Business Coaching

Thanks to social media, the rules of marketing have changed. Every celebrity, athlete, political figure, and business is using social media to their advantage (and sometimes to their disadvantage). Yes, used incorrectly, it can burn you, but it is a potential goldmine, so if your business isn’t using it, what are you waiting for?

You may have a profile setup for your business on Facebook, but are you using real time social media like Twitter? Twitter can be a powerful ally for your business, so here are some rules you can use to get the most out of your Twitter account.

1.    Determine your goals
You can’t start without the end in mind, so you need to figure out what you want to get out of using Twitter. Some companies are using it to sell products or as a customer service tool. Some use it as a lead generator. Like anything else you do in your business, you need to make a plan with benchmarks so you can test and measure your success. Your goals should be based on what type of business you have and what type of customers you want to attract.

2.    Do you research
Research is one key to finding out what the trends are in the world of Twitter. Research what the major brands and your compactors are doing and then mimic with a twist by adding your own personal touch to your tweets.

Also, research to find what your specific customer wants to see. If you work in a retail shop ask customers directly what they want to see from your brand. Don’t assume you already know, go straight to the point-of-contact and get the real information.

3.    Personalize your profile
Each business is unique and so the face of your Twitter should be as well. You should have a specific look to fit your brand that will leave an impression on your customers. If the look and feel matches your tweets it gives your customer a more personal touch, creating a connection between your business and them.

This means that the point of your profile shouldn’t be to simply push promotional material. If your customer feels like you are a robot then they will reject you and the brand, so keep it fun and informative.

4.    Follow your followers
Twitter is different than other social media in that, to get followers you must follow. Follow the people you would want to follow your brand. Then and only then can your brand go viral.

So are you using Twitter in your business and what are you doing with it?

A basic part of the ActionCOACH system is our belief in the power of testing and measuring. No business should ever undertake a project or campaign without setting up a process which will test and measure its success.

But, in our personal lives, we fail to test and measure all the time.

For instance, we go to sleep and assume we’ve gotten enough rest when we get up, even though we may still feel groggy. We got to the gym and assume we’ve gotten enough exercise to burn the necessary calories to stay in shape, but have no real data to prove it aside from how we feel.

In these situations, we are hoping our actions will lead to the desired outcome, but we are taking a leap of faith to get there, much like business owners that spend money on advertising but don’t test and measure that campaign’s effectiveness.

But, thanks in part to some incredible advances in technology and some enterprising entrepreneurs, the time has come for us to be able to test and measure virtually anything we do and use that data to design better program or situations for us to take advantage of.

Today there are alarm clocks that will measure your sleep patterns to give you a better idea how long you should sleep and when you should wake up. There are smartphone applications that will measure your spending habits and do your budgeting for you. There are even systems that allow you to measure your happiness at various times of the day or with various people in your life.

There are so many tools available that it may seem like overload, but these tools can help anybody make better usage of their resources and create a happier and more abundant life.

That is the goal when we test and measure with our clients and, no doubt, testing and measuring, with the help of the tools available these days, can positively influence you personally as well.