How To Secure Your Business, Your Career and Your Future…Using Social Media

It’s a tough world right now. Business are struggling, people are losing jobs and in general livelyhoods are being disrupted by this confluence of a bad economy and new technology.

Here’s what we do know…

1. Business that are considered leaders in a market or niche will survive and may even thrive.
2. Companies that have a steady stream of new, low cost, quality leads will always have new revenue to count on.
3. Executives and business owners that are considered authorities in their field will always be in demand.

As a business owner or executive you have more control over these things than you ever did. Social media is accessible to anyone. Their is no economic barrier, most of the ways to participate are free or low cost. The barriers to success are education, passion and persistence.

I’m always amazed when I meet a struggling business owner that tells me they don’t have time for social media marketing. Or an executive that lost a job, or is worried about losing a job in this economy but does not try to find ways to make themselves more important to their industry and company.

The fact of the matter is you can create a secure future for your business and your career if you put the effort and time into learning new marketing tools. Just start learning about, and doing these things and you can not only survive, but thrive:

• Start blogging and commenting on other thought leader blogs immediately. You can literally set up a blog in 15 minutes. If you have been working at something for any amount of time you have knowledge and a point of view. Share it and get others to participate. This will make you a perceived authority in your market. Potential customers and employers really like that because it takes the “risk” out of buying into you. Once your blog is set up, start commenting on other important blogs in your market or niche. Make sure you set up profiles where you can so people can look you up when they want to see your picture or get to know you after you comment. Copyblogger has some great tips on what to write in your blog.
• Write one 500-600 word article a week and publish it to article directories like ezine articles. These articles will be picked up by websites that are looking for content to publish. The article pages on the directories are also indexed by search engines…so make sure you use one anchor text link in each article and put a two sentence bio at the bottom of each article with a link to your website. You get two for one here, SEO for your site and you build authority in your market. All the directories have great tutorials about how to write an article.
• Over time you can learn about and implement many other social media strategies like Facebook, Twitter, Squidoo, video distribution…the list is endless. But don’t get overwhelmed.

If you are not blogging and writing articles, just get started now. That alone will get you noticed and put you ahead of most of your competition. Be consistent and persistent because it will take a few months to start to get noticed.

What do you think? Can you do this?

2010 Business Marketing Strategy: Allow Your Comments to be Heard All Over the Web!

As we ring in 2010, I feel that it is as important time to be making goals for your business, as well as your personal life. I am not referring to the far-fetched “impossible to reach” goals, but ones that you can actually fulfill with a sense of accomplishment.

Forget all the tips, tricks and tools bombarding your social marketing strategy and focus on the big picture of what you are trying to achieve: visibility.

Think about it, if no one knows what your business is all about, then what is the point of wasting your valuable time on a marketing plan? My advice for the New Year is to increase your visibility on the Internet by following your industry…But where do you find these people? I thought you would never ask…

The answer is simple. Blog commenting and forum posting is the BEST way to follow thought leaders in your market and appeal to your customers at the exact same time.

Do some keyword searches for your niche market and see what blogs seem to have a large, active audience. Now, all you have to do is read, listen and make your comments heard. Here are some ways to get noticed and convert your posts into new leads:

• Stay on Top. Treat your blog commenting as if your were ordering tickets for your favorite band off of TicketMaster. The earlier you are, the better seats you’ll get. It is the same with blog participation. In order to make a informative, eye-catching, unique post, you must be one of the first ones on the board. Visit your most popular industry blogs during the time they generally post their information. If you check early and often, you should have no problem being one of the first ones there.

• Make a Disagreement. By no means should you enter a blog looking for controversy, but it is important to remember to stick to your values and opinions. If you disagree with a particular post, don’t be afraid to express your feelings. By stating a disagreement, you establish respect and provoke emotion…the key to successful business marketing.

• Inflict Humor. Recently, as I was going through my daily networking plan and posting to industry blogs and forums. I accidentally made the mistake of posting my comment in the wrong thread, and was not able to erase it. This thread was one of the most popular hangouts for participants. I was bombarded by negative comments: being accused of spamming, not abiding by the forum rules, etc. I replied with one simple comment, “Oops! Sorry about that everyone! I can’t get anything past you,” and much to my chagrin, I received nothing but positive praise, more connections and increased traffic to my site. So, when in doubt, use your sense of humor, and a little charm, to make an impact.  You will build a solid rapport and establish credibility.

Use these tips as a guideline for all of your online comments and posts. Remember to stay true to yourself, and don’t be afraid to travel outside of your comfort zone. 2010 is the year of change…so start now!