Somebody’s watching you

Every time you attend a networking meeting, visit a client, show up on a Zoom meeting, post on social media - or even chat with a friend - somebody is watching.  And every move you make is measured against your reputation.

A few years back I was lecturing some students doing their post-graduate degree in marketing.  When I asked what they posted on the personal Facebook profiles, they were insistent that it wasn’t relevant to their professional activities.

When I pointed out that smart companies always check out the social media of potential candidates, they said ‘that’s not fair’!

My reply was that it doesn’t matter if it’s fair or not, if you choose to be present on social platforms, it goes with the territory.

People make judgments about everything they see or hear whether it’s something they’ve experienced in person or third-hand.

I know of a job offer that was NOT made because of what was posted on the candidates social media.  While he was an excellent candidate on paper and interviewed well, his social media featured the kind of language the company didn’t want in-house.

If you belong to a networking group and you’re always late or you’re disorganised on a regular basis, you may be teased, but other members of the group will also tag you as ‘late’ or ‘disorganised’.  Even if they don’t mean to be negative about you, this is what they expect from you so it becomes part of your ‘description’.

If your blogs are consistently combative or argumentative, that also affects people’s perception of you and your business.

If you constantly complain about things or tend to talk about things in a negative way - that’s what shapes people’s view of you and your approach to business.

You can see how even small things can affect your reputation.

I don’t think you should try to be someone you aren’t, but I do think that you need to think about what image you’re projecting with everything you do and say.  People are watching - not to catch you out, but simply to build their internal picture of who and what you are.  Make sure you’re presenting the picture you want them to see.

What is a blog?

‘Blog’ is a shortened form of ‘Web log’, and a log is a record of something.  Remember how episodes of Start Trek started with Captain’s log Stardate …?  That was a sort of diary of events - and that’s how blogs started as people’s online diary.

Of course, these days, a blog post can be anything:

• A knowledge share 
• A story
• A case study
• A testimonial
• A product overview
• Or an overview of your week/month

The secret of a successful blog is to know what the people you’re trying to reach actually want.  Better still think about what YOU want when you go to read a blog post. 

We all have different reasons for reading articles online.  These can include:

• An interest in learning more about a particular subject
• An interest in a particular writer and their take on things
• Wanting to be entertained

So, while we may be interested in a product, we don’t want a sales pitch, we want to know how it works and maybe some user experiences or ideas for what you can do with it.

If you’re writing a business blog then you can include what’s going on in your business - but very few people will be interested in reading it, unless there is some real value for them.  That means you’ll need to relate the events in your business to what that means for your reader.  For example:

• If you’ve moved premises, they want to know if it’s easy to find, has better parking, offers more facilities or products.
• If you’ve taken on a new member of staff, your reader wants to know how that person impacts on them.  Does that mean faster service, more in-house expertise in a particular area, a new service or something else?
• If you’ve won an award - so what?  What does that mean for your customer?  Maybe it’s a good reason to thank you customers and suppliers for their support.
• If you’ve had a busy week what have the achievements been - for your customers.

My clients are often nervous of sharing their knowledge - because they’re worried that, if they tell people how to do something, they will do it themselves, instead of engaging the company’s services.  In reality that doesn’t usually happen - people do what they’re good at and what they enjoy.  If it’s not in their comfort zone they usually realise that they need help - and they already have evidence you know your stuff, so it’s a no-brainer who to pick!

Remember that a blog doesn’t have to be long - 30 words is enough if you can’t package your message in that (but that might be better as a social media post).  My advice is to aim for 300 words - it’s less than one page of A4 and will tick the SEO box if you have focused it on one of your key words or phrases.

Keep it conversational - and remember that people do want to be entertained while they’re gathering information.

The importance of strategy

One of my mentors used to say to me “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.”  He was talking about the importance of having a goal, before you start doing things.  

Everything you do should be taking you a step towards your goals.  Every phone call, every email, every 15 minutes of quiet thinking.  They should all have purpose.  If they don’t help you to achieve your goals why are you doing them?

So - I’m going to assume that, as a sensible business person, you have business goals.  But you can’t DO a goal.  You have to have activities or actions to complete that to move you along the path until the goal is realised.  And that’s where things sometimes come unglued.  Businesses often have an end goal - but don’t always have the strategy and tactics to support it.  

When I’m talking to my business connections and clients I often get people saying ‘I need help with social media’ or ‘I need to be more consistent with social media’.  The problem is that if I ask why they are doing or intending to do with social media, they don’t really know.  The concept is that every business needs to be on social to stay competitive, but often there’s no actual strategy behind it.

Social media is not a marketing strategy

Social media is a tool - and it’s important that it’s only one of the tools that you use to market your business offerings.  So mindlessly posting on a Facebook page isn’t necessarily the right strategy for you - you may be better on Instagram or on LinkedIn or using Twitter to connect with influential media people.

All social platforms are not equal, 

A strategy starts with focus

Regardless of your end goal, you won’t get there without customers so the first step is to identify exactly what kind of customer you want.  

Step two is to understand what they need and what you can do to help them - what will the end results do for them?

Now you know who you’re trying to reach, you can start looking at where they hang out, what they read, who they follow.  That’s step three.

Step four is a proper tools review - what are all the various means of influencing these perfect clients?  Social media may be one, but what about articles in magazines, videos, podcasts, email, newsletters - and that’s just scratching the surface.

I call step five ‘Means, manpower and measurement’ - and this is where the strategy become tactics.  Who does what and how do you measure whether it’s working or not?

This creates your plan and ensures that activities are focused, consistent and scheduled.  Little steps take you a long way and if you keep take small steps in the right direction you will achieve your goal!