Taking advantage ...

It's nearly the end of the year!



Soon it will be holidays, Christmas, New Year's, school holidays and no doubt work and businesses will slow down (and close for a few weeks!).


So, now is the chance to do an event, do some marketing and promoting and do something that will carry your business over the December/January lull.


Over the next few weeks in November, do something, a small end of the year thing, a Christmas event, a function and carry on marketing the business.


This is a great time to network.


Join http://www.meetup.com/ and find some business/ Christmas networking events you can attend over the next two months. Get yourself invited to functions, art exhibitions, dinners, after work drinks with meetups and businesses in your industry and say yes to a few dos over the next two months or so.


It's all about networking over the quiet period.


Even if this is a quieter time of the year and things are slowing down, you want to be thought of when business picks up again.


So do a small event or function or end of the year, something to promotyour industry, small busness or workplace. Make some more business cads and take advantage of the social scene, the Christmas events, drinks and parties which you can attend.


You never know who you will meet now, who can benefit you next year.


And don't think of it as a quiet period, put together some marketing strategies and come up with some events, launches and ideas for February next year. Start preparing now; this quiet period will give you the chance to think, to assess the past year and come up with something and get ready for the next year.

There are hundreds of meetups to choose from and dozens of marketing, small business and networking opportunities.


This is a great time of the year to take advantage and tackle the marketing/promoting and networking side of your business.

Love this!

When I attend marketing/networking functions now people are starting to give their email addresses for people to find them on Facebook or give their names to follow them on Twitter.

Marketing, media and the way we communicate (and want friends/fans/ followers - for our brands and businesses) means that we have an opportunity to reach more and more people.

But we still have to communicate with people, answer them, inspire them, and communicate with them rather than having thousands of fans/friends/followers and nothing else, no real conversations or communication.

Madam and Eve is an incredible site which has been going for years, poking fun of the news and South Africa. They're on Facebook of course, and receive a lot of feedback and comments on their daily cartoon.

Learning ...

Doing social media is about learning.

It is called new media or new marketing (at the moment) but really in the next 8/10 years social media will be just as traditional marketing is now. The two will go hand in hand.

And media will be about advertising, blogging, TV ads, print ads, updates, sharing links,  uploading photos, posting competitions etc.

Each company will do what is comfortable and within their budget. And each company will find out which social site suites their needs better. Some may use blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.

This will take learning, being part of each social site and then seeing which one works the best.

Social Media takes time and patience. It takes a lot of effort uploading photos, writing regular updates (Twitter at least 6 - 8 times a day) Facebook, several times a week, LinkedIn, a few times a week (for a different market), YouTube, subscribers like regular videos.

When you think about it; the more updates you submit, pictures you add, photos you upload, blog posts you write ... the more your business brand and profile gets recognised by others. If you are an educational company, educate, if your business is funky and modern, add quirky links and submit quirky updates. And so on. There is room for everybody online.

Everyone wants to communicate. The more you respond to your fans/followers, the more you answer questions, the more time you spend on the sites and the more interesting content you use (written, photos, videos, quotes, comments, links) the more you will be found on search engines and the more interest an individual will take in whatever your business is representing.

It takes effort, updates, links, replies, response, interest in others, good customer service, regular content, updates and a lot of time to build social media well.

Learn by what your competitors are doing and saying and how they are responding (or not) to fans or followers, Get ideas by seeing what others in your industry are doing online.

And then do your social media, often, extremely often.

Then it will be as normal as any other form of marketing.

And no, don't stop writing e-newsletters, advertising, marketing or sending updates or invites via email .

Both social media marketing and traditional marketing will work well for you, hand in hand.

7 ... talking about social media ...

Here are 10 articles/ sites which I have found interesting.

They discuss monitoring and measuring,statistics and top blogs. Social media is any form of marketing from videos, to updates, to blog posts, to checking in at Foursquare or on Facebook (cafes, restaurants, take aways - take advantage!)

Some of you may be new at this and want to know how to use Twitter or Facebook or a blog and some of you may and have been using social media since it began.

There are no experts; it is growing so fast and incorporating so quickly into business and life that soon every one of us will be using social media, many many times a day and it will become as normal as brushing our teeth.

Have a look at these and let me know which one gave you a ooo I must to that right now buzz.

1. The Top 50 Social Media Blogs of 2010

2. Twitter Guide 101 http://support.twitter.com/groups/31-twitter-basics/topics/104-welcome-to-twitter-support/articles/215585-twitter-101-how-should-i-get-started-using-twitter

3. 6 Key Areas for Companies to consider when engaging in social media http://mysocialmedialawyer.wordpress.com/2010/05/27/six-key-areas-to-consider-for-companies-engaging-in-social-media/

4. 100 Media Monitoring Tools http://linnk.me/R/media

5. The 4 C's of Social Media http://socialmediatoday.com/michaelbrenner/181159/4-cs-social-media?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Social+Media+Today+%28all+posts%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

6. Interesting social media statistics - http://www.jeffbullas.com/2010/07/14/10-interesting-social-media-statistics-2/

7. 3 Instant ways to make your social media better http://socialmediatoday.com/jay-dolan/172311/3-instant-ways-make-your-social-media-better?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Social%20Media%20Today%20(all%20posts)

Small Business ...

I believe in small businesses.


They are innovators, start ups, work from home (rs) and their businesses are based on their skills and passions. So it's not just a job.


Small business owners or start ups or people who work from home, came to their business from corporate worlds or jobs that just did not satisfy their needs or wants. Or stayed home to raise their families. Or lost their ways. Or lost their jobs and started doing something they loved and it became their career. There are hundreds of stories of how people veered off their career paths and found that the skills they initially overlooked or didn’t think would get them somewhere, got them further than an 8 hour a day, low income job would get them.


These are the people who inspired me. A tiny cookie company in Byron Bay. So many bloggers who got book deals. Or started knitting or crafting and made business from this alone. Or lost a job as an architect, helped others study for architecture via an online business and e-book and made millions. Or cooked from home.


Some or most small business owners seem to want to give back, to pay it forward, to build a community, to give to charity ... but most want to work in a career they love, to be the boss, to be able to use a wide range of skills that they have and to feel that at the end of each day, they have accomplished something more than just getting a salary or getting through the work day.


As Robert Frost said, "By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be a boss and work 12 hours a day."


But we all need to find support and others working in small businesses and trying to make their way into the world.


I've found some great small business sites on the net and will be buying a few of the brilliant sounding A Blonde's Guide from this centre - Sydney Small Business Centre. I love this website, there is a lot of informative content.


The Eastern Suburbs Business Enterprise Centre, there's a few of centres around NSW so find your local centre, has loads of information and networking events and helps with small business from basics to training to mentoring to events and resources, so good to just find information.


And then there's my favourite for resources and staying in the know. I read Forbes Europe daily when I was was running my second hand bookshop and I really wanted to get an understanding of being a woman in business. I have received great insight and tips on being an entrepreneur from this site.


Join meetup.com and find others who do the job you dream of doing, join networking groups, find people who work from home. Embrace being a small business and being able to be your own boss.


But find support you need, inspiration from others and books like these to make your business grow and to ensure that you love doing what you love.

Social Status and clients ...

Over the past 6 weeks I have been building up my client base.

I have chosen very small businesses to set up their social media on Facebook and blog, very few are on Twitter as most find that Twitter has to be updated daily and checked quite frequently.


I believe that starting social media using a Facebook business page and Blogger blog and building up a brand, profile and following will point clients in the right direction and a Twitter account will come later, once everything falls into place.


Here's a list of people I work for:


http://anniesfineceramics.blogspot.com   - Annie's Fine Ceramics


http://leighcooks.blogspot.com - Leigh Cooks


http://justorganics.blogspot.com  - Just Organics


http://downtoearthgardensaus.blogspot.com/ - Down To Earth Gardens


http://print35.blogspot.com - Print 35


http://safariartaus.blogspot.com/ - Safari Art


http://hireabuilder.blogspot.com - Hire A Builder

http://yogaforyouaus.blogspot.com/  - Yoga For You


http://jewishcarensw.blogspot.com/ - Jewish Care

And Performance Learning which I helped set up on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sydney-Australia/Performance-Learning/145801325433178

Although most of my clients have only been up and running for a few weeks; it has been fantastic working with such a diverse group of people who are all so passionate about their businesses and love what they do.

Most are green, eco friendly, help their communities and love the work they do. And I believe that having and building up their social media, following, brand and business will benefit them all in the long run.

I certainly have learnt so much in the past 6 weeks; work with people you love, stay connected with each other, provide advice, find networking events for them to attend, help them build up a base and the rest in time; will come.

Being social ...

Meet with clients and networking.

Social Media is about being social and making contacts.

I explained to a new client today that using social media is about reach. You never know who will be interested in your business and why.

It could be a work at home mum, a graphic designer, a CEO of a huge business, a person who wants to start their own small business and any of these people (and thousands of others!)  who just like what you do or the kind of business you have.

It could be anyone from anywhere and if someone asks them, do you know a business who makes cards or does social media for small businesses or does PR, then you can say yes I am a fan of theirs on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, I read their blog posts and I really like what they do. Or I like their blog posts, their Tweets, what they say, their passion for their work ... it is surprising why people follow each other.

Social Media is about communicating and making connections. It is about building up a profile and making contacts. Some businesses use social media to attract new customers and consumers and others use it to reach as many people as they can.

The money will come, it's more about being authentic and genuine and building up fans and followers. You will learn how to write updates, how to submit links to social media sites, how to add photos and do all the networking, promoting and marketing under the social media platform.

You become the master of your business, the captain of your business's soul.

And the reach of social media is extraordinary.