Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Growing Things

Here we are at the end of April, the weather is still a little chilly, but the Spring plants, trees and flowers are starting to bud and poke through the thawing ground.  I like this time of year. I like to see the plants that have spent the last few months in a frozen state, come to life.  I always wonder how they can survive in the frozen ground all winter.  I took a look at my plantings in my newest flower bed, and some were blooming and I did not even know it.  I planted that spot for year-round blooming and I had forgotten that the early plants would be blooming already.  I thought it was too cold, but I was wrong, there they were blooming as if they knew it was time to do so.  

The awaking of the Spring reminds me that like all living things, business, has to sometimes go through a frozen state.  It does, however, come back to life if you work really hard.  You have to embrace the hard times and work even harder to keep that business living.  You have to embrace new technology and new ways to do business. You have to be flexible enough to change your strategy if business conditions command it.  If you don't it will die.  It will not survive.  If you own your own business or even if you work for someone else, the collective efforts of human resources have to keep working together and making the business run.  Sometimes you feel like you are totally out of energy and can't keep moving, but you CAN, and you WILL.  Sometimes you feel like everything is going wrong, but you CAN and you WILL turn it around. 


As long as you believe in what you are doing, you CAN and you WILL be successful.  I promise, Spring is just around the corner.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Three Common Social Media Mistakes to Avoid

The Ibis Network's Blog today pretty much sums up what it takes to be successful at this crazy world of Social Media.  Following the advice below will help you become a disciplined, successful and popular user of Social Media. 

Three Common Social Media Mistakes To Avoid


Doing something well requires practice. And practice requires patience. After all, it’s going to take a while to get good at whatever it is and, in the meantime, you’ll have to grow accustomed to the feeling of failure. The same goes for starting a social-media campaign. There’s no reason to expect you’ll have more fans than Oprah within a week of setting up your first account. Take your time and don’t get discouraged.
To help you get started, here are a few common mistakes to avoid …
Keeping Quiet: It’s easy to fall into the trap of only promoting your social network while you’re online. But driving traffic to your sites means getting the word out. Even offline. If you’re keeping a blog, talk about it as much as possible. Ask clients to visit. Ask your friends to visit. Mention it in meetings and at industry events and anywhere else you’re in contact with potential readers that fit your target audience.
Doing Too Much: Once you’ve got yourself registered on your social network of choice, it’s tempting to start following and friending every page, profile, and person you come across. And, while it is a good idea to connect with industry and community contacts, clients, and potential referral partners, building your network requires some focus. If you find yourself following 500 people on Twitter and the majority of them are your favorite actors, actresses, singers, and athletes, you’re likely not going to see any benefit to your business. You’re also never going to be able to locate your actual contacts through the mess of tweets filling your inbox.
Giving Up: There as many cliches about practice making perfect as there are reasons to keep with it. Sure, at first, it’s a struggle to find the time or the content or the purpose behind your social-media efforts. But with a bit of focus, and a commitment to engaging and interacting with your online network, the benefits will come. Don’t fill out your profile, let it sit for a month, and then proclaim the Internet a waste of your marketing efforts. If at first you don’t succeed …
More tips from The Ibis Network here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
 
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Three Common Social Media Mistakes to avoid