Social Media is like a Plant
Nancy was given a Dieffenbachia plant for her birthday. She thought it was really pretty and she put it on an end table in her living room and tossed out the instructions for its care. She went about her business and forgot about it. Her friend came over one day and saw the dying plant on the table and said, “Nancy, what happened to the plant, didn’t you water it?” “Oh I forgot about it, I kept meaning to water it and said, I’ll do it tomorrow. I guess tomorrow never came”.
And so it is with Social Media.
You’ve paid someone to set up a Twitter account with a customized background and they’ve had you follow 2,000 people. Some of of the people you followed followed you. Then the consultant set up a service to automatically tweet for you based on news items. Your consultant also set up a Facebook account for you and a fan page and sent out a standard friend request to a list you provided. Some of your contacts accepted your invitation, some didn’t. The consultant then offered to provide coaching on how to manage your social media, but you didn’t think it was necessary and declined the offer.
Satisfied that you had a social media presence, you moved on to other projects and ignored your Twitter and Facebook accounts. You occasionally looked in to see how many followers you had. Strangely enough, as time went on, some of the people who initially followed you stopped. Your Facebook friends stopped posting on your wall. You then wondered why. You aren’t receiving a return on your investment.
Here’s why . . .
You forgot about the Social part of Social Media. Just as a plant dies when it isn’t watered, if you don’t interact with your followers, your social media efforts will not produce results. Social media should be considered the same as any other networking activity, Chamber of Commerce, BNI, Meet-ups, etc., it is all part of building credibility and relationships so that when someone says “do you know someone who . . .”, that person asked can refer the business to you.
Then your time and monetary investment in your socal media strategy will start to pay off. Don’t let your social media efforts die like Nancy’s Dieffenbachia. Prime Admin Consultants can help you with your social media strategy and coach you on how to manage your social media channels.
Marketing Via Email
I received a message sent through the form on my website today and it was a classic example of what NOT to do when cold calling via email.
The person who contacted me provided no company name (just said SEO Company), the phone number was 000-000-0000 and the email address was a Gmail address. This company was trying to sell me SEO services. Clearly he didn’t consider that if he is an Internet services company he should have a real email address attached to a company dot com address and a website for me to be able to see more about them.
Cold calling by email is a crap shoot at best - personally I don’t recommend it, but if you are going to do it, you should really consider having a corporate email address or if you have to use a Gmail or Hotmail account, at least provide the recipient with the URL for your website and a phone number. You’ll increase your chances of getting a positive response.
A tool every entrepreneur needs
Neat Receipts is a great little tool that no business should be without. What is it? It’s a business card scanner, a receipt scanner and a portable scanner. How can Neat Receipts help you?
- Receipts:
- It’s not just a scanner. Neat Receipts can take your scanned receipt and break it down into a spreadsheet by place of purchase, type of product, cost, taxes. It also keeps a scan of the receipt for your records.
- Business Cards:
- Scan your business cards using Neat Receipts into a format that you can use to upload to your contract management system (such as Outlook, SalesForce, Zoho, etc.). Saves typing. Yes, you’ll have to review to ensure the right items are put in the correct fields, but it saves on errors.
- Portable Scanner:
- Are you frequently on the road and need a quick scan of a document to email to someone? Neat Receipts can scan quickly to a PDF and it fits in your suit case.
This is a product I highly recommend. Of course, if you are extremely busy and don’t have the time to do this yourself and you have a pile of business cards and/or receipts you would like scanned, Prime Admin Solutions can help you with that.
For more information on this really cool product, check out: The Neat Company’s website.
Preserving memories
There was a discussion this morning on the radio about recording family memories. The show’s host commented on recording events on one medium and then that was out of date and it was converted to a new format and then a newer format when the second format became obsolete. Family memories are precious things. I for one wish I had gotten my grandparents to dictate their memories before they passed away.
Technology changes, but one medium that doesn’t change is paper. Sure paper can get old and fragile, but at that point, copies can be made. If you want to preserve family memories, why not have your parents, grandparents, great grandparents, etc. dictate their memories on tape or digital? Of course you can keep the recording to listen to and remember their voice, but at a certain point, that technology may not work. But, you can also hire a virtual assistant to transcribe the text so the words will last after the technology is obsolete.
A little about transcription. Many people think if a recording is 60 minutes long, it takes 60 minutes to transcribe, right? Wrong. Transcription can take four to eight times the length of the recorded time to transcribe. The time taken is based on several factors:
- The quality of the recording – is the audio clear? Was the recording device on a table and were cups and glasses set down on the table while the recording was happening – that noise can be picked up. Was the recording done in a quiet room or a food court in a mall?
- The number of speakers – more than one speaker makes the recording take longer to transcribe – especially if you get people speaking together. Did one of the people get up and walk around the room – away from the recording device – this affects the quality as well.
Here is a link that provides some very good tips on dictation
Cool gift idea
I received a really neat Christmas gift from a client (not that I expect gifts from clients and this one was a really nice surprise). The client sent me a Christmas card and included a gift certificate from www.wayspa.com.
I had never heard of this company before so I checked out their website and thought, “what a really great idea!” Way Spa sells gift certificates online and on their site you type in your city and it provides you with a a list of spas in your area that accept their gift certificates. I found several in Oakville and I’m looking forward to visiting one of them soon.
So if you’re looking for a gift for someone who is in another city, give wayspa.com a look. You might make someone very happy.
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