Building Relationships Online | Solo Mompreneur

Social Media: Express More Vulnerability

As entrepreneurs, we are taught to create personal brands that, proudly and prominently, place our strengths in the spotlight.

And we are also taught to carefully and cleverly mask our weaknesses.

This flies in the face of traditional business school wisdom. Having said that, are you suddenly getting that inflexible, conservative “stuffed shirt” feeling?

Heaven forbid our target audience should find out we goof up sometimes and don’t know everything about everything.

Mistakes.

Errors.

Typos.

Faux Pas (a social blunder or indiscretion)

Boo-Boos.

Raise your hand if you’ve never made any of these.

Imagine that. I don’t see one hand going up.

Here’s a BIG newsflash!

Trust requires vulnerability. If you value trust in your social media network and you want your target market to trust YOU …

You’ve got to remove your mask and start talking about the really tough issues you’re wrestling with and let your human, far-from-perfect self show through.

My personal favorite social media marketing tip:

Express more vulnerability.

My Twitter Motto: “There’s More to Life than Life Insurance”

By Melanie Kissell 10 Comments

You never want to be thought of as “THAT guy” or “THAT gal” on Twitter or any of the social media marketing venues.

You know, the person everyone finds distasteful and avoids like the plague!

Have you ever followed someone on Twitter who only talks about themselves or their business and products?

They’re either touting how wonderful their company is or how outrageously fabulous they are. Yuck.

Very UN-attractive social media behavior.

Using Twitter for business really is easy, you just need to know “how” to go about it.

3 Steps to Avoid Becoming “THAT guy” on Twitter:

1.) Listen

2.) Respond

3.) Engage

Define Your Twitter Strategy – “Why” are you there?

Supporting a cause
Lead generation
Customer Support
Education
Product and Service Awareness
Mix of all of the above

Get Your Twitter Mix On

As an example:

10% – About yourself, your company, and your products or services

50% – Useful information for your target audience

20% – Joining interesting and fun conversations

5% – Posing thoughtful questions (which stimulate response and interaction)

5% – Tips which can make your followers lives better and easier

10% – Follow-ups and notes of appreciation for your peeps

Your Twitter-for-Business Plan

At the very least decide:

When (what days) and what time/s you’ll use Twitter and …

For how long – 15 minutes every morning? 1 hour every evening?

**If you’re an online marketer and small business owner who’s using Twitter successfully for business, what tips or suggestions can you add here?

Please leave your comments and help others who may not be having much success or finding much value in using Twitter.

Thanks!

An Irritating Neighbor – You – Your Business – And Twitter (melaniekissell.com)
8 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Get More Out of Twitter (mashable.com)

Filed Under: Brand yourself online, Building relationships online, Business Plan, Micro blogging, Small business owners, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking Tagged With: Business, Online Communities, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Networks, Twitter

My RSS was a Mess – Michelle Shaeffer Saved the Day!

By Melanie Kissell 16 Comments

Today’s post is not only about publicly thanking my brilliant friend, Michelle Shaeffer, for her help but also about the power of online connections.

For 23 days, starting January 1^st, my RSS was a mess!

The problem:

Feedburner was not updating my blog’s feed
Comment Luv was displaying OLD posts
Aweber was not generating scheduled Blog Broadcasts to my list
Kindle could not publish my blog
Subscribers to my blog were not receiving updates

Those were 23 VERY LONG and frustrating days. To add fuel to the fire, being in the midst of a month-long blogging challenge, the timing of this pain-in-the-patootie issue couldn’t have been any worse.

Through Michelle’s expert knowledge of the web and websites and her “creative Google searching” talent, she discovered what was happening with my feed and fixed the problem for me.

So what are the biggest takeaways from this miserable RSS/blog feed fiasco?

The people you connect with online can be more precious than any gemstones in the world.
Value those in your center of influence.
Offer help to people when they need it. If you can’t help, direct them to someone who can.
Don’t ever underestimate the power of online connections.
True and lasting friendships are priceless.

By the way, this isn’t the first time Michelle has come to my rescue.

And I want to proclaim, publicly, something magical and magnificent would be missing from my life without her in it.

You can follow Michelle on Twitter and become her Fan on Facebook.

Filed Under: 30-day Blogging Challenge, Blogging, Building relationships online, List Building, RSS, Social Networking Tagged With: AWeber Communications, Blog, Facebook, Feedburner, Google, RSS, Twitter

Adam Urbanski Asked, Denise Wakeman Asked, and You Should Ask, Too!

By Melanie Kissell 8 Comments

If you haven’t been spending much time on your Facebook home page, I’d get over there – Pronto!

Some of the foremost experts in online marketing, visibility, and social media are hanging out on Facebook. The benefits of connecting and interacting with these folks are too numerous to count and they can teach you a lot about how to “engage” your community.

So what are the quintessential business-building professionals up to these days?

In addition to generously giving you the opportunity to strut your stuff, they’re looking for ideas and asking questions.

Adam Urbanski had yet another spark of genius this week and started “Marketing Monday” on Facebook. Every Monday he’s giving you the opportunity to post a link (okay, a shameless plug) to one of your offers.

And on Tuesdays, he’s calling his Facebook thread, “Cool Tool Tuesday” where people can post their favorite free or low-cost biz tool.

Ya can’t beat that deal!

Adam also comes up with some awesome (and thought-provoking) questions like the one he asked today: “What excites you the most about your business?”

If you want to engage your social media community, your group members, your fans, your blog readers, and your target audience, start asking questions.

Interaction is the key. We humans LOVE to answer questions and LOVE to share our knowledge and expertise.

Denise Wakeman posed a great question on Facebook today asking people how they’ve been using their Facebook business page to engage their fans. Denise is one savvy and smart cookie.

What happened next? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blogging, Building relationships online, Buzz, Creativity, Internet Marketing Tools, Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking Tagged With: Adam Urbanski, Blog, Business, Denise Wakeman, Facebook, Internet marketing, Social Media

How to Fail Faster than a Speeding Bullet in Social Media Marketing

By Melanie Kissell 7 Comments

The goal of business is to sell information, products, or services and make money.

In order to accomplish that goal, you need to alert your target audience of your existence.

Potential customers can’t buy a product or service if they don’t know about it!

Social networking sites not only allow potential customers and clients to meet you, get to know you, and most importantly, trust you – they help you attract people who have an interest in the information, products, or services you have to offer.

Have you been spending a lot of time on social media venues and not seeing a return on your investment of that time?

Is “clueless” how you feel when you work so hard and the sales barely trickle in?

Here’s how to Waste Your Time and FAIL FAST in social media: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blogging, Building relationships online, Internet Marketing Tools, Making money on the internet, Social Media Marketing Tagged With: Blogging, Facebook, Social Media, Twitter

A Confused Audience Won’t Take Action and You Won’t Make Sales

By Melanie Kissell 14 Comments

Today’s post is a sequel to “Twitter update – What Are You Cooking for Dinner Tonight?”

Consistent and Clear messaging across social media venues is what you want to aim for in your communications with your target audience.

Nothing breaks down trust and destroys credibility faster than being all over the map with messages that confuse your target market. And once they get confused, they disappear!

To keep your prospects, clients, and customers from doing the disappearing act, you need to strike a “balance” of sharing relationship-building messages and messages that are promotional in nature.

Be a savvy social media marketer and use the 80/20 rule (or even the 90/10 rule!) when posting your messages. The majority of what you share should be focused on relationship-building.

Thanks to my awesome mentor and colleague, Jessica Swanson, I’ve learned buckets full of tips and strategies to build lasting relationships with mompreneurs and moms who want to ditch the 9-5 and work from home.

Now it’s my turn to share them with you.

The best way to begin building a relationship with your target audience is to offer them your tantalizing freebie!

Here are 50 “free offer” ideas from my mentor to me to YOU: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Brand yourself online, Building relationships online, List Building, Online Marketing, Small business owners, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking Tagged With: Jessica Swanson, Marketing your services online, Shoestring Marketing, Social Media, Twitter

Twitter Update – What Are You Cooking For Dinner Tonight?

By Melanie Kissell 11 Comments

If your small business is in a culinary niche, then posting a Tweet like “What’s for dinner tonight?” is totally appropriate. It’s directly related to your business and what you have to offer.

But if you’re NOT in a food-related industry, then what?

Most likely you’ll just “confuse” your audience and we all know what happens when they get confused, right?

They don’t take action.

As online marketers, we sometimes get mixed messages about the most effective ways to use social media to build our businesses.

I’m sure you’ve heard, by now, it’s never socially acceptable to send out a boatload of sales pitches on social media sites.

So if we’re trying to build a business and make sales and we’re not supposed to try to sell anybody anything, then what in the world are we supposed to be sharing with our target audience on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media venues?!

Certainly not what we’re cooking for dinner – once again, unless the information is related to your niche.

Your social media updates need to be a delicate balance of messages in these two categories:

1.) Relationship-building messages

2.) Promotional messages

My next post will go into detail and give some specific examples. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, please give me some of your ideas of what a “relationship-building message” would look like and one that is “promotional” in nature.

Are you sending out both?

Thanks and I’m looking forward to reading your comments.

Filed Under: Blogging, Brand yourself online, Building relationships online, Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking Tagged With: Facebook, Online Promotions, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Twitter

Buzz-worthy to Bucks-worthy

By Melanie Kissell 9 Comments

I’m convinced.

You won’t start bringin’ home the bacon with your online marketing efforts till you work on creating some “buzz” around you, your brand, and your business.

Not quite sure how to do that?

Begin by reading my post entitled, Create Something Buzzworthy.

Your success and bank account will be a direct reflection of how much persistent and consistent energy and hours you put into becoming a remarkable entrepreneur and online marketer.

Being “remarkable” doesn’t mean performing business-building activities that are wondrous, miraculous, or spectacular – let’s leave those to the magicians!

Instead, you need to concentrate on engaging your target audience in ways that will compel them to “remark” about you to others.

Once your list of subscribers, blog readers, social media fans, friends, and followers begin to spread the word about you and your business …

You’ll go from buzz-worthy to bucks-worthy!

Filed Under: Brand yourself online, Building relationships online, Buzz, Making money on the internet, Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing Tagged With: how to create buzz around your brand, online marketing success, ways to engage your target audience

Marketing Strengths of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn

By Melanie Kissell 7 Comments

Even though volumes of information has been published and shared about social media marketing, are you still wondering “why” you should have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn?

And more importantly …

Are you still a bit fuzzy about the core marketing strengths of the Big 3?

Today’s post is going to be concise (My thought is that you already have a PLENTIFUL collection of tips, reports, e-courses, and e-books about social media).

Who doesn’t?! Unless you’ve been residing under a cabbage leaf, your inbox and your hard drive is over-stuffed with social media basics and marketing strategies.

Maybe I should hold a contest to see who’s storing up the MOST social media stuff! Would you be the winner?

Marketing Strengths

Facebook:

One of the fastest growing social networks
Find people from every industry, age group, and demographic area
Great way to brand yourself and your products and/or services
Allows you to further relationships with prospects, customers, and potential customers or clients
Ideal place to start if you are new to social media

Twitter:

Fast and easy to use
Search feature allows you to find, not only people, but you can also search by subject to find your target audience
Can be used to drive traffic to your blog or website
Twitter profile is the easiest to create

LinkedIn:

Known for its use by professionals (business-to-business networking)
Great place to demonstrate your expertise
Join groups formed around specific ideas or industries (you can join up to 50 groups)
Allows you to connect with people in your niche both in your geographical location and from all over the world
Excellent venue for building your community and finding potential customers

Which list of strengths would best serve you and your online marketing business?

Filed Under: Brand yourself online, Building relationships online, Online Marketing, Small business owners, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking Tagged With: Facebook, LindedIn, Marketing your services online, Online marketing strategies, Social Media, Twitter

Preparing Your Buyers To Take Action

By Melanie Kissell 9 Comments

Think of your own buying habits.

I’m going to venture a guess in saying you’ve had occasions where you’ve thought of a purchase, knew exactly what you wanted, and bought it immediately upon entering a store.

Am I right?

And other times you’ve needed to make important decisions first before pulling out your credit card or cash to make the purchase.

You most likely needed to as yourself questions like, “Do I need it?”, “Can I afford it?”, or “Is this something that is right for me?”

In that case, the interactions you have with the product and the company selling the product are critical in allowing you to build a relationship first – which creates that all-important know, like, and trust factor.

People do business with People – NOT with businesses.

Social media prepares your customers to more readily take action once you have established a relationship with them.

Here’s how it works:

People come in contact with you and/or your products or services.
They are mildly interested so they join your community.
They sign up for your email opt-in list or follow you on Twitter or maybe become your friend on Facebook.
Each time you engage these interested individuals, they get to know you a little better.
If they continue to be interested in you and what you have to offer, they will eventually be ready to buy.
Some people are ready to buy right away and some need a little more time.

Think of it this way:

Your only job is to interact with people and be your authentic self. All that is required of you is to invite people to your community and get to know them. That’s it!