Cindy King's International Business Blog » michael stelzner

Social Media Success Summit 2010

Cindy King — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 10:00:41 +0000

Events

Well, you might be wondering what’s the buzz about Social Media Success Summit 2010 — the web’s largest online social media conference.

Note: The links in this article are affiliate links.

This online webinar is almost like a live event

Before I tell you how this virtual summit will help you speed your path to social media marketing success, let me share a story with you.

Proof Social Media Marketing Works…

A few months ago, Michael Stelzner (the guy who wrote the book on white papers) founded a site called Social Media Examiner. And I was lucky he asked me to be the Managing Editor of Social Media Examiner, so I’ve been part of the adventure and seen this success story unfold up close.

How did it happen? Social Media Examiner relied 100% on social media tactics to drive traffic to his site. There were no advertising and almost none of the traffic is coming from search engines. Nearly overnight, Social Media Examiner has become a top destination for businesses.

In less than 5 months, Social Media Examiner was declared the #1 small business blog in the world by Technorati, added more than 13,000 email subscribers, brought nearly 100,000 people a month to the site and is ranked as one of the top 4700 websites in all of America by Alexa.

This all took place via social media. Social Media Examiner simply leveraged the power of sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to deliver the kind of results that would’ve cost a fortune in the past. Social Media Examiner didn’t spend a dime on marketing, it was just an investment of our time.

Now the connection…

Social media is the new marketing frontier because it bypasses all the costly middlemen and allows you to rapidly connect with your customers and prospects! AND this presents an enormous opportunity for you.

So What’s This About?

The Social Media Examiner team has been working for months to bring the best minds in social media marketing together in an event called Social Media Success Summit 2010.

Last year, nearly 1000 marketers and small business owners from around the world attended the summit. It was a smash hit. Businesses were transformed. In fact, 97% of attendees said they’d attend again.

This year’s focus is to empower you to build social media marketing plans, track your social media results and learn from other successful businesses. You’ll also discover how to use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Foursquare and Groupon to attract high-caliber customers and grow your business during this economic slump.

Not only can you gain amazing exposure for your business with social media marketing, you’ll also generate traffic, increase sales, gain qualified leads and build new partnerships.

Twenty-four of the world’s leading social media superstars will be summit instructors.

Join Guy Kawasaki (author, Art of the Start), Chris Brogan (author, Social Media 101), Darren Rowse (co-author, ProBlogger), Mari Smith (author, Facebook Marketing), experts from Best Buy, Home Depot, Whole Foods, Foursquare, Groupon; Steve Rubel (Edelman), Ann Handley (MarketingProfs), Brian Clark (Copyblogger), Greg Jarboe (author, YouTube and Video Marketing), Kim Dushinski (author, Mobile Marketing Handbook), Jason Falls (Social Media Explorer), Jay Baer (Convince & Convert), Chris Garrett (co-author, ProBlogger) and Ramon De Leon (Chicago Domino’s Pizza)—just to mention a few. Together this team of “who’s who” in social media will help you succeed using practical tactics.

This is the world’s biggest online event designed to empower marketers and small business owners to master social media marketing. And the great news is it’s a live online conference you can attend from your home or office.

Visit the site now

What’s In It For You

First, you don’t need to be a techno-geek or twenty-something to use and benefit from social media. You might be surprised to learn that most social media marketers are aged 30 to 60 and have only been using social media for a few months.

In fact, even traditional businesses like Ford Motor Company, Clorox and State Farm Insurance are heavily focused on social media. This is not some “young kids” phenomenon.

Social Media Success Summit 2010 will help you discover the best ways to market your business using social media. You’ll also learn how successful social media campaigns were executed and how you can achieve similar results.

This summit is fully dedicated to empowering you. You’ll discover how to grow your business using no-cost social media tactics.

Yes, attending this online event (and applying the techniques) will grow your business. But there’s much more. You’ll also join a community of like-minded women and men who’ll share their experiences and wisdom.

And There’s More

You can get 50% off if you act now. Go here to see how this works

Plus… As a way of saying “thanks” for checking out the summit, there’s a gift just for marketers called “How to Grow and Engage an Audience on Twitter” (valued at $42) waiting for you here. Go get it!

International Marketing Review #38

Cindy King — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 10:48:40 +0000

International Marketing Review – The White Paper Summit 2009

Click here for a list of previous International Marketing Reviews

The White Paper Summit 2009

As you read in my post The Best Sales Tool In A Slow Economy, I am attending The White Paper Summit 2009 organized by Mike Stelzner from 3rd – 25th February.

White Papers are an essential tool for lead generation in many different types of industries. Most people think White Papers are confined to high tech industries and this often deprives them of a great sales tool. White Papers are also called Special Reports, Guides, Executive Briefings, Tip Sheets, eBooks and many other things. The one thing they have in common is a similar structure and purpose. White Papers provide the useful information buyers need to make their purchase without sales hype. They establish credibility and offer a logical call to action. White Papers are effective sales tools for sales where buyers need to think before they make their purchase.

White Papers began in B2B markets, but you can now find them in certain B2C and even Government to Consumer markets. In addition, White Papers are key elements to an international web marketing strategy.

The winners in today’s slow economy will be the companies that give themselves the tools to master the sales process in today’s content and customer centered marketing environment, whether this is international business development or not. This is why this week’s blog carnival presents articles by the White Paper Summit instructors.

Welcome to the 7 February 2009 edition of the International Marketing Review.

Gordon Graham presents 11 tips (+5 hints) on writing white papers as “tips” posted at That White Paper Guy saying “Try Googling a phrase like “7 tips” and you’ll see at least 100 million hits?!
Check out any newsstand, and you’ll find “tips” on the cover of most magazines.
Self-help books sell $2+ billion every year. And what is a self-help book, if not a series of tips?
Why do “tips” rule newsstands, bookstores, and the Web?
And how can you harness this compelling format to write white papers?”

Jonathan Kantor @Jonathan_Kantor presents White Paper Lessons Learned from the Big Game posted at White Paper Pundit saying “the single biggest football game of the year is now over, and sadly, my pick the Arizona Cardinals didn’t get to hold the Lombardi Trophy at the end. Congratulations to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a great game. The way that the Steelers performed during the game also represents several marketing lessons that today’s businesses can learn in our current economic environment.”

Roger Parker @Rogercparker presents Use my Website Persona Planner MindManager 8 template to describe web visitors & their information needs posted at Published & Profitable saying “Use a mind mapping template like my MindManager 8 Website Persona Planner when starting work on a new website, or when upgrading an existing website. Personas are planning tools that website designers and web usability experts use to plan a website’s content, design, navigation around the visitor’s needs.
As always, the advantage of a mind map is that it presents you with a way of creating a visual display of the characteristics, goals, attitudes, and information needs of your website visitors in a way that can be exported to one, or more, Word documents for sharing with everyone involved in your website.”

Peter Bowerman presents Who’s Got the Right to Say What a Creative Practitioner Charges? posted at The Well-Fed Writer saying “I’m a libertarian at heart, believing that people should be free to take or not take work, and no one should dictate the conditions under which that happens. You offered a “free market transaction”: people were free to respond or not, and for others to attack you and move to remove your post note, was wrong.”

Casey Hibbard @casey_hibbard presents The Audience That’s NOT Seeing Your Success Stories posted at Stories That Sell saying “When a business creates a fresh customer success story, it’s eager to get it out in the public for all to see.
The organization quickly loads it on the website and sends it to sales reps. Maybe they write a press release featuring that customer story.
But ultimately, that story only goes OUT into the public.”

Kevin Gault presents Case Study: “Old-School” Marketing Gets Results posted at White Paper Source saying “Many white paper marketers swear by the latest online marketing methods. They think an eye-catching online ad or a persuasive email captures customers best. A successful marketing firm, however, has learned that an “old-school” method can do the job better.”

Steve Slaunwhite @steveslaunwhite presents Should You Add “Case Studies” To Your Services List? posted at For Copywriters Only saying “Case studies now rank high on my list of the most fascinating – and lucrative – projects I handle. (I’m sure glad that client offered me the job all those years ago!)
If you’re unfamiliar with case studies, don’t worry. They’re really quite simple. A case study is just a fancy name for a customer success story – the tale of a happy customer and his or her experience using a product or service.”

Bob Bly presents 5 Steps to Greater Financial Security … AND a Better Life! posted at Bob Bly, Copywriter saying “No one expects bad things – and by bad, I mean catastrophically bad – to happen to them.
Yet terrible tragedies happen to people who didn’t expect them every day of the year.
You can’t take a vaccine to immunize yourself against ill fortune.
But you can prepare for disasters before they happen.
That way, when they strike, you – and your family – will survive … with the minimum hardship possible.
In particular, here are 5 things I think you should do now to protect yourself against future problems and headaches.”

Michael Stelzner presents The White Paper Summit 2009 saying “Earn an executive income creating ‘marketing white papers.’
Discover how to craft convincing white papers that help your clients succeed during an economic slump—all while earning you more money!
White Paper Success Summit 2009: A Live Online Event”

That concludes this edition of The International Marketer Review.

More International Marketing Reviews

Here is a complete list of International Marketing Reviews

Technorati tags: the international marketer review, blog carnival.

White Papers For International Lead Generation

Cindy King — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 23:00:18 +0000

White Papers For International Sales

As an International English Copywriter I like to keep up-to-date with North American copywriting practices. That’s why I’m spending this evening listening to over 3 hours of an informative webinar.

It is the Copywriting Success Summit 2008 organized by Michael Stelzner from the White Paper Source.

In fact, this is the first event I have attended of its kind. You get the value of a 2 or 3 day live day event without the travel and hassle of hotel rooms. All of the attendees listen through the web or by phone. Content is delivered in several sessions at one time. For me here in France it is in the evenings. This maintains a good learning level without the travel.

Tonight’s presentations are given by Peter Bowerman, Michael Stelzner and Casey Hibbard.

Listening to these presentations tonight highlighted the strong reasons why companies targeting new foreign markets should create specific White Papers for these new markets.

International Lead Generation

White Papers are a great lead generation tool. They can easily be used online. And they are also a great communication tool for live events, conferences and exhibitions.

International business development based on web marketing needs strong lead generation tools. And there are not many strong lead generation tools available when targeting foreign markets primarily through international web marketing.

This reason alone is why companies selling abroad need to use White Papers.

White Papers Go Viral

White Papers have great viral potential with the right online marketing.

And this viral potential is even more valuable if you are developing a new market with limited content available to target your new audience.

All online marketing can be tracked. This means you can calculate the results your White Paper brings to your business. Another great advantage when discovering new markets.

Adapting White Papers To Specific Cultural Behaviors

Now…

Let’s take this a little bit further.

Imagine you take a closer look at the cultural behaviors for the country you are targeting. And imagine tweaking your White Papers to appeal more to your specific foreign market.

This makes your White Paper a powerful international lead generation tool.

And what are the different cultural behaviors to look for?

There are 5 different scales of cultural behaviors:

Individualism/Collectivism
Femininity/Masculinity
High Uncertainty Avoidance/Low Uncertainty Avoidance
High Power Distance/Low Power Distance
High Context/Low Context

When writing a White Paper for a specific culture, you can take all of these different scales of cultural behavior into account. In writing your White Paper. And also in how you format it and how you market it.

By adapting your White Papers for specific international markets you can generate more international leads.

Let’s Write Write Papers

Many of my French clients believe it takes months and months to write a White Paper. They are surprised when I say I can easily write one a month for Get International Clients.

It does take a lot of work. But this is where good copywriting skills come in.

According to this evenings summit:

Businesses spend on average 50 hours over a period of months write a White Paper.
A copywriter spends on average 25 hours over 4 weeks to write a White Paper.

Writing a White Paper involves:

A series of interviews
Research
Writing

In today’s world of information overload the best length for a white paper is between 6-12 pages. And the tendency is towards the lower number of pages.

And the price? The average price for a 6-10 page White Paper is over $4000. But you need to compare this with the value of what you are selling.

White Papers provide credibility and authority. These elements are usually missing when targeting new markets.

Are you interested in a White Paper for an international audience? I write for both European and North American companies and I work closely with both North American copywriters and French writers. Contact me to find out more.