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By definition Social Media is defined as the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, video and audio. Social Media Marketing is also a fancy way to describe the process of getting the right message to the right people at the right place - to create the right conversation.

Key Points to remember:
A new way to communicate on-line
It is not an option for future success
TRUE power: creating communities & 2-way dialogues
Smaller investment with a higher returns
Must have a good foundation site

Concerns people have:
What tools are available today? Tomorrow?
What will be available tomorrow?
Where should we start?
Who’s going to manage and execute?
Who’s going to create the content?
I’m not seeing results from current efforts.

Need to get your foundation set to implement Social Media or just want a tune up?  Call, click or email us to get the help you want.
 

Recently we created a Video Tutorial on tweeting in 2 minutes or less 4 times per week.  Tweeting is a simple way to take your daily activities as an Entrepreneur, Manager and Sales Person.  The simple formula is thinking about the activities you've been involved in, what value you provided to a relationship (Prospect, Customer, Raving Fan) or what value you received from them and to write 140 characters or less.

Once you've done this, you share it.  Share it through your website and then through your website share it to your Social Media Relationships.  Here's what it looks like:

Activity --> Content --> Sharing --> Education --> Increased Credibility

When you share these educational moments, you increase your credibility with your Prospects.  When they read your postings and it resonates with them they have the "finally, someone gets me" feeling.  When you do this, they become your Customer.

You should have some way to track the impact of your relationships.  We use a "Goal to Actual" gage in our program that lets you as an Executive have insights on how your relationships are progressing (the more value you provide the more the relationships progress from Prospect to Customer to Raving Fan).

Remember, in 2 minutes or less 4 times per week:

Activity --> Content --> Sharing --> Education --> Increased Credibility

Most people know they need to do this, but just don't get around to it.  If they do, it's only for a short time before they push it to the "back burner."  Want to do it but need a hand getting started?  Contact us and we can help you in three simple ways:

1. Do It Your Self (DIY)
2. Work with you on a One-on-One basis until you have the skills and habit to do it on your own
3. You just show up, provide some direction and we do the rest.

Or in other words, if you routinely stop and think about your contact types (Prospect, Customer, Raving Fan) will you experience innovation where it's most valuable?  Can knowing your relationships enable innovation in your daily life? 

YES!

If you pick key topics that are reserved for only a Prospect (credibility creation for you to increase their confidence you will help them accomplish what they want to achieve), or only a Customer (educating them what others have done using the same products/services they are using and the benefits they enjoyed from it), or only for a Raving Fan (stories they were able to know/hear before anyone else) you will find increased innovation where it's most valuable - in your relationships.

Try it for one day, take notes on how shortened the conversations were, how condensed and precise the information sharing was and the sense of accomplishment felt at the end of the conversation.  The more sense of accomplishment felt, the more value the relationship had.

So remember, routines of knowing your audience before you speak enables innovation in your relationships.

So the question quickly comes to mind, how can i get increased productivity, have more appreciation for the people and things around me and greater achievement? 

First things first - know your audience.  If you know who a Prospect, Customer and a Raving Fan is, you'll know who they are, what they are looking to get from you and what value you can provide them.  When you know who you're speaking to you can produce more value in a shorter time frame.  Prospects are looking for credibility to work with you.  Customers are looking for education, how to, what are others doing and benefiting from your product.  Ravings Fans are looking for stories they can repeat about you  and how they were able to know the story before anyone else did. 

By knowing your audience you are able to increase your productivity by only sharing what's valuable to them.  By limiting what you share with them minimizes how much information they need to process which they will appreciate.  Less time together with more value increases their confidence in you and minimizes the stress and often sense of being overwhelmed with all the talking points in theier heads. 

Can you think of a time when you were providing the wrong information and the person just got frustrated?  There's no productivity for you or them.  On the other hand, have you ever been able to share with someone an idea, product, solution and the lights went on and they said "thank you."  Everyone one in the relationship benefited.

In today's world, less is more.  Less time you as a vendor/service provider spends talking and more time you spend listening the more your Prospects and Customers get what they are looking for.

When you provide this type of value to your relationships they express greater appreciation to you for the value you provided them.  You feel productive, people express more gratitude for your efforts thus you feel more appreciated and ultimately you feel more achievement in your day.

If you know your audience (Contact type) you'll know what message they are looking for (Content) and you'll know the best way to share (Communicate) with them.  Do this and watch how you will  experience an increase in productivity, have more appreciation for the people and things around you and have a greater sense of achievement.

Had a time when you experienced this?  Please share in our comments field below.

The e-volve Formula is a Winning Strategy for Communications for 3 simple reasons.

1. You know your relationships by classification
   Prospect, Customer, Raving Fan

Some Reasons People fail at growing their existing business and new contacts:

1. There marketing strategy is based on two methods:
1. the “roundtuit” method
2. Spray and Pray
2. They have no reliable way to generate leads.
3. They have no reliable method to capture and follow up on leads.
4. They can’t articulate their value proposition to a client.
5. They can’t articulate why a prospect should hire them over all the other options available.
6. They completely wing the sales process.
7. They try to sell everything to everyone.
8. They expect everyone they talk to buy today.  Everything is a “hunt and kill” vs “farming and harvesting” where the law of the harvest is based on planting seeds, nurturing the seed, weeding the seedling, watering and fertilizing the seedling/plant and than harvesting the plan.  ”I am content to be the one who just plants the seed and not necessarily the one who will reap the harvest.” 
 

Just did an experiment this morning.  I was creating an email broadcast to invite people to our webinar and thought "I wonder if this will work with my iphone?"  I opened up Safari, logged into the backroom, clicked on the email broadcast, clicked on ""Test Broadcast" and it worked. 

I'm going to be away from my computer when I want the Communication to go out.  I could use the "set time and date" feature to deliver it, but I wanted to experiment with "what if ?"  It's great to know there are lots of options, if needed, to be able to Communicate with our Contacts (relationships) quickly and easily with out having to be in front of a computer.

Although we don't have an iphone app specifically, we can use Safari to login and manage your or our Contacts, Content and Communications.  How cool is that?  

Are you a startup or growth oriented company?  Are you looking to communicate easier and faster with your contacts with better results?  Are you looking to know and increase the value of your business relationships?

If so, attend the 3 Essential Steps to Grow Existing Business While Cultivating New Contacts

Here's a few of the benefits of attending:

• 5 step process to ensure success for client and e-volve relationships
• success formula for increasing sells via existing contacts while cultivating new contacts
• increasing value by speaking the right language to the right contact
• short educational and value based communications
• increased personalized communication with contacts
• increased capabilities for managing and sharing content and messages
• increased value of contacts (the more communication without opt-outs = the more targeted/valuable the list)
• increased ranking and indexing on search engines
• increased Social Media exposure and networking
• increased marketing with decreased time to do it

If you can think of all your visitors as someone who is a Prospect (someone you consider to be a potential customer), Customer (someone who is using at least one of your products or services) or Raving Fan (someone who tells your story in a positive light and may even pass you business) you'll be able to provide value to all of your visitors.

If you look at your sitelog/analytics you'll find the follow contacts are viewing the following pages and why:

Testimonials:  These are most frequented by your Prospects.  They want to know if they associate or affiliate with the type of customers you have and what they are saying.  Testimonials, aka 3rd party endorsement, is the number one credibility creator.  Testimonials are great for creating credibility for your Prospects.

Blogs:  Depending on the type of bloging you do, here's who's reading your blog.  Prospect if you write your blogs about customer experience and how they were better off working with you vs working with their existing nonfunctional solution/product.  Customer if you write your blog based on what customers are doing and how they are better off.  Raving Fans if you tell great stories that are short and easily repeatable.

Newsletters:  If they are technical writings, you will be attracting existing customers on "how to" do something.  If they are written about how a Prospect chose your product or service your Prospect is reading it for suggestions, tips and tricks and to see if what your customers are doing is repeatable for them.  If you write your newsletter about how customers are using new products and services your customers are reading them to see if they can leverage the products or services you are providing or if there are products of service they should be using from you.

Social Media:  For those looking for quick "help me" or "that seems interesting" or "that seems entertaining" your title will catch them and they'll click on your link for more information.

Email Broadcasting:  If you are communicating the right content (message) to the right contact (relationship between you and them) through email broadcasting (short title, catchy/educational intro with a link to "more" that goes to your website) you will find in your sitelog/analytics where they are going. 

Lastly, if you have e-commerce on your website your analytics should show you all the resources that generated revenue for you.  Did it come from a blog?  How about an email broadcast? Did it come through a key word search on the search engine? 

When they say "the numbers don't lie" that means "the answers lie in the numbers."  Use your analytics to see where your visitors are going.  Where they are going, or NOT going, tells you what value you are providing your visitors.

Do you feel like you would like to know better who's visiting your website, where are they going and want to be able to better educate them while they are on your website?  Contact us to see if you qualify for a website evaluation and report. 

Can you send information or an update with your contacts in 10 minutes or less?  For example, if you have a new product offering or promotion, can you reach your Prospects (future Customers), Customers (currently doing business with you) or Raving Fans (those that know you, like you, tell your story to those they come in contact with and refer you business).

If not, in the modern method of marketing world we live in today, you have the ability to do so quickly and easily. 

Have you been thinking you need to better communicate with your contacts but are frustrated with how your contact relationships are organized (or more likely not organized)?

Work with a trusted adviser that will help you get your relationships organized so you can communicate (email broadcast, post card, social media, newsletter, website, etc.) the right message (content) to the right relationship (contact classification).  Being able to communicate the right content to the right contacts should take 10 minutes or less if you have the right system, the right tools and the right training. 

For small businesses to be successful in today’s market place, they must transition from traditional marketing to modern marketing. 

There is “traditional marketing” and what we call “modern method of marketing”.  What is happening is in traditional marketing people do print media; they do postcards, print advertising and these types of marketing.  They are always speaking to what we call a "Prospect" - always directing themselves at a new client.  This is only communicating with future business.  It does not address your current business nor your referral business.  Traditional marketing is based on new business, it is not based on renewed and sustainable businesses.  Modern Method of Marketing is based on renewing existing business (Customers), nurturing future business (Prospects) and educating your referral sources (Raving Fans).

With the right system, the right tools and the right support you can implement or improve your marketing through testimonials, blogs, social media, news letters, email broadcasts and webinars/seminars.

If you're interested in learning how to get started or leverage what you are currently doing please contact us.