That’s what most people don’t understand. Everything you do is marketing. From the guy who cleans the floors, to the customer service representative that answers the phone to help you with your problem.
Every tweet you send out… That’s marketing your business.
Every rant you post on Facebook… That’s marketing your business.
Every blog post your write or comment you make… That’s marketing your business.
To quote Scott Stratten:
Marketing happens everytime you engage (or not) with your past/present/potential customers.
He just about nailed it. Everything you do… Every conversation you have (every interaction) is marketing your business. And yet people Tweet random s**t, post rants on Facebook and leave negative comments around the blog-o-sphere.
If you consider your actions and how it impacts your marketing, wouldn’t it be wise to work on putting your best foot forward each and every time? Sure you can treat it like a task and give it a half-ditch effort, after all it’s just another thing to add to the “To Do List” right? OR… You can work on exceeding client’s (and prospect’s) expressed and unexpressed wishes, needs and concerns. Think you’ll get some repeat business outta that?
Thanks again 🙂
You're welcome 🙂
(Remind me what I did again? Heh.)
Very true. Understanding that everything you do says something about who you are and what you represent its equally important to remember that so too does every inaction.
Jackie: that's absolutely right! You should always ask yourself: “What message am I conveying by posting this.” If it's consistent with your brand message/promise, go for it. If it's not, then it's worth thinking about and pausing.
Thank your for your comment!
This is a more challenging post than it seems at first glance, Ricardo, as I'm sure you well know. On the face of it, your advice, supported by Scott Stratten's observation, makes good sense. Delving deeper, I find myself wondering about “having a life” online as well as doing business online. For example, whereas I have a great interest in politics, both my own country's domestic politics and international politics, I have decided not to express my views about either of those via my current online “persona”: thus as @deswalsh I no longer post political tweets. I'm now finding that somewhat restrictive and am frankly not clear on how best to handle my dilemma. It's not that I *mind* people knowing my views, but there are some practical considerations, such as recognising that, for example, my Twitter followers in the US are hardly going to be interested at all in my observations on Australian politics.
So what suggestions would you make for someone who has “other than business” personal interests, the expression of which could be divisive, annoying or just plain boring, for people that person wants to connect with for business?
Des: This is a tough one. For me, I used to draw a pretty hard line and I'd never cross it. At some point this year I kind of threw that out the window and started letting loose a bit more (much more). This turned some people away I'm sure but it also really, really connected me with the people who had a connection with me for being the unique person that I am.
I still have a set of sort of internal rules:
– I never say anything bad or negative about anyone. In “How to Win Friends and Influence People” I read a quote from someone that said: “I'll will speak ill of no one and I will speak all the good of everyone that I know.” That's my one BIG rule of thumb that I stick to.
– In regards to personal matters, I take those conversations offline.
– In regards to opinions of politics, religions, etc. I know that everyone has an opinion and it's most often going to differ from my own and vise-versa so I never ask or answer questions in this regard. Period. Again, these are conversations I take off-line.
Then, I have a list of friends from a totally different niche that I connect with. I follow them on a private list on “Ribeezie” and through a different account. I still pay attention to what's being discussed, but I'm careful about how/where I chime in if I do.
It's challenging to strike that balance for sure. But it's also quite fascinating…
All of this to say that I don't have the right answer, but I'm glad I sparked some thoughts for you and hopefully, we can keep discussing and sharing more ideas as we both try to figure it out 🙂
Thank you for sharing such a wonderfull post
About a year ago I separated personal and business this way: Facebook is for personal, Twitter is for business. It's not a hard and fast rule, but it does help me avoid boring either group with stuff that doesn't interest them. The whole online identify thing is evolving so quickly; I find it challenging and fascinating.
Barbara: I like that. In fact, it's just about the same way I established my own set of (internal) rules. I used Facebook because I had to but mostly I was very informal. Twitter was strictly connecting, marketing, customer services… You know, business. That changed when I stopped being so stiff and markety and focused more instead on being myself.
It's always a tough balance. Where do you draw the line? How much is too much? How personal is too personal? Building relationships after all involves getting personal with people, right?
For me, like I said, I used to draw pretty hard line and I'd never cross it. At some point this year I kind of threw that out the window and started letting loose a bit more. This turned some people away I'm sure but it also really, really connected me with the people who had a connection with me for being the unique person that I am.
All of that to say that like you, I also find it challenging and fascinating!
Thanks for the comment Barbra!