You Don't Know What You're Missing

What is the risk involved in speaking with someone new? Not too much, unless you think they are going to try to sell you something. Suddenly the person appears as a  threat to your time, energy, and money.

How are people perceiving you? Are you missing out on a genuine opportunity because someone in the equation feels like they are about to be pitched to?
Take this quiz to find out how approachable you are.

• How many times are you willing to attend a networking event before you get business out of it?
• When you enter a networking event, do you immediately go toward the people you know, or toward strangers hoping they need your product or service?
• Do you spend most of the conversation time at networking events focusing on the other person, or do you tend to monopolize the conversation?
• Do you connect with people on Linked In and other social media sites and stay in touch with them over time?
• Do you ever bring guests with you to a networking event?
• Out of all the people you know from networking, what percentage of them would you say are friends?
• Do you ever get together with some of your networking friends outside of work hours?

The answers to these questions will be different for everyone but they should provide some insight into your motivation during networking events. Make that time about helping other people first, and you will find what you have been missing; valuable relationships with other business people. Earning trust, and new clients, takes time and patience.

Joanne Randall

724-603-LEAP

joanne@leapyearmarketing.com

Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Marketing Mojo Radio

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle is a Contradiction in Terms

Every day when my teenage daughter gets home from school, I ask her,  "How was school?" She always says, "Good". Then I ask "What did you do today?" And she says, "Nothing". So then I ask if she has any homework and she says, "No". Earlier today after the same series of questions and answers I said to her, "It makes me wonder if I should even be sending you to school. It's never exciting, you never do anything, and you never have any homework". Further confirming her belief that her mother is a complete nerd.
Now I am certain that not only is school more than good, it can be fun and eventful. I am also sure that she doesn't do nothing all day. And when she has homework she usually gets it done during school or right after school.
But it made me wonder, what actually does happen at school every day? I mean, if she doesn't tell me I can really only find out a little bit of information from her teachers. I am obviously interested in what my daughter does in school but unless she tells me what she does I really have no idea. Hmmm......
I think it is important that as business owners we share at least to some degree what we do all day long. It is important to business owners to be able to relate to each other, tell war stories so to speak. On another level I also think it is important we tell customers and potential clients as well. If they don't know what we do and are capable of doing for our current customers how will they know what we can do for them?
Social media, Facebook in particular, is a great place to share success stories of your business. If you are in the habit of collecting testimonials from your customers, possibly on Linked In, then you should be sharing those on your business Facebook page as well. These types of posts lend credibility to you and your business. It's okay to tell people what you have been doing all day. It isn't boasting, it is building your reputation through marketing. Big difference.

If you don't tell them what you are doing then you are  like the teenager who has a good day doing nothing with nothing to show for it.  And dude, that's lame.

Joanne Randall

www.LeapYearMarketing.com

joanne@leapyearmarketing.com

724-603-LEAP

What is the Big Deal About Social Media?

With all the items that fall under the umbrella of marketing I have found that people are most fascinated with social media. I think this is mainly because it is so popular in the mainstream and yet so simple it makes me wonder why no one came up with the idea sooner.

Jump on!

So why is social media so popular? My theory is that people crave relationships, friendships, and leadership. Deep down we all want to feel that we are needed and that we have value.

I believe that people spend time on social media to fill those gaps in their lives that are not being filled by people in their physical space. This is important because social media is the most effective way businesses can talk to people about solving their problems. If the business understands human nature and the psychology of purchasing habits, they can be extremely effective in growing their sales.

You may not care about someone posting that they are STILL waiting for their Maytag repair man to show up, but you should care that there are businesses out there not providing good customer service and customers react by posting it to the world.

How much time do you spend on Social Media each week for personal reasons? How about for your business? I would like to know.

Joanne Randall

Leap Year Marketing

joanne@leapyearmarketing.com

724-603-5327

www.leapyearmarketing.com