How do you stand out from your competition? When there are many choices from which to pick, why would your prospects come to you, and clients return to you?
What is the one thing, or the many things, you can demonstrate through social media, that most effectively markets your wares and/or skills?
Are your business strategies transparent throughout your organization, including, and most particularly in your social media content?
Let’s take a look at what you are saying…on your website and on all of your social network sites…consistently. Read More→
Who else is tired of all the fear-mongering? Headlines like these: “Hurricane threatens to destroy thousands of homes and business. What will happen when the next earthquake hits the United States? The impending fire danger could take millions of acres and threatens hundreds of homes and lives. The economy is faltering. The economy staggers. Thousands fear for their jobs and see themselves facing homelessness.”
Who else has figured out that it is the sensationalizing that has created all the fear and panic, not the events themselves? Absent all the media attention, weather-related events such as hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and fires…which have been occurring since time began…would be covered factually and as a natural life event rather than an epic catastrophe.
I take nothing away from the individual pain and suffering that is felt when a major drama plays itself out. The sensationalizing of it, however, does in fact remind me of the story of “Chicken Little.” Read More→
Now is the time for all good business men and women to “socialize” in a new and revolutionary way…action versus reaction.
Stop listening to the news reports. Stop buying into gloom and doom. Stop putting on your “worried face.”
Instead, start looking for new opportunities. In your business niche, how can you lead a revolution of expansion that will help put our country on firm financial ground?
To begin, you can do the following:
- Lead with your heart. Find ways, such as volunteering your services in your community programs. What skills do you have that might be useful? For instance, if you’re a webmaster, now might be a great time to help community service programs build websites to announce program needs and how they can be filled. Solicit your friends and neighbors. Help others find ways they can make a contribution…and remember…everything helps. Read More→
What would you most like to see in all this chaos? With the huge stock market swings, global war, threats of global warming, drought, famine and drug wars, turning on the television or reading the newspaper is bound to depress even the most optimistic among us. Especially in large doses like we’ve been getting recently. Makes one want to head for a little island in the middle of the ocean, with a couple of coconut trees and a hammock strung between them, a few good books, a basket of fruit and plenty of water. Maybe a few other amenities but NO newspapers, no TV, and no “spreaders of doom.” Read More→
Give this a moment’s thought: Is what you heard at the birthday party of a friend last night worth tweeting about…or adding to your Facebook post?
It is if it’s important. Newsworthy…good or bad. For example, a friend at a birthday party I attended recently mesmerized all those standing within earshot with her description of why she wasn’t going back to a certain restaurant…and was very specific about why everyone listening should pay attention about what she had to say. “Bad service, high prices, limited menu.” Read More→
Want to really skyrocket an idea or a product into the next level for your business? Then draft an army of believers and let them help you.
Take your 50 best customers who love what you’re doing, and ask them if they would like to, and are willing to share your new product or service with at least 10 of their associates, or people they know who could benefit as much from your product as they have. Let them know that you value their assistance and that you insist on showing your appreciation in some way, either through an affiliate program if they care to participate, or in some other way that allows you to show how much their support means to you.
Think of Amway, Avon, Fuller Brush. How have they done so well for so long? They’ve helped other people succeed through sharing. They have found ways to show their gratitude in a business relationship that creates a win-win for everyone. How many times do you get 3, 4, 5…or more…emails, tweets, or facebook posts in a single day that are touting the product of a friend? A friend or business associate of yours telling about what another friend has or does that you might find interesting or beneficial? And don’t the majority of those postings acknowledge their affiliate relationship? Read More→
Did you start your morning cranky, crabby and out of sorts? Were you thoughts gravitating to what your spouse did or didn’t do yesterday, or what your children should have done but didn’t? Or were you dreading the thought of getting up this morning and heading out the door to a boring, dead-end job that may help pay the bills but brings you no joy whatever?
If any of that is you, then this post is dedicated specifically to that one part of you that wants something different…a better way of living, a better way of being…a happier way to wake up in the morning.
First, I can say with a great deal of authority that I am an expert in this area. That is…the area of knowing what it’s like to wake up crabby, cranky and depressed. It took a lot to move myself out of this space and into a new arena where I create my future and then live it. I’ve invested time, money, and effort. There were some major roadblocks that you may recognize: Read More→
In business social networking, real time displays can be extremely important.
Sharing with your community what your customers like…and dislike…about your business, as well as your competitors’ businesses, makes you real. After all, if you’re in business, it’s because you have customers. And they all want to have input, as well as know what everyone else in your neighborhood thinks.
Business today…especially on the Internet…is a bit like having the whole family together for a holiday. The ability to share thoughts, ideas, and feedback has reached an entirely new level. So how do you offset Uncle Fred’s “It’s not the turkey dressing that your grandmother made” with Cousin Louisa’s ” I love the fact that the turkey dressing was not only delicious but made with organic, healthy products”?
Soft sell, not hard sell, helps you make the genuine connection. When your company’s employees, along with everyone in your community, are in collaboration…problem solutions, in addition to new products and services arise easily and effortlessly. Maybe you can’t please Uncle Fred…or maybe he’ll agree when he really sees what benefits he gets from a delicious, but different, healthy turkey dressing.
So…how do you use social media in your business to work with Uncle Fred, Cousin Louisa as well as your whole community, using their feedback and perspective productively? Let’s look at the components: Read More→
I’ve noticed something. Many marketing and writing gurus are boring. Don’t get me wrong…some are excellent teachers, and there is great information being formatted every day in different ways that help you create your marketing and writing style to fit your market.
The one thing I find missing, though, in many “how to” books, articles, blog posts, and videos, is the lack of humor…the thing that not only keeps you engaged, but helps you find ways to engage your prospective market.
I read an email this morning about the joys of motherhood. A great post, timed perfectly to coincide with the upcoming celebration of Mother’s Day. The email described the scramble for sanity in a 3 small-child household with everyone getting ready to take Mom out for breakfast. The middle-child, a 2 1/2 year-old was “missing” in the house, and discovered in the bathroom, putting chapstick on the cat’s butt.
His mother had previously given the child permission to use her chapstick on his own lips, and had shown him where she kept it in the bathroom. When Mom entered the bathroom and observed what he was doing, he simply said “Chapped.”
The picture formed immediately in my mind, and I burst out laughing. Mom, undoubtedly along with the rest of the family, was thinking about how many times in the past that chapstick had gone from the cat’s butt to their lips. Owwww…makes you pucker, doesn’t it? Read More→
Hero or heroine? Who are yours? What are the characteristics that define who we look up to and choose to emulate…in business and in life?
I am fortunate. When I first started my company, and began looking for a true marketing guru whose skill set was exceptional, and from whom I knew I could gain the expertise to become not just a good, but a great, copywriter, I found one.
In my journey to find someone who not only had the knowledge I sought, but the ability to teach it well, I discovered how important it is to choose who you follow carefully. The characteristics of who I want to emulate as I do business include: Read More→
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