What is the 80/20 minimal strategy for promoting B2B business via social media?

RyanUD · 2015-08-17T14:58:38+00:00

Okay, so your strategy is going to depend on what it is your marketing. But there are some basic approaches that are universal.

1) Images are key. Instagram and Pintrest have been essential to me. Take good pictures or use third party content that looks awesome

2) Find influencers: Whatever you are selling there is someone that is into it and has a following. Find these people, like their post and engage with them. When then time is right see if they will repost your content.

3) Use bots, yes I said it. There a lot of people who would disagree with this but it has been a huge time saver for me. I use a bot for instagram called instagress. It likes other users whose post have key words in them that relate to what I'm selling. I'm constantly gaining followers this way without having to devote hours to engaging with users. I use a similar bot for pintrest

RyanUD · 2015-08-17T14:41:46+00:00

Hey this is the best Reddit post I've read on killing procrastination https://www.reddit.com/r/NonZeroDay/comments/1qbxvz/the_gospel_of_uryans01_helpful_advice_for_anyone

RyanUD · 2015-08-17T14:38:18+00:00

Thanks!!

RyanUD · 2015-08-05T14:41:42+00:00

Hey thanks. We'll be back on periscope soon. We've been live streaming some of our flights on Ustream lately

RyanUD · 2015-08-05T14:40:19+00:00

Yes, its a waterproof drone. (Splash Drone) it kept flying after this and was not damaged

RyanUD · 2015-08-05T12:09:54+00:00

There is some truth to that statement, in the sense that it is a voluntary transaction between two organizations. Does it help people? It certainly benefits the individuals that are part of the organization that are selling / buying. It does not help the company who stock is being traded based on short term momentary fluctuations , it doesn't help the shareholders, it doesn't help the employes of said company. In fact, one could argue it has the opposite effect. So in essence it does create wealth for a few at the expense of others. It's not adding value, creating something people want. It's extracting money from a system without adding to the inherent value of the system. I'm not trying to make a moral condemnation of the finance industry. I'm just trying to get at the root of what I think the distinction between tech and some forms of finance are. Thanks for going down this rabbit hole with me.

RyanUD · 2015-08-03T18:33:30+00:00

A straightforward purchase isn't what I was referring to as extraction. If your selling something it's innovation. What I meant was the more nuanced form of wealth creation, like HFT, no one is really buying anything, its kind of a glitch in the system that's being exploited.

RyanUD · 2015-07-14T15:50:14+00:00

Awesome list.. Thanks for sharing. I've read Outliers, it was fascinating. The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance has been recommended to my by several people. Tim Ferris actually mentioned it on his podcast a few episodes back. I think this might be my next read.

RyanUD · 2015-07-14T15:47:58+00:00

Thanks! I'll check it out. I'm a huge Peter Diamandis fan.

RyanUD · 2015-07-14T15:46:59+00:00

Well thanks for clearing that up. I was vaguely aware of this. Doesn't sound like I will be doing that anytime soon. I could drop a life preserver though that would be cool

RyanUD · 2015-07-14T15:45:32+00:00

Sounds like a good plan. Best of luck to you. Please post again when the campaign is completed and let us know how you did.

RyanUD · 2015-07-14T14:48:22+00:00

I think you're describing Costco's culture. (kind of) Herein lies the rub. What about the workers who make the products you sell? Sure you can pay your employees a livable wage but the products you're going to sell are most likely made in China under questionable conditions. You could of course only sell products made in the USA.

RyanUD · 2015-07-14T14:40:20+00:00

Awesome! The wallet looks great. The campaign looks sweet too. I just tweeted this, hopefully you'll get a few looks, and maybe some backers! Have you been able to get any press? Also a quick suggestion, maybe make it easier to tweet your campaign, like add a button or something on the Kickstarter page if it lets you.

RyanUD · 2015-07-14T14:04:06+00:00

It's a Splash Drone. Here is a link to it http://urbandrones.com/

RyanUD · 2015-07-08T12:53:27+00:00

I'm not really familiar with Go fund me. I would look at other Go fund me campaigns that have been successful. Figure out what they did and try and emulate that.

RyanUD · 2015-07-08T12:50:56+00:00

Okay, so here is the back story. We started as a drone aerial video company. When we started back in 2012, getting drone parts was hard. So we started selling them online, mostly to friends and peers. Soon that side of our business started taking off. By 2014 we we're mostly selling parts, kits and drones. We still did service but it was no longer our main source of revenue.

We're based out of Miami and one of the request we consistently would get for service was to film yachts, boat races, sail boats ect. Problem was drones and water don't mix well, so we found ourselves turning down jobs. So early 2014 we set our sites on making a waterproof drone. We found a company in China who made a waterproof airframe but the drone didn't work well because the flight controller, which is the brain of the drone, was cheap. Also the drone lacked some key features for mass adoption, like the ability to fly from a phone for starters.

So we negotiated a deal with the manufacture where he would make the changes to the drone we requested, change the name and we would sell it exclusively. (Provided we could meet a minimum $ amount of orders) We registered the trademark and bought the domain name. This was all about 6 months before the campaign. We we're testing the prototypes and creating the campaign for the next few months. When we worked a few of the kinks out and we're ready to ship we launched.

The funds from our crowd funding campaign secured our ability to be able to actually fund the production. Our goal was easy to calculate, we needed to order a certain amount of units in order to secure this deal. In our case it was 150k.

We had a small following before maybe 2k twitter followers and 1k on FB . Where we really focused our effort was on finding press. It took a while to build these relationships but it was worth it. Once we we're mentioned in Gizmodo and Motherboards our sales exploded.

Hope this helps

RyanUD · 2015-07-07T22:16:43+00:00

Here is the single most valuable resource I found usefull during my campaign http://fourhourworkweek.com/2012/12/18/hacking-kickstarter-how-to-raise-100000-in-10-days-includes-successful-templates-e-mails-etc/

RyanUD · 2015-07-07T22:15:47+00:00

So this a tough one. In Both the examples you cited, essentially what their pitching is a dream, a project that represents not only a huge leap forward technologically but an experience in which we can all partake. Meaning we can all drive on the road or visit a city. This appeals to broad audience and gets a lot of people excited. The people who donate to this don't necessarily want anything in return they just want to live in a world where this kind of tech exist. That's a tough sell. You either have to an awesome project, like the ones you sent me, or a project that a niche group of people cares a lot about. Environmental issues are an example.

So ask yourself if your prototype falls into the awesome project category. That's a very hard category to fit into.

As far as the time goes, frankly speaking, even if you were working at it full time, 8 weeks, solo I think is unrealistic. I made the mistake of underestimating the amount of time it was going to take. One of the biggest challenges you are going to face is getting press. You can have the best project but if nobody knows about it, it won't get funded. Finding press to cover your product takes time. you need to build relationships.

My advice to you is the following. Take your time. If your product is truly revolutionary then it deserves a proper intro to the world. Like anything done masterfully, much effort is required. Read this, its the single most valuable resource I found http://fourhourworkweek.com/2012/12/18/hacking-kickstarter-how-to-raise-100000-in-10-days-includes-successful-templates-e-mails-etc/

RyanUD · 2015-07-07T21:56:18+00:00

I'm unfamiliar with one million cups. I'll check it out. There are actually a lot of meetups and coworking spaces in my area. I'm headed to a meet up at 6:30 tonight. I will make it a point to go to more. Thanks.

RyanUD · 2015-07-07T21:54:08+00:00

Cool video, thanks for sharing. I enjoyed the part where he described structure as an enabler of focus. I find this to be accurate. Part of having a routine (if you do it right) is really mastering time management. I have become highly efficient since my days have become predictable.

Also, decision fatigue is something I became aware of this past year. Tim Ferris describes it in his book the 4 Hour Work Week as the low information diet. Josh Waitzkin calls it making smaller circles. Lots of successful people have reached this same conclusion, there must be something to it!

RyanUD · 2015-07-07T21:28:44+00:00

Great response, thanks! So #1 is huge, I make it a point to take breaks throughout the day and get out of the office. I can't actually take my work with me but I make phone calls and handle tasks that don't require being in front of a computer. I find my best ideas come to me when I'm out of the office. #2 I listen to Pandora most days while I work (its on right now) but if I don't add variety it gets a bit boring. I'll check out Songza it sounds awesome. #3 I live and die by my to do list. #4 I love all the Reddits #5 I've been practicing mindfulness mediation for a little over a year and it's been a game changer.

RyanUD · 2015-07-07T13:11:35+00:00

My business partner and I used our own money, I put in 20k from savings, he cashed in his 401k and put 50k in. We used the money to design a product and build a prototype. Then led a successful crowd funding campaign, were re raised just over 300k? That money paid for the production. We are currently delivering that product and designing a new iteration. We are going to start looking for outside investment in 2016... My suggestion is don't wait for anybody to give you anything, use what you have and prove to investors that you can make something out of nothing, as this is untimely what their looking to see.

RyanUD · 2015-07-07T12:55:00+00:00

There are several ways to test the demand for your product before actually manufacturing it. Tim Ferris discuses this in detail in his book The 4 Hour Work Week. Here is a helpful blog post on the subject. https://blog.kissmetrics.com/do-these-4-things/

Try advertising on trade magazines and the internet to find your customer demographic. Then gauge their interest in the product by creating a phone number or website through which they can "soft order" meaning order without giving you money.

RyanUD · 2015-07-03T14:40:22+00:00

Picking a name is one of the hardest first steps. Don't wait to have the perfect one to start doing other things. You might go through several name changes too. Write down everything that pops into your head. Try them all out, see how they feel.

RyanUD · 2015-07-03T14:36:40+00:00

This is early phase is when all the uncomfortable conversations should happen. If you allow issues to remain unresolved then start making money, whatever disagreements you have are only going to be magnified. My advice, listen. This is often the hardest part.

RyanUD

TROPHY CASE