Being effective means being able to manage our time in a productive manner and achieving productive activities. Going by that understanding, social media is usually considered as a time waster.
One of the biggest challenges for small business owners is to quantify the return on investment, this includes social media activities.
It is even harder for those with decent success in their business without using social media to even comprehend any productive use of social media.
Should you build a brand image on your name or should you establish a company name and brand it while you remain invisible?
I had this discussion with a young online marketer from India several months ago who wanted to stay behind a company name for his own strategic reasons. And that topic seems to come back in different forms over and over. So, I decided to touch on that as well in this post.
People from one school of thought on branding prefer to establish a company name where they want to stay anonymously behind the scene. They do so for following reasons:
And then, there are others who believe differently. People like John Maxwell, Michael Hyatt, Neil Patel and others who drive their businesses by putting themselves up front. They build their own brand name bigger than any other brand identity of any other company that they run.
I guess you already figured out what I am going to discuss in this post from the title itself. However, if you don’t have kids, you can still participate in this conversation and perhaps, add some value from your perspective.
Social media, especially Facebook, is always a cause for concern among parents and a reason for friction in two different schools of thought.
Like all technology, social media is neutral but is best put to work in the service of building a better world. ~Simon Mainwaring [tweet this]
One group of people thinks that Facebook and social media is evil and we should avoid it at all costs. Well, I don’t subscribe to that group and that is why this post is also not about them or for them.
The other group is of social media enthusiasts. I actively participate in this group for obvious reasons and this is what my online business is centered around.
But then, you know how powerful social media can be in building your personal brand, online reputation and growing your business at such a low cost if done right.
Did you know that there are more than 400 million tweets sent per day on Twitter? Did you know that there are more than 699 million active Facebook users every day? This list only grows when we start including other growing social networking sites such as Google+, Pinterest, Instagram and so on.
These stats only mean that the freedom, the ability to have your own platform where you can say things you like to say, has made social media so popular. The number of people adapting to social media, and at the speed of growth, is simply astounding.
Like anything else, this has given birth to two school of thoughts when it comes to social media:
But wait, there is a third group as well. This belongs to those who use every opportunity to speak against it but can’t stay away from it.
Social media is the new media. It is here to stay, whether or not you and me like it. This is the way we are going to communicate and stay in touch with the world. This is the way businesses are being conducted, connections are made, jobs are being searched and new business ventures are being established.
With the rise of social media and online marketing, social media consulting has become a flourishing industry in itself. Many business owners outsource the task of social media marketing to somebody who can handle it well.
It is such an important area and there are so many self-proclaimed internet and online marketing experts out there. As a business owner, if you plan to hire a social media expert, you must select the person you choose to work with very carefully.
You need someone who can understand your value system, raise your brand awareness in the marketplace and help your brand name gain popularity in social media. Here are 12 key checkpoints you can use to evaluate your prospective social media consultant:
If you are in college, you are busy with classes and your assignments. If you are a professional working on a job, no time left between job and family. Everybody is busy with things on their plate. And to add to the pain – Social is a new irresistable temptation…or better yet – a new need of the hour that you must keep up with. Social media is becoming increasingly vital component of our lives.
Interestingly, even today, some people still ask, "Is it really needed? Is it not a waste of time?"