Are you lost when it comes to utilizing social media effectively and being successful in business and as a entrepreneur? I admit when I first jumped into social media four years ago, I was totally left in the dark of where to start. I had the same questions as many of you have daily. A few of these questions were: How do I gain traction, engage my followers, find my target audience and attract leads? The answer to these questions were found by investing the time to research, being persistent in wanting to find the answer and being consistent in staying active with my efforts. Below, are tips for you to put into action to become successful as a small business and as an entrepeneur.
Discipline allows you to continue on the path toward a goal. It turns you into an unstoppable force as you head toward success.
If you’re not measuring your performance, you have no benchmark for improvement.
When drafting your company’s social media plan, turn to your mission and value statements. These will help you determine the tone and personality of your social media presence.
When you connect your customers to something bigger — a unique, meaningful experience or opportunity — you’ll be rewarded with loyalty.
To be truly agile, innovative, and successful, it’s essential that we emphasize a culture of perpetual evolution and learning.
Our audience’s interests are always changing, so it’s critical that we gather and analyze new data to learn exactly where and how our marketing efforts will have the greatest impact.
Instead of developing mass advertising campaigns, you’ll find greater success targeting specific audiences with customized messages. Getting the right message in front of the right audience is the fastest way to spark interest, generate trust, and grow support.
Educate yourself continuously and stay hungry for experience and thirsty for knowledge.
Know why you want to grow and how. You need both a strategy and rationale for your growth.
Concentrating on improving your own performance instead of beating someone else’s will help you focus more on the task at hand and ultimately motivate you to continue doing better.
Focus your attention on adding tremendous value to your network, not on trying to “sell them.” Be 100% focused on solving problems for your prospective clients.
Be 100% focused on solving problems for your prospective clients. Lead with the problem, meet your prospect in their hurt, and showcase your solutions to bridge the gap between where they are today and where they want to be tomorrow.
In order to grow your small business, you need to look for ways to improve pricing, packaging, process, delivery, staffing, or brand image. Status quo is the enemy of growth. You need to constantly question in order to grow.
Entrepreneurs have to be visionaries, folks who are driven by the ideas of changing or making a dent in the world.
Staying on top of how customers feel & what they are saying about your product/biz is critical to achieving & maintaining happy customers.
Without a focused marketing strategy that generates qualified leads/prospects, there can be no sales.
Your vision should guide every major decision you make, both for your company and for you.
Continual growth requires constant change. If you stop changing you shouldn’t be surprised if you stop growing.
The more you know about your market and customer the more sales growth you will achieve.
Having a user-focus in everything you do in your small business is essential for any degree of success.
To reach your audience you have to help them “get it,” by portraying your business concept in simple, concise terms.
For the entrepreneur, the road to success is paved with failures. Don’t fear failure, but learn and grow from it.
For a “better” product to succeed, its value (price/performance) MUST be significantly better than what’s out there.
The most basic questions an entrepreneur must answer that make an idea a business – What, Where, Why and How!
Know your competition as well as you know your own company and product.
Approach your business from a place of service; help your audience be more successful at what they’re doing. Come from a place of how to fill someone else’s cup rather than your own.
Create content that your audience will truly find informative. It must inform, educate or entertain your audience.
As you build your business, remain authentic to your values, yourself and your customers. Instead of selling out for a quick buck, stand for something.
Use social media to give a shout-out to your customers. This is a great way to build your community as well as boost fan involvement and increase loyalty and retention.
By listening to, showing empathy and addressing complaints on social media, you can quickly turn angry customers into positive ones.
Instead of finding clients, create a brand that ATTRACTS the right clients.
Use social media not only to make connections to new prospects, but to create “your voice” within your customer base.
Create a story around your product and service. It’s about inspiring faith in you and your offering.
When writing your business plan, come up with three to five key strategies that will enable you to achieve your vision.
Focus on your buyers and the way they think.
Knowing your target audience’s motivations is essential to tailoring your product, service, and marketing efforts to meet their needs.
Paint a picture of your ideal customer. List all the different types of customers that suffer from the problems you solve.
The key to writing a powerful mission statement is that it has to come directly from your heart.
Your mission statement should inspire your audience to educate themselves or interact with you.
Keep track of your time to identify and eliminate wasted time spent online.
Be consistent with descriptions across all your social profiles.
Drive engagement and shares with questions, facts and figures.
Keep a clear and consistent message conveying your passions and expertise. Just be YOU.
Communicate in a tone that your audience can relate to. Ask questions to get their perspective.
Listen to what your audience is looking for. Solve their problems, pain points and offer a solution.
Be transparent and honest. Always acknowledge your mistakes.
Content is an important component of your strategy. It MUST be original, resourceful and engaging.
Clear objectives simplify planning, execution and enables you to track your ROI.
Keep the demographics of your target in mind when identifying your audience.
To help identify your target audience look at the goals you’ve set and analyze the products or services you offer.
When identifying your audience, ask yourself, Who am I trying to reach with my content?
Infuse personality into your posts. Share humor, an intelligent response or ask a genuine question.
Talk with your audience, not at them.
Know your audience and be prepared to put in the effort. Stay enthusiastic.
Find your ideal customers by asking yourself, what benefits does our products offer and who’s looking for it?
Define who you are and why your consumers should care about your business.
Give a behind the scenes peek to your audience to build trust.
Conversation barriers that are present in a brand to audience communication get lowered with human interactions.
Focus on “why it matters”. Make a point of giving your readers valuable information.
Build trust with your audience by providing useful solutions with personality and character.
If your blog or site displays a paid review or a sponsored post, then inform readers. Be transparent.
Creating far-ranging customer experiences is the key to building customer loyalty into your social media strategy.
Relationships are a two-way street. You need to give to receive.
Deliver refreshing, informative share-worthy content to drive engagement.
Give your customers a voice by enabling them to contribute to the conversation.
Customers want to get a feeling of assurance when communicating with a brand. Be HUMAN!
Conversation barriers that are present in a brand to audience communication get lowered with human interactions.
Be consistent and interact with your audience frequently, so they won’t will go elsewhere.
Share content that is current and relevant to your niche and customers. Give reason to read your posts.
Want to be heard above the noise? Share your ideas, opinions, expertise and experience in a distinctive voice.
Be yourself and be willing to help others as much as you would like them to help you.
Treat social media like a networking event and start conversations, answer questions, pose solutions.
Try a variety of content. Listen to what your audience and the data tell you.
Have a purpose to help you decide who to follow and what kind of content to share.
Share important tweets 3-4 times throughout the day using different text to cover all time zones.
Present the human side of your business to project positive attributes.
Stay actively engaged in order to identify trends as they develop over time.
Do more than just listen; understand before you respond.
Build trust with your audience by using your voice to offer a unique perspective and eliminate the predictable.
Stay up-to-date on the latest industry trends and news to effectively communicate with your audience.
Learn what it is that your audience wants from you. Take the time to listen.
Recognize your most socially engaged customers and reward them with special offers. Make them feel special.
Stay in touch with your customers to keep your business top of mind. Don’t and they may forget you.
Reply to customers in a timely manner, so they know you are serious about your business and value them.
Keep learning and be open to it. There is no end to the learning process.
Embrace change and be in the know. You either adapt or give up. Your choice.
Don’t worry about what other people are doing. Focus on what YOU could and should be doing.
For content to be valuable, it has to be appropriate for the platform, situation and audience.
Remain genuine in your interactions.
Keep your LinkedIn updates professional and industry-related.
Don’t use social media just because it’s the popular thing to do. You must have a reason and plan.
Share content that includes helpful resources, tips and guides. Don’t come off as too promotional.
Set a specific goal before actually beginning to work on your marketing strategies.
Want to build stronger connections with your audience? Engage with them.
Create compelling content. Be informative and passionate about what you share.
Be valuable, resourceful, engaging and FUN. Don’t be boring.
When you say something be conscious of how you say it.
Set clear, specific goals so you can measure your efforts effectively.
Your images, messaging, bio and voice MUST align with your business and be consistent.
Join LinkedIn groups in your industry. It helps you network with other professionals and build your online reputation.
Use Periscope to talk to your community about how they can improve something.
Appreciate yourself and what you can offer. You’ll be more confident to do things your own way.
Thank your community often. Make them the center of your focus.
Be unique and share from the heart. Your friends want to know the real you.
Stand OUT from the crowd. Share resources that others are actually looking for.
When choosing your Twitter name, choose something easy for others to remember and spell.
Don’t focus on who unfollowed. Concentrate on who followed you and get to know them.
Looking for interesting content? Type keyword, “How To” into Google News Search.
Promote others more than you promote yourself. Support each other!
Social is your resume. Don’t share anything that could prevent you from getting a job.
Spice up your bio. Create value and give reason for someone to connect with you.
Keep a consistent voice to tell the story of your brand. An inconsistent tone confuses people.
Don’t get caught up in trying to be trendy or look better than others. Be genuine. NOT fake!
Post things that will make people laugh and feel good about themselves every day.
Think of your friends and customers. Get them excited about your brand. Put their needs and wants first.
Listen and adapt. When you listen and adapt to what you hear and read, you’ll do a lot better than if you just talk at people.
Use Twitter lists to cut through the clutter, find relevant posts and be more focused with your time.
Ask for advice. Don’t be scared. Leads to conversation and learning something new.
Building an authentic and engaged audience takes time. Don’t get frustrated. Be patient!
If someone takes the time to share something you post, genuinely say “Thank you.” Show you care.
Don’t misuse hashtags. Overuse will dilute your message and effectiveness.
When posting a question, don’t get up and walk away. Be there to respond and engage.
Set short goals for yourself. Achieve them then set new ones.
Be patient when setting goals. Business is like having a baby. It has to be fed and nurtured. Be realistic!
Use Social Media effectively by monitoring customer trends and researching new product ideas.
Get others curious. Ask personal and meaningful questions such as What, How and Should. Keep it relevant and fun.
Be consistent. It keeps constant interest in you and your content.
Show your personality. Be genuine in doing so. If you care about people they will care about you.
Post regularly. Make it know when to expect content from. This leads to more reading, sharing and engaging.
When searching for an article to share, ask yourself, “How is this valuable to my audience?”
Support other individuals and businesses on social media. Be known as the SOCIAL brand that gives back.
Ask your customers if there are any issues you can resolve for them. Don’t wait for them to come to you.
Be real and engage in real-time. NEVER automate engagement.
Create a little humor. Show that you are relaxed, inviting and enjoy having fun with your audience.
Purpose of your blog is to engage the reader, not to disengage by polluting the post with sales messages.
Think outside the box and try different things, you’ll soon discover what works and what doesn’t.
Respond to questions. Let others know their voice is being heard.
Focus on value, supporting and engagement and the connections will come.
Know when to use their, there and they’re correctly.
Have fun with your work. Making work fun brings success to those who do.
Have the courage to keep on going no matter what stands in your way.
Appreciate yourself and what you can offer. You’ll be more confident to do things your own way.
Always be confident about yourself, what you can and will achieve.