Know-How Exchange : Social Media

Dear Maddux,

Hot on the heels of Beth's point, if this IS a social media question (and I believe it is) please, drop any thoughts of being commercial.

Social media's about being social, not about selling.

So, relationships are the name of the game here, not out and out "Hire me" messages.

To post Youtube style videos you must engage, you must pique people's curiosity. People won't buy from you, they won't hire you until three things have happened:

1. Until they the feel they know you,
2. until they like you,
and
3. until they feel they can trust you.

You're not selling vacuum cleaners or diet pills, you're selling you and YOU are MAGIC! Consider personifying magic, let magic become your middle name, your brand, everything that is you.

This will win people over—and perhaps more so if your videos feature a family that's actively taking part (if families are your target). The goal of the video is to place visions in people's minds that the other people in the video could be them.

Kids of all ages want to know how the tricks are done. So why not show them? A series of short videos, each one linking to the next either with a voice over or text (preferably both) breaking aspects of the trick down (but obviously, never giving away EVERYTHING) gives your viewers the perception of inside knowledge—this gives them something others don't have.

But leave each video with your audience STILL thinking, "How the heck did he do that? I thought it was in the OTHER hand!". This sets up the feeling that they want to see more.

And your videos? Don't bury them on a sub page of your site. They need to be up front and centre. There also needs to be a series of images of you, doing your thing.

The other thing is, on your website you talk about yourself five times more than you talk about your audience. This can easily be fixed by talking more about the way your audiences are wowed. You might also want to include client testimonials because they provide vital social proof.

When people buy something or some service, they buy for lots of complex reasons, but one of the biggest lies in them wanting to buy from people or companies that remind them of themselves, or that remind them of the people they want to become.

It's all deeply enmeshed in tribalism and in our DNA, in our desire to belong to a group that tells the world that we, as the buyers of that product or service—that we belong and that we therefore have significance.

The biggest question you've got to answer is why should anyone hire you to come and entertain them. What's in it for the audience?
Find whatever that thing is—fun, delight, awe, showmanship, amazement, whatever ti is—and then give it to them!

Don't be shy about asking former clients what it was about you that drew them to you. In fact, I'd encourage you to do this. Your videos could be street magic. They could be close up magic, but they must engage people and they may serve you better by you including other people in them.

If this is street magic you'll be filming, explain to people BEFORE you run the camera what you're doing and ask them to give you written permission to use their images on your website. You may need to have someone with you who is over the age of 21 to do this, and you might want to check with local authorities in case you need a permit. But this kind of presentation might work.

Anyway, I hope this helps. Good luck.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA
Follow me on www.twitter.com @GaryBloomer

P.S. You might also want to consider putting a Twitter link on your site. This way, you can drive traffic from Twitter to videos on your Facebook page. You then use Facebook to drive traffic to your YouTube page and to your website where people can then see your rates and available dates through a simple online booking form and an auto responder.

The nice thing about an auto responder is that you can use it to deliver more content: videos, audio, images, a free-report and so on. It also helps you build a list to mail to through an opt in. You can use the auto responder to collect more than just names and e-mail addresses.

You can use it to collect names of children, birth months, anniversary dates, special dates and so on. You can then use e-mail to wish people happy birthday and to remind them of special offers or discounts you have. Each step puts you into their line of vision and into their mind as a great entertainer.

At each step, your visitor gets more information about you and forms a wider, stronger impression of you. This way you triangulate you efforts and integrate your message across multiple platforms and to multiple audiences.

I hope this helps.

Dear Maddux,

Let's try that list again, this time, without my big fat typos:

1. Until they feel they know you,
2. until they like you,
and
3. until they feel they can trust you.

If you take nothing else away with you, remember: KNOW. LIKE. TRUST.

Good luck to you.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA
Follow me on www.twitter.com @GaryBloomer