One of the things that I think is absolutely crucial is creativity.

Creativity is what gets you noticed. It’s what gets your product noticed, and in turn, gets sales. Well that all depends on if people take your creativity the right way.

If you want inspiration from some creative advertising campaigns, check this video out:

Now imagine all the people who will be introduced to Joel since his book is in the Library.  What about your book? Have you ordered it yet?

Also, I mention a Librarian Secret towards the end of the video. All in all, I think libraries are great place. When was the last time you were in one? Don’t you think it’s time?

Here are the books I mentioned in the video:

Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies

Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business

Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age

Click Here to Order: Stories of the World’s Most Successful Internet Marketing Entrepreneurs

Power goes out!

Watch this video, it explains it all:

So the question is… What is a computer power supply?

It’s that little thing in your computer that gives it power. If it doesn’t work, or if it decides to stop working, all the work you didn’t save is GONE!

Do you have 300Gigabytes of “Shelf Help”? How much would it cost to replace it all?

In this business, we RELY on our computers and the internet for soooo much. What happens if one of them was not operational? Could you still run your business?

Do you have a Backup Plan?

Well if you know me, I’m not one to get into politics. Why can’t a “real” person run for President of the United States of America?

Well the thing is, YOU CAN!

WATCH THIS VIDEO:

So with all my friends over at PalTalk there were over 50,000 people all talking about a new presidential candidate.
So why is that person me? Perhaps it’s because of my last post stating that Social Media IS for Business. Maybe it was the video I did, making fun of marketers, “How NOT to be Social”. It could even be the blog post where I was called a Social Media Maven. Or maybe it’s something even MORE Viral!

If you want to market yourself or business, using the Social Media Landscape is an absolute must!

Presidential Candidate Barack Obama has been all over the Social Media Landscape. He has distinct groups on many Social Networking Sites working towards getting supporters. Presidential Candidate John McCain is doing the same, although not as much. He’s picking up speed now though. I guess it all depends on your targeted market.

However, could a Presidential Candidate, born FROM Social Media, really make a dent in the US Presidential Election or any country for that matter? I guess we’ll see what happens. It’s an exciting time.

So would you vote for me based on my blog, or my profile on Facebook, my Tweets on Twitter, or my Chat Room on PalTalk? Would you vote for anyone that way?

Then I got to thinking. I came to the conclusion that a lot of businesses do not know what social media, social marketing, social networking, and web 2.0 are. They don’t know what it can do for them and their business.

So I started to explain to him with a lot of questions and a story. I’ll try and retell it as best I can here.

Say like Bob decides to start a business in a town. It’s a bagel and lunch place. They close at 5pm M-F. In order to get people to come to the shop, he joins the Chamber of Commerce and the downtown neighborhood association. He decides to host the next Chamber get together. He gets a write up in the paper. The mayor was there. It was a good time. He’s at all the local events talking with people. Making sure to wear a Bob’s Bagels hat and shirt everywhere. He hands out cards to adults, balloons for kids. He’s doing it all right.

Now imagine that Bob makes the best Olive cream cheese people have ever tasted. He’s done surveys and people love his Everything Bagel with Olive Cream Cheese. It even won a county award. One of the things Bob does, which is unique for a bagel shop, is he gives recipes to his patrons to complement his cream cheeses. Like the Olive stuffed chicken breast, stuff like that.

Then someone asked if he had a website. He didn’t at the moment but was in the middle of creating one. His website would have order placement and drive by pickup. He even set up prepayment, shipping, and a newsletter. All of his recipes were on there.

You see, Social Media IS for business! It doesn’t matter what you’re selling. People buy from PEOPLE!

I drive 30 minutes to another Best Buy instead of the one 8 minutes from my house. Why? The people!

What Bob did was SOCIALIZE with the people in his town. He talked to them, shook their hand, and LISTENED to what they had to say. Since this was a brick and mortar business he did this all in person, whether it be him or one of his employees.

So now take that to the online world. What are you selling? Who are you selling it to? Where are they hanging out?

Don’t walk into the bar screaming “I’ve got the training course you want, get it now for 20% off!” That’s not being SOCIAL.

Join the conversation. If you happen to be able to help someone then tell them about yourself and what you can do. If you can’t help them, tell them where they can get the help! It’s being Social!!

I had a client who wanted more SEO work done and some training. I can get around with SEO but am not an expert. I was happy to steer them in the direction of some SEO Gurus.

Things like that are appreciated and will be returned 10fold. Because when that person hears someone in need of business building help or social media marketing help, I’m sure they will send them my way.

YES! Social Media is for Business. Just be REAL and get in touch with your peeps.

I was at Ross Goldberg’s Masters Seminar today and got to meet a lot of big time Internet Marketers.

This video proves the power of Social Media. I’m on Twitter @mscopeland and follow Joel Comm and likewise he follows me. Also, I try to show up at Joel’s weekly Ustream show and PARTICIPATE. You can build a relationship or at least an acquaintance by participating and communicating.

Who is Joel Comm? Are you serious? Well this is from his site:

Joel Comm is an Internet entrepreneur who has been online for over 20 years. In 1995, Joel launched WorldVillage.com, a family-friendly portal to the web which enjoys thousands of visitors each day. Joel is the co-creator of ClassicGames.com, which was acquired by Yahoo! in 1997, and now goes by the name Yahoo! Games. Since then, Joel’s company, InfoMedia, Inc., has launched dozens of websites which offer coupon codes, free stuff, website reviews and more. Joel is the author of many popular books, including the NY Times Best-Seller, The AdSense Code. He regularly makes appearances at Internet marketing conferences and seminars. And Joel is the Executive Producer and Host of the First Internet-Only Competitive Reality Show, The Next Internet Millionaire.

I’m not saying to send irrelevant info or bug people. Just participate in conversations. This is the real world and real people so treat us as such. Joel is really a down to Earth guy and it was definitely a pleasure to meet him, face to face.

More Social Media from Ross Goldberg’s Masters Seminar tomorrow. Although there is a party tomorrow night, so maybe on Sunday.

Is your business plan an internal document or is it going to be used to get investors? If it’s an internal document the structure doesn’t matter. The main thing is that you can easily update it and do so frequently. You see, I believe a business plan should be a liquid document. What I mean is, the document is and should be always changing.

An interesting conversation was going on on Seesmic.com a week or so ago. A person posed the question: “Are Business Plans still necessary?”

I thought it was quite an interesting conversation, especially since this guy actually used to teach, at the University level, how to write a business plan to undergraduates and graduates.
Here is his video post: (click the Seesmic logo)

I would have shown you my video response but for some reason it is not working. The only one in the conversation that doesn’t work is mine, the one I want to show you! lol Basically I said the same thing as I did above. I think they are still needed but not in the traditional sense, unless you’re going for investors or loans. As an internal document, they can be whichever format you want.Here are some business plan resources for you:

• Believe it or not, the SBA has a lot of great information on business in general. I’d suggest checking it out. This link takes you directly to their how to write a business plan section: How to write a business plan

• This is a series of pre-written business plans from proven businesses. It’s less than ten bucks so might be worth checking out: pre-written business planspre-written business plans

• This book is written by a guy with a CPA and a Masters in Business. The book looks good and he seems to know his stuff. This guy would definitely know the inside secret to business plan writing. Click on the image to check it out:

• This book is written by two very well qualified individuals who have written many books about business, investing, planning, and more. Brian Hill and Dee Powers both have MBA’s and know what’s going on with Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists. The table of contents is impressive. I think I might have to get this one myself! Business Plan Basics

• This place is cool, they have A LOT of resources an sample business plans too! They’re in the UK but business is business no matter where it is. I urge you to check out this place: Sample Business Plans

If you need help or just want someone to check over your plan, please let me know. I’ve reviewed many business plans and may be able to give you some good constructive feedback.

Whoever said MySpace was dead is DEAD WRONG!

What a bold big headline for a blog post! Especially from me, right? Well, that’s how strongly I feel about it. Normally when people say something is dead, they have something to either resurrect it or has something other than the dead thing. Most of the time it will cost you money.

Yes, it’s true. Normally someone says “This is dead. But if you buy this, I’ll show you how to make it better.” OR they say something like: “This is Dead! THAT is better and buy this so I can show you how to use THAT.”

I’ve heard the moaning and groaning about MySpace results on the marketing front, etc. Did you ever think you may be doing something wrong?

YESTERDAY, a report came out from HitWise. It said that MySpace.com received 72.73 percent of the market share of U.S. visits in May 2008 among a custom category of 58 of the leading social networking websites. Here are their research results:

What does that mean to you? Well it means there’s a heck of a lot of people STILL on MySpace and using it. The average time people spend on MySpace is almost 30 minutes! Do you understand the magnitude of possibilities this brings?

No matter what your targeted market is, MySpace has the users there. If you’re not using MySpace in your marketing efforts, you’re crazy.

HitWise reports that the average time spent among all social networking websites was 27 minutes and 21 minutes, representing an increase of 71 percent compared to May 2007. Among the top five most visited websites, MyYearbook led with users spending an average of 30 minutes and 51 seconds on the website. Facebook experienced the largest growth in average time spent, increasing 56 percent in May 2008 to 20 minutes and 21 seconds from 13 and 01 seconds in May 2007.

Do you see what I’m getting at here? Yes, there are many other social sites. I don’t discount any of them at all. Some may be more valuable to your targeted market than others. What I’m saying is, do not discount MySpace from what you hear from others. If someone’s complaining about their results they need to change things up a bit. Hell, do you see door to door encyclopedia salesmen any more? No, they changed with the times!

One of the most interesting things out of this report from HitWise is the New and Returning section. This is the reason why MySpace is big. They received 95% of their visits from returning visitors. This means only 5% of the visits were new users. This could be looked at that they are not getting too many new people to the site. Well, with the amount of people already on MySpace, there’s no many who would be new. LOL!

If you are new to marketing on MySpace or need some help, I’d suggest you get the MySpace Cash Machine report. I have attached it to this blog post for you to download for free. Yes, I said it’s for free.

Click the link to download: MySpace Cash Machine

While I believe education is essential to your progress, I also believe you need to meet others who are running or learning to run an online business. I would suggest you go to a seminar as often as you can.

Ross Goldberg is putting on the Masters Seminar again. It is jammed packed with some AWESOME speakers and is an absolute CAN NOT MISS.

Bob “The Teacher” Jenkins is a Master Teleseminar Master. However, I have learned much more from him. I’ve learned about structuring an internet business and being productive and profecient. He is someone I must meet at this internet marketing seminar!

The next guy I want to hear is Anik Singal. I really like what he’s doing with the Affiliate Classroom and can’t wait to hear what he has to say.

Joel Comm is going to be there too. I really like what he’s been doing this past year with his hit show, Next Internet Millionaire and since then as well. We’re getting to see a lighter side of Joel

with his TV show and he’s really a great guy. He has a LOT to teach and you can learn a lot more than Adsense from him!

I’ve heard nothing but great things about Willie Crawford. I’m excited to meet him. I’ve had the privilege of chatting with him on Twitter and can’t wait to chat face to face.

I mean the list goes on and on. Kevin Nations, Ken McArthur, Simon Leong (who I think is adicted to Twitter), Paulie Sabol, and many more!

So the Masters Internet Marketing Seminar is full of masters, that’s for sure! It’s right here in my backyard, Chicago. The most important thing would be to meet ME! No I’m not speaking but I’d love to meet with you.

If you happen to be free July 18 - 20, I would highly suggest you come to this year’s Masters Internet Marketing Seminar. This may be one of the most inexpensive Internet Marketing Seminars you’ll ever get a chance to attend. On top of that, these speakers are masters.

I know that the economy isn’t the best right now, but investing in yourself is more important now than ever, no matter what your current situation is.

This may even be an education expense you could write off on your taxes (I’m not an accountant, so check with one before writing it off).

Any other event organizer would charge 3 to 4 times that amount, but Ross is offering you a chance to get in for $200 off his already ridiculous price!!

Go over to the Masters Internet Marketing Seminar website and find out more information.

Sincerely,

Michael S. Copeland

PS. Make sure you find me and introduce yourself. Let me know you learned about this on my blog and I’ll buy you a drink. (drink doesn’t necessarily mean an alcoholic beverage, just what ever you’d like; water, milk, OJ, Soda, Kamakazie, whatever.)