Last week we share some free ebooks on Social Media. Here are some more I found. Most are PDFs and can be read offline.

14 Free eBooks about Social Media

1. Amber Naslund – Getting a Foothold in Social Media
2. Brian Solis – The Essential Guide to Social Media
3. Chris Brogan - Social Media and Network Starting Points
4. MarketingApple.com – Marketing Apple
5. Peter Pixel – Good Usability
6. Amber Naslund. – The Social Media Starter Kit
7. Philip Sheldrake – The Social Web Analytics ebook
8. Positioning Strategy – The New Rules of Business Blogs
9. Amber Naslund – Social Media Time Management
10. PRSA – Blogs & Social Media
11. SEOBook – Google Adwords Secrets
12. Brian Solis -The Art of Listening and Engagement Through Social Media
13. Skellie – The Simple Web: A Philosophy for Getting What You Want
14. US Air Force Public Affairs Agency – New Media and the Air Force

Other Free eBooks?

If you know of other free books, please add them below.

If you’re looking for some primers on Social Media, in particular how to make money from Facebook and Twitter, then these 25 free ebooks including Brian Solis, Chris Brogan, Chris Penn, and John Jantsch will get you started.

What I like about these books is the high quality and effort from the authors. In some ways, these ebooks express what’s best about Social Media and sharing information.

25 Free eBooks about Social Media

1. Amber Naslund - Building a Social Media Team

2. Antony Mayfield - What is Social Media?

3. Blizzard Internet – SEO for WordPress blogs

4. Brian Solis – The Art and Science of Social Media and Community Relations

5. Chris Brogan - Mapping Social Media to the Buying Cycle

6. Christopher S. Penn – Podcast Marketing eBook

7. Cory Doctorow - Content

8. Craig Rentmeester – We Have a Website. Now What?

9. CRM Transformation – Increasing Your Email Marketing Program

10. David Meerman Scott – The New Rules of Viral Marketing

11. Duct Tape Marketing – Guide to Using Twitter for Business

12. Dynamic Copywriting – Marketing With Case Studies

13. Edison Media Research – Podcast Customer Revealed

14. Effective Internet Presence – Effective Internet Presence

15. Geekpreneur – Promoting Yourself With Twitter

16. Geisheker Group – How to Write a Marketing Plan

17. Hunter Nutall – Zen of Blogging

18. iCrossing – What is Social Media

19. Jeff Hayzlett – Social Media Tips: Sharing lessons learned to help your business grow

20. John Jantsch- Let’s Talk: Social Media for Small Business,

21. Jono Bacon - The Art of Community

22. SmashLab – Primer in Social Media

23. Social Web Analytics – Social Web Analytics

24. Stacie Mahoe Get Viral Get Visitors

25. Startup Internet Marketing – Masters of Marketing

Other Free eBooks?

If you know of other free books, please add them below.

In the UK, Barclays Bank report that semi-retired workers are responsible for 50% more start-ups than 10 years ago. In the UK, 67% of small business owners are over 45, while a mere 8.7% are under 34. Such data suggests that running a business actually plays to the strengths of older people. One area where my friends have done well is in Business Consultancy for small businesses (SMEs).

Three Types of Business Consultant

In general, there are 3 types of consultants:

• Academic – Those with academic achievements, e.g. PhDs, who are brought in to solve/explore/test
• Management – Those with Management skills, such as in M&A, legal etc and
• Specialists – Those who’ve moved from 9-5 occupations and now want to work for themselves and/or have others working for them.

How to get started as a Business Consultant

Let’s look at how you can get started as Business Consultant and start your own business.

“They tend to be successful at starting new businesses because they do the right things,” says Mike Rogers, managing director of small business and start-ups at Barclays. “They do the planning, they are well-financed and they have accumulated wisdom. “They also define success in their own terms. They don’t want to take on the world, they just want to supplement their income or keep themselves busy,” he told BBC News Online.

As well as preparing business plans, new business owners need to make sure they are totally committed, says Mr Rogers from Barclays. “They have to take into account the demands on themselves and their time, and on their families.”

Research also suggested that older people find running their own business less stressful than their younger peers. Why? Only 27% of owners over 50 run their business as the only source of income in the household.

Ok, how do I get started?

1. Identify your top 3 business skills (not technologies).
2. Write a pen portrait (100 words max) of how you see this person. If you were introducing this person to someone you’d say “This is Robert,…” Focus on the benefits you offer, not the tools. Start to visualize the person/consultant you want to become.
3. Anticipate Problems – Chris Brogan made a very interesting observation recently when he said that he tries to be there before the fire starts. What he meant was that everyone wants to help (sell you something) when things go wrong but it’s the people you know before it happened that count. Tom Peters, Chris Brogan, Branson, ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ have all helped me in different ways.
4. Identify 3 business leaders and use them as role models.
   For me, Richard Branson is a good example, for you it might be someone else. Read everything about these people, soak up how they made it. It’s not in the words of their bio – but the energy, the drive they had. Having a role model gives you a frame of reference, something to use as a compass/anchor.
5. Join Foursquare and contact 10 people who are in a similar position/industry as you. Meet up on the weekends and see how you can help each other.
   Remember, you’re looking to link up with people for the long haul. Ignore the tire-kickers. Find 1 or 2 decent people that you trust and keep connecting with them.
6. Create one business target with these folks. For example, aim to run an event, workshop, training course (whatever) by a specific date. You have to have targets, otherwise nothing will happen.
7. Create an Action Plan and assign tasks to each member
8. Be consistent – If you keep this up for 3 months, you’ll change your perception of who you are. Also, by getting out and meeting people, you’ll learn things. The web is great for starting relationship but the human touch is what makes the connection more personal.
9. Define you USP – I know this sounds predictable but you have to differentiate yourself from the competition. This is the key. If you become ‘that guy’ who does, for example, Adobe Air training, Social Media business communications, Proposal development for biotechnology, then you can work towards dominating this one area.
10. Once you have all your ducks in a line, start getting the message out. Write guest articles in blogs, contribute to events, share information on LinkedIn, send free White Papers to people in your target market – do whatever it takes to promote yourself (and your colleagues) so that you become that guy.
11. Use Personal branding to get your site, business cards, sharp suit etc in place. People still judge on appearances. If you look successful…
12. Network. Look for places to get out and meet people. People do business with people they meet.

I bet there are people in this group in a similar situation as yourself. Try to connect with them and I’m sure it will start to happen. One last thing – the harder you try, the luckier you get.

Update: One of the paradoxes of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter is that everyone is in such a rush to get their opinion heard, that they ignore other folk’s comments. They miss the opportunity to create a dialogue.

Commenting on others’ comments helps explore topics and, if you’re considering moving into consultancy, gives you an opportunity to soft sell your expertise. Find sites aligned to your business area, join the conversation and then make some useful suggestions. Pretty soon you’ll build a following and start to get enquiries for people looking to pick your brains…

For some, the term ‘Business Consultancy’ seems a bit intimidating. “It’s not for me” I’ve heard some say. But, it may not be true. There are different types of Business Consultancies and maybe you’re a lot closer than you think.

About the Author: Ivan Walsh shares Business Tips for Hungry Entrepreneurs at Klariti. He also runs a blog on Writing Business Plans at www.IvanWalsh.com

What’s the right way to comment on other people’s blogs? Ari reckons that comments should be unique. Don’t write the same comment on every blog; don’t drone on if your point can be made quicker. Be unique, quick & current. I agree with the first two but not the third. How you comment on other blogs is noticed by others. If all you say is ‘great post’, you’re losing an opportunity to contribute and offer an opinion. You have opinions, right?

How To Be Current & Avoid Capturing the Zeitgeist

First, do you need to be current? Don’t think so. Being ‘current’ doesn’t apply to all sites. Yes, to news, media, chat, gossip, sports and other stories of the day. But others, not so sure. Look at Jakob Nielsen as an example.

• Take the Long View – Most of my articles are written with a long view. For example, I write about business planning. The material is more educational that capturing the zeitgeist. You could have read it 10 years ago (or in 10 years time) and it would still be relevant.
• Avoid the Zeitgeist – if you write about the news of the day, well, next week it’s old hat.
• What to say – If you don’t have something that adds to the conversation – or challenges the writer’s argument – then it’s not worth posting. That’s my take, anyway. I don’t agree with Ari all the time but I still read his site… and I let him know where/how our views differ.

I honestly believe this is what he wants. Not another fawning high five. 

How To Enhance Your Blog Comments

Here’s another example. I read Chris Brogan almost every day. A very smart puppy & hard not to like. 
But what interesting to see (at least for me) is that:

• Almost no-one ever challenges what he says.
• Most genuflect to his opinions, i.e. take for granted what he says as gospel
• Give the obligatory high five, another great post’ and
• Nothing else.

What Chris Brogan really Wants

Here is the problem.

Chris Brogan, Brian Clark, and Valeria Maltoni are all leaders in their fields.

• They’d like to have an alternative opinion. Not for the sake of people being contrary, obnoxious or difficult but to stimulate more discussion.
• This makes their blog more interesting. 
• They want you to interact.
• They want your (honest) opinion.
• They want you to step forward and share what you know.
• They’re learning too!

Do you agree with me?

If you don’t, let me know below.

Have you noticed this obsession with speed? Everyone is doing things, real fast. Even failure has to be fast. Fail fast is the new mantra. Christopher S. Penn takes up this point, ‘Ever done this? You see a traffic jam ahead, get off at the next exit, and spend 30 extra minutes on side and back roads to go around the jam… which in reality is only a 10 minute traffic jam? This is the dabbler. This is the person who fails too fast.’ Do you fail too fast?

The Dunning-Kruger Effect

Chris Penn discussed the Dunning-Kruger effect where:

• Incompetent people are so limited by their abilities and lack of competence that they don’t realize they’re incompetent.
• Competent are the last to get the memo.
• When it comes to goal-only perspectives… your lack of meta-cognitive awareness about your limitations means that if you give up all the time, if you abandon ship too fast, you will NEVER reach excellence.

Do you see what he’s getting at?

How To Fail Slowly

Here’s my thoughts:

• Speed is sickness.
• I lived in the US for eight years. I felt guilty if I wasn’t doing something, always on the go.
• But some things can’t be rushed, like trust, friendship, and appreciation. You can’t enjoy Mozart in a rush.
• Today I live in China. It’s just as busy. But, here’s the difference. The expectation here is that certain things have to be done slowly.
• Ever been to a dinner with Chinese-business men? There’s a reason it lasts 4 or 5 hours. They want to see who really you are… after you’ve had a few drinks and loosened up.
• Like another person said on Chris Brogan’s site, the golden mean in everything, i.e. balance.

Many people are driving 100 mph down an alleyway. Sometimes it’s good to pause for a moment.

What do you think? Are we failing too fast?

Most people think it’s difficult start a career as a business consultant. I used to think the same in my early 20s when I started in IT.

In retrospect, I should have made more efforts to establish myself as a consultant earlier; the benefits certainly outweigh the downsides. As luck would have it, I was forced into a consultancy role when I lost my 9-5 job. Time to learn to hustling and bring in business. Harvard Business Review refers to it as The Hustle Strategy. More on that later.

3 Types of Business Consultant

Before we start, there are 3 types of consultants:

1. Academic — those with academic achievements, e.g. PhDs, who are brought in to solve/explore/test problems. Their skills match the problem at hand. So you have it or you don’t.
2. Management — those with senior management skills, such as in M&A, legal, international business development and
3. Solutions — this includes the broad spectrum of 9-workers who’ve ‘repositioned’ their skills, want to work for themselves and/or have others working for them. This, I assume, it where you fit in. It’s where most consultants start out.

How to get started as a Business Consultant

The next question is: how do I get started? Here’s one way of approaching it.

1. Focus — identify your top 3 skills (not technologies). Be honest. If someone put a gun to your head and said “what are the three things you do best?”, then you’d say ”what I do best is…”
2. How do you see yourself — write a pen portrait (100 words max) of how you see yourself. So, if you were introducing yourself person to someone at a conference, you’d say “Hi, this is Amanda she,….” Remember, focus on the benefits you offer, not the tools. Tip – Start to visualize the person/consultant you want to become.
3. Role Models — identify 3 business leaders and use them as role models. For me, Richard Branson is a good example, for you it might be someone else. Read everything about these people, soak up how they made it. It’s not in the words of their bio – but the energy, the drive they had. Having a role model gives you a frame of reference, something to use as a compass/anchor.
4. Meet and Greet — Contact 10 people who are in a similar position as yourself. Meet up, for example, on a Saturday afternoon and see how you can help each other. Remember, you’re looking to link up with people for the long haul. Ignore the tire-kickers. Find 1 or 2 decent people that you trust and keep connecting with them.
5. Be the Glue — Define one common goal with these folks and make it happen. For example, aim to run an event, workshop, training course (whatever) by a specific date. You have to have targets, otherwise nothing will happen. It will just be talking shop.
6. Action Plan — doesn’t need to be fancy. List what needs to be done, assign names, and dates.
7. Examine your USP – I know this sounds lame but you have to differentiate yourself from the competition. This is the key. If you become ‘that guy’ who does, for example, Facebook training, Social Media business communications, Proposal development for biotechnology or whatever, then laser focus on this. Your aim is to dominate this one area. You have to become ‘that guy’.
8. Promotion — once you’ve all your ducks lined up, start getting the message out. Write guest articles in blogs, contribute to events, share information on LinkedIn, send free White Papers to people in your target market – do whatever it takes to promote yourself (and your colleagues) so that you become you become ‘that girl’. Girls, when I say ‘that guy’ I mean both guys and girls. You know that, right?
9. Personal branding – get your site, business cards, sharp suit etc in place. People still judge on appearances. If you look successful…
10. Network — Look for places to get out and meet people. People do business with people they meet. Again, it doesn’t have to be fancy. Find fast ways to meet up and find out where it’s happening. Tip – if you’re a single mom, link up with other parents who want to run their own business and take turns minding each other’s kids:  that way you both get one night a week to get out there and network.
11. Stick to the plan — If you keep this up for 3 months, you’ll change your perception of who you are and also by meeting people, you’ll learn new things. While the web is great, the human touch is what counts.
12. Follow the leader — Tom Peters, Chris Brogan, Richard Branson, ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ have all helped me in different ways.

Chris Brogan made a very interesting observation recently when he said that he tries to be there ‘before the fire starts’. What he meant was that everyone wants to help (i.e. sell you something) when things go wrong but it’s the people you know before it happened that count. I bet there you’ve been in that similar situation yourself. It’s the people you already know that you trust.

One last thing – the harder you try, the luckier you get. Take it one step at a time. Remember the turtle and the hare. Use everyday opportunities as ways to close the gap between where you are and where you want to go.

PS: Started to read this. Impressed so far. Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust

What’s your first step?

What advice would you give to those who want to start as a Business Consultant? What’s the one mistake they must avoid? What’s the best tip you ever got on starting your own business?

Chris Brogan writes: Blogs are not traditional media, and bloggers are not journalists. Unless they are. But it’s not a requirement.

A blog is software. It’s something one puts up on the web to capture information, of whatever type one wants to put on there, and thus, if anyone tells you that you’re doing it wrong, that’s just silly. There aren’t very many wrong ways to do it (legal things like stealing from others might be something you could screw up, but otherwise). And yet.

If you’re going to blog seriously, consider the following:

• Consider the goals and value of your posts. Are you adding to a body of work? Are you blogging to educate, inform, deliver some value?
• Facts do matter. If you’re stating opinions, stress that they’re opinions. If you’re claiming a fact, try to cite it. (I tend to state mostly opinions).
• Remember that defamation is still an issue, potentially legal.
• You can always ask questions BEFORE you blog (novel, I know).
• Brevity matters. I know that I blog about this often. I just see several posts where one has to wade through to try and decipher the salient points (often my own).
• Disclosure is key. If you’re doing something to make money, if you have a business relationship with an organization that you’re writing about, if there’s anything that might potential change the way something is perceived were it be to be measured against what you wrote, consider that.
• Link when you’re mentioning other sites or information that has a link. It’s good manners. It’s the way the Web works. It’s more resources. Linking only to yourself says something about you (and it’s not flattering).
• Review the body of your work every 10 or so posts. Are you improving?
• Review the body of your work every 30 or so posts against the most recent. Are you repeating?
• Review the body of your work against 5 other blogs in your space. Are you an echo?
• Ask yourself WHY you’re posting what you’re posting. Pretend you’re the reader. Is this worth their time?
• What else could you be doing with your blog to add value to your core community?

There are lots of reasons to be blogging: capture your thoughts, share moments, build relationships, establish thought leadership, sell electric toothbrushes, whatever. None of them are especially wrong. But if you’re going to blog with the perspective that you are a professional, give it your best. Your audience deserves it.

About Chris Brogan

Chris Brogan is President of New Marketing Labs, a new media marketing agency, and home of the Inbound Marketing Summit conferences and Inbound Marketing Bootcamp educational events.

Article source: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/if-you-intend-to-blog-seriously/

Do you want to update your blog every day?

Chris Brogan provides this framework for writing a blog post (almost) every day. He adds that while it’s not easy, once you develop the right habits, they stick with you. I’m writing quite regularly now, but it took me several years to get my groove down to a science.

Tips on How to Blog Every Day

1. Read something new every day. Try Alltop. (Hint: read something outside your particular circle to get new thoughts).
2. Talk with people every day. I get many of my topic ideas from questions people pose to me, or through conversations.
3. Write down titles and topic ideas in a notepad file. (I’ve given you 100 blog topics and another 20 blog topics just to get started.)
4. Maintain a healthy bookmarking and revisiting habit. Delicious.com
5. Find 20-40 minutes in every day to sit still and type.
6. Follow an easy framework. Here are 27 blogging secrets to start you on what I mean.
7. Get the post up fast, not perfect. You can edit if you have to, later. Perfectionism kills good habits.
8. Dissect other people’s posts to understand what makes them tick. The more you understand HOW they write, the more you can take the best parts of it into how you write. (hint, my 27 blogging secrets post gives you my patterns.)
9. Find useful and interesting pictures. I use Flickr photos licensed under Creative commons for most of my photos.
10. Think about what your customers and prospects need. I write from the perspective of the communities I serve. This focus takes some weight off my worries about what I should write about or not. I write about what my community needs.
11. My best advice about blogging.

How I Blog Every Day

I tend to use the inverted pyramid format when writing longer posts, i.e. as opposed to short snippets.
The “pyramid” is a triangle.

1. The top represents the most substantial, interesting, and important information you want to convey.

1. The middle section discusses the main points of your article, often as bullet points and

1. The tapered lower portion illustrates that other material should follow in order of diminishing importance.

Ken Blake, Ph.D. explains how it works on the Tennessee State University site: “Journalists use many different kinds of frameworks for organizing stories. Journalists may tell some stories chronologically. By far the simplest and most common story structure is one called the “inverted pyramid.”

http://mtsu32.mtsu.edu:11178/171/pyramid.htm and here on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_pyramid

Inverted Pyramids in Cyberspace

Jakob Nielsen adds that “On the Web, the inverted pyramid becomes even more important since we know from several user studies that users don’t scroll, so they will very frequently be left to read only the top part of an article. Very interested readers will scroll, and these few motivated souls will reach the foundation of the pyramid and get the full story in all its gory detail.”

References

Chris Brogan: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/how-to-blog-almost-every-day/

Chip Scanlan: http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=52&aid=38693

Jakob Nielsen http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9606.html

Having this model in mind helps me structure each article. I write a one sentence intro, break out the content in chunks, and then wrap up at the end with conclusion and/or questions.

Asking a question at the end can be a simple but effective way to encourage readers to post a comment.

What you think!

Ivan

Chris Brogan (read and bookmark!) just hit a new milestone.

He’s now getting over 600 emails a day on average. 50% were people asking me his time, 25% were “really nice people,” 20% were business opportunities, and 5% were friends. A quick bit of math: if he answered 1 email a minute, 600 emails would take me 10 hours to answer.

The thing is, we’re all busy. We all have tons of email. We have no time to get it all handled.

But what will you do to get your email answered (for the most part)?

I’ve got a few thoughts, and this relates to some of what Julien Smith and I talked about in Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust.

If you want to improve your chances of an email being answered by someone (like me), here are some thoughts and ideas.

How to Get Your Email Answered

1. Brevity.

I have no time for huge rambling emails. Lead with what you need from me. Fill me in on the backstory (if you feel you must), and then end again with what you need from me. (Most imporant part: lead with what you need from me).

2. Connectivity.

If you talk with me on other platforms (like comment on my blog or talk with me on Twitter or Facebook), then I’m much more likely to know who you are.

3. Skip the flattery.

PR types: starting with “I love your blog” and then pitching me something I could care less about is a bit of a mismatch. You clearly don’t understand my blog if you’re pitching me stories that don’t relate to what I’m doing.

4. Get right to it.

Most emails have about 200 words of throat-clearing. Feel free to just be brief and to the point.

5. Make it mutually beneficial.

It’s very nice that you want me to help you get attention, but it’s rare that this does anything for me. Is there anything you’re going to do for my community to make this more worthwhile for them to care about you?

6. Make every email about resolving to a close.

I hate open-ended emails. Examples: “what would you like for lunch tomorrow?” Instead, how about, “I’m thinking about either tapas or Korean BBQ tomorrow. Do you have a preference?” One makes things close faster. The other makes the message linger.

7. Give the right lead time.

Asking me for something today is probably not going to happen. Asking me for something in three months is going to be forgotten. Think more in terms of two weeks for a typical response, or two or three months for something involving travel. Make sense?

8. Equip a trust agent.

It’s easier to get some kind of response by having someone who knows your target person introduce you.

What else? What else do you think will help?

By the way, since I started my contact form, I’ve found that I *love* responding to information that goes through it. It resolves to a Google spreadsheet, and I can bang out several dozen answers a minute on the form.

Get Your Email Answered: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/get-your-email-answered/

Read: Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust