I get asked a lot is about how to monetize Facebook and social media as well as how to market with it. This is something a lot of marketers, including myself, didn’t jump into right way. I think we all knew that it was going to be big as we watched it develop, but waited before we dove into including it in our marketing arsenal.
Now it has grown to a point where we can’t ignore it.
Where I see a lot of people get tied up is they see all of the technology available and try to pull all the pieces into their business at one time, and they may not understand how to use it or why to use it, so it makes no sense.
If you are someone who is starting a business online—or even if you have a business that you’ve been trying to get going online for a while, I’d say, sit back, build a plan as to what you want to accomplish so that you will know the tools that you want to use, and then look for the technology that’s going to support you first and most effectively and then build from there.
You’ve got to look at and know your goals. I recently did an interview on mobile marketing. One of the questions was…
How has mobile marketing changed your life?
My answer was it hasn’t. Let me explain. Where a lot of people look at mobile marketing as the Holy Grail, I look at it as just an extension. It’s something you have to consider, but not something you have to use or incorporate into your business right now.
You want your websites mobile compatible as you move forward. I think having opt-in pages and even webinars being viewable on an iPad or an iPhone is important, but I don’t think you should throw all your eggs in one basket and say this is the next thing and forget everything else you’ve ever done. It’s just an extension of what you’re already doing.
What happens is we get stuck and don’t start thinking outside the box as far as the maximum ways technology can be used. I take the time to look at websites in other industries and different markets to see how they are using new technology and then decide if I can use it in a similar way in my business.
For example, I was on a website not too long ago and it was essentially a way for people to post articles online. It was like an ezine directory, but they had a unique twist on it. The unique twist was that you post your article online and you get paid for it.
What if I could create a site like that and then pay people a little bit differently? I immediately started thinking about how I could add this strategy into my business, but I have to look at it from all sides and make sure that it makes sense. Just because it looks good and works in someone else’s business doesn’t mean it is necessarily my next step.
That’s one of those ideas I put down in my little black book of ideas that may or may not work for me in the future, but it’s always about thinking outside the box and seeing what’s working for other industries and then trying to apply it to your own business in your own industry.
As you move forward in building your business, make sure you look at all the technology in front of you. See what is working in your industry as well as others and then makes sure it is a perfect fit for your business right now. If it is then great, build it and grow. If it’s not, then make a note to revisit the idea when you’re ready.
Don’t get caught up in trying to do it all or you will paralyze yourself into doing nothing.
