The Gloves that didn’t fit – Who can not forget the famous O.J. Simpson Trial? Nothing Shonky Here? Right? (Thank you to the Roosevelts for the image use)
I was speaking to some colleagues of mine and they gave me some very disturbing reports about a Facebook Seminar they went too. I personally teach quite a lot of Facebook Strategies as a Marketing Mentor – mostly from my own personal experience of using it to build by own business. For the record, I am the last person to trash competition. I am very friendly with some great Online Marketers and Business Coaches (including Martha Arifin and Selina Tan) where we do have overlapping skills and I think it’s great.
In fact, I am quite the opposite to this type of poverty driven “Scarcity Thinking”. The pie is big enough from everyone and I have helped even plenty of “Competitors” behind me succeed because “Abundance” thinking is so much better for us fine Small Business Owners (another topic which I must write about for sure).
However, competitor or not – if I hear something totally wrong, I am going to call it. My friends told me that they went to a Facebook Seminar only too be:
– Mislead that you can only “Make money on Facebook with paid advertising”.
– Given poor levels of information.
– Be conned into coming to an event which was a poorly disguised sell job.
– And insulted when trying to ask questions to discuss the topic with the operators.
Firstly if you understand a bit about Facebook Marketing, Paid Advertising is only one aspect of it. Sure, it’s a great part and I personally use it – but there are so many rich features of Facebook which are cash-free that are great. These include:
– Using it as a Networking Tool.
– Creating your own Facebook Group.
– Building your Business Page and getting likes.
– Sharing your content through there.
– Creating discussions about your business etc etc.
At this Seminar that lots of people are telling me about, the company running it would probably have known better and I suspect they were more driven by selling their own products rather than delivering accurate truth about a given Marketing Platform (being “Facebook” in this case).
Talking more Small Business Marketing Education too – I do that for a living and I have always made it a point to only teach what I have proven personally or seen proven personally and always explain the mechanics and reasoning behind what I do. For reasons of my own industry being full of charlatans – I do my best with the opposite to demonstrate skill, transparency to cut through the hype.
Putting myself back a few years though, I had to learn Small Business Marketing myself and it sucked! The reason why it sucked is that there is so much LIES out there and it’s hard knowing what’s right and what’s just bull-dust. When my friends reported back how they felt lied too and mislead – it tapped me into the pain and suffering I once endured in these environments.
Talking dodgy seminars generally and if their reports are true – I could image a younger version of myself there getting sucked into the pitch, spending tons of money with them – only to leave poorer with a weaker understanding of the product / area than I originally started with. When it comes to learning Marketing my advice (even if you are considering say hiring me or purchasing the Awesome Marketing Vault) is to really do your research!
Not just on who you are learning from, but also get a few points of view on the same topic from different people. If a bunch of experts are saying the same thing and it has a logical fit, then you know you are on the money and it’s probably right. If you are getting tons of different views and they don’t “Sound Right” they probably are not and you better be careful!
Google is amazing, you can type in a few keywords and read practically limitless articles on a range of Small Business Marketing Topics. I do this personally all the time and get different views and work out what sounds great and what doesn’t – then I pick stuff to test and do.
So my advice? Watch out for situations where you may not be being taught what you think you are, keep an open mind, consume quality content and be reasonably critical as well. Of course, my Awesome Marketing Vault is just sweet content so make sure you check this one out (don’t you love how I always get that in? lol).
As for this company – they are getting slammed on Social Media right now (ironic, they are teaching Facebook and now people are using it against them) and that’s the good news these days – anyone who misleads or does the wrong thing, often get’s picked up by online vigilantes. It’s quite strange, I wasn’t there and its funny how “Negative Word of Mouth” can travel fast – this could have been the best seminar ever, but because they got a few people offside Social Media Platforms can be very dual edged. If anything, they could be massive experts in the area – but if they aren’t careful in how they “Market” themselves, all their hard work can be undone very quickly.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, I hope you enjoyed my article / borderline rant and have a wonderful day. Edward Zia – Marketing Mentor and Man who likes True Facebook Marketing Seminars!
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