New Years Lag: 3 To Dos

While you're in the Christmas season, work gets slow. Let's face it, no ones working as diligently as they should because there just isn't enough work to be done.

Take a few steps to become more organized in social media outlets so you can retrieve and post information that is key for keeping people interested in your online community.

1.) Make the web come to you. If you don't have an RSS feed for your computer then you need to get with the program. Do you continue navigating to your favorite blogs or websites in hopes that "something new" has been posted? If you want to get information from 30 valuable web sources and you actually navigate to those web pages every day to see if there is new information, then you need an RSS feeder and you need to begin filtering information to cut down on the random online searches. These searches, in my experience, end up being largely a time waster because we get sidetracked and forget what we are doing. Cut out the opportunity to meander or forget what you are SUPPOSED to be doing. Be a value grabber from only those sites that are remarkable in content and reputable in experience.

2.) Start a networking file that has important information about your friends, customers, and employees. Stop trying to remember all of those details. You can make a lot of headway in relationships and being a value added business and employee by simply remembering someone's birthday or remembering what that person told you he or she really enjoys. If there has been a lag in the conversation or no reason to get together in a while, pull up the information that you've saved about their interests and look for a piece of remarkable content that you can send them that they would appreciate. There is another opportunity to start up a conversation and reacquaint. If you want a plug and play file program, I use a Mac, and I would suggest FileMaker Pro 10 for those with the latest Mac computers. Talk amongst your networking friends and see if they use something to keep up with people. A database of information about people keeps you from having to remember every detail. WRITE IT DOWN and store it!

3.) Organize your files. This may sound stupid to some, but, this is one of the major keys to productivity. Having a solid file system whether it's a paper trail or on your computer will save you valuable time in the long run. Spend 2 days organizing your desk of papers that has piled up. Then, once you organize, you must make it a habit otherwise you will never get better at it. Make it a point for the new year to spend the last 20 minutes of every work day organizing and putting away papers. Those papers that are in limbo and need to be easily recalled can stay on the desk. But, put the papers that are priority and due tomorrow in one stack and others that need to be recalled in a different stack. The priority stack should not be large. This will keep you focused on tasks at hand when you come in the next day. You won't wonder WHERE or HOW to get started.

A solid marketing plan or anything of value starts with focus and moves into implementation of the plan. Organization and coordination is required for success! Happy New Year!

Is there any other to do's for organization and planning that you can think?

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Keds: Marketing Works Featured Company

Keds, the shoe manufacturer is using social media and shoe customization to build brand loyalty. They are now allowing custom designs for your own pair of shoes. If the design passes Keds approval you will then be allowed to create your own entrepreneurial store and connect it with the Keds website. The potential to build hundreds to thousands of people individually selling their customized shoe styles to their friends and relatives through social media networking is a great possibility.

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Book Review: Never Eat Alone

Keith Ferrazzi’s book “Never Eat Alone” is a good resource for marketing with an emphasis on networking. This is a great tool for companies (or individuals) that need to get back to the basics of product selling. “Being a connector is not about managing transactions, but about managing relationships.”

This book tells you how you can join the club...the club of successful people. Because, successful people think alike. Keith concludes that “the key to success can be summed up in one word: generosity.” Although, the difficulty lies with your willingness to ask for help, not your willingness to give it.

The book gives tips from his own personal experience on building a referral business. Keith does not cold call. He always uses a referral for his phone calls. You can also learn strategies to approach others with a plan and transform what could be a forgettable encounter into a blossoming friendship. If you have trouble connecting your personal and business life, this book is a must read. More and more, the economy that we live in is reverting back to business built on trust. Who better to trust than your friends?

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"The 29% Solution" Book Review

"The 29% Solution” is broken down into 52 weeks worth of practical steps for networking. The benefits from this book are two-fold: first, the practical suggestions of how to network and second, it helped me to refocus my mindset of what networking is. Before this book I saw networking as more of a game to play in how to put my sales pitch into my relationships as smoothly as possible. This walking sales pitch wasn’t very attractive to me.

This book simplifies the process to giving. And if you are giving to others the law of reciprocity should follow. This law of reciprocity means what you do for others will be returned back to you. This idea can work at any level of a relationship, for instance, ask someone a question that you would like him to ask in return. It is very easy to say but a lot harder to put this into practice. But, this book laid it out in a “question and answer” type fashion that allowed me to really grasp how to accomplish this personally. I learned how to be proactive in pursuing networking opportunities, how to determine the difference between potential reciprocal relationships and relationships of no real value to anyone. After this book (and some helpful guidance from Dana Barfield, a friend and mentor) I am confident how to build valuable and long lasting business relationships and therefore this is a must read!

Know someone that needs to hear this information, please pass this along. If you need assistance getting leads, prospects, and clients cost effectively, please contact me:

Your confidentiality will not be compromised.