I’ve been doing some research about the best alternative membership software platform to use for some of our clients who don’t want to use SocialSAM as their platform (for whatever their reason may be…eg. they don’t like our look and feel, etc).

Anyway, after a long and exhaustive search…after looking at almost every open source platform out there, I’ve found a pretty good solution.  My criteria were:

- Multiple levels of membership with built in eCommerce/Recurring Billing

- Content Drip Capability (with every client having their personal timeline). Unfortunately, Wishlist Member does not have this feature.

- A Forum/BBS system for community members to collaborate – while not requiring them to log on to another system

- Flexible “skin” for better look and feel customization

The solution I found uses Wordpress with Buddypress and Digital Access Pass (DAP).

The beauty (and bonus) I found with this combo is that you don’t even need to pay a monthly fee with 1Shoppingcart/aWeber as DAP comes with its own built in autoresponder/list manager.  Of course, it’s not as robust as 1Shoppingcart, but for most people, the DAP sequential autoresponder works great.

The other really nice thing about DAP membership software is that it has it’s own built in Shoppingcart/eCommerce system…so you don’t need to pay for 1Shoppingcart.com fees also.

AND, it has it’s own built in affiliate tracking system, making each of your members an affiliate to your network automatically.  Smart.

Anyway, as I was trying to install these applications together, I ran into a lot of complications and problems.  I got to say, I take my hats off to Veena and Ravi at DAP.  They are AWESOME!  These people definitely stand behind their product.  I highly recommend their platform and their support is fantastic.

For the sake of helping everyone out, here’s 3 videos giving you specific step by step instructions on how to put these components together.  Specifically, what to do, and what NOT to do.

If you need help setting up a membership website, let me do it for you.  It will save you hundreds of hours of trial and error headache.  We’ll show you how to “do it right”.  For more information, come to www.thirdstagebusiness.com.

Enjoy.  Please comment.

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I was recently asked this very question by a consulting client of mine and it is not as cut and dried as you would think. Please allow me to explain by giving a couple of good examples.I will change the names but these are real world examples.

Example #1 Joe Get Rich Quick Guru

Company Background: This company sells informational course material and teaches people financial tips and tricks to making money with certain transactions. They however have a horribly bad history of customer service complaints, they virtually ignore their disgruntled customers, and frequently file lawsuits against anyone that says anything negative about them.

Social Marketing Campaign: This company sets up an “Open” forum for discussing and talking about their various money making strategies and how to improve them. They seed the system with bogus accounts filled with nothing but positive praises and hip hip hoorays.

The Result: They got tremendous growth, they were virtually flooded with customers, both paying and non paying interacting discussing the course material etc…. Unfortunately they were also flooded with many disgruntled customers that were complaining about the bad customer service and expressing genuine issues about the product. The company would block and kick these comments to the side and only allow comments that were positive in nature. This quickly backfired as the negative customer that were scorned just opened new accounts to further express their outrage and then began engaging the non paying customers and then BOOM it all came crashing down around their ankles.

THE VERDICT: Well most people would certainly consider this a failure and I understand how it can be hard to interpret this as anything but failure. And mostly it was a failure but not for the reasons you would think. In my opinion this simple strategy could have worked and actually very well. The major flaws were that the company was not ready willing and able to handle the negative feedback as it came up.  The amount of negative feedback that came in was an absolute goldmine of a missed opportunity. Negative customer feedback in an open forum can give you the opportunity to be real in ways never before imagined. The power of you handling a customers issue and making it right for the whole world to see is an invaluable message that can actually speak more praises to your customers than all the publicity in the world can. No consumer actually believes that all companies are perfect. We know in our hearts of hearts that any company has made someone mad for some reason. For that company to show the world how they deal with the unhappy customers makes potential customer much more comfortable in doing business and actually has been proven to lower complaints.  I won’t ultimately give this campaign a success rating but I will point out that it wasn’t the plan that was wrong it was the overall approach to the plan that was off.

I talk a lot about the “Rules of engagement” these are rules that apply across the board for all social media. It is these rules that must be followed religiously, and if followed virtually guarantee success.  The Rules of engagement were broken with this campaign and so regardless of their intent or planning it was doomed to fail before it started.

Example #2 Computer Company

Company background: This company sells desktops, laptops and other computer peripherals. While still in their infancy they are growing fast but the amount of complaints and the number of disgruntled customers is growing steadily.

Social Marketing Campaign: To actively seek out and look for all upset customers and find out what went wrong and earnestly try to fix it. As well setting up a public forum for customers past, present, and future to talk and discuss their products.

The Result: A complete and total success, this program yielded literally thousands of disgruntled customers all over the US and through open and honest dialogue the company was able to fix some, learn from others and leave the rest with the feeling that at least they had been heard. This is an excellent example of a social media success.

THE VERDICT: The company now continues to grow and is in the top tiers of business for their industry. I can only call this a success but I must point out that this success was not a weekend ad campaign or a well structured media blitz, it was a methodology and a religious practice that required participation and focused action for years. It took approximately 5 years to turn this company around but now they are one of the most respected names in computing.

The difference between both of these companies campaign was actually very little if at all. They both had the same approach to “Engaging” the customer but the way they handled and defined the customer engagement was a polar opposite. It was this particular detail that made all the difference in the world.

Defining Success: Both campaigns had their successes In example #1 the company was quickly and easily able to find their target customers. In fact their growth was fantastic and exponential at times. They were gaining real traction and success.  Any company that had a growth in their community like that I would call a raging success. Their would be no other term for it.  In fact example #1 had a faster growth rate on finding their customers than in example #2.  However comparing the execution of the policies and procedures it is easy to point out that example #2 was far more successful than example #1. The difference clearly was how the deal with and talked with their clients and the rules they used to govern their communities.

I don’t want anyone reading this to think that Example #1 was a failure. It was not and in fact this is the very problem that companies are faced with when putting a social media campaign together. They have things like ROI, or lead acquisition as the goal and they are actually throwing out some of their greatest success stories without really evaluating the commodity they are after.

The true commodity of social network marketing is called “Social Capital” this only comes from a continuously focused action, and a strict and disciplined following of the rules of engagement.  When followed the long term result will be a solid and happy customer base that will be fiercely loyal. And how can that result in anything but a bigger bottom line?

Questions? Comments? Please let me know what you think and what topics you want me to talk about.

Mike Waters

CTO SocialSAM

Twitter.com/mwaters5

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This is slightly off topic but is something I am quite mad about.

Imagine being able to just open your iPhone/iTouch and watch your favourite movie on Netflix.  You can with your favourite game console, Roku box, and on your computer.  Why wouldn’t you be able to do it on your iphone/iTouch?

I’ll tell you why.

Because Apple  is deliberately preventing Netflix from releasing this app on their platform.  They are afraid what would happen if people started using it enmass…it will hurt their iTunes sales.  And they’re scared.

Pure and Simple.

They would rather hurt their customers and preventing us from getting what we want because they can.  This is the problem with monopolies.

This is the biggest gripe I have with Apple.  This is why more and more people will eventually migrate over to Androit..an open platform without all these controls.

Can anyone say “What? No Flash support on a iTouch?”  That’s insanity!  It’s not because of incompatibility.  It’s just politics.  Pure and simple.

Let’s start a movement.  Start submitting comments to this post…or make your own.  Let Apply know your mind.

Sincerely

George Tran

Author of “The Social Marketing Manifesto”

Success Strategies for Small Businesses using Social Media

www.socialmarketingman.com

www.twitter.com/georgetran

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Sorry for the long absence.  Some of you might be wondering what I’ve been up to.  Well, here’s what I’ve been up to.

As you know, we launched SocialSAM in July and the product has been very well received.  Many people in the market place are aware of our platform and are talking about it to their friends.

We wanted to make our platform available to even more people.  As a result, we came up with a new web asset called “Third Stage Business”.  What is Third Stage (compared to a First Stage)?

A First Stage Business trades time for money.  Consulting, coaching, etc fall in this category.  A Second Stage is a company that have mastered time replication technologies and processes.  For example, an author or someone selling books or DCDs.  They no longer need to trade time for money.  Unfortunately, they still need to constantly go out and seek new clients to sell their products to.

A Third Stage Business is a company that fulfills this simple criteria: “Provides ONGOING VALUE for ONGOING compensation.”  Your Telecom company, your utility company, your web host company all fall under this.  If you stop paying them, you stop receiving service.  It is these principles that allowed me to build 1Shoppingcart.com…that enabled me to retire at an early age.  Truly retire.

I wanted to show people how they too can build their own true Third Stage Business, so I put together a program that steps people through the thought processes and methodologies of a Third Stage Business.

Some people might say, “Isn’t that just the same as putting a membership website together?”  It’s not.  The biggest difference is (and I am generalizing) is that most membership websites fail in the criteria: “Provides ONGOING VALUE for ONGOING compensation.”  They are good at the second part…but fail in the first.  Most membership websites simply have a “all you can eat” gateway policy.  Once you are in..you can download the entire library of content and leave.

So, over the last couple of months, I’ve been working hard on putting together a complete training program on Third Stage Business.  I just want to spend 6 minutes to show you what is involved so you understand.

6 min video showing you what is involved in a launch.

I hear some of you say, “sheesh”, that’s a lot of work. It is.

Here’s the difference.  I believe in “front loading” my work.  This means, I invest in the time to do it right up front…and get paid for my work months..if not years to come.  That’s the principle of a third stage business owner.  I work hard now so I don’t have to later.

Sincerely

George Tran

Author of “The Social Marketing Manifesto”
Success Strategies for Small Businesses using Social Media
www.socialmarketingman.com
www.twitter.com/georgetran

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What is Google Wave? What’s the big deal?

Why do I need it?

What can I do with it and how can it help me with my business?

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In this Third Part of our SocialSAMinar series, I talk about my personal philosophy for success in business in any economic climate.

To get the rest of the videos in this series, come to SocialSAM.net. Simply click on the Join Our Community button.

Sincerely
George Tran
Author of “The Social Marketing Manifesto”
Success Strategies for Small Businesses using Social Media
www.socialmarketingman.com
www.twitter.com/georgetran

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Here’s a presentation I gave during the Yoovolution event Nov 8, 2009.

Enjoy.

Sincerely
George Tran
Author of “The Social Marketing Manifesto”
Success Strategies for Small Businesses using Social Media
www.socialmarketingman.com
www.twitter.com/georgetran

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This is the second installment of the SocialSAMinar keynote. In this part, I talk about the impending economic crisis that will be faced by the Western world, and what we should do to avoid this disaster.

If you like this article, please retweet this. Share this with your friends.

Sincerely
George Tran
Author of “The Social Marketing Manifesto”
Success Strategies for Small Businesses using Social Media
www.socialmarketingman.com
www.twitter.com/georgetran

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This is the first of 8 videos from my keynote presentation at our SocialSAMinar event that was held in Logan, UT at our headquarters Oct 20, and 21 2009.

This series will share with you who is George Tran, what’s his vision for SocialSAM, and more importantly, how to build a Third Stage Business. Unlike a traditional membership software, a third stage business keeps a client for a lot longer than the industry average of 2-3 months inside a continuity program.

This first video is an introduction about “who is George Tran”…the man behind 1Shoppingcart.com and SocialSAM.com.

If this video moved or inspire you in any way, please comment. Please share this with your friends.

To see all 8 videos at once, come to www.socialsam.net

Sincerely
George Tran
Author of “The Social Marketing Manifesto”
Success Strategies for Small Businesses using Social Media
www.socialmarketingman.com
www.twitter.com/georgetran

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For those of you operating a membership website or community, this tip is designed to help with:

1) Increase engagement within your community

2) Help your members stick for longer.

One of the most primal desires as human beings is the need to belong. When combined with recognition for achievements within a closed group/tribe that one belongs to, this factor is more powerful than money. It is absolutely euphoric.

When managing your community, be sure to run contents frequently. Mix it up…sometimes, make the contents easy for people to win…for example, “refer 2 friends to our community and earn my ebook” or “do a random assassination with kindness to another community member to win X”. Then publicly acknowledge these winners to the community. Sometimes, you want to give away a big prize for the best XYZ. eg. “The person with the most articles posted in our community in the next 7 days win access to our $5000 event.”

Encourage other members in the community to nominate members who have contributed to the community. Then award them with some sort of announcement or public acknowledgment. You’ll be amazed how far this will take you.

If you have any further ideas or suggestions on this matter, please comment.

Sincerely
George Tran
Author of “The Social Marketing Manifesto”
Success Strategies for Small Businesses using Social Media
www.socialmarketingman.com
www.twitter.com/georgetran

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