Are You Doing These 3 Things To Save Your Business
If you listen deeply at networking events you will hear the true conversations underneath “Hi, How are you?…My name is ___, what do you do?” There is a conversation that has been growing in the offline world louder and louder.
We are not finding anything we do making a difference. Our budgets have been frozen because no one wants to be seen as spending money right now, especially since nothing is getting measurable results. We all got a Twitter account, connected on Linkedin, set up a Facebook page and not much to show for it, now what do we do?
I hear these conversations being whispered over and over and yet when I ask if they have brought in an online marketing specialist/consultant everyone says “The higher ups won’t approve that- we have to learn it on our own”. Ok, this is when the PG language goes out the window for a new york minute. ARE YOU FRICKING KIDDING ME?
Are you an Old Fashioned Phone In New Digital Economy
When I visit your sites and your social profiles finding mistake after mistake, there is no excuse for you to not bring in someone who can help guide you. It is like when telephones first came on the scene. Plenty of every day folks said they had lived just fine without have a teleyphone (misspelling on purpose). Then came along cell phones and the comment was “Why would I want to carry around something people could find me not matter where I was at-sounds plain stupid to me”. Now we have moved from everyone having a telephone in their house to carrying cell phones which is now morphing into iPads and devices that allow for more not less interaction.
#1 Question you want to be asking as a business is “How am I making it easy for my customers to interact with me and our business?”
Do you have a website-with lots of fancy features that you like and yet say to folks like me “We have a website and it has NOT done a lot to increase our sales” This is a HUGE opportunity for your competitor. WHY? because you are still thinking with a “why have a teleyphone in every house” mindset VS a strategy to connect with customers on their cell phones and iPads.
So from the words of Jack Dorsey about Twitter’s life work being around three tenets-How are you “minimizing your thinking around communication” (first one)?
Now, before you go off on a tangent telling me why I lost my mind let me ask you a question. “How has chewing on your thinking for long periods of time served your business or customers?” Many times when some businesses say it is being judicious (is really inaction out of fear). (here comes the tough love part with sincerity) We are in fear because we do not understand and are not taking responsibility to learn and move forward.
A spot on interview with Willie Piertersen discusses this very point…when you say “It’s more complicated than that” what you are really saying is you do not understand it well enough. “When you really understand something you can simplify it. When you don’t you complicate it” Willie Piertersen.
#2 How are you creating connection through trends on a local and global level?
(tenet #2 Jack & Twitter=expose trends in local and global circles)
After all that is where people are congregating, they are showing you what they are interested in even for a moment. If you are listening and using the tools that allow you to monitor these conversations you can be Johnny on the Spot with dialogue and solutions. This is where the magic happens for your business in the social world. Tune into what Scott Wise from Brewhouse shares how he does exactly that for his 5 restaurants.
If you have not learned about Tren Spot then go visit and follow the creator Ryan Geyer on twitter. You will either say in a nano second SNAP or need me or Ryan to give you an inside perspective and that’s ok, we all learn as we go since life is a process. We are happy to help Tweet us!
Show Me the Money FIRST
Ask yourself are you participating in the conversations happening on Twitter/Facebook/Linkedin so when your ideal client/customers checks you out they can see a history of helping and being a part of the solution VS standing on side lines with your arms crossed saying “I’ll be there when someone shows me the MONEY”.
#3 How are you sparking innovation and interaction to grow you business?
(tenet #3 Jack & Twitter=spark interaction…I added the innovation)
100 Year Old Woman engaging with Innovation
Here is when I see two responses when I ask them in face to face situations. One, what I call the awe shucks we are just the little ole local business and no one cares about all that high falutin’ stuff like that here (she says with her best Texas Twang). Two, the company that recognizes they are having fun connecting with and talking to their end users. Gaining feedback that just a few years ago would have been out of their reach because they didn’t have $$$ to buy a focus group or study to uncover what customers really wanted before they sunk money into a new product or service.
Which one are you? Do you think that the limited thinking and deprecative answers are really getting you the results needed to create the success you want for you business today?
(Thanks to ObamaPacman for the awesome pic 100 year old woman using iPad)
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