How strong is your social network?  How many people can you pick up the phone right now and call right now?  How many would answer?

If you are networking online, are you translating to your activity offline?

Transactions are made out here, in the real world, with real people.

• Meetings
• Conference Calls
• Presentations

I tell my students all the time:

• Get offline.
• Talk to people.
• Develop a relationship.
• Add value to the marketplace.
• Be helpful.
• Befriend people with skills that you don’t have.

More on Using Social Media For Real World Networking

Let’s look at a fundamental truth right from the dictionary. This is the textbook definition. Starting at the beginning.

mar·ket·ing (mär'ki-ting) n.

1. The act or process of buying and selling in a market.

2. The commercial functions involved in transferring goods from producer to consumer.

Taking a page from politics, marketing is getting an idea into the marketplace and getting people to change their minds and behavior.

Let’s examine a pragmatic definition you can use today:

Marketing is the practice of getting your idea not only into the marketplace but also into the minds of those who are ready, willing and able to take action to consume your product.

As a business, the first thing that your business has to do is promote the idea that it can produce a consumable product. But more importantly, getting the idea to the right people is critical. Traffic is crucial. Actional (conversional) traffic is even more important.

For politics, the consumable product that you market is leadership.

As a business owner, you too are promoting leadership in your chosen market.

So how does this pertain to social media strategy?

Social media for most is a place for chatter. Making that idle chatter actionable is your goal.

So…

More on Social Media Strategy for Marketing (Some Thinking)

This is a continuation of Social Media Strategy Playbook Series. There is much to learn as we study politics and extract meaningful marketing lessons from the outcomes of the various campaigns. New media technologies are disrupting the landscape of both business and politics and the similarities are staggering. If you have the distinctions to see what is really happening, this is an excellent real-time ideation-to-transaction primer.

We have covered:

Rule 1:  Use All Available Media Channels from the Very Beginning

Rule 2:  Create a Short Meaningful Message, Speak It and Let It Work

More on Social Media Strategy Playbook: Transactional Situations

I was looking on my hard drives and I found a folder full of interviews and conversations that I have had over the years. These are pure gold nuggets of information that I am so glad that I captured. Howie is featured in the interview below.  Howie Jacobson is a good friend of mine. Howie is the author of the “AdWords for Dummies” book.

There is so much in this 7–minute clip:

• PPC
• Salesmanship
• System Setup
• SEO
• Social Media
• Passion For Work
• Media Repurposing

Markets are changing rapidly. Hope that you enjoy it. More to come.

I was noticing that I was too busy for business these days.

• Phone calls.
• Emails to write.
• Meetings to attend.
• Proposals to write.
• Travel Time
• Setup Time
• Presentations
• Web sites to create

I found that I was caught in the same cycle that made my desk job so unbearable. Too much “busy work”.

Too busy handing other stuff to actually get anything done. We have all gone through days and found that we have gotten nothing accomplished.

So enough is enough. Here’s what I did to solve it…

I got out my note book and made a list of who I had to talk to and what I had to do for them. But more importantly – why am I doing this for them.

When I asked the “why” question, I found myself pushing calls and appointments back. Cancelling some calls and clearing out whole days of so-called work.

Now with the days cleared, I can concentrate on designing my life and business the way that it should work for me and not me for it.

What did it take?

More on Time Management For Business 101 : Too Busy For Business