Always start with the why, even though must of us begin with the what or how. Simon Sinek has studied how leaders act and think.  In this Ted Talk he uses that knowledge to explain what, and in what order, Entrepreneurs should think.  He describes a golden circle your business should be centered around to tell WHY you are in business.  Everything else follows.  I believe this TALK is a must for anyone in life as we are all in the business of ourselves.  This talk will help you get and stay focused.  You will make more money, and attract more customers/jobs when you find out how to start with your WHY.  

Sign up for my email list as I am collected Simons Sinek worksheets and resources and will mail them out when I have them compiled. Contact Information

Here is the link to the Ted Talk
https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action

The time of year has come for final exams, project deadlines, and a need to keep ourselves or our kids focused.  I started using an app called MOMENT, which monitors cell phone usage.  I could not believe how much I was using my phone (I am not telling!).  I also put the app on my children's phone.  When they saw how much they used their phones they were shocked too.  Having this data for the kids, and myself helped to set limits. The kids could see what they were doing and how long and we used this to talk about making better choices and monitoring their own usage
  
Limits do not always work so here are some easy to use programs that can block or reduce access to social media or websites.

Anti-Social: Blocks a site for as little as 15 minutes up to 8 hours.  It will not let you access a site once you block it, so you are committed to staying focused.

StayFocusd: This is a Chrome app that tracks time and limits access to websites.  You can also block an entire site for good.  

SelfControl: This one is free and for Mac users.  Can block access to websites.

Happy monitoring and blocking!

Often we marketers are overwhelmed with new ideas and strategies.  Our minds are hard to slow down as information is consistently flashed in front of us.  When it comes to content marketing the same is true.  So many steps, templates, and strategies it can be difficult to figure out where to start, even when the answer could be simple.  Take it from me as someone who has taken certification after certification and used template after template to develop content.  The answer comes from looking at SOLUTIONS. Content is created to solve a problem for a customer. For those customers who are researching what their challenges are and those that are already using your product/service as a solution.  Content is creating knowledge about the solution you are providing. Notice I said Solution not a product or service. The one thing you need to know about content marketing is to focus on the solution to customers problems.  Break out of the current mold concentrating on a product our service and instead talk about the solution the product/service provides.  Answer these questions and think of content that could support your answers. 

What is the customer doing when they first show symptoms of a problem?
What is the customer doing when they first show signs of evaluating alternatives?
What is the customer doing when they have defined their solution?

It's Not About the What its About the Why!

​Buyer Personas
Social Media is a great place to conduct research about your customers or potential customers.  The research allows a business to create buyer personas.  Buyer Personas are fictional representations of your customer allowing you to customize content, needs, and behaviors to different groups. Taking target marketing one step farther and the payoff is worth it, see the infographic below.   Start defining Buyer Personas by researching the following about your customer.  Start an excel spreadsheet to keep track of your research for each of these categories.
1.    Demographics - Where do they live, age, gender
2.    What are their interests
3.    What are their careers, education, income?
4.    Buying Motivations?
5.    Buying concerns?
6.    Favorite websites and platforms?
7.    Competitors – Similiar Web
Finding this information is simple but may take some time.  You can start with googling keywords you think the customers are using, going on each platform and joining groups or following key influencers.  Google trends or Google alerts also help monitor customers.  I have a feedly.com account so I can keep track of the blogs, news and websites I follow in one place.
Once you have some research you can group similar characteristics then describe and name similar personas.  Look for similarities on who they are, what they do, why they do it and how they do it.  Adding a fictional name and a picture helps you remember the persona. Below you will find an example.  Remember take your time creating buyer personas and be willing to edit personas as you continue to research and learn about your customers. Share the persona you have created.

Click on the link below to download the Buyer Persona Worksheet
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​buyer_persona_template.pdf

“Don’t get caught up in all the shiny new things” is my favorite peace of social media advice. New Social Media tools pop up all the time and it can be a real time waster exploring new resources. My advice is pick one or two you think can benefit you and explore that resource. Always stay focused on getting to know the platforms you are using in your social media strategy. Start small and expand your platform and resources as you listen to where your customers engage. My favorite resources right now is the Heminway Editor. For a $19 life time member you get access to an editing tool that works from anywhere, even your phone. Social media marketing includes writing whether we like it or not. So, for non-writers out their getting some help with editing content is essential. Grammarly is a great one as well and it is free for you to down load today!  What is your favorite social media resource?  What advice do you have about handling all the new and shiny tools in social media?
Dr. Emrich
​Always Learning

As Marketers, we need data. Data helps us understand our audience and the content that will resonate with them.  Social Media analytics help measure how our activities are performing against objectives on different social media platforms. My 2 favorite measurements to get started with analytics are Reach and Conversion Rate. REACH is the followers (Twitter), fans (Facebook) and group members (LinkedIn) a business is able to acquire. TRAFFIC and CONVERSION RATE is how many visitors/customers you get to your website that come over from social media.  These measures are easily available on each social media platform and google analytics.  See website below for detailed instructions.
https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/10-metrics-to-track-for-social-media-success/
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What are some other social media analytics and tools you could use to track social media performance?

What is the #1 thing you have learned about Social Media Marketing? Students please include hashtag #tricsocialmediaclass2018

After reading chapter 1 in this Introductory Guide to Social Media, how do you think you could apply these concepts for businesses to your own personal online presence on social media?    moz.com/beginners-guide-to-social-media

How does a business decide what content to post in what social media platform?  This is a good question and needs to be answered before a business starts marketing within social media to help with consistency and consumer awareness.  The best way that I have found is through what has been called social listening.  This is taking the time to observe consumers on different social media platforms.  Also, completing key word searches in google and analytical tools like hootsuite. (Social media listening, also known as social media monitoring, is the process of identifying and assessing what is being said about a company, individual, product or brand on the Internet.)  How would you go about social listening?

On the Gatorade Website, https://www.gatorade.com/about-our-ads at the bottom of the page there is a link to “About Our Ads”.  Gatorade exposes how they get their customer information by tracking then advertising to consumers.  Most companies are tracking anyone who visits a website with cookies, then selling information and email lists.   These actions are legal, but are they ethical?  How about how Gatorade?  They discuss their process in detail.  Does this make it more Ethical? 
 
In 2014, USA Today published an article titled “Social Media Research Raises Privacy and Ethics Issues”.
Discussing how social media and Facebook in general are behavioral laboratories with endless sources of information on consumers.  Most of the information is free or companies are paying third parties to collect the information for them.  For Example, Gatorade states specifically in their website, “We work with third parties who help gather this information. These third parties might link your name or email address to other information they collect. That might include past purchases made offline or online. Or, it might include online usage information”.
 
There are many ethical issues to think about in Social Media.  Content should be well thought out, and taken under careful consideration.  The PSRA, Public Relations Research Association has a nice guide for Social Media Ethics.
 
Where else can you read and update yourself on Ethics and/or risk in Social Media?

Marketing is not as much about information anymore as it is about engaging the customer.  Once you find your target market you need to learn what they really, really want.  What do your customers dream of and what makes them excited about something?  People actually buy more of what they want then what they need.  Engage your customers in the process and each other.  This helps to find out these wants and helps you learn what motivates them.  Message boards, blogs, newsletters, facebook, think of anything existing in social media or your business that can help you do this.  Marketing does not happen by accident it happens by design!

I have been reading from numerous sources that less than 20% of small businesses are using social media in their marketing strategy.  Here is a graph I pulled form emarketer.com that has slightly higher percentages for respondents.  It shows me there is a huge opportunities to capture a share of the market place before competitors.  Learning social media may be the hard thing but once you get started and learn some different vehicles it is not so hard and can really help your business. 
We have to remember that most customers these days want to be engaged in a process and linked to a business and social media tools can help businesses get there big or small.  I just read how a car mechanic started a blog so his customers could compare car problems and talk about maintenance in a car.  A beauty salon sends out weekly tips on a blog and allows customers to talk about products that may work or not.