Social Media Consulting • Lead Generation • Social Networks • Blogs

Social Networking: People Care What You Had for Breakfast

We thought no one cared what coffee you were drinking or what you had for breakfast on Facebook, LinkdedIn, Twitter and other social networks. Apparently they do.

Recently I read on the Social Media Insider that people cared what we had for breakfast. David Berkowitz observed that when people talked about what they had for breakfast, dinner or what move they had just seen, everyone commented. And I had noticed that one of my Facebook friends was always posting what she was making for dinner. Personally, I don’t care what anyone is making or having for dinner. But everyone else seemed to as so many people commented.

So I decided to find out if this was true by asking my friends on Facebook and contacts on LinkedIn: I just read on the Social Media Insider that people care what you had for breakfast. Do you care what other people had for breakfast?  

The conversations started out fun and continued. People said no and yes, and let me know what they had for breakfast (ummm, that was not the question, folks). And then the conversation progressed to hunger in different areas of the world – in both Facebook and LinkedIn. There were 32 comments on one of my LinkedIn groups (and we thought it was boring) and so many on Facebook, it was hard to personally respond back to all.

Even though I use Facebook and LinkedIn to brand my business and reach out to current and potential clients, I’ve noticed that when I ask questions that often have nothing to do with business, people answer. Here’s an example: Seen any funny videos lately? Can you share them please?  Yes, I received a lot of links to funny videos and I laughed away. Or What’s for dinner? Another popular question.

Is this about branding my company? No. It’s about reaching out to people and making them feel like they count. We all love talking about ourselves. So, when someone asks a question, we love giving our opinion or sharing knowledge. It’s what puts the social into social media and life. It’s about engaging with people. That is why we have to stay creative in our social media marketing efforts to reach our potential audience for business.

You’ve heard that if you are using social media for business you should share highly relevant useful information from your industry with your target audience. Perhaps you should change that to share highly irrelevant and boring information – at least to you.

My unofficial results of my experiment indicated that:

• People love quotes.
• People like to share what they had for breakfast, dinner and lunch.
• People love answering questions.
• People love sharing things not because it’s important to you, but because it’s important to them.   

One of my LinkedIn contacts summed this up perfectly: “People care less about what others had for breakfast BUT they care more about sharing what they have had themselves!! We all like to put a little of ourselves out there…”

And what did you have for breakfast today? Oh and just for the record, my breakfast consists of four cereals mixed including Kashi Go Lean, shredded wheat, wheat chex, bran flakes, bananas, berries, dried cranberries and skim milk - every day the same thing -  like a cat or a dog. Uh, like you care?

Hey, please like my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter (I'm not there quite as much, but I will be soon).

 

Be a Student, Not a Victim of Circumstances

Be a student of your experiences, not a victim of circumstances was the message our recent speaker at the Denver Entrepreneurs monthly meeting, Mark McIntosh shared with us. Mark, a Denver long-time Denver sportscaster is also a dynamic motivational speaker and business coach. Mark’s style as a speaker is perfect. He is very animated moving his hands and body and really engaging the listeners – no monotone in Mark’s voice. He shared some of the down times he experienced in his life including job layoffs, divorce and other losses – proving that not even a well-respected media personality is immune to major transitions in life. But he reminded us to reach out and connect with like-minded people and believe in the law of circulation.

Mark said that when we get kicked around, we lose our confidence – and can’t we all attest to that? As small business owners, we always face challenges. So, you can make a choice to carry the bags of fear and self-doubt that can hijack your dreams. Mark also said that we should never grow weary of doing good for other people. When you are thinking of what type of things you should do, think of honoring yourself, doing things to nurture the people that are dependent on you and that add value to the communities you are serving.

This was the first time since organizing the Denver Entrepreneurs that we had a motivational speaker
and I imagine and it won’t be the last. I received so many positive comments from Denver small business owners about Mark and how inspired and better so many of us felt after listening to him. “Life hits you in the face right after you leave this room”, Mark said. And I did get hit in the face shortly after his presentation and it made me examine some of my business marketing strategy efforts. And then I remembered Mark’s words and repeated them: be a student, not a victim of circumstances. So, instead of worrying, I have decided to go with the flow, change my strategies and let go of some things that have not served me well. It’s like a load has been lifted off my shoulders and I look forward to the upcoming changes that I know are positive. What challenges have you had as a business owner? How did you turn your lemons into margaritas?

Mark’s book and speech title is “Lemons into Margaritas”. You can visit Mark’s website and sign up for his weekly pep talk at  http://heycomebackcoach.blogspot.com. He is available as a speaker and I highly recommend him.

Jo Guerra is the owner of Your Marketing Gal, a full-service traditional marketing and social media marketing agency.

DXMART-Blogs :: 10 Golden Lessons From Steve Jobs

Just found this and thought it would be great to share. Reminds us to do and be our best.

10 Golden Lessons From Steve Jobs

““I think we’re having fun. I think our customers really like our products. And we’re always trying to do better.”

- Steve Jobs

 

 

 

His accomplishments and character helped define a generation and change the world. He is co-founder of the fairytale company we now know as Apple Computers. And he is the visionary of the personal computers world that led the entire computer hardware and software industry to restructure itself.

This man with boundless energy and charisma is also a master of hype, hyperbole and the catchy phrase. And even when he’s trying to talk normally, brilliant verbiage comes tumbling out.

Here’s a selection of some of the most insanely great things he said, golden lessons to help you succeed in life, Jobs-style:

“1. Steve Jobs said: “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

Innovation has no limits. The only limit is your imagination. It’s time for you to begin thinking out of the box. If you are involved in a growing industry, think of ways to become more efficient; more customer friendly; and easier to do business with. If you are involved in a shrinking industry – get out of it quick and change before you become obsolete; out of work; or out of business. And remember that procrastination is not an option here. Start innovating now!

2. Steve Jobs said: “Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”

There is no shortcut to excellence. You will have to make the commitment to make excellence your priority. Use your talents, abilities, and skills in the best way possible and get ahead of others by giving that little extra. Live by a higher standard and pay attention to the details that really do make the difference.

via www.dxmart.com

Full article at: http://www.dxmart.com/blog/2010/07/10-golden-lessons-from-steve-jobs

Failure is the New Success - What Have You Failed At?

Haven't we all experienced failures? How do you deal with them? Do you bounce back or hide? It seems that at times it is hard to get up after experiencing bad times. But it's the best thing to do. Shouldn't you believe in yourself always? Enjoy this article I found on MediaPost by Kaila Colbin.

MediaPost Publications More Lessons From The School Of Failure 10/13/2009

Just as my "Failure is the New Success" column was coming out last week, I had a conversation with my friend Richard. "Your name came up recently," he told me. "We were talking about failure so of course it reminded me of you."

Yes, he is a friend. And, no, this would not ordinarily seem a kind thing to say. But Richard was referring to a little story I had told him about how I first met my business partner, Melissa.

See, back in the day, I had a company that distributed large format digital printing supplies: all the raw materials that go into making billboards and bus graphics and the like. I was 23 years old; 95% of my business was to a single customer -- who, by the way, also owned 80% of my company. When his company went bust, so did mine.

I immediately jumped back in the fire, this time with an Internet education company. We wrote books, produced a series of videos, and traveled around the country on a bus tour to teach kids and parents how to use the Internet in a fun, safe and educational way. Our content was great. Our show was a hit. We got on CNN and in Entrepreneur magazine. But we had no business model at all, and shut the doors in late 2001.

For the next five or six years, I licked my wounds and collected a paycheck. I didn't want to be in charge. I didn't want to be responsible for whether or not someone else's family got to eat dinner that night. I just wanted to go to work, do my job, make a little money, and sleep at night.

Then one day I happened to attend a talk by the new CEO of a local company. Melissa was addressing the Women in Technology group at a luncheon. There were around 20 of us, seated in a big square, and she started by going around the room and asking for everyone's 10-second bio.

"I'm Kaila," I said. "I've started two companies and they both went under."

Melissa's reaction was immediate and uncompromising: "You need to start another company immediately, before you're too scared to go back and before you forget everything you learned. You'll make mistakes, but at least you won't make those mistakes. And call me for a cup of coffee."

I will forever be grateful to her for that flash-of-light, catalyst moment. We are now business partners in one company. She is on the advisory board of another company of mine. She'll be a bridesmaid at my New Zealand (as opposed to the one I just held in the States) wedding. And this profound and rich relationship came from her ability to see my failure as something to be cherished.

As MySpace struggles under Facebook's relentless onslaught, as Twitter finally prepares to monetize through deals with the godfathers of search, as our online landscape shifts and morphs and transforms, as you make the everyday decisions that affect your business and your customers and your livelihood, I hope you can have the perspective to know that you might not get it right. I hope you then have the perspective to immediately regroup, reassess, and recommit. These three actions turn failure into a launchpad instead of a resting place.

Regroup, reassess, and recommit. Then call me for a cup of coffee. I look forward to hearing about your mistakes.

via www.mediapost.com