Day 26 - Close The Door for Social Media Success

"The key is in not spending time, but in investing it." 

~ Stephen R. Covey

Many of my friends, clients and online audience talk with me regularly about their integration into this ever evolving, fast changing and often mind-numbing new media world.

Perhaps, 'talk' isn't even the right word. It's more like exasperated, overwhelmed cries for help. And, it always seems to be roughly the same conversation. They love social media and all the new opportunities to connect and expand their social and business network online. They see huge opportunities that social media provides for their businesses. But, they have also begun to realize that with all the time they have put into developing relationships and learning the use of new electronic tools, social media is FAR from free!

So, they call me, at wit's end, pleading for me to help them get the maximum benefit from these powerful resources without losing their sanity and family lives in the process. They're frustrated that most of the social media experts they listen to are trying to get them to conduct their business as if they, too, were social media experts and were paid to be online, accessible and interactive almost 24/7.  Can you relate?

Well, being a "fellow-pilgrim" on this journey, I don't claim to have the definitive answer for ensuring productivity and profitability in social media, but I have dealt with enough different types of businesses and personalities and I have found these 4 tips to be universally helpful to all who've applied them:

Thom's 4 Tips For Maximizing Time On Social Media:

1. Decide On Your Outcome - Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.. are communications tools. Just as you wouldn't pick up a phone and dial a random number and not know what you were going to say, you shouldn't do that on social media either. Have an expected outcome, even if it's just to take X amount of time to see what's happening with some people in your Tweet stream or what's being talked about on Social Media.
2. Plan Your Time - Decide exactly how much time you'll be spending at each session and set a timer and stick to it. Then, "close the door" on your electronic office and focus on your core business. To do otherwise would be like having a full day of open office door time at work. It may make others feel good to be able to connect with you constantly, but it sure doesn't help you get things done.
3. Be Consistent - Do more blog posts and a greater volume of time on social media help you build a loyal audience quicker? Sure - if done correctly. But, just as important as the amount of time is the consistency of that time. Simply put, whether you put in a half hour a day on social media or 1 hour, 3 times a day, if you do so consistently (including roughly the same times and days) you will attract a following much quicker than if you were sporadic in your approach.
4. Get a 'Rhythm' - Just like having a 'rhythm' (or routine) for how often we maintain our cars, care for our lawn or change our air conditioning filters helps us proactively maintain our things, having a 'rhythm' for our social media activities helps us build and maintain a vibrant network. So determine, what are the things you do daily (like birthday wishes, FB and Twitter posts), weekly (like blog posts and proactive list building) and monthly (like friend/follower list review and 'scrubbing'). 

There you have it ... not a definitive guide by any stretch of the imagination. But, if you got really good at incorporating these mindsets/actions into your daily social media time, you will find yourself far more productive and less frustrated.

Do you have some tips that would help others with their social media time management? I'd love to hear about them.

About This Chart: For those who haven't been following, I created this daily chart for the purpose of communicating and tracking some of my more important goals - publicly. You can read about it in THIS EARLIER POST.

Day 25 - You Can't Get Anywhere Unless You Start

GUEST POST by Harvey Mackay

On the Web recently, I ran across the reminiscence of a senior citizen about his first job as a shelf stocker at a supermarket. "They told me I would get two weeks paid vacation," he recalls. "I couldn't wait to find out where they were going to send me. I wasn't the brightest crayon in the box."

When you're in the job market for the first time, it pays to listen to everything you're told . . . and not told, most especially before they welcome you aboard. Always remember: If you're hearing something that's too good to be true, it probably isn't . . . and you are the one who's likely making it up.

In my experience, young people usually fall into three different categories when looking for their first job. The first sort imagines a perfect job will land in their laps. The paycheck, the coworkers and the challenges couldn't be better. A short and bitter collision with reality bursts that bubble, and these exasperated souls give up and just avoid looking for work as long as they can.

The second type is more practical. They willingly punch any time clock, rationalizing that the job of the moment is just a stopgap until they put their mind to finding something better. Most people, unfortunately, fall into that category. They just forget where to put their mind. Instead, they spend their entire working lives more or less falling into one job after another, only half-heartedly trying to create a meaningful career.

The third group is a rare breed.  They constantly ask themselves what they really want to do. They learn precisely the skills they have to perfect, and they find ways to meet and understudy people who are now what these beginners want to be. They forever fine-tune their plans for where they want to be in five years. They don't waste opportunity. Always on the prowl, they learn from their present job and contacts. They leverage what they have into something they really want to do.

Today I'm chairman of a $100 million envelope company, Outside of paper routes and setting pins in a bowling alley, my first real job was as
a summer fill-in at Howard's Men's Store in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota.

Sounds like a pretty remote switch, but was it really? I still consider a CEO to be any firm's #1 salesman, and what I learned about sales at Howard's was epic:
Choices: Never put more than three ties on the counter. It only confuses the customer.
Convenience: Never start locking up, even if the customer is a couple minutes late.
Commitment: When the customer tries on the pants, it's usually a done deal.

How you tackle your first job will likely shape how you manage your career for the rest of life. And, I surely learned from my share of mistakes: such as asking for time off, even though the main reason I was hired was so that senior staff could enjoy their vacations.

If you're like most people, you'll churn through 3-5 career shifts and 12-15 job changes in your working life. Smart people probably switch less, and they surely determine when and why they make most of the changes.

The difference starts with positive attitude and perseverance. Remember, if you think you can . . . or if you think you can't . . . you're right.
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THOM Note:
We all know someone who is looking for work or has stayed in a career that doesn’t fuel his or her work life.  I recently spent time with Harvey Mackay, #1 New York Times Best Selling Author and he’s just come out with a new book titled Use Your Head To Get Your Foot In The Door: Job Search Secrets No One Else Will Tell You. He thinks it’s his best work in two decades since Swim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive, a lifetime business classic...and I agree!

If you buy the book by March 5, 2010 you gain access to nearly $1,000 worth of additional tips and ideas only available from Harvey Mackay:

·   Rolodex Networking Book Download (includes 20 pages of his Harvard MBA speech summarized in the Harvard Business Review)

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·   6-month money back guarantee on finding a job!

Go directly to www.HarveyMackay.com/jobsecrets to check it out! (NOTE: This is NOT an affiliate code. I refer books and authors I personally follow and believe in.)

_____________________

About This Chart: For those who haven't been following, I created this daily chart for the purpose of communicating and tracking some of my more important goals - publicly. You can read about it in THIS EARLIER POST.

Day 24 - Growth Without Resistance?

"The wise man in the storm prays to God, not for safety from danger, but for deliverance from fear. It is the storm within that endangers him, not the storm without." 

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I was reading The Complete Sermons of Ralph Waldo Emerson this morning and came across the quote above. It made me think of body building. (LOL ... Stick with me on this ... my mind works in mysterious ways ;-)

I believe that many times, the obstacles, challenges and "dangers" we face are sent (or at least allowed) by God because they strengthen and grow us. They make us into the person that we need to become in order to achieve the goal or gain the blessing that we have prayed for or set our intentions on.


Legitimate danger aside, to pray for the removal of the obstacles and challenges then, can often be counterproductive. Much like a body builder who sets his or her goals to have a certain size muscle or to be able to lift a certain amount of weight, but doesn't want to encounter any resistance or challenge to achieve it. That simply doesn't work.


Now I'm not suggesting that the achievement of all goals has to be difficult or challenging... just as normal growth in nature occurs through proper nutrition, removal of negative influences and the passage of time.


But, I've never seen a bodybuilder who naturally just grew that way. No, they purposed themselves for it and they overcame the challenges and obstacles (skepticism, sickness, tiredness, soreness and even injuries) to achieve their goals.


So, if you and I want anything more than average growth ... if we want to develop spiritually, personally, professionally or physically beyond the norm, perhaps we should anticipate that there will be 'dangers' and challenges along the way. And, instead of praying that they be removed, we should pray for the courage and strength to move forward despite the storms and to learn and grow as much as we can through each experience so we don't have to repeat the lesson.


What do YOU think? Did that make any sense or have I just not had enough coffee this morning?

About This Chart: For those who haven't been following, I created this daily chart for the purpose of communicating and tracking some of my more important goals - publicly. You can read about it in THIS EARLIER POST.