20 Tips for 2020

20 Social Media Tips for 2020

1 - Keep your business and personal posts separate.  A few posts that show you have personality are great but if every second post is personal then your target market may get distracted and forget what you do for business.

2 - Build your list.  Posting to 20 people means that only 20 people will see your post - grow your list.

3 - Start a group - use your business name and start a group.

4 - Start a business page - use your business name to start a business page.

5 - Join other groups and review their guidelines.  Can you post tips and hints?  Can you post advertisments?

6 - Join other business pages, especially the ones of business friends who may help share your messages.

7 - When someone asks you to join their group or follow their business page - do it and then send them a private message "I followed your page, please consider following mine at https://www.facebook.com/FitForBusinessConsulting/ "

8 - Be helpful in 9 out of 10 posts.

9 - 10th post can be an advertisement.

10 - Use pictures and /or coloured backgrounds.

11 - Stay positive - if you always complain then you send out negative energy and people prefer to buy from people who are positive.  

12 - Be timely - if it is the holiday season then include that in your post.

13 - Try videos - they can be short and sweet - 2 minutes.  Whether it is a facebook live or a You Tube video link, they add extra energy and attract more viewers  to your post.

14 - like / comment / share - if you help your contacts share their information then they will help share your contact info once in awhile.

15 - Set up an event - you can set up a facebook event and you can invite your contacts to the event.  They will receive an email to the event but may not receive emails for individual posts.

16 - Post regularly - try to post daily.

17 - Post a link to your blog or newsletter articles.

18 - Be sure to remind people to go to your website and sign up for your newsletter.  If the social media site ever closes down you do not want to lose all of your contacts.

19 - Check the inbound messages in your account regularly in case you have a lead.  You can also send private messages to people who seem interested in your posts.

20 - Remember that social media is part of your marketing plan - not your whole marketing plan so you should still meet people in person, phone people and email people individually.  Consider getting a booth at a business tradeshow or a commuity event to introduce your business and use your social media accounts to stay connected and build your business relationships.

Fit For Business can take care of your social media accounts for you.  Call today to get our introductory social media services rates at $60 plus tax a month.

Cheryl Rankin

Business Consultant

Fit For Business

info@fitforbusiness.ca

647-287-0320 

 

2020 is here.  Is your business ready to go? Are you ready to go?

A business plan will help you confirm your focus and what resources you need in order to succeed.  An existing business plan should be reviewed and updated in order to be as useful as possible.  

Your focus - identify your goals and what products or services you are selling in order to meet these goals.  Your goals will start as an annual goal but it is best to break them down into  monthly and even weekly goals so that you can create your tasks / actions you need to perform in order to meet your goals.

Your resources - in order to meet your business goals, what do you need for resources?  Whether it is raw ingredients for manufacturing products or new software to manage your schedule or staff in order to meet the production and delivery needs of the business - you need to identify the resources and confirm when and how to get them.

You - identify the skills you need in order to meet the goals you have identified.  If you need some more skills then do some research on how to get those skills.  Identify how you will actually do the work that is needed. Confirm whether or not you have enough time to do all of the tasks necessary or if you need to hire someone to help.

Most people are not actually ready to run their business at the level of their goals.  Taking time to prepare will help insure that you can actually grow to that level, attain the success you dream of and most of all make sure that you do not burn out.

Cheryl Rankin

Business Consultant, Fit For Business

info@fitforbusiness.ca

647-287-0320

Fit For Business - 100 Day Challenge

Fit For Business - 100 Day Challenge

Social Media

Social Media -

Everyone is excited about having social media as a way of promoting their business.  Focusing on it as your only source for marketing will limit your options for your business.

In real life when you see a neighbour once in awhile in the winter and you wave at each other -- these moments in time help you stay connected during the cold winter when no one sees their neighbours as often as the summer.  In the summertime, we have BBQs and invite them over; stop and chat in the driveway and even invite each other over for a coffee.  Friendships are built on the longer conversations and chats but the winter waves and quick hellos, help bridge the time in between.

Social media is like the winter bridge - it helps you stay connected with people in between your real life meetings or phone calls.

It is possible to start business relationships on social media websites as well.  In this case, you are best to take the relationship even slower than in real life.  When you interact in a meeting, you can watch for reactions that will help you communicate with the person.  On the phone, we sometimes ask for clarification if we are unsure how the person is reacting.  On social media, most communication is done in slow motion -- one post out and then a reaction could be an hour later or a day later.

I wish there was statistics to guide everyone -- traditional marketing takes approximately 7 marketing touches to get someone to seriously think about buying from you.  Social media interactions need ____ touches to get someone to call you and get serious about buying your product.

So back to the basics - social media should be one part of your marketing plan.  Not your whole plan.  Do not stay hidden by your computer and try to run your business - get out and use other marketing strategies to build up your list and work on the relationships and of course close the deals.



Cheryl Rankin
Fit For Business
647-287-0320

Marketing at Events

Marketing at Events

Events have a variety of ways for you to market your business
- have a booth / table
- be a sponsor
- be an attendee
- be a speaker
- provide a door-prize
- provide gifts or coupons for the bags
- be the organizer
- be a guest of someone who has an extra ticket
- have your business cards or flyers or product on someone else's table

To choose which things to do at an event
1) what is your budget?
2) who is the target market for the event?
3) how many people do they expect to attend?
4) are you ready to market? (have handouts or a draw or signage)
5) will you have exclusivity for a booth?

Sometimes the best events that you can attend have nothing to do with your business and you go as an attendee and talk to a vendor and they buy from you or connect you to someone that will.

Attendees can not market directly to other attendees or vendors at large tradeshows.  The organizers will not be happy and ask you to leave or fine you for trespassing.  You can have conversations and enter draws and mingle.

Get out and attend events - it will give you energy and give your business some exposure.

Cheryl Rankin
Fit For Business
647-287-0320

Networking to market your business

Networking to market your business -

If you do not want to make cold calls and you do not have a full bank account for advertising then consider networking to market your business.

meetings - regular business networking meetings will give you business friends, some business referrals in the long run and depending on the group some education to help you grow your business to the next level.  If people buy from someone they know, they like and they trust then this type of networking can help you market your business.

tradeshows - small business tradeshows are a networking opportunity that also has some marketing opportunities to purchase a booth / table.  Having a booth / table means that people come to you to network which can sometimes make it easier to network.  It gives you a chance to show off / display what you do.  Networking at event like this also gives you a safe way to network - you can visit all of the tables.  They want to talk to everyone.  Talk to them to find out what they sell and only after they ask what you do should you tell them.  They paid for the chance to have a table and you are a participant.

networking events - these events can have from 15 to 50 people.  Everyone attends these events in the hopes of selling their product or service.  First strategy is to listen to the other person and then you will get the chance to promote yourself.  In many cases, you can start a business relationship with someone at an event like this.  You may go home with many business cards but only a few strong leads or opportunities to have coffee and continue to build business relationships.  The good news is you now have business cards that you can follow up on - phone them!  Ask them if you can send them your newsletter.

large networking events - these events have over 100 people.  I suggest having a few different goals -- 1) I want to go home with 30 business cards 2) I want to meet 3 people that we schedule a coffee meeting and 3) I want to help at least 3 people so they remember me later.  Trying to get all of the business cards means that you will not get time to shake any hands.  Trying to have long conversations with people means you only meet one person.  Try and balance your time.

To help find business networking meetings and events -
www.businessconnectionexchange.ca
www.biznetworknews.com
www.thenetworker.ca

To book a business consultation to discuss your networking needs call Cheryl at 647-287-0320.

Cheryl Rankin
Fit For Business
647-287-0320
info@fitforbusiness.ca
Social media - twitter / linked in / facebook

Social Media and Your Business

My goal for social media and my business is:


1 - increase my number of business contacts (mostly in the GTA)


2 - build up my credibility and demonstrate my expertise


3 - create some community




Obviously it is a goal of the majority of businesses to increase the number of contacts so in turn they have more prospects and in the long run more clients.  Just having more friends or followers does not necessarily make it useful.  One twitter contact that I have posts a quote everyday.  The followers of this twitter account (myself included) enjoy and appreciate the quotes.  At no point in the past two years have I noticed the business owners explaining what she does.  It does not matter how many contacts if no one knows what she does.  I also think it is extremely ridiculous to have thousands of contacts in other countries unless there is a chance that you could buy from them; they could buy from you or you could learn from them.  If none of these things are possible then that contact is only a number and is not helping your business.


Building up credibility and demonstrating your expertise is important for almost all businesses.  Even businesses that sell products can demonstrate expertise.  9 out of 10 posts should be helpful - tips, events that your target market may be interested in, product introduction / highlights, and of course staff introduction.  Including articles that you have written in your social media will highlight your knowledge and including articles you find on the internet, in newspapers or magazines highlights the fact that you keep up on the industry.  Documenting your speaking opportunities definitely demonstrates that other people believe and understand that you are an expert.


Community is a big deal when you live in a small town.  The new comer takes awhile before they are accepted.  In the social media world, community can help get your message out to more people.  It is extremely tough to make enough deals to have specific contacts like, share and comment on every post and you in turn comment on theirs -- so you need to post things that people will like, share and comment on without you prompting them every-time.  The posts that seem to get the most attention are the ones that start a discussion.  Post your opinion in a statement and then watch other people react.


If your sole focus on social media is to get sales then it will be a very difficult adventure.  It takes many other factors to build your list, build your credibility and build your community before the sales part becomes easier and more consistent.


If you need help with your social media then call Cheryl Rankin, Fit For Business at 647-287-0320 or email info@fitforbusiness.ca


facebook / linked In / twitter - let's connect!