The constant but changing social media landscape

I attended a social media event/seminar today. It was held at Union Worx co-working space in the newly renovated downtown Arlington, Texas. Megan Brown of MB Marketing held the event and did a terrific job. It was called, "How to Run Social Media Like an Agency". I have seen many changes in social media through the years. I took a course on Hubspot in 2011 called, "Inbound Marketing". Some of the basics have remained the same, some platforms and protocols have evolved.

I still think there is room for some competition for Linkedin and Facebook and I have had that idea for many years and am still would like to launch it with some help. See: www.networkinggrouponline.com  

A Message to Garcia.

I recommend everyone read this essay. I was taught this back in school when schools actually taught real values. 

We have integrated this mentality throughout "YourOffice SOS".

Amazon Review:

A Message to Garcia has carried its simple message of hard work, integrity, and dependability to readers around the world for over 100 years. One of the keystones of American self-improvement literature, this short celebration of the diligence and loyalty shown by one man is truly a life-changing classic that demands to be read again and again.

Link to PDF

https://www.nato.int/nrdc-it/about/message_to_garcia.pdf

When virtual is vital

When we launched our company we did it because we wanted our business to be able to function anywhere. There is no good reason to be tied to a physical location to do most of what we can do from anywhere on the globe.

Well in the last two weeks the concept became reality as we had to take our show on the road. My wife's parents were aging and we planned for the day we may have to step in in some capacity. My father-in-law is a 93-year-old WII veteran. My mother-in-law is 92 and has some sort of dementia or Alzheimer's. Well, last week my father-in-law fell in the garage and we had to immediately leave Texas and head to Kansas City for an extended stay for an indefinite amount of time to be caregivers. Our business didn't miss a beat. Packing was the most difficult when you don't know how long to plan on staying. Nevertheless, we took our virtual business with us. Armed with laptops, cell phones, and tablets we went right on with business as usual. They are finally convinced the need to move into assisted living (which was no small sales effort on our part. I even convinced him to cease from driving and relinquish the car). We didn't even need high-speed internet because they had it and didn't use it in the last five years. Somehow the cable company won't remove it from his package. I think they took advantage and I will expose that all over social media. Taking advantage of the elderly is beyond disgusting.

We can get paralyzed by choices

I am off on another subject worth exploring, too many choices. I read, "The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less" by Barry Schwartz. Here is a link to one of his Ted Talks.

https://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice?language=en

This is a great way to understand and get a handle on dealing with the overwhelming amount of choices we have in this society today.  It's getting worse by the minute.

When we started our business the number of social media sites, web hosting, productivity apps, etc. is mindboggling. I'm sure that in the grand scheme of things this will be to our benefit.  In the meantime, it makes even the most simple tasks and decisions difficult and even paralyzing at times.

I advise exploring this topic to avoid mental and emotional issues pertaining to the subject.

     PS.
For the short attention span person:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4QzhSlqmqg

Recomendation

The Art of Thinking Clearly by world-class thinker and entrepreneur Rolf Dobelli is an eye-opening look at human psychology and reasoning — essential reading for anyone who wants to avoid “cognitive errors” and make better choices in all aspects of their lives.


I gave a speech at our networking mastermind group today that included a great recommendation for this book. It identifies flaws in our logic and reasoning. It is a must-read for anyone who wants to overcome the limitations on the way we think that makes us prone to errors in judgment.


I particularly like the way it is written. It has 99 chapters on specific cognitive errors we make in our thought process.

There is also an app for the book that helps you make better decisions. It is based on the book and you can search it by category or topic. It is an especially helpful aid to help when you need to make a snap decision.

Local networking groups

I have been doing local networking for about 6 months or so. My last gig was prospecting for an IT company selling managed services. I am not sure this was the right way to do that business. I did manage to secure a few strategic partners that could provide us with leads. I didn't get many qualified leads directly though. II did networking the right way. Doing one-on-ones and always trying to make sure that our dealings were win-win. I looked to be helpful and respectful. People buy from those they know like and trust. So in my dealings, I always followed Zig Ziglar's advice of getting what I want by helping others get what they want. I know these meetups take a long time to develop that level of trust and report to be effective. I am accumulating a lot of business cards. In the end, though I seem to have made plenty of connections.

The hunt for the perfect client

We are developing an "Avatar" of what a perfect client might look like. We do this so we can target where and how to prospect for our clients.

I received some good advice from a couple of sources on the internet. They recommend local networking which I'm already doing and a strong LinkedIn page which I am working on. I think the blog and the other social media such as Facebook and Twitter can't be bad either.

I am pretty savvy with social media. I need to do some catching up since at my previous employment they pulled me off of being the social media person because of my job as business development started to focus on prospecting rather than inbound sales.