I meet with prospects and clients almost every day. Most people now agree that Social Media is not going away. They also recognize that it’s time to get serious about implementing and maintaining a social media strategy that will work for their business. Some are doing amazingly well. Others struggle.  So, as a Certified Social Media Specialist, what are the top 3 excuses I hear for slacking on setting up or not staying consistent with a social media strategy?

3. I Don’t Know What to Say

It’s rare that when properly coached, a client doesn’t have ongoing valuable information to share with their audience. Some are afraid to give away too much intellectual property, which is understandable, but you can give away just enough to entice your reader to want to know more.  At the opposite end of the spectrum, others feel that their content wouldn’t be of interest to readers. The fact is, you may end up sharing that one piece of information that is just the trigger needed to get that prospect to pick up the phone, email you or respond to your blog post or Facebook page entry.  Perhaps you have just answered a nagging question for them or you shared some personal information about a hobby that resonated with someone and they feel more connected to you.  Open up a little and share about who you are as a person as well as a business entity.  Success is in the sum of the parts….

2. I’m Worried About Who Will See What

So, the result is you do nothing! I find that people are mostly nervous about Facebook, and honestly, rightly so. Facebook is making a lot of changes and some of them are a blatant way to get more information from you so that they can feed their advertisers.  But, there are ways to stay safe on Facebook. Things like;

• Ensuring your privacy settings reflect who you want to see what content
• Instructing family members / unruly relatives to send you ‘emails’ on Facebook rather than write on your wall
• Monitoring the wall and removing inappropriate content if it does show up
• Setting up Facebook lists and then publishing information to the appropriate lists
• Enable the secure browsing feature

If someone wants to get information in this day and age, they will find a way to do so. Being conscious about what you put out there will help you.  If you can answer these three questions (thanks to Mari Smith for these), with a YES, then you are probably safe.

1. Would I be comfortable if my boss were to see this content?
2. Would I be comfortable if my mother/father/children were to see this content?
3. Would I feel comfortable if this content showed up on the front page of the Wall Street Journal?

And the number 1 reason?

1.  Not Enough Time!  …and by the way, I can be just as guilty of this as anyone else.

I recently read an interesting quote. It said: We all have the same amount of time in a day: 24 hours or 1,440 minutes. In fact, we have exactly the same amount of time that was given to Helen Keller, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein.

Sobering thought. As entrepreneurs, we all wear many hats. But the one hat that can’t fall to the floor is being consistent in how we market our businesses. And, in order to successfully move people through the sales funnel, we need to build strong relationships. This makes it easier for people to want to do business with us.

It’s really a question of discipline and having a good strategy in place.  Know what you want to accomplish each week. Write a list of information that you want to disseminate and then use the appropriate tool to get the message out. Remember, it’s not about selling product/services, it’s about building those relationships and providing value.

Start your morning each day working on your business rather than in it.  It doesn’t take that much time to check your social media profiles, respond to people who are trying to connect with you and give them the information they need to say YES to you and your business. Ultimately, people buy from people they know, like and trust.

If you need help, then consult with a Social Media Specialist to get a strategy in place both in terms of where you should be spending your time online and what kind of content you need to be putting out there.

The key to success here is consistency. Stay focused, be diligent and keep your eye on the prize. It will pay off in the end.

What do you think? Share your tips with me. I love getting feedback. Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv. What a great way to leave a link back to your own blog!

Until next time,

Joanne

click image to enlarge

There are mixed feelings out there about the new Facebook Timeline that is about to be rolled out.  I installed the BETA version a few weeks ago and have been getting comfortable with it. As a Certified Social Media Specialist,  I need to be able to advise my clients on how to handle it when it is rolled out to the masses.  This release is one of the most significant changes Facebook has made to the personal profile in a long time.  And while Facebook wants to be at the centre of your online identity, many people find this new release to be intrusive and over the top. I found some great features in this and for the first time in a long time, I had to revisit my security settings on Facebook and make some adjustments to feel comfortable with the way information will be shared.  Here are 5 important points about Facebook’s new Timeline.  Please note that the new changes coming to Facebook affect only your personal profile. Facebook has not made any announcements or commitments regarding Facebook Business Pages.

1. Ticker

The ticker has already been rolled out and you will see this along the right side of your screen when logged into Facebook. It is essentially activity stories that get posted to the ticker.  By placing your curser over a specific item in the ticker area, you will get what they call a ‘hover card’ with more information regarding that particular activity. What I like about it, is that not only personal page but fan page activity shows up here. By paying attention to the ticker, I have been able to connect with some people and pages I might have otherwise missed.  You can also now streamline the activity you want to see from the people you are connected with and shut out some of the noise.  What I don’t like about it, is that you have to pay particular attention to each activity update you post to ensure the right people see it. You will also want to revisit your application settings and perhaps change the update status to be ‘only you’ that sees it or your app activity will also be shared in the ticker.

2. Lists

If you haven’t already put your friends in lists, now would be a good time to revisit this. You can create different lists and place your friends in one or more appropriate list; family, friends, business, etc.  (you can have the same person in more than one list).  On your home page, you will then be able to view the news feed from a particular list.  As before, you will also be able to send out Facebook status updates to a specific group of people (ie friends) or to a targeted list.  Facebook has also introduced smart lists.  You’ll see smart lists that create themselves and stay up-to-date based on profile info your friends have in common with you–like your work, school, family and city.  You will also be able to merge your existing list to an appropriate smart list.

3. Subscribe Button

This is relatively new on Facebook and in my opinion more designed for public figures. If you set this feature up on your Facebook profile, you can allow others to subscribe to your public updates.  This information will show up in peoples’ ticker and news feed.  There is a little overlap between having your personal profile with subscribe enabled and a fan page. If you are a business owner however, I still recommend having a Facebook business page over using the subscribe option. Your business page allows you access to custom tabs and applications, Facebook stats, you can have more than 1 page admin and you can promote the page with ads  etc. whereas the subscribe button does not allow any of these features.

4. Timeline (the Wall)

Timeline is the new term for your wall.  When you think about your current Facebook wall, you know that as you add new items, the old items ‘fall’ off the page. Many of the important moments of your life disappear into the archive. Facebook’s answer to this is the new timeline which is really scrapbooking on steroids.  You will be able to enter important moments in your life and feature them on a timeline that is easily accessible. It appears to have been designed for the younger demographic however. Many young people today will share just about anything.  When the new timeline is rolled out, you will see some of the events that Facebook encourages you to add. Some make sense, like the year you started work or opened your business, moved to a new city etc.,  but some of the other categories like ‘changed eating habits’, ‘got glasses or contacts’ or ‘broke a bone’ leave me scratching my head!   Facebook would like you to give them much more information than ever before.  Why? To be able to feed the advertisers of course!

I personally will not be filling out the majority of the information. There is a security issue here I would like to bring to your attention and it pertains to filling out exact dates.   If you plan on entering a timeline for the birth of one of your children for example, you will have to give them the entire date for it to appear on the timeline.  This is a security risk for identity theft.  So please be careful.

5. Your Cover

There will be a big blank space at the top of your new profile that you will be able to fill. It is a placeholder for an image and it’s called the cover. You’ll see it in the image above for Mark Zuckerberg’s profile. He chose to showcase his dog ‘Beast’.  There is a specific dimension for this image – 850×312.  Look to this as a great opportunity to brand yourself! Get creative! I have seen some fabulous ones and I had fun creating mine.  You won’t see mine though unless you have the beta version of Timeline until it has been rolled out to the masses.

There are other significant changes; things like the application directory and how Facebook will be working with developers to allow seamless integration. Unfortunately many of these applications are not available here in Canada yet, so I haven’t been able to test them. Stay tuned for more as they become available.

The bottom line here is not to be too excited when this new Facebook version arrives on your screen. Take time to check your security settings, be mindful of how much personal information you share and explore the new features to see how you can streamline it to make it work for you.  Don’t get me wrong. There is still a lot of merit to using Facebook, particularly if you are a business owner whose target market is on Facebook.  Feel free to ask questions or get help if needed.

I have adopted Mari Smith’s approach to putting information out there.  Ask yourself these three questions:

1.  Would I be comfortable if this information were to show up on the front page of the New York Times?

2. Would I be comfortable if this information came up in a Google search?

3. Would my mom be proud of this if she saw it online?

If you can answer yes to these three questions, then you are probably OK sharing the information.

What do you think? I love getting feedback. Here on this blog, you’ll get commentluv. This is a great opportunity to leave a link back to you own blog when you leave a comment.

Until next time, Joanne

While physically located in Newmarket, Ontario, where Joanne resides with her family, she is virtually yours, anywhere.

If you are a business owner who is using third party applications like Hootsuite, Ping.fm etc., to engage in social media to grow your business, then this blog post is for you.  As a Certified Social Media Specialist, I work with small business owners everyday and counsel them on how to use Social Media tools for their business.

You will find that in general, I am not an advocate of using these third party applications to engage your audience.  I personally find it stilted and cardboard like.  To me, pre-scheduled posts lack a human touch. I guess I am a purist. If you are an educated social media user, you too can likely smell these from a mile away.  Furthermore, these posts/updates show the source of the post; another dead giveaway that they are pre-fabricated.  I tend to un-follow people if their content is strictly pre-scheduled.

I was beginning to think I was in the minority in my way of thinking but I came across this very recent post that tells me I may not be far off the mark.  EdgeRank checker is a free tool that measures your effectiveness on Facebook. And with one out of every 8 minutes being spent online being on Facebook, this is an important measurement to take into account.  This post implies that using third party tools like Hootsuite can kill your Facebook EdgeRanking.  Please click here to read the article.

So why are people using them? The biggest complaint I hear from business owners is that you ‘lack time’.  You likely started out your business because you had a great product or service to market. What you didn’t bank on was that you were going to have to be the Chief Cook and Bottle Washer. You probably didn’t appreciate just how much of your day this takes up!  You’re stuck because your business isn’t generating enough revenue yet for you to hire on help but you are so busy wearing all these hats, you don’t have enough time to get out there and market your product or service to generate revenue. Sound familiar?  I can relate because I am a small business owner and I’ve been there too.

But what I have come to realize and put into practice, is that if you are truly looking to engage your audience, particularly on Facebook, you need to be real and authentic and most of the time, in real time in this social media space. You need to schedule this activity into your day and be prepared to take responsibility for the kind of content you generate. This is called working on your business instead of in it.  It is not an easy thing to outsource either.  Unless that person/s knows you and your business like the back of their hand, it will be difficult to represent you.  No one knows you and your business better than you do. This is like handing over the reins to someone else.  The fact is, people want to get to know you both as a business entity and as a person and they want to engage with you knowing that you are being genuine and available.

I am not saying that you shouldn’t ever use these third party apps, however you need to be careful how and where you use them.   Finding someone who you can consult with to find out where your target market hangs out and when is your best strategy. Then be as authentic and real as possible.  It may take a little time, but it will pay off in the end.

Remember, people buy from people they like and trust. Part of trusting someone is knowing that they are there when you need them.

What do you think?  I love getting feedback.  Here on this blog, you’ll get commentluv. This is a great opportunity to leave a link back to your own blog.

Until next time,

Joanne

While physically living in Newmarket Ontario with her family, Joanne is virtually yours, anywhere.

Did you know… As of January 2011, LinkedIn counts executives from all 2010 Fortune 500 companies as members.  As of March 22, 2011, its hiring solutions were used by 73 of the Fortune 100 companies. With over 100 million members now in over 200 countries, LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network and it’s totally business focused. Now, there are LinkedIn Company Pages.

For all you business owners out there, if you haven’t already done so, maybe it’s time to capitalize on LinkedIn’s announcement back in November 2010 of its Company Pages. More than 2 million companies now have a LinkedIn Company Page. Have you got a Company Page yet?

Company Pages allow you to bring your brand to life by showcasing your products and services.  They help you grow your company’s business virally through word-of-mouth – the most trusted form of advertising . You can also get endorsements in the form of testimonials on your company page and by displaying your strongest recommendations to your prospective customers, your Company Page can help you accelerate growth and trust in your brand.

In addition to product and service testimonials, you can post a job, display videos, featured product information and targeted ads on your Company Page to drive sales and interaction.  These features however, require you to have an upgraded profile on LinkedIn, meaning these are features you pay for. However, for some businesses, the ability to secure quality connections may be worth the investment.

In addition to company pages, LinkedIn also recently added more features for the personal profile. If you haven’t visited your LinkedIn profile recently, you might have missed the new sections that LinkedIn now allows you. Things like adding your specific skill set and certifications.  You can now drag and drop your profile sections in a priority sequence thereby allowing you to highlight the sections you deem most important first.  I still recommend that you have your Summary at the top however, as most visitors to your profile will look at your ‘job’ title first followed by your summary.

Take the time to explore all the features that LinkedIn has to offer.  For example, if you have written a book and it’s available for purchase on Amazon.com, then add the Amazon app to your profile and showcase your book! Import your blog and don’t forget to add your website, Facebook business page, a link to your YouTube channel perhaps and your Twitter handle.

5 Tips for your profile:

1. Make your title at the top of the page a show stopper.

2. Make your summary engaging. Speak in the first person and ‘talk’ to the person whose business you are trying to attract.

3. Ask for testimonials. Not only do they appear on your own profile, but on the profile of the person endorsing you. And, testimonials get flagged in the weekly summary of LinkedIn updates that are sent out to your community. This keeps you top of mind and this kind of endorsement can be key to securing more business.

4. If you are a business owner, create a company profile. Make sure you populate it with proper keywords so that the company search feature will pull your business into targeted search results.  Fill out all the pertinent information. Consider the paid-for options if appropriate.

5. Keep it up to date!  This is your digital resume for yourself and for your business.

I wrote a more comprehensive list of items and things to consider in another blog post.  Feel free to check it out here.  If you need help, engage the services of someone who understands this space.  As a Certified Social Media Specialist, I encourage all my clients to complete a LinkedIn profile and maintain it as part of the ‘big three’ in the social media realm.

Please feel free to comment! I love getting feedback. Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv. This is a a plug-in that gives you the opportunity to leave a link back to your own blog when you leave feedback.

Until next time,

Joanne

While physically located in Newmarket Ontario, where Joanne lives with her family, she is virtually yours, anywhere…

Facebook recently announced a security setting that allows users to view content over a secure network (https) while they are in Facebook.   There have been posts recently by users to inform and encourage others to select this ‘secure’ form of browsing wherever possible. I thought I would share some information with you here that might influence whether you choose this option or not.

For example, as a Certified Social Media Specialist, I encourage my Facebook clients to have a custom landing page (Welcome Page) for first time visitors to their page. It is a wonderful way to welcome prospective clients and introduce them to you and your business.  We can incorporate images, audio, video, etc., and make it a great experience for those who visit your page. It definitely helps with engagement! I create other pages for clients too and customize them to your brand.

Until recently Facebook allowed these custom pages to be uploaded to their own servers and viewing these pages were never an issue.  Facebook has now taken away this ability.  They appear to be grandfathering the pages that are already there and they still work as they always have but any new pages that anyone would like to add to their Facebook Business page must now be added using another form of technology and herein lies the problem with the secure browsing.  Anyone putting up a custom page now becomes a ‘developer’ in the eyes of Facebook. As a developer, Facebook would like everyone to obtain a security certificate which costs approximately $50./site but supposedly gets around this problem although I see that there are still issues with this.  I should add here, that there are other issues with using secure browsing on Facebook other than just custom landing pages. You may run into problems with other applications that you might be trying to add or view on your Facebook page as well as some of the options that Facebook itself currently offers.

If you or someone viewing a tab on your Facebook business page is a Firefox user, you may get this error.

Or perhaps you are an Internet Explorer user, and you get this message:

If you are seeing this message or are informed by someone trying to view your new landing page that they are getting this error, then it is likely because you/they have opted for secure browsing.  If you remove the security setting, you will eliminate the problem. It’s as simple as that.

How do you opt for or remove this feature?

1. Go to the Account tab (top right of your Facebook screen)

2. Select Account Settings

3. Select change next to Account Security

4. Either check or uncheck the box that says ‘secure browsing (https)’ depending on whether you want to use it or not.

Personally, I have unchecked this box so that I can view everything without issue until a more satisfactory solution is achieved. There is a lot of buzz in the developer forum on Facebook around this issue at the moment.

I continue to modify pre-existing pages on Facebook under the old platform but I am now creating new landing pages for clients using the new technology that Facebook requires.

I am not a proponent of jumping on every new feature that Facebook releases. For example, if you have a Facebook profile and you have been using it to promote your business, Facebook has released the option to transform your profile into a Facebook Business page.  Don’t do it!  There are many wrinkles that still need to be ironed out here. You run the risk of losing your personal profile altogether along with your contacts, your images etc.

If you are using Facebook for your business, I would encourage everyone to engage the help of someone who really understands this space to advise you. Facebook isn’t perfect and can sometimes be frustrating.  Having said that, it is now the number 1 visited site on the internet, has close to a billion users and has a very loyal audience.  I use mine every day to meet new people and engage new prospects.

How about you?  I love getting feedback here on my blog and you’ll even get commentluv. This is a plug-in that allows you to leave a link back to your own site when you leave a comment.

Until next time,

Joanne

While physically located in Newmarket, ON where Joanne lives with her family, she is virtually yours, anywhere.

As part of my Social Media services as a Coach and Consultant, I am always checking in with my clients and asking them for their next blog post, more interaction on their Facebook page, a new update on LinkedIn, etc. The biggest complaint I hear from my clients is, “I don’t have time”! This always makes me smile, because when you stop to think about it, time is really all we have. The question is, how well are you using it?  Here are my top 5 time savers.

1. Get clear on who your target market is…

Several years ago, I was marketing myself as having the experience to support cross industry businesses large to small. I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off.  My efforts were being diluted trying to be too many things for too many people.  I came to the realization that my passion was to work with small local business owners in the health and wellness, fitness and eco-friendly industries. My, how that decision crystallized my thinking, my approach and cut down on the time I was spending elsewhere. I now attend one networking group meeting per week.  These networking groups are either totally dedicated to or have a healthy concentration of those business owners in those industries. What are your passions?

2. Spend time ON your business instead of IN it…

Lee Iacocca said: “If you want to make good use of your time, you’ve got to know what’s most important and then give it all you’ve got”. I like to spend the first 30-45 minutes of my day working ON my business instead of IN it. What does that mean? I have a strategy on how I want the day to unfold and what I expect to get out of it.   I start with updating my Social Media sites because I can reach a small group of targeted individuals or a wide range of followers.  I also look for new people to connect with based on my niche markets. The best part of Social Media is that your followers can also help you syndicate your content making your message much more viral.  What a great time saver!

3. Use the right tools…

In addition to your social media sites, consider using tools like conference calls or webinars as a more productive use of your time vs physically running from networking group to networking group or producing the more traditional forms of marketing materials.  Does this mean that creating brochures or face to face networking isn’t valuable? Absolutely not. Meeting people face to face is still important, but stop to think about the time involved in getting to and from the meeting and the time spent scouting out the important people in the room to network with. The same is true for marketing materials. In addition to the expense and toll on the environment, how long is it taking to get into the hands of the decision maker if they are at all? If time is of the essence, then it’s important to keep this top of mind and find ways to reach and communicate with that decision maker in a more time sensitive, eco-friendly and effective manner. Strive for a balance.

4. Get help…

So many business owners go into business with a great idea and little to no business experience and no idea of just how many hats they are going to have to wear. I counsel my clients to bring in help when they need it.  Hiring a Virtual Administrator, bookkeeping help, sales associates and the like will help you focus your time on what you do best and make you more productive. For me, I am looking for someone with great technical skills, social media and marketing experience so that I can free up my time to do more coaching, consulting and design work.  Anyone reading this blog post who is interested and thinks they have what it takes, should contact me offline so we can discuss.

5. Give your body what it needs to perform well…

This is probably the most important point of the 5.  Getting adequate sleep, proper nutrition, exercise, staying hydrated and taking small frequent breaks are my biggest time savers.  Everyone has their most productive time of the day.  Mine is first thing in the morning, so I make sure I get a great night’s sleep and then tackle my most important tasks of the day then.  I can usually get more accomplished in those first hours than at any other time of the day. Garbage in, garbage out. So make sure your body is getting what it needs to perform well. When is your peak time?

It is so easy to get up each morning and pour ourselves into the day without really stopping to think strategically about the 1440 minutes we have the luxury of spending.  For me, growing and developing my business takes about 720 of them and the rest is for everything else.  How about you?

I love getting feedback. Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv. This is a plug-in that allows you to leave a link back to your own site when you leave a comment. But you don’t have to be a blogger to leave feedback. I’d love to hear from all of you!

Until next time,

Joanne

While physically located in Newmarket, ON where Joanne lives with her family, she is virtually yours, anywhere.

Ducking the Issues

As a business owner, do you duck the uncomfortable questions or complaints that come to you via your Social Media applications or online in general? Do you screen the bad news and omit it from your comment feed on your blog or remove the comments on your Facebook wall so that everything appears perfect in your world?  If so, you might be missing out on a wonderful opportunity and doing yourself more harm than good in the long run.

Social media is all about letting people get to know who you are as a business entity and a person. People want to know if you stand behind your product or service or if you are just paying lip service to the idea.

The truth is, a happy customer is going to tell others about your product or service and you will get referral business. When this happens, you feel great, right? And so you should.  But the reality is, you can’t keep 100% of the people happy all of the time and no one is perfect!  And, these unhappy customers are going to find a way to voice their opinion.  Many now take to the online world to vent their frustrations.  This can have considerable impact on your business.  Negative press in the search engines can hang around for a long time – years in fact.  So, consider it a bonus when they actually send you the message rather than telling 1000 of their Facebook friends about their issue where you may or may not hear about it and suffer the consequences.

If you are at all concerned about reputation management, and you should be, then consider accepting these comments/criticisms you are receiving and deal with them right away. Thank the person for telling you about it, and encourage the conversation to continue to make sure you understand the issue and then deal with it – yes, even in a public forum and then ask for feedback. This demonstrates to that individual and others, that you take responsibility for your business and are willing to make concessions where need be and fix problems that might exist.

Does this mean that you should accept every comment and every criticism that comes your way? Certainly not, as we all know there are unreasonable people out there who are only interested in ruining your reputation not in fixing the problem. You need to evaluate these on an individual basis.  However, if you notice that there is a consistent theme or issue, chances are there are a lot of people out there with the same concern and these should be dealt with.

If you are smart, you will add Google alerts to your repertoire to make sure you know what people are saying about you and your brand. If you are a larger corporation, you may need something more robust and there are many applications out there to assist you. Feel free to ask me for suggestions.

I think it all comes down to confidence in the long run – confidence in yourself and in the fact that you have a great product or service to offer.  As a Certified Social Media Specialist, I encourage all my clients to look at this as a great opportunity to deal with the issue head on and potentially turn that customer and others around.

What do you think?  As always, I love getting feedback. Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv.  That’s a plug in that allows you to leave a link back to your own site when you leave a comment.

Until next time, Happy New Year!  I hope it’s a prosperous one for you all.

Joanne

While physically located in Newmarket, ON where Joanne lives with her family, she is Virtually Yours, anywhere.

Reasons Why People Fail in the Social Media Space

How is your Social Media ‘Campaign’ going? Has the balloon burst?  Social Media has become mainstream so quickly and you see everyone scrambling now to get on board.  But if you are like many people who jumped in and got involved in the Social media space without truly understanding what it’s about, you might be finding your enthusiasm starting to wane.   Here are some of the main reasons that people peter out and are not successful in the social media realm.

1.  Focusing on the ‘sale’.

I have said this before but there are still so many businesses out there who don’t get it. Social Media is not about flogging wares.  It’s about relationship building.  Yes, it is true that Social media is an ideal way to address the first three stages of the sell cycle;

• awareness,
• knowledge and
• liking

with preference and buy as the latter two.  But the focus here is on the beginning stages of the sell cycle and that is where prospects are finding out about who you are as a business entity and as a person.  This is where the relationship begins to form. So offer up valuable information and add value. Be generous.  What goes around comes around in this space. Don’t be afraid to share some of your intellectual property.  People buy from people they like and trust.

2. Lack of commitment

It’s tough to make time every day to visit your Social Media profiles, write a blog post on a regular basis  and work at developing those relationships. Sometimes we’re at a loss for things to write or comment about.  But if you want to be truly successful in relationship building, then you need to make this a part of your regular routine.  I tell my clients to spend the first half hour of their day working on their business not in their business.  Imagine taking the time to have lunch with a new friend.  It’s hard to foster that new friendship if you don’t show up at the table.  There is help out there.   As a Certified Social Media Specialist, I coach my clients on how to find the right conversation, the kinds of things to talk about in this space and where they can find food for thought.

3. Quantity instead of quality

10,000 followers! That’s great! Now, how are you going to develop a great relationship with 10,000 people?  Don’t get caught up in relating your ‘success’ (how many Facebook friends/fans or Twitter followers you have). The truth is,  most people say about 300 people is where you will max out. Instead of worrying about the numbers,  get clear on the targeted group of people you are trying to attract and then leverage the Social media tools to disseminate your message. Your following will grow organically over time.

It’s important not to have unrealistic expectations in this space. It could take months before you start to see some traction. Relax and enjoy the experience. Know that every time you engage someone in this space, you are moving them closer to wanting to do business with you.

How about you? How is your Social Media strategy working? I love getting feedback here on my blog. And here, you will get commentluv. That’s a plug in that allows you to leave a link back to your own site when you leave a comment.

Until next time,

Joanne

While physically located in Newmarket, ON where Joanne lives with her family, she is virtually yours, anywhere.

Are You Playing Tug-of-War With Some of Your Clients?

In my last post, I discussed 5 Signs that you are working with the wrong support person. This week we’ll discuss the same situation but with the shoe on the other foot.  Are you a service provider who is frustrated with some of your existing client base?  Chances are you knew when you took these clients on in the first place, that there were going to be issues.  So many of us don’t listen to our ‘inner voice’ and are sorry afterwards.  The good news is, it’s never too late to make a change.

Most of the small business owners I work with have little or no technical skills. Many have limited marketing skills as well. So many people go into business because they think they have a great product or idea without appreciating just how many hats they are going to have to wear.  The bottom line is, there are only so many hours in the day and eventually they realize they need help. I coach my clients to spend their time doing what they do best and leave the items that they’ve contracted me for to me!  Work on getting their trust and respect and you can’t go wrong.

There are so many things you can do to maximize your client relationships. Still there will be times when the relationship breaks down.  So, what are 5 signs that you are working with the wrong client?

1. Your client treats you like a subordinate or an employee.

This client doesn’t understand that you are a business owner too and that you understand the challenges of growing a business.  This signals to me, that the client doesn’t respect what you bring to the table.   Perhaps you need to look at how you have positioned yourself with this client and assess whether this client will ever be able to treat you as an equal business partner.  Make the adjustment.  Don’t forget that you need to stay on top of changing trends, stay current with the services you offer and don’t be afraid to keep your client up to date on what you are doing in this vein to help them move their business forward.

2. Your client tries to nickel and dime you to death.

This client doesn’t understand that they are paying only for the time you are spending working on their behalf. They have lost sight of how much it would actually cost to hire someone on a full time basis and pay them even for time they might be idle, sick, away on holidays, sick/maternity leave etc.  I never negotiate on price. When you discount your prices, you are signaling to the client that you don’t have confidence in yourself.    It might be time to sit that client down and share just how much money you are saving them in the long run. Ask me where you can find these stats.

3. This client is a complainer.

Nothing you ever do seems good enough.  Relationships such as these can be a real drain on your productivity and your motivation.   If this is an ongoing issue, ask yourself why you are holding onto this client. If you are holding onto them because of the money, ask yourself how much time and energy you are wasting and then put a price tag on it.  Some people will never be satisfied – it may be part of their personality.  There are a lot of great potential clients out there waiting to meet you who will appreciate you and your efforts.  Spend your energy finding those instead. Don’t be afraid to cut these ones loose and move on!

4. This client doesn’t pay on time or at all.

This client may be legitimately struggling in their business. However, it may also be that they have not put you at the top of the totem pole in terms of the value you bring to their business.  When was the last time you asked your client if they were still happy with your services?    It’s important not to let this go too far. The key is to minimize your risk.  Communication is vital here. It may be time to sit down and discuss this with your client before you feel you need to resort to a Collection Agency.  Not only is this a stressful process, it causes bad karma for you in the business world as well.   In cases where they are legitimately struggling, perhaps you can suggest a temporary longer payment plan or perhaps you need to cut your losses and move on.

5. You feel this client doesn’t care about you or your business.

This individual never asks how you are or how your business is doing.  All they care about is the task or project. Perhaps you need to look at the kind of relationship you have established with your client.  This is a two way street. Ask yourself how much interest you have taken in them.  Are you interested in them as people and as business entities? Or are you just interested in the reward. If this is the case, why wouldn’t they feel the same way?  You might be surprised to find that a change in your approach, may signal a change in the client.

Relationship building is so important. Trust and respect are key elements to successful business relationships.  As a Social Media Specialist, I know that my success depends not only on my ability to establish great rapport with my prospects and clients but to instill this in them when dealing with their prospect and client base. I believe that what goes around, comes around.

What do you think? I love getting feedback here on my blog and here you will get commentluv.  That’s a plugin that allows you to leave a link back to your own blog when you leave a comment.  But you don’t have to be a blogger to leave a comment. I love hearing from everyone!

Until next time,

Joanne

While physically located in Newmarket, ON where Joanne lives with her family, she is virtually yours, anywhere.

Are You Being Held Hostage or Feel Your Hands are Tied?

I got a call a few weeks ago from a small local business owner who was very frustrated with her web designer. You know the type; someone who holds their cards close to their chest and would rather baffle the client with BS and hold them hostage.This website person actually told me they were smarter than the people at GoDaddy. WOW. Seriously?

Most small business owners I work with have very little to no computer technical skills. Most of them put their trust in someone they knew or took the recommendation of a friend to help them establish their online presence rather than take the time to find out if this potential supplier was the right fit for them – both from a personality perspective as well as taking into consideration if this supplier had the ability to understand their business. Sometimes one gets lucky. Suffice it to say in this case, this individual was not a match on either front. The worst part of all of this is that this person stuck with that developer for 2 years and suffered the outcome I describe below.

So, what are the signs that you are working with the wrong support person?

1. You get the feeling this person doesn’t really care about you or your business. You feel they are only interested in billing you and arm and a leg every time you ask them for help.

2. This person has not taken the time to understand you or your business model and what you need to do to get business.

3. The supplier has not done enough to stay current with changing trends and you feel you are falling behind your competitors.

4. You have begun to feel de-motivated and lack enthusiasm because you feel that lack of support. You now avoid calling or talking to that person because you don’t want a confrontation.

5. You wouldn’t even consider referring this person to anyone else.

If you answered yes to any one of these questions, what is stopping you from making a change? Most of the time, people will tell me that they have invested too much money in their existing situation and don’t want to start over.  They feel their hands are tied. The fact is you are likely spinning your wheels and the longer you sit there, the deeper the rut you’ll create. The online world is changing rapidly and it’s important that you understand that and embrace the change.  Don’t stick your head in the sand. These changes will keep coming.  I say cut your losses and move on.

As a Social Media specialist, forming solid relationships with my clients is vital on all fronts but wanting them to help them form those kinds of relationships with their client base is equally important to me. If I sense there is a change in our relationship,  I want to know immediately.  I am not too big to say it might be time to move on if the relationship is no longer mutually beneficial.  It will happen from time to time.  As a business owner myself, I understand the importance of keeping my finger on the pulse of all my relationships.

So, are you still happy with the people you have taken into your fold?

Next time, we’ll talk about this same situation but with the shoe on the other foot.

Until then, I always welcome feedback. And here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv. That’s a plug in that allows you to leave a link back to your own blog.

Until next time,

Joanne