Do’s and Don’t's for Social Media

Today let’s talk about some of the do’s and don’ts for social media when it comes to small business.

One of the “do’s” for Facebook is you want to be very interactive. Get on Facebook and make sure that you’re commenting to people. Perhaps you do some real-time chat with some of your Facebook fans. I do recommend that you also create Facebook lists so that you can manage your friends better. These lists are a great tool to help you group and organize people so you can better communicate with them. For example, let’s say you are going to have an event and you live in L.A. You would find the list of all your L.A. friends and invite them. Or you may have people interested in a specific topic, and you can put them in a particular list.

For Twitter, I recommend that you respond to every direct message that comes in. This goes a long with being interactive, you need to be building relationships!

Now for some “don’t’s”. Do not constantly put up a messages (on any social network) that only has to do with selling, selling, selling, selling. Sometimes when I look on my Twitter account, I can find people that only promote their products and services! They don’t offer any type of value to their followers/friends. I don’t believe you should do that. I believe that you should be doing posts that are value, value, value, and then once in a while you can go ahead and you can put in, “Come to this,” or, “Here’s this,” or, “Go to this.” But what you want to do is you want to claim expert status, and the way you become an expert is by valuable posts. So everything you post should have value, and once in a while you can send people somewhere.

Another “do” is make sure that you have the same head shot used on all of these pages so you can become branded. I also definitely recommend that you use the same tag line that people are used to with you. Include your web site as well.

When you are posting on social media, be aware that every time that you post, you want to post things that start a conversation or ask a question or, again, show you as a credible expert. Don’t post things that are nonsense or that will start political conversation; you really want to make sure that your posts are valuable and in line with what people who follow you or friend you would want to know about.

My Event: Disciplines of Thriving Entrepreneurs

I would like to personally invite you to attend an event I am holding on February 25th. All monies collected are going to a great cause.

I want you at this event, and I want you to bring at least one other person with you! I promise, commit and guarantee they will receive huge value as will you.

All proceeds are going to support a young girl suffering from RSD. Danielle is 17 and before she bumped the outside of her knee, she was an amazing young entrepreneur with a gift for helping children with ADHD and Autism using her horses. She is a beautiful human being with so much love and compassion for others. She has been affected by RSD for 1 1/2 years. She has been on a crazy nightmare in Rhode Island. Danielle was hospitalized, paced in leather restraints, her room stripped of all belongings and a guard placed at her door because she was in severe pain.

This is a video of the pain the hospital made her stay in for 10 days. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3rUoRsDjyI

Here is the link to Danielle’s website where her mother posted the blog about it. http://tinyurl.com/daniellesblog

Having suffered from RSD myself from an injury I received a few years ago, I hate to think of the pain that a child suffers from each day with this disease. All proceeds from this event will go to Danielle to help her get the medical care she needs.

This event is titled: Disciplines of Thriving Entrepreneurs

This event is perfect for you! You can be a fledgling entrepreneur or a seasoned business owner, my event will help you understand what differentiates the 5% of successful entrepreneurs from the 95% that fail!

What makes some entrepreneurs more successful than others?
What disciplines do they do that let them achieve a breakthrough and take their business to the next level?
What does it mean to be a thriving entrepreneur?

To me a thriving entrepreneur is one who has penetrated or overcome an obstacle – in this case overwhelming odds of failure! – and has achieved a sudden advance or a notable success in his or her business. Do you want to be a thriving entrepreneur? Do you want your colleagues, friends and family members to be as well?

YOU have to attend this because it is critical to your success.

I want you to share this day with a fellow business owner or entreprenuer!

Attend the Disciplines of Thriving Entrepreneurs and I promise to share insights on how you can achieve a super successful business. This is happening on Friday February 25, 2011, 10:00-5:00pm – venue is Plymouth Meeting, PA.

And I’m giving you a special deal!!

To learn more and to register, click here

http://www.terrilevine.com/event/

How to Get Free Publicity

A question I get all the time from entrepreneurs is “How do we get free publicity?” It’s actually very easy to get free publicity. You can write up your press release, and this press release should be based on something that is currently in the news, something that’s topical and the press is already reporting on, so you’d be adding to that conversation. Or your press release can be based on a human interest story around someone in the community.

The other way that you can do it is to do some kind of a charity event. Perhaps you’re donating the funds from an event to the American Cancer Society or something similar to that. You can invite the press to perhaps one of your events or an open house. That is not only wonderful and helpful to society, but it is a form of free press.

And so these are great ways to get the attention of the press and to get publicity that costs you absolutely nothing and can drive customers to your business. Please remember that you don’t just send a press release. You need to also call and very, very quickly, 15 seconds or less, you pitch your release.

Social Media Tips

Today the big hype is all about social media, right? And you’re not sure exactly what you should be doing with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and all of those things. Even tying in blog your blog with social media. Well, here’s what you should be doing. It’s a very simple formula and it really makes a lot of sense.

First of all, understand that the purpose of social media is to increase your brand, increase your website traffic and to grow a customer base. So, what do you post on these sites? Well, you post things that are helpful; tips, tools, techniques. Avoid anything sales-y. You should contribute to conversations by offering ideas that show that you are a credible expert, a leading authority in your industry. Not to be braggadocios, but just to add to the conversation.

At times you can also post things that are humorous about your industry, again, to give a sense of who you are. Also, once in awhile, post some personal things so that people get to know you, like you and feel like they’re building a relationship with you. Just mix up these kinds of postings; your blogs and your Twitter, your Facebook, et cetera, et cetera, and you’ll begin to build a new community with new followers.

Emails – Lost in Translation

As you know, we live in the digital age so we use a lot of e-mail. E-mail is how we communicate. There’s a problem with e-mails and how they sometimes get lost in translation. First of all, we don’t hear a tone of voice in e-mail. So when we say something, somebody else could read into it in a way we did not intend. They could actually become defensive by something that you’ve said when you meant it very innocently. Perhaps they become offended. Most e-mails are brief and they’re quick and they’re to the point.

I, in fact, am not a big fan of writing e-mails. I find that it loses the personal touch. I use a lot of video e-mail so that I can be communicating using my voice, my hands, and my body language. I feel like I’m sharing directly with my audience. Very often I will even make a quick audio recording back to someone so they can hear what I have to say. When you do actually type an e-mail, think carefully. Read it a couple of times and make sure that the e-mail is right and in the right tone of voice that you want to use. Otherwise you can’t be sure that the person reading your e-mail really understands exactly what you wanted to say.

When you think about e-mail, remember, it’s all about building relationships. So how can you make e-mail more effective? Perhaps you’ll want to play with video or audio. I suggest you try it.

Being Transparent In Your Business

I want to talk to you today about being transparent. So many business owners are not transparent. They’re not honest, they’re not 100 percent ethical, and they’re hiding. What do I mean by that? In a conversation where someone is chatting with you to see whether or not your products or services are a fit for them, this is where you really need to be transparent. You need to be open. You need to be honest. You need to come from truth and you need to come from integrity. I believe a reason many business owners fail is they’re just not willing to be transparent, clear and honest.

To me, there’s one thing that you have in your business and that is your word. You are your word and nothing but your word. So you must come from authenticity and truth. When I chat with people, when I listen to people, when I hear people – if I really believe that my products and services are a fit, I’ll share that. If I believe they’re not I’ll tell them that as well. And I don’t make promises. I was told years ago the business owner should under promise and over deliver. I don’t buy that. I think you shouldn’t promise and then you should “wow”. So be transparent. Come from truth. And treat your clients and your customers like your extended family. You will thrive in your business when you follow these tips.

U.S. Won the Game in Extra Time – How to Score Your Own Goals with Extra Time

Some people work overtime because they have to, and some because they want to, and some people avoid it at all costs.  Putting in extra time can help you and be a smart career move – if done wisely!  The secret is balance and getting recognized for your extra efforts.

Depending on who you ask, you will get varying answers to the question of whether working overtime is worth it or not.  The general consensus of opinion is negative, with research finding that working overtime has been linked to anxiety and depression. Yet clearly, not everyone who works overtime suffers either of these conditions… so what gives? (more…)

Six Tips to Restore the Motivation to Work

The past couple of years has seen an unprecedented shift in business and financial challenges and opportunities on a global scale.  While some western countries experienced serious downturns, many developing countries found their feet, making their fortunes by attracting western businesses to set up base in their country where business costs and labor are so much cheaper. While the wisdom of this is being debated and some governments are actively encouraging their home grown businesses to invest and remain on home soil, the major effect of this outsourcing and taking industry overseas is diminished job and career opportunities at home, which has a demoralizing effect on those who’ve lost their jobs.

Now, as businesses in the major western countries get back on their feet, one of the key factors to their success is not going to be in the number of new products they can invent or manufacture for less than their competition, but from the people who work for them… the employees who drive their business. If a company is to rebuild itself and continue to grow, it must have enthusiastic, productive and committed people and motivating the workforce must become a key strategy in business growth plans. 

Studies show that money alone does not provide long term motivation, because employees have to know the difference between being paid for the job they do as opposed to being rewarded for doing a good job, so with many companies still facing the necessity to watch their spending, here are some examples of motivational programs and options they can consider. (more…)

What Changes to Management Can Improve the Bottom Line?

When change is introduced into the workplace, there is often a degree of resistance, anxiety and sometimes even ridicule of the new methodologies. People equate change with difficulty and something to be feared. This is where open communication is so important and it starts right at the very top.

 If you don’t have the full support and understanding of key management positions, any organizational changes being made are going to be thwart with difficulties. It is up to CEOs and Presidents to champion the cause and ensure their managerial teams are also in full support, so that it can filter down through the ranks more smoothly.

 It is not enough to merely hand a list of problems and preferred outcomes or objectives to a managerial team and expect them to go ahead and get to work on it. They, too, need guidelines and guidance, reassurance, and training. Many Managers get to where they are through natural progression up the corporate ladder, climbing their way on their years of experience. But this doesn’t mean they know how to manage. The Manager of the Sales Department may be an excellent Sales Person himself and know how to train his staff in successful sales techniques and strategies, but as a manager of people and an organizational change expert, he may well be out of his depth. The same can be said for many managers in many different departments.

 All the brilliant change plans in the world will fail if those who are responsible for the action have no idea what they are doing and possibly, don’t believe in what they are doing. So the first step is ensuring the managerial teams understand what changes are being made and why, and what outcomes are being sought and why. They then need training in the best methodologies for introducing the new systems to their own departments. This requires a whole set of skills many managers lack, simply because it has not been something they have been taught before. This includes people skills, communication skills, and negotiating skills. (more…)

Terri Levine – the Coaches Coach!

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I’d like to share some recent testimonials with you…

Within a couple of hours of just a simple presentation, I made $15,000. $15,000 just working with Terri for just a couple of hours. This is how powerful her teaching is and we’re just starting out. I’m looking forward to so much more. We’re building an amazing relationship. I am ecstatic and I know that things are just going to go up from there. I highly recommend Terri Levine.
– Jemila Williams

I have had the extraordinary experience of spending an entire day, one on one, with Terri Levine, the Guru of Coaching. And I have to tell you it made a huge difference for me personally and professionally. Oh my goodness, the breakthroughs we had. I had a quantum leap in my business and how we’re doing business development, how we’re impacting our bottom line, how we’re increasing our profitability. All these conversations I had with Terri when we spent a day together have ended up in those kinds of results. And for me as a business owner, that’s exactly what I’m looking for. I recommend that anybody give themselves the gift of working with Terri. She is extraordinary. She is savvy. She is wise, and at the end of the day, she is going to do great things to help take your business to the next level.
– Kristen Schuerlein

I’m here to tell you that Terri Levine is the real deal. As a coach, I personally haven’t met anybody so genuine, so loving, so giving of her time, her knowledge and her resources. I recently attended her one day speaking event and it was great. She just blew me away with all of the content that she gave us that we could implement immediately. I instantly found out the holes that I needed to fill in my own business and in my own life where I was stuck. It opened a lot of interesting doors for myself as a speaker and as a business woman. I am so grateful for Terri’s work and her giving and I cannot wait to work with her more.
– Susan Creal

There’s two things that are very special about Terri Levine. One is she has this amazing sense to analyze a business and determine what moves you can make to catapult that business into the stratosphere. One idea from a person like Terri who has this amazing sense for business can change that business tremendously. The other thing that is so special about Terri is her heart, her passion. And Terri has an amazing ability to take your passion and your experience and merge them into a business that you love and will create amazing results. Terri Levine, she’s the one.
– Les Schmidt

My first month with Terri gave me awesome momentum. It was an honor to complete her challenge and win the $1000 for my video.
This month, I added an unexpected $3000 to my income. She taught us to do things that stand out and I did a crazy e-mail promotion in a new target market.
So far I’ve ended up with fabulous testimonials, raving fans, and possible new clients, who are already referring their friends.
Warmest regards,
Lin Morel, MA, DSS