Time’s Paces
When as a child I laughed and wept,
Time crept.
When as a youth I waxed more bold,
Time strolled.
When I became a full-grown woman,
Time ran.
When older still I daily grew,
Time flew.
Soon I shall find, in passing on,
Time gone!
(These lines appear on an old clock in Chester Cathedral.)
I think all of us can relate to these words. I’m advocating that immediate action should be taken by all those sole proprietors and business individuals who would like to make a difference to the success of their business enterprises in 2010.
There is no time like the present to become involved in the world of social media in order to promote yourself and your business. I am going to cogitate here on the one social media platform that seems to be taking the whole world by the scruff of the neck: Twitter!
Tweeting
I have to admit I lagged behind for months while the activity of others in my circle of friends and business colleagues, soared. All the while they kept regaling me with tales of tweets made by tweeps. What on earth were they talking about? They appeared to possessed a new language that meant absolutely nothing to me. There were times when I’m not ashamed to say ‘they drove me crazy’ as they really did appear to be ‘on another planet’ when engaged in tweeting.
It took place anywhere and everywhere: from PC’s, laptops and iphones, morning, noon and night. I even heard of one of my friends who would take the iphone to bed and fall asleep with it held firmly in his hand. He also had tweeted several broadcasts before leaving the warm cosiness of his bed the next morning. However I just had to draw the line at their tweeting habits around my dinner table: it was bad enough that when we were at a restaurant for an evening’s social engagement, one or another of them would whisk their iphone out from the depths of handbag or jacket breast pocket and stoke it tenderly – like it was a cherished pet! Bestowing total awareness on it’s tweets, links and tweeple, they were oblivous to our charming topic of conversation.
You get the picture! I told myself there was absolutely no way I was going to sink to those depths. How would I ever get any work done if I ended up like them?
Well I have bitten the bullet as it were, I am now tweeting too. Some of you already know me as LadyBizBiz and we are getting to know each other slowly and surely. Why did I do it? This is why, I read a short paragraph written by Holly G. Green, CEO of The Human Factor, and highly sought after and acclaimed speaker, business consultant and author. It had the effect of switching something on in my grey matter: a thing which my partner and circle of friends had failed to do over a very long period of time. Here it is:
Embracing social media can be a real competitive advantage. In addition to instantly connecting you with customers, social media enables you to “mindshare” with industry peers, demonstrate thought leadership, recruit talent and more. Study the social media habits of your customers, and use the appropriate tools to make them part of your community.
I saw the point of it all. It was the phrase ‘mindshare with industry peers’ that thumped me in the head like a Neolithic club. Of course, ….. it all made sense, build up a network of connections, share thoughts and ideas, select only quality contacts, and the results will speak for themselves. It has placed me amidst some of the most stimulating and interesting individuals I have encountered in quite some time.
It’s other name is Attraction Marketing
Goodwill abounds between connections, and there lays the essence of engaging in social media: I would advocate any number of those individuals, if their services were sought by my peers and business colleagues.* Incidentally I have also benefitted from the short time I have spent in engaging in social media networking by gaining two new streams of business revenue in less than 4 months.
If you are a greenhorn rookie don’t learn the hard way, try to take some common sense advice, treat social media as a tool; a device; a strategy to control and implement progress in your business. It can save you bundles of time if you quickly become selective about the people you choose to follow on Twitter.
It really is an interesting exercise to engage in, and the success in terms of referred traffic to your business website, can be measured by keeping a regular eye on the statistics. I’m sure there is a mountain of psychology behind this ‘attraction marketing’ concept: all I know is that it works for me and it can work for you too if you approach it in a pragmatic way.
Finally, listen to the no-nonsense words of Sharon Hayes-Tucci, internet entrepreneur when she explains what not to do on Twitter.
Footnote:
* LinkedIn.com for professional business connections is used in conjunction with Twitter, here an indepth personal profile can be viewed and recommendations or testimonials can be recorded.
