Facebook's Drone-and-Laser Plan To Spread Internet Worldwide

Mark Zuckerberg’s ambitious plan is part of Internet.org – a Facebook-backed initiative involving companies like Qualcomm, Samsung, Nokia, MediaTek as well as Ericsson now owned by Sony.

On Thursday, Zuckerberg for the first time gave an insight about Internet.org’s Connectivity Lab. A Lab comprising of a team of scientists from NASA, Ascenta and top research institutions across the world that has one objective – to “beam Internet to people from the sky”.

“We’re going to continue building these partnerships, but connecting the whole world will require inventing new technology too. That’s what our Connectivity Lab focuses on, and there’s a lot more exciting work to do here” the Facebook co-founder and CEO said

Few weeks ago, some reports claimed an acquisition of drone maker Titan Aerospace by Facebook was imminent. These reports haven’t been confirmed and Zuckerberg made no mention of the company in his post to users of Facebook, making the report still only a rumor.

“Our goal with Internet.org is to make affordable access to basic internet services available to every person in the world” Zuckerberg said.

“Over the past year, our work in the Philippines and Paraguay alone has doubled the number of people using mobile data with the operators we’ve partnered with, helping three million new people access the Internet,” he wrote.

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BE SECURITY CONSCIOUS: Tips for Using Social Networks and staying safe

There are many ways that information on social networks can be used for purposes other than what the user intended. Below are some practical tips to help users minimize the privacy risks when using social networks.  Be aware that these tips are not 100% effective.  Any time you choose to engage with social networking sites, you are taking certain risks.  Common sense, caution and skepticism are some of the strongest tools you have to protect yourself.

Registering an Account

·        Use a strong password different from the passwords you use to access other sites.

·        If you are asked to provide security questions, use information that others would not know about you. 

·        Never provide a work-associated email to a social network, especially when signing up.  Consider creating a new email address strictly to connect with your social networking profile(s).

·        Consider not using your real name, especially your last name. Be aware that this may violate the terms of service of some social networks. 

·        Review the privacy policy and terms of service before signing up for an account.   

·        Be sure to keep strong antivirus and spyware protection on your computer.

·        Provide only information that is necessary or that you feel comfortable providing.  When in doubt, err on the side of providing less information.  Remember, you can always provide more information to a social network, but you can’t always remove information once it’s been posted.

·        During the registration process, social networks often solicit a new user to provide an email account password so the social network can access the user’s email address book.  The social network promises to connect the new user with others they may already know on the network. To be safe, don’t provide this information at all.  There are some social networks that capture all of a user’s email contacts and then solicit them – often repeatedly – to join.  These messages may even appear to be from the original user.  If you consider providing an email address and account password to a social network, read all agreements very carefully before clicking on them. 

Using an Account

·        Become familiar with the privacy settings available on any social network you use.  On Facebook, make sure that your default privacy setting is "Friends Only".  Alternatively, use the "Custom" setting and configure the setting to achieve maximum privacy.

·        Don’t share your birthday, age, or place of birth. This information could be useful to identity thieves and to data mining companies.

·        Stay aware of changes to a social network’s terms of service and privacy policy. You may be able to keep track of this by connecting to an official site profile, for example Facebook’s Site Governance. 

·        Be careful when you click on shortened links.  Consider using a URL expander (as an application added to your browser or a website you visit) to examine short URLs before clicking on them.   Example of URL expanders include LongURL, Clybs URL Expander and Long URL.

·        Be very cautious of pop-up windows, especially any that state your security software is out of date or that security threats and/or viruses have been detected on your computer.  Use your task manager to navigate away from these without clicking on them, then run your spyware and virus protection software. 

·        Delete cookies, including flash cookies, every time you leave a social networking site.

·        Remember that whatever goes on a network might eventually be seen by people not in the intended audience. Think about whether you would want a stranger, your mother or a potential boss to see certain information or pictures. Unless they are glowing, don't post opinions about your company, clients, products and services. Be especially cautious about photos of you on social networks, even if someone else placed them there.  Don’t be afraid to untag photos of yourself and ask to have content removed.  

·        Don’t publicize vacation plans, especially the dates you’ll be traveling. Burglars can use this information to rob your house while you are out of town.

·        If you use a location-aware social network, don’t make public where your home is because people will know when you are not there.  In fact, you should be careful when posting any sort of location or using geotagging features because criminals may use it to secretly track your location. For the same reason, be careful not to share your daily routine. Posting about walking to work, where you go on your lunch break, or when you head home is risky because it may allow a criminal to track you.

·        Be aware that your full birth date, especially the year, may be useful to identity thieves.  Don’t post it, or at a minimum restrict who has access to it.

·        Don’t post your address, phone number or email address on a social network.  Remember scam artists as well as marketing companies may be looking for this kind of information. If you do choose to post any portion of this, use privacy settings to restrict it to approved contacts. 

·        Use caution when using third-party applications.  For the highest level of safety and privacy, avoid them completely.  If you consider using one, review the privacy policy and terms of service for the application.

·        If you receive a request to connect with someone and recognize the name, verify the account holder’s identity before accepting the request.  Consider calling the individual, sending an email to his or her personal account or even asking a question only your contact would be able to answer.  

·        If you receive a connection request from a stranger, the safest thing to do is to reject the request. If you decide to accept the request, use privacy settings to limit what information is viewable to the stranger and be cautious of posting personal information to your account, such as your current location as well as personally identifiable information.

·        Be wary of requests for money, even if they are from contacts you know and trust. If a contact’s account is compromised, a scam artist may use his or her name and account to attempt to defraud others through bogus money requests. 

·        Take additional precautions if you are the victim of stalking, harassment or domestic violence. 

·        In the event that your social networking account is compromised, report it to the site immediately and alert your contacts.  You will need to change passwords, but proceed with caution because your computer security may have been compromised.  Malware, including key-logging software, may have been installed on your computer.  If you use online banking, do not log on from the computer that may have been compromised until you have ensured your computer security is intact. 

·        Prune your "friends" list on a regular basis. It's easy to forget who you've friended over time, and therefore who you are sharing information with.

·        If you are using a social networking site that offers video chatting, pay attention to the light on your computer that indicates whether or not your webcam is in use. This will help you avoid being "caught on camera" by accident.

·        Be sure to log off from social networking sites when you no longer need to be connected.  This may reduce the amount of tracking of your web surfing and will help prevent strangers from infiltrating your account.

·        Remember that nothing that you post online is temporary.  Anything you post can be cached, stored, or copied and can follow you forever.

·        Check your privacy settings often.  Privacy policies and default settings may change, particularly on Facebook.

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Fraud on Social Networks 2

Malware (malicious software) is a term that describes a wide range of programs that install on a user’s computer often through the use of trickery. Malware can spread quickly on a social network, infecting the computer of a user and then spreading to his or her contacts.  This is because the malware may appear to come from a trusted contact, and thus users are more likely to click on links and/or download malicious programs.

Some common techniques used in spreading malware include:

·         Shortened URLs, particularly on status update networks or newsfeeds.  These may lead the user to download a virus or visit a website that will attempt to load malware on a user’s computer.

·         Messages that appear to be from trusted contacts that encourage a user to click on a link, view a video or download a file.

·         An email appearing to be from the social network itself, asking for information or requesting a user click on a link. 

·         Third-party applications that infect computers with malicious software and spread it to contacts.  

·         Fake security alerts – applications that pose as virus protection software and inform the user that his or her security software is out-of-date or a threat has been detected.  

Social Engineering

There are a variety of social engineering scamming techniques which trick users into entering sensitive information. This section describes a few of the well-known techniques.

·         Phishing attacks are when emails, instant messages or other messages claiming to be from a trusted source ask for information. For example, an email may appear to be from a bank and could direct a user to enter a password at a fake login page, or tell a user to call a phone number or risk having their account closed. For tips on how to spot and avoid phishing attacks, see FTC Alert How Not to Get Hooked by a 'Phishing' Scam and OnGuardOnline's Phishing page. Some Internet browsers, such as recent versions of Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer, have taken steps to help identify fake websites. (See GetSafe Online's Avoid Criminal Websites for these and other tips.)

·         Spear phishing is a type of phishing attack that appears to be from a colleague, employer or friend and includes a link or something to download. (This is often the result of account hijacking.) These links or downloads can be malicious, such as viruses or fake websites that solicit personal information.  

·         Misleading solicitations. A social network might use social engineering to make people feel obligated to join. This often occurs when one person joins and (often inadvertently) provides the social network with access to his or her contact list. The social network then sends out emails to all of his or her contacts, often implying they are from the individual who joined.  For example, it has been reported that Tagged.com solicits contacts of users with emails claiming the recipient has been “tagged.”  These emails state: “Is <user name> your friend? Please respond or <user name> may think you said no :( ” or “<user name> sent you photos on Tagged.” The recipient may believe this is a personal invitation from the user and feel obligated to join the network, giving out his or her information and perhaps perpetuating the solicitations. 

·         Hijacked accounts. A legitimate account may be taken over by an identity thief or malware for the purpose of fraud such as posting spam, sending out malware, stealing the private data of contacts or even soliciting contacts to send money.  One typical scenario is when a hijacked account sends out messages stating that the account owner is overseas and in desperate straits.  Contacts are urged to immediately wire money.  A user may not realize his or her account has been hijacked for quite some time. An attack could also be in the form of a chat conversation.

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Fraud on Social Networks 1

Criminals may use social networks to connect with potential victims. This section discusses some of the typical scams and devices used to defraud consumers on social networks.  Fraud may involve more than one of the techniques described below.  Some types of fraud may not be described here.

Identity Theft

Identity thieves use an individual’s personal information to pretend to be them – often for financial gain. The information users post about themselves on social networks may make it possible for an identity thief to gather enough information to steal an identity.  In 2009, researchers at Carnegie University Mellon published a study showing that it is possible to predict most and sometimes all of an individual’s 9-digit Social Security number using information gleaned from social networks and online databases.  (See Predicting Social Security Numbers from Public Data by Acquisti and Gross)

Information often targeted by identity thieves includes:

·         Passwords

·         Bank account information

·         Credit card numbers

·         Information stored on a user’s computer such as contacts

·         Access to the user’s computer without his or her consent (for example, through malware)

·         Social Security numbers.  Remember that the key to identity theft is the Social Security number.  Never provide a Social Security number through a social networking service.

Some fraud techniques to watch out for include:

·         Illegitimate third-party applications. These rogue applications may appear similar to other third-party applications but are designed specifically to gather information. This information may be sold to marketers but could also be useful in committing identity theft.   These applications may appear as games, quizzes or questionnaires in the format of “What Kind of Famous Person Are You?” (See ABC's Online Games Can Lead to Identity Theft)

False connection requests. Scammers may create fake accounts on social networks and then solicit others to connect with them.  These fake accounts may use the names of real people, including acquaintances, or may be entirely imaginary.  Once the connection request is accepted, a scammer may be able to see restricted and private information on a user’s profile.  (See ReadWriteWeb's Fake Social Networking Profiles: a New Form of Identity Theft in 2009) 

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Types of Social Networks

There are many types of social networks available.  This fact sheet examines the privacy and security implications of using a few of them.  Most social networks combine elements of more than one of these types of networks, and the focus of a social network may change over time.  While this fact sheet does not address every type of social network, many of the security and privacy recommendations are applicable to other types of networks.

·         Personal networks. These networks allow users to create detailed online profiles and connect with other users, with an emphasis on social relationships such as friendship. For example, Facebook, Friendster and MySpace are platforms for communicating with contacts.  These networks often involve users sharing information with other approved users, such as one’s gender, age, interests, educational background and employment, as well as files and links to music, photos and videos.  These platforms may also share selected information with individuals and applications that are not authorized contacts.

·         Status updates networks. These types of social networks are designed to allow users to post short status updates in order to communicate with other users quickly. For example, Twitter focuses its services on providing instantaneous, short updates. These networks are designed to broadcast information quickly and publicly, though there may be privacy settings to restrict access to status updates.

·         Location networks. With the advent of GPS-enabled cellular phones, location networks are growing in popularity. These networks are designed to broadcast one’s real-time location, either as public information or as an update viewable to authorized contacts. Many of these networks are built to interact with other social networks, so that an update made to a location network could (with proper authorization) post to one’s other social networks.  Some examples of location networks include Brightkite, Foursquare, Loopt and Google Latitude. For an in-depth discussion of locational privacy, read the ACLU of Northern California's Location-Based Services: Time for a Privacy Check-in and their Comparison Chart evaluating the privacy features of six location networks.

·         

Content-sharing networks. These networks are designed as platforms for sharing content, such as music, photographs and videos.  When these websites introduce the ability to create personal profiles, establish contacts and interact with other users through comments, they become social networks as well as content hubs.  Some popular content sharing networks include thesixtyone, YouTube and Flickr. 

·         Shared-interest networks. Some social networks are built around a common interest or geared to a specific group of people. These networks incorporate features from other types of social networks but are slanted toward a subset of individuals, such as those with similar hobbies, educational backgrounds, political affiliations, ethnic backgrounds, religious views, sexual orientations or other defining interests.  Examples of such networks include deviantART, LinkedIn, Black Planet, Goodreads and Gay.com.

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Stop paying for marketing! Here is how you can market your company for free.

Who said marketing has to be expensive? Whether you have money to spend on marketing or not, there a lot of things you can do that don’t cost a dime. Here is a guide on how you can market your company for free:

Track before you act

Before you start any marketing initiatives, you need to make sure you have the correct tracking in place. This way you can measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. The last thing you want to do is spend time on things that aren’t working.
An easy way to do this is through the use of Google Analytics, which is free. If you are already using it, that’s great. 

Search engine traffic converts

One way to get more traffic to your website is to optimize it for search engines. Search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing have millions, if not billions of visitors. So why not have some of those visitors come on over to your website?
Before you start optimizing your site for search engines, there are a few things you should know:

• There are 2 main aspects that will affect how much traffic you receive from search engines.
1. Links – the more websites linking to your website, the higher it will ranking. Think of links as votes, if you have more votes than your competition, you will usually rank higher than them.
2. Code – if a search engine can’t read your website, then there is no way that it will know what it is about and what keywords to rank it for. It is very important to make sure your website code is clean so that a search engine can understand what your website is about.
• Keep it simple – there is nothing wrong with having a cool looking site, such as those flash based movie sites, but they usually don’t rank well on search engines. In most cases, the simpler looking sites rank better.
• Content is king – you have to have content (text) on your website. If your website is about blue widgets, then naturally the word “blue widgets” should be inside your websites content. This helps search engines determine what to rank your website for.
• Page 1 is all that matters – if you want traffic from search engines, you have to rank on page 1 of the search results. Ranking on page 2, 3, or even 4, doesn’t drive much traffic.
• The long tail – your goal shouldn’t be to rank for generic keywords. Instead you want to rank for niche and highly relevant keywords because those visitors will more likely convert into sales.

Now that you know a bit about search engines, there are 2 articles you need to read if you want search engine traffic.

1. If you want more search engine traffic for your blog, read this post that I wrote a few months ago.
2. If your website isn’t a blog, read the beginner’s guide to search engine optimization. It will teach you everything you need to know about getting more search engine traffic.

Email marketing isn’t spam

No matter what type of website you have, you should be collecting your visitor’s email address. Now you shouldn’t force this upon them, but if they sign up for something or purchase a product, make sure you collect their email address.
For example, John Chow offers his readers a free ebook. To receive the ebook, you have to enter in your email address, which he’ll send promotions to in the future.
Once you have collected a few emails, you can use services like Mail Chimp to blast out special promotions to your email list. But before you get started, there are a few things you need to know about email marketing:

• Only send emails to opted in email addresses. If you send promotional emails to addresses that aren’t opted in, your emails will likely get marked as spam. And if too many of them get marked as spam, no one will be able to receive them.
• Don’t send out too many emails. If you send emails every day, you’ll notice that people will tend to ignore them. So try and only send them when you have something good to say or offer.
• Avoid spam filters. Before you send out any emails, read up on spam filters.

Create some buzz

The blogosphere is a great place to go to if you want to create some buzz about your company and boost your traffic. If you want to get covered in the blogosphere there are a few steps that you have to follow:

1. Create something that is news worthy – bloggers want something hot to talk about. Whether it is something cool and exciting about your company or even a simple contest, bloggers need something to talk about. If you don’t have that, you won’t get coverage from the blogosphere.
2. Target a select group of bloggers – after you have something that is news worthy, you want to create a relevant list of bloggers to target. You can determine if a blog is relevant by checking if they have written on things similar to what you want them to blog about.
3. Contact bloggers – once you are ready to get covered in the blogosphere, you want to start contacting your list of bloggers. The easiest way to do this is by writing a custom tailored email to each blogger on your list.
4. Build relationships – even after you are done contacting the bloggers on your list, you should try and build relationships with other bloggers. You never know when you’ll want more coverage in the blogosphere, and knowing bloggers on a personal level never hurts.

Getting bloggers to write about your company isn’t an easy thing to do. Just like most things, it is a numbers game because most of the bloggers you email won’t write about your company. So don’t give up too easily!

Don’t be afraid of social media

Although social media maybe new to you, it doesn’t mean you should be afraid of it. Just look at Dell, they have sold 3 million dollars worth of computers through Twitter.
Here are some useful links that will teach you how to use social media as a marketing channel:

• Create a Facebook profile – although Facebook profiles are personal, they can still be used to drive traffic to your business. For example, Facebook is one of the top referring traffic sources to Quick Sprout. Every time I write a blog post, I also push it out on my Facebook profile so my friends can see it.
• Don’t use Twitter for fun – why not use it to promote your business? Dell isn’t the only company on Twitter, there are thousands of companies that are leveraging it every day.
• Get dugg – although Digg isn’t the hottest social site on the web, it is the most effective social site in driving links to your website. All you have to do is get to the Digg homepage. And as I mentioned above, the more links you have the more search engine traffic you’ll end up getting.
• Videos can go viral too – if you have a camera handy, you can always create a video and get it popular on video sites like YouTube. Not only do they get tons of traffic, but those videos will also rank well on search engines like Google. Just make sure you mention your business or URL within the video.
• Look beyond the surface – social networks aren’t the only type of social sites that you should be leveraging. Sites like Docstoc and Scribd let you upload documents on whatever you want. Through those sites you can upload documents about your company. Those sites are so powerful that your content will rank high on the search engines and more people will end up knowing about your company.
• Old is sexy – although forums aren’t sexy, they are still popular. Find forums related to your business and start contributing to them. Don’t talk about your business, but just contribute by answering people’s questions. As long as you add your company URL in your forum signature, you will get more people to come over to your website.

The possibility with leveraging the social web as a marketing channel is endless. You just have to be creative and think out of the box.

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How to get your content shared

Whether you love or hate social sites like Twitter and Facebook, you have no choice but to use them. They are some of the most popular destinations on the web, and if you aren’t leveraging them, you are missing out on thousands of visitors a month.
Here are 10 ways you can get your content shared on the social web:

• Don’t place too many social icons on your site – the simplest way to get your content shared is to include social buttons within your content. You can easily do this through plugins like Sharebar, but if you give your readers too many options, they won’t click on any of the social buttons. Limit the number of social buttons to 3, if not 2.
• Not all social networks are equal – don’t just ask your readers to promote your content on all social sites. Only pick the ones you know your readers are on. In most cases, it is going to be Twitter and Facebook.
• Build up your social media accounts – blogs that get a lot of social media traffic usually also own powerful social media accounts. Invest time into building up your Twitter account and consider running Facebook ads to grow your fan page.
• Leverage content blockers – have you ever thought about putting a gate in front of your content that forces people to share it before they can read it? You can see this strategy in play here, and you can do the same thing on your site through WP Lead Magnet.
• Ask for a retweet – by including “please RT” within your tweet, you are four times more likely to get a retweet. This sounds simple, but it works.
• Build your network – through services like Tiberr, you can get hundreds of people to share your content on the social web.
• Ask your readers for help – at the end of your blog post tell your readers to share your content on a social network of your choice, but don’t do this too often as it will lose its effect. I generate 38% more social shares on average when I use this tactic at the end of a blog post.
• Run contests – through simple software solutions like Contest Domination, you can run contests and quickly increase the number of Facebook fans you have without spending a dollar on paid advertising.
• Don’t forget to participate – you can’t just reap the rewards without providing anything in return. To do well on the social web, you need to participate first and then promote your own sites. For example, you should be tweeting on a regular basis or publishing status updates on Facebook that aren’t related to your product or service.
• Collect emails – every time someone hits your blog, offer them a free ebook in exchange for an email address. Then, when you post new content, you can always email it out to your list. This is so effective that in the month of October, emails made up 21% of the traffic on Quick Sprout. Plus, email subscribers are 3.9 times more likely to share the content via the social web.

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What to do with negative publicity in 4 steps

What should you do to keep this negative publicity from hurting you? Here’s how I recommend you handle the situation.

1. Act fast – Naturally, you should be monitoring the social and web worlds for both positive and negative comments. Responding quickly will help reinforce the positive press and smother the negative press. Don’t let bad press blindside you. You should not be the last to know. You should be one of the first…and you should respond promptly.
2. Don’t absorb the insult – If you’ve done a good job of keeping up your profile and extending your influence, then remember this when a negative comment comes your way: there are a ton of people who really like you. Plus, negative comments are usually generated by people who woke up on the wrong side of the bed or can’t be calmed down with a level-headed reply.
3. Never delete the comment – Instead, respond directly to the comment. It’s more than likely many people have already seen the negative comment. Deleting it will only make you look like a sore loser. Responding quickly will show people who are watching that you have nothing to hide.
4. Sort out the situation in private – Respond with something like “I am grateful for any feedback, no matter how brutal it is. Your opinion is valuable, and I’d love to talk to you in private to take care of the situation.” Never turn a customer service situation like that into a public spectacle. Send them a direct message and then try to win them over.

Responding to negative publicity quickly and kindly is one of the best ways to minimize any kind of damage you might suffer. Ignoring it will only hurt you.

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Tactics to get your influence back

Write, write and write some more

You can directly influence your online influence by the sheer amount of writing you do. If you write only two days a week, jump that up to five days a week and your influence will go up. Guest blog, and your influence will again continue to increase. This increase in writing will also help you cast a wider net for the searchers, of which there are 3 billion on Google every day:

This will ultimately lead to more visitors, subscribers and influence.

Build a list

If you don’t have one already, then the real magic of generating influence will come from that email subscriber list. See, the more you blog, the more traffic you get:

But that traffic is worthless if you don’t do anything with it. So, if you want a way to communicate with your audience, then start building an email newsletter list. This gives those who sign up an exclusive relationship with you. And your conversion rates will be much higher when you market to the email list.

Interact with your readers

One of the most basic ways to build and keep influence is to engage with your readers. Respond to every comment, engage them with posts that ask them for their opinions and pick their brains for insights using tools like Qualaroo:

Also, reward your readers with contests and giveaways that demonstrate how much you appreciate them. And you can really build influence when you create content that they love and want. That is the way to build that engaging community of people who become advocates for you as they share your content on the social web.

Use a variety of media

As the web grows and supports more and more types of media, you will have to learn some new skills in order to offer people what they want. These days, text is not enough to influence people. You now need to know how to use video, audio and photos.
When should you use which media? Here’s a little guide:

• Text – Keywords still dominate the world of search, so you will need to provide a substantial amount of copy.
• Video – Some people make video the center of their influence platform (Khan Academy has become famous through its use of video), while most other people use it to complement their other work (SEOmoz does this with its Whiteboard Fridays). Either approach adds to the power of your influence. By the way, you have to create a transcript of your videos for search engines and the readers who like to skim text. There are great services that can make that happen quickly.
• Audio – Audio works great for those people who are natural-born speakers. They are very comfortable speaking, can do it on the fly, and thus naturally create some of the best podcasts out there. Check out the Manager Tools podcast to see what I mean. If you are not that comfortable speaking, however, you still may want to consider using audio to enhance your content. For example, you could create a monthly podcast, where you interview an industry leader or explore a certain subject in-depth.

Be original

You will only gain an audience if you provide original content. Since there is so much competition online, it truly is harder than ever to be original.
There is so much great content being produced. How do you compete?
One way to compete is to ride the wave of a trending topic. If you are the first to share content on hot news, then you’ll gain some attention, followers and traction.
You can use Google Trends to follow what’s hot:

Based upon those results, you could write an article titled “What Zombie Apocalypse Can Teach You about Personal Persuasion.” In fact, you could write an article using all of those topics.
Then, you could take it a step further and use Google Insights:

Search by category, and you’ll get a very targeted set of searches.
Don’t forget that you can’t just create cute content from trending topics that aren’t useful and full of detailed research. You’ll probably lose your core audience. So, in order to build your influence and keep it, you have to provide content that your audience cares about. Only then will they listen to what you say.
You also need to follow as many blogs as possible. This will help you to stay current and generate new, fresh ideas.

Remain insanely focused

Those who constantly seem to be at the top of the searches and are always being quoted in this publication or that blog have a little secret: they discipline themselves to focus on one thing and one thing only.
They understand the big picture, and everything they do serves going after that big picture. That means that highly-influential people are delegators and use the best tools to accomplish their tasks in less time.
Here are four tools I highly recommend to help you stay insanely focused:

• Batchbook – Influential people have a huge contact list. But as it gets bigger, it also gets harder and harder to manage, so you need a system. This free, cloud-based tool will help even with your social media contacts.
• MailChimp – Naturally, you’ll need a system to stay in touch with all of those contacts. Repeated messages via email grow your influence among your readers. MailChimp can automate that process for you on just about any budget.
• DropBox – A no-brainer for people who need to store, share and access all kinds of media from their laptops or phones. Insanely focused influential people love convenience!
• Rescue Time – Like I said, influential people are focused. Keeping track of what they do, where they are wasting time and how long it takes them to do something helps them keep their razor-sharp focus. This tool is a must have!

Stay relentless

This one is the other side of the coin of remaining insanely focused. People who have influence, lose it, build it up again and keep it, never, ever stop!
Sure, they will vacation and might even shut off their phones and laptops at the end of the business day, but when they are on, they are on.
Besides, it’s really tough to keep them away from their work.
This is also why influential people are successful people. They hang in there through the ups and downs because they know that success takes a long time.

You also won’t find them straying from their cornerstone content or their schedule. In my own career, being relentless has been easily one of the top secrets to my success. Are you relentless?

Find a common enemy

Another tactic you can use to build influence is to employ the tactic used by copywriters called “the common enemy.” See, people love it when someone stands up against perceived opponents, and they love getting behind the crusaders and supporting them.
The idea behind this concept is to zero in on a bad guy in your industry. Financial newsletters want you to think that the bad guy is the government; politicians pick on the other party; and Aaron Walls picks on Google.
He’s not alone, however. There are a lot of people who think that Google is dangerous:

You do need to understand one thing, however. You shouldn’t build your entire platform on finding a common enemy. Rather, this should be something you refer to on occasion.
In addition, try to avoid attacking actual people. Instead, focus on companies or institutions. It will be a lot easier to defend your actions.

Twist social media to your benefit

A long time ago, blogging was the only thing in town. You could influence people by simply going to people’s blogs and leaving comments. That’s exactly what Pete Cashmore of Mashable did, leaving a hundred or more comments on other blogs every day.
But with Twitter, Google+ and Facebook – and rising stars like Pinterest and Tumblr – at your fingertips, social media is going to be your most powerful tool for getting and keeping influence, certainly more powerful than leaving comments.
Don’t neglect your commenting strategy. Just adjust it.
Your first step, however, is to create great shareable content. Then you share other people’s content and follow and engage the influencers.
It’s a pretty simple formula for spreading your brand across the web and building influence…and it works.

Target your audience

One mistake you want to avoid when building an audience is going for the biggest. It is a lot harder to influence a large audience than it is to influence a smaller audience. I am not saying it can’t be done, but it just takes a very long time.
You’re better off focusing on a niche audience.

The problem with trying to go after the biggest audience is that it sacrifices quality for quantity. In the end, that always drives down your conversion rates.
The bottom line is you need to get to know your audience really well and then you need to give them what they want.

Be very personal

One of Robert Cialdini principles of influence is being likable. You have to be approachable, honest and authentic. That means you don’t have to churn out business-like content all the time. You can share personal life experiences that show people you put your pants on in the morning just like everyone else does.
I think Chris Brogan does this very well, and it is certainly a part of his appeal. Just take a look at his “Best Of” page, and you’ll see a lot of content from his personal life:

No doubt it feels like he is writing to you because that is exactly what he is doing! He’s conversational and passionate about what he does. It permeates everything he creates. Imitate Chris, and people will like you. Once you have them liking you, you can influence them.

Stick to your brand

If you jump around with your brand from your message to your colors to your design, you will confuse people. Confusing people doesn’t help them develop trust in you.
I understand that early in the game you may be tinkering with your message and who you are, but at some point you need to decide and then communicate that brand consistently across all mediums.
I love how Johnny B Truant does this. From his name to his image to his tweets and to his blog posts, he communicates his brand.

It’s original, and he’s very consistent with it.

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