Archive for the ‘Other Musings’ Category:
It is not unusual for small business owners to feel overwhelmed at times. There is so much to learn and keep track of. Social media marketing may seem like one more thing that will take up your precious time. But here are three ways you can avoid being overwhelmed by social media marketing.
1. Limit your focus
You know that feeling will pass. So when it strikes, look at only today, only now. What needs to be tackled right now? Focus only on your next step. For instance, if you haven’t begun any social marketing yet, sign up for Facebook. Focus on that one network to get started.
2. Look at results, rather than goals
Goals differ from results. You might have a goal to have your blog up and running by the end of the month. You may even have a series of mini-deadlines to help you achieve this goal. But what is the RESULT you want to achieve? The result you want is to land new clients. The blog is just part of the puzzle to achieve this. Always focus on the outcome, rather than getting bogged down by short-term goals.
3. Prioritize
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the seemingly “urgent” tasks and lose sight of the truly important ones. Supposing you want to increase your online sales by a specific amount this quarter. But maybe your website isn’t set up to achieve this outcome. Your first priority would therefore be to get the revisions done and put online. That result would allow you to move on to your next goal of driving traffic to your website. If you do things in the right order, it makes it so much easier to achieve results.
Using these tips will help give you clarity and focus, so that you can build your social marketing strategy faster and with less frustration. Once you get into the habit of using them, you”ll find staying on track much easier.
Tweet This Post
How often do we think about what we really want in life? My daughter asked me a question as part of an assignment recently. The question was, what advice do you have for me right now about my future?
How to answer that question! I thought about telling her to dream big because you’ll be surprised how much you can accomplish in life. But I decided to tell her, think about what you really really want to do. Whether you’re looking at a career, or where to live, or the people you spend time with, really think about what you want.
As I gave her the advice, I realized, I was giving her advice that I’d been thinking about in this phase in my life. I’ve finally come to really really think about what I want. I am an offender of settling in the past for what was in front of me, what seemed like what I was supposed to be doing, what I was good at and, therefore, easy for me.
If you’re lucky, you will have difficult things happen in your life which cause you to really rethink the path you are on. Painful as that may be, what comes from that kind of experience can be extraordinary.
I am now at a point where I am determined to stay on the path of what I really want. I’m not just casting about for what will work for me quickly. I’m setting a path for myself and I’m determined to stay on that path, focusing on only where I truly want to go. It’s too easy to be distracted by situations that lead you off your chosen path.
So my advice for my daugher, and for myself, and for you is, spend a lot of time thinking about what you really really really want. It will be time well spent.
Tweet This Post
A blog post from my friend, Will Sloan, inspired me to tell you about an incident that happened to me recently. I was in the local UPS store the other day. There were several of us who came in at once, and one young man at the counter. He was working like a mad man to get all of us taken care of. One snippy woman was rude and told him he should be helping only her. I would have been really mad if I were this young man. But he said he was sorry and kept working like a mad man. Everyone was quiet.
On my way home I wished I had said something to the young man about how much I appreciated his hard work. So I emailed his store. The next day the manager called me and I told him the story. He said he was going to have my email framed and was going to present it to his employee with appreciation at their next employee meeting.
It doesn’t take much to tell people you do appreciate their hard work. Too often we expect people to work hard without thanks because it’s their job. The next time you are waited on by someone who is doing a good job, take the time to look up the business on Facebook or Google, and send them a message identifying the worker and how much you appreciated their service. You’d be amazed how much it will mean to the hard working employee.
Tweet This Post
It is not unusual for small business owners to feel overwhelmed at times. There is so much to learn and keep track of. Social media marketing may seem like one more thing that will take up your precious time. But here are three ways you can avoid being overwhelmed by social media marketing.
