Life moves pretty fast and if we really understood the impact that our words and actions have on other people and ultimately on ourselves, we’d probably be a little more selective with the things we say and do. Every interaction with another person is either a deposit or a withdrawal from that particular relationship. Be smart and make deposits. Negative comments and attitudes are withdrawals. There’s an old saying that goes, “You can’t afford the luxury of a negative thought.” I agree with that. That doesn’t mean that you have to become a superman of positivity and beat yourself up if you have negative thoughts. Everyone has negative thoughts. The question is: do you dwell on it, let it fester and then spread it like a virus, or do you choose to change your thoughts and focus on positive things? Take this line of thinking to Social Media. Everything you …
You Don’t Need SMS (Social Media Stress)
If you think that you have to stay up on every new bell and whistle on every Social Media site, you’re asking for a headache. And lack of sleep. And frustration. And stress. Most people have enough stress in their lives. They don’t need SMS (Social Media Stress). It’s the nature of technology to change quickly and without notice. I tell my audiences that when I get in the morning, one of the first questions I ask is, “What did they change on Facebook while I was sleeping?” And the audience laughs and when they stop laughing I tell them that I was serious. So relax. This technology stuff is only going to accelerate. Get used to it. Kind of like the way you get used to weather. You observe it, maybe predict it a little, but basically realize there’s not a lot you can do about it, except to buy …
NATO Chiefs Use Facebook To Announce News To World
Just in case there’s still anyone out there who thinks that Social Media is a pet rock, mood ring, or hula hoop, we now have NATO Chiefs announcing the end of armed conflicts on Facebook. Reread that. On Facebook. But this really shouldn’t be so surprising. Social Media has always been a communication channel. And if you’re gonna go fishing, go where the fish are. With over 800,000,000 people on Facebook, announcing the end of armed conflict in Libya on Facebook just makes sense. And once you process that, wrap your head around this one: 75% of the world’s population has never even been online. Yup. There’s a wave coming like we can’t even imagine. Exciting time to be alive.
Organic Growth Is Natural In Social Media
We can learn a lot from nature. In nature, few things grow extremely quickly. Things have their own pace and rarely spike in terms of growth rate. As you are growing your LinkedIn Connections, Facebook Friends and Twitter Followers, remember nature. Remember that slow and steady wins the race. And then remember that Social Media isn’t a race. Be leery of the folks who tout offers to “Grow your followers by 50 bajillion in 5 minutes” and crap like that. Be very leery. How unnatural. Yes, Social Media enables us to communicate with more people and much more quickly. But remember that relationships aren’t rushed. And effective Social Media is all about relationships. I don’t know exactly what ‘organic’ means, although I heard the word used a lot in business over the last few years. It’s one of those buzz-words that’s in style right now. I’ll use the word ‘organic’ …
Be An Example
The best way to teach is by example. This applies to everything including Social Media. People tend to become like the people they associate with and that explains why so many people are negative. But you don’t have to be. Just as in real life, when you’re a downer, people don’t want to hang out with you. The same applies to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Post positive, uplifting things. This doesn’t mean that you’re some Pollyanna who denies that there’s a lot of crap out there. It means that you choose what to focus on. Be an example of someone who understands that people have enough crap in their lives and you’re not here to add to it. Be a ray of sunshine in people’s day. Regardless of the business you’re in. Because whatever business it appears that you’re in, we’re really all in the same business. The people business. …
People Skills Beat Computer Skills…Only Every Time
Some people still tell me, “I’ll get connected to everyone and their brother on Social Media sites and the clouds will part and the money will fall out of heaven.” They don’t say it in those exact words, but their intentions are clear. They think that the number of connections, friends and followers they have is an indication of their future income. Actually, it’s only a representation of the possibility of their future income. And if I may be so bold, let’s take the income equation off the table. Because if you add enough value to your connections, friends and followers then and only then will you be in a position to derive a steady income as a result of effective networking. If connecting to a ton of people guarantees riches, shouldn’t everyone with a phone book be a millionaire? Exactly. Study people skills. Break out your “How to Win …
Click The “Like” Button
Everyday I read on Facebook about people being pregnant and people having babies. And I read about wars and rumors of wars and all the other “end of days” stuff that people refer to when things like the tsunami in Japan occur. At any given moment someone is experiencing amazing pain in their life and someone else is experiencing amazing joy in their life. It’s interesting to watch the cross-section of humanity on Facebook. You get an intriguing view into people’s lives. You see happiness, pain, agony, loss, joy, bliss and every other human emotion. And as compassionate beings, we tend to relate to these Facebook Friends. When someone you care about is going through something awful or when they are celebrating one of life’s great moments, you can observe, even if only from a distance. That’s nice. What’s even nicer is that we can let the other person know …
Enjoy The Social Media New Car Smell, Then Drive Like A Pro
When you buy a new car, there’s just something about that new car smell. You just enjoy opening up the door and settling into your plush seat and breathing in that odor. After a few years, you don’t really want to take too many whiffs of your old “new” car. And at that point you’re more concerned about your car getting you from Point A to Point B and keeping the repair costs down. It’s about the driving, not the smelling. When you’re just starting to realize what you can do with Social Media, you enjoy turning on your computer, BlackBerry, iPhone, whatever, and checking into Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and whatever other Social Media sites you participate on. It’s the equivalent of the Social Media new car smell. After you’ve learned some about Social Media, the new car smell wears off a bit. Not completely, because they’re always creating …
Our Parents Were Right
Remember the things we used to hear from our parents when we were kids, “Say please. Say thank you. If you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all. If you keep making that face it’ll get stuck like that.” Well. maybe you didn’t hear that last one in your house. Our folks were right. Common courtesy ain’t so common any more. Matter of fact, it’s often as rare as a Kardashian sister using her library card. Common courtesy makes human interaction go so much more smoothly. It’s amazing to see what happens in conversations when we actually say please, thank you and apologize when we need to. I bring this up because on Social Media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter it’s very common to see people telling you that you should “Like” their Fan Page, or retweet their tweets on Twitter. Maybe it’s just me, …
Pick Up The Phone And Call Your Social Media Connections
When you’re new to learning about Social Media, the tendency is to focus on huge numbers of Connections, Friends and Followers. This is normal. We all like things that look impressive and big numbers look impressive. Prior to Facebook, where else could you have thousands of “friends”? It feeds our ego. Once the new car smell of Social Media wears off, we realize that building relationships is far more powerful than just adding more connections. Yes, adding connections is important. But you already have a phone book with tens of thousands of connections. If it was just about connections, you already have more than enough in your Yellow and White Pages. Are you “connecting” with your Social Media connections? Really connecting? For one week, schedule 20 minutes into your day to pick up the phone and call two of your new connections per day. If their phone number isn’t on …
Social Media Reveals Your Character
As I’ve spoken on stages all over for years on Social Media, there is something that I’ve observed countless times. Many people seem to think that if they can just gather a bajillion connections on Social Media sites, then the clouds will part and the money will fall out of the heavens. This thought actually reveals far more about these people than they probably even realize about themselves. It reveals that they think of people as commodities and they have a lottery mentality regarding wealth. How naive. However we are offline, we are probably the same way online, because we can’t outrun our character. No matter where we go, there we are. You can tell a heck of a lot about someone by looking at their Social Media profiles, just like you can tell a lot about them if you chat with them at a networking event. If all they …
Three Things We’ve Learned About Social Media From The Middle East
I was going to write this post two weeks ago, but decided to wait. As I am writing this, Gaddafi has fled Libya and his whereabouts are still unknown. These are amazing times we’re living in. For years, I have been telling my audiences that in a more and more interconnected world, Social Media is forcing transparency. This is being proven out right in front of our eyes. If you’re good at what you do and seek to add value to your employer, clients, co-workers or whoever, there have never been easier ways for that message to get out. If you’re a horrible manager, boss, team leader, dictator, or whatever, there have never been easier ways for that message to get out either. So here are three things we’ve learned from Social Media in the Middle East: 1. It’s Getting Harder To Hide From The Truth There was a time …
In Sales, Seek To Help And Earn The Relationship
As more and more people are trying to figure out how to leverage Social Media to help grow their sales, it serves us well to remember some of the basics of effective selling. The best salespeople seek to help. That may sound obvious, but it’s not. So many salespeople are trying to sell what they have to everyone instead of being targeted in their selling efforts. It makes more sense to find people who are interested in your product and service and help them. Social Media allows you to do this. You can observe discussion threads in LinkedIn Groups, you can follow conversations regarding Twitter hashtags, and you can see interactions on Facebook Fan Pages. These are all valuable sources of sales leads. Learn to skim information and identify places where you can help. And help doesn’t mean, “Buy my product, buy my product.” Just remember not to kiss on …
Social Media Update
What a year it’s been for Social Media. The nature of Social Media is that it’s changing very quickly – actually day to day. Even if you work in Social Media it’s difficult to stay up with all the changes that are happening. Let’s take a look at some of the things happening on “The Big Three”, commonly referred to as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter as we approach the end of 2010. LinkedIn LinkedIn has really been upping their game lately. There are now over 85,000,000 people with LinkedIn profiles worldwide. The average LinkedIn user is 41 years old and earns $107,000 a year. This is THE Social Networking site for professionals. Recently, LinkedIn has turned on some new bells and whistles on a number of places on the site. On the Company Pages, you now have the ability to add marketing materials, descriptions of products and services and client …
Everything is a “Tell”
Some rights reserved by I Feel Toast Being originally from Jersey, I have some Jerseyisms in my speech that will probably never go away. One of those Jerseyisms is the word “tell.” This is also a Vegas expression. There are few things I enjoy more than watching and listening to people. When I speak in Vegas, I love spending time in the casinos. I don’t spend money in the casinos but I do spend time there. You’ll often see people at the gambling tables wearing dark sunglasses and hats. They’re not doing this because they’re trying to be fashion icons. They’re doing this to hide their “tells.” Tells are things that give us away. They’re clues. And we’re giving them away all the time. Women tend to pick up on tells quicker than men. Not trying to be sexist here, but let’s face it…women just tend to see things coming …
Don’t Forget the Social in Social Media
Social Media is sweeping around the world extremely quickly. You can't go anywhere without hearing about Facebook or seeing a LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube or Twitter logo on something. It's an amazing time to be alive. Our kids who are growing up with this don't know any different. This is just the way it is. And it's not going away. Some people are using Social Media in stealth mode, meaning they're observing and not engaging in online conversations. Actually, stealth mode is a very powerful tool in your bag when you're keeping tabs on your competition and watching what people are talking about. This information can be very valuable to you if you're thinking about launching a business or introducing a new product or service. But don't forget the social in Social Media. Many people are hiding behind their computers. I've heard it said that this is a very lonely …
A Very Effective Appreciation Marketing Strategy
In this fast paced Web 3.0 world, there are some time proven strategies that are even easier to implement now than they were back when an eight-track player was state of the art technology. People who take the time to learn about their prospects, clients, referral sources and networking partners win over the people who don’t. Only every time. For years I’ve been telling my audiences to learn about The Mackay 66. Harvey Mackay is the owner of an envelope company and he’s always taught his salespeople to use what he calls “The Mackay 66”. It’s a simple questionnaire that you populate over time as you learn more about your prospects and clients. Everything from where they went to school to what status symbols are in their office to their favorite drink. Here’s a downloadable PDF of The Mackay 66: http://www.harveymackay.com/pdfs/mackay66.pdf Gathering this information is doing your due diligence. You …
How to Make People Feel Appreciated on 10 Minutes A Day
People who succeed know that “all things being equal, people do business with and refer business to people they know, like, and trust.” So how do we grow our “Know, Like, Trust Factor” or what I call our “Like-Ability”? One way to do this is to compliment people. And to do it sincerely. For most people, the only recognition they receive is when they screw something up. And ironically, most of the time they already know they screwed it up and don’t appreciate other people reminding them. Any mediocre manager can point out what people have done wrong. As Dale Carnegie said,”Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain. And most fools do.” There’s a huge difference between a manager and a leader but we’ll save that for another post. In order to make people feel appreciated….ready….wait for it….appreciate them. Rocket science, huh? I’m not smart enough to learn Harvard Business …
Facebook is the World’s Largest High School Reunion
With almost 500,000,000 people on Facebook, if it were a country it would be the third largest country in the world behind China and India and right ahead of the USA. Online communities of this size would have been difficult to imagine even a few years ago. The world is getting smaller. Back when I graduated from high school I had a little black book with my girlfriend’s and some of my drinking buddies phone numbers. No matter how good you are at keeping in touch with people (holiday cards, postcards, phone calls, etc.) eventually you lose touch with a lot of people. Fast forward to the last few years and I think we can all agree that Facebook is the world’s largest high school reunion. I think that about 90% of my high school class has reconnected on FB. It has been a lot of fun catching up with …
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