To Facebook or Not...

Dear Friend,

Is Social Media for you and your business? It is 2009 and at some point you will need to address the pros and cons of social media marketing if you wish to continue to position yourself and your business in the forefront of your market.

Social media can be all sorts of different things, and it is produced in all sorts of different ways.

However, the best way I can define social media is…”sites that are designed to connect people with other people using conversations created by the users.”

For the most part, these are relationship building sites. The most popular are MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.


There are many others. In fact, I am registered on fifty-one different sites, but I only use the above named sites on a regular basis. The others simply have my articles and blogs posted to them.

Another common form of social media is blogging. You are reading a blog right now. Even though you create the majority of content, followers of your blog can comment and share their views on your posts. (by the way, please register as a follower and comment on my blog)

Generally speaking, social media sites offer free registration and adequate design flexibility for absolutely no-cost. Of course, if you wish to customize these sites, options are available for a fee. However, I see no reason to do that.

So how do these sites generate business for you and create additional sales?

Business is built through fostering and developing relationships. The more relationships you have, the more opportunity you have to generate leads, prospects, and sales.

You may also use these sites to enrich the experience you provide for your customers. You can post business updates, product information, idea development for new services and general news about you and your company.

Most of these sites have ways to acquire additional friends and prospects by recommendation. This is a key way to expand your network of friends, associates and peers, and potential customers.

Perhaps the greatest advantage to social media marketing is that your prospects and customers get to know YOU better. These sites “humanize” you. They tend to illustrate you as a real person, with a real life, wearing real clothes, hanging out with real friends and family, going to real places, doing real things.

Not everyone likes to disclose their non-business personality. However, my personal belief is customers want to see you in your natural elements of life so they can relate to you. It helps them feel better about doing business with you. There is another level of trust developed.

Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to post pictures of yourself hanging out at the biker bar over the weekend as you were bent over a bar stool with blood shot eyes.

You can be highly professional and personable at the same time. You may also choose to develop a personal site and a business site.

Once you are registered on social media sites, then you have to let the world know. Add these sites to your email signatures, to your business card, on your pamphlets and of course you have to work the sites themselves.

Some generalities about the four sites I mentioned above. MySpace tends to be a more elaborate site with lots of design options and plenty of cyber-ground to cover. Its users are generally younger and the original intent was for musical groups and bands to promote their work.

You want to see my kids and what I look like on a cruise ship…check out my MySpace page and become a friend in my network.
www.myspace.com/paulmontelongo

Facebook tends to draw a slightly more educated and mature crowd, mostly a result of the fact that it started at Harvard and within a month of its inception all of the grad students at Harvard where members. It then spread to campuses all across the country. Facebook is much easier to use and its simplicity makes it a more time efficient endeavor.

You wanna see pics of my trip to Bourbon Street in New Orleans, check out my Facebook page and become a friend in my network.

LinkedIn is a more professional networking site with the capability to ask for referrals, testimonials, and general business assistance.

Please join my LinkedIn group as well.

And finally, there is Twitter. Pay real close attention to this one folks. They are growing faster than Facebook and MySpace ever dreamed. The concept is called microblogging…short simple messages to stay in contact with people called Tweets.

Join me on Twitter and we can start tweeting. www.twitter.com/paulmontelongo

We are in an era that requires more relationship building than ever. You have got to be in touch with your prospects and clients with even more regularity. It’s the way of the world now.

Until our paths cross again (likely on a social site), take great care of yourself and your loved ones.

Paul

How’s that "R-word" working out for you?

Hello,

I choose “not to participate” in the so-called “R-word”. How about you? Everywhere I turn, I see people and companies who are selling more, closing more and prospering more now than ever.

It’s not rocket science. It’s common sense, practical thinking mixed with a dose of vision. Here are five ideas about how to thrive right now rather than die on the vine. But first, here are two examples of prosperity for you to consider…

I was in Las Vegas last week (again), and the $9 billion City Center project in the middle of the Vegas strip is evidence enough. This is a thirty-seven acre city within the city. Sure, the project got started five years ago, but there are many projects that have come to a screeching halt….Not this one.

On a more personal scale, I had breakfast in Vegas with two guys whose companies are growing leaps and bounds in the real estate investment and financial portfolio business. Aren’t those supposed to be the two areas that suck the most right now? Not for them.

To thrive….

1. Keep it real…Take an honest look at your business situation. Don’t bury your head in the sand and just give in to the negative media hype. That’s the chicken-poop way out. If your business has been affected, do something about it. Understand where the improvement needs to be made and get started immediately.

2. Head on a swivel…keep your eyes and your brain open to new opportunities. I don’t necessarily mean looking for another career opportunity, though I would never rule that out. Make something happen within your area of expertise. If there is only one person or company in your industry that is thriving right now, get to know what they are doing, who they are doing it for and how they are doing it. Become their best friend and student. You will be amazed at how much people will help you if you just keep your awareness open to the idea.

3. The light is not a train…There is light at the end of the tunnel and it is here sooner than you think. Actually NOT. The real truth is that it is here exactly when you think it is. So the moment you believe you will find solutions, they will arrive. The moment you believe you will thrive in your business, remarkable things will begin to take place. Oh, by the way, you will probably have to muster up a bunch more faith than you currently have in order for it to happen.

4. Act like you have been there before…When you act with the confidence and composure of a seasoned professional, guess what? You begin to achieve the results of a seasoned professional. However, you must sustain your actions in order to continue to receive the benefits. If you freak out, panic or get stressed out over your situation, you will only restrict the flow of ideas to your consciousness. Also, good ideas and good people will begin to show up to associate with you because you keep your level head.

5. You will attract what you project…Whatever your thinking is about this current economy, or any for that matter, will be projected out onto everyone you deal with. If you believe that customers buy only for a low price, guess what? They will negotiate with you only on price. If you believe that consumers are not spending money at all, guess what? They certainly won’t spend it with you. If you believe that you have to hunker down and weather the “R-word”, guess what? You will be a mole in a hole and no one will do business with you. The beliefs you hold in your mentality and in the fibers of your personal spirit will project out onto everyone you meet.

Oh, by the way. Add to this list you must associate with people of like-mind and like-consciousness. If you hang around negative people, including watching the likes of Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper on CNN, you will feel like crap. Wrap yourself around doers, thinkers and visionaries. They are everywhere…

Here are some real visionaries. These architecture students and their professor from Mexico arrived in Las Vegas last week to take in the Surfaces Show and they stopped to have me autograph my Profit Power book. I gladly obliged. They are from the Universidad De Sonora in Hermosillo Sonora, Mexico. Look at the optimism and excitement about the future in their eyes. Contagious, huh?

Until our paths cross again, take great care of yourself and your loved ones.

Paul


Ps. If you would like your own autographed copy of my Profit Power book, order it here.