Business-Building Action from Terry Brock
[Note: You’ve got to hear the fun, enhanced audio of this Blog post. Scroll down and click on “Play” button — or download as MP3 to listen later. You’ll love it!]
As I travel around the world talking to senior business leaders, I am hearing a common anguish from many today. Perhaps you can relate to this. People in business understand all the excitement and commotion about social media. Yes, we know it is changing the way people communicate today. Yes, we know it is about the customers controlling the conversation. Yes, we know it has changed the way we have to communicate.
But we just don’t have time for all the “stuff” we have to do with social media! Ugh! Can you relate to this? We don’t have time to update our Twitter, make Facebook notices about where we went to dinner, put out a funny video on YouTube and connect with people on LinkedIn. Oh, and then there’s the podcast we should do and the new information on Google+ that we need along with doing something with Yelp about that restaurant and working to be mayor of the local diner on Foursquare. Oh, and did I mention that we still need to do our job and —- let’s not forget family and friends! This is getting ridiculous and we still have to sleep!
Oh, and then next week there is a “new shiny object” that we just gotta’ be involved with or we fall behind!
Ugh!
So, what’s a harried, busy, high achieving business leader to do today?
Well, I think we’re making this up as we go. It’s almost like building the engine for an airplane, while we’re in the air flying! Here are some tips that I’ve found helpful that might assist you. I’ve found these steps to be helpful in my life and many executives that I speak with around the world are suggesting them to me.
- Establish who you are and what you want to do. You’ve got to have a clear vision of what you want to accomplish. There will always be many good things to do. Remember that B and B+ activities can be the enemy of A and A+ activities. Know what are the A+ activities for you and say “No!” until your tongue bleeds to other tempting, appealing activities.
- Strategy for your business and your business plans. This relates to number 1. Develop a solid strategy. Think how you’d have to structure your life if you decided to get a doctorate, go to dental school, medical school, law school or some other difficult but incredibly worthy goal.
- Get really good in one first, then expand. This is called — here’s that word again — FOCUS! Not everything is right for you all the time. Get the most important social media platforms for you down well before embarking on all the others. For many, this means get a good handle on LinkedIn. Develop your network. Get into some life- and business-enhancing groups. Once you have that, think about which of the other Big Four fit for you. Big Four in Social Media are Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.
- Have a presence in the platforms that matter. You can get a small foothold in each just to “claim your stake.” Then you can slowly build the others.
- Get the right tools to streamline what you’re doing. This means using tools like Hootsuite, Ping.fm, Tubemogel, Fiverr, Tenerr, oDesk, vWorker, rent-a-guru and more. I use these and they have helped me to leverage what I do very well.
- Outsource – Think multiple people to do various tasks – you can’t do it all. I see my ole’ buddy Peter Drucker giving me a thumbs-up on that one. Do what you do best and delegate the rest.
- Face Reality. Realize this is not going to stop, so develop smart strategies now to handle it.
These 7 action steps should get you oriented to a better way of managing your time and activities in this crazy-busy world of social media and “way too much to do” lifestyle we experience today. My coaching program deals with these in some practical, real-world ways. Bounce over to TerryBrock.com and click on the High Achievers Coaching System icon for more information.
Yes, social media is here and we have to deal with it. However, you’ll deal with social media —- as well as your business and life — much better when you follow the right strategy for you, prioritize and don’t try to do it all yourself.
We’d love to hear from you. Leave your comments here and share with others what you think of this strategy. What is working for you? How do you filter all the mass of “oughta do” items into what gets done? I look forward to hearing from you.
And now, if you’d like to get some serious, practical help with how to get more done with Social Media —- even if you only have 24 hours in each day!!! —- I invite you to check this out! Time Management For Social Media
