4 Social Media Strategies for Success

By now, most of us have figured out that social media is not just a fad.  It is here to stay!   

Buying mailing lists to target potential prospects will soon be a thing of the past.  Social media is the method that people and businesses are now using to connect with new customers.

Your social media contacts and their connections have become your interactive database.  Interactive because you can now engage in two-way communication with the people to which you are connected.

Instead of looking at social media as one more marketing tool that you have to use, think of it as a fun mental shift in how we communicate.

Keep in mind, though, people don’t use social media because they want to be sold something. Hector Cisneros discusses in his blog Six Cardinal Rules for Success in Social Media Marketing that there are 4 reasons why people use social media: 

• To get useful information
• To find out interesting facts
• To be entertained AND
• To make connections with others

In building any relationship, you need to understand the other person’s needs and wants. Continuing to ask friends for favors and giving nothing in return is a quick way to lose friends, including social media friends.  The BNI motto of  "givers gain" really holds true when using social media.

If you are trying to build your business using social media, there are 4 basic rules to follow to successfully communicate with your new interactive database.

1. Be Human - As Jeffery Gitomer says, people buy from people they like. Don’t join a LinkedIn group discussion and start spamming the discussion about your next seminar.  That's like walking up to a group of people already in conversation and selling them on your business.  That’s plain rude.
2. Add Value - Sales is about building relationships.  What can you do to provide value to your social media contacts and their connections?  Provide interesting facts or useful information that would benefit your connections.
3. Interact - Create a dialog to build trust and a relationship with your contacts. Your conversations can potentially 'go viral', reaching out to your contacts' connections to which you are not currently connected.
4. Promote - Don’t hard sell.  Use soft promotion to communicate how you can help your contacts get what they need or want.  Promote your business in a way that provides value to your contacts.

Most importantly, remember tip #1 Be Human.  It's essential that you communicate like a live human being, not a computer or a smart phone.

Use these simple strategies, and you will be sure to build successful business relationships using social media.  

The Process is More Important than the Plan

Identify your goals.  Make a plan. 
Save money, time & energy.
It's key to your business success!

Written plans are an important part of your business success.  

But, you might be thinking...

What do I need a plan for?
I’ve been through the planning process before, why do I need to create another plan?

I’ve been to an ActionCOACH GrowthCLUB planning day before,  and I can create my own plan. Why should I go again?

Let me share the results of a study conducted by Inc. Magazine.

A group of businesses was selected.  The 1st group created action plans stating what they needed to achieve in their business.  The 2nd group just reacted to the events as they occurred in the day-to-day operations of their business.  A few years later, Inc. Magazine went back to look at the success rates of those businesses.  As you might have guessed, the group that planned was vastly more successful than the 2nd group.  The group that was too busy and winged it everyday with no plan were almost all floundering, bankrupt or out of business.

What they found was the successful group didn’t necessarily look at their plan every day, but it was just the act of taking the time to plan that made the difference.  Writing a plan clarifies your goals and focuses your daily activities, even if you don't consult the plan everyday.  Brian Tracy in his book Goals!, says the lesson is simple with the 6 P’s.... Proper.. Prior.. Planning.. Prevents.. Poor.. Performance.  

Here are 7 reasons you should act now and participate in ActionCOACH’s GrowthCLUB planning days:

1. It will force you to organize your thinking to focus on all issues needed to be addressed in the next 90 days.
2. It will allow you to think through what you must do to accomplish your goals, allowing you to plan your actions carefully before you begin.  This preparation will save you enormously in terms of time, money & people.
3. You will learn what questions to ask that will allow you to discuss and evaluate your plan, determining flaws & errors that could prove fatal to your business.
4. You can identify weaknesses in your plan and make provisions to compensate.
5. You can identify strengths and new potential opportunities that you can take advantage of to increase the likelihood of success.
6. You will be able to focus your time and money on the resources, which will allow you to achieve the 1-2 objectives that will make your business successful over the next 90 days.
7. It will save you hours- weeks- months of confusion, mistakes and losses of your money, time, & energy.

To check the date of our next GrowthCLUB Planning workshop and to register, visit www.growthclubjax.com 

Help! I’m stuck in a rut!

A few years back I was standing at our kitchen sink, washing the breakfast dishes, looking out our kitchen window and I noticed this fly.  It was just flying in circles, climbing up and down the window screen desperately looking for a way out.   Feeling the fresh air, it could sense that its freedom was near.  This seemed to motivate the fly even more to try to get out.

I realized that if I didn't give the fly any help, it was destined to be flying in circles all day, and I knew that the buzzing would begin to get on my nerves.  Eventually my son who was 3 years old at the time came over and  pushed the screen open to give the fly an opening to finally break through to freedom.

As I continued to wash the dishes, I was amazed that the fly just kept going up and down in the same meticulous manner.  The path to freedom was just inches away but it seemed stuck looking in the same places to find a small hole to break through.  When I was done washing the dishes and contemplating what had just happened, my son came over and asked me, “Why didn't it just fly away?”  I thought about it for a moment and answered him that the fly never stopped to think that he could.

How many of us are unknowingly doing the same thing?  My son's question made me think about how many businesses can't move forward.

How many of us can’t break through to that next level of success because we are stuck in our own comfort zone?  How many business owners continue to do the same thing over and over again expecting different results?

But just like the fly on my window, we are stuck in our comfort zones, imprisoned by our routines, stuck doing the same thing over and over because it is just familiar to us.  A wise sage once said, “An imprisoned individual cannot set himself free.”

Eventually the fly did break through to freedom, but only when my son came over and repeatedly pushed it toward the opening, so it could finally break through to the freedom it so desired.

Who do you have that can give you more perspective and will continually push you toward the opening so you can break through to your next level of success?

As a business coach, I help my clients see the forest through the trees, give them the knowledge they need when they need it, and hold them accountable week in and week out to reach their goals.  

A business coach helps business owners create a long-term vision and set goals and milestones to achieve that vision.  A business coach can help business owners talk through solutions to overcome problems.  Business coaches can also assist with building your team, helping team members to contribute to your overall success.  Business coaching keeps business owners on track to continue to grow and create their own success.

At ActionCOACH, we coach business owners to success with proven, tested and systematized ways to reach your goals and grow your business no matter what industry you are in.

Remember every champion has a coach, and that coaching is not just sports any more.

Find out more about the ActionCOACH approach to growing a successful business.  Check out my latest workshops and seminars www.actioncoachseminars.com or call our office for a free 1/2 hour phone "breakthrough coaching session" to discover if coaching can help you.

BE pro-active, NOT reactive!

When I go out and speak with business owners I hear a lot of mixed comments.  Unfortunately, most are complaining about how bad the economy is and that their competition is under cutting the market.

At the same time, many businesses are not sitting back and waiting to see what’s going to happen.  They are being pro-active!

Just think, if you can get just a few % points of all the business that is happening in your industry here in Jacksonville, what would that mean to your business?  When I ask that question to business owners, the response I get is 'that is probably more business than I can handle right now'.  Now isn’t that interesting...

If that’s the case...

• Why do most businesses do nothing to get their “unfair” share of the business that’s out there?  
• Why do these businesses think that by using their same old ideas, they are going to get different results in this new economy?  
• Why do they let their sales people chase after clients like a sick puppy and do nothing about it?

These businesses are re-acting to the market, instead of creating a plan with...

                                                       NEW goals

                                                       NEW strategies

                                                       NEW tactics            

                                                                            .... bringing them different results.

Your business can be thriving today!  One of my clients just reported to me today that their YTD  revenues have increased 15% and their profits have increased 70%.  A lot of their competition has not survived in this economy.  The competition did not make it because they did not have a plan and they were re-acting to the market place instead of being pro-active.

My clients succeed because they have a plan and are pro-active, instead of waiting for the economy to change!

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below...