In the hustle and grind of daily life, it’s easy to overlook small accomplishments. We’re so focused on our ultimate goals, constantly striving for the next big achievement, that we rarely pause to acknowledge the smaller victories along the way. But celebrating small wins is more than just a feel-good moment; it’s a powerful tool that can transform our mindset, build momentum, and make each day more rewarding. READ MORE AT MS. CAREER GIRL
motivation (4)
Creating an engaged audience on any of your social networks involves give and take. People "like" brands on Facebook as a sign of support. They shop in your store, appreciate the service provided, and support the work. They have some sort of relationship with your business or organization and are demonstrating a willingness to receive updates. Before developing a working social media strategy, here are some useful information:
Facebook -- According to a Syncapse study, which surveyed 2,000 respondents, the main reason people like a Facebook Page is because of the relationship they share with the brand.
Here are the top three reasons consumers decide to like a Facebook Page:
49% To support a brand I like
42% To get a coupon or discount
41% To receive regular updates from brands they like
Twitter -- The Advertising Research Foundation, 54% of users took action after seeing a brand mentioned on Twitter.
23% visited the brand's website
20% visited the brand's twitter page
20% search the brand online
19% consider trying the brand
18% retweet Tweets mentioning the brand
Social Media is About Relationship Building
Companies and brands readily include their product offerings in social media. Equally, consumers are increasingly comfortable with purchasing products online. Given the promising potential of eCommerce, it is important to have a flexible marketing strategy. A good marketing plan will grow and adjust with the fads and trends within social media. To achieve an effective marketing plan, one must understand both corporate and consumer perspectives.
3 Pillars of Creating a Successful Social Media Strategy
Create Detailed Goals And Objectives
A recent article in Forbes Magazine, companies have spent over 11% of their budget on social media. The article says, "Success in the social world of marketing requires a deep connection to the customer and the ability to drive a transformation of the company to embrace a whole new type of customer engagement." As more and more companies work on integrating social media into their corporate marketing and communication plans, there is a growing emphasis in creating a winning social media strategy.
Top-level athletes, successful entrepreneurs and achievers in all areas of life set goals. Goals give a vision of the future, but also motivation in a moment. It focuses your acquisition of knowledge, and helps you to organize your time and your resources so that you can make the very most of your life.
- S – Specific (or Significant)
- M – Measurable (or Meaningful)
- A – Attainable (or Action-Oriented)
- R – Relevant (or Rewarding)
- T – Time-bound (or Trackable)
For example, instead of having "to sail around the world" as a goal, it's better to use the SMART goal "Completed my trip around the world by December 31, 2018." Obviously, this will only be attainable if a lot of preparation has been completed beforehand.
Take Time to Measure Results
It is equally important to measure success after goals and objects are in place. Among the most common goals include:
- Consistent brand placement across social media platforms
- Increase traffic to company website
- Increase positive consumer sentiment and perception towards brand
- Develop relationships for potential partnership opportunities in the future
Analyze, Adjust and Improve
Once you have measured your success and progress towards your goal, you need to analyze and identify key areas that need improvement, adapt to changing trends and improve your overall social media campaign. Remember, it is not always a straight road ahead, so you need to constantly evaluate and adjust.
Complexities of Social Media
Social media is very complex and constantly evolving. It’s no wonder why many businesses struggle to figure it out and keep up. While a number have enjoyed quantifiable success, there are also many who failed, and the rest have still yet to figure out their social media strategy.
Missteps in meeting social media goals and objectives occur due to not understanding the important social media concepts. While it is true that social media gives businesses free exposure, many organizations fail to carefully plan the message they want to convey, as they would have normally done for any expensive ad campaign.
Need a Coach?
11 Actions for implementing your social marketing strategy
Any organization needs to build and nurture the needs of their social networks. There are many approaches to achieve these results, the following are methods that work:
- Building relationships first. Business transactions are a by-product of your relationships. Any attempt to overtly sell a certain product or service can easily damage your online presence.
- Define your target audience carefully, including geographies of focus and identify specific areas of expertise. There is greater value in maintaining a smaller network with regular interactions and active engagements.
- Automation as a shortcut to relationship building is a fast way to destroy any social media strategy, Take the time to interact with those that choose to follow you.
- Consumers no longer have to think of excuses and come up with a polite “no” to a persuasive sales person, all they have to do is to click the “unfollow” button.
- Organizations must assign a dedicated social media expert. Don’t make the mistake of assigning anyone to handle your social media campaign. The person must be qualified and work independently as a social media evangelist and report directly to top executives.
- Engagement is more important than follower counts. Organizations should focus on cultivating engagement and not on figures.
- Don’t try to cater everyone by being all things to all people. If you are truly keen to reach power users, key decision makers your design your content around your market.
- Social media is not a place to publish your award-winning sales pitches. Posts should be clear and concise, not emotional or impulsive. It should be carefully constructed and always politically correct.
- Twitter posts in particular should be free from any gimmicks or hidden strings attached, but instead provide information, free resources and best practices.
- Updates should be frequent and consist. Social media campaigns are long-term and ongoing efforts, and work as an integral part of the company’s online presence. It is not an 9 to 5:30 weekday job, however update and post 7 to 9 times daily, especially if your potential audience is global.
- Social media profiles MUST be impeccable. Profiles are the first and most viewed age in social media platforms. But all too often, it is the most ignored aspect. All elements, including background, images and messages should be consistent with the corporate image and brand.
Consider getting a coach, a life coach, business coach or both. I feel fortunate enough to have had this experience and am now in a position to return the favor to others that are just starting out. If you are interested in a coach, please send me your email so I may contact you directly within the next 24 hours or go to my website: https://21kgroup.com/coaching.
What is your motivation?
What is the motivation?
Are you motivated?
Motivation is the desire to achieve what you believe is worthwhile. How can you demonstrate the desire if you are not pursuing what you think is worthwhile? Many people go through life with the lack of motivation to push themselves or because they never were challenged by anything they believed worthwhile. These people will unfortunately never see greatness. Looking at our past actions too often tells a tale of self-injury and unhappiness stemming from our blind desire to be judged worthy and acceptable by people who hardly know our true hearts and abilities. We forget that the natural enemy to life is not a distant death, but the day to day detachment from pursuing those things that make you happy.
George Burns said, "We can't help getting older, but we can help becoming old."
EVALUATE YOURSELF ON A SCALE OF 1 TO 10
Mental Attitude
How do you feel about you?
How do you feel about life?
Physical Appearance
Do you take care of yourself?
Are you eating healthy foods?
Are you allowing yourself to get overweight?
Do you exercise?
Environment
Do you like your job?
Is the community you live in safe?
When you daydream of a better life, how distant is it from what you are doing right now?
Challenging and stimulating are not the same thing. Are you stimulated by what you are working on at home and/or work?
Relationships
Do your "Friends" build you up?
Do your "friends" drain you?
Are you the one who invites everyone over for dinner and dinner parties, but no one reciprocates?
Contribution to the world
What will people say about you when you are gone?
What will people remember you by?
What do people say about you when you leave the room?
What do people say about you when you hang-up the phone?
What will be different because you were here?
Do you need a coach?
Life is a gift from God and how we live our lives is our gift to God. What is your gift? We are not defined by the sum total of our intentions, we are defined by the sum total of our actions.
Get Up!
1) Work on yourself continuously
2) Don't look for the perfect conditions to act
3) Practice joy and gratitude
4) Never stop investing time in yourself and what makes you happy
5) Read books that don't just inspire you, but move you forward
6) Attend a course but don't take another course until you've acted on 100% of what you've learned
7) Don't read 50 books. Read one book and action 100% of what it said to do
8) Learn in the morning as this is when the mind is clearest
9) Read and learn in search for insight beyond what's in the pages
10) Don't ask permission to be great, just ask for people to get out of your way!
Having a coach is not a sign of weakness. In fact, it’s one of the smartest decisions you can make in your entrepreneurial career. I feel fortunate enough to have had this experience and am now in a position to return the favor to others that are just starting out. If you are interested in a coach, please contact me at michael.drayton@21kgroup.com.
Sonny Melendrez with Eduardo Villareal Elementary "Teachers of Strength"
One of my greatest joys in life comes when I am standing in front of an audience delivering my message of the power of enthusiasm. This is especially true when the audience is made up of all ages.
While many of my engagements are keynotes at universities, conferences, corporate awards programs, and charity galas, I also enjoy speaking to smaller groups and schools. I’ve found that one presentation always leads to another.
Recently, I received a request to give the commencement address at an inner-city elementary school in San Antonio. The words in the email, written by a passionate teacher named Joanna Vargas, jumped out from my computer screen.
Ms. Vargas wrote, “I strongly believe my reason for being present at your speech at Barnes and Noble during Braille Awareness Week was because your life story could be a true inspiration for the students from our community.
The Villarreal community is composed of many different cultures to include 120 5th graders who are 93% Hispanic, 5% White, 2% Black, and 1% Asian/Pacific Islander. However, the greatest impact in their life is their family dynamics. We have children that come from broken homes: CPS interventions, parents in jail, grandparents as guardians, and homeless, and this life experience is brought daily into the classrooms which greatly molds their perspective of their future. Our approach to educating them about the benefits of continuing their education is through goal setting and exposing them to the possibilities of getting out of the cycle through a college education.
When you spoke about your book, Living with Enthusiasm, it reminded me of our goal. At Villarreal we have a motto that we live by every day, ‘We Start Strong, Stay Strong, and Finish Strong,’ and this is the message that was expressed in your speech. We teach our students strategies to start, stay, and finish strong, but we need to talk to them about the attitude during those times that test our confidence. We can achieve our goals if we stay positive regardless of the obstacles.”
I accepted her invitation and at the event, as I walked among the students to entertain and deliver my words of encouragement, the faces looking back were filled with hope, wonder, and pride. My reason for coming to Eduardo Villarreal Elementary was evident.
Without realizing it, Joanna Vargas had done more than book a speaker for the graduation. She had lifted the spirits even higher of someone who saw the rewarding results of teachers dedicated to the students they love. You see, no one was more inspired, that morning in June, than the man invited to stand behind the microphone.
Thank you, Ms. Vargas.
Sonny Melendrez is an inspirational speaker and author of “The Art of Living With Enthusiasm!” For booking information email: sonny@sonnyradio.com or visit SonnyMelendrez.com.
