When I started this small blog it was to teach people how to change their lives. I never expected it to get big. Over the years I have had a good stream of traffic and numerous people have reached out to me for help for either their own lives, or their personal business's. A few weeks ago I received an email from one of my more frequent followers. He asked why my blog wasn't being updated as often as it use to be.
This caused some concern as I normally spend a week writing articles and then place them on an auto schedule release date. So, I hoped over here to see what exactly was going on. It seems the last time I have made a blog post was October of 2014.... Ugh... This instantly gave me a headache.
I want to make a formal apology to all of my readers. I have around 40 articles/posts that are in my database that were suppose to auto post on select dates. They apparently did not. Even the great ones make mistakes folks, and alas, I forgot to turn the auto cycle on.
I will go through the database and take any outdated articles and do some updates and turn them on so the content begins to stream freely again. I again, want to just I'm sorry for the major flaw that is no one's fault but my own.
I also want to take some time over the next week or so and do some updating to the blog itself. Layouts, new content, and minor updates here and there.
Everything should be back in order in the next few days. Please bare with me and stand-by.
Thank You
John
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Stop Talking About Yourself So Much
Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, Oh my! Now entrepreneurs have so many ways to reach out and talk to the world. Entrepreneurship is all about building a platform of loyal advocates who are excited about listening to your message and hopefully buying from you.
That said, the five biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make on social media all come down to one important lesson: You talk too much (at least on social media). Stop talking and start listening and you will turn your use of social media into a lean, mean, money-making, advocate-building, client-relationship machine. Avoid these social media mistakes and build a wider following:
1. Avoid me, me, me; it’s all about me. Take out a sheet of paper and write down your last 10 social media posts. Whom have you written about? I bet most, and probably all, your posts are about you, your company and your greatness. Stop writing about you. Instead, use your platform as an opportunity to promote others. My personal method of doing this is through blogging about amazing people.
Every week I choose an interesting business person to reach out to and interview for my blog. By doing so I guarantee that every single week I’m offering awesome content about other people and so my friends, followers and connections get way more than they bargained for when they followed me because my posts are not just about me. A side benefit to doing this is that I also strengthen my bonds with some amazing people.
2. Pivot from always using your lips not your ears. Most entrepreneurs use social media as their lips, not their ears. Instead of spending 30 minutes a day posting, spend that time scrolling through posts by friends, followers and potential clients to see what’s going on in their lives. When something awesome is happening in the life or business of one of your followers, act on it! Send a card or pick up the phone to acknowledge it. I spend 30 minutes a day scrolling through my social-media feeds to see what’s happening in everyone else’s lives. When I see anything at all, like a celebration or a challenge in their life, I consider this to be a prompt that I must act upon.
3. Too good for social media? Forget that! Surprisingly there are still individuals and companies that are resisting social media. Wow, these individuals and firms are missing out on a free opportunity to build a following. I’ve had conversations with business owners like this and the big reason they have resisted social media is because they personally hate social media. My advice to them is to get over it!
I know lots of entrepreneurs who hate selling yet they realize that this activity is so fundamentally important to their business that they figure out a way to get good at it -- just as they should do with social media.
To build a tribe, you must be accessible in a way that people can easily learn about you and your business. The easiest way to do this is through social media. There’s a good chance that your competition is eating it up on social media, and so should you!
4. No sunshine when she’s gone? Stop whining. Do not post negative stuff via social media. Do not complain. Do not share negative articles about your competition. If you choose to post about your political preferences, do so only with the knowledge that you are probably eliminating 50 percent of your followers as potential clients. Presumably, you want to grow a following for your business. To do so, you must have posts that are inclusionary. Therefore, don’t give people a reason to walk away from your business.
5. Steer away from impersonal birthday greetings. A person’s birthday is the most special day of the year, for that person. Ten years ago, collecting a database of birthdays would have been time-consuming and cumbersome. Today, you have this information at your fingertips. Don’t miss out an amazing opportunity to honor your customers, employees and sphere of influence on their birthdays.
By the way, posting on their Facebook wall is almost equal to ignoring their birthday. Everyone is posting stuff on that person's Facebook wall. At a minimum, if you are going to post on someone's Facebook wall, put a photo or a video so at least it gets noticed among the flood of birthday wishes. Better yet, don’t post on their wall at all. Send a card or pick up the phone to offer a birthday wish.
Social media offers entrepreneurs a unique opportunity to build a tribe by listening, acknowledging and honoring others. Shut up, start listening and thrive!
That said, the five biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make on social media all come down to one important lesson: You talk too much (at least on social media). Stop talking and start listening and you will turn your use of social media into a lean, mean, money-making, advocate-building, client-relationship machine. Avoid these social media mistakes and build a wider following:
1. Avoid me, me, me; it’s all about me. Take out a sheet of paper and write down your last 10 social media posts. Whom have you written about? I bet most, and probably all, your posts are about you, your company and your greatness. Stop writing about you. Instead, use your platform as an opportunity to promote others. My personal method of doing this is through blogging about amazing people.
Every week I choose an interesting business person to reach out to and interview for my blog. By doing so I guarantee that every single week I’m offering awesome content about other people and so my friends, followers and connections get way more than they bargained for when they followed me because my posts are not just about me. A side benefit to doing this is that I also strengthen my bonds with some amazing people.
2. Pivot from always using your lips not your ears. Most entrepreneurs use social media as their lips, not their ears. Instead of spending 30 minutes a day posting, spend that time scrolling through posts by friends, followers and potential clients to see what’s going on in their lives. When something awesome is happening in the life or business of one of your followers, act on it! Send a card or pick up the phone to acknowledge it. I spend 30 minutes a day scrolling through my social-media feeds to see what’s happening in everyone else’s lives. When I see anything at all, like a celebration or a challenge in their life, I consider this to be a prompt that I must act upon.
3. Too good for social media? Forget that! Surprisingly there are still individuals and companies that are resisting social media. Wow, these individuals and firms are missing out on a free opportunity to build a following. I’ve had conversations with business owners like this and the big reason they have resisted social media is because they personally hate social media. My advice to them is to get over it!
I know lots of entrepreneurs who hate selling yet they realize that this activity is so fundamentally important to their business that they figure out a way to get good at it -- just as they should do with social media.
To build a tribe, you must be accessible in a way that people can easily learn about you and your business. The easiest way to do this is through social media. There’s a good chance that your competition is eating it up on social media, and so should you!
4. No sunshine when she’s gone? Stop whining. Do not post negative stuff via social media. Do not complain. Do not share negative articles about your competition. If you choose to post about your political preferences, do so only with the knowledge that you are probably eliminating 50 percent of your followers as potential clients. Presumably, you want to grow a following for your business. To do so, you must have posts that are inclusionary. Therefore, don’t give people a reason to walk away from your business.
5. Steer away from impersonal birthday greetings. A person’s birthday is the most special day of the year, for that person. Ten years ago, collecting a database of birthdays would have been time-consuming and cumbersome. Today, you have this information at your fingertips. Don’t miss out an amazing opportunity to honor your customers, employees and sphere of influence on their birthdays.
By the way, posting on their Facebook wall is almost equal to ignoring their birthday. Everyone is posting stuff on that person's Facebook wall. At a minimum, if you are going to post on someone's Facebook wall, put a photo or a video so at least it gets noticed among the flood of birthday wishes. Better yet, don’t post on their wall at all. Send a card or pick up the phone to offer a birthday wish.
Social media offers entrepreneurs a unique opportunity to build a tribe by listening, acknowledging and honoring others. Shut up, start listening and thrive!
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Facebook Isn't the End All, Be All for Social Marketing
Question: Given the not-so-recent changes in Facebook visibility of posts among fans, how useful is to still concentrate the part of social media effort on Facebook? Also, with your findings, how profitable -- from the traffic generation point of view -- is to invest in FB paid advertising?
Answer: A few years ago, you could say, “I’m on Facebook, that’s my social strategy.” Not any more. The majority of the online audience in the U.S. (52 percent to be exact, according to comScore) is using two or more social platforms -- about an eighth of the audience is using seven or more.
Should you be on Facebook? Yes, absolutely -- if you have content that’s appropriate for Facebook. But don't focus on all of your resources on Facebook. Instead, be everywhere. If you have photos, be on Instagram and Pinterest. If you have wisdom, be on Twitter. There are a lot of social platforms. (Have you heard of Secret or Whisper yet?) You should use them each if you’ve got something appropriate to offer.
But the buck doesn't stop at social, you should also use email (think newsletters), and you should also think about paid search and SEO.
I can’t speak to your specific company and your strategy, but I can give you this: Try everything and measure your returns so you can balance your mix.
If you are trying to sell product through an ad, you should measure everything in terms of ROI. That’s easy math. How much did you spend to get the returns you can track through those efforts? Eliminate the costly and double down on the efficient.
If you are trying to establish awareness or interest in your brand, the calculation is a little harder. What you care about here is how you can best deliver your message to the perfect audience. How much are you willing to pay to speak to the right audience, how can you be sure the audience you want is the one you buy and how do you measure the effect the message has on them? (Hint: Clicks don’t measure brand impact.) This also requires not just buying access to the audience but experimenting with what to say to them when you’re in front of them. The placement doesn’t make the impact, the creative does -- the placement gives your creative the eyeballs it needs to succeed.
Big companies have access to advertising opportunities that small businesses may not. But even small businesses have powerful advertising tools available to them through self-serve features on Facebook, Twitter, Google and others. Take a look at the ads you get on each platform -- you can bet many of those are from small businesses. Do they work? Well, some of them are priced on a cost per click, so if you are willing to pay the bid price for each click you get then they are very efficient. But the onus is on you to give them a reason to buy both before and after they click.
In closing, you need to keep track of sales on what works and what doesn't. If you test the market on a paid ad and it isn't working. Try something different or a new approach. Try all the platforms out there.
Answer: A few years ago, you could say, “I’m on Facebook, that’s my social strategy.” Not any more. The majority of the online audience in the U.S. (52 percent to be exact, according to comScore) is using two or more social platforms -- about an eighth of the audience is using seven or more.
Should you be on Facebook? Yes, absolutely -- if you have content that’s appropriate for Facebook. But don't focus on all of your resources on Facebook. Instead, be everywhere. If you have photos, be on Instagram and Pinterest. If you have wisdom, be on Twitter. There are a lot of social platforms. (Have you heard of Secret or Whisper yet?) You should use them each if you’ve got something appropriate to offer.
But the buck doesn't stop at social, you should also use email (think newsletters), and you should also think about paid search and SEO.
I can’t speak to your specific company and your strategy, but I can give you this: Try everything and measure your returns so you can balance your mix.
If you are trying to sell product through an ad, you should measure everything in terms of ROI. That’s easy math. How much did you spend to get the returns you can track through those efforts? Eliminate the costly and double down on the efficient.
If you are trying to establish awareness or interest in your brand, the calculation is a little harder. What you care about here is how you can best deliver your message to the perfect audience. How much are you willing to pay to speak to the right audience, how can you be sure the audience you want is the one you buy and how do you measure the effect the message has on them? (Hint: Clicks don’t measure brand impact.) This also requires not just buying access to the audience but experimenting with what to say to them when you’re in front of them. The placement doesn’t make the impact, the creative does -- the placement gives your creative the eyeballs it needs to succeed.
Big companies have access to advertising opportunities that small businesses may not. But even small businesses have powerful advertising tools available to them through self-serve features on Facebook, Twitter, Google and others. Take a look at the ads you get on each platform -- you can bet many of those are from small businesses. Do they work? Well, some of them are priced on a cost per click, so if you are willing to pay the bid price for each click you get then they are very efficient. But the onus is on you to give them a reason to buy both before and after they click.
In closing, you need to keep track of sales on what works and what doesn't. If you test the market on a paid ad and it isn't working. Try something different or a new approach. Try all the platforms out there.
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