How to use forums (and Facebook groups)

[Andy Black]

How to use forums (and Facebook groups)

I'm going to braindump some of my learnings about using Forums and Facebook groups.


For those trying to "validate a need" (I kinda hate that phrase), then forums and Facebook groups are a fantastic resource. Not only do people nicely group themselves for you, but they'll chatter about problems and issues they have. They'll also ask questions and you can respond by answering them.

I've produced a ridiculous amount of evergreen content by chattering away in forums, noticing where I repeat myself, then creating threads to point to in future.

In case you didn't spot the parallel to building a business:

1. I find and engage the market - where they are already.
2. I respond to questions and problems people already have.
3. I immediately help people instead of "building stuff".
4. If I find myself answering the same question over and over again - I go create a solution I can point people to all the time.
5. Before I create the thread (solution) I already know it will help lots of people - because it's a need many people already had.
6. The content (solution) was created out of solving real-world problems, rather than solving problems I think people have.

Added benefits:

1. I immediately start getting known as "The XYZ Guy" - because I help people with XYZ.
2. People already start reaching out to me about XYZ problem.
3. People already start referring me to others who have XYZ problem.

Why create a blog and try and find out what content helps people and resonates with people when you can go help people immediately in a busy forum or Facebook group?

Why stare at a blank page struggling to create a new blog post when you can help people immediately in a forum or Facebook group?

Why try and get your blog ranked when a forum already has a much better SEO juice than you'll likely ever get.

Finally... if your goal is to help people and build relationships (hint: do this and get paid then you're in business), then why the feck don't you do that immediately instead of "building stuff"?


EDIT: Jump to post 103 for another installment by clicking HERE.


EDIT: Here's an example of how NOT to use forums and Facebook groups:

• DRIVE-BY - How not to post on forums …

 

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[Andy Black]

OK, I've logged back in to show you an email I got at midnight last night:

​

And this was one within the last 24 hours:

​

And this from 3 days ago:

​

Oh, and this is dwarfed by all the Facebook PMs, Skype PMs, and forum PMs...

 

[Andy Black]

(Originally posted here.)


Here's a strategy I accidentally discovered: trawl the forum and help people there and then.

"Show don't tell" your expertise at XYZ.

Do it well enough so that other people start tagging you when someone gets stuck with XYZ problem.

Do it so you become known as "The XYZ Guy".


Rules of the game:

1) You can't say you're an expert in it. You can only show it.

2) You can't PM people offering help, or ask them to PM you. They have to PM *you* because they liked what you've done and want to know more.

What would you do differently, and how differently would it play out?

 

[Andy Black]

Inbound Lead Generation WITHOUT Buying Ads
(I wrote this recently in reply to someone.)

I started this years ago and it started generating leads for me, to the point where I get inbound emails, Facebook messages, Forum PMs, or Skype messages ... every. single. day.

Here's what I did, and the mindset I had (and have), and why I think it works.

...

Find busy forums or Facebook groups where you can *** help people ***.

It's important to get your mindset right and go looking for people you can help, NOT to go looking for people who you think will pay you.

Join in and help people. Respond to questions. Start writing. Your expertise will tumble out of yourself in your desire to help people.

When you've tidied up your post, you can then drop it onto your blog, and other places where you can help people.

Look at some of the posts I've started in here. Many (most?) of them start as replies to someone. I then repurpose them and drop them on my blog and into other Facebook groups.

...

Want to position yourself as "The XYZ Guy"?

Help people with XYZ.

...

How has this looked for me?

1) I've literally grown my business in the last few years by inbound leads. People from forums and Facebook groups either contact me direct, OR they refer me to other people. I'm positioned as "The XYZ Guy" and that makes me easily referrable. This has resulted in 6 figures of revenue for me.

2) I've built a big network and even if I stopped posting I'd still get inbound leads for a good few months (maybe years). Last week I had 4 excellent Skype calls. One was from connection I made cold on LinkedIn, 2 were from people who've read some of my content and were super excited to speak to me, and 1 had been referred to me by someone who read my content a couple of years ago.

3) I've a MASSIVE library of content built up now. I'd consider myself incognito online. I've not been trying to "build an audience". I've been trying to help people, and it's built a small following (and "social proof"), and a load of content that I KNOW helps people, and that I can now package up to use as the "lead magnets" and email courses for paid advertising campaigns.

...

Why is it so important that you want to help?

1) People can sniff out all that content marketing lead generation cr@p within seconds. You'll get little traction if you adopt the "content marketing" strategies that are touted by experts who want you to buy their content marketing products or services. (I might be doing content marketers a disservice here and tarring all the good ones with the same brush as I tar the spammers. I do apologise.)

2) People won't refer anyone to you if they think their friend is going to get hard sold to, pitched, or generally meet someone who they're going to be embarrassed sending them to.

3) People like to help people. Simple really. If you helped them and they know someone else who needs that help then they'll WANT to refer them to you.

4) Create an imbalance in the world. Give without expectation of anything in return. The universe and the world will try and correct that imbalance.

Too foo-foo for you? If someone had a $99 30 minute call with you and talked for 2 hours then you're going to be super grateful. If they don't charge you more then you're going to recommend the heck out of them to other people.

Over-deliver and it'll come back in other ways.

Got it?

...

What's your takeaways?

What will you incorporate into your own strategies?

...

If you've any questions fire away.

 

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[Andy Black]

Example of answering a common question and making the content available to help more people


(Firstly... I do NOT approach this as "content marketing" or "lead generation". I helped one person, and the extra twist is to post that content other places so other people can benefit from it. Of course, good things should come from that, but my goal is to HELP MORE PEOPLE first and foremost.)


So this morning someone in @Fox's facebook group asked a basic AdWords question that many people have.

1) I answered in the Facebook group (it didn't take long as I've answered this many times in the past).


2) I figure it's about time I create a thread I can point people to in future, so pasted the answer in the forum here:

• How are AdWords PPC paid search ads ranked?

3) I posted it in my private Facebook group in case they don't frequent the forum much.

Notice how the headline is shorter... it's an AdWords group so no need to mention AdWords in the headline.





4) I posted it to my Facebook page



5) I posted it on LinkedIn

• Andy Black on LinkedIn: "How are AdWords paid search…

6) I didn't post it to my blog - because I can't remember my login and can't be bothered to look it up.

7) I logged out of the forum, facebook, and LinkedIn as I've client work to do.

 

[Andy Black]

Austin reached out to me a couple of days ago via my website.

I offered to jump on a call and help him out, and at the start of the call I tried to piece together how he came across me, found my content, and worked out I was someone he wanted to speak to.

Here's that part of the call:

View: https://youtu.be/rHokl4skVjY

 

[Andy Black]

Should we focus on just one social network?

I've had a few conversations recently about whether it's better to stick to one platform/ watering hole, or spread yourself across many.

I don't consider myself a social media dude, and am literally making this up as I go along, but here's what I replied about my experience to date:

...

I've been in TFLF for 3.5 years and posted over 4,500 times. It was my "one place" online for all that time.

Now I've started posting in other places I've been surprised how many forum members have recognised me in those other places and commented. (Having my name as my avatar certainly helps with that!)

I've also had a lot of people PM me from those new places who've never come across me before but like my content.

To date I've not intentionally used the content to sell, but to just help people, and be a part of the community in TFLF.

Unintentionally, I stumbled across what many already know - that helping people with XYZ gets you known as "The XYZ Guy/Gal" and people then start referring you to other people.

And that posting un-related but helpful stuff just helps people to know you and your values better.

I also found I was repeating myself so created posts that I could link to repeatedly.

When I was in a few Facebook groups I linked out to threads in TFLF because I didn't want to repeat myself. I've since realised content should be native and added into each platform and tailored to the platform and new community (thanks @Fox).

I've recently started posting on LinkedIn, and have already started getting likes, comments, PMs, and enquiries.

If we stay on one platform then I think people on that platform would end up getting to know us better. And it would create more of a community if we owned that platform (forum, Facebook group, etc).

If I was to 10x my efforts then I could post 10x as much (or 10x the quality of the posts) in one place.

Or I could take the amount of content I create naturally and post it (selectively and more delicately than I have to date) in 10x locations.

Reddit? Quora? Twitter? Instagram? Why not? They're just more channels to the people that may or may not be helped by what I have to say. Each with their unique ways of working and etiquettes.

This reminds me of a podcast episode by Russell Brunson where he tells what he's learned from Gary V - that each social network and channel online is akin to the early TV channels. There's not that many (at the moment) and it's worth being on all of them.

Something else he learned is that LinkedIn people stay on LinkedIn. Email people like emails. Facebook people like Facebook. Russell was trying to get everyone from each platform onto his email list, but realised many people won't do that, and if they do, then they will not open the emails later on.

For me, I've produced content every single day for nearly 4 years. In TFLF, I've PMd over 1,500 people who've followed or rep' me. That just started with manners, and has lead to a lot of referrals and "good karma".

Writing for me gives me clarity. It's one of those things I can't NOT do it seems. Putting it on steroids for me could simply mean just posting it where it can help more people.

I see it as a bit of a disservice that I don't do that extra twist of posting wherever people happen to be - if what I post can untangle people and save them from losing money or time.

Maybe there's an 80/20 for content as well? 20% writing it, 80% publishing/distributing it?

 

[Andy Black]

What if you keep on answering people's questions and dropping tidbits here and there on forums and such.

And then sales don't roll in. People are raving about your contents and keep asking for help and you keep delivering without charging, when exactly do you go for the sale yourself if people don't automatically ask to buy an offer?

Hmm... let me work through this. I'll write down where I got to and see if I can answer you too.


If you're helping people by answering questions and dropping tidbits here and there...

• This is a good thing.
• You've proved there is a group of people with enough of a problem to ask questions about it.
• You're able to get in front of those people who are asking questions and where dropping tidbits helps. You've a "route to market" so to speak.
• You'll find out what the common questions are, and the root cause behind the questions.

If THEY reach out to YOU...

• This is a good thing too.
• The people who reach out are the ones most motivated and/or with the biggest itch.
• See what they come in on. What's the pattern? What are the common questions of the people who reach out? What stage are they at? What have they tried? What's worked? What's not? Why are they reaching out now?
• I've never asked anyone to PM me for help. At the most I'll let them know they can contact me if they want.
  
  
• I do however message anyone who follows me or gives me rep. I say "Thanks for following / giving me rep. How're things going?". It's manners, and it starts wee conversations and I learn why they followed or gave me rep.
• I could take that to Facebook and LinkedIn and send a personal message to everyone who connects, except I don't want to initiate conversations with everyone on Facebook or LI because, unlike TFLF, they're not all entrepreneurs or interested in being entrepreneurs.

If you're delivering without charging...

• This is a good thing too.
• People don't even want free.
• Being able to sell someone on spending time on a call with you, or reading your article or report is actually a BIG deal.
• Oh boy but I've done a tonne of calls with forum members and others.
• Many of them end up being a quick look over the shoulder review of their account.
• Even if I don't get paid, I've learned sooo much more than if I charged for these.
• I can also answer questions super quick now... I've seen a lot of the same ones again and again.
• I have also identified the root causes of the common problems. I know WHY they have the problems they have.
• This wouldn't have happened if I operated in a vacuum. I've checked and rechecked my suspicions dozens of times.

If no-one pays?

• I've not had this problem. But then I'm in a market where people with the problem I can help them with are ALREADY spending money. They've already proved they have a willingness to put their hand in their pocket.
• If I was helping people with how to get everything in life for free, then I'd probably have a hard time charging them right?
• So I already knew some of the people I spoke to would become paying clients.
• I didn't ask anyone to hire me. If they wanted to they could of course. If they didn't then fair enough too.
• I then get to observe what's different about those that do ask if I can work with them. (Them already making sales and already having a payroll are a couple of common themes.)

Let me think about what I'd do if no-one ever asked to hire me. I'm off to do stuff with the family so want to come back to this with a properly thought out response.

 

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[Andy Black]

I signed up to podpage.com a couple of days ago to create a website for a new podcast.

I joined the Facebook group and said hello.

This evening I saw a post by the founder of Podpage. Here's his post and my reply.

Did I say "I'm a Google Ads expert."?
No, I did "show, don't tell."

Am I trying to get him as a client?
No, I just helped him as best I could in one reply.

 

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[Andy Black]

I discussed this in a recent call for @Fox 's Legend program that I've also added to my own paid membership:

1) WHEN YOU'RE STARTING OUT:

Join communities of PEERS and make friends, build relationships, and create win-wins.

Do NOT go in trying to find clients. If your target market is electricians do NOT join as a web designer / digital marketer to get clients. You're a wolf in sheep's clothing and not a genuine community member.

For me that was communities like thefastlaneforum, Facebook groups for Irish business owners, people using New Zenler (course software I use), etc.

2) WHEN YOU'RE ESTABLISHED:

When people start seeing you as a helpful and valued community member, AND as an expert at XYZ then you will start to:

Get INVITED into groups of electricians - BY THE GROUP OWNER.

Get INVITED in as the resident expert in XYZ - BY THE GROUP OWNER.

Get INVITED in to do regular workshops for members - BY THE GROUP OWNER.

How do you get invited by the group owner?

"Be so good they can't ignore you."

(Steve Martin)

...

Examples for me:

Getting invited by the owner of a Facebook group of 3k Irish business owners to do monthly Google Ads workshops.

Getting invited into groups of B&B owners, Personal Trainers, Permanent Makeup Artists, etc ... by the group owners.


----

YOUR FACEBOOK PROFILE

Just use your personal profile. Make it a genuine profile, where you're mostly talking personal stuff like everyone else. In your bio (and maybe your banner) give a nod to what you do.

Occasionally post business type of stuff, but just sprinkle it in.

Don't be like those outbound guys who have a banner stating how they're a high-ticket closer, a business coach for agency owners, a dadpreneur, or any of that cr@p. No-one wants to connect with them.

Let your talking in the Facebook group "show don't tell" that you're helpful, supportive, a good guy/gal to know and interact with, and competent at XYZ. This is what makes you referrable, and what will get people to check out your profile and follow their nose to your website.

Here's what my personal profile looks like. I'm happy to leave breadcrumbs for the interested.

 

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[Andy Black]

btw, would you guys share some of the fb-groups you consider top?

Some examples of well run or interestingly run groups are:


@Fox's group about Make Money with Web Design

• Zero tolerance for spam and people being eejits.
• Leading from the top.
• Creates a great community.
• Log into Facebook | Facebook

Arne Giske's group about, ahem, "helping entrepreneurs grow thriving FB groups around their brands to scale up faster"

• Bit spammy content from people in the group, but watch what he does (take with a pinch of salt too).
• Log into Facebook | Facebook

Dan Meredith's group "Coffee with Dan"

• Big personality. Interesting to watch what he does.
• Not my cup of tea, but some good pointers.
• Log into Facebook | Facebook

The Art of High-Ticket Selling

• Recently recommended to me. I've requested access, but am not in yet.
• Log into Facebook | Facebook

@Fox has a great thread here btw:

• Ask Me Anything - Growing a Web Design School and FB Group (3500+ Members atm)

As with everything:

BEWARE BECOMING A CONSUMER!!


​

 

[Andy Black]

I've been joining a lot of groups lately. Learning about online course creation. Seen a few people giving out some great advice and value, but overall it's overwhelmingly full of people just trying to hook people in.

I'm aware of it, and see right through it, but a tonne of people don't. It's a bit of a cancer...

Don't post shit with no value. Don't add people as a friend and send them bs messages pretending to be friendly and in the same position as them when all you are trying to do is sell to them. Don't post dumb effing fake pics of your "new house in spain"

I'm so sick of these leeches, and the course creation scene seems to be full of them. Sad thing is they are on both sides though. One of these guys asked to see what course everyone is working on (so he can fish them later, he also happened to forget to reply to the questions asking what his course is about, I'll let you guess what it is lol), but the results were not pretty.

Huge lack of people selling courses on anything worthwhile. God damn there is a bunch of crap out there. But that's for another topic.

It's super simple to stand out though.

Never ask people to PM you.

Never plug your course or services.

Add value with no expectation of anything in return.

 

[WebSearchROI]

Austin reached out to me a couple of days ago via my website.

I offered to jump on a call and help him out, and at the start of the call I tried to piece together how he came across me, found my content, and worked out I was someone he wanted to speak to.

Here's that part of the call:

View: https://youtu.be/rHokl4skVjY

Thanks for the call Andy!

 

[Youngkody]

This is very insightful for me.. I recently signed up for a bunch of forums to promote my blog site (which is new to me cause I've never participated in forums before).. I came across the Fast Lane forum and I'm actually loving it.. going to try to contribute as much as I can..

Last night I installed and started reading the "UNSCRIPTED " book. I'm excited to get home tonight to continue reading so I can continue where I left off..

I've always thought of life this way but never was able to put it in such vivid words which is why I love the book.

Hoping to read the book quickly and soak in all the knowledge so I can provide better answers related to the book on this forum...

I did always wonder how people contribute so much though.. and I think your answer summed that up..

I'm going to begin building solutions for frequent and repetitive questions thanks @Andy Black

 

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[Aaron T]

The majority of people have a very negative mindset to making money, entrepreneurism, capitalism, rich people.. etc. Unfortunately there is this huge movement globally of people thinking they deserve things that they did not earn. As a result even bringing up topics around wanting to make money, or earning your way, or showing a lack of entitlement even can get you in a bunch of hot water online.

Case in point, one of my good friends early on in my life really got on me after I started making a really good living because I bought a nice house, nicer than I needed in his opinion, and I didn't just get a smaller modest house and donate the rest. Now politics or social anything aside, I definitely involve myself in many charities. Back then, and now. But he lost it. We ended up not speaking for a long time.

Then one day out of the blue he reached out to me. He was facing a conundrum and wanted to know how I would resolve it. He (as a developer) was earning a good living. He wanted to buy a Tesla Model S because it was the right thing to do for the environment (his words, not trying to start an argument) but the costs for what he wanted would push the car over 100k and he thought that was a terrible waste of money that could be sent to help needy people. I gave him some advice. He got the car in the end. He still feels guilty.

This is the kind of world we live in. He is a great guy. We are friends again. But when this is the norm for most people that may never earn enough to even have his conundrum, yet they judge you. Well that is why online places like FB Groups can be so contentious for people who want to live Unscripted and try to offer helpful advice. You even see that kind of thing play out in these very forums.

 

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[Andy Black]

In other news...

I deleted the Facebook app from my phone and have effectively stopped posting in Facebook groups. I check Facebook everyday in case someone from my own private group has posted a question or otherwise needs help.


Why have I dropped out of Facebook groups?

Dayum but Mr Zuckerberg is 100% focused on turning me into his consumer.

It was worth deep-diving into Facebook groups to see what's happening, how it's happening, and why it's happening.

I was able to help people, but the worst of it was the transient nature of all content produced. I found myself writing the same things out again and again.

I couldn't find previous content I'd written as it was buried deep beneath the content produced in the last few hours.

The good thing about forums is you can find previous threads and link to them. Threads can also run for years on forums, whereas they seem to be designed to have a very limited shelf-life on Facebook.

Be careful of being turned into a consumer! Even trying to help people and be a producer I ended up having to consume the same questions again and again.

 

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[focusedlife]

← New fan and follower of @Andy Black right here.

Thanks for the gold bombs all over the place.

 

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[Fox]

There is a lot going on with FB groups right now and it will be interesting to see which way it goes.

Lots of groups in the business/entrepreneur stage are trying to group hack their way to big numbers.
They do this in quite a few ways but the end result is a "super active" group that doesn't really stand for anything. There is a lot of engagement but the signal to noise ratio is way off. It is very tempting to go down that road but I try avoid it and stick to having a really solid community.

I struggle a lot with my group in many ways. It is just over a year now and I am around 4,500 people. On one hand I would love more engagement (even though its at around 20,000 comments/likes a month) but I also want to keep quality really, really high. I always want to respect the time of anyone who checks out the page. So if it is a super high value poster who just dropped a massive post or it is a newbie I want to make sure they have a great experience. Just like a nightclub you got to look after the people who are bringing everyone else to the club.

The other side of that is removing anyone who brings a negative experience to others. These might be spammers, people looking to feed off your group for their own gain, idiots, or just people who are in the wrong place. I either try correct them or just straight ban them depending on what I think their intentions are. Just got to not be afraid to ban even if it is people who have been around for a while. There are plenty of other groups so if people aren't on board to help others I remove them fast.

The next year will be really interesting as I start doing YouTube and the group probably becomes much more popular. I want to try keep the culture but also see if it is possible to grow a little faster. Thats the main challenge right now.

 

[Andy Black]

So I’m busy working away this morning and get a Facebook message telling me I’ve been tagged as “The XYZ Guy” in a reasonably big Facebook group of business owners.

Pretty cool to be tagged by other people as “The XYZ Guy” right?

Cooler still that I got tagged by the owner of that group.

Even cooler that it was the group owner who messaged me to make sure I’d spotted she’d tagged me.

Do you add value in such a way that group owners tag and message you to come back into the group to help their members?

Or are you doing that hit-and-run numbers game?

 

[Andy Black]

Ha. I forgot about this thread.

I've been a lot quieter in the forum over the last few months because I've been much more active on Facebook. I'm starting to really get the hang of it.

It's exactly the same as being in the forum, which is exactly the same as meeting people in real life. What works is to first off make friends, have fun, don't be a d*ck, and don't be spammy.

I finally got over myself and put a bit of business onto my Facebook profile. Not too much as I don't like it when profiles scream business on them. I then posted an "I'm thinking of doing XYZ. Who's interested?" type of post and got a load of people raising their hands. Two weeks later I've had 11 people sign up to a new paid membership I created and join a brand new Facebook group.

I didn't know I'd have so much fun on Facebook.

Posted in a paid Facebook group I'm a member of:






This was my post a few weeks ago (probably 2/3 of the comments are mine mind!):

 

[Andy Black]

How specifically did you do this with Facebook groups rather than forums? Comment with advice on different posts created by others and if you ended up repeating yourself enough to see a need, creating your own post that you can tag people in within a forum whenever it pops up again? I don't think you can post a link to another post within that group like you can on a forum, can you.

I saw a post the other day in a group (you may have seen it too, I think you are in this particular group) where someone mentioned his success from helping people with questions in groups but also offering a free "strategy session" call as a follow up (I think after they already initiated a private message) where he would give advice for free, make a soft offer (maaaybe) and if it isn't right for them to still leave the call at the end with 3 things they can work on right now to get on the right path and help solve their problems. Even though his post on this was supposed to be informative of what can be achieved by doing this, he received almost 400 likes, tonnes of positive comments and tagging of others in comments, and a solid few days of doing nothing but replying to responses and messages caused by this post in itself asking for free strategy sessions (of which about 1/3 convert).

Interested to hear your thoughts on this, but I think it's a bit pushier than what you talk about in your pm me thread (I should have read that again before posting this, will do so again now). I haven't really done his post justice though with my poor attempt at describing it. It really didn't come across as a guy trying hard to sell people, but more like what helping people on groups with problems without expecting a return can lead to.

I haven't done that linking to posts thing in Facebook groups. The content is so transient it's hard to find. What I have done a lot is start answering someone, find I write something quite meaty, then copy/paste/slightly amend it to other groups, LinkedIn, my blog, and even TFLF.

I can't quite picture what that guy did. Like an AMA or just mentioning he'd do a free call? I'm on social media platforms quite a bit, but have so far avoided AMAs or offering free calls to all comers. The AMA might be interesting. Free calls would have to be much more restricted.

A solid few days of replying to comments isn't how I use social media... that sounds like a full-time job, while I make it the sand or pebbles that fit between the rocks of my day.

It doesn't sound like that much fun either tbh. Maybe group calls, or those live Q&As might work? (FB live? Webinar?)

He set the bar high with that though, so I'll think about what effect me doing something similar might have.

Question to ponder: "How can I 10x the number of people I help in one day?"

 

[banjoa]

Hi Andy,

Thanks For this gold bomb. I can say this truly works.

Imagine this scenario:

What if you keep on answering people's questions and dropping tidbits here and there on forums and such.

And then sales don't roll in. People are raving about your contents and keep asking for help and you keep delivering without charging, when exactly do you go for the sale yourself if people don't automatically ask to buy an offer?

Inbound Lead Generation WITHOUT Buying Ads
(I wrote this recently in reply to someone.)

I started this years ago and it started generating leads for me, to the point where I get inbound emails, Facebook messages, Forum PMs, or Skype messages ... every. single. day.

Here's what I did, and the mindset I had (and have), and why I think it works.

...

Find busy forums or Facebook groups where you can *** help people ***.

It's important to get your mindset right and go looking for people you can help, NOT to go looking for people who you think will pay you.

Join in and help people. Respond to questions. Start writing. Your expertise will tumble out of yourself in your desire to help people.

When you've tidied up your post, you can then drop it onto your blog, and other places where you can help people.

Look at some of the posts I've started in here. Many (most?) of them start as replies to someone. I then repurpose them and drop them on my blog and into other Facebook groups.

...

Want to position yourself as "The XYZ Guy"?

Help people with XYZ.

...

How has this looked for me?

1)I've literally grown my business in the last few years by inbound leads. People from forums and Facebook groups either contact me direct, OR they refer me to other people. I'm positioned as "The XYZ Guy" and that makes me easily referrable. This has resulted in 6 figures of revenue for me.

2) I've built a big network and even if I stopped posting I'd still get inbound leads for a good few months (maybe years). Last week I had 4 excellent Skype calls. One was from connection I made cold on LinkedIn, 2 were from people who've read some of my content and were super excited to speak to me, and 1 had been referred to me by someone who read my content a couple of years ago.

3) I've a MASSIVE library of content built up now. I'd consider myself incognito online. I've not been trying to "build an audience". I've been trying to help people, and it's built a small following (and "social proof"), and a load of content that I KNOW helps people, and that I can now package up to use as the "lead magnets" and email courses for paid advertising campaigns.

...

Why is important that you want to help?

1) People can sniff out all that content marketing lead generation cr@p within seconds. You'll get little traction if you adopt the "content marketing" strategies that are touted by experts who want you to buy their content marketing products or services.

2) People won't refer anyone to you if they think their friend is going to get hard sold to, pitched, or generally meet someone who they're going to be embarrassed sending them to.

3) People like to help people. Simple really. If you helped them and they know someone else who needs that help then they'll WANT to refer them to you.

4) Create an imbalance in the world. Give without expectation of anything in return. The universe and the world will try and correct that imbalance.

Too foo-foo for you? If someone had a $99 30 minute call with you and you talked for 2 hours then you're going to be super grateful. If they don't charge you more then you're going to recommend the heck out of them to other people.

Over-deliver and it'll come back in other ways.

Got it?

...

What's your takeaways?

What will you incorporate into your own strategies?

...

If you've any questions fire away.

,

 

[Andy Black]

I can see he genuinely loves that it takes him one minute to stop people from making a mistake that would cost them thousands and months of work.

This sentence encapsulates why I'm in this forum and Facebook groups.

I came because I didn't want people to lose sh*tloads of money building stuff, to find no-one wants it.

I ended up getting clients, and "content" out of it...

 

[MattR82]

The majority of people have a very negative mindset to making money, entrepreneurism, capitalism, rich people.. etc. Unfortunately there is this huge movement globally of people thinking they deserve things that they did not earn. As a result even bringing up topics around wanting to make money, or earning your way, or showing a lack of entitlement even can get you in a bunch of hot water online.

Case in point, one of my good friends early on in my life really got on me after I started making a really good living because I bought a nice house, nicer than I needed in his opinion, and I didn't just get a smaller modest house and donate the rest. Now politics or social anything aside, I definitely involve myself in many charities. Back then, and now. But he lost it. We ended up not speaking for a long time.

Then one day out of the blue he reached out to me. He was facing a conundrum and wanted to know how I would resolve it. He (as a developer) was earning a good living. He wanted to buy a Tesla Model S because it was the right thing to do for the environment (his words, not trying to start an argument) but the costs for what he wanted would push the car over 100k and he thought that was a terrible waste of money that could be sent to help needy people. I gave him some advice. He got the car in the end. He still feels guilty.

This is the kind of world we live in. He is a great guy. We are friends again. But when this is the norm for most people that may never earn enough to even have his conundrum, yet they judge you. Well that is why online places like FB Groups can be so contentious for people who want to live Unscripted and try to offer helpful advice. You even see that kind of thing play out in these very forums.

Well said.

I was a bit taken back by it when I saw it (Even though I wasn't directly involved in the conversation) but if your main goal is to start by helping people, fb groups and the like is a no brainer, and worth dealing with the occasional pissed off idealist I suppose.

 

[Andy Black]

Interesting LinkedIn PM:

 

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[Andy Black]

He was doing similar to you, helping people by commenting on pain points in groups. Then when people would initiate a private conversation with him he would talk, and then if it felt right, offer a free strategy call. No idea how long the call was though. But he wasn't making it public that he was offering a free strategy call. Then in the call, if it felt right he would make a,soft offer, if they hadn't enquired already (which many did). If they didn't take it up, he would give them 3 things to help move forward with their situation (I think it was related to digital marketing in this instance).

When he posted about this process on another group to show what's possible by doing this, he was inundated even more with pm's and signups. And made the figures kinda available to show the results, in the same post. Made the point that he want taking on any more clients at the moment, but this is what can happen.

I was thinking about your question of how to scale helping people x 10. You are already across a bunch of platforms, Yeah?

I don't know for sure, but is your posting on Snapchat, YouTube etc kind of random in when they are uploaded? I really like the webinar/fb live idea to reach more people but not get bogged down in too many 1 on 1 calls like you said. I was a member of a course that did a live webinar once per week (60 to 70 mins, about product licensing, with a different topic every week), at the same time every time. I enjoyed it so would plan my previous night and that day around it (because of the time zone I was watching it at 7am every Friday morning). Watching a live webinar that I can be involved in by typing questions was MUCH more appealing and interesting to me than viewing a pre recorded one. I used to look forward to it so much and knowing it was always on, at the same time, the same day kept it always in my mind. They had evolved the webinar over the years and didn't even bother using live video anymore, just audio from about 5 people running it, all in different locations around the US, and they used like a PowerPoint slide show style. Didn't feel like I was missing out not having the video of them. Maybe a mix of both would be good. But as they were all in different locations.. I don't think I want to watch a video with a bunch of little boxes with people's faces in them. They did an introduction at the beginning on a slide with everybody's face on it so you knew who was doing the webinar that week and had a visual of them to sort of make a connection to the voice.

This is just my opinion and how I feel, but I preferred the webinar with a login to Facebook live. Weird as it's a bit harder to access. Maybe it's similar to the concept of people not valuing something because it's free if you know what I mean.

You got me thinking now.. I would find it really cool to see you do a webinar at the same day and time every week, where you spend some time linking up with some well known FLF titans with audio (or even some of us small fries) and you could dedicate some time at the mid way point or end to making it an AMA for others (hopefully relating to the topic you are discussing that week), including people on forums and Facebook groups that reach out to you as a result of your helpful posts - You could offer access to the webinar where they can discuss and see something relating to their problem - rather than offering a strategy call 1 on 1. I'm sure you would see it mentioned and shared within those groups pretty quickly.

I'm not enrolled in the course I was talking about anymore, so a spot just opened up for me to watch a great webinar on a Friday morning (Thursday night for you I believe, hint hint ). I would be fascinated to see something like that!

Rep+. Thanks for all your thoughts and taking the time to write them.

I may have a play with webinars or live. I did a Periscope once and had a ball, even thought everyone who joined did so completely randomly and I was fielding random questions.

 

[MattR82]

Apart from using Facebook groups for helping people and identifying pain points, I can't believe how much I learn from being in them. I purposely stopped following most friends and my feed is full of comments and questions from groups. Now instead of using Facebook to waste time I'm always learning. It's such an easy and enjoyable way to do it. Pretty much every waking hour of the day I'm learning some serious gold.

 

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[MattR82]

I'd say that's all down to poor admin? @Fox has a swift ban hammer and that keeps his group a valuable resource.

Hmm... maybe I should correct that. Is it down to Facebook groups becoming a "channel" for lead generation, and admins now have to fight hard to keep the spammers and trolls out of their groups?

And trying to find the why behind the why... Why are Facebook groups (becoming?) such a big channel for spammers now?

Fox's group is like a diamond in the rough.

I dunno, it almost seems to me that admin in some of those other groups have gone on siesta and just don't give a crap anymore. You don't see regular posts from the admin or moderators in those ones either, which seems to be a common denominator. And some of them have over 50k members.

 

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[ZF Lee]

What would happen if you engaged the market in hand-to-hand combat instead of surveying them?

What would happen if you welcomed the high-friction?

I once heard a saying that went like this:

'If you want to know me, come and live with me!'

 

[Andy Black]

Ha. Look what I found again:

• https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055721635

 

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