission, you
understand the why and you understand your customer’s
pain points. Using that house analogy, what are some of the
building blocks or the rooms of the house? I guess, what are
some of the fundamental things that a content marketer really
needs to build in the first place in order to run an effective
content marketing program?
Joe Pulizzi: Once you do that you’re figuring out what you need to do step-by-step. So we
figure out okay, What’s the why? Then we really figure out what is the problem we’re trying to
solve in the organisation with our content? What is content going to fix as a business process
or a business strategy? And then you quickly go to - We really need to know more about our
audience - and whether you call that audience persona or a buyer persona or whatever you go
into... What we’ve found is, let’s say, you just take any average organisation. You have more than
one person usually creating content, whether that’s on your website, whether it’s social media,
whether it’s print, whether it’s in person: you have lots of people creating content.

Define buyer personas
Most organisations don’t have a defined buyer persona, and that’s simply - What’s the picture of this person? What do they look
like? How old are they? What do they like doing during the day? And I like to use that audience persona framework because when
you get a freelancer, internal or external or using an agency, you have to give them a mental picture of who you are targeting, or
else how do any of the five people creating content for your organisation know who they’re really targeting? So that buyer persona
step really needs to be taken into standpoint.
And then once you do those types of things, then you can really figure
out okay, What is my content type? Where am I targeting that buyer
persona? Where are they in the sales cycle or in the buying process?
Is it top of the funnel? Are they just learning about whether or not they
even need a solution like this? Is it right before the conversion? Maybe
we’re talking customer retention. Maybe this program is targeting our
customers and we want to have them help us with cross-selling or
up-selling, or we want them to be brand subscribers, those types of
things. And then we really look at what are the channels we’re going
to use that make the most sense? Does email work? Are we going to
look at a social media channel like a slideshare? What about print?
Is it something that we should look at?
Web Strategy Planning Template - Free Download
( http://www.bluewiremedia.com.au/web-strategy-
planning-template )

So as you can tell, I mean you know this - but this is not an easy thing where... Oh, let’s just start talking about cats. And we’re
going to talk everything about cats. No, we really want to go through a thoughtful process before we get to filling content buckets
and channels which most people go right to the channels. They say, ‘Oh, let’s fill those buckets!’ But there’s really quite a few steps
before that, steps that we want to look at.
Gated vs ungated content
Adam Franklin: And when content marketers are creating
their content with their agency or with their in-house writers
or video people, whatever format the content takes, where
do you draw the line between I guess delivering . . . well
you deliver value, but delivering free content and delivering
paid content? Is there a rule of thumb or a line in the sand,
as a guide, so that you can work out whether you should be
giving it away or actually charging?
Joe Pulizzi: My take is this: If you’re having somebody
pay for content, you’re probably in the publishing
media business. So Content Marketing Institute ( http://
contentmarketinginstitute.com/ ), our organisation, we are
a media company; that’s our business model. We have
some free content and some paid content. That’s a media
model. If you are selling software solutions or you’re selling
manufacturing products, you’re probably not charging for any
of that content.
The big issue is - Are you going to give it away for free, or are
you going to gate that content? Are you going to put a form in
front of that content? That’s the bigger issue that we see in the
States. I don’t see a lot of brands really talking about giving
it away for free; it’s not the issue. I think they understand they
need to give it away for free. The bigger issue is they want
to put a gate in front of it because they want a lead out of
everything.

...having well over 90% of that
content ungated, freely accessible
content...
“Oh, we’ve got to have information! This is really valuable!
We’ve got to make sure we know who they are so that we
can get that into the sales pipeline and actually generate
some leads.”
And by the way, there’s always a place for gated content.
But I think what some people don’t understand is you really
have to look at the objective, because if you give away that
content for free and let that content be shared and maybe
have a form at a different place in the content, maybe
inside the content, or I love SlideShare, a big proponent of
SlideShare. Maybe it’s a free piece of content, and as they
go to like Slide 9 you have a little popup that comes up and
says, “Hey, do you like this content? Maybe you’d like to sign
up for it here?” And then they could skip through it but at
least you give them access to that content.
Give 90% away
free

So I think that what we try to talk to our clients about is really having well over 90% of that content ungated, freely accessible
content and then you could look at some of that other content being gated. Unfortunately what we’re finding out is a lot of that
content is gated so you don’t get the shareability, which means you’re not going to get the search engine optimisation rankings
which, if you look at the overall opportunity for leads, you actually limit it by gating it.
It’s a really important decision and you have to look at each piece of content separately, but I would say for the most part most
companies are probably gating their content, putting a reform in front of their content too much, and we should look at setting that
content free.
Adam Franklin: That’s a really good point, because I’ve
struggled with that dilemma too, whether I don’t put a form
or whether I do. The compromise that I’ve struck, that I’m
quite comfortable with, is having a preview of the content
as a SlideShare file embedded on the page so they can
preview it. If they really want to, they can go to SlideShare
and download it there if they didn’t want to give an email
address. I do actually put a form or a gate on there, so if they
previewed it and they like it then they can enter their details
and be in our system.
Joe Pulizzi: I mean that’s a good way to do it. I mean if I
were you, what I would say is I’d like the next piece, I’d like
Make sure you
test your blog
titles.
you to open it up freely and kind of use the suggested form
that SlideShare has and see what performs better. I mean
see total views, look at everything, and then you can make a
decision. So then you might say - ‘Oh, the first way was much
better,’ so testing is so critical a part of content marketing,
just like blog titles.

Make sure you test your blog titles. What we found is
we (not that I’m a big fan of the four tips to or five steps
to, sometimes I get sick of those kinds of posts) but our
posts that have a number in it always perform 25% better
than anything else. We know this for a fact. We’ve looked
at it and we’ve tested it. So as you look at more of the
performance of your content, you can actually make
decisions about what works best.
Email marketing?
Adam Franklin: And Joe, what’s your personal take on
email marketing? It’s often overlooked these days with social
media getting all the headlines. Do you like it? Do you not like
it? What’s your take?
Joe Pulizzi: Well, so I’m a traditionalist when it comes to
email marketing, so all the email marketing providers are
going to love me. Email is the most critical part of our entire
content marketing strategy. What we’ve seen is if we can
Email is the
steroids behind social
media sharing!
build and own a subscriber base, and we do that through
email, that makes everything else that we do in our content
marketing strategy work for us.
For example, this morning... at 7:00am in the morning
our post goes out. At 10:00am, our email to our daily
subscribers goes out. So in the morning we see a little bit
of social activity, but once that daily email goes out that’s
when we see tons of sharing, tons of comments, tons of
talking about it. So what we’ve found is email is the steroids
behind social media sharing, which means then that’s going
to help us in search engine optimisation. And the most

important thing about this, when we look at subscription,
we really do want to have a connection with our customers
that we own. Nothing wrong with Facebook subscription or
LinkedIn or SlideShare or Twitter or any of those, they’re all
very important, but I don’t own any of those subscription
channels. Twitter owns those; LinkedIn owns those. They can
shut those off tomorrow.
But if I have an owned email database, I can build. We were
talking about architecture and building, building a house on
top of that? I can build something on top of that because I
own it, just like a media company does or a publisher does.
If I don’t focus on subscription, I’ve got to work really hard
every day at promotion activities. What I want to do is I want
to build a passionate subscriber so that they’ll do some of
the marketing for me. And back to your point: I feel email
is critical to that. So I would just say to everyone listening
to this, really focus on your email subscription channel.
And if you look at behaviour, I mean look at the behaviour
of your audience... What we know about our audience is
they don’t like to go to bed at night unless they have zero
emails in their inbox. Email is critical. But it’s also tougher
to cut through that clutter. If you can cut through that clutter
with not a sales email but an educational, relevant email, you
can go to the top of attention and every day you can get their
attention. It’s critical. I feel email is more important than ever
right now.
So I would just say to everyone,
really focus on your email subscription
channel.

Adam Franklin: Fantastic, Joe. I really appreciate the tips and advice you shared with us in the interview. Where can our readers
go to find out more about you or connect with you?
Joe Pulizzi: I’m @JoePulizzi ( https://twitter.com/joepulizzi ) on Twitter, joepulizzi.com ( http://joepulizzi.com/ ). You can find all
my books and speaking and whatnot, on contentmarketinginstitute.com ( http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/ ) and the events,
contentmarketingworld.com ( http://contentmarketingworld.com/ ).
Adam Franklin: Fantastic. And the new book, is there a new book coming out this year Joe?
Connect
Joe Pulizzi: It is actually. The new book is Epic Content Marketing ( http://amzn.to/10kHK24
). It comes out in September (2013). We’re going to launch it at Content Marketing World North
America on September 10th and it’s all about basically how to do exactly what we’re doing
from A to Z. Start with the content marketing mission statement all the way to social media and
distribution and owned channels like email subscription.
Adam Franklin: Fantastic. I look forward to that when it’s out and great to chat. And have a
great day, Joe. Thank you.
Joe Pulizzi: Thank you, Adam. Thanks.
Epic Content Marketing:
http://amzn.to/10kHK24

Tim Reid ( http://timreid.com.au ) is a marketing coach, prolific speaker, podcaster,
blogger and author, specialising in business marketing. He contributes to his own
podcasts and heaps of other sites, blogs and magazines.
With 20 years experience in corporate marketing, his practical experience underpins
his speaking and writing popularity. Among all these other things, Tim is the founder
and host of Australia’s #1 marketing podcast Small Business Big Marketing ( http://
smallbusinessbigmarketing.com/ ) with a global audience across 94 countries.
Tim Reid
https:// timreid.com.au
http://www.theideasguy.com/
https://twitter.com/TimboReid
https://www.facebook.com/

Blog Post URL:
http://www.bluewiremedia.com.au/blog/2013/04/timbo-reid-
push-vs-pull-marketing
PUSH vs PULL MARKETING

Adam Franklin: Hi there, so it’s Adam Franklin ( http://www.adamfranklin.com.au/ ) and I’m here with Tim Reid, ( http://timreid.
com.au ) host of Australia’s number one marketing podcast, Small Business, Big Marketing ( http://smallbusinessbigmarketing.
com/ ). He’s also the host of Australia’s most popular internet marketing training podcast, Freedom Ocean ( http://www.
freedomocean.com/ ). He’s the author of the book Cha-Ching ( http://smallbusinessbigmarketing.com/b1/cha-ching.php ), and a
popular keynote speaker. Welcome, Timbo.
Tim Reid: G’day, Adam. How are you?
Adam Franklin: Very well, thank you. So there’s a lot of talk at the moment about content marketing versus traditional marketing.
Now what do you see the difference being? And then, what does effective content marketing look like?
Transcript
PUSH vs PULL MARKETING
Tim Reid: Right. So, two simple words here. Push and pull. That’s three words, but - push, pull. So, you know, old school
marketing was all about pushing out content on unsuspecting prospects in the hope that they would buy, at least knock on your
shop door, give you a ring, send you an email.

And, you know, advertising, sponsorship, direct marketing, letter box drops, that type of stuff
is what we call push marketing. And there’s an absolute role for it. It’s worked, it’s worked a
treat, for decades. And, you know, in some cases better than others. And having worked in
advertising for, you know like, 15 years, I know a lot. I’ve done a lot of push marketing, but then
along comes the internet, and it produces this concept of pull. Of pulling people towards us.
By the way, the internet wasn’t kind of the creator of content marketing, because content
marketing’s all the same. People have been writing books for years, you know? But, this concept
of pull marketing is where you pull people towards you because you are providing information
that makes them go, “Huh.This guy knows what he’s talking about. He seems to know / she seems to
know a lot about their particular industry” For me, content marketing, Adam, is based on the premise
that every single one of us - you, me, anyone listening to this as a small business owner - is standing on
a mountain of knowledge. We all know a lot about what it is we do. And we have a choice.
We can either go, “You know what, I’m just going to hold it close to my chest, and share it piecemeal,”
or, you know, I’m going to share it openly. I’m going to share my knowledge openly, via a podcast, via
a blog, via speaking from stage, via a book, via a forum, via a mass amount group, and in doing so,
position myself as an expert, and pull people towards me in the hope that at some point, they’re going to
go, ‘Geez, what have you got that I can buy from you?’

Adam Franklin: And then, Tim, what are some of the common mistakes you see as people try and
make this shift into content marketing?
Tim Reid: There’s wonderful channels for people like you and I - exactly what we’re doing now - to get
our message out into the marketplace...
Given that that’s the case, there’s lots more people doing it. It’s pretty easy to create a podcast now, you
know? The beautiful Blue Yeti ( http://amzn.to/ZYalsW ), you know? The MacBook Pro ( http://amzn.to/
ZuMNAe ). Skype ( http://www.skype.com/en/ ). Skype Call Recorder ( http://shop.skype.com/apps/
Call-recording-audio-video/Call-Recorder-for-Mac.html ) . Happy days, you know? It’s pretty easy to
write a book now and get it published, on Amazon using a website like LuLu ( http://www.lulu.com/ ). It’s
pretty easy. Video marketing, because you know, we’ve got the best video camera going around in our
pockets.
So there’s a whole lot more people doing it, Adam. So, the trap I’m seeing is that the quality of their
content lacks. They go, ‘Ripper. I can do video marketing’. And then they go, ‘Oh, hang on.What do I
have to say if I hit the record button?’ And that’s just a classic marketing principal, a classic... A classic,
like, marketing wake-up call, I call them, is this: Get your message right first, before you worry about
where to put it.
Okay? Video, blogging, podcasting, write a book, whatever. It really depends on what’s your thing. Do
you like looking down the barrel of a camera, do you like writing, do you like talking into a microphone?
They’re easy decisions: What have you got to say? is the harder decision.
Content.
Content.
Content.

Adam Franklin: Sure. So, Tim, if you were in charge of a fast growth business - like many of
Bluewire Media’s clients - what would your approach to marketing be? And what are some of
your top tips, I guess, to achieve the biggest wins to kick-start that marketing momentum?
Tim Reid: Okay, so, let me understand that question clearly. So, if you were embarking on a
serious marketing campaign, what are, kind of, my top threes? Is that kind of where you’re...
Adam Franklin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Your top three tips.
Tim Reid: Okay. Let me ask, Bluewire clients: marketing savvy? Put you on the spot here, you’ve got to be careful what you say.
Marketing savvy, or looking for real guidance?
Adam Franklin: Marketing savvy, looking to make that shift into the internet world and the digital world and to apply a lot of their
marketing principles that have worked well offline, but make that transition online.
Tim Reid: Okay. So, number one, what I’ve already said, which is... get your message right first
before you worry about where to put it. And what I mean by that - are messages like verbal message, written message, spoken
message, you don’t want to go completely, you know, off the radar. Look, smell, sound, touch, you know, play to the senses. Every
one of our senses takes in messages, and so - what messages do we put out to appeal to the senses? Because marketing’s
emotional. And the more we can appeal to people’s senses, the more emotional connection we can get with our consumers - our
prospects, our customers - the more likely they’re going to be drawn towards us, pull marketing, and they’re going to stay with us.

Cha-Ching
http://smallbusinessbigmarketing.com/b1/cha-ching.php
what messages do we put out
to appeal to the senses? Because
marketing’s emotional.
So, build a brand. Part of message creation is spend the
necessary time building a brand. Know what it is you do, how
you do it, who your best mates are, what’s the personality you
want to get across in your messages? You’ve just got to know
that stuff. Once you know that stuff... actually get really
specific here, Adam, and say, go and have your website
designed and written completely, but review it in the light of
the work you’ve done on your brand.
Your website is the place where the most information can live
about your business. Now that doesn’t mean you should have
a million pages, although that would be pretty cool, because
that means you’re getting a lot of stuff indexed by, you know,
the all-powerful Google, but what it does mean is: Get your
message right on your website - your words, your copy,
your images, your video, your audio, all that type of stuff.

Because once you’ve got your website sorted, your website’s home base for all the other
marketing activity: social media, video marketing, and all the above-the-line activity that you’re
doing, you’ve got a brochure out in the marketplace, you’ve got a radio campaign, or you’re
speaking from stage. People are going to go and check you out online. You are who Google
says you are, you know? And they are going to come in and check. They’re going to go... look,
in an ideal world they’re going to ring you and say, ‘Where do I sign? Who do I give the money
to?’ In the real world, they’re going to go and check you out on your website. So, message
first, medium second, get your website sorted, and then, you know, there’s a great saying that
‘you’re online and you’ve just got a website’, and I love that because most small business owners
think they’re online because they’ve got a website, and that’s just not the truth, that’s not true
anymore. That’s 10 years ago, you know?
You are who
Google
says you are.
You’re online and you’ve just got a website.

An online strategy that has a whole lot of channels feeding into
your website, whatever it be, social media’s one of them, you know?
Like, everyone wants to have the social media conversation, it bores
me, you know? It’s a bit of a... It’s a bit of a bright, shiny object. It’s
important: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google Plus, Pinterest,
they’re not going away. But, they can take... There are a lot of small
business owners who think that they are the silver bullet for their
marketing, and they’re not. That can be a real distraction and real
let down.
So if you’re going to choose a social media channel, choose wisely.
Choose wisely, based on the fact that you are going to be able to
commit to keeping it up with current content, useful content, and
be in it for the long haul. Because, you know, social media is just
people having conversations online. That’s all it is. It’s, you know,
forget re-pins, and likes, and re-tweets, and hash tags, just worry
about the fact that it’s people having conversations online, and the
same rules apply offline as they do online. So, there you go.
Social media is just people
having conversations online,
and the same rules apply offline
as they do online.

Adam Franklin: That’s fantastic, Tim. Thank you for that. And I totally agree, ‘you are what
Google says you are’, and, you know, that’s one of the most important things, is that people are
going to be Googling you once they’ve met you, once they hear about you, once they get your
business card.
So, where can people find out more about Tim Reid? The Ideas Guy ( http://www.theideasguy.
com/ ), the number one podcaster, and the number one keynote speaker?
Tim Reid: That’s the best question you have ever asked.
Adam Franklin: Well, thank you.
Tim Reid: Well planned, well asked. So, timreid.com.au ( http://timreid.com.au/ ), if they
want to book me for a keynote, which is what I do a lot of. 2013 is my year of the keynote and
workshops. So head over there and if you want to listen to Australia’s No. 1 marketing show, then
head over to smallbusinessbigmarketing.com, ( http://smallbusinessbigmarketing.com/ ) and
every Tuesday I put out an interview. I call them ‘fireside chats’, where I have a fireside chat with
a successful small business owner that I reckon is cranking some aspect of their marketing. And
they go for about 40 minutes an episode. I’ve been doing that for three years. Love it.
Adam Franklin: Thanks ever so much mate. In the time it takes to drive into work, or go for a
run or catch the bus somewhere, listen to Tim Reid’s awesome podcast. Thank you so much,
Timbo.
The ideas guy
http://www.theideasguy.
com/

Tim Reid: Love your work, Adam. Thanks, mate, for having
me.
Adam Franklin: It’s a pleasure, thank you. Okay, thanks
for that, mate.
Tim Reid: Sweet. Small Business Big Marketing
http://smallbusinessbigmarketing.com/

Kevin Daum (http://www.kevindaum.com/) is an award winning and bestselling author. he’s
also a marketer, speaker, columnist and an Inc. 500 entrepreneur. Kevin has a background
in theatre and business, and he wrote Video Marketing for Dummies, among lots of other
things.
Kevin Daum
http://www.kevindaum.com/
http://www.inc.com/author/kevin-daum
https://twitter.com/AwesomeROAR

Why spend $25,000 on a video that 12 people watch? It doesn’t make much sense, but many
‘professional’ corporate videos are boring and go unwatched!
Injecting fun, humour and entertainment into corporate videos terrifies marketing & PR people.
Except it shouldn’t, because it WORKS! After we met at a Leadership Summit last week, I got to
interview Kevin Daum, the author of Video Marketing for Dummies
A funny look at why most videos are
boring - Kevin Daum
Blog Post URL:
http://www.bluewiremedia.com.au/
blog/2012/05/a-funny-look-at-why-most-
videos-are-boring-kevin-daum

Adam Franklin: Hi there it’s Adam Franklin here and I’m lucky enough to be here with Kevin
Daum the author of Video Marketing for DUMMIES. And I hope that’s [book] not over your face
Kevin.
Kevin Daum: It’s entirely possible.
Adam Franklin: And we’re lucky because we’ve also got an opportunity to ask Kevin a question.
And the one thing I’d like to know is, “what’s wrong with most videos these days?”
Transcript
Kevin Daum: Ok, we have absolutely not enough time to tell you what’s wrong with most videos, but I will give you a couple of
things. The first part is most of them try to be too professional which is my euphemism for boring. I mean people try and put so
much into them and they’re trying to get all the information out that they have on to video and make it so that you know it looks nice
and all it ends up doing is being boring. And that’s really not what you want.
http://amzn.to/QbXVNV
So I’ve got a great example of that. There’s this dentist video that
we did in London, right. The dentist called us and said ‘Hey can you
look at this video? I paid a lot of money for it, but it’s a snoozer.”

So I said let’s see if we can focus this down and we just add a little
funny part at the start, and we made sure it was targeted to his target
market instead of being for all people who needed dentistry, we went
after those people who needed implants because that was his best
dollars right, that’s where he wanted to make money. Here’s the video.
Kevin added the first 25 seconds to liven up what was previously a
typical corporate video]
So by doing that we made this video unbelievably hysterical and you know what, he’s got 2500
views so far and it’s just been a couple of months.
You’ve got to make it compelling and you’ve got to make it entertaining, and the best part is you
know make it funny! That’s what’s going to work.
Adam: Ok awesome, so let go of that corporate boring feel and just embrace a bit of fun and
have a go.
Kevin: Yeah have a go. People do business with people they like right, and they like people who
make them laugh.
Adam: Yeah sure thing. Awesome Kevin and how can people find out more about you?
Kevin: They can go to KevinDaum.com ( http://www.kevindaum.com/ ) and check out my
videos – they’ll make you laugh.
Adam: And the book. Alright, thank you, cheers Kevin!
You can also follow @awesomeROAR on twitter. ( https://twitter.com/awesomeROAR )
Roar! Get Heard in the Sales
and Marketing Jungle
http://amzn.to/1193l0O
http://youtu.be/FdCrWdD6x5I

David Meerman Scott (http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/about-david/) is a marketing
strategist, advisor to emerging companies, bestselling author of eight books including three
international bestsellers and The New Rules of Marketing & PR (http://amzn.to/11WPSss),
and a professional speaker on topics including marketing, leadership, and social media.
David Meerman Scott
http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/
https://twitter.com/dmscott
https://www.facebook.com/dmscott

When Adam Franklin had the pleasure of seeing marketing strategist, David Meerman Scott (
http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/ ) present live via satellite at the Growth Summit in Sydney,
he was so impressed that he wanted to ask a few more questions. Luckily, David graciously
accepted our request.
David Meerman Scott interview: The
New Rules of Marketing & PR
Blog Post URL:
blog/2010/03/david-meerman-scott-interview-
new-rules-of-marketing-pr

David: I’ve actually written five books. One, which is the most popular, is a book is called The New Rules of Marketing & PR
(http://amzn.to/11WPSss). It originally came out in hardcover in June 2007. It’s now out in its second edition in the paperback
version. It’s been published in 24 different languages, which is pretty exciting to me.
Transcript
Adam: What does your job entail?
David: I spend my time travelling all over the world, speaking at
conferences and running seminars for companies. Just this year
(2010), I did Tokyo, Japan. I did Amsterdam and the Netherlands. I
did Mumbai in India. I’ve spoken to a group that you were a part of,
although it was virtually, down in Sydney. That’s really a cool part of
my job, being able to interact with different people all over the world.

Adam: How would you describe the The New Rules of PR & Marketing? (http://amzn.to/11WPSss)
David: It’s really pretty simple because prior to the web, we as entrepreneurs, as business owners, as marketers, basically had
three ways to reach people.
One way we could reach people is buying attention. So that means buying advertising. Buying magazine, radio and
television ads; newspaper billboards by the side of the road, direct mail lists and trade show booths. That is one way to
generate attention.
Another way is that you could use traditional media relations and trying to reach people by getting the media to tell
your story for you in the editorial section of newspapers, magazines, radio and TV.
The third way to generate attention is hiring salespeople. If you are a B2B organization you could call people up on
the phone or you could do telemarketing. If you have a retail store you could hire salespeople in there to reach people
as they come in the store. There’s nothing wrong with any of those ways. I’m not suggesting that people should stop if
those things are working.
But there is another way to generate attention, create really interesting information on the web. It could be a Youtube
video. It could be a blog post. It could be a white paper, an e-book, a twitter feed. All sorts of different ways that people
can, what I call, earn attention online. Today, everybody is going to the search engines. Everybody is asking their
friends, colleagues and family members online for advice on what kind of companies to do business with. If you are not
in front of those people, you’re not going to be considered for the work.
1
2
3
4

The main thing to get going is this concept (it’s pretty hard
sometimes for traditional marketers) – nobody really cares about you
or your products and what they really care about are themselves.
Whether it’s a Youtube video, a blog or a twitter feed, the challenge
for people as they’re creating content is – don’t talk about
yourself. Don’t talk about your own products and services. Instead,
understand really deeply who your buyers are. Who are the people
that you are trying to reach? Who are the people who have problems
that your product or service can solve?
What is the first step you would suggest?
Then, how can you reach those people by creating something that’s interesting.
That’s the biggest challenge because we’ve been taught along the way to hype
products and talk about how much better we are than the competition. That really
doesn’t work so well when you’re trying to market online because people have
a really sensitive B-S detector. They are unlikely to rise to the hype that so many
organisations are doing.
The New Rules of Marketing and PR
http://amzn.to/11WPSss

Adam: Would you be able to share the techniques that you’ve used to help promote your book?
David: When the first edition of The New Rules of Marketing & PR (http://amzn.to/11WPSss)
came out back in June 2007, I did something that no author had done before. I listed 163
bloggers in the acknowledgements of the book. Then, I told those 163 bloggers that they were
in the book by doing a blog post and linking to them. And as any blogger would know, when
somebody links to your blog post you know it because it comes up on your Google alerts or you
see it in your statistics.
You do find out that somebody is talking about you. These blogs were like, “Oh my God, what’s
going on? David Scott just wrote about me in his book”. Then, I had a place where they can
contact me and get a copy of the book. Interestingly, out of the 163 bloggers that I mentioned,
over 100 of them blogged about the book. The reason I mentioned those particular bloggers
was because they are people who had helped me. They had either provided some advice, wrote
a comment on my blog or read something interesting that I liked and used as I was doing my
research. That really got the book jumpstarted because those people were talking it up.

Another thing I did to launch a book that came out in March 2009
called Worldwide Rave (http://amzn.to/ZXLvyS) – I actually did a
tweet-up. A tweet-up is when people who know each other in twitter
and meet in real life. So, we did a tweet-up at the Stock Exchange
in New York City and we actually opened the Stock Exchange. We
rang the opening bell and I invited 50 people with me. Everyone was
like, “This was so cool”, so these 50 people were tweeting that they
were doing this. Then the media heard about it, so it was covered on
Fox News. It was covered on CNN. It was covered by The Wall Street
Journal and it was covered by National Public Radio in the States.
I estimate that 30 million people saw me open the Stock Exchange
with my twitter friends and every one of those people heard about
the title of the book.
What all these ideas show is that you can get people to talk about you and your stuff. It’s the
best form of marketing there is because people are talking you up and that’s not something
you can buy. That’s something that you have to earn by doing something interesting and clever
and creating some content that people will be willing to share.
World Wide Rave
http://amzn.to/ZXLvyS

Adam: How do you help people overcome the fear of getting started with social media?
David: There’s a couple of fears that come up:
One fear is that people think that they’re gonna look stupid when they first get going. Whenever you start doing anything
for the first time, it takes a little while to not feel uncomfortable. I remember about 20 years ago, I spent a lot of time in
Sydney. I actually stayed in Manly Beach and taught myself how to surf and I looked like a complete idiot when I was trying
to learn how to surf. I was such a dork, you know. I would paddle out and people would look at me and laugh, but I figured
it out. I was able to make it happen and I’m still not great at surfing but at least I feel comfortable enough to go out without
looking like an idiot. I think part of what happens with the fear factor with jumping onto Twitter or starting a blog, you will feel
a little bit uncomfortable. I felt uncomfortable the first time I did a blog post and the first time I did a twitter feed. A couple of
months ago I got on to Foursquare for the first time and I felt kind of silly and that’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with that.
The other form of fear that I see is the fear that people will say bad things about you and that fear kind of runs pretty deep
with people. A lot of people will resist jumping on to the social networks because they’re afraid that someone will start to say
bad things. If they’re going to say bad things, they’re going to say bad things whether you’re there or not - and by the way,
it’s very rare that people will take the time to say bad things unless you happen to be in the airline industry. What happens
if you then engage those people who were saying negative things is, you can actually turn them around and it ends up
being a positive thing. All of a sudden they become your fans. They realise, “Oh my God, this person cares about me. This
company cares about me. Even though I said something bad, they’re engaging me. Maybe they’re not such a bad company
after all.”
1
2

Adam: Could you share an example?
David: I wrote a blog post about General Motors in the summer of last year. It was one day
just gone into bankruptcy and they started to come out of bankruptcy and I basically blogged
and said “General Motors, you guys are a bunch of nameless, faceless, corporate drones and
nobody is paying attention to what you’re doing because we don’t know who you are”. It was
really interesting because within an hour or two, the head of social media for General Motors is
on my blog commenting and saying, “Well yeah, here I am, I’m a real person”. Oh my God you
know, they called me out on this! Interestingly, his name is Christopher Barger, he invited me to
Detroit to go to the headquarters of General Motors and I had a half-an-hour meeting with the
chairman of General Motors. That’s pretty amazing. I have a popular blog but I’m not a major
newspaper or magazine or something. It was pretty interesting that they engaged me that way.
They have a term for it, they call it a badvocate - a bad person who you turn into an advocate.
They worked on me, showed me these new cars, showed me how they do their social media
stuff, how they monitor Twitter and how they found me. All of a sudden I’m doing these glowing
blog posts about how wonderful they are. They totally turned me around and I knew they were
doing it when they were doing it. It’s the CEO of one of the largest companies in the whole world
and here I am in his office chatting with him.
You’re
online and
you’ve just
got a
website.

Adam: Where can people go to find out more about you?
David: This kind of proves the point. One of the best ways to find me is go to Google and type in
the phrase ‘viral marketing’. Usually I appear on the first page with an e-book I wrote called The
New Rules of Viral Marketing http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/documents/Viral_Marketing.
pdf, which is a free download. The reason I come up on the first page is because it’s content that
is indexed by the search engines. Or you can go to my blog which is www.webinknow.com
(http://www.webinknow.com/)
Adam: Thanks for your time, David. You can follow David on Twitter @dmscott, (http://twitter.com/dmscott).
If you’d like to discover more, you can visit his blog Web Ink Now (http://www.webinknow.com/) or his website
DavidMeermanScott.com. (http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/)
Or you can download one of David’s many free e-books (http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/free-stuff/free-ebooks) (some of
which have been downloaded 1,000,000 times):

Gaijin Male Model (2010) - A Case Study in Conflict-Driven
Business Writing (PDF - 0.7 MB)
http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/documents/Writing_
With_Conflict.pdf
Lose Control of your Marketing (2009) - Why marketing
ROI measures lead to failure (PDF - 1.2 MB) http://www.
davidmeermanscott.com/documents/Marketing_ROI.pdf
The New Rules of Viral Marketing (2008) - How word-of-
mouse spreads your ideas for free (PDF - 1.5 MB)
http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/documents/Viral_
Marketing.pdf
The Gobbledygook Manifesto (2007) - Chosen for the Viral
Marketing Hall of Fame! (PDF - 0.2 MB)
http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/
documents/3703Gobbledygook.pdf
The New Rules of PR (2006) - How to create a press
release strategy for reaching buyers directly (PDF - 0.3 MB)
http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/documents/New_Rules_
of_PR.pdf
How Will You Create a WORLD WIDE RAVE? (2009)
- Making of the Video (PDF - 1.3 MB) http://www.
davidmeermanscott.com/documents/Viral_Video.pdf
Web Strategy Planning Template
http://www.bluewiremedia.com.au/web-strategy-planning-
template

James Adonis (http://www.jamesadonis.com/) is a leading international expert on
employee engagement, the co-founder and managing director of Team Leaders, an author
and blogger. James has given keynote speaker presentations and facilitated workshops
around the globe.
James Adonis
http://www.jamesadonis.com/
https://twitter.com/jamesadonis
http://www.jamesadonis.com/contact-james.htm

In this interview with Bluewire Media, James shares his secrets for writing one of the industry’s
most popular email newsletters.
Expert Interview: James Adonis
shares email marketing tips
Blog Post URL:
blog/2009/11/expert-interview-james-adonis-
shares-email-marketing-tips

James: My name is James Adonis and I’m an expert on Employee Engagement, which is basically just getting employees to love
doing what they’re doing. I do that predominantly through writing, so I’ve got a business blog with Fairfax which is one of the most
commented on blogs in the country. I write books (http://www.jamesadonis.com/books.htm), I’ve got my third one coming out very
shortly (2009), and I speak and train on the topic quite a bit.
Transcript
Adam: Can you explain how you got started with email marketing?
James: I started email marketing about five years ago as a way of building a
database and a following because people knowing about you is one thing, but
people actively following you is a whole separate issue and far more beneficial for
sales. So I started sending out a newsletter to just 20 people on my contact list.
Those 20 I got from networking events that I had attended and from that, it’s slowly
grown to 5,500 today.
Adam: What is the key to growing your database?
James: I think the first key is to write well. I subscribe to about 50 different newsletters and about
45 of those are crap. They just send the same thing over and over again. They’re uninspiring,
they’re unoriginal. So there’s no reason to forward those onto somebody else unless they
happen to trigger some kind of emotion in somebody that gets them to think this is so good,

someone else needs to benefit from them. In the first year that I was writing those
newsletters I wasn’t abiding by that rule. I was just writing the stock standard
academic type of newsletter that would hardly get forwarded on. Then about three
and a half years ago I changed it to include analogies and stories and humour
and far more of my personality and views and now it gets forwarded all the time.
Adam: What’s one tip you’d give to someone just starting out with email marketing?
James: : The first tip I would say was, can you write? The best people to get feedback from are
not those that love you, because they’re biased. So I would ask just general people for feedback
on how well you’re writing. Then be very careful who you ask because it could be that writing is
not a skill you have got and that by writing an email newsletter, it could do more damage to your
brand than good. So perhaps you might do a video that you can send out as email marketing or
perhaps you might send out an email that has links to other articles or you ask permission from
other really good writers to publish their articles. So, I wouldn’t feel compelled to always write
your own stuff, especially if you are not a good writer.

Adam: What are your goals for growing your database in the future?
James: I’d like to get the database up to 100,000 people receiving my newsletter every fortnight. It will
happen by a number of ways. The first is by people forwarding it on, the second is by releasing more and
more books that continue to sell high number of copies that brings in subscribers. People like my writing
on Fairfax. They generally tend to jump on my website and subscribe that way. People see me present at
conferences and events and if they like what they hear they’ll jump online and subscribe to my newsletter.
I think it’s realistic to reach 100,000. Probably not this year because it’s November, but within five years it
should be possible.
Adam: Can you tell us about the success of your ‘forward to a friend’ competitions?
James: Every time the newsletter database reaches a thousand number, say 4,000 or 5,000 and so on,
I will offer people a competition where they get free membership passes to a development program in
return for forwarding the newsletter onto somebody they know and copying in my email address. What
that does, is it promotes the development program so it gets extra sales in regardless and it increases
the number of subscribers to my newsletter because more people find out about it. Also amongst the
community of people who follow me now through that newsletter, it almost builds momentum. They
want to see more subscribers as well, they’ll say, “Oh wow, James is now at 4,000,” or “James is now at
5,000”. I think a lot of them want you to succeed if they like what you write.

Adam: How can people subscribe to your newsletter if they’re more interested in employee engagement?
James: If they jump to my website which is www.jamesadonis.com (http://www.jamesadonis.com/), they can subscribe there and
get eBooks for free as well, valued at $100. Which by the way is a great way to get subscribers onto a newsletter, is by offering
something for free or something of value. So if people subscribe to mine they get something for free – eBooks. But if all you have
got is just a little box saying ‘join my newsletter’, there really is no incentive there for somebody to join unless you are somebody
humongous like Edward de Bono or someone else like Madonna. But if you’re not then offering something in return and promising
people things like you would never sell their email address or details helps as well.
Adam: And finally, can you tell us a bit about the new book you’re releasing next year (2010)?
James: The new book is called, Corporate Punishment – Smashing the Management Clichés
for Leaders in a New World (http://amzn.to/11XciKj ). It’s being released globally in February
through Wiley Publishing. It just looks at the top 47 things that managers say in the corporate
world, which are just blatantly incorrect. Things like, ‘The Customer’s always right’ – No, they’re
not. ‘There is no ‘I’ in team’ – Yes there is. ‘Perception is reality’ – No, it’s not. ‘The devil’s in the
details’ – No, it’s not. ‘Pick the low hanging fruit’– No, because actually fruit pickers always start
at the top because it’s the ripest. So it goes through all that stuff and smashes it all for being
incorrect.
Corporate Punishment
http://amzn.to/11XciKj

James Adonis’ contact details are on his website -
jamesadonis.com. (http://www.jamesadonis.com/contact-james.htm).
Whether it’s via his motivational presentations, workshops, books, or
other services, he will show your managers how to become the most
extraordinary leaders of people.
Connect

Andrew Griffiths ( http://www.andrewgriffiths.com.au/ ) is Australia’s #1 small business
author. He bought his first business aged 17, and has owned and operated many small
businesses since, so Andrew offers practical, smart and realistic advice. He’s a mentor,
author, speaker and a passionate campaigner for numerous not-for-profit organisations.
Andrew Griffiths
http://www.andrewgriffiths.com.au/
https://twitter.com/AGAuthor
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Andrew-Griffiths/40424806673
http://www.youtube.com/user/AndrewMarkGriffiths1

How writing a book is an effective
marketing tool
Blog Post URL:
blog/2011/04/how-writing-a-book-is-an-
effective-marketing-tool-andrew-griffiths

Transcript
Adam: How did you end up writing a book?
Andrew: For me it was interesting. I’m not one of those
people who started out wanting to be a writer. I know a lot of
people that’s their dream in life.
My route was a little bit different. I had a small business
marketing firm basically at this stage and I found a lot of
my clients had similar kinds of issues. They’d come in, they
needed advice and they didn’t normally have any money and
they couldn’t afford a consultant to give them advice to steer
them through whatever challenges they were facing. Over
a period of time I developed a whole pile of fact sheets so
people could ring me and say:
“Hey Andrew I’m having trouble marketing my business or
I need more clients or I need to make a brochure, or I need
to do a website”, or whatever it may be. I could just fax
them (back in the days when we used to fax) through the
information sheets. And I found that one day I had about
fifty of these fact sheets up on the wall actually in this kind
of display case. And I thought, Ah well maybe I could write
another fifty and then I’d have one hundred and if I put
them all together in one little space, maybe I could have a
book “101 Ways to Market Your Business.” (http://amzn.
to/17WpTWT) And I really liked the idea. I spoke to a few
friends in the marketing game and they said:
101 ways to Market your
Business
http://amzn.to/17WpTWT
It’s a
ridiculous
idea, so don’t
do it.
And of course I did it.

I was a little bit lucky too because right at the time when I had put that together, there was a lack of Australian business writers, and
particularly in the small business space. There were a lot of American writers, a lot of English writers who had great stuff but the
Australian business market wanted Australians to be telling them how to run a business or to be giving them advice.
So my first book came out with Allen & Unwin ( http://www.allenandunwin.com/ ) and I am still amazed that I actually got a book
published. And it was really successful and they said:
“Have you got another one? Do you want to write about something else?”
So I literally worked my way through marketing, sales, customer service, advertising, general business advice in the ‘101 Series’.
Now it’s sold in fifty countries around the world. Translated into everything from Indian to Chinese, Nigerian, Russian, you know
bizarre...well bizarre for me! But it also shows that small businesses around the world have the same issues and challenges, it
doesn’t matter where they are. They’re still struggling on how to market or how to use the online world or whatever it might be.

Adam: How important is it for businesses to be writing content?
Andrew: It depends on the business, of course, but I think that these days people want information, that to me is the real
commodity out there and we often undervalue our own information, and what we know: our expertise. And businesses should be
producing as much information as they can but they shouldn’t necessarily be giving it away.
We’re entering a period where there are opportunities for businesses to actually increase their revenue stream by maybe selling
some information as opposed to just giving it away. What’s important right now is you’ve got to take out what’s in your own mind,
your own experiences, your own expertise and it’s great if you can actually get that out of your head and into an environment where
more people can access it--whether it’s paid or whether it’s free, depends on what you’re doing.
I think we’re living in that Age of Information so people are looking for it and hunting for it, and if they like what you’ve got to say
they are more likely to do business with you, so it’s a great promotional tool.
Adam: What impact has writing had on your career?
Andrew: Writing really has changed my life. One hundred percent, one thousand percent, in reality. Before
I wrote I was a commercial diver by trade. So that in its own right says that was a pretty major change. I
got into marketing through a strange set of circumstances that seems to happen in life when you have a
change in direction. I was working for a large Japanese company as their sales manager at a global level,
so I was in the corporate world for quite some time but my passion was really small business.I love small
business and I love helping small business owners. I think writing my own book helped me to become
more of a household name and helped me reach tens, hundreds of thousands of small business owners.

And a lot of the time I don’t think we value our own knowledge. And all of a sudden when you write a book and have people want
to buy it or people want to publish it for starters and then people want to take your knowledge onboard, you think, Wow! Maybe I
do know what I’m talking about. It’s almost as surprising for me as it is for other people. So you progress into writing, so then you
progress into talking at conferences and offering advice to people: franchise groups, small business groups, magazines. So for me
in many ways it defined me as a small business guy, or ‘The Small Business Guy’ in Australia. Now I talk at conferences around the
world, my books are sold all over the place. I get an opportunity, I think, to help tens of thousands of business owners every year.
So that to me is the greatest reward I can have. It has had a profound effect on my life, is the simple answer to a short question.
Adam: How have you used the web to leverage your message?
Andrew: For me, the internet has been a great opportunity for me to become more of an
accepted name as a small business expert, from that point of view, otherwise it’s pretty
hard. Even if you write books, if that’s the only environment where people get to know you
they’ve really got to buy your book, and if they don’t buy it, then they don’t necessarily
hear about you. I’ve found that the internet has been really helpful for me to build my own
brand. All my keynote speaking jobs and things like that, my training workshops all come
through the internet, which would be really hard, I think otherwise, to get that kind of work
and on a global level. So I travel around the planet presenting on small business and
you wouldn’t get that kind of reach, that kind of video accessibility for people to actually
be able to see you online, see if you’ve got the right kind of fit for their group, for their
organisation.

I think it’s a way for me to disseminate lots and lots of information that I get. My current observations about what’s happening in
the world of business right here, right now and offer that advice to people. To be able to say... Hey, if you’re struggling and feeling
isolated, don’t worry, you’re not the only person. There are lots of other people feeling isolated, so it’s a way for me to reach out and
I guess connect to my fan base, my readers, my followers, from that point of view.
Adam: How do you help business owners overcome their fear of social media?
Andrew: It’s such a good question and it’s something that I encounter a lot. There are obviously so
many people who are in that transition zone and often they’re a little bit older, I think, too. They’ve been
in business and they’ve got an amazing wealth of expertise, but they’re struggling to embrace the new
world of online social media, things like that, which is a real challenge for them. It’s like “teaching old
dogs new tricks.” And whenever I’m presenting in a room where there are lots of people with grey hair
(I’ve got my share coming through) they are struggling to move from that traditional business model to a
more modern model of embracing online.
So, for me, you can’t go in there and nag them to death and tell them “You’ve got to do this” and guilt
them into it. And yell at them and say, “You’ve got to Tweet. You’ve got to go on Facebook.” It doesn’t
really mean anything, so you have to go back a step and give it some meaning. You’ve either got to
show them that if you don’t do this kind of stuff, well, you’re going to be missing out in the future. But
even go one step further and say, well okay, “How do you do business now? How have you built a

successful business?” Most of the time it’s through building relationships, offering great quality products, being a good corporate
citizen, whatever it might be.
And I say, okay, how do we find the online equivalent of all of this? Being a great corporate citizen--the online environment is a
perfect way to tell people what you do as a great corporate citizen. So then how do we actually transition them through on that
part? They can relate to that with “Oh, yeah, we like to tell people we do good in the community”. Let’s do a video, go online and
show people what you’re doing.
What about networking? Well, you normally go to a social function, meet people, slap them on the back and have a cold beer. Well
how can you do that in the online space? Let’s look at things like Facebook, let’s look at things like Twitter and understand that all
it is is an electronic version of backslapping, having a beer and a cocktail frankfurt. But it’s more instantaneous and much, much
broader.
I find that once you show them some examples of those kind of things and show them some success stories of other businesses
that perhaps struggled to embrace the online environment but have and there’s been a big pay-off, then they tend to go, “Alright,
now I get it.” And they are wonderful. I love nothing better. I’ve got a client of mine who’s eighty-five years old, a manufacturer and
this lady does all this incredible stuff and she just loves the online environment. It took her fifteen years to really get it in many ways,
but now she’s a Twitterer, a Facebooker, any kind of social media and she’s built a great business. She says she loves it because
she spends nothing on advertising and marketing these days because it’s basically a free environment for her.

Adam: How can people find out more about you?
Andrew: My main website is www.andrewgriffiths.com.au.
On Twitter it’s @AGauthor (https://twitter.com/agauthor ). That’s easy to
find me, but you can get it all through my website. I write a blog there and
a couple of other blogs starting up soon. So just do a Google search and
you’ll find me. It’s the easiest thing in the world; I’ll come up number one. It
shows my belief in the online world.
Thanks Andrew!
Connect

Kelly Olexa ( http://kellyolexa.com ) has a background in sales, marketing and business
development. She’s worked for tech startups as well as Fortune 500 companies, got into
social media and specialises in vlogging (video blogging/interviewing). Kelly has a passion
for fitness and health, and founded FitFLuential in 2011.
Kelly Olexa
http://kellyolexa.com
https://twitter.com/KellyOlexa
https://www.facebook.com/kelly.olexa

With more than 28,000 followers on Twitter, a successful YouTube channel that receives
thousands of hits per entry, and a book on the way (2013), it’s clear Kelly Olexa knows a thing or
two about the power of social media when harnessed correctly.
Here she tells us how she fell into social media as a means of professional networking after
losing her job. But the level of success that came out of ‘talking a lot’ as Kelly modestly puts it,
could hardly have been anticipated. A member of the Ford Fiesta Movement, a consultant to
Fortune 500’s, small businesses, and individuals, and a recognised thought leader in her fields of
fitness and social media, Kelly Olexa has this to say:
Q&A with Kelly Olexa - social media,
vlogging & the power of conversation
Blog Post URL:
blog/2010/10/qa-with-kelly-olexa-social-media-
vlogging-the-power-of-conversation

Transcript
Vlogging
“I can’t speak strongly enough to using video to either get
your message out there, or increase viewers, or visits to your
website.
”
- Kelly Olexa
After blogging for about a year and a half, Kelly Olexa
saw someone else vlogging (or video blogging). She went
out, bought a camera, and started recording herself and
uploading it to the web. Within four weeks Olexa’s website
traffic had quadrupled.
From there, brands started to find Kelly Olexa, and they’d
ask her to get on board for them.
Finding the time
Kelly admits that social media in general can be a truly time
consuming venture, if you’re doing it on a really regular basis.
She takes her camera on the road when she’s away, because
Building a following
Kelly Olexa doesn’t use software to gain followers. She
doesn’t have an ‘agenda’, and she never rules out talking to
people, even if they aren’t remotely related to her fields of
interest. The key then, is accessibility. She’ll “talk to anyone” -
and as a result, a lot of people want to talk to her.
Many might say, “what’s the point” of nattering away about
unrelated topics when there’s work to be done? - but as
Olexa perceptively recognises, “people connect with people”
and it’s those connections that often end up being the
clincher in building relationships of value - whether they be
personal or professional.
when you have an audience such as hers, you are being
relied upon. The fact is, it’s a commitment. The good news?
The opportunity for engagement of that scope simply can’t be
paralleled.
Tip: Put agendas to one side,
and have a conversation!

Small businesses can profit the most
You don’t need a big budget to have an effective social media presence, so in many ways social media has leveled the playing
ground for small businesses. Olexa’s advice is to “get started” - get a flip cam or some other recording device and get amongst it -
talk to people, engage with your customers.
Tip: “Don’t only talk about your business. Just go there to interact and engage with people, and inevitably the business is going to
happen, I believe.”
Getting traction
“People want to know that you want to hear from them.”
According to Kelly Olexa, it takes alot to encourage your readers to start
commenting on your blog. She advocates asking questions, and says that once you
get people started on commenting, they’ll continue to do so.
Fear of the negative comment
Any negative comment is an opportunity, and with social, you actually get the chance to monitor and respond to that kind of
feedback like never before. “People just want to be heard” so rather than ignoring that kind of reaction, you are given the very
public opportunity to apologise and provide help to your disgruntled customer. According to Olexa, showing you care like that is
better than any advertising you could possibly pay for.

R.O.I
Apparently social media thought leaders are divided on whether or not you can talk about return on investment when it comes to
this hard to measure media.
“Your ROI should be measured as far as engaging. Realistically if you’re out there and you start reacting to negativity, you start
engaging with people that you haven’t talked to before, you start building brand awareness, you start building relationships and
people are talking about your brand and learning about your services or products, that’s invaluable. How do you put a measure on
that? If you’re actually doing your job which is getting out there and making those conversations happen, I think you’re succeeding.
And as long as you keep doing it and keep growing the conversations and building those relationships and not focusing on a short
short term campaign, I think you succeed...I firmly believe that getting the conversation going - that’s invaluable.”
Buzz
Olexa says creating buzz is a
beast of its own. You can’t just
make it happen. But sincerity,
connectivity, good intentions and
great products or services are the
ingredients that drive the buzz.

My main website is http://kellyolexa.com
Follow me on Twitter @KellyOlexa https://twitter.com/KellyOlexa
Or add me on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/kelly.olexa
Thanks Kelly!
Find out more about Kelly Olexa

Connect with the experts
You can follow and connect with all of the people in this e-book on Content Marketing.
@Franklin_Adam - https://twitter.com/Franklin_Adam
Adam Franklin
Marketing Manager, Bluewire Media
adam.franklin@bluewiremedia.com.au
@Toby_Jenkins - https://twitter.com/Toby_Jenkins
Toby Jenkins
CEO, Bluewire Media
toby.jenkins@bluewiremedia.com.au
@JoePulizzi - https://twitter.com/joepulizzi
Joe Pulizzi
Founder/Author, Content Marketing Institute
http://contentmarketinginstitute.com
@TimboReid - https://twitter.com/TimboReid
Tim Reid
Founder & Host, Small Business Big Marketing
http://smallbusinessbigmarketing.com/
@AwesomeRoar - https://twitter.com/AwesomeROAR
Kevin Daum
Author, Inc.com
http://www.inc.com/
@dmscott - https://twitter.com/dmscott
David Meerman Scott
Web Ink Now | Marketing & Leadership Strategist
www.webinknow.com

@JamesAdonis - https://twitter.com/jamesadonis
James Adonis
Coach & Mentor, James Adonis
http://www.jamesadonis.com/
@AGAuthor - https://twitter.com/AGAuthor
Andrew Griffiths
Author, Andrew Griffiths
http://www.andrewgriffiths.com.au/
@KellyOlexa - https://twitter.com/KellyOlexa
Kelly Olexa
Founder, FitFluential
http://kellyolexa.com

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