The Engaging Brand

Top Secret of Entrepreneurs who Succeed in Social Media

You know what to do, it is just how to do it. You read. You listen. You learn. You know the mechanics behind the success of other brands....yet, you are still frustrated about how to power your brand forward.

Often the difference between success and failure in business is belief. True, honest belief. Belief based on strong ideas, clarity of thought and knowing that you will have failures but failure will be a gate to improvement not a barrier to progress.

However, there is a problem with the word 'belief'? Anyone spot it?

There are two different vowels and three in total and yet it is spelt without the most important one...U!

1. U need to believe in your brand - no compromise, only checks to ensure that it remains relevant and fresh. A brand without belief is not a brand, it is a dream.
2. U need to believe before your customer will believe. Belief is contagious.
3. U need to create the reasons - and believe in them - of why you are different and why a customer should choose you. Belief comes from knowing and understanding your work.
4. U need to believe that social marketing will work IF you keep doing the right things for the right reasons to the right people....over the medium term. This is not a short term fix; it is an ongoing philosophy of putting the customer first.
5. U need to believe that social is not a digital revolution but a mindset revolution. Belief comes from persuading your mind first, before turning to the minds of others.
6. U need to believe in your customer or potential customers. The more you believe in their voice, the more they will believe in your brand.

Without belief you will not succeed. Others may doubt and that is good! They can act as a check on your thinking. Blind belief is as bad as no belief!

Belief is the missing ingredient between how social megastars feel about their brand which makes them want to be social....and how the ordinary folks who create because they feel they have to ....

Belief is the glue between your business and your social content. Without belief you write without passion, without belief you think about product and service .....with belief you talk passionately about reasons rather than mundane specifications.

Belief is free - however it is expensive.

Expensive because you have to invest your time to truly understand why you do believe, how to explain your passion and remove the blocks that prevent your belief running through all that you do.

Those blocks act like a dam, holding back that belief from becoming flowing down to customers. Those dams need your attention. Now. Today. Not tomorrow. Those dams need to be removed quickly because their removal frustration will posion your belief over time.

So ask yourself - do I really, really, truly believe in what I do?

If I don't why? Deal with anything on the list.

If I do, how do I find ways of spreading my enthusiasm. Whats holding me back from enthusing about my brand?

We may all operate in different markets but one product connect us all - we all market 'enthusiasm', our customers all make their purchasing decisions based on the enthusiasm thermometer!

You need to be the warm sahara wind causing the enthusiasm temperature to rise in your market.  

Warning! Antidote Required For The Failure Virus

WARNING! There is an illness that spreads quickly across your business.

It can be devastating. It can ruin your plans for success. It is awful. And the worst part.....it happens when you are not looking...It is called the Failure Virus.

It invades your brain and changes the definition of one of the words that you have learned. Now don't worry you can spot the symptons early and provide the ideal remedy....but let us identify the word that is affected

ACT

We learned that to act, within a business context, means to take action BUT the failure virus rewires your brain and when you see the word action it replaces action with acting.

What this means is that we talk through action points. We talk about what action we will take. We create action lists. We say we are taking action.

However, what actually happens is that we pretend...we act as though we are but the reality is that we are putting on a great performance that Dame Judi Dench would be proud of...rather than actually taking action.

You see acting like you are being social, acting like you believe in social marketing, is NOT taking action. It is ultimately 'doing' without the commitment that will deliver customer engagement.

Consumers can see through acting. They see through automation. They see through sales pitches. They see acting...not action.

And internally, we may appear busy but it doesn't generate leads, increase revenue or customer engagement. Why? Because it is acting as if we are doing something, rather than taking action to create success.

And this failure leads to disillusionment. It leads to a sense of powerlessness. It leads to people thinking that no matter how hard they try, they ever achieve success.

However there is an antedote to this business disease. There is a way of protecting your business from this failure virus....there is the action antidote!

The antidote is the realisation that you are deciding 'what' needs to be done without

• Really understanding the 'why'...and it is the why that creates the motivation to do it.
• Really understanding the best 'how'....and this renders the action a dream rather than a goal....and dreams rarely come true!
• Really understanding the right measurements to ensure action does not slip into acting.

And by NOT adding these ingredients the failure virus creates busy-ness without results rather than results for your business.

 

An Easy Way To Move From Busy-ness to Business

If I could offer you a quick tip that could significantly help your business - would you be interested?

If I said this tip costs nothing but delivers everytime you do it - would you want to know more?

Well here it is free of charge and with all my love x

Be intentional about your intent!

Just think about your day. Think about the way you build relationships, think about the way you market what you do.....

Do you know why you do what you do? 

Do you know what you want your customer to feel when they consider purchasing from you?

Do you clearly connect your product/service... to a reason to buy to... a call to action?

Do you have a clear vision with a clear plan that will take you there?

Do you have a way of measuring whether you are on plan?

Do you know why you are attending events, connecting with people, blogging, tweeting etc?

The truth is...many of us don't. We make the mistake of thinking 'doing things that others do' will lead to similar results.

It won't.

The missing ingrediet is intent. People who are successful have a clear intent with all that they do...

Every deed does not need a specific reason BUT each deed needs to be intentionally done. (Tweet this)

With everything in our inbox, with reports and meetings...we can lose our focus.Indeed it is easy to lose focus, we are almost taught not to ask why we are doing things....but

Business needs focus and that focus comes from acting intentionally. (Tweet this)

If you take a look at your business plan. If you review your calendar. If you review your decisions. If you review how you are planning to spend your time today....ask yourself

What is the intent of this time investment?

Is this action taking a step towards your overall intent of your business?

Intent moves your busy-ness to an effective business (Tweet this)

Who Else Wants a Quick Sales Fix?

"I need to create buzz around an event - should I promote it on Facebook or Twitter?"

Wouldn't it be lovely if we could have immediate success? Unfortunately that is as rare as me not ordering a dessert at the end of a meal!

Social marketing is not a quick fix, but then what is? The clue is in the phrase 'business earnings'..

Any business worth gaining, is business worth earning. 

And earning means doing those hard yards. Hard yards is another way of saying

"giving to the market - consistently, constantly and with commitment"

Social marketing is NOT for everyone. If you like to control who sees your content, if you want to dip in and out of social marketing, if you think about what YOU need first....then social marketing is not for you! And that is fine. That is OK.

You can still find a way.. it may need a larger budget to persuade people to buy from you...by buying attention or investing in others to talk about you...but that may be the best way for you.

But if you want to make use of social marketing then you need to commit to social marketing. Commitment needs you to focus on relationship building and with any building it needs...

• A plan. A blueprint of what the ideal relationship will look like....know thyself, know thy customer, know thy market!
• Foundations. It needs consistent commitment over the medium term. It needs you to give more than you receive, it needs you to think about what is your 'shareability' factor.
• Structure. It needs focus. Focus on which tools to use, focus on valuable content, focus on consistency over time.
• Humanity. Buildings are just bricks and mortar, what makes them wonderful homes are the people....your social marketing needs to be human. It needs you to speak, share, create in a human voice not business jargon.

Social marketing is not a tap that you can turn on when YOU want a platform....it is a platform built over time from which you can show the world why they should connect with you. 

The questions for today is

"Are you building a shack from spare wood in your garage or have you created a blueprint, put in place the foundations...to support the structure and made it THE home that your customers want to visit?"

Why not try the 30 day challenge to Business Super Powers?

How to Use Worries to Grow Your Business

Do you worry or have friends that constantly worry?

When I coach businesses, often it's about managing worries. Worries need to be broken down into two parts

• Worries about risk which are legitimate but manageable. These type of worries are good..they test your belief in what you are doing, they test your thinking and make sure that you make the right decisions; but you do need to make that decision!
• Worries about failure. This is felt by everyone. I don't care who you are, at some point you will have a lack of confidence...and that is good. Having a lack of confidence means that you don't think you are magical, that you are perfect...it should ensure that you keep learning. It should be used to listen....but here is the trick, you listen to the customer not that hidden competitor that loves to hide in your mind. Failure is necesary. Just read any autobiography and it will contain wonderful anecdotes of failures before that final 'overnight success'.

I don't seem the point of worrying. I have never been a worrier because Dad always said "What is the point of worrying? If you can do something, do it...and if you can't... then why worry about something that you can't change!"

In business you need to learn how to manage worry. Worries won't go away, but they need you to manage them.

If they are left to grow then they eventually invade your body and render you powerless. If you use them to test your belief, test your management of risk....then worries turn from being your hidden competitor to helping you become more competitive.

Today's question is...do you allow worry to stop you from growing or do you allow worry to fuel a stronger growth?

P.S Don't forget to listen to Melonie Dodaro on how to make the most out of LinkedIn to remove even more worries!

Do You Eat, Pray and Love Your Work?

You make the break, you start your new business or a new role. You start your very first day with such hope and enthusiasm. Then...

....it gets hard...

because you have to turn ideas in action and invariably budgets are tight. Ideas are easy; putting them into action well, that is tough!

Slowly over time, that initial enthusiasm turns into dismay, frustration or maybe even doubt....You start to wonder have you made the wrong move?

What do you do? How do you find that desire to blast through the barriers and succeed?

In this Ted Talk video there is a wonderful message for anyone in business. It is a talk from Elizabeth Gilbert of Eat, Pray, Love fame and it resonated with what I truly believe

...that you have to find your truth, stick with it and let it take you home!

When I launched The Engaging Brand I struggled until I realised that my business needed to be my passion...not what I thought I should do, not what people asked me to do, not what paid the bills.

I had to find what Elizabeth Gilbert calls in this talk... 'home' and for me that was quite a long journey after years in the corporate world. I had to strip away the corporate skin and find what truly makes me happy.

I had to find a way to express myself in a way that made others happy AND most importantly me happy. 

Nowadays I speak, I write, I mentor people who I believe I can help, who I believe I can make smile. I work with people who don't want the suited professional who speaks jargon, I bounce on stage....I express my ideas through little Bob cartoons, I am writing simple life and business guides.

I write like I speak, I speak how I write. I mentor like I am and I live by what I mentor.

Some people will love it. Some people will hate it.

That's OK. That is life.

I have got over myself, my worries and my desire to be liked by everyone.

I would rather make a small group of people smile with my enthusiasm, honesty and observations....than try and make money by appealing to all.

It was a hard lesson but it was a great lesson.

For the last few years I have connected with so many great people. I have made people smile because of who I am NOT.

Now here is the weird thing...over that period my business has flourised more than ever... which goes to show

"Being something to someone is better than being nothing to everyone"

Watch and think...

 

What is your home?

Now YOU can have control without taking control

In business you can often feel unless you do it yourself then it won't be done right. Business can turn you from a normal, accomodating person into a control freak....maybe not all the time but certainly at those stressful moments.

When I was in my early twenties I was promoted to Managing Director. It was a huge responsilbility and my boss - who had been promoted to Group - gave me some wonderful advice...

"Anna, when you lead a business you are not the captain, you are the navigator. Don't try and control everything...learn to navigate....steer people...and they will take the business where it needs to go"

It is true for business, it is true for social business.

You only gain a degree of control by NOT wanting control (Tweet this)

You don't grab control, control is given by people who respect you. (Tweet this)

So how do you earn respect?

You need a clear vision which people understand. You need to choose, build and mold the right team. Then you need to step away....become the navgiator not the captain.

When we try and impose ideas in social marketing or within our business..we repel rather than compel people to want to follow our ideas.

Often we shy away from the navigator role as it feels uncomfortable. To be a good navigator you need to truly understand what your business is, where you want to take your business and how the business will get there.....and that is scary as we might be wrong!

But we forget.....wrong is not final if we remain flexible to changes along the way. Strong navigators keep the end destination in mind but are willing to change course when necessary. (Tweet this)

The question is do you try and captain rather than navigate your passengers to the destination they want to go?