Commentary

I get load emails with questions about social media. Here is just a small sample of questions I’ve received recently, paraphrased:

• How do I get more “likes” on my Facebook page?
• Should I start a Facebook business page?
• How do I prepare for the Timeline switch on Facebook?
• Do you recommend using Facebook ads?
• Do you prefer Facebook or LinkedIn groups for finding new business leads?
• What’s your take on G+?
• You get the idea…etc, etc.

Interestingly, my favorite social platform of all (Twitter) is one I get the fewest inquiries on. Go figure 🙂 Anyway, you may have noticed I don’t talk too much about social media here. I’ve covered a few topics on occasion, but for the most part I’m pretty quiet about it. So what’s up with that?

Why I’m not a social media advocate

I just don’t have time to advocate social media. And I don’t see any purpose really. There are bazillions of consultants out there harping on every day about the value of social media, and the world doesn’t need another social media lackey talking about how social media is the way of the future, blah, blah, blah.  None of this means I’m AGAINST it. I use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn daily. I get business from social media. I’ve met good friends using these tools. I find social media pretty invaluable actually. It’s also fun.

But that’s not what this website is about. And it’s not what my business is about.

The focus here is getting ridiculously impressive results from your website. So my company builds ridiculously effective websites. Pretty simple 🙂 And that’s where my focus lies. This doesn’t mean that social media isn’t valuable, it just means that I focus where I’m able to provide the highest value.

Blogging and email rule

From day one I’ve pretty much focused on blogging and email. These are the tools of my trade. This doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways to chop down a tree. This is just how I do it. And it’s what I teach clients how to do. There’s a pretty high appeal to this approach, because to be honest…most people are pretty overloaded with info and all this pressure to use social media incessantly. The marketing world is filled to the brim with cats talking about how you need to be using every social media site out there, be everywhere all the time, etc. It’s pretty exhausting if you ask me. Not to mention the fact that it’s all bullshit.

Not only do you NOT need to be everywhere, all the time…you also can’t. There’s not time. And even if you were, 90% of it would be a complete waste of your time. Most of my clients are pretty relieved when I inform them that I’m not going to give them a bunch of rules about how they need to be on the internet all day long. I like cutting through all the B.S., so we can get right to the heart of things. What’s going to get RESULTS for your business?

My two weapons of choice

Blogging and email rule. These are the two tools I focus on. Since the late 90’s, this has been my focus and it’s served me well so far. Yeah, social media has blown up. And yeah…I use it. There’s a lot of value there. But you know what no one seems to recognize?

Even though Facebook has completely exploded and taken over the entire internet, guess what remains the internet’s NUMBER ONE most used platform for consuming and sharing information? That’s right…frickin email. Good ole email.

You know how Facebook ads have tripled in price over the past few years? You know how Facebook changes their TOS and silently exploits their users personal information every time they get a chance? You know how Facebook regularly changes their platform, throwing everyone for a loop, so they have to completely relearn where everything is and how to use their website? Email doesn’t do any of that crap.

After all these years, email has quietly remained on top. And for good reason…it works. And blogging remains one of the most accessible and effective ways to show up in search engines and build a highly engaged, powerful email list.

Where do we go from here?

So where do we go from here? If you want advice on social media, I’m always happy to give you my feedback on whatever I’m doing. Those of you who subscribe and talk with me know I respond to your questions. And I always love hearing from you and sharing what’s working for me. I just don’t go in depth on social here, and if you have super technical questions, I’ll usually refer you to one of my friends who focuses on that. For me and my clients here, I find a lot of value in simply focusing on what works best. Focus on blogging and email, because that’s where you can get the most substantive long term results. From there, use social as much as you can and have fun with it. Just don’t stress it. Life’s too short 😉

Questions? Then subscribe, and talk to me! That’s right…via email!

I took a break from posting to the blog for a couple weeks. I know…you’ve been biting your nails in anticipation. You’ve been wondering where my words have wisdom have gone. How could I put you through this? Your nerves have been so wracked by the absence of my blog posts, that you’ve probably even started smoking again, haven’t you? Sorry about that.

It’s not that I haven’t been working. In fact, that’s kind of the point of this post…I HAVE been working, but conventional wisdom could have you convinced that I’ve been being a slacker.

While I’ve been “taking it easy”, I took on a few new consulting clients. I also wrote articles about;

• How to generate leads
• Relationship marketing
• How to make sales
• …and some other successful business ideas

I also wrote a guest post on Blog for Profit about whether your blog will fail or not.

I did a webinar and a radio show, and I also redesigned the blog, got an awesome consult from blog consultant Michael Martine and have set several more tweaks to the site in motion.

So, what do I do when I don’t blog? I blog 🙂

Are you wasting your time?

I would wager you’re busy generating awesome content in your business as well…whether you’re running a blog or not. You’re talking to people, giving presentations, responding to inquiries, etc…this is all content. Do you realize this? As a small business owner, it’s not really a question of whether or not you’re creating content, because you are. The question is whether or not you’re leveraging your content. If you’re not leveraging your content, you’re wasting your time, because you’re doing the work, but you’re not reaping the maximum benefit.

As Marcelus Wallace said to Butch in Pulp Fiction…”Now that’s a hard motherf*ckin’ fact of life, but it’s a fact of life your ass is gonna have to get realistic about. ”

Bottom line: leverage rocks; it puts the work you do to it’s highest and best use, and BLOGGING is a simple discipline that enables you to ensure your work has maximum impact. That’s why I’m a blogging advocate. Blogging is leverage, and us small biz owners need all we can get.

A myth that needs addressed (so you can feel good and be more effective)

While I took this two week “break” from blogging, I noticed my traffic went down 50%. Dude. My first reaction was to be upset, and then about two seconds later I realized two things:

1. I’ve taken on MORE business, not less in the past two weeks.
2. As soon as I get “back to normal” on the blog posts, traffic will go back. It’s really not an issue.

There are times of reaping and times of harvest. I guess I’ve been harvesting. Does a farmer get upset after a harvest, when he looks out at his field and sees nothing but dirt? Nah, he feels great, because he’s taken care of business. So should you. It’s easy to look at your analytics and get upset sometimes. We all do it. I get calls from clients in a panic about this. They want to know why their numbers aren’t where they think they should be. Know two things:

1. Your numbers really can be anything you want them to be. There’s a business model for anything. Let’s just sit down and put a plan together. You’ll get the numbers. I swear…it’s as simple as putting together a smart plan and executing it.
2. It’s important (for both your business and your sanity) to know WHY you want those numbers in the first place. Does traffic, for example, directly translate to your income? Know your business. There is no substitute for that. In the example I’m giving in this post today…notice that my traffic is down, but business is good. Numbers can be misleading.

Where does your business come from? What role does your blog play in your business? What real effect do the analytics you’re tracking (traffic, SEO, inbound links, twitter followers, etc, etc) have on your revenue? If you don’t know, we can definitely work through some of these issues together, so you can have some insight. One way or another, these are questions that MUST be answered. This is how you have both peace of mind AND results in your business. And yes, it is totally, totally possible to have both.

After all, having a blog is a great thing, but it’s not a strategy. The strategy (and the awesome benefits) come from how you use it. Seriously, sit down and ask yourself the questions I pose to you in this post. Fire me an email or hit me up on Twitter if you have questions as you work through it. It will pay you big dividends.

There’s been a lot of talk lately in the small business community about “cutting costs”. This always happens toward the end of the year. It’s especially understandable these days, when a lot of business owners are struggling with changes in their market.

Cut waste. Cut unnecessary expenses. Cut systems you’re not using.

DON’T cut investment in your business.

Not all expenses are the same! But many of you think they are. To you, an expense is an expense is an expense. And when it comes to expenses, fewer is better. It’s not overly complicated, but there’s more to it than that.

Unfortunately a lot of biz owners look at money poorly. As in…they look at money like poor pe0ple do. That’s a shame, because you’re creative, motivated, gutsy and talented. You have everything it takes to be successful, so take the next step and learn a bit about the differences between investing and spending.

Spending = expenses that do not yield a return on investment

Investing = expenses that DO yield a return on investment.

I’ve seen you guys (real world stuff…this ain’t made up, hypothetical stuff) flippantly shut down websites you’ve owned for years, that have tons of exposure and incoming links, so you can save $100 a month.

I’ve seen you guys cut marketing campaigns that bring in leads, so you can save some money. Think about that for a second. I talked with a guy last week in a LinkedIn forum about this. He was BRAGGING about  how much money he was saving. Unbelievable. How are you going to grow if you don’t invest in your business? Find new ways and creative ways to invest in your business, but don’t stop investing. I know this is a tough market for a lot of you. Sales were down in 2010, maybe they were down in 2009 also.

SOOOO, it’s the time to invest MORE. Not less. If you need to cut expenses, move that in-house server into the cloud. My real estate team just did this, and it gives us the EXACT same performance for several hundred less per month. Cut your mocha lattes if you need to. I wouldn’t recommend it unless it’s truly necessary, but sometimes we need to take extreme measures.

If given the choice between cutting the cleaning service or cutting marketing, a LOT of you choose marketing. For God’s sake, please don’t do that. Take out your own trash. Look at your payroll; are you paying an employee $30k a year to do stuff that doesn’t bring in a return on investment? I’m not going to tell you to drop the empl0yee. I’m going to tell you that it’s YOUR job to get them doing stuff that DOES bring in a return.

Don’t cut marketing when business is slow. Do MORE marketing. If it’s slow for you, it’s slow for others. It’s not time to run in fear. It’s time to grow.