In this video, social media is explained plain English.

Check out this video. Some great content with Will Smith.

In one of his best presentations, master marketer, Seth Godin speaks to Google about:

Permission Marketing
Purple Cows
Pushing the Edge
Flipping the Funnel

Ronald Tobias, in his popular and practical book, 20 Master Plots, and how to build them, describes 20 common story plots and gives lots of detail on how to construct complete stories around them.

Now, how can you use these plots for your own business?

Easy. Tell a story.

Clients and customers love stories.  Stories sell.

Twist these plots in your headlines, ad copy, sales letter or websites and watch your copy soar.

The 20 Plots
1. Quest

The hero searches for something, someone, or somewhere.

2. Adventure
The main character or protagonist goes on an adventure, much like a quest, but with less of a focus on the end goal or the personal development.

3. Pursuit

The main focus is on chase, with one person chasing another.  The person being pursued may be backed into a corner and somehow escapes, so that the pursuit can continue. Depending on the story, the pursued person may be caught or may escape.

4. Rescue

In the rescue, somebody is captured, who must be released by the hero or heroic party. A triangle may form between the protagonist, the antagonist and the victim. There may be a grand duel between the protagonist and antagonist, after which the victim is freed.

5. Escape

In a kind of reversal of the rescue, a person must escape, perhaps with little help from others. In this, there may well be elements of capture and unjust imprisonment. There may also be a pursuit after the escape.

6. Revenge

In the revenge plot, a wronged person seeks retribution against the person or organization which has betrayed or otherwise harmed them or loved ones, physically or emotionally. This plot depends on moral outrage for gaining sympathy from the audience.

7. The Riddle

The riddle plot entertains the audience and challenges them to find the solution before the hero, who steadily and carefully uncovers clues and hence the final solution. The story may also be spiced up with terrible consequences if the riddle is not solved in time.

8. Rivalry

In rivalry, two people or groups are set as competitors that may be good hearted or as bitter enemies. Rivals often face a zero-sum game, in which there can only be one winner, for example where they compete for a scarce resource or the heart of a single other person.

9. Underdog

The underdog plot is similar to rivalry, but where one person (usually the hero) has less advantage and might normally be expected to lose. The underdog usually wins through greater tenacity and determination (and perhaps with the help of friendly others).

10. Temptation

In the temptation plot, a person is tempted by something that, if taken, would somehow diminish them, often morally. Their battle is thus internal, fighting against their inner voices which tell them to succumb.

11. Metamorphosis

The protagonist is physically transformed, perhaps into beast or perhaps into some spiritual or alien form. The story may then continue with the changed person struggling to be released or to use their new form for some particular purpose. Eventually, the hero is released, perhaps through some great act of love.

12. Transformation

The transformation plot leads to change of a person in some way, often driven by unexpected circumstance or event. After setbacks, the person learns and usually becomes something better.

13. Maturation

The maturation plot is a special form of transformation, in which a person grows up. The veils of younger times are lost as they learn and grow. Thus the rudderless youth finds meaning or perhaps an older person re-finds their purpose.

14. Love

The love story is a perennial tale of lovers finding one another, perhaps through a background of danger and woe. Along the way, they become separated in some way, but eventually come together in a final joyous reunion.

15. Forbidden Love

The story of forbidden love happens when lovers are breaking some social rules, such as in an adulterous relationship or worse. The story may thus turn around their inner conflicts and the effects of others discovering their tryst.

16. Sacrifice

In sacrifice, the nobler elements of the human sprit are extolled as someone gives much more than most people would give. The person may not start with the intent of personal sacrifice and may thus be an unintentional hero, thus emphasizing the heroic nature of the choice and act.

17. Discovery

The discovery plot is strongly focused on the character of the hero who discovers something great or terrible and hence must make a difficult choice. The importance of the discovery might not be known at first and the process of revelation be important to the story.

18. Wretched Excess

In stories of wretched excess, the protagonist goes beyond normally accepted behavior as the world looks on, horrified, perhaps in realization that 'there before the grace of God go I' and that the veneer of civilization is indeed thin.

19. Ascension

In the ascension plot, the protagonist starts in the virtual gutter, as a sinner of some kind. The plot then shows their ascension to becoming a better person, often in response to stress that would defeat a normal person. Thus they achieve deserved heroic status.

20. Descension

In the opposite to ascension, a person of initially high standing descends to the gutter and moral turpitude, perhaps sympathetically as they are unable to handle stress and perhaps just giving in to baser vices.

Mark Archer’s Avatars

With over 60 million users logging onto Facebook and social networking popping up all over the internet, avatars will become as common as the business card is to business professionals.

What are Avatars?

Avatars are icons or representations of users in a shared virtual reality. Within online virtual communities and Internet forums, avatars give users a unique representation with a degree of anonymity.

Gaining popularity with gamers and teens worldwide, avatars will become big business as more people see the social networking sites not as teenage dating hangouts, but efficient markets to sell and market their products and services.

Today, custom avatars can be purchased for $15 to $100. Consider the millions that will be participating in live chats, online communities like Second Life, Facebook and Myspace, email signatures, and blogs. Look all around at the social networking sites and you can quickly see the potential of this emerging market. Much like a business card represents a business professional, an avatar will represent the individualistic character millions that simply want to

Business professionals carry business cards to identify their business and contact information, avatars will become the online business card, branding the company, individual, or business, whilst, providing the necessary information like online usernames or chatnames.

Tad Dagan, associate vice president at Comverse, Inc. a Massachussets-based Avatar company said, " These avatars are becoming big business because they are very important to people-especially young people, who are online so much of the time. They want to represent themselves to their friends and people them meet online in a certain way. They want to be seen as cool and unique."

Dagan said "Teenagers want to be thought of as unique and creative, so these (customizable) avatars are attractive for them," Dagan said. "That's also why ring tones have become such big business."

Talking Avatars
Talking avatars continue to gain popularity in both the business-to-business and business-to-consumer markets and Oddcast, the leader in talking avatar technology, has been capitalizing on the growing trend of online self-expression since 1999. With over 5,500 business customers and millions of consumers using its products, the company is expanding its operations to the consumer and mobile marketplaces.

In early 2006, Union Square Ventures, a New York based venture capital firm led Oddcast's $4 million equity fundraising round. "Oddcast pioneered many of the most creative uses of avatars on the web. They are innovators in viral marketing for major brand advertisers including ESPN, Bratz, and the recently successful Monk-e-Mail Career Builder campaign. We would not be surprised if one day soon, young people put the same energy into their avatars that they put into their social network profiles. We are thrilled to be working with the Oddcast team to make that possible," said Brad Burnham, Managing Director of Union Square Ventures.

"Online communication through talking avatars is growing into a broad phenomenon. Millions of consumers are using Oddcast products every month and hundreds of millions viewing the talking characters," Said Adi Sideman, Founder and CEO of Oddcast. "With a clear understanding of the consumer web services space, Union Square Ventures and ITOCHU are two ideal partners for us, in this exciting stage of our growth."

Oddcast provides talking avatar products to leading consumer brands as well as small to mid-sized companies and consumers. Increasingly, avatars are being used by corporations as virtual salespeople, marketers, instructors, in talking ad units and by consumers for messaging and self-expression. To learn more about Oddcast's talking avatar products log on to www.oddcast.com.

Catch the Wave.
So, how does an entrepreneur capture a piece of this gigantic pie?  While it may be several years, before this emerging market gains traction, we recommend that you ride this wave and invest with a private or public reputable company that offers affordable, quality, custom avatars to the masses.

Start a Joint Venture with a small to medium graphic artist company and strike a deal to market for them.
Develop emerging technology that will augment the growing avatar industry. Ideas such as talking and animated avatars are still in its infancy.

Johnny and Jerry decide to sell lemonade.

Johnny asks his mom to borrow $20 for supplies.

Thrilled to see the entrepreneurial spirit in her little boy, the mother says "Sure. in fact, Johnny I'll drive you to the store and help you pick out the supplies."

Jerry rides his bike to his rich uncle and says, "Uncle Pete, can I borrow twenty dollars to start a lemonade stand?"

Uncle Pete says, "Where are the customers?"

Jerry says, "I don't know, but me and Johnny want to sell lemonade and be rich.  Right now, Johnny's mother is driving him to the store to help him with the supplies."

Uncle Pete smiled and said, "Jerry, Remember this rule in business. Sell it First, then Buy it."

Jerry thanked his uncle for the advice and hopped on his bike and drove to the local baseball game. There he sees a crowd of fifteen year old boys with their parents sweating in the hot, summer sun.

He walks up to the coach standing in the shade.

"Hey, mister, would you like some lemonade?"

The coach says, "Sure, how much?"

Johnny says, "I don't know, how much do you and your players want?"

The coach says, "Well, there are 20 guys on each team so I'd say 3 gallons should do it."

Johnny says, "No problem, I'll give you a discount. That will be $20.

The coach hands him a twenty dollar bill and says, "Can you come here every weekend?"

I first heard this story after my first failed business. I was distraught after the company I was representing declared bankruptcy, and I was forced to call my customers to report the bad news. I was humiliated and upset.

After I settled down, I called an old friend and very successful businessman.

The first thing he asked was, "What did you learn?" and  he told me something I'll never forget.

"Mark, businesses may fail, but YOU will only fail if you quit on yourself. Take the lessons you learn as a gift and don't ever let ANYONE steal your dreams."

He then told me the Lemonade Story and I've used the Lemonade Story to build my own businesses ever since.

The essence of the Lemonade Story is this. If you have a business, you don't need to shell out loads of money to get started. In fact, the opposite is true.

Sell It, then Buy it.

Here are some examples.

Options on Real Estate. Putting big down payments on real estate will only hurt if deals turn bad. Don't do it and do what the rich do. Put an option to control a large parcel of real estate.

Sell an annual contract. In the lemonade story, Jerry found the decision maker and sold him a long-term contract without any supplies, or investment or overhead. This means exponential growth and very little risk for the business owner.

Pre-sell memberships or subscriptions. I use various membership websites to give both value to my members and generate revenue. it yields passive income and means I build the product it once and repackage it and sell it over and over.

Sell Limited/Unlimited Access for a premium. Restaurants know that by selling "All You Can Eat" Buffets, the numbers of increased customers will defray the cost of service or production.

And one of the most important secrets to Growing Your Business is this:
ALWAYS MONEY IN BEFORE MONEY OUT.

In early 2007 I was invited to a marketing meeting of a brand new start-up in a multi billion dollar niche market to evaluate and critique their online marketing and overall marketing strategies. While I am busy with other projects (aren't we all) I decided as a favor to one of the executives to sit and evaluate and share my opinions.  After looking at their site and overall strategy, (online and offline) I bluntly told them that their strategy "sucked."

They showed me that their monthly ad budget was over 50k per month and hard and soft costs were even greater. I shared my opinion that by cutting their advertising budget and investing into Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and a robust affiliate program; they would definitely see a much higher Return on Investment

This got their attention as almost every one of these top executives had no idea of the difference between paid positions via google Pay Per Click (PPC) ad words and organic search positions. One thought that the #1 organic position took "big bucks" to get……It just shows how much mis-information there is out there.

Affiliate Marketing.

In July 1996, Amazon.com launched the first affiliate program on the Internet. As the story goes, Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of Amazon was talking with a woman at a cocktail party about how she wanted to sell books on her web site. After that encounter, Bezos thought about having the woman link her site to Amazon and receive a commission on the book sales. This was the impetus for creating the "first on the Web" Amazon.com Associates Program.

Before Amazon

In February 2000, Amazon.com announced that it had been granted a patent (6,029,141) on all the essential components of an affiliate program. The patent application was submitted in June 1997.   The internet's dirty little secret was that there are many adult sites that dabbled in the affiliate marketing concept before Amazon picked it up. In fact, the adult sites came up with many of the best (and worst) marketing concepts that are used in the mainstream today.  The consensus of marketing folks and adult industry insiders is that Cybererotica was either the first or among the early innovators in affiliate marketing with a cost-per-click program.

What is an affiliate program?

In many programs, an affiliate earns a commission for each sale he refers to the lead site. For example, the woman at the cocktail party would be paid by Amazon for any books sold through the woman's personal website. Think of it as a referral fee.

In my meeting with the executives, I said, imagine that you have thousands of foot soldiers and college students referring their friends leads to your site or business. Sure, you may lose a small amount of money from the commission payouts but the growth of your business would be staggering. Plus, you just saved yourself 50 thousand dollars a month in advertising dollars. It doesn't cost alot to start this program.

I told them I'd sleep on it and get back to them regarding a marketing plan that would be a win-win for both of us. A few weeks went by and I consulted with them, but after some time I realized this company had some challgenges beyond marketing.

I believe Eben Pagan coined the term, "Move The Free Line." The term may be new, but the idea is not.

In this video, Brad Fallon, a business owner and internet marketer and founder of  My Wedding Favors.com explains what the Moving the Free Line means to him.