Challenge the Ordinary and Be Extraordinary!

You do well and hope for greatness. Believe in the best with hopes for success. Don’t want to settle for anything less when things may get a mess. You give it your all but seem to fall. Get back up again, stand proud and keep walking ahead. Challenge the ordinary and be extraordinary! #EmpowHer #Inspire #Success #MakeItHappen

Every Breath You Take. Every Move You Make. I’ll Be Watching You.

At the end of the day, how much data collection is too much? More and more companies want to know information about their consumers’ behaviors by tying all the different touch points online and offline to personalize their communications. Technology has the power to pull, sort, target, and capture data from multiple sources to give marketing and sales professionals new insights to build their strategies. Yet, too many emails, advertisements, and/or campaigns across different platforms could potentially harm the customer experience.

It’s about creating a more engaging experience for your audience. As a business, it’s important to take control, take a step back, and evaluate the current practices. One should build trust with the audience throughout every step of the sales process and create entertaining, or more educational experiences to build loyalty with customers. Some companies collect tons of data as a means to highlight the value of the information to share with peers. Yet, they have no idea which data is relevant or effective in shaping the future of their business decisions. BIG DATA DOESN’T ALWAYS TRANSLATE INTO BIG IDEAS!

A company called Jebbit.com has identified a market opportunity informing its customers to stop relying on third-party platforms that collect information about their audiences, but rather start collecting proprietary data by asking questions. Simple right? By using Jebbit’s technology, it drives customers through a series of steps answering questions that will provide first-hand knowledge called declared data to empower professionals with the answers to build better communication strategies. At the same time, marketing and sales professionals will not need too much reliance on third-party tools to decipher the insights collected. It’s about asking personal questions which can be directed at the audiences to achieve better results.

It’s important for marketing professionals to embrace the balance between quantitative and qualitative data collection and not subject their audiences to deceptive tactics in order to gain more insights. One must become a better advocate for their customers and create a foundation of trust with your audience. Companies need to be more selective with their messages. They need to stop being followers with a formulaic approach, but rather become a leader and change the practices of inundating customers with the same messages based on certain behaviors. Perhaps, someone unsubscribed from that newsletter or abandoned that shopping cart because data was tracking every move, and they decided to go elsewhere to enjoy a better experience. Technology companies that provide marketing professionals new means to collect information using a transparent and honest approach will become more sophisticated in understanding their customers’ demands.

Your client should feel like he/she has gained something of value from each exchange with your business and/or conversation with executives. A good salesperson conducts research, but also he/she should listen attentively to the conversations (in person and online). Make the extra effort to offer new reports on trends, or provide recommendations to consult your client in becoming the expert in their business. It’s important to connect with the prospect on a personal level because we are all human. At the end of the day, you want to help your client to stand out in his/her company and their business to become recognized in the crowd.

Building a Social Media Strategy: The Basics for Every Business

How do you tell your story?
When building a social media strategy, there are a few key audiences to keep in mind to address your issue, product, or service with fresh content. The first step is to have a plan and budget in mind when understanding the current environment, the people, their roles, and how to address the different audiences on digital media:

• Who are the influencers in your market that are necessary to build relationships?
• Create a persona to identify their age, job, background, income, interests, and who are they influencing?
• What are the different audiences saying/reporting and how can you address their concerns, or refute claims that don’t align with the facts? How can you prove it with data, or other valid comments from others involved?
• Be sure to understand all sides of the table and do what you need to build awareness and momentum. Share case studies of before and after stories highlighting improvements, and testimonials from real people. People want to feel empowered and inspired by their peers.
• Implement a timeline for launching new content with deadlines each week and set realistic goals.

One must boost engagement for their business by listening attentively to the conversations (online and offline), while being transparent about their goals. Audiences are going to ask these questions when reading your content:

• How is this business or cause going to impact my life? Am I passionate enough, or interested in this mission, product, or service, that it will benefit my personal or professional life?
• Can I trust this organization to deliver the results and do the right thing?
• Do I want to take action, or make a change in my behavior based on what I’ve already learned or understand?
• If I make a change, will this disrupt my world, take too much of my time, or make my life easier?
  

It’s important to educate the audience providing an FAQ on all the issues. This will enable one to share the information and create a thoughtful discussion for people to respond.

• Ask your audience where improvements can be made or suggest to them to provide their input.
• Brainstorm with the team on common themes that will resonate with a campaign message, while building an editorial calendar to target different audiences.
• Create a social media policy for your business and employees to adopt by giving actionable ideas to participate in the conversations. It’s best to create timely posts and tag pictures, infographics, video, statistics, and share other newsworthy stories.

Furthermore, it’s imperative to understand what performance metrics to use, in order to monitor the conversations, behaviors, and understand what’s trending online should you need to quickly make updates to your content.

• Be sure to identify an internal team of experts to mitigate any risks and respond in a timely manner to complaints. It would be beneficial to create a set of instructions and/or best practices for social media. For examples, if YES, then do this, or if NO, then do this.
• Offer pre-populated content for different people involved, or templates with tips to help guide the team’s response to sensitive issues preventing anything from escalating out of control.

Below are a few examples of some ideas to incorporate into a social media strategy for your client:

• Improve upon, or develop a social media presence on Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and other popular online communities where your audience might be engaged.
• Listen to people on social media and respond with follow up questions. Make sure you have a plan in place to address their comments on different channels. Recognize organizations and other thought leaders in your market to follow on social media, like their posts, or respond with comments.
• Host events in your area that supports your initiatives. Offer an opportunity for expert panelists to come together and discuss the business and/or issues. Promote before, during, and after the event key takeaways on social media.
• Join affinity groups on LinkedIn, read blogs and respond, or find ways to connect with other thought leaders in the market.
• Write a press release to promote on digital channels, or create further opportunities for members of the team to address the media.
• Research different community boards and organizations to collaborate on driving further awareness. Find synergistic relationships with other partners to pool your resources together!
• Use a hashtag for audiences to follow your client and their goals on social media.
• Use resources such as HootSuite.com to allow multiple users to manage numerous social media accounts, as well as Buzzsumo.com to see what content is the most popular to help one create new ideas.
• Create a website with a campaign message for people to join the movement, share their personal stories, create a bumper sticker, buy a T-shirt, or hear from others that have benefitted from your business to encourage others to advocate your product or programs.
• Recognize people in the community for their outstanding accomplishments that align with your company’s mission with an annual award. Create an opportunity for others to participate in the future.
• Develop and promote social media ads, or boosted posts targeting specific audiences on Facebook. Use remarketing, ‘look-a-like’ tools and other tactics to find similar audiences that believe in your goals.

These are just a few ideas to help your business, brand, or organization vocalize a position on social media. Give people the tools to speak out, stand up, share their stories, understand, and do something to make a difference in their company and their communities.