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Okay, I give in. I have to admit (and I hope you’ll respect me for my honesty), I’ve been slow to jump on the social media “joy ride.”  It’s not because I’m a “techno-phobic” or don’t believe it has merit as a money-maker for small businesses.

The fact is I LOVE technology as a productivity tool, and for conducting research so I can learn more about my passions—entrepreneurship (in particular helping women succeed), how to create a star-reaching business, and, of course, marketing and branding. But, I’m not as fond of email, and to me, social media seemed a lot like sending those emails I dreaded so much. I had to log on, launch and open the account, peruse posts.  (sigh) Spending time on social networks felt like a drag, and could end up being a HUGE waste of time for me.  So, I asked myself a question, once and for all, to decide either to put my heart into social media, or to sidestep away from it (for now). The question was—

Is social media a bunch of hype, or can it be used as a money-making machine in a business?

I found the answer to this question is, “yes,” it can be a money-maker for your business, if used correctly. However, it’s not that easy to do effectively. While some people are having phenomenal success using social media to grow their business, others are putting in a lot of time and effort without any bottom-line results.

There are millions of “Twitter Quitters.”

Social media marketing for small businesses can work. Or, it can be a colossal waste of time. Like every other part of your business, it doesn’t just happen; it takes work and a strategy. Social media has the capability to leverage the millions of people who use sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, to let them know about your business. Social networking seems like a great way to get free advertising (instead of running ads that cost money). But, you can’t just put up a FaceBook page (like I did), posts a few comments every month or two, and expect money to miraculously roll in. So, how can small business entrepreneurs like you, and me, leverage social media tools and make them high payoff activities, and not a waste of precious time? Here are some easy strategies to use:

1. Set a goal.

Consider the purpose for doing social media. Is it to find new customers, build your personal brand equity, or create customer loyalty? Addressing all these purposes will result in sales. Having a singular goal is powerful, because your messaging is clear, direct, and purposeful, rather than being a confusing message to your followers. In other words, this gives your message—

CLARITY

Clarity gives you focus, and eliminates all the distracting and confusing elements from your message, so you are SEEN and HEARD.

2. Choose a platform to deliver your message.

Platforms to consider using to get your message out are: 

• FaceBook

• Twitter

• LinkedIn

• Flickr

• youtube and viddler

• ustream.tv

Then, it’s important to have a place for people to read your awesome, differentiating content. My suggestion is to use your platform to drive people to your blog.  You can write on a blog, post video or audio elements, or use a combination of all three. Some people write exceptionally well, others look great on camera, and still others have pleasant and compelling voices. Choose which elements you will use to post content on your blog, considering your strengths and preferences. In other words, if you feel self-conscious in front of a camera, but have an exceptional voice, do an audio component, rather than video, on your blog.

The advantage of using a blog, as a place to drive people TO—FROM your chosen platforms—is because blogs increase visibility for you through Internet searches!

3. Move beyond FaceBook and Twitter.

They are the most popular sites, and the places to be. But, on these sites you’re competing for attention with everyone else. You’re a ‘Little Fish in a Big Sea.’ Consider becoming a ‘Big Fish in a Little Pond’ to get more attention. Think about this, you don’t need to reach the entire world, just your small segment—your market niche. Some ideas to consider are organizing and manage a Yahoo group for your expertise in a specific geographic area. For example, ‘women entrepreneurs in Chicago.’ Go into Yahoo Groups and search for “vertical” social networking sites for your industry or specialty. Another tip, explore FaceBook-like sites, such as:

• Plaxo

• High Five

• FriendFeed

4. Develop a viable market niche.

You’ve heard me say this many times. You need to be marketing to a narrowly defined market niche or a clearly defined specialty market your serve. This makes it easier to “be seen” in social media. If you “niche” yourself as an HR consultant, a professional organizer, or a small business coach, you are in a big pool of other fish trying to be seen. By defining a narrower niche, it is easier to be seen and develop a following in social media. Make sure the niche you choose is large enough to be profitable.

5. Differentiate yourself.

Most small businesses entrepreneurs are aware they need to have a FaceBook and Twitter account, because they’re already there. Just having a presence on this platform doesn’t get you any further ahead. You need to differentiate yourself. How do you achieve this? By writing better content. Great content includes:

• Having passion for your subject

• Expressing your unique personality ( being authentic)

• Demonstrating expertise—know your topic like no one else does

6. Commit to doing social media every week.

No matter how many hours you invest in social media per week, do it consistently. You have to be engaged to be successful. Remember, successful social networking takes a strategy, and time.  Have patience, and give these tools time to work. I’ve created my goal for social media, which is to build personal brand equity.  Being I’m “newly committed” to using social media to grow my business, what tips do you have to make the most of time invested in social media activities?  Post a comment on my blog , and share this article with others!

I am so happy you’re back visiting my blog!  Leave a comment on the blog, and make sure you join my FREE newsletter so we stay in touch, and I can learn more about what you’re creating!

Have you ever looked at your calendar, and panicked because realized you overbooked yourself, and can’t possibly accomplish everything you’ve committed to doing?

I recently had a week where I had multiple Platinum client coaching and follow-up activities to take care of, I was travelling out of town for a couple of days, and I had five different seminars to lead within two days time—with one of those seminars being entirely brand-new content.

I had a whole 4-hour time slot in my calendar to create my slide presentation and handouts, before a 7:30 am seminar scheduled the next morning.

Before some of you suggest I become a better time manager, hear me out.

The truth is I didn’t panic.

You see, I work at a high rate of velocity, and have learned how to accelerate the rate in which I can deliver and create high-quality, high-value content, whether it’s planning activities for a seven-hour coaching retreat, or a new seminar.

To create the same volume (and quality) of work I do, many people invest days, if not weeks, creating their plans, content, and materials.  I know this, because one of the things I routinely work on with my Platinum clients is accelerating the pace at which they complete work, so they increase their income more quickly.  Universally, there is usually some “reengineering” in the manner in which they get their work done.

What’s the result of getting things done more quickly?  You WORK LESS, ACHIEVE FASTER, GREATER RESULTS, which means more cash flows into your pocketbook.

Examples of where you can achieve results could be taking less time to prepare for your coaching clients you serve, creating workshop or teleseminar content faster, or even creating an information product in a fraction of the time, and getting it to market faster.

Most of us entrepreneurs have a habit of working on our projects MUCH longer than we need to.  Why do we do this?  It’s because of a phenomenon called Parkinson’s Law. Parkinson’s Law, stated in terms of time, says—

“The amount of time in which one has to perform a task is the amount of time it will take to complete that said task.”

Translation: If you need to make a video introduction for your website, you’ll as likely take four weeks to produce, edit, tweak, and post it, when you could have accomplished the task in less than one week.  Dragging completion out of this project means you fill time, which is unproductive, and reduces your income potential!

By now, I know you’re convinced you can create results faster, in less time, with less effort, and produce high-quality work, to boot.  First, remember work expands to fill the time allotted.  Second, you have to consciously and deliberately create focused momentum.  Here are four tips how to increase the velocity of how fast you complete tasks:

1.  Be accountable to someone.

Whether it’s scheduling a workshop you’ve been meaning to lead for the last year, or signing yourself up for personal coaching, go public with the announcement or commitment.  Set a date.  Invest in coaching services and finally commit to growing your business, rather than saying to yourself, “I’ll do it when ________.”  Put some strong accountability in place so you have to get it done.

2.  Set specific time frames.

Be very clear and specific about a time, and date when you must “deliver the goods,” lead the seminar, or invest in you.  Also, set aside a specific amount of time to do the work.

My rule of thumb is decide how much time it will take you to complete a task, say 12 hours, and then cut that amount of time in half, to 6 hours.  By doing this you’ve just doubled the velocity of getting the task completed!

3.  Get focused.

Allow no distractions or interruptions during “creation time.”  This means no texting, tweeting, emailing, phoning, surfing the Internet, or straying off task.  Get focused, and committed to completing the task in the time you allotted.  (This will be easy if you stacked up your calendar with other “To-Do’s” and appointments.)

4. Believe in yourself.

This is probably the most important point of all, which is believing in yourself, that you can accomplish whatever you set your mind to doing—and you will do it brilliantly well.

When pressed with a tight timeframe, don’t panic.  Just sit down, and get to the work.  When you follow these steps, you can easily double your results while working much less, which will mean a whole lot more cash in your pocketbook!

Action Steps to Accelerate Results:

1. What’s one profitable or income-producing task that’s been on your To-Do list for a while that you’re ready to tackle?  Write it down.

2. How can you pro-actively use the four steps I outlined above to achieve the task?

3. Schedule this task on your calendar, and get to it!

Do your small business marketing materials, and the personal brand image you project make your spine tingle? Or, do you make excuses about how they look, apologize because they’re outdated, or find yourself saying to others you’re “working on getting new ones printed” soon?

A Story about a “Perfectly Polished” Woman…Almost

About a year ago, I met a woman at a business conference at a local college. She approached me to ask some questions about the small business coaching services I offer. She was a very attractive woman, tall, with classically refined features, and perfectly manicured and polished nails. She wore a well-cut designer suit, clutched a high-end handbag, and wore shoes to “die for”. I thought, “Wow, this woman puts on a winning image”, and I felt a little embarrassed, because I knew I was not as well “put together” that day.

Then, as she turned to walk away, I spotted it…

…a plastic tortoise shell hair clip.

Her dark, shiny hair was pulled back by a clip that looked like it had layers of hair grooming product residue on it. A corner piece of the clip was actually broken off.

Everything positive this woman had projected was immediately tarnished by
the negligent afterthought about her hair accessory.

I assumed the woman must have been in a rush that morning, and grabbed the first hair clip she could get her hands on…because she looked so fabulous in every other way.

Recently, I saw her again at another small business conference, and she looked
fabulous, just as before. We spoke for a few moments, and as she turned to walk
away, there it was, AGAIN…

…the dirty, broken tortoise shell hair clip.

I then realized that she had no idea the hair clip had a negative affect on her entire appearance. She must have thought no one would notice, or, because the rest of her outfit was so polished, it wouldn’t matter.

Wrong.

Details Matter

My point here is not to ridicule this woman: but, how one bit of negligence can ruin the the presentation of your entire small business marketing package, and, guess what…there goes the sale! (The same applies for men, too.)

Seeing her made me realize that I had a few “marketing package blunders” of my
own—especially when it came to the personal brand image I was projecting.

I realized that if I wanted to project being a polished, knowledgeable professional, and be on track to grow successful business, I had better start looking like one!

That’s what made me decide it was time to redefine and update my personal brand image, have professional photographs taken, create a new website for my small business marketing and coaching business, and invest in a few more high quality pieces of clothing for my wardrobe.

Even getting eBook covers professionally designed is part of my “marketing
makeover” plan.

I know my attitude, and the actions I am taking will pay off immensely. When I
started the Internet business segment of my small business marketing and coaching business, I was just “playing around”. Now, I’ve decided, it’s time to get serious.

Are you just playing around? Or, do you want to be taken seriously by your target audience. Do you want to set yourself apart from your competition, and sell a lot more products and services?

Assess the *Tingle* Factor of Your Marketing Materials

Take about 30 minutes this week and objectively assess what personal brand image you are projecting, and inventory the quality of all of your small business marketing materials. This includes your website, photographs of you, business cards, brochures, product packaging, business forms — anything that your prospects or clients see.

Do they look consistent, professional, up-to-date, and polished? Or, do some of
them look like your eight year-old child designed them? Do they make your spine tingle in a good way? If any of them give you shame, they’re your “marketing package blunders”, and need rework!

Make a list of:

1. Which marketing materials need rework.

2. What you’re going to do about them, and by what date.

3. Identify who can help you fix them.

I recommend you outsource and get some professional design work done on your marketing materials, or development of your personal brand image.

If you do, you’ll be more confident in the small business marketing image you
project, and you’ll see your business sales rise, as well.

 Bonita’s comments: I am very impressed with the success Debbie has achieved.  She’s creative about what needs to be done to drive growth of her new business.  She’s also smart about who she markets to, adjusts her plans quickly when things haven’t worked as planned, and, most importantly, possesses the characteristics of a successful entrepreneur—drive, passion, persistance, business management skills, and the ability to “run the marathon” of growing a new business.  She is a model entrepreneur and client.  Here is her story:

“On December 31 2008 I was laid off from my corporate job with a large hotel technology company in the suburbs of Chicago. Little did I know, this would be the best thing that could ever happen to me! The process of figuring out how to make my dream of having my own small business a reality was not coming easy until I was introduced to Bonita in March 2009. 

Bonita worked directly with me in the planning and researching of my business. With only 5 months under my belt, I was able to launch my company, Loving Touches Memorial Services on July 01, 2009. We still meet twice a month to brainstorm, develop strategies, and change my focus based on my experiences the previous two weeks.

With Bonita’s assistance, I continue to work towards increasing the awareness of my business, and the goal of working with more families on a regular basis.  This past month, I’ve assisted 4 new clients with my services, increased traffic to my website 98%, and am hiring 5 people, Memorial Referral Specialists, to my team to extend my market reach.

Bonita has been instrumental in providing solutions, marketing ideas, and cost effective ways to get my business to market.  As I celebrate the 1-year anniversary of my business, I’ve realized that Bonita is not only a business coach, but has become a cheerleader, and friend.

Loving Touches Memorial Services has reached out and assisted many families in the Chicagoland area during what is one of the most difficult times of their lives.  I am so pleased to be able to help families create “A Celebration of Life” service for someone they loved so much. I now enjoy the pleasure of being my own boss and yet continue to have the great support of Bonita beside me.”

Do you want a simple way to increase revenues fast?  By consistently using this marketing method, in a few short weeks you may experience your best month EVER in your business.

Are you curious about what is the powerful marketing strategy I’m talking about to produce such awesome, fast results?  Okay, here it is.  The #1 marketing strategy almost everyone overlooks, is the marketing strategy they’re already using! 

You’re probably thinking can it be that simple?  My response is, “yes.”  Here’s the deal…

Think about a marketing strategy you’ve used successfully in the past to create sales.  Was it an email promotion?  A direct mail postcard campaign?  Networking or direct selling?  Whatever that method was that produced some of your best sales, do it more often.  You already have a marketing strategy that works.  You simply need to make use of it more often.

When I meet with new clients who want to increase their sales, one of the first questions I ask them (besides who is your market niche) is:

• What tactics do you use to market your business?
• How frequently do you use these tactics?

I’m not a ‘betting woman,’ but I can predict with almost 100% certainty that one of the reasons my new clients’ sales are anemic is because they don’t market and promote with enough frequency.  For example, they send out less than one email a month to their list, they attend one or two networking events a month, or they lead one speaking gig a quarter.

Especially with email promotions, (which, by the way is a powerful way to leverage your marketing efforts to increase sales), many of my clients have a profound fear of annoying subscribers in their list, and getting a large number of unsubscribes.  Well, what I have to say about this is you’re probably underestimating how much your best clients and prospects love hearing from you!  Moreover, if people unsubscribe, they’re not your ideal clients, and never would have bought anything from you, anyway.

So, think about the method where you have you have experienced your best success in creating sales, and, use it more often.  My personal rule of thumb is to triple or quadruple the frequency you’re currently doing.  For example, instead of sending one email per month to your list, create a plan to send short, fun, and valuable emails to your list on a weekly basis.  By doing this, you’ve just quadrupled the frequency of contact with your list, and the opportunity to create more sales.

As entrepreneurs, many of us are addicted to being creative, and trying something new.  However, many of us wind up making things much more complicated than they need to be.  In most cases, keeping things simple is best.  More times than not, constant searching for the “next hot marketing tactic” means we overlook the gold already right in front of our eyes.

So, it’s now time to look at YOUR business. What marketing strategy has worked for you in the past?  Do you make direct sales calls? Ask current clients for referrals?  Post on blogs? Do interviews on radio, TV, teleseminars or webinars? Speak live? Send email promotions with irresistible offers?

Now, ask yourself, can you increase the frequency? Can you find more places to roll this strategy out in your business?  Again, my personal rule of thumb is to look at how often you are doing a marketing tactic, and triple or quadruple the frequency.  Does it feel like a stretch to do?  Great!  Then, this is the tipping point where you’ll begin to see results from your efforts.

Remember, often times the fastest, and most profitable marketing strategy is simply to do more of what already works.

Do you have some tried-and-true marketing methods that have worked for you?  Why not share them with our readers!