Social Networks Have Become Mainstream Channels
Social networks now behave like mainstream channels. I’ve spent several years on Social Networks, and have notice that they all have become mainstream. They’re no longer different from TV, Radio & Newspaper, all you have to do is watch all the yelling, telling, and fire hosing of ads and links to selling products and services. Many would claim that’s just what they’re all for, I’m not convinced.
We live in a connected economy, we no longer fall for mainstream tactics, because they don’t work well for connecting. The biggest reason it fails, we all have control over our most prized asset, our time. We don’t want anyone to waste it, or take advantage of it. So why is it still happening, two reason’s might be, it still brings results, or connecting costs too much, time & money. Or, they figured out what quality story telling is. Quality story telling always wins. The story telling looks and feels differently on each social network, because we don’t act the same way on all of them, we talk differently on FaceBook over Twitter. So the easy thing to do, just blast, just let the fire hose go full on, on all social networks. But the audience is not the same on all social networks, success with each of them requires you to do some research and looking at data, what’s really happening.
Remember when we were told, God gave you two ears and one mouth, use them proportionately. We have fallen to our old habits, we like to talk more than we listen. People today, want you to listen, they don’t want to you to talk so much they can’t get a word in edge wise, they want to take part. It’s not just TV, Radio and Newspaper that yells at you, all the social networks are doing the same thing. They’ve all become mainstream, and I’ll bet, you think nobody is paying attention to your activity on social networks.
The secret, the way to win, is quality story telling, but the way your subscribers, your readers, your visitors, and your customers want it, NOT the way you think it should be, and that’s the hard part. You already have what it takes to tell your story in a quality way, the world and those who are paying attention to you, want to hear your story. So tell it!
20 Seconds Of Courage
Have you ever watched a movie that made you sit and ponder, made you go hmmmm…., maybe made you cry, that made you feel good about yourself, or maybe, it inspired you. Or maybe you met someone who made you think there has to be a better way. Every now and then, you hear something that makes you stop and wonder what you’re so afraid of, what stops you in your tracks. And yet, with only 20 seconds of courage, you could change your life, even your world. Just 20 seconds of courage to make a decision.
Most of us are real busy getting ready to get ready, we’re good at it, so we keep doing it. And then there’s other times when we just act, we don’t even think about it, we just do. Which of the two inspires you most, getting ready, or doing? In my younger days I just did things, I rarely thought about what might happen, good or bad. I never really thought about the cost, emotionally or financially, I just took risks. I have to admit, I rarely ever sat down and got ready, putting my ducks in a row. Today, I still don’t know if it would have changed anything, if I had spent time planning and getting ready. Most of the time, I just thought, all I need is 20 seconds of courage, and something great would happen, and it usually did.
Those risks were in my head, there was and probably never will be long drawn out plans, trying to get everything just right before acting. Personally, I don’t believe you learn as much from planning as you do from doing. But that’s my story, you’re not me. I do however, believe in you, and I know you can muster up 20 seconds of courage to make a decision to do something great. Ready? Go!
Future Of Business – What Kind Of Business
Considering all that is changing, how business is changing, how global and yet how locally our businesses must be, does your business line up with that future? Is your business social, or is it traditional? Does your business advertise on the Internet as part of its marketing mix, or do you stick with traditional modes of advertising. There are many questions to ponder when starting a new venture, but the main questions is, what kind of business, what structure, what type, and will it meet the needs of the economy.
The new economy is a connection economy, how does your business connect consumers, how do you connect to other businesses. Just using social networks is not connecting, depending on how you use them, most use them as another channel to yell, flood, to do what you’ve always done. You use them with a traditional mindset, it’s not connecting, it’s telling.
The traditional way, meant you had to have ads in the yellow pages, maybe you ran radio commercials, and you mostly used Newspaper. You never had to consider the Internet as part of your mix, and most still don’t have a clear understanding of how it works, and how to you use it for business. Today you have to think about where to best spend your time & money, adding the Internet as another way of enticing consumers to your business, to buy. But consumers act differently online, or do they?
More than ever , there is much to consider, it’s not black & white as it was back 30 years ago. The Internet is 25 years old, and brings with it challenges, and incredible opportunity. Asking yourself if you’re on LinkedIn, FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Plus is the new normal today, knowing what to do on them, and how to leverage them, is not normal, not like Radio, TV, and Newspaper. But you’re already figuring that out aren’t you.
Business is getting much more complicated, it’s causing you to rethink what kind of business. Traditional or The Connected. And what does a connected business model look like, it’s the Open & Free Business Model. And that you can learn here on owengreaves.com.
More Than One Way
The Internet is cluttered with programs and ads claiming their way to build a brand, is the right way to build a brand. I’m here to tell you, there’s more than one way. Many claim their system is the right way, the best way, the way that works. One of those might be true, but let’s get real, there are so many options to build a brand, so many tools, and marketing companies to use, so many ways, one person could never try them all.
Personally, it comes down to a couple of things, and its old school. Be persistent, and never quit.
If you stick with your strategy, your plan, and you always deliver, or ship. You will eventually have built a brand, you don’t need to buy every program that claims it’s the best way to build your brand, or claims to be the easiest. You can, but it still boils down to hard work, and being there everyday, showing up, shipping, delivering, it works, and is the truest way to know you did something. If you blogged everyday for a year, you eventually would have built a brand, because you shared, you were maybe helpful, you solved a problem, or maybe, you just informed your reader of something they never heard of, thought of, or new before.
That’s the beauty of building a brand, or sharing your work, you never know who is interested, or even likes what you’re doing. The most important part is, you’re doing it. The world needs you, it needs to hear from you, it wants to hear from you, no matter what your product or service might be. Writing, music, photography, the list is endless, whatever you’re passionate about, and you want the world to know about it, then put out there for the world to consume it.
No matter what you choose, there’s more than one way to build your brand, find the way that fits you best, and yes it will take time and effort, but do that, pay that price.
The Future Of Business – The Resume Part 2
I happen to be married to an HR Manager who disagree’s with my earlier post, she claims that resume’s, traditional resume’s are the only way to hire in certain industries, I disagree of course : ) Her argument is for those who are labor workers, those who drive forklifts, work in warehouses, drive pallet jacks, stock shelves and so on. If you believe resume’s are the only way, then you’re right.
Let’s talk about this traditional way for a moment. I’m going to do a very high-level view here, not much detail, but you’ll get the idea I hope.Let’s use a warehouse job scenario. Someone submits a résumé to your HR office, it goes in a pile for review, you’re holding job fairs (that cost money), you have a staff person give the résumé’s a once over, and those resume’s are short listed. Once you’ve decided who is on the short list, you call them in for an interview. Keep in mind, you know nothing about the candidate, other than what’s on the resume. You then arrange an interview, if the candidate is a good candidate, by whatever measurement you’re using, you go to the next step. Yes or No, are you going to go further with the candidates after the first interview.
Typically, once you’ve decided to offer a person a job, whatever it might be, you do a background check on them, you are now going deeper on your financial commitment. On average, once you’ve decided to hire a full-time employee, it costs your organization around $10,000, and they haven’t worked a minute, you just hired them. And you still know very little about the person you just hired, you still don’t know if they can meet the job description, and or physically do the work. Sure you have 90 days to decide if they are a good fit and will keep them on, but you’ve just spent good money after bad.
I would recommend to the warehouse to set up a website that runs candidates through a serious of questionnaires and tests. This site does low-level training while they are applying, for the purposes of knowing more about a candidate long before they even get an interview. Yes, there is an investment in building the online tools, but it’s a one time investment, you’re not paying or investing large amounts of time and money.
By directing job seekers to your website, you save your HR staff time, and you don’t waste time interviewing poor candidates. Aptitude testing, job related testing, and how to do certain job activities online can tell much more about someone than a piece of paper ever will.
If we are going to change the way we do our work, we must change the way we look and think about the work we do. It’s a paradigm shift, it’s not easy, but if you’re willing, you will be seen as a problem solver that saves time and money.
