I am talking as loud and as fast as I can, now where's my money!

Phase 7 This is easy!

THE EIGHT PHASES OF 

SOCIAL MEDIA FAILURE

Phase 1 - “It’s a waste of time.”

Phase 2 - “I don’t understand how it works.”

Phase 3 - “So this is supposed to make me money?”

Phase 4 - “Well if this idiot can do this, I can too!”

Phase 5 - “This takes too long!”

Phase 6 - “I got an idea!”

Phase 7 - “This is easy.”

Phase 8 - “I haven’t seen one thin dime for all this work.”

Walmart’s first website cost $40 million and after its first year produced revenues less than one small store. So they closed it down, took the loss, wrote off the internet, and went back to counting on all their brick and mortar stores.

LinkedIn went live May 5, 2003 - at the end of the first month had 4,500 members and 81,000 members by the end of 2003. By the end of 2008, LinkedIn had 33 million members and among them were the CEOs of the Fortune 500. Now LinkedIn has over 150 million members and is growing by 2 members every second. LinkedIn has been described by online trade publication TechRepublic as having "…become the de facto tool for professional networking"

Your social media presence is established, your website is live, your LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter accounts are all active but not doing what you hoped? It is harder than it looks. Making noise is easy and we see and hear this noise on LinkedIn. The pointless posts, reposts from common sources, putting anything at all up, hoping anyone will see your name. So if it’s only noise on LinkedIn what happens with Facebook and Twitter? How does it all fit together?

Content is king and your content is what you have to say. If you don’t have anything of VALUE to say then all of the posting, chatting, tweeting and sharing will only harm you by damaging your online reputation. Not know WHERE to say it makes you look like an insane person yelling to no one in particular (grab a shopping cart and a big pair of fuzzy bedroom slippers to complete your online persona while you are at it). The first rule is to have something of value to say.  The second rule is know where to say it.

The purpose of social media marketing is to make connections that become relationships that lead to increased revenues and profits, period.

My question to you today is - how are your network of online connections generating revenues for you and your company? Social media marketing is an extra step in the selling process. If you are feeling baffled, you are not alone. One national marketing trade association has a social media blog with zero posts to LinkedIn, zero “likes” on Facebook and has never been tweeted. Take a good look at what I just said. A national trade association of marketing professionals has an online blog that NO ONE REPOSTS, “LIKES” OR TWEETS!

Here’s a few basic rules of the game to START to make you money;

1. Have something of VALUE to say. If it was on the front page of Yahoo, it’s not valuable. If it’s a news story HAVE AN OPINION and then solicit other opinions in a discussion. ENGAGE your readers.

2. Know WHERE to say it. If you don’t understand the difference between a discussion and a commercial promotion I am going to bet you don’t get invited to parties outside of your immediate family (and only because they are obligated to invite you). Do you meet people and take off into a commercial? Forget social media and try a sandwich board at busy intersections. How do you meet someone in person? Meeting people online is no different. Meeting people is connecting with them; there is a place and a time to do that and social media channels are great places to accomplish this.

3. You will need to study for yourself or get help. It is an investment in time but it can be learned and there are a few people (a VERY few) who understand how to do it properly with money coming from your efforts. This is an investment and not a lottery ticket so think in terms of a long-term commitment to it. By the way, Walmart stuck it out and makes money on their website now. It was an investment that paid off for them and social media will pay off for you over a period of time too.

How to beat the BIG boys - What the Giants of the industry just don't get

I used to look forward to reading our trade journals. Services Magazine, Cleaning Management, Building Services Management and a couple long gone now. Those magazines weren’t just bathroom reading for me, I would hang on every word, read every article and carefully read every single ad. Editors had names like Terry “ Five Coats” Wilhelm (forgive me Terry if I got your last name wrong, haven’t seen your name in print for many years but I hope you made a good buck selling the magazine and are comfy in retirement).

Professional trade journal publishing companies took over and now the janitorial magazines are only one in an entire portfolio of trade journals, among other trade journals like for gummy worm manufacturers and “ethnic” hair care distributors. I am OK with this, its progress I suppose and the professionals have done a great job converting to digital formats. Terry “Five Coats” could never have dreamed of a digital magazine.

I used to love to read what other successful company owners were doing and what they thought was important. Fortunately, for me, the internet took off and today I talk to janitorial company owners all over the world directly and read what they say with no editors. I still do read our trade journals but now I read the digital versions.

Most new comers into the business want to know how to build big companies like the ones they feel are running over them. The basics of moving dirt seems so simple and big companies have developed systems that are very good in operations and job costing. However, they DO falter as evidenced by one of the biggest companies in our industry who once boasted 75% of the entire downtown market where they are headquartered but have today lost more than two thirds of their buildings in their own backyard.