Business owner’s work crazy hours and have a very limited amount of down time. Below is a list of 20 things you can do with social media and with your business in general to increase your exposure and pick up some new customers.
1. Post about the history of your business.
2. Tweet a daily tip having to do with your industry.
3. Start a weekly video blog that gives updates on your company and what is happening within your local community.
4. Know other business people of influence in your area? Ask them to do a guest blog. It provides great exposure for you, and them!
5. Respond to all social media posts on your business page.
6. Post behind the scenes pictures. Having a staff meeting? Why not snap a photo? Cleaning up after a big party at your restaurant, show off the before and after.
7. Ask questions. Ask your community questions that pertain to your industry. Later you can use the answers for material on your other social media networks.
8. Join Google+ and get active with it. Stop putting it off. 
9. Be consistent. Don’t start a project that you’re not willing to follow through with – same thing with social media.
10. Link to other sources of information. Don’t be afraid to mention other knowledgable figures in your industry. By being willing to share other’s information. By doing so you are also proving that you are a great source for new information and that you are aware of new things happening.
11. Send a Thank You note every week. Hand written – with ink, from a pen.
12. ABC. Always Be Conscious, of your surroundings and new content for your social media outlets. Some of my most well received articles were conceived by an ad I saw in a Rite Aid or while walking through Brooklyn, NY with my brother.
13. Know what needs to get done – Today. Some people use lists, others have software, other’s have a reminder app on their iPhone. Whatever your tactic, know what needs to get done today.
14. Set goals that make you stretch and celebrate when you knock them out of the park. Want to be motivated to stick to your monthly and yearly goals? Share them with someone who’s not afraid to remind you of them – for me, I share them with my wife.
15. Read 15 minutes a day from a book that will have a positive impact on your attitude. Here are a few I recommend (Affiliate Links):
- Peaks and Valleys: Making Good And Bad Times Work For You–At Work And In Life
- The Power of Positive Thinking
- Little Red Book of Selling: 12.5 Principles of Sales Greatness
16. Know your value. Often things that come easy to one person are easily under priced because that person assumes everyone knows it is easy. Marketing is fun for me but for my best friend who is a missile engineer – he’s willing to pay for it.
17. Don’t confuse your calling with your career. I love this advice that I heard from the Dan Miller Podcast. Often times we feel like we are called to be helping panda’s in the jungle but there is no real sustainable way to do this. Your career will sometimes provide a great funding source for your volunteer work.
18. Be willing to do the work. Don’t sell the service if you are not willing to do the work.
19. Fail fast and fail cheap. Try new idea’s, if they don’t work stop them. Be willing to take calculated risks that don’t require too much up front investment.
20. Stop and smell the roses. You won’t be here forever so stop and smell the roses once in a while. If what you are doing is not making you happy, then why are you doing it?
What did I miss?
superb post! Keep up the excellent work!
…21. Eat right, rest and exercise, my formula for happiness.
Thanks David, I needed that.
I keep doing what I don’t like, to pay the bills…..
I know there is more out there, that is fun, and pays the bills.
I have a hundred ideas for fun jobs, but no motivation, no time and no funding.
Tomorrow is another day and I’ll try to reach some more people.