The Burning Question I Wish To Ask Michael A. Stelzner On The “Launch” of SME …

I was so fortunate to read the first chapter of the “Launch” book, written by Michael A. Stelzner, founder of SME – SocialMediaExaminer.com .

(you can get instant free access to the first chapter by clicking here. You may also enjoy great freebies if you ordered the book by June 10th)

Before I get to the book, I would like to note that I highly regard people who walk the talk and certainly Mike does. As I was reading through the great tips and insights he shared, I kept telling myself: “SME enjoys all these features.” That’s why; I wasn’t a bit surprised when he shared SME success story as a living example of what he preaches. In fact, it sounded very logical to me.

Here are two key points I got from reading the first chapter: If you want to standout in the information overload age, you must:

1. Experience a major paradigm shift by replacing the most dreadful question:
   “What can I sell you?” with the most desired question:
   “How can I help you?”
2. Follow the “Elevation Principle Formula”:
   GC + OP – MM = G 

   The formula means: “Great Content” plus “Other People” minus “Marketing Messages” equals “Growth”

   The “Other people” part of the formula means taking other people’s needs into account. In fact, you must carefully listen to your prospects’ needs and fully grasp them in order to provide what they would perceive as “Great Content”.

   To Mike, “Other People” also means helping out people who will never become your customers for a simple reason: reciprocity is ingrained in the human nature. So if you pay it forward, you will be rewarded generously.

So Far So Good! What’s your burning Question?

Well, here is what he had to say about the launch of SME:

On October 12, 2009, I launched Social MediaExaminer.com. Our slogan was ‘‘Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle.’’ The objective was to grow 10,000 e-mail subscribers before we sold anything. We were targeting business owners and marketers. Prior to the launch of this site, my company had almost zero standing in the social media industry. It was mostly an unknown entity trying to compete in a quickly growing and already large marketplace—a market full of experts who were likely 10 times smarter than I was. All the odds were against us. On opening day, we held interactive live video broadcasts with four industry experts . We also recruited high-profile professionals to pen one article a month on our site…

Drum roll…prepare to be amazed: my burning question to Mike is…

Everyone would be honored to write for SME today. That’s out of the question! However, I wonder how did you manage (when SME was in “zero standing”) to convince four industry experts to appear in a live broadcast video on SME’s opening the day?

Did you know them well beforehand? In other words, was it a personal favor they were doing for a friend or did you manage to show them SME potential? How did you approach them? How did you make them trust in your newly born site?

Let me sum up these ultra-lengthy question series into one specific question: How did you manage to use A-Listers as a fuel to launch the SME rocket when it was still on the ground?

That’s the only missing piece in SME’s success story puzzle but it’s an important piece if you ask me.

As a sincere eye-witness, I acknowledge that Mike has taken to heart the elevation formula with regards to SME and I am sure millions would agree with me on that. As strongly as I believe that this magical formula have played an important role in SME’s smashing success, there’s no doubt that experts also gave his “rocket” a much-needed launching-boost.

So, what is Mike Stelzner’s experts reaching magical formula?

Please be kind enough to satisfy my curiosity, Mike and I am sure that Garious readers are as eager to know as I am. Am I right or right?