Business
Social Media A Business – NOT a Party!
Think about why you’re failing doing business on the Internet, in the Social Media Networks. If you’re posting and tweeting everyday and nothing is happening, you need to stop and ask the question, are you telling your story? It may be that your attitude towards what you’re doing is not right. This is business not a party! If you don’t believe in what you are doing then you need to find out what you do care about, FAST! Because your BRAND matters. I can’t share this any better than Gary Vaynerchuck, he is very passionate about telling your story, Tell your story, tell it everyday and you will have a business. Here is a clip that should help you get on track.
Am I Crying Wolf?
After spending a couple hours downtown in my community today I was just vibrating with the thought, ” These poor business owners”. What do us Social Media Geeks see that traditional business owners don’t? I felt like standing on a box and screamming STOP IT! Stop what your doing and look up…pull your head out of that dark warm part of your anatomy and pay attention! It’s like a tidal wave is coming and these traditional business owners are looking the other way as if it wasn’t there. Is there something wrong with me, am I speaking to a brick wall, am I just crying wolf?
I couldn’t wait to get back to my office and write to you, it’s like venting I think but I’m wondering what it will take before everyone starts to actually pay attention. I look at how many people in Canada actually have Twitter accounts and I’m hard pressed to find many, with only 34 million people in the country you would think there are more than a few paying attention. I’m in Western Canada, ok Bristish Columbia, I live in a suburb east of Vancouver called Abbotsford. There’s not much out here if you are an executive like me, you have to commute to the bigger cities to find work, but that’s a problem too! Resume’s…do they even work anymore? Even these online job banks rarely work…why…because traditional thinkers don’t look there, they do look for referrals though.
Even the local Chamber of Commerce is looking the other way, they want traditional businesses (bricks & mortar) to buy memberships and insurance packages. My only chance is to try and influence through my online show, Owen Greaves LIVE! maybe. Maybe, just maybe, I can reach them and maybe you can help me. If you are a person who believe’s passionately our way of doing business is changing and care enough to get the message out, then contact me and I’ll invite you to share on my show. That’s the only way to get in front of them and get them to listen…on the Internet and that’s where I’m setting up shop, not downtown in a building. Thanks for reading and listening I guess, we will talk about this on Monday’s alot at 2PM EST / 11AM Pacific on Owen Greaves LIVE! Join me won’t you?
What's Your Social Media Plan?
Like a Business Plan or an I.T. Strategic Plan you should know why you are using Social Media Networks. Most businesses are oblivious to this marketing phenomenon and really don’t understand it’s value. The challenge is that when someone asks what it is, they talk like it’s a bunch of friends getting together for coffee and chatting it up. It’s more than a water cooler. In my opinion, FaceBook has cornered the market on catching up with old school buddies but it really hasn’t figured out how to be more than a playground for old friends on recess. Just my point of view, you may feel different about it.
If you think you have to have a large business to enter into the Social Media arena, your dead wrong, all you need to do is build a plan, then you will experience it’s true value. Despite what you may think, it’s not about advertising, positioning and jockeying for the #1 spot on Twitter Grader, that isn’t the goal. Google does this already but doesn’t tell you their secrets on how they control who gets ranked the highest. If you don’t plan the use of this new marketing environment you will waste time and wonder what happened, you’ll wonder if it wasn’t a distraction from you current goals and objectives. You will eventually use those tools as one way to measure your standing but you will be planting a banyan tree so don’t expect an immediate return on your investment.
So what’s am I talking about?
Let’s assume you have a business plan and you actually sat down and built an I.T. Strategic Plan, which one does the Social Media Strategy fit into? Truthfully? It doesn’t fit into either, it should be in your Marketing Strategy, unless you’ve decided to build your own Social Network, build a team to run it and build the infrastructure to support it, only then should it go into your business plan as a way to promote and develop brand. I’ll also assume you have a good understanding of the fore mentioned plans, if not, go study them before you start down this trail.
Building a large following is not as hard as it may seem, it does requires time & effort, it also requires a carefully crafted message to ensure you obtain reach that will generate activity and eventually revenue. So, your vision should be more about how you will use it rather than making it an entity all it’s own, where will it fit in the marketing strategy and what resources will it require, how big will it be and who on your team knows anything about it? Do you need to hire a consultant to help you incorporate Social Media into your marketing efforts? The questions are many and there many of us that can guide you to a sound plan in using the likes of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the great many others.
First Steps:
1.) Review your Business Plan
2.) Review your I.T. Plan if you have one
3.) Build a team to work with a consultant
4.) Hire an outside consultant to walk you through the need for Social Media Marketing
Wading into the Social Media Environment doesn’t have to be difficult, get help and build your plan. Until next time, be good, if you can’t be good, be yourself 🙂
How You Will Shop In The Future
I didn’t touch on the topic much in my eBook, but, RFID is already in use and many will demand to have the implant. The implant is also a tracking device and a way to complete transactions. Take a look at how you will shop in the future.
What Constitutes an E-Mail Business Record
I don’t recall when I wrote this or if it belongs to someone else but it is an important thing to keep in mind none the less.
Not every message that enters or leaves the organization’s e-mail system is a business record. E-Mail containing information about lunch appointments, work group discussions, and administrative notices are examples of messages that probably do not have to be managed as “official” business records and may be discarded when no longer needed.
The organization’s welfare depends on your ability to distinguish business records from nonessential to the annual company picnic has considerably less value than an external e-mail in which a contractor agrees to complete a specific project for an agreed-on fee. While the picnic announcement has little significance after the event, the contractor’s message may be needed in the future to hold the contractor to his price quoted or settle disputes over the quality or scope of work performed. Consequently, the contractor’s message is a business record and should be treated as such.
When it comes to business records, management faces a twofold challenge:
(1) You must establish a clear definition of a business record to protect the business and legal interests of the organization.
(2) You must communicate that definition clearly and consistently to all employees to ensure that the definition is applied properly, e-mail is managed effectively, and the organization’s legal interests are served.
The result: Valuable information is retained, and useless information that would otherwise overburden your system is purged.