Relationship marketing has been around since the dawning of (wo)man. So long as we’ve been able to communicate with our fellow beings, we’ve been able to do commerce. With the incredible boom of online social networking sites – particularly Facebook and Twitter – what we’re seeing now is a massive paradigm shift in the way we communicate and do business around the globe.

Yes, it’s important, “Who you know.” But now, with our attention-based culture we could say what’s even more important is, “Who knows you.”

As I was beginning to build my social footprint in 2003, I would look at my bookshelf, and my huge collection of home-study courses, and all the seminars I’d attended over the past 15 years. I know a LOT of amazing authors, speakers, leaders, and luminaries. But, did they know me? I’m delighted to say, they do now! In fact, I’m honored to include many of these leaders that I’d admired from afar for so long in my close circle of friends and among my top clients. All through the power of naturally building relationships through online and offline social networking.

By building a strong, recognizable brand in your industry and cultivating vital relationships, you’ll go far in achieving success in today’s world of new media marketing. I’m proud to introduce my new anthology book, The Relationship Age:

Are influencers born or made?

I put a few of my thoughts on relationship marketing into The Relationship Age. My chapter is called “Are Influencers Born or Made?” where I discuss the natural traits of influential people, various personality assessments, the importance of self-knowledge, plus I go on to share ten tips to increase your own influence factor regardless of your natural propensity.

(I first wrote this chapter back in 2007 when I met Dr. BJ Fogg through Facebook and he was putting together a book called The Psychology of Facebook! Also, It was rather amusing to see all the fuss made about Fast Company’s Influence Project this summer. Influence is a subject I’ve studied for a decade or more; my belief is we are all influential. And, influencers are both born and made – especially in today’s world!)

Meet the collaborative, international authors

In the very spirit of social media, I teamed up with 25 relationship marketers and social media marketing enthusiasts to coauthor the book. Our book, The Relationship Age, is spearheaded by Nick Nanton, JW Dicks and Lindsay Dicks of The Celebrity Branding Agency and is out today, November 11th!

Hop over to Amazon to pick up a copy of The Relationship Age and receive an array of helpful bonus material by simply emailing your Amazon receipt dated November 11 to: bonus@celebritypresspublishing.com

Meet our wonderful team of authors from all walks of life and all parts of the world – this book is truly a global effort. Our authors hail from Australia, England, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Malaysia, Canada and the United States.

Throughout the day, we’ll be in our TinyChat video broadcast room with a virtual book launch party. Plus, check my tweets and Facebook Page for additional updates on live access to myself and some of the authors today! (I’ll be camera-ready all day and will be broadcasting in-between appointments). We also have a Facebook Page for the book – come join us. And, be sure to follow all authors on Twitter – all names are linked to our Twitter accounts below:

Mari Smith – California  (Canadian-Scottish!)	Nick Nanton, Esq. – Orlando, FL	Lindsay Dicks – Orlando, FL
JW Dicks, Esq. – Orlando, FL	Pam Brossman – Sydney, Australia	Steve Brossman – Sydney, Australia
Jon Alfredsson – Sweden, now California	Beverly Dracos – Houston, TX	David Charles White – London, England
Jackie T Ewing – Orlando, FL	Georgia McCabe – Palm Island, FL	Katerina Morjanoff – Sydney, Australia
Brad Semp – Clermont, FL	Mark J. Buhagiar – NSW, Australia	Emma Tiebens – Orange County, CA
Pam Moore – Tampa, FL	Karen Purves – Surrey, England	Barbara Pender – Houston, TX
Katrina Kavvalos – Sydney, Australia	Eileen O’Neill – Rome, Italy	Mari Uusitalo – Tampere, Finland
Dechen Lau - Malaysia	Leslie Montgomery – New Hope, PA	Kathy Hagenbuch – Aldie, VA
Angeline O’Shannessy – Australia	Carol Roy – Alberta, Canada

Preview our table of contents:

Take a look through the diverse range of topics covered – each chapter is not only very well-written, they are packed with practical how-to’s and ideas for harnessing the power of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, membership sites, email marketing, lead generation and better time management!

Chapter 1 – A Picture is Worth A Thousand Friends…Or Enemies
by Georgia L. McCabe ………………………………………………………………………………15
Chapter 2  -  Social Media Tribes: How You Can Achieve Success Faster & Multiply Your Online Exposure By Leveraging A Tribe
by Jon Alfredsson, PhD …………………………………………………………………………….25
Chapter 3  -  Video Marketing – How To Fastrack Your Results With Video
by Pam & Steve Brossman …………………………………………………………………………37
Chapter 4 -  Accelerate your Profile on Twitter – Even if you are a Newbie
by Katrina Kavvalos ………………………………………………………………………………….49
Chapter 5  -  Wall Street’s new intersection is Main Street
by Barbara Pender …………………………………………………………………………………….63
Chapter 6  -  How To Create Automatic Profits From Social Media & Keep Your Sanity At The Same Time
by Bradley W. Semp, PhD ………………………………………………………………………….71
Chapter 7  – Books Speak Volumes When Creating Relationships
by Nick Nanton & JW Dicks ……………………………………………………………………..81
Chapter 8  -  How To Grow Your Business Through Social Media Sites
by Dechen Lau ………………………………………………………………………………………….91
Chapter 9  -  Content Creates the Conversation
by Lindsay Dicks ……………………………………………………………………………………..101
Chapter 10  – The three most important ‘who’, ‘what’, and ‘where’ questions to ask in Social Media for business users
by David White ……………………………………………………………………………………….111
Chapter 11  -  7 – Relational Marketing Secrets To Attract, Nurture and Retain Your Perfect Clients Online and Offline!
by Emma Tiebens ……………………………………………………………………………………121
Chapter 12  -  Language is the Gift, Listening the Responsibility
by Carol Roy ……………………………………………………………………………………………133
Chapter 13  -  Are Influencers Born or Made?
by Mari Smith …………………………………………………………………………………………141
Chapter 14  -  Social Media: The Relationship Age
by Jackie Ewing ……………………………………………………………………………………….151
Chapter 15  -  The Art of Being Genuine
by Beverly Dracos ……………………………………………………………………………………159
Chapter 16  -  Marketing with Auto Responders
by Angie O’Shannessy ……………………………………………………………………………..167
Chapter 17  -  Membership sites – The Golden Goose of Internet Marketing
by Mark Buhagiar ……………………………………………………………………………………175
Chapter 18  -  Social Media As The Backbone of My ESOL Teaching
by Eileen O’Neill (in Rome, Italy) ……………………………………………………………187
Chapter 19  -  Harness the power of 3 Strategies you already use and Become Irresistible in Social Media
by Mari Uusitalo ……………………………………………………………………………………..197
Chapter 20  -  How To Keep Social Media From ‘Eating You Alive’!
by Kathy Hagenbuch ……………………………………………………………………………….207
Chapter 21  -  “Are You Engaging?” – Why Engagement is the Currency of The Relationship Age
by Katerina Morjanoff ……………………………………………………………………………..219
Chapter 22  -  Relationships and Social Media
by Pam Moore …………………………………………………………………………………………229
Chapter 23  -  Building Know, Like and Trust with Lead Magnets
by Karen Purves ………………………………………………………………………………………239
Chapter 24  -  Hobnob, Mingle, or Schmooze?
by Leslie Montgomery …………………………………………………………………………….247

Order your copy today!

Hop over to Amazon to pick up a copy of The Relationship Age and receive an array of helpful bonus material by simply emailing your Amazon receipt dated November 11 to: bonus@celebritypresspublishing.com

We’d love to hear from you! What have been some of your most inspiring relationship experiences as a result of using social media? Share with us in the comments below!

Whether you’ve read Timothy Ferriss’ Four Hour Workweek or not, I’m sure you’re familiar with “vacation responders.” Essentially, whenever someone emails you, your email program automatically triggers a canned response to that person.

In his book, one of the many lifehacks Tim Ferriss describes is dramatically decreasing the amount of time you spend reading/responding to email. Tim suggests limiting email checking to two times per day and setting up an autoresponse message such as the following:

“In an effort to be more effective and productive, I’m now only checking email two times per day at 10:00am PT and 4:00pm PT. If you need a response outside of these times, please call my assistant at xxx-xxx-xxxx.”

I went through a period of time attempting to implement Tim’s email system. But it just didn’t work for me. It was too structured and I found I couldn’t just check twice a day.

However, meantime, my email inbox continued to bulge with incoming messages and I frequently found myself challenged to keep up with the volume.

Not to mention there is now Facebook email (and the more friends you have the more email you’ll receive!), emails on other sites like LinkedIn, Plaxo, YouTube, etc. Plus Twitter @ messages and DM’s (direct messages). Whew, time to declare email bankruptcy? Not so fast.

Though I certainly subscribe to Tim’s “low information diet” philosophy (I never read newspapers online or offline, nor on TV) – I also happen to be a raving fan of Gary Vaynerchuk‘s “respond to every single email for the rest of your freakin’ life” philosophy!!!

So, here’s what I came up with as my new and improved autoresonder. You’re more than welcome to emulate the style (please don’t copy it verbatim though!)

Greetings!

Thank you so much for your message.

If I could clone myself or give up sleep, I’d personally answer every single legit email. Ha!

Given neither is a viable option, just know that I’ve received and read your email and will be doing my level best to respond as quickly as I can.

If your matter is urgent and important (and especially if you’d like to chat with me about an interview, joint venture, or being a guest on your radio show, teleseminar or workshop), you’re welcome to reach me any of these alternative ways:

1. Skype: marismith_sandiego
2. Cell: 858-xxx-xxxx (leave a voicemail)
3. Twitter DM: http://twitter.com/marismith (if I’m not yet following you back, send me an @ message asking me to follow you!)
4. Contact my assistant, Christina: xxx@xxxx.com

If your matter is non-urgent, non-important, and non-private – how about writing on my Facebook wall instead? I read all my wall posts.

Go to: http://marismith.com/facebook – I’m almost at the 5,000 friend limit though. So, if we’re not yet friends, please go to my Facebook Page and become a fan, then write on my wall there. Thanks! http://marismith.com/fanpage

Also, follow me on Twitter and send me an @ message: http://twitter.com/marismith. I do my best to respond to all @ messages.

Please also check out my Facebook blog for how-to tips & strategies: http://www.marismith.com.

Thanks heaps for understanding!!

Cheers,
Mari

Mari Smith
Relationship Specialist | Internet Marketing Consultant
Facebook Business Coach
http://www.marismith.com | mari [at] marismith.com
858-xxx-xxxx (home/office) | 858-xxx-xxxx (cell)
Skype: marismith_sandiego
Facebook: http://marismith.com/facebook
Twitter: http://twitter.com/marismith

* Facebook for Professionals:

http://facebook4pros.com

* Facebook Coaching Services:

http://facebookcoach.com

* Blogs:

http://www.befreegomobile.com

I have this set up as a rule in Outlook – with a ton of exceptions as I don’t need this AR going out to every single person who emails me. (Note all contact numbers and email address are formatted properly in the AR; I tweaked for this blog post.)

Here’s a fun response I just received from one of my buds:

What do you think? Do you use an autoresponder system to manage your email relationships? Are you more of a Tim Ferriss low-information type, or are you a Gary Vaynerchuk nose-to-the-grindstone answer all type?