Random Posts we’re using to increase our Facebook Following.

OK, this may not be all that informative or interesting to you, but as you may have already gathered, I entertain myself quite nicely. Below you’ll find some of our posts that are geared towards gaining new Facebook followers. By the way, you should really consider it. It’ll do ya some good.

For your convenience, I have splattered the link to our FB page throughout the post. You can also follow us on twitter, and get a little more info about us at our website.

So here it is, our facebook marketing campaign:

1) Please tell your friends, family, cousins, uncles, cats, Great Granny’s, and that Crazy old dude who lives down the street and is always yelling at Kids to get off his grass.

2) Free puppy…just sayin

3) It would probably serve you and yours well to tell your friends about us…just saying. It will give you warm and fuzzy feelings for knowing that you did something extremely cool.

4) Kinda simple. Click the link below then click like at the top of the page. Then, you’re one of the cool kids. How hard was that?

5) Good morning face folks…we love ya! Not in a weird and creepy kind of way, but in a really groovy kinda way! Share the news about us with your friends!

6) Hey you with the lips, follow us! We’ll love you just like your mom used to…(Above post was not intended to insult anyone who may not lips. If you are missing your lips and were offended, we sincerely apologize. Wes, our owner, has very small lips if that makes you feel better. Again, sorry!)(Also if your momma has truly stopped loving you, we again apologize and meant no offense.)

7) Thanks to all who have liked us so far…Those of you who haven’t liked us yet are starting to give us a complex. You don’t want something like that on your conscience do you?
Just go ahead and click the link below; Like us and help out our esteem. C’mon! It’ll make ya feel warm and fuzzy about yourself. PLUS: there’s that chance to win (not really) a free puppy that you’ll never actually get because it’s just a ploy to get you to like us, but if you really want a puppy, we can point you in the right direction.

Hopefully this will have given a chuckle…I know I crack myself up. Would love to hear your comments, concerns and discussion. So, follow us on Facebook, subscribe to this blog and so on and so forth. Have an awesome day!

What Happened to Ole Fashion Conversation

Mixed Messages

Being a “real” person in the digital age is becoming a dying art. More and more, we seem to be hiding behind our little electronic devices, computer screens, and social media. Although people are sharing a heck of lot more than they probably should, I really do believe that communicating in this manner is a way for us to enjoy a pseudo anonymous life. Our devices create this invisible wall for us to hide behind, and even though we’re sharing many personal things about our life, we’re still hiding our emotions and feelings from others. Unfortunately, written communications can never adequately convey what the human voice and body can.

Don’t get me wrong. I am a social media junkie. I am hooked on texting, twitter, facebook, and linkedin, and I Spend entirely too much time on all of them. As you get to know me you’ll realize that much of what I write in these posts are as much for me as anyone else. That being said, I believe that digital or text related communication can be good and bad. On the good side: we’re reading more, catching up with old friends from years past, and even getting the scoop on a cousin’s prostate exam. What we’re truly missing, however, is the emotional and social bond that comes from good ‘ole fashion conversation.

As it relates to business and sales:

Digital tools are essential to developing business relationships, but should never be a replacement for true contact. Listed below are 5 reasons why true human interaction is essential to your business and sales.

1)      As I have already mentioned, an emotional bond is essential to building relationships. In running a small business, your clients should be your friends and without voice to voice/face to face interaction, this will never truly happen.

2)      Emails and text fail to adequately convey emotion and as a result, can often be misinterpreted. Not everyone shares the same level of reading comprehension, attention span, and grammatical skill. As a result, it is always best to deliver bad news or sensitive info via a phone or in person. The contact will be appreciated, will strengthen your relationship, allows for immediate communication on the topic, and as a result, immediate closure.

3)      Sharing belly laughs: You’ll recognize LOL, LMAO, ROFLMAO as those nifty little text acronyms that tell us that we are sharing a laugh, being laughed at, or the like. Laughing alone while envisioning someone else laughing can never replace the sounds of someone else laughing with you. Think about it! A shared laugh is one of the all time coolest things that friends, clients, and family can share. It adds to your enjoyment of the situation, and if you’re like most people, you rather hang out with folks who share your sense of humor.

4)      Loyalty: Your clients, friends, and acquaintances are more likely to remain loyal to you when they feel emotionally tied to you and your business. As humans, we have a natural tendency to be more forgiving of faults, shortcomings, and innocent idiocy when we are emotionally tied to someone. I cannot tell you how many times I have been in sales situations where I had a better product at a lower price and the prospect remained with their current service because of a friendship.

5)      It’s good for you! We all need to be in the company of others from time to time. Sharing thoughts, feelings, emotions, ideas, and smiles are not luxuries but necessities. Yes, we can do some of this via social media, texting, and email, but these can never contribute to our emotional well-being like face to face contact.

In conclusion, I seriously believe that human contact is essential to business and a healthy personal life. Social networking, text, and emails can be great for catching snapshots of information, but if you truly want to be known or know someone, then get off your duff, go make some friends, share some belly laughs, and grow your business. And, If you ever want to chat, just give me a call 850-710-5256.

Build Relationships like a Toddler

The Fairy Princess: Master of Building Relationships

Initiating new relationships can be kind of stressful, and if you’re like me you actually use a filter when considering who to approach.  Right or wrong it’s still there. My personal filter usually consists of comparisons, judgments and maybe even a little timidity. As a matter of fact I have been in sales most of my adult life, and I am actually still uncomfortable initiating new conversations. If I were to be completely honest, I hate it.

That’s why I am always so amazed at how well my 3 year old interacts with others. Observing her has taught me a great deal about human interaction and why we have so much trouble as adults in creating new connections. Below are 3 of the best tools that she has so eloquently taught me:

1)      Share a smile with others: Never one to be concerned with others perceptions, my daughter always has a smile waiting for anyone who glances in her direction. She is not burdened by the curses of stress, responsibility or poor self-image.  She is a metric ton of warmth packed into a 32lb package.

The most successful sales and business people I know always share a smile with others. It makes us more inviting.

2)      Be genuinely honest: Not only does my 3 old fart in public, she advertises it… Right before saying “excuse me,” of course (what kind of Dad do you think I am?). Now, I’m not saying it’s a good idea to drop a stinky nerve bomb at your local grocery store’s cereal display, but I am saying its pretty good policy to own your mistakes and apologize for them. It’s probably not even a bad idea to advertise them.

We all are human and have an appreciation for honesty and personal accountability; but in business, it is imperative and necessary for long term survival.

3)      Make a friend (unless there is a beard involved) and be persistent about it: Along with the smile, my daughter is always quick to say hello to most people. The only exception would be men with facial hair (which I find quite amusing since I have a goatee).  If she says hello to someone and doesn’t receive a response, she will gradually increase the volume until she does.

The lesson here is obvious: always greet others with a warm smile-filled “hello” and do it persistently until you have a new friend.

In business and sales making a daily contact is necessary for growth. In our personal lives friendships enrich us and makes us better people.  In all reality we shouldn’t separate the two. Our business connections and friends should share the same space.

A Newbies take on Social Media tools!

If it’s not already obvious to you, I am relatively new to the social marketing realm. I just built a website a few months back and just started using twitter regularly. The learning curve has been pretty short, but I have no doubt that I have a long way to go before I have a small percentage of Justin Beiber’s or Guy Kawasaki’s numbers. I do believe, however, that I have been fortunate enough to have picked two of the most useful tools for any newbie looking to expand their reach into the social networking universe.

Social Oomph

Social Oomph has become a complete necessity once I started picking up daily followers. There are several time management features that have allowed me to make the best use of my Social marketing time. You can pre-schedule status updates and even set up automatic direct messages and auto-responders. In addition, you can manage multiple social accounts from one place. These features alone make it worth a premium, but they offer these features absolutely free.

Social Oomph does have a premium section that includes some pretty neat features like tweet keyword searches that allows you to search for conversations relative to your interests; status ignore features; and social media anti-spam tools. If you can afford to sign up for the premium content, I highly recommend it. They offer a 7-day free trial, so there is really no reason not to use it the first week.

Tweet Deck
Another Great tool for organization, Tweet Deck, is a downloadable program that runs in a dashboard environment. They offer many customizable features like a listing of all new followers, and alerts when you have a new tweet from a follower. It’s free and you can also download an app to your Smartphone for those tweeting, facing, or whatever on the go. I am still learning all of the features, but the ones I have picked up have been quite useful.

I have checked out other applications, and I am sure I have yet to discover some great ones, but Social Oomph and Tweet Deck have really allowed me to be more productive in my networking efforts. If you’re looking to expand your reach, these tools are a necessary part of any twitterer’s breakfast.

I would love to hear your suggestions, so please feel free to comment or visit my website at here.