Business-Building Action from Terry Brock
Most people I speak with today are swamped with so much to do and they don’t have time even for many of the things they want to do like exercise, time with friends and family, reading, listening to educational audio and more. Now, with this Social Media craze upon us, we are faced with even MORE stuff we “just gotta’ do.”
Yikes!
How can we find time for that? How can we possibly get all the other obligations dealt with and still have time for this new-fangled Social Media?
Well, in my speeches around the world I’m seeing a common trend. Recently I spoke in Holland and England to some groups of professionals. They had the same complaints that there was too much to do and not enough time. Then I spoke a few weeks later in Australia (Sydney & Melbourne) and heard the same thing again — too much to do and too little time to do it.
So, what’s up on this whole Social Media fervor and how does it (really) relate to business?
First, yes, it is real and if you aren’t in Social Media you’re in the same category of the bozos a few years ago who wouldn’t touch a computer. They’d say asinine things like “Why, I can’t even turn one of those things on….ha, ha, ha!” — as if that were supposed to be funny. Well, they don’t sound so funny today. It is about like someone joking that they can’t use a telephone or drive a car. It is not funny. It is pathetic. I just hope my competition has the same opinion.
But still we get back to the issue of how to budget your time and what you should do —- from a business perspective — to be involved in this networking and money-making venture and still have time to get everthing else done.
Here are some pointers that can help you in Social Media and business today
- Understand you have to do it. Make the time. This is marketing for your company and for your career. This is where people hang out. As any good networker (read achiever) knows today, you have to connect with others. You can’t do it alone. Unless you’re some kind of an inventor genius that lives at the top of a mountain in a secluded cabin inventing new Star Trek – type transporters, you better connect with others. Social Media is the way to do it.
- Need to budget time for it on a daily basis 5-6 days a week. My friend Jeffrey Gitomer says that “Social Media is the new cold calling.” 50 years ago there might have been a reason to make cold calls. Today, you’re way out of line if you call on a business without going to LinkedIn, Google, YouTube and some other sources first.
- Save time by plugging into reliable advocates you trust. Let them curate for you and then follow what they say as long as it meets your needs. Always keep looking for new options because sometimes people fail your needs change or they move along to new roads themselves. If they ever stop meeting your needs go to one of your new options.
This is a beginning. I talk more about this in my coaching program, but for now, get involved and dedicate time. My friend Randy Gage said that he budgeted two hours of his day, six days a week, to get to know and have a strong presence in social media. As a result of that he has a very wide following
