WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.399 --> 00:00:05.540 Alright, gang. Let's dive right into it. Welcome to another edition of webinar Wednesday. 2 00:00:05.920 --> 00:00:08.420 If this is your first time joining us, welcome. 3 00:00:08.639 --> 00:00:14.099 I am Jason there on the left, and we also have David joining us, the digital strategist here, 4 00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:15.620 from Brilliant Directories. 5 00:00:16.295 --> 00:00:20.955 And we also have Rick Martinez, one of the support specialists here at Brilliant Directories. 6 00:00:21.335 --> 00:00:27.515 You may have interacted with Rick via phone or email support. And, also, David is the mastermind 7 00:00:27.815 --> 00:00:30.635 and helpful assistant behind all the webinar Wednesdays, 8 00:00:31.080 --> 00:00:31.960 making them happen. 9 00:00:31.960 --> 00:00:36.620 So thank you so much guys for taking your time and joining us and helping us in today's webinar. 10 00:00:36.920 --> 00:00:41.320 Jason, happy to be here. Hello, everyone. Thanks again. Hi, everyone. Yeah. 11 00:00:41.320 --> 00:00:43.420 We've got a very, special exciting 12 00:00:43.935 --> 00:00:47.695 new webinar here for you, and, hopefully, you should be able to get a lot out of it. 13 00:00:47.695 --> 00:00:48.515 Should be interesting. 14 00:00:49.135 --> 00:00:51.614 Awesome. Great to be with you guys here as well. 15 00:00:51.614 --> 00:00:58.114 And I always like to mention before we jump into the webinars, if you're not already a member of our Facebook group, I recommend joining. 16 00:00:58.310 --> 00:01:03.130 There are some great conversations in there to educate yourself and also ask questions 17 00:01:03.590 --> 00:01:07.830 on how to grow your online community. You can head on over if you wanna do it right now. 18 00:01:07.830 --> 00:01:11.785 You can go to brilliantdirectories.com/facebook 19 00:01:11.785 --> 00:01:15.245 and just click on the join button to gain access to the group. 20 00:01:15.305 --> 00:01:21.305 And if we happen to miss your question here in today's webinar, it is a great place to continue the conversations there. 21 00:01:21.305 --> 00:01:26.030 So we look forward to seeing you there. And for those of you joining us for the first time, welcome. 22 00:01:26.030 --> 00:01:28.369 It really is great to be with you guys here today. 23 00:01:28.750 --> 00:01:31.869 Webinar Wednesday started, just over two years ago, I believe. 24 00:01:31.869 --> 00:01:39.825 We're almost up to 80 editions or sessions here, and it's a great place to talk about growing your online community. 25 00:01:39.825 --> 00:01:43.125 You know, it's really easy these days to launch a website, 26 00:01:43.905 --> 00:01:45.604 with different tools and solutions 27 00:01:45.905 --> 00:01:49.845 out there, but growing a community really does require some strategy. 28 00:01:50.410 --> 00:01:53.310 And some topics we like to cover in webinar Wednesdays 29 00:01:53.610 --> 00:01:56.270 are things like how to increase your website traffic, 30 00:01:56.650 --> 00:01:58.270 converting visitors to members. 31 00:01:58.570 --> 00:02:03.975 One of my favorites is improving your website's navigation. I'm a big advocate for simple navigation 32 00:02:04.435 --> 00:02:07.815 making it easy for the user to make decisions and take actions. 33 00:02:08.275 --> 00:02:12.295 In today's webinar we have a really special guest and we're gonna be covering 34 00:02:12.595 --> 00:02:20.670 how to leverage social media specifically Facebook groups to help accelerate the growth of your Brilliant Directories website. 35 00:02:20.730 --> 00:02:24.110 And, yeah, we're really glad that you've taken the time to join us today. 36 00:02:24.569 --> 00:02:24.970 Alright. 37 00:02:24.970 --> 00:02:31.370 As usual, before we dive into the tip of the week for this week's webinar, we do have some lab updates to share. 38 00:02:31.370 --> 00:02:39.605 We actually had even more updates than this list since the last webinar, but I had to hold some back just because there's no room on this slide. 39 00:02:39.905 --> 00:02:44.485 The development team here at Brilliant Directories has been doing a phenomenal job, and I wanna thank you guys. 40 00:02:44.625 --> 00:02:54.980 You guys are the ones who provide us with suggestions and feedbacks on new things to add, new ways to improve the software both through the support ticket system and in the Facebook group. 41 00:02:55.440 --> 00:03:00.420 So we try to to take on as many ideas as possible and we really thank you guys for contributing 42 00:03:00.755 --> 00:03:03.175 and making the software your own with your suggestions. 43 00:03:03.795 --> 00:03:07.175 I'll go through these relatively quickly, some of them are pretty self explanatory. 44 00:03:07.475 --> 00:03:10.615 At the top of the list, search verified members in the admin. 45 00:03:10.755 --> 00:03:17.120 I actually covered this one in a Facebook live session that we did last week, but I'll quickly show you what I'm referring to here. 46 00:03:17.660 --> 00:03:19.040 So if you head on over 47 00:03:19.420 --> 00:03:22.800 to the admin dashboard, I'll just start from square one here. 48 00:03:23.900 --> 00:03:27.040 Okay. Great. So here, you can go to search members, 49 00:03:27.340 --> 00:03:29.920 and as we know there are various search filters 50 00:03:31.165 --> 00:03:33.565 for finding your members that are registered on your site. 51 00:03:33.565 --> 00:03:37.805 There is a new one here, searching the verified status of members. 52 00:03:37.805 --> 00:03:42.145 So as you know, you can manually choose to add an additional verification 53 00:03:42.445 --> 00:03:49.630 badge to members who provide you with whatever information you're asking them for, maybe a copy of their license or 54 00:03:49.930 --> 00:03:56.890 whatever industry you're in, and then you can add that extra designation for them to be certified and verified on your site. 55 00:03:56.890 --> 00:03:59.945 So now you can actually search which members are verified 56 00:04:00.405 --> 00:04:02.745 and which members are unverified members 57 00:04:03.205 --> 00:04:06.025 on your site. And I'll tell you why that's valuable actually. 58 00:04:06.165 --> 00:04:11.465 When you search verified and unverified members, you can always export your member results 59 00:04:11.960 --> 00:04:16.380 and then you can email that list. Maybe you want to encourage unverified members 60 00:04:16.760 --> 00:04:24.540 to provide the information on how they can get more visibility on your site by verifying themselves, their company, etcetera, etcetera. 61 00:04:25.305 --> 00:04:28.905 And this actually takes us into the second lab update. 62 00:04:28.905 --> 00:04:36.125 We now have three new bulk update actions for members, and this is really fun and exciting and super helpful, actually. 63 00:04:36.425 --> 00:04:38.185 Let me show you what I'm referring to there. 64 00:04:38.185 --> 00:04:42.370 So, you you know, this is a sample demo site that we have. We've uploaded like 16,000 65 00:04:42.370 --> 00:04:45.009 members here, and there are bulk actions here. 66 00:04:45.009 --> 00:04:47.990 We released this a few months ago, and it's added a wealth 67 00:04:48.449 --> 00:04:49.349 of flexibility 68 00:04:49.729 --> 00:04:51.945 to how you manage your members in the site. 69 00:04:52.265 --> 00:04:57.385 The three new bulk actions that we've added, first one, updating the top level category. 70 00:04:57.385 --> 00:04:59.245 So maybe you have a bunch of members, 71 00:05:00.105 --> 00:05:07.485 in one category, but you no no longer wanna use that category, you can, choose to update the top level category of a bunch of members. 72 00:05:07.750 --> 00:05:12.070 You can change the membership level, it's called product tier, so you can change the membership level. 73 00:05:12.070 --> 00:05:17.770 So maybe you want to bulk move a set of members, from like a basic to a premium level. 74 00:05:18.150 --> 00:05:23.385 This is a manual move, so they won't have to pay if it's a paid membership level, you're the admin just simply moving them. 75 00:05:23.465 --> 00:05:29.485 And then also the update the listing type, and this one is whether they're an individual 76 00:05:30.585 --> 00:05:31.545 or a company. 77 00:05:31.545 --> 00:05:37.245 So as you know when your members join they can choose if the listing, their public listing represents an individual, 78 00:05:37.840 --> 00:05:41.139 and in that case it will show their first and last name on the profile. 79 00:05:41.759 --> 00:05:49.139 Or if the listing represents a company like Coca Cola, you know the person managing the profile we don't need to know their first and last name on the public 80 00:05:49.440 --> 00:05:53.685 side of the site so that's why they would designate themselves as a company. 81 00:05:53.745 --> 00:05:58.565 So maybe you imported members and you need to make a bulk change or something like that. 82 00:05:58.945 --> 00:06:01.445 Now you can certainly do that with these additional, 83 00:06:02.065 --> 00:06:02.965 bulk actions. 84 00:06:03.425 --> 00:06:07.449 Now I just wanna see, does anyone have any questions about those bulk actions? 85 00:06:07.750 --> 00:06:11.530 Jason, we actually did have one question from Michelle about, member verification. 86 00:06:11.750 --> 00:06:16.229 She was asking if there was a legal requirement in The UK. It's not a legal requirement. 87 00:06:16.229 --> 00:06:18.729 It's kinda like how on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, 88 00:06:19.125 --> 00:06:21.545 all those social platforms have verified 89 00:06:21.925 --> 00:06:22.425 profiles. 90 00:06:22.885 --> 00:06:23.605 It's kinda like that. 91 00:06:23.605 --> 00:06:30.425 If you wanna verify certain members to kind of allow them to stand out against, you know, all of your other members in the community, 92 00:06:30.805 --> 00:06:33.550 that's one way to go about doing that. Absolutely. 93 00:06:33.550 --> 00:06:42.850 You know, it's it's a member who's taken an extra step to engage with your website, and for that, you can reward them by manually giving them a designation of verified. 94 00:06:42.910 --> 00:06:45.950 Let's actually do that on a sample member here. Let's click on quick edit. 95 00:06:45.950 --> 00:06:51.245 Let's say that they emailed in what we were asking them for. You can go to listing settings. 96 00:06:51.705 --> 00:06:53.085 Is this member verified? 97 00:06:53.545 --> 00:06:58.525 Yes or no. So it's totally a manual process because you have to check what they sent you. 98 00:06:58.905 --> 00:07:00.765 And if we go look at the profile, 99 00:07:03.280 --> 00:07:08.420 we can now see they have this icon here, which, you can change. You just upload a new image, 100 00:07:08.960 --> 00:07:12.160 and this is the verified badge that they have on their profile. 101 00:07:12.160 --> 00:07:14.160 So it's a way to decorate their profile. 102 00:07:14.160 --> 00:07:22.745 It's a way for you to engage your members, a way for your members to engage with you, And also for the visitors to kinda see, you know, as David said, you know, who's 103 00:07:23.125 --> 00:07:24.345 verified or authorized 104 00:07:24.724 --> 00:07:26.824 more on your website. Who's more trustworthy 105 00:07:27.125 --> 00:07:30.965 as a member? Is it the person who signed up for free and just put their name and phone number? 106 00:07:30.965 --> 00:07:35.700 Or is it this person who's added all this information and has gone the extra step to verify? 107 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:46.160 I actually helped someone set up their Yelp account and Yelp has a similar designation but you have to send your state business license or whatever it is directly to Yelp, a copy of it via email. 108 00:07:46.400 --> 00:07:50.365 And then after they verify it they'll give you this similar designation. 109 00:07:50.365 --> 00:07:57.425 So it's pretty common for websites and directories, that feature professionals and companies to have something like this. 110 00:07:57.725 --> 00:08:02.604 And Colette has a question here. Hey, Colette. How are you today? Hi, Jason. Good. And you? Good. 111 00:08:02.604 --> 00:08:05.850 Good. Thank you. What's your question for us today? A simple question. 112 00:08:05.910 --> 00:08:08.970 If you click the box at the top to, 113 00:08:09.430 --> 00:08:11.050 tick all the list, 114 00:08:11.590 --> 00:08:17.610 does that just lie that bulk update to everybody on that page or everybody in the whole database? 115 00:08:17.965 --> 00:08:21.245 I love that you asked that question. So let's say you do a search. 116 00:08:21.245 --> 00:08:23.725 Let's say we did a search here and there were 16,000 117 00:08:23.725 --> 00:08:24.225 results. 118 00:08:24.604 --> 00:08:31.905 You could click this box here and it will select I think it's 25 or 50 on this page. You'll see this 119 00:08:32.330 --> 00:08:35.210 module show up here, select all 16,000 120 00:08:35.210 --> 00:08:35.710 results. 121 00:08:36.090 --> 00:08:37.530 So that will go Oh, awesome. 122 00:08:37.610 --> 00:08:41.770 That will go beyond just the page, the first page of these records here. 123 00:08:41.770 --> 00:08:50.065 You could then select everyone who's included in this search that you performed, and then also do that bulk action to apply that to all the records. 124 00:08:50.065 --> 00:08:54.144 So you don't have to go page by page here. Fantastic. Thank you. Good question there. 125 00:08:54.144 --> 00:08:56.704 You're welcome. Alright. Let's go down the list here. 126 00:08:56.704 --> 00:09:00.325 Let me skip down to number four since it's related in the same section. 127 00:09:00.779 --> 00:09:07.199 Now you also have the ability, and I love this one, to sort your members based on the most and least revenue 128 00:09:07.500 --> 00:09:12.320 a member has paid on your site. Let me show you how that works while we're still here. 129 00:09:12.459 --> 00:09:15.120 What you can do is when you do a search for members, 130 00:09:15.735 --> 00:09:19.115 you can choose how you wanna view those members. There's a sort order 131 00:09:19.575 --> 00:09:24.295 here. Now these are the two new ones, most revenue and least revenue. And this is a test site. 132 00:09:24.295 --> 00:09:27.035 We've done some test payment transactions on here. 133 00:09:27.670 --> 00:09:33.110 Okay. So we see all our members here and we could see this test member has paid a total of 6,600 134 00:09:33.110 --> 00:09:35.130 to the site. This one, 1,500, 135 00:09:35.430 --> 00:09:36.150 6 hundred. 136 00:09:36.150 --> 00:09:46.615 So if you just wanna get a snapshot of kind of who's, you know, paid what so far on your site, you can obviously put more filters on here like based on membership level and things like that. 137 00:09:47.315 --> 00:09:54.214 One, it's kind of fun to see the activity as far as the revenue your site has done, but it also gives you an indicator of which members 138 00:09:54.650 --> 00:09:55.150 may, 139 00:09:55.530 --> 00:10:00.810 warrant or or, you wanna give extra attention to because they are high value, members. 140 00:10:00.810 --> 00:10:05.070 They've invested in your site and you wanna reciprocate back to them with good quality service, 141 00:10:05.530 --> 00:10:09.930 and see if there's anything you can do to continue that good relationship that you have with them. 142 00:10:09.930 --> 00:10:10.305 So, 143 00:10:10.785 --> 00:10:14.005 that's a really nice sort and filter option there as well. 144 00:10:14.385 --> 00:10:18.645 Alright. So this one, let's go back to the third bullet here. Title colors for streaming 145 00:10:19.105 --> 00:10:22.740 homepage sections. I also covered this in the Facebook live we did last week. 146 00:10:22.820 --> 00:10:24.980 Let me just show you, what we're referring to. 147 00:10:24.980 --> 00:10:28.500 It's a little easier to show you rather than try to explain it. 148 00:10:28.500 --> 00:10:30.839 So let's go to the homepage of this site. 149 00:10:31.380 --> 00:10:35.640 And as everyone knows, one of my favorite things, it's easy to stream different modules 150 00:10:36.100 --> 00:10:37.000 on your homepage. 151 00:10:37.685 --> 00:10:42.165 A few weeks ago, we created the ability to add a background color to your section. 152 00:10:42.165 --> 00:10:45.065 So let's go ahead and do that here. Go to design settings, 153 00:10:45.925 --> 00:10:48.824 and we'll do it for the newest members background. 154 00:10:49.685 --> 00:10:50.824 Homepage layout, 155 00:10:51.450 --> 00:10:56.010 and if you go to homepage section order these are the different sections you've designated on your site. 156 00:10:56.010 --> 00:10:58.990 So here's the one section for for show recent members. 157 00:10:59.210 --> 00:11:04.750 If you check this box you can designate a background color. And let's go ahead and save this. 158 00:11:06.555 --> 00:11:10.475 So this update was was fine, it was good, but there was one flaw. 159 00:11:10.475 --> 00:11:14.334 Again, thanks to your recommendations, Colette especially who was just, chatting. 160 00:11:15.995 --> 00:11:18.475 The problem was the title wouldn't change. 161 00:11:18.475 --> 00:11:21.899 You would be stuck with this background color, and I love the background color. 162 00:11:21.899 --> 00:11:29.120 It could be orange, red, pink, but you weren't able to change the title color, which was a small limitation, but now you can. 163 00:11:29.260 --> 00:11:31.839 And let me show you where you can change the title color. 164 00:11:33.035 --> 00:11:33.535 So, 165 00:11:34.315 --> 00:11:39.755 same place, homepage layout. Let me close the homepage section order module. Just toggle that up. 166 00:11:39.755 --> 00:11:45.035 You wanna go to the next module here, section order options, because one of the options are the titles. 167 00:11:45.035 --> 00:11:46.415 So we have recent members, 168 00:11:46.940 --> 00:11:51.579 and we have our title here newest members, and here you can change the title color. 169 00:11:51.579 --> 00:11:55.279 So for something like that dark blue, a white would be more appropriate. 170 00:11:55.339 --> 00:11:57.040 So let's go ahead and save that. 171 00:11:58.620 --> 00:12:01.120 And if we come back and refresh the page, 172 00:12:02.115 --> 00:12:07.075 we now have a smarter and better contrast for the dark blue with the white font there. 173 00:12:07.075 --> 00:12:12.055 So this is a great way to break up your page if you're streaming a lot of content or just a few pieces. 174 00:12:12.195 --> 00:12:18.149 If you wanna highlight maybe a more important section like meet our newest members or maybe it's coupons or events, 175 00:12:18.450 --> 00:12:20.790 but this background color helps break it up. 176 00:12:20.850 --> 00:12:28.365 And rather than just seeing, you know, white, white, white, or whatever you're using as your background color, helps break up the page just a bit more. 177 00:12:28.524 --> 00:12:29.024 Alright. 178 00:12:29.325 --> 00:12:33.024 Small update here. Looking down here, number five, post publishing 179 00:12:33.325 --> 00:12:34.145 new UI. 180 00:12:34.845 --> 00:12:40.225 Again, better I show you than explain. If you go to finance and membership levels, 181 00:12:41.150 --> 00:12:44.030 you can see all your membership level information here. 182 00:12:44.030 --> 00:12:49.250 Now under post publishing, before we only showed the what the member can post, 183 00:12:49.630 --> 00:12:53.410 but if you have the members only add on, now you can also see, 184 00:12:53.790 --> 00:12:57.305 what they can view, what they have the privilege of viewing. 185 00:12:57.305 --> 00:13:05.225 So you can see not only what privileges they have of content to post, you can also see what they can view as well, which comes in handy. 186 00:13:05.225 --> 00:13:07.705 You just wanna compare your membership level side by side. 187 00:13:07.705 --> 00:13:13.569 You can make sure that you know your premium members have more access than some of your basic members. 188 00:13:13.569 --> 00:13:18.050 So just visually it's a little bit easier and it's nice and tidy there as well. Alright. 189 00:13:18.050 --> 00:13:19.410 Almost to home stretch here. 190 00:13:19.410 --> 00:13:25.725 With the private member chat add on, which allows members to have continuous chatting back and forth with each other. 191 00:13:25.725 --> 00:13:27.645 It's a little bit different than the lead matching. 192 00:13:27.645 --> 00:13:34.445 It's just with lead matching the member gets a lead and then it's on them to call or email or contact the person who submitted the lead. 193 00:13:34.445 --> 00:13:40.545 With the private member chat it does allow for continuous back and forth conversations directly through your website. 194 00:13:40.980 --> 00:13:45.140 Small update here, now it supports emojis. Let me show you what that looks like. 195 00:13:45.140 --> 00:13:47.800 So, if they happen to be chatting from their phones, 196 00:13:48.180 --> 00:13:50.920 they can certainly include emojis into the messages. 197 00:13:51.380 --> 00:13:55.640 Before these were showing up as you know random characters, it wasn't really translating 198 00:13:56.255 --> 00:13:59.154 properly, but whether this was a bug or a new feature enhancement, 199 00:13:59.615 --> 00:14:02.195 now the member chats do support emojis, 200 00:14:02.654 --> 00:14:08.355 which makes it a little bit more fun when your users are probably responding to each other from their phones. 201 00:14:08.890 --> 00:14:12.910 Alright. And shout out to, mister Matthew Brooks here who's on the webinar. 202 00:14:13.529 --> 00:14:15.230 Failed paid sign up notifications. 203 00:14:15.690 --> 00:14:18.830 So, again, better I show you than than try to explain. 204 00:14:19.450 --> 00:14:20.830 Let's say you have 205 00:14:21.450 --> 00:14:23.550 let's say you have a paid sign up page, 206 00:14:24.495 --> 00:14:32.435 such as this one, and somebody fills in all their information and they they don't put valid credit card information or for some reason their credit card fails. 207 00:14:34.335 --> 00:14:36.435 Prior to this update, what would happen 208 00:14:37.215 --> 00:14:37.715 is 209 00:14:38.430 --> 00:14:42.850 it would create a member record in your search members area. 210 00:14:43.310 --> 00:14:45.410 The member would be set as inactive, 211 00:14:46.350 --> 00:14:50.990 and for the failed payment, the credit card, it would create like a past due invoice for them. 212 00:14:50.990 --> 00:14:52.430 So they wouldn't sign up again. 213 00:14:52.430 --> 00:14:56.185 They would log in to their inactive account and then pay the past due invoice. 214 00:14:56.324 --> 00:14:58.425 And actually this worked very well, 215 00:14:59.045 --> 00:15:08.745 I'd say probably about up until six months ago, a year ago, but we've done such comprehensive updates to the billing system that it just that logic no longer, 216 00:15:09.285 --> 00:15:11.610 makes real sense to do. So 217 00:15:11.990 --> 00:15:15.130 now what we've done is something better and it's available to everyone 218 00:15:15.750 --> 00:15:30.205 is when somebody tries to pay and the payment fails, you as the website owner definitely want to know that because maybe maybe it's a legitimate person who is not filling out the form correctly or they keep inputting a bad credit card, but what happens now is two things. 219 00:15:30.665 --> 00:15:31.165 One, 220 00:15:31.705 --> 00:15:38.709 the website admin, that you've defined in your general settings, the email address there will get a failed sign up notification, 221 00:15:39.010 --> 00:15:45.829 paid sign up, and it'll include all the information that was entered on that paid page, the reason the card was declined, 222 00:15:46.290 --> 00:15:47.269 etcetera etcetera. 223 00:15:47.410 --> 00:15:58.255 Now, you might get some that are just people playing around and it's none of it is real information they put a b c d for their email address but some of them might be legitimate email addresses and the information might be there. 224 00:15:58.255 --> 00:16:04.274 You might wanna take a proactive approach to contacting that person maybe you can find their phone number somewhere 225 00:16:04.649 --> 00:16:12.509 maybe they're in another community you manage like a Facebook group, and you can reach out to them to take them to the finish line and get them signed up to your site. 226 00:16:12.730 --> 00:16:18.750 So you get the email notification as the admin. In addition to that, if you go to your 227 00:16:19.285 --> 00:16:22.185 activity tracker in the admin under dashboard, 228 00:16:23.525 --> 00:16:25.305 and you filter by finance, 229 00:16:26.885 --> 00:16:33.225 you are going to it's it's a little clunky here, but in this first iteration, we wanted to get this out there to you guys as quickly as possible. 230 00:16:33.380 --> 00:16:38.980 But the same information that you see in that email, you're gonna see here in your activity tracker. 231 00:16:38.980 --> 00:16:41.080 Just toggle the finance checkbox, 232 00:16:41.540 --> 00:16:44.519 and you can see, all the pertinent information 233 00:16:44.980 --> 00:16:50.815 that was entered on that sign up page, and then, you can again, you can choose to ignore it if you want and do nothing, 234 00:16:51.195 --> 00:16:56.475 or you can move forward with, following up with this person. So this should help you. 235 00:16:56.475 --> 00:17:01.035 This is like a way of, identifying abandoned shopping carts like they have on ecommerce sites. 236 00:17:01.035 --> 00:17:04.599 So this is abandoned member sign ups or failed member sign ups. 237 00:17:04.599 --> 00:17:07.020 It gives you an extra ace in your pocket to follow-up, 238 00:17:07.640 --> 00:17:09.180 with these people here. So, 239 00:17:10.359 --> 00:17:13.260 really amazing update there. I'm excited about that one myself. 240 00:17:13.640 --> 00:17:17.444 Just empowers you, the website owner, with so much more information there. 241 00:17:17.444 --> 00:17:20.184 So those are just some of the BD Lab updates. 242 00:17:20.404 --> 00:17:24.585 I also wanted to mention, if you wanted to stay in touch with all of our updates, 243 00:17:24.885 --> 00:17:27.224 you can head on over to our blog, 244 00:17:27.889 --> 00:17:30.049 brilliantdirectories.com/blog. 245 00:17:30.049 --> 00:17:32.309 The link is always there in the top right corner. 246 00:17:32.690 --> 00:17:34.309 And if you scroll down, 247 00:17:34.610 --> 00:17:36.309 you can find amazing articles, 248 00:17:36.610 --> 00:17:40.769 and you can always find our monthly change log here. There's also a quick link in the sidebar. 249 00:17:40.769 --> 00:17:43.029 You can just click on monthly change log, 250 00:17:43.515 --> 00:17:47.855 and you can see all the changes we've made, each month. This is the one from last November. 251 00:17:49.355 --> 00:17:53.915 Usually, we're netting about a hundred updates, fixes, new releases, and things like that. 252 00:17:53.915 --> 00:17:58.420 And it's a great way to, you know, keep in touch with, what's cooking here at Brilliant Directories. 253 00:17:58.420 --> 00:18:01.320 I'll share this link in the chat. Great stuff there. 254 00:18:03.300 --> 00:18:05.220 And we have a really, really, 255 00:18:05.620 --> 00:18:07.860 important and valuable tip of the week this week. 256 00:18:07.860 --> 00:18:12.135 And I know, David, you've been chatting with Corey all week regarding this presentation, 257 00:18:12.515 --> 00:18:14.755 and Corey is also a member of the Facebook group. 258 00:18:14.755 --> 00:18:17.735 So can you tell us a little bit about this week's tip of the week, please? 259 00:18:18.115 --> 00:18:21.575 Yeah. This should be extremely helpful to a lot of you out there. 260 00:18:21.635 --> 00:18:23.575 Corey put together this great presentation 261 00:18:24.049 --> 00:18:29.510 about how he went from zero to 5 figures fast using Facebook groups and brilliant directories. 262 00:18:30.049 --> 00:18:31.409 As Jason mentioned, Corey's, 263 00:18:31.730 --> 00:18:33.730 a big part of the Facebook group. 264 00:18:33.890 --> 00:18:37.570 I'm sure many of you have interacted with him a number of times on there. 265 00:18:37.570 --> 00:18:39.510 He's posted some really helpful videos 266 00:18:39.925 --> 00:18:40.745 kind of explaining 267 00:18:41.045 --> 00:18:44.665 his strategies for generating revenue with his BD site. 268 00:18:45.205 --> 00:18:46.985 So a little bit about Corey. 269 00:18:47.445 --> 00:18:49.625 He's the founder of the Facebook group Accelerator 270 00:18:50.085 --> 00:18:53.945 where he goes into a little bit more detail helping individuals about how to 271 00:18:54.289 --> 00:18:55.110 generate revenue 272 00:18:55.570 --> 00:18:57.110 with their Facebook groups, 273 00:18:57.570 --> 00:19:00.630 and he created the Chattanooga, Tennessee business directory, 274 00:19:01.250 --> 00:19:04.390 which is his BD site, csbnconnect.com, 275 00:19:04.690 --> 00:19:09.590 and he was able to leverage his Facebook group. Now it's a big Facebook group. He's been kind of 276 00:19:10.054 --> 00:19:12.875 cultivating it for, I think it was about a year now. 277 00:19:13.255 --> 00:19:18.955 He's got almost 12,000 members in there, and he started to use that Facebook group to drive traffic 278 00:19:19.335 --> 00:19:23.355 over to his business directory, csbnconnect.com. 279 00:19:23.680 --> 00:19:28.740 And through that, in just ninety days, he was able to generate $11,000 280 00:19:29.040 --> 00:19:33.840 on his site. And, right now, he mentioned that he's approaching about $3,000 281 00:19:33.840 --> 00:19:37.024 per month recurring revenue from those membership plans. 282 00:19:37.245 --> 00:19:41.504 So Corey, if you wanna take it away, give us a little bit more detail about yourself, your past, 283 00:19:41.804 --> 00:19:47.664 how your website and your Facebook group have been working out, and, any tips that you could give our viewers out there. 284 00:19:47.884 --> 00:19:51.024 Absolutely. And thanks so much, Damon and Jason. I appreciate it. 285 00:19:51.620 --> 00:19:52.820 I'm very happy to be here. 286 00:19:53.700 --> 00:19:59.220 I started the group about twelve months ago and, from a tip from my mentor, and he said, hey. 287 00:19:59.220 --> 00:20:02.420 You know, have you started your own Facebook group to generate leads? And I said, no. 288 00:20:02.420 --> 00:20:03.800 He's like, we should do that. 289 00:20:04.215 --> 00:20:04.715 So, 290 00:20:05.015 --> 00:20:10.135 very quickly, I started, I built a a nice little group and started getting in friends, and and, 291 00:20:10.615 --> 00:20:14.715 and then it kind of took off. And I'm proud to say we've got about 12,000 members, 292 00:20:15.335 --> 00:20:18.135 and, we've also generated around $4,000,000 293 00:20:18.135 --> 00:20:22.500 in exchange revenue between members. Almost think of it like a an Angie's List or a, 294 00:20:22.960 --> 00:20:24.559 like, a chamber of commerce or a, 295 00:20:25.360 --> 00:20:26.900 a BNI type of environment. 296 00:20:27.040 --> 00:20:31.220 What I really loved about your story here is, you know, in this case, you had a community. 297 00:20:31.520 --> 00:20:35.485 You had your Facebook group. But with Brilliant Directories you were able to, 298 00:20:36.184 --> 00:20:44.445 find a method to to monetize from that group and provide value and service from them without having to meet in person and doing everything virtually. 299 00:20:44.985 --> 00:20:45.485 Absolutely. 300 00:20:45.625 --> 00:20:50.179 Most of these people I've never even met, but everywhere I go, people seem to know who I am like a local celebrity. 301 00:20:50.179 --> 00:20:53.320 It's kinda cool. So I'm very proud and grateful that. So we'll get started. 302 00:20:53.860 --> 00:20:57.779 So that's me on the left with my son, run, also in addition to the group. 303 00:20:57.779 --> 00:21:02.200 I run weekly network functions attracting anywhere from 80 to a hundred members every single week. 304 00:21:02.500 --> 00:21:05.965 And that's, me me on the right. You can see my big head there in the middle. 305 00:21:06.205 --> 00:21:08.525 We have a lot of fun with those. So, a little bit about me. 306 00:21:08.525 --> 00:21:13.665 I own a digital marketing agency as well. But, in under twelve months, I've, attracted in 12,000 307 00:21:13.805 --> 00:21:16.225 local business owners and professionals into our community. 308 00:21:16.510 --> 00:21:19.549 Chattanooga, Tennessee here in The United States has got about 880,000 309 00:21:19.549 --> 00:21:20.610 people in the population. 310 00:21:21.230 --> 00:21:23.870 Our group's done right at 4,000,000 in exchange revenue. 311 00:21:23.870 --> 00:21:28.270 I keep a running spreadsheet between members when they say, hey. I've you know, I made $30,000 312 00:21:28.270 --> 00:21:31.485 the other day. So I add that to the list, and I have a running sheet there. 313 00:21:31.485 --> 00:21:33.184 So that's all, of course, documented. 314 00:21:33.565 --> 00:21:38.205 I have not spent a dime on paid advertisements to grow the Facebook group. 315 00:21:38.205 --> 00:21:40.605 It's just word-of-mouth, and, really, that's it. 316 00:21:40.605 --> 00:21:43.440 And I do the occasional giveaway and stuff like that. But, 317 00:21:44.080 --> 00:21:44.580 so 318 00:21:44.960 --> 00:21:48.019 this group, Chattanooga Small Business Networking or CSBN, 319 00:21:48.480 --> 00:21:50.340 is, it's kinda like an online marketplace 320 00:21:51.039 --> 00:21:54.480 for residents and business owners to basically exchange leads and referrals. 321 00:21:54.480 --> 00:21:57.299 So it's the stay at home mom that says, hey, listen. I need a plumber. 322 00:21:57.554 --> 00:21:59.495 And our group can provide that, 323 00:21:59.955 --> 00:22:00.695 very quickly. 324 00:22:01.154 --> 00:22:06.115 We've been listed in over 12 different publications, and I'm also gonna be speaking at Joe So to's Mastermind Weekend. 325 00:22:06.115 --> 00:22:10.615 He's part of Tai Lopez's SMMA course there in Los Angeles, and he's one of his lead trainers. 326 00:22:10.900 --> 00:22:15.940 So I'm very privileged to be able to go around and and teach this and train and help people learn a little bit more. 327 00:22:15.940 --> 00:22:20.600 That there right here is just a a quick screenshot of the Facebook group itself 328 00:22:20.900 --> 00:22:21.460 as you can see. 329 00:22:21.460 --> 00:22:26.715 And we're I'm actually looking at my phone here not two minutes ago and, about two members shy of the 12,000 mark. 330 00:22:26.715 --> 00:22:29.434 I'm very happy about that. Before I get started, a little bonus tip. 331 00:22:29.434 --> 00:22:31.534 Is that banner there you can make in Canva 332 00:22:31.835 --> 00:22:36.735 and, you can you you you're basically you're telling people, hey, register your business out on our directory. 333 00:22:37.034 --> 00:22:40.554 And it's free and there's an arrow and take full advantage of that banner. 334 00:22:40.554 --> 00:22:43.290 You can make that in under about two minutes using Canva. 335 00:22:44.150 --> 00:22:48.650 So just a little information about us. We've done about 11,000 in the first ninety days. 336 00:22:49.190 --> 00:22:52.470 Just as a disclaimer, I've I've never done any web development or design. 337 00:22:52.470 --> 00:22:56.585 I've never built a website aside from just a quick little WordPress blog. And 338 00:22:57.284 --> 00:22:59.544 all of this income has originated 339 00:22:59.845 --> 00:23:06.085 from the Facebook group. K? So, I'm not running ads or anything like that. I make about $3,000 340 00:23:06.085 --> 00:23:06.664 a month 341 00:23:06.965 --> 00:23:11.625 recurring from the Brilliant Directories site that I have from our hundred dollar a month plans. 342 00:23:11.899 --> 00:23:13.500 And we've got about 710 343 00:23:13.500 --> 00:23:16.220 members, as of today. So 11,000 344 00:23:16.220 --> 00:23:21.279 a little bit. So just just some reasons why Facebook groups work. So as the administrator 345 00:23:21.580 --> 00:23:25.259 of your own Facebook group, you're basically like the wizard of Oz. 346 00:23:25.259 --> 00:23:27.019 You're you're kind of the person behind the curtain. 347 00:23:27.019 --> 00:23:34.105 You can kind of control and and and and sculpt the the post in such a way where not just anybody can can post. 348 00:23:34.165 --> 00:23:36.505 Right? There's some there's some strategy behind that. 349 00:23:36.725 --> 00:23:46.110 In my case, I wanted to create my own virtual kind of a lead generation group or or in this case, a networking group that allows you allows basically, the idea is to give tremendous value first in the group as the administrator, 350 00:23:46.809 --> 00:23:52.909 and then members will begin to follow you and organically join and invite their friends because they think it's just so cool. 351 00:23:53.370 --> 00:23:53.870 Recent, 352 00:23:54.250 --> 00:24:01.245 studies have said stated that Facebook is starting to move away from the traditional news feed, and they have they've recently, 353 00:24:01.705 --> 00:24:07.164 let go their news feed director at Facebook headquarters, and they're not filling refilling that position. 354 00:24:07.559 --> 00:24:09.740 So they're really looking more and more to, 355 00:24:10.200 --> 00:24:11.179 Facebook stories 356 00:24:11.639 --> 00:24:15.000 and groups in 2020. So you're gonna see a lot more with groups. 357 00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:17.659 I think now's a really hot time to get into that. 358 00:24:17.720 --> 00:24:26.184 Again, as I've stated there, Facebook groups allow you creative control over what content to allow to your main wall, and you become the trusted authority in your industry. 359 00:24:26.645 --> 00:24:28.725 It's also free. They're free to create. 360 00:24:28.725 --> 00:24:37.290 Facebook's not gonna charge you to create your own group or run it, and you can kind of basically put whatever content you want within that within that ecosystem, if that makes sense. 361 00:24:37.690 --> 00:24:40.890 So there may be some members here that say, listen. I don't wanna do business, 362 00:24:41.370 --> 00:24:45.530 any type of referral based director. Maybe I'm a yoga instructor, and I wanna help in that area. 363 00:24:45.530 --> 00:24:48.990 Well, Facebook groups will work for you too. K? So whether yoga trainer, 364 00:24:49.770 --> 00:24:50.270 handyman, 365 00:24:50.914 --> 00:24:53.654 maybe you're, fitness and nutrition coach, 366 00:24:54.034 --> 00:24:57.235 there is a group for you, and you can create your group around your own theme. 367 00:24:57.235 --> 00:24:58.914 So don't don't worry about it. Hey. Listen. 368 00:24:58.914 --> 00:25:01.975 I I don't wanna do the the referral, so that's perfectly fine. It's okay. 369 00:25:02.355 --> 00:25:07.830 Now to create a successful group and to attract members, this is a huge this is kind of the secret sauce to all of this. 370 00:25:07.830 --> 00:25:12.809 Right? Is you need to provide tremendous free value first to your members. 371 00:25:13.030 --> 00:25:17.590 Give away all of your free content, all the juicy stuff, all the good stuff that you have. 372 00:25:17.590 --> 00:25:19.830 Everyone in this call is a professional in what they do. 373 00:25:19.830 --> 00:25:26.385 You're expert at what you do, which means you probably got hours and hours of great content that would you could, you know, provide to your members. 374 00:25:27.085 --> 00:25:29.245 To do that, you can examples could include, 375 00:25:29.804 --> 00:25:32.225 doing video trainings. You can create memes, 376 00:25:32.550 --> 00:25:35.110 inspirational graphics and posters. You could do mini trainings. 377 00:25:35.110 --> 00:25:37.530 You can do a free ebook or guide or a checklist, 378 00:25:38.150 --> 00:25:39.190 or you can just do a giveaway. 379 00:25:39.190 --> 00:25:42.870 I gave away an iPad last week, and we got over 800 new members in the group. 380 00:25:42.870 --> 00:25:47.210 And, I mean, that was awesome. $300, but we got 800 members, so that was cool. 381 00:25:47.605 --> 00:25:56.485 Now once the trust is established in your group and they see your name all the time, people will begin trusting you, and they'll know, like, and trust you, and they'll be glad to do what you ask. 382 00:25:56.485 --> 00:26:00.664 As long as you're ethical and professional, they will they they will love to get involved. Right? 383 00:26:00.804 --> 00:26:03.420 And that's where Brilliant Directories comes into play. So 384 00:26:03.980 --> 00:26:09.020 here is this slide's basically seven quick tips to setting your Facebook group up the right way. 385 00:26:09.020 --> 00:26:11.260 Because you may say, listen. I don't know anything about Facebook. 386 00:26:11.260 --> 00:26:13.760 I don't know how to set up a group. No problem. Okay? So 387 00:26:14.140 --> 00:26:16.885 first major tip is make your group private. K? 388 00:26:16.885 --> 00:26:21.845 And you also make it available to be searched for to the public. So you're not closing it off. 389 00:26:21.845 --> 00:26:27.684 You make it private so that not just anybody can just randomly join and start posting a bunch of stuff. 390 00:26:27.684 --> 00:26:30.105 Right? You have to control that aspect of it. 391 00:26:30.600 --> 00:26:34.540 Tip two is do you wanna preapprove all new members and all new posts? 392 00:26:35.240 --> 00:26:39.340 So, again, you're really screening members to make sure they're local to your city, 393 00:26:39.800 --> 00:26:46.095 where there's some criteria based on their little Facebook profile, you get to kind of look them over before you hit the okay button. 394 00:26:46.235 --> 00:26:50.575 And it kinda get again, you just wanna be, you know, kinda picky about who you allow in your group. 395 00:26:50.795 --> 00:26:53.595 Tip three, create three to four pieces of content daily. 396 00:26:53.595 --> 00:26:57.360 Video trainings means ask a lot of questions. You may say, listen. I don't have that kind of time. 397 00:26:57.360 --> 00:27:02.320 I don't there's no way I can do that. I get it. Believe me. As a single father, I I totally get it. 398 00:27:02.320 --> 00:27:07.300 But I think everybody's probably got one hour a week that they can carve out a slow Sunday afternoon, 399 00:27:07.760 --> 00:27:10.965 create take your iPhone, do some trainings, Share your desktop, 400 00:27:11.345 --> 00:27:12.485 create memes, anything. 401 00:27:13.105 --> 00:27:17.664 Number four, network with others by tagging people who you believe will help. If someone says, hey. 402 00:27:17.664 --> 00:27:19.845 Listen. I I really need to connect with 403 00:27:20.225 --> 00:27:22.385 a yoga instructor in Los Angeles. Okay. No problem. 404 00:27:22.385 --> 00:27:27.190 And then you start tagging a couple of yoga instructors that you know that live in in, Los Angeles as an example. 405 00:27:27.410 --> 00:27:35.890 And that that virtual tag, that virtual handshake is tremendous value to not only the person seeking the connection, but the referral source as well. 406 00:27:35.890 --> 00:27:36.390 So, 407 00:27:36.690 --> 00:27:37.750 very, very powerful. 408 00:27:38.085 --> 00:27:41.065 Be genuine. You know? Be real. Connect with your members. 409 00:27:41.445 --> 00:27:42.645 Be a real human being. 410 00:27:42.965 --> 00:27:47.365 Try not to look at it as, man, I hope they join my brilliant directories, and I wanna make money off this. 411 00:27:47.365 --> 00:27:49.845 Try not to look at it like that. Try to look at it as this. 412 00:27:49.845 --> 00:27:52.905 These are friends of yours, and and you you really want to have a good connection. 413 00:27:53.250 --> 00:27:55.830 Try not to be boring or lying. Be real. Be yourself, 414 00:27:56.290 --> 00:27:57.510 when you're creating content. 415 00:27:57.890 --> 00:28:00.850 This is something I've learned, from several of my mentors. 416 00:28:00.850 --> 00:28:10.885 And when I share content to my wall, I myself have to look at first look at the content and say, is this something that it's it's really funny to me or informative to me and actually genuinely like it? 417 00:28:11.105 --> 00:28:13.585 Don't just share random memes and say, hey. What do you think? 418 00:28:13.585 --> 00:28:16.485 And hopefully, you get likes out of it. Try not to look at it that way. Okay? 419 00:28:16.785 --> 00:28:18.990 That was a huge game changer, that number six for me. 420 00:28:19.550 --> 00:28:22.690 Number seven, create a great Facebook banner with some instructions. 421 00:28:22.750 --> 00:28:25.250 Maybe it's join your brilliant directory site 422 00:28:25.550 --> 00:28:30.690 or maybe it's a a a link to some sort of video where you have some video downloads or some free training. 423 00:28:30.830 --> 00:28:33.809 And then also create the name needs to make sense. 424 00:28:34.395 --> 00:28:35.055 K. So 425 00:28:35.515 --> 00:28:37.615 my group, it's Chattanooga Small Business Networking. 426 00:28:38.155 --> 00:28:41.595 That makes sense. Right? That when you when someone hears that, okay, that makes sense. 427 00:28:41.595 --> 00:28:44.095 But you don't wanna be vague, and don't be nebulous. Okay? 428 00:28:44.875 --> 00:28:47.675 This is kinda off topic just a just a second, but it's 429 00:28:48.289 --> 00:28:56.630 this has been really, really instrumental in my success, I believe, is when I create content to my Facebook group wall, where I share content or trainings, 430 00:28:57.010 --> 00:28:58.070 I also go 431 00:28:58.370 --> 00:29:05.835 and add I've added a button on the homepage of my Brilliant Directories site called free video training, and I, take the YouTube link and add it there. 432 00:29:06.215 --> 00:29:08.375 And I write a nice compelling description about what it is. 433 00:29:08.375 --> 00:29:13.915 And so when you're syndicating content, you're creating content first to your group, and then you're also gonna 434 00:29:14.295 --> 00:29:18.555 drop it over to YouTube or upload it to YouTube and share it there as well. 435 00:29:18.929 --> 00:29:23.730 So you can also run traffic ads through Facebook to that link. So there's a little bonus tip. 436 00:29:23.730 --> 00:29:27.190 Corey, can you can you show us on your site Yep. That section? 437 00:29:27.570 --> 00:29:31.125 And and I also had a question sorry to throw you off your presentation there. 438 00:29:31.205 --> 00:29:32.405 I also had a follow-up question. 439 00:29:32.405 --> 00:29:40.585 Are you making all these YouTube videos or are you finding videos on YouTube that would be useful for your community and publishing them on your site with custom descriptions? 440 00:29:41.045 --> 00:29:44.745 That's a great question. The no. All of this is my content. Okay. 441 00:29:54.240 --> 00:29:59.220 So the I've done digital marketing for beginners, Craigslist used Craigslist for sales, 442 00:29:59.520 --> 00:30:00.915 used the workflowy app, 443 00:30:01.555 --> 00:30:07.975 Facebook graph search, LinkedIn, you know, again hours and hours how to how to use click funnels to make your own website. 444 00:30:08.515 --> 00:30:08.755 And, 445 00:30:09.555 --> 00:30:10.055 yeah. 446 00:30:10.275 --> 00:30:16.950 So your your expertise is in marketing and the the videos you have on your side are how small businesses can do better at their own marketing. 447 00:30:17.330 --> 00:30:21.510 Let's say someone's expertise is in marketing. What's what's something else another, 448 00:30:22.050 --> 00:30:24.870 membership community owner can post if it's not necessarily 449 00:30:25.170 --> 00:30:28.325 marketing tips such as these? Yeah. That's a great question. 450 00:30:28.325 --> 00:30:31.625 If, you know, I used the kind of the yoga instructor tip earlier. 451 00:30:32.165 --> 00:30:37.065 You could pick up a $20 cheap tripod at Target or Walmart, your local store, even off Amazon, 452 00:30:37.365 --> 00:30:41.669 and, attach your iPhone to it. And do, you know, three quick tips 453 00:30:41.970 --> 00:30:44.710 to energizing yourself in the morning or something like that. Okay? 454 00:30:44.929 --> 00:30:49.649 And do a three minute little video, and then upload the video to YouTube, share the YouTube video here. 455 00:30:49.649 --> 00:30:53.250 So now you're creating this this really great content that people actually wanna see. 456 00:30:53.250 --> 00:30:55.245 You're not pitching them with the the video. 457 00:30:55.325 --> 00:31:01.105 You're just giving all of your juicy good stuff to people for free. Okay. So whatever you can find 458 00:31:01.485 --> 00:31:09.600 inside yourself that that you can provide real value from the knowledge you have as a as the community manager or owner, That's the kind of stuff you wanna share with the community. 459 00:31:10.060 --> 00:31:10.940 Absolutely. And, 460 00:31:11.580 --> 00:31:13.340 another another bonus tip here too. 461 00:31:13.900 --> 00:31:19.580 I I think a lot of you know, I followed, of course, your your Facebook group, the brilliant director here, which is great, by the way. 462 00:31:19.580 --> 00:31:21.820 But I think a lot of people really get kinda hung up on, hey. 463 00:31:21.820 --> 00:31:24.434 I've gotta add all these extra functions and all this stuff. 464 00:31:24.434 --> 00:31:29.955 I've built this site in fifteen minutes, and I'm now up to $3 a month, and I have not done anything special to this site. 465 00:31:29.955 --> 00:31:37.315 So I just wanna illustrate that, you know, the guys at Brilliant Directories developed a wonderful platform out of out of the box, and there's really no need to reinvent the wheel. 466 00:31:37.315 --> 00:31:40.650 That's my own personal opinion, of course, but that's my personal experience. It's been, 467 00:31:41.289 --> 00:31:44.429 just keep it simple. And, it's lightweight. Page loads quick. 468 00:31:44.970 --> 00:31:48.330 And yeah. So that's what it looks like. Csvnconnect.com 469 00:31:48.330 --> 00:31:50.590 on that. Any any other questions on the page? 470 00:31:51.130 --> 00:31:53.950 No. I I think that's great. Just doing what you know best and 471 00:31:54.345 --> 00:31:57.085 sharing that value with the community. It adds authenticity. 472 00:31:57.304 --> 00:32:02.044 It's something they can't find anywhere else. And maybe it's not videos. Maybe it's an article. 473 00:32:02.184 --> 00:32:05.945 Or maybe it maybe you are curating content that already exists around the Internet. 474 00:32:05.945 --> 00:32:10.600 I'm just thinking, and you're just bringing it into one place and making it easy for your people to find. 475 00:32:10.600 --> 00:32:15.740 Yeah. I I think it's really nice there that the key here is providing content that adds value first. 476 00:32:16.360 --> 00:32:19.880 Exactly. And you could send all of the traffic just to this one link. 477 00:32:19.880 --> 00:32:24.455 You could run paid Facebook ads or SEO and target this one link. Kinda getting off topic here. 478 00:32:24.455 --> 00:32:27.495 But I'm just saying once they get here, they're consuming this free content. 479 00:32:27.495 --> 00:32:28.935 They're like, well, what else is on the site? 480 00:32:28.935 --> 00:32:32.555 And there, they can log in and create their own free listing. So it's kinda cool. 481 00:32:33.015 --> 00:32:35.730 Here are just five quick ways to grow your Facebook group. 482 00:32:35.970 --> 00:32:39.730 The big thing that I see with, people when they run their own Facebook group, it's just like, okay. 483 00:32:39.730 --> 00:32:45.010 I've got this great idea, and I've got all the settings right, and security's good, but how do I how do I actually get members? 484 00:32:45.010 --> 00:32:48.690 How do I grow it? And that's a that's the perfect question to be asking. 485 00:32:48.690 --> 00:32:50.655 And so here are five quick ways. 486 00:32:51.054 --> 00:32:55.775 First one, share your Facebook group to your personal Facebook page and your business page as well. 487 00:32:55.775 --> 00:33:02.115 If you have a business on Facebook and then when on your business page, you can right click on it, pin that pin your group, 488 00:33:02.860 --> 00:33:06.620 introductory post to the wall so it's always up there. And then just be real with people. 489 00:33:06.620 --> 00:33:09.919 Say, listen. I've I've got this great group that I'm looking to grow. 490 00:33:10.539 --> 00:33:11.740 It's a business directory group. 491 00:33:11.740 --> 00:33:17.465 I would love to have you in it if you're a local business owner in Chattanooga or you're a fitness instructor or whatever, whatever group you have. 492 00:33:17.465 --> 00:33:19.225 Just be genuine. Be real. Don't solicit. 493 00:33:19.225 --> 00:33:22.105 Don't hard pitch or anything like that, and I think people appreciate it. 494 00:33:22.105 --> 00:33:29.910 Tip two, depending on wherever you live in in the world, there's probably some sort of form of, a local business chamber, BNI, LITIP, or anything like that. 495 00:33:30.230 --> 00:33:31.130 Join those groups. 496 00:33:31.270 --> 00:33:34.950 They're they're not that expensive, and you're gonna meet some very powerful connected people. 497 00:33:34.950 --> 00:33:38.070 And get them in your group, and then encourage them to add their friends. 498 00:33:38.070 --> 00:33:41.850 And now you've got hundreds of really powerful people in in your own ecosystem, 499 00:33:42.365 --> 00:33:43.345 and it just compounds 500 00:33:43.805 --> 00:33:44.545 very quickly. 501 00:33:44.845 --> 00:33:48.465 Tip three, bottom left hand corner there, create a graphic out of Canva. 502 00:33:48.685 --> 00:33:55.005 Use the 800 by 800 pixels, and and then just and have a little fun, little, attractive little graphic that says, hey. 503 00:33:55.005 --> 00:33:57.425 Join our group, and then share it to your LinkedIn and Instagram. 504 00:33:57.960 --> 00:34:02.700 Top right hand corner, add lots of people into your Facebook group who would want to be there. So 505 00:34:03.000 --> 00:34:06.299 say your average person has 300 friends on Facebook on average. 506 00:34:06.520 --> 00:34:12.675 There's probably gonna be at least fifty, seventy five people on there that would be more than likely interested in in your group. 507 00:34:12.755 --> 00:34:16.035 Go ahead and add them. Again, don't don't do it to people who wouldn't wanna be there. 508 00:34:16.035 --> 00:34:19.875 Go ahead and invite them in your group and they're gonna get a prompt, yes or no through that. 509 00:34:19.875 --> 00:34:25.110 They hit yes, that's gonna up your account which is gonna help you get that compound traction a little bit. 510 00:34:25.590 --> 00:34:27.130 Bottom right hand corner, do a giveaway. 511 00:34:27.350 --> 00:34:31.510 Giveaways are hot, but you have to you can't do giveaways too soon. Okay? That's a big take away. 512 00:34:31.510 --> 00:34:34.330 I'm a say that again. You can't do a giveaway too soon. You have to get the group 513 00:34:34.630 --> 00:34:40.425 hot and prime and and probably, I don't know, three, four hundred members in it before you start giving away iPads and that type of thing. 514 00:34:40.905 --> 00:34:44.505 This is just a quick I'm gonna go across some visual learners. This is just a visual thing here. 515 00:34:44.505 --> 00:34:45.385 It's kind of a recap. 516 00:34:45.385 --> 00:34:49.245 Invite your most connected friends, do a giveaway, remind people to invite their friends, 517 00:34:49.545 --> 00:34:51.485 and ask a lot of questions to your group. 518 00:34:51.785 --> 00:34:56.400 I think we kind of briefly went over this already, but here's some more bonus tips how to how to actually get more members. 519 00:34:56.880 --> 00:35:01.359 So usually at 500 member mark in your group or more, it's a lot easier to get, 520 00:35:01.920 --> 00:35:04.640 their friends to join, friends of friends, and word-of-mouth. 521 00:35:04.640 --> 00:35:08.640 It's just easy to kinda join on their own. You don't have to really go out and hunt people down. 522 00:35:08.640 --> 00:35:10.660 It this does I never do that anymore. 523 00:35:11.105 --> 00:35:17.664 I did when I first got started for the first month or so in the first couple weeks, but just kind of as a disclaimer, none of this is it's not an overnight thing. 524 00:35:17.664 --> 00:35:20.085 This does take time. This is not for everybody. 525 00:35:20.224 --> 00:35:23.444 You know, it does take quite a bit of my time every day to manage posts, 526 00:35:23.870 --> 00:35:26.270 approve members, interact with members, tag members. 527 00:35:26.270 --> 00:35:30.270 I mean, I spend quite a bit of my day, I'm gonna be honest with you. And, but I enjoy it. 528 00:35:30.270 --> 00:35:33.630 I love it, and it's fun. You know? It's just a lot of fun. 529 00:35:33.630 --> 00:35:35.790 And now as an example, think of yourself as a farmer. 530 00:35:35.790 --> 00:35:42.474 You're not gonna go dig up the earth and plant the seed, and then the next morning you come out and there's the fruit and the vegetables ready to go. 531 00:35:42.474 --> 00:35:44.734 Right? It takes time and but it will come. 532 00:35:45.115 --> 00:35:46.395 Trade shows are really cool. 533 00:35:46.395 --> 00:35:56.220 You know, spend a hundred bucks and get a get a little table, get a little sign built with your brilliant director URL, and then have it attached have your URL and your business cards, your email signatures, all that type. 534 00:35:56.220 --> 00:36:00.960 There's tons of little ways to get ahold of your Brilliant Directories site, or in this case, your Facebook group URL. 535 00:36:01.579 --> 00:36:02.700 Email blasts are good. 536 00:36:02.700 --> 00:36:10.825 If you have an email list of any kind, Mailchimp or whatever you have, or even inside of brilliant directories, which by the way, phenomenal by the way, the the newsletter component. 537 00:36:10.965 --> 00:36:16.645 It's very, very easy to use. And, do a giveaway inside of the the the email blast. Say, hey. Listen. 538 00:36:16.645 --> 00:36:19.710 We'd love to grow. We're gonna give away a Starbucks gift card. Okay? 539 00:36:19.790 --> 00:36:24.609 Last tip on this page, do a Facebook Live and and make it kind of cool in in group. 540 00:36:24.750 --> 00:36:26.450 Say we're looking to grow our group. 541 00:36:26.750 --> 00:36:28.609 By the way, here's some cool value. 542 00:36:28.910 --> 00:36:31.330 If you know anybody looking, you know, add them. 543 00:36:31.710 --> 00:36:34.210 So this next one's really cool. I love this part. 544 00:36:34.625 --> 00:36:47.850 Recently, I I was reading the the Ray Kroc book, the founder of McDonald's, and the whole point of the book idea here, this number one, is I read I read a book that I like, and then what I'll do is I'll ask a random question from the book in the group, and I'll say I'll poll them. 545 00:36:48.010 --> 00:36:52.330 I'll say, in this case, what city or what town was the first McDonald's in in in California? 546 00:36:52.330 --> 00:36:57.930 And that's where it was founded in. And people start debating, and and the first person who, 547 00:36:58.490 --> 00:37:00.495 answers correctly gets the free book. Okay? 548 00:37:00.975 --> 00:37:01.795 Speed networking. 549 00:37:01.855 --> 00:37:05.875 I'm not gonna get too deep into that, but it's a really neat way to get people back and forth to build rapport. 550 00:37:06.015 --> 00:37:08.515 Ask lots of questions like how did your business get started? 551 00:37:08.655 --> 00:37:10.675 Do you like to shop locally or on Amazon? 552 00:37:11.375 --> 00:37:14.435 Share a helpful app or website and then give away, 553 00:37:15.050 --> 00:37:19.630 a gift card to somebody who shares a really cool new app, share content, polls, and memes. 554 00:37:19.930 --> 00:37:21.950 I'm gonna get the idea on that. Here's just some examples 555 00:37:22.490 --> 00:37:22.990 of 556 00:37:23.290 --> 00:37:25.630 the Facebook group content. Right? Motivational 557 00:37:25.930 --> 00:37:27.150 posters, and 558 00:37:27.450 --> 00:37:31.445 these two on the right, got hundreds and hundreds of people just, like, they're arguing back and forth. 559 00:37:31.445 --> 00:37:35.685 Well, which one is it? You know? As I mentioned before, I do giveaways. I gave away a $59 560 00:37:35.685 --> 00:37:36.665 GoPro camera. 561 00:37:37.045 --> 00:37:40.745 And, it wasn't a GoPro. It was actually a knock off camera. It's a great camera. 562 00:37:41.130 --> 00:37:42.250 And, they said, hey, listen. 563 00:37:42.250 --> 00:37:46.910 Invite your friends to the group, and the person with the most invitations will win this $59 camera. 564 00:37:47.130 --> 00:37:51.630 And, they just went nuts over this thing. They just thought it was the coolest thing ever. 565 00:37:52.250 --> 00:37:55.035 There's a free website called useloom.com. 566 00:37:55.115 --> 00:37:59.994 You can screen record your desktop. If if whatever industry you're in, you're an expert, I'm sure. 567 00:37:59.994 --> 00:38:08.315 Share open up your own little PowerPoint, put some tips and tricks, and then do use loom and do, like, a little training session, and then share that URL to your group. 568 00:38:08.315 --> 00:38:10.414 Again, that's just additional training. 569 00:38:11.130 --> 00:38:13.690 This I'm not gonna get too much in this, but I just I wanted to bring this up. 570 00:38:13.690 --> 00:38:17.210 Maybe you maybe you're a sales professional and you wanna get more appointments. 571 00:38:17.210 --> 00:38:21.309 You can use the system that I talk about in my course, the Facebook group accelerator. 572 00:38:21.849 --> 00:38:30.615 It's a roundtable sales method where, basically, you're asking people to introduce themselves, and then you're asking them to tell you who they wanna meet. 573 00:38:30.835 --> 00:38:33.415 Okay? And then you can connect it. So it could be, 574 00:38:33.715 --> 00:38:37.474 hey. I'm John, and I sell POS services, and I wanna connect with a dentist. 575 00:38:37.474 --> 00:38:40.710 Well, I know a couple of dentists. So you can, you know, again, tag those people together. 576 00:38:40.790 --> 00:38:43.609 Then you can set up a three way meeting inside of Messenger and take it offline. 577 00:38:44.310 --> 00:38:49.690 Switching gears just a little bit, this is just a kind of an overlay of overview of my, paid memberships. 578 00:38:49.990 --> 00:38:52.150 Again, I did not go off topic with this. 579 00:38:52.150 --> 00:38:55.130 I kept the defaults for the most part, free, standard, and preferred. 580 00:38:55.555 --> 00:38:58.135 I push preferred really heavy for direct outreach, 581 00:38:58.515 --> 00:38:59.815 email, shout outs, and newsletters. 582 00:39:00.515 --> 00:39:03.095 It's a hundred bucks a month. It's all pretty standard. 583 00:39:03.155 --> 00:39:09.120 If you look at the last bullet point here, the notification new leads, so that's a cool little system I I'm I'm I'm happy with. 584 00:39:09.360 --> 00:39:11.520 For the time being, it's really working well for me. 585 00:39:11.520 --> 00:39:14.480 So say Donnie the plumber joins as a preferred vendor. 586 00:39:14.480 --> 00:39:17.700 It pays me a hundred bucks a month, month to month, or we can do annual. It's fine. 587 00:39:18.000 --> 00:39:22.400 What happens inside of the Facebook group is if Sarah wants a plumber, and she's like, hey. 588 00:39:22.400 --> 00:39:24.660 I need a plumber. Okay? Well, before 589 00:39:25.255 --> 00:39:27.915 that post hits our Facebook group wall, 590 00:39:28.375 --> 00:39:31.494 I am notified in advance. I can have have the okay button. 591 00:39:31.494 --> 00:39:35.575 Before I hit the okay button, it gives me a running head start to contact Donnie, the plumber. 592 00:39:35.575 --> 00:39:38.474 Say, Donnie, Sarah here is looking for a plumber. 593 00:39:38.855 --> 00:39:40.635 And I know you're a plumber. And 594 00:39:40.935 --> 00:39:43.310 I'm gonna let you I'm gonna give you that peripheral treatment. 595 00:39:43.310 --> 00:39:48.670 I'm gonna give you that heads up so you can when that post hits that wall and goes live, you're Johnny on the spot with it. 596 00:39:48.670 --> 00:39:49.630 You're gonna take advantage of it. 597 00:39:49.630 --> 00:39:52.670 You're gonna reach out to her and make the connection, book the appointment, and make the money. 598 00:39:52.670 --> 00:39:57.035 Okay? And that's right there is just kinda the summary of of what I'm what I'm talking about. 599 00:39:57.035 --> 00:40:00.335 So this this is what it looks like. So Luke, he's a painter. 600 00:40:00.555 --> 00:40:04.895 And I said, look, we just got a painting lead. I tagged you, and he says, sorry. Thank you. 601 00:40:05.035 --> 00:40:08.230 He said, I sent her a message. And then just this past week, he said, hey. 602 00:40:08.230 --> 00:40:10.010 I've done over a hundred grand in estimates. 603 00:40:10.470 --> 00:40:15.990 60 came from your CSBN group. Later, he told me he made he netted about $30. So he made $30,000 604 00:40:15.990 --> 00:40:18.170 in one week, and he pays me a hundred bucks a month. 605 00:40:18.230 --> 00:40:20.565 So and I was very excited with that, as you can see. 606 00:40:21.444 --> 00:40:24.665 One of the final slides here is just an additional bonus tip. 607 00:40:25.285 --> 00:40:26.825 This interaction with Luke, 608 00:40:27.125 --> 00:40:27.865 I turned 609 00:40:28.325 --> 00:40:32.185 that interaction into an email newsletter inside of Brilliant Directories. 610 00:40:32.565 --> 00:40:34.984 And I just said, Hey, he's made all this money. 611 00:40:35.490 --> 00:40:40.770 You know, he just signed up, and he's already made his money back. You know? He's made $30,000. 612 00:40:40.770 --> 00:40:43.670 It's basically thirty years' worth of Brilliant Directories subscription. 613 00:40:44.050 --> 00:40:46.450 So he was, he loved it. You should join too. 614 00:40:46.450 --> 00:40:51.575 And if you're interested, click the big green button in the dashboard and upgrade your membership from free to the hundred plan. 615 00:40:51.875 --> 00:40:52.775 Very, very cool. 616 00:40:52.835 --> 00:40:57.395 So just to kinda wrap up, I do I do help professionals looking to grow with this system. 617 00:40:57.395 --> 00:40:59.335 I've developed an online training program. 618 00:40:59.475 --> 00:41:03.415 It's an eight week online course to teach you everything you need to know about Facebook groups. 619 00:41:03.690 --> 00:41:05.150 Over 40 training lessons. 620 00:41:05.290 --> 00:41:13.869 I do a monthly Facebook live, and there's also hours of bonus content including I'm actually teaching you everything I've learned about Brilliant Directories and and the systematic way to have. 621 00:41:14.490 --> 00:41:17.085 That's a quick screenshot of kinda what it looks like. Pretty interesting. 622 00:41:17.085 --> 00:41:21.744 I've got kind of whiteboard and also over the shoulder kind of taking you step by step. 623 00:41:22.045 --> 00:41:29.025 If you're interested, just for our prints for you guys today, I'm also gonna give you a free guide, the six must have apps that every Facebook group administrator needs. 624 00:41:29.349 --> 00:41:33.530 Just go to Facebook or f b group accelerator dot com slash special. 625 00:41:33.829 --> 00:41:36.869 There's a big green button at the top. Click on that. Download your ebook. 626 00:41:36.869 --> 00:41:38.410 Check it out, of course, if you're interested. 627 00:41:38.710 --> 00:41:43.290 Either way, I'm glad to be here. I'm gonna I think I'm wrapping up here. Anybody have any questions? 628 00:41:43.815 --> 00:41:45.675 Yeah. Corey, that was that was a phenomenal, 629 00:41:46.135 --> 00:41:48.955 presentation. I I learned a ton, there myself. 630 00:41:49.734 --> 00:41:52.375 Corey mentioned he has, an ebook guide for, 631 00:41:53.015 --> 00:41:54.295 any Facebook group, 632 00:41:54.615 --> 00:41:57.675 manager, owner. Let me show you guys where that is. 633 00:41:58.320 --> 00:42:00.660 It's facebook group accelerator forward slash special. 634 00:42:00.800 --> 00:42:06.100 In the top right hand corner here, this is a checkout page, but in the top right corner here of the page, 635 00:42:06.400 --> 00:42:08.580 you can click here to download the free 636 00:42:08.880 --> 00:42:10.420 guide for the six apps 637 00:42:11.115 --> 00:42:12.955 every admin of a Facebook group should have. 638 00:42:12.955 --> 00:42:15.375 And you just click on that link and you get direct access, 639 00:42:16.075 --> 00:42:16.895 to the PDF. 640 00:42:17.675 --> 00:42:21.135 And he explains the best best practices and best methods 641 00:42:21.435 --> 00:42:22.175 for utilizing, 642 00:42:22.795 --> 00:42:24.155 these must have apps. 643 00:42:24.155 --> 00:42:30.550 So I really recommend everyone just click to that page and then click this green button up here to get access to that. 644 00:42:30.550 --> 00:42:31.770 It's really useful information. 645 00:42:32.470 --> 00:42:33.030 Alright, Corey. 646 00:42:33.030 --> 00:42:39.290 Don't see any, direct questions, coming in from people with their hands raised, but, I I think that was phenomenal. 647 00:42:39.350 --> 00:42:40.810 Thank you for taking the time, 648 00:42:41.235 --> 00:42:42.355 to join us today. 649 00:42:42.355 --> 00:42:47.175 If you guys do have questions after the webinar, feel free to to ask in the Facebook group. 650 00:42:47.475 --> 00:42:52.115 You can at Corey Barnes and, just to tag him in the message. 651 00:42:52.115 --> 00:42:56.455 If you have a question about Facebook groups or, how to take advantage of his program, 652 00:42:57.039 --> 00:43:02.339 or if you're just wondering how to get started because sure Facebook makes it easy to, set up a group. 653 00:43:02.480 --> 00:43:06.740 But I think one thing you mentioned, Corey, that stuck with me the most is in the beginning stages, 654 00:43:07.279 --> 00:43:11.965 you were really social to get people to your social group on Facebook. 655 00:43:12.345 --> 00:43:15.145 You were making a lot of waves and a lot of splashes. 656 00:43:15.145 --> 00:43:18.205 You were using really strong actions to reach out to people, 657 00:43:18.745 --> 00:43:23.465 who may potentially be good members of your group, and it seems like it's paid off in spades. 658 00:43:23.465 --> 00:43:36.315 So, I think one important thing about social media is if you really want it to work for you, authenticity is key, but also spend time being social with your members and potential members that you want to eventually interact with. 659 00:43:36.714 --> 00:43:40.415 Alright. Thank you so much, Corey, for such an amazing presentation. 660 00:43:41.355 --> 00:43:44.974 Also thank you David and, Rick for helping in the webinar. 661 00:43:45.194 --> 00:43:48.640 If you haven't already done so, please join us at brilliantdirectories.com 662 00:43:48.640 --> 00:43:52.320 forward / Facebook, and we would love to continue the conversations there. 663 00:43:52.320 --> 00:43:57.840 So on behalf of myself and the entire Brilliant Directories family, have a great day and a brilliant week. 664 00:43:57.840 --> 00:43:59.300 Take care, guys. Bye bye.