Want to be Successful at Social Media? Here are 13 Steps You Probably Missed (Pt.9)

In previous articles we have discussed Step 1. The Proper Way to Set Goals, Step 2. The Importance of Seizing the Day … Every Day … to Advance Your Social Media Goals, Steps 3, 4 & 5. What To Do Along The Way, Steps 6, 7 & 8.  Develop grit, Develop will-power & Develop the wisdom not to make your goals harder to achieve than they already are, Steps 9 & 10.  Replace poor habits with better ones & Expand your center of influence, and make yourself available to those who find you influential. Step 11.  Take Action. Step 12.  Don’t let the risk of making mistakes slow you down, and Don’t swerve off the proper course and Step 13. Do you need a Professional Social Media Strategist? How do you choose one? and What should you expect?

 

FINAL THOUGHTS

To conclude this series of nine articles, let’s wrap things up with a lagniappe.

In 1883, in his book Life on the Mississippi, Mark Twain popularized a seldom used word that represents a core principle in successful business, and in life.  It means to do more than is expected … to deliver more than is required … and to do so unselfishly.

He wrote:

“We picked up one excellent word — a word worth traveling to New Orleans to get; a nice, limber, expressive, handy word — lagniappe.  They pronounce it lanny-yap.  It is the equivalent of the thirteenth roll in a baker’s dozen.  It is something thrown in, gratis, for good measure.”

To enlarge upon Twain’s theme, I believe the challenge is to give a little something extra, something nobody expects, something that’s small, but that brings pleasure.  In a purely business context, it enlarges value and expands goodwill.   In a broader human context, it sometimes adds a spark of nobility, to commonplace ability.

So, for good measure … here are:

35 GUARANTEED WAYS TO ENLARGE YOUR SUCCESS, WITHOUT DIMINISHING OTHERS

This is not only a “How-To” article — it is also a “How-Far” article. This is about stretching your limits and expanding your horizons. This is about being sure that your reach always exceeds your grasp, as Robert Browning recommended in his famous poem.  This is about enlarging your accomplishments, without diminishing the accomplishments of others.  This is about much more than mere business success. This is about business and personal triumph.

1. DO SOMETHING THAT MATTERS.  I am placing this first on the list, because I feel it is the most important thing an entrepreneur can do.  Guy Kawasaki, one of the true thought leaders in Social Media, once wrote:  “Do something that matters and adds value. If you’re only trying to make money, you’ll never be a true innovator.” In an ever-changing world, innovation is crucial to remaining competitive.  If you are making a contribution to your followers, your customers, your industry and your community… the money will follow.
2. BELIEVE IN SOMETHING GREATER THAN YOURSELF. In those lonely entrepreneurial nights, when your energy is taxed and your resolve is weakening under pressure, believing in something greater than yourself can make all the difference.   Denis Waitley, an American motivational speaker and author, said it best:  “No man or woman is an island. To exist just for yourself is meaningless. You can achieve the most satisfaction when you feel related to some greater purpose in life, something greater than yourself.”
   
3. HUMANIZE YOUR BUSINESS. Social Media is a computerized, technology-oriented undertaking — but it does not need to be impersonal.  In fact, it can’t be.  To be successful as a “new school” marketer, you must reach out to people, care about their problems and solve them if you can.  Rich Harris is a blogger and self-proclaimed “Father of 3″ from Santa Cruz, California.  He put it well when he wrote: “Because profitability for any business comes from human beings making the decision to invest in you or your company, I believe that the old school is now officially backwards and can almost be hurtful to your cause.” He continued,“Pull your weight in the relationship with your customer and they’ll stick it out with you, even when your industry or company hit some rough spots.” I agree.
4. BE EASY ON YOURSELF. Many entrepreneurs are their own worst critics.  Please don’t waste your time in unproductive self-criticism.  You can’t be perfect.  Jack Canfield, an American motivational speaker, author and founder of the Transformational Leadership Council, makes this recommendation:  “As you begin to take action toward the fulfillment of your goals and dreams, you must realize that not every action will be perfect. Not every action will produce the desired result. Not every action will work. Making mistakes, getting it almost right, and experimenting to see what happens are all part of the process of eventually getting it right.”
5. DO SOMETHING, EVEN IF IT IS A SMALL STEP. A common problem, especially with overworked entrepreneurs, is that they don’t start Social Media involvement until they “Can do it all” — Edmund Burke, the 18th century statesman who is mainly remembered for his support of the cause of the American Revolutionaries, put it succinctly:  ” Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”
6. KEEP MOVING. Conrad Hilton, the fabulously wealthy American hotelier and founder of the Hilton Hotels chain, never stopped moving.   Neither should any of us.  He once explained, “Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.”
7. FORGIVE THE MISTAKES OF OTHERS. Just as you should be easy on yourself, you should also be easy on others.  You don’t have to ignore their mistakes, but you must forgive them.  Ross Perot built an estimated net worth of about $3.5 billion by 2009, and is ranked by Forbes as the 85th-richest person in America.  He didn’t get there by lambasting his staff and employees for every mistake — he achieved great success by encouraging creativity.  He said, “Punishing honest mistakes stifles creativity. I want people moving and shaking the earth and they’re going to make mistakes.”
8. ADOPT HORIZON THINKING AND PLAY YOUR MUSIC. There are so many worthwhile things you can achieve beyond business success.  They tend to wait for you just over the horizon.  We all have a song in our heart, if we only listen.  Make time to dream and to play your music.  According to Mary K. Ash, the American businesswoman and founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, “Most people live and die with their music still unplayed. They never dare to try.” Both during her life and posthumously, Ash received numerous honors from business groups, including the Horatio Alger Award. Ash was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1996. A long-time fundraiser for charities, she founded the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation to raise money to combat domestic violence and cancers affecting women.  Fortune magazine recognized Mary Kay Inc. with inclusion in “The 100 best companies to work for in America.”  She died on November 22, 2001, Thanksgiving Day, and had a lot to be thankful for.
9. CAST OFF YOUR BOWLINES. I am an inveterate sailor.  I would much rather be sailing than any other recreational activity.  But I have also learned a few important lessons from sailing, that have served me well in my business life.  First among them is to cast off your bowlines.  I would encourage you to set yourself free from the constraints of your business, sail away from your safe harbors and let the winds take you.   You owe it to yourself.   Mark Twain once wrote, ” Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
10. GIVE SEASONED ADVICE, BASED UPON ACTUAL EXPERIENCE. For those of us who are in the advice-giving business — we have both an important opportunity and a serious responsibility.    First, we have an opportunity to truly assist others in a measurable way.  Second, doing our jobs in an exemplary fashion should not be our goal it should be our minimum standard.  And fundamentally, we have an obligation to advise others only after we have successfully completed the same task ourselves.  To do otherwise, to profess skills and experiences that do not really exist, is hypocritical, disingenuous and a very poor business practice.  Adlai Stevenson, one of the more eloquent Americans ever to run for the United States Presidency, once said:  “We should be careful and discriminating in all the advice we give. We should be especially careful in giving advice that we would not think of following ourselves.”
11. TELL, SHOW AND INVOLVE. There is an ancient Chinese proverb that says it all in a few words:  “Tell me and I`ll forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I`ll understand.” As a Professional Social Media Strategist, there are three ways to do business.  Here they are, in increasing order of value:
    1. Tell your customer what to do. You prepare a paper, give a speech or deliver a presentation.  Then you leave.  This is far too common and is eminently forgettable.
    2. Show your customer what to do. This is a slightly better approach because it is hands-on.  You are not telling him what to do — you are doing it for him.  You are taking responsibility for results.   Still, when the job is complete he is once again alone — trying to remember what to do next.
    3. Tell your customer what needs to be done; do it for him for a period of time; and involve his staff in all crucial steps along the way. You have given the customer what he needed, solved his problem through your efforts, and ensured his ability to solve it in the future.  This is a win-win for all concerned, and it is the only truly professional way to mount a Social Media campaign.  At the end of the process executed this way, your customer is likely to announce … “Wow, this actually works!  And I get it!”
12. BE UNREASONABLE. To change the world in an uncertain time you must be unreasonable.  A reasonable man will simply adapt to the world, changing little about his own behavior.  An unreasonable man does what is right, and does not let the world sway him otherwise.  George Bernard Shaw made this clear:  “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
13. DON’T OVERSTAY YOUR WELCOME. Your profession is to solve problems for others.  But there is nothing worse than the problem solver who never wants to go away.   Do what you came to do — do it well — and then get on to the next problem for a customer who still needs and appreciates your skill.  Gay Talese, the renown journalist who wrote for The New York Times in the early 1960s, once said:  “The real problem is what to do with problem solvers after the problem is solved.”
14. SPEAK UP. Knowledge that is not communicated effectively, is no more useful than stupidity.  If you have something worthwhile to say … say it.  Washington Irving, the 19th century author, once remarked on this subject, saying:  “A barking dog is often more useful than a sleeping lion.”
15. GIVE MORE THAN YOU GET – AND YOU WILL GET MORE THAN YOU GIVE. Anthony Norvel, the world-renowned counselor, philosopher and lecturer once said, “Plant a kernel of wheat and you reap a pint; plant a pint and you reap a bushel. Always the law works to give you back more than you give.” This is true in every area of your life and business.
    
16. HEAR WHAT ISN’T BEING SAID. Good businessmen are good listeners, and great businessmen are great listeners.   But truly accomplished businessmen have one additional talent:  They listen carefully to what isn’t being said. In traditional advertising, you broadcast your message to the masses and wait to see what happens.  If your customer buys from you, that’s a great result; if he doesn’t it’s a mystery.  Social media, properly done, is a conversation — not a commercial.  If sales do not result, you can find out why by engaging your audience personally.  And if you engage them often, trust will result.  When your potential customer learns to trust you, and to respect you for your knowledge, integrity and willingness to share, he is much more likely to confide his unsaid reasons for not buying.  This is business intelligence of the first magnitude.   Peter F. Drucker, the noted management guru, teaches that … “The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.”
    
17. MARKET SENSIBLY. To be competitive with limited resources, you must market sensibly.  Far too many businesses, spend far to much on traditional advertising, simply because it’s what they have traditionally done.  Social Media gives you the non-traditional opportunity to target your marketing inexpensively.  Don’t find yourself in the predicament described by the 19th century British industrialist, Lord Leverhulme, when he joked:  “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, and the problem is I do not know which half.”
18. BE PROACTIVE IN YOUR DECISION-MAKING. Lee Iaccoca, the Father of the Ford Mustang and former CEO of Chrysler, once said:  “Even a correct decision is wrong when it was taken too late.” The only thing worse than being indecisive … is to be decisive when it no longer matters.  Proactive decision-making is by far the best approach.
    
19. LEARN CONTINUALLY. There is no excuse for resting on your intellectual laurels in the Internet Age.  Valuable information, in vast quantities, is too readily available.  Don’t take the risk of being poorly informed. Warren Buffett warned, “Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.”
20. DELEGATE RESPONSIBLY. Once you understand what to do, solicit help from others.  A smart leader learns to delegate responsibly.  Dwight D. Eisenhower put this idea into practice both as a General and thirty-fourth President of the United States.  He once remarked, “Leadership is the ability to decide what is to be done, and then to get others to do it.”
21. LEAD EFFECTIVELY. For a business leader, knowing what to do is the precursor to doing it well.   Stephen Covey, the popular leadership consultant and writer once wrote,“Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.”
22. SHOW EQUANIMITY UNDER PRESSURE. The mark of a successful businessperson and leader, is to remain calm even under extraordinary circumstances.  Publilius Syrus said in 100 BC, “Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.” As an avid sailor and experienced businessman, I know this to be true.  The important skill is to show equanimity under pressure.
23. UNDERSTAND THAT ONLY PERFORMANCE COUNTS.  Harold S. Geneen, most famous for serving as president of the ITT Corporation, once remarked, ‘It is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises—but only performance is reality.“  At the end of the day, in any line of work, the only thing that really matters is performance.  
24. DO WHAT IS NECESSARY. In business, or any other human pursuit, it is useless to insist that you are doing your best, if your best is not good enough.   Winston Churchill said, “It is no use saying ‘we are doing our best.’  You have to succeed in doing what is necessary.”
25. BE ORGANIZED WHEN YOU DIRECT OTHERS. There is an old American business saying, “Business is like a car: it will not run by itself except downhill.” To enlarge your success you must be first personally organized, and then you must direct others in an organized way.
    
26. KNOW WHERE YOU’RE GOING. Ashleigh Brilliant, (yes, that’s his real name), is an author and syndicated cartoonist living in Santa Barbara, California.  In one of his notable comments he said,“Maybe I’m lucky to be going so slowly, because I may be going in the wrong direction.” This is a common problem in unsuccessful businesses.  If you want to enlarge your success, you must always know exactly where you’re going. 
27. DIVERSIFY AS YOU EXECUTE. In 254 BC, the Roman playwright Plautus made a comment that has come down through the centuries, and reminds us of the wisdom in diversifying our efforts: “Consider the little mouse, how sagacious an animal it is which never entrusts its life to one hole only.” This is particularly true in Social Media, where it is wise to develop activities in many different venues:  Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn to mention only a few.
28. BE FARSIGHTED AND NEAR SIGHTED. Business is like battle.  The legendary Japanese swordsman, Miyamoto Musashi, who lived in the early 16th century, once explained to a student,“Perception is strong and sight weak. In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things.” A smart businessperson must see his business strategy from all points-of-view and from all points-in-time.
29. FOCUS ON RESULTS. It is very easy to get so involved in developing strategy, especially when it is codified in a formal business plan, that the strategy itself becomes the product you are “selling.”   This is most relevant when you are trying to secure Venture Capital.  Believe me when I tell you, your results are vastly more important than your strategic opinions. Winston Churchill made this point succinctly when he said, “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”
30. PLAN STRATEGICALLY, BUT ACT TACTICALLY. Even the best strategy will be unsuccessful if the tactics are executed poorly.  On the other hand, even the best tactics will fail if they are not founded on a solid strategy.  One of the best known and most revered military strategists in world history was Sun Tzu, who lived c. 490 BC.   He famously said,“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat”.
31. DON’T ACCEPT EASY SOLUTIONS. In the day-to-day grind of every entrepreneur, it may seem useful to accept easy solutions to business problems.  Without very careful consideration, however, this is rarely the right approach.  George Bernard Shaw, the noted Irish playwright and critic, said in a wry moment,“For every complex problem there is a simple solution that is wrong.”
32. RUN FAST IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. Many businesses find themselves running at high speed in the wrong direction.  There is an old German saying:“What`s the use of running if you are not on the right road.” I have made this point several times during this series of articles, but it bears repeating.
    
33. INSIST ON QUALITY. Freddy Heineken, the founder of the Dutch beer giant, is fond of saying, “I consider a bad bottle of Heineken to be a personal insult to me.” This is the level of personal quality commitment necessary to every successful business.
34. BE GENUINE. One of the habits in business I believe to be the most valuable is to be genuine. Speak the truth.  Be comfortable in your own skin.  Smile.  And be of service to others. Social Media is the quintessentially perfect method for being genuine.
    
35. BE EFFECTIVE AND EFFICIENT. Peter F. Drucker explains it this way:  “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” I take this last suggestion so seriously that I have built our entire business strategy around it.   At Jericho Technology, I define effectiveness as getting the right job done and efficiency as getting the job done right. More than a maxim or catch-phrase … this is my credo … my mantra.

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Have a question? Or just want to chat about your business? Simply call the number below. During normal business hours (8 AM – 5 PM Scottsdale, Arizona time) it is my direct line. Otherwise, just leave a message. If you would prefer to exchange email I would love to here from you. Just email michaelstewart@jerichotechnology.com or click the email badge below. I promise I will get back to you within 24 hours.

 

 

 

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