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?

Bra’s and Facebook: A Social Media Inspiration for Your Business

Black. Pink. Leopard…I will let your mind do the rest. For those of you who are not avid Facebook junkies, like myself, you probably have no idea what these words even mean.  Well, it just so happens, that Facebook has been in the center of a social media-marketing storm.

Female Facebook users, from all around the globe, decided to implement a small “game” to raise awareness for breast cancer. All women (starting with only a few) bombarded the live news feeds with the color of their bras. Who knew that something this simple could become a ‘Grass-roots movement?’

Talk about viral marketing…within two hours, the Susan G. Komen Facebook fan page increased from 135 fans to 700.

Now, if this story doesn’t motivate you to get out there and brand your business, than I don’t know what will. With the power of the social media community, the Susan G. Komen Foundation was able to raise awareness about their cause, thus, causing an increase in donations, volunteers and event participants. Think of all ways your business can use social media networking to create and establish a visible brand, while driving traffic to your business.

Whether it is a contest exclusive to Facebook fans, releasing a discount coupon for your product, or hiding an eBook on your website to have people search for-get people excited.

Use the story above to inspire your business marketing strategy.     Think: How can I get people energized about my product/service? Don’t be afraid. The Internet is more forgiving than your think. If your idea doesn’t exactly “take off,” don’t get discouraged…just keep trying.

So, with all of that encouragement, I expect you to all to go out and interact with your community in a fun and creative way.

What ideas do you have to maximize your Internet presence?

Lead Generation: Social Media Marketing Makes It Affordable!

Small companies seeking the competitive advantage to tower above competition now have an incomparable marketing tool for lead generation business techniques with low-cost social-site marketing.

How does it work?

Let’s say you’re a green builder. When you share good advice in an article or upload videos on your weblog demonstrating how to use repurposed materials for contemporary design, homeowners looking for ecologically sound innovations will take note.

Before long, your info-packed videos and articles draw hoards of homeowners because your innovations make sense in avoiding enviro-waste, while lowering home remodeling costs.

When you tie this in with the comparative advantages of harnessing solar, wind and geothermal resources, you take a further step in comparing them to conventional housing costs over time—and convince your audiences how affordable green living is, especially in a recession.

Your blogging will clearly:

• Present cost-effective solutions calculated over the long haul

• Offer alternative comparisons to overcome misperceptions

• Integrate innovative ideas—home maintenance energy tips that are low-cost, xeriscaped landscaping, etc.

• Invite skeptics to comment with witty point-counterpoint ideas. You’ll find, too, that is a great strategy to start discussions on your weblog by inviting comments from other points of view

By blogging your expertise, you fulfill the three primary requirements to brand your green marketing leadership in your niche:

1. Unique service and products

2. Consistently delivering excellence to satisfied homeowners

3. Communicating an ongoing presence in the community.

That’s all it takes to get started—a simple social media marketing strategy using business blogging and social networking with groups such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Social linking makes communication instantaneous and fun hanging out, while generating mega leads that are ongoing—all at the same time. Are you also into saving money and time? Then, start blogging!

Confessions Of a Reluctant Blogger: 9 Hidden Benefits Of Blogging

I started writing this blog a little over one month ago.  While I was thinking about it for years, honestly, I was hoping to avoid it. I thought, I already have a large network, do I really need more “friends”. I’m too senior for this…I’m too busy for this. Then I discovered something about blogging that nobody really talked about. Blogging makes me a better entrepreneur and business person.  Let me tell you why…

While bloggers have been around since the 1990s, businesses have only started to tap into the power of using a blog as a component of a marketing plan in the past ten years. In this new economy, having a creative marketing strategy that involves social media is critical for businesses. Sonia Simone of Copyblogger has a great post on the 7 deadly sins of blogging that takes this issue from the other side…what not to do.

We all know using a blog as the center of your social media marketing strategy can increase your search engine rankings, build or cement your reputation, and enhance skills that will let those who lead businesses lead Internet communities straight to those businesses.

But there are several hidden benefits to blogging that are outside the expected realm, including the following.

1. At its very core, blogging is a writing tool. This does not mean that you need to be a New York Times bestselling author, but writing a blog regularly will certainly enhance the writing aptitude of every writer from novice on up. Since blogs also tend to get lots of feedback, you can also learn about what works for your writing style from responses you receive from your readers.
2. Listen Up! Blogging encourages you to listen. Once you start blogging you start to hear everything from a blogger’s perspective, and a buyer’s perspective.  By listening and responding to your audience’s comments, and finding out how they respond to your blogs, you learn to adapt your writing tone and style to meet your audience and buyer’s needs.
3. Brain Exercise. As you attempt to captivate your audience by displaying wit and knowledge, in a different way every day, you stretch your self to address new issues. You solve their problems, learn what they want, and you think differently about every day matters, including various aspects of your business.
4. Speak Up! Although blogging is a written expression, it can actually enhance your presentation as a speaker, and your knowledge on your topic. You continue to learn information as you research and write your blog and you also gain insight from readership response. This gives you the ability to more clearly articulate on your topics whether you are presenting a prepared speech to an audience or chatting casually on the social scene.
5. Blogging gives your sales approach a whole new outlook and takes you out of your rehearsed sales pitch. The more knowledge you gain regarding what you are promoting, the better you become at selling that very concept or product.
6. Successful marketing blogs must be fresh, informational, and enjoyable. In order to write this type of content you need to be aware of what is happening and stay abreast of current industry trends. You need to ask yourself two questions: “Who is my target audience?” and “What do they crave?” Don’t just ask what they want, be one step ahead of your competitors and dare to go beyond the surface. The knowledge you gain extends way beyond blogging, enhancing every aspect of your marketing campaign.
7. Blogs give you the unique opportunity to act as a launching ground to assess new concepts or products. There is no crystal ball in determining how successful something will be and paying for consumer analysis can be quite expensive. You can use your blog to see how your readers respond to your ideas and use their feedback to fine-tune and make adjustments as needed. Negative response from your audience can actually save you a lot of money, if you make the decision not to launch a new product or service based on their input.
8. Expansion is a natural result of blogging and it gives you the ability to take your previous topics and develop them further any time the need arises. You can breathe life into a fading topic by relating previous posts and expanding on them. You can also do the same thing to create excitement about something novel and unknown. Keep in mind the idea is to expand on the blogs and not just rehash and repost your “same old, same old”.
9. Networking is the core of social media marketing and blogs are at the heart of this. Social networking is the fastest way to generate “word of Internet” advertising, and RSS feeds allow your fans to receive syndicated updates of your blog automatically. This is a great way to increase your opportunities without requiring any additional effort.

The viral power of social media marketing is like nothing that’s ever been available to business and leaders before. By using a well targeted blog as the foundation, you can take the skills above, and watch the results increase incrementally. Other social networking tools and users will find your business based on the content of your blog. A blog reaches the people you need to reach, you teach them what you have to offer, and they tell you exactly what they want and need. Since your skills are growing based on blogging, your results just get better and better. It’s a perfect mix of win-win for you and your potential buyers.

Writing, listening, thinking, speaking, learning, selling, gauging, expanding, and networking are some of the hidden benefits of a blog that I’ve seen transform potential into strategy. Businesses that take advantage of this simple tool have the power to cast a wider net, on the Internet, than ever before.

How has blogging made you a better business person?