15,962 Fans for ArchiCAD on Facebook!

I’ve been on the periphery of the whole social media revolution. Of course, I am a techie, and have created multiple websites and made lots of email broadcasts over the years, but until recently I hadn’t done much with Facebook or Twitter or even real blogging.

Now my wife is another story. Each day she goes onto Facebook and interacts with lots of friends, watches videos, laughs a lot, shares some of her stories and gives encouragement to anything and anyone that brings beauty, truth and light to the world. It’s a major part of her routine. Occasionally I help her out – I’ve set up a few fan pages for her, and posted some events to promote her yoga and dance workshops.

Our son is very conversant with all of this as well. He’s 21, in his third year at university, and of course he was brought up with this stuff. He’s too busy to spend that much time on it, but I’m sure it’s all second nature.

I’ve been an avid student of internet marketing for the past year or two, and have learned so much. I’m adjusting my style to be more personal, to share my thoughts, to appear prominently as an individual in relation to my professional offerings – rather than hiding behind a company, even my own company. It feels incredibly comfortable, as I stop trying to pretend to be big (e.g. “We’d like to announce…”) and instead share myself – my gifts as a teacher, as an author, as an ArchiCAD expert, and as a caring indivdual.

ArchiCAD on Facebook?!

Which brings me to the title of my blog post. As of today there are now 15,962 individuals who “Like” ArchiCAD’s page on Facebook! How incredible! Not only are there lots of ArchiCAD users out there, these are people who proudly say “I like ArchiCAD”. They don’t need to fit in with the crowd who use Brand X, in fact they’re happy and passionate about their software tool of choice.

What else does this say, beyond the fact that ArchiCAD has a substantial user base? It says that professionals are using Facebook, that it’s no longer just for the college kids and the people who aren’t busy working. It’s becoming THE place to network, with 500 million members and growing.

Of course, LinkedIn and Plaxo and other social networks specifically focused on business and professional connections are growing too. There is a thriving ArchiCAD group on LinkedIn – but it’s got 947 members – a substantial gathering, but nowhere near the number of ArchiCAD fans on Facebook.

However, there is one thing that LinkedIn has that Facebook lacks (at this point) – a discussion board. There are many discussions in the ArchiCAD group, and lots of intelligent discourse. This plays a different role in the ArchiCAD community than ArchiCAD-Talk (also a VERY valuable resource), which tends to be more focused on technical questions rather than the more open-ended and personal discussions I see on LinkedIn.

archicadMonkey?

Another big surprise: recently I connected with a person who goes by the Facebook moniker archicadMonkey, a young man by the name of Apollo Spiliotis. He’s Greek by birth, although he was brought up partially in the U.S. and partly in the UK and he retains a bit of an American accent. He’s made a series of video podcasts on ArchiCAD and Artlantis that you can find on his website and on Youtube and Vimeo. He’s also made his own archicadMonkey App for the iPod, iPhone, iPad and now Android, that showcases his podcasts.

What’s so surprising about this? Apollo told me that his videos have logged over 100,000 views on Youtube and 60,000 views on Vimeo. WOW! And it’s not like he’s made 100 videos each with 1,000 views – I counted a total of 17 so far. One of his videos has 37,792 views. So there’s a real audience for this stuff, after all!

So where does this leave me? Now I’m becoming an avid student of social media, as well as internet marketing, video, website design, and of course…ArchiCAD. I’ve started blogging, Tweeting (@EricBobrow), Facebooking (Eric Bobrow) and posting my video tips on Youtube. I invite you to connect with me!

One can never stop learning, or to put it in a positive way – one can always keep learning. And I’m hungry to learn more. Another world to explore!

Reinventing Myself

The newly reinvented Eric Bobrow

For almost 21 years I sold ArchiCAD. When the time came to leave that behind, it was stressful and scary. What could I do that would leverage my strengths while pivoting in a new direction?

Training and consulting clearly was the way to go. I have always loved helping people, and I’m very good at doing this with ArchiCAD. I’m a guru and people appreciate my expertise. The question was – how could I do this in a still foundering economy with so many clients struggling?

Fortunately, I had been spending a lot of time learning about internet marketing, website development, and creative uses of video. The answer seemed obvious, yet somehow daring: develop a comprehensive online video training program that my clients (and others around the world) could afford, while delivering the highest quality instruction in how to make the most out of ArchiCAD.

I weighed my options and decided to put all my eggs in this new basket. I started fleshing out the concept and working out a marketing plan for The Best Practices Course. Here’s where I really had to reinvent myself and my approach.

I studied with internet luminary Jeff Walker and learned his Product Launch Formula, a strategy for building a connection with clients and potential clients. One part of the strategy is to give away some great training materials for free. Give the goodies first, before asking someone to buy. This builds credibility as people can see the quality of my work and gain some tangible benefits from what I teach them. At the same time, it creates a subtle feeling Jeff calls “reciprocity” – the inclination for people to want to give back because they’ve gotten something nice from me.

I learned that it works to be personal and share my story, rather than trying to hide behind a corporate veneer, attempting to be a company selling to other companies. Each one of us is a unique individual, and even when a company buys something there is still a real human person (or more than one) who makes that buying decision.

Although I was familiar with the difference between selling features and benefits, Jeff’s emphasis on connecting with a person’s desires, needs, fears and frustrations was an eye-opener. It means talking less about the product or service, and listening more to what people say, what they complain about, and what they ask for.

When I deeply understand what you want, I can then talk to you about how I can help you get what you want, and you’ll want to listen. If you feel understood, and I’ve developed enough credibility in your eyes, you’re more likely to look at my offer with interest, perhaps even eagerness.

Wow! What a concept! When marketing, be a real person and talk to each and every person – even through email and web pages – as an individual who wants to change something about their life. In this case, to use ArchiCAD better, faster, with less stress, to finish work and get home earlier to enjoy the rest of their life more. Can I help you with that? I believe I can, so that’s what I’m offering you.

My dear old friend David Freeman, one of the most creative people I know, says half-jokingly that he’s going to start a “Reinventors Club”, and that I’m going to the president. I’m certainly in the midst of reinventing a lot of what I do and how I do it. It’s exciting and stressful and exhausting and ultimately very satisfying.

Bobrow’s Blog

This blog will include news on ArchiCAD, observations, tidbits from my personal life, interesting links and other tasty morsels. Stay tuned!