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“It IS hot as balls outside!”
Quick story: I tend to use my friends as my personal venting stations. They’ve gotten used to hearing me whine about EVERYTHING that is bothering me in my small business.
One Thursday, when I had a shoot scheduled for the afternoon, I received a text from the client…whom I adore…asking to reschedule. I texted her back with “Of course!! Let’s shoot on Sunday instead!!” Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
I decided to text a friend of mine, who I’d had to cancel plans for the evening with, to let him know that dinner plans were back on! Now, there is a common phrase used by many when describing the sweltering heat of East Coast summers. This phrase, though, is hardly one to throw around in client’s company. So, my text to my life long friend looked something like “My shoot for this afternoon got postponed!! Thank goodness, because it’s hot as balls outside!!”
I received no response. Which, knowing this particular friend, is odd…he’s usually pretty quick on the keys. What could be the hold up? Yup…you guessed it. I’d sent the phrase “hot as balls” to my client. I immediately sent her another text explaining my utter embarrassment….and luckily I received a quick response back this time.
“Seriously??? Funniest thing I’ve heard all day. It IS hot as balls outside!”
Whew!! This was a case where my client had the same sense of humor as I did, and wasn’t offended by my rather graphic description of the summer heat.
See? I’m so glad you found that story amusing!! Go ahead….laugh at my expense. But what is the moral of this sordid tale?
IF YOU DON’T WANT YOUR CLIENTS TO SEE IT, DON’T PUT IT IN WRITING!!
Another lesson…which you will discover as your own business grows and hopefully through a few of these posts, is attracting clients that are similar you to you in nature is one of the best goals to strive for.
I’ve seen SO much social media abuse that I’m thinking about reporting everyone to Social Services. (…..get it?….social media?….social services??? Oh for heaven’s sake…get used to the humor, cause it aint getting any better from here…).
(I am under the impression that even my 76 year old grandmother knows what “Social Media” is. (She told me so via Twitter last week…). So I am not even going to bore you with a section titled “What is Social Media?”. In fact, I feel like I’ve wasted too much time on that question already.)
“And unless you are trying to corner the market of plastic poo…keep this personal information to yourself.”
But, and I can’t stress this enough, no matter how sacrosanct your excretions are…talking about them publicly is NOT the quickest way to gain a business fanbase. Once you enter the world of small business, EVERYTHING you post online is a representation of your brand and store front. And unless you are trying to corner the market of plastic poo…keep this personal information to yourself.
TIP: It’s always recommended, when using Social Media for your business, that you don’t use anymore than two or three platforms. You have so little time as a business owner that you shouldn’t be focusing your efforts in too wide a circle.
I like to equate social media to the greeter in Wal-Mart. Your static website is the facade of the building…and your social media is the man who hands out smiley face stickers at the door. He’s the one who makes you feel welcome. (I always thought it would be kind of funny if he started handing out those “poison” face stickers instead. I wonder how many people would notice.)
.gif "yuck")
So what social media do you use? There are so freakin’ many to choose from!!! I have three platforms that take active work on my part.
1. Blogging
2. Facebook
3. Twitter
I also use StumbleUpon (since it doesn’t take any maintenance…just a quick button on the blog post). I’m TRYING to figure out Google+, I swear!! If any of you want to do a guest post on the awesomeness of Google+, just shoot me an email at terra@imoink.com!! I will TOTES hook you up!!
Huh…I never thought the three most important words to my business would be made believe verbs. “Google”, “Tweet” and “Blog” just sound like the names of the black sheep in the family of seven dwarves.
Once upon a time, there were seven dwarves…Sneezy, Sleepy, Dopey, Doc, Happy, Bashful, Grumpy, Google, Twitter and Blog.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)
The order that you use your business social media is tricksy, my precious. (What…you didn’t know the extent of my nerddome?) Let’s say I edited a wedding and decided to upload a few images to Facebook. That’s great…except I need to upload a blog post first in order to take advantage of the most Facebook traffic possible. And the same goes for the other Social Media outlets.
SO…before I put anything out, I should always BLOG the event first. My only exception to this putting teasers on FB. I want to get people excited for the blog post…so I pup up a few teasers to peak their interest.
After I blog the event, I post the link to Facebook and tag anyone involved in the post. Then I tweet about it! My business page on Facebook automatically updates my twitter feed…so that’s one less thing I have to do. Remember, though…updating your twitter with ONLY what is on your facebook page will get people to unfollow you SUPER quick. The people who live in the interwebs HATE repeat information. So update your Twitter feed manually every now and then…just to remind your followers that you care.
If I have the time, and want to get a little more traffic, I might publish an image to Flickr…linking back to the blog post, of course. Flickr is good for traffic, but NOT SEO.
Image via Wikipedia
Whew!! There is so much to talk about that I’m afraid we will have to cut short this post, kids. My carpal tunnel is kicking in and my shiny object meds are wearing off.
Tune in for Part Deux tomorrow later, where we will discuss tempering your foul mouth with your social media shop window. Yeah…I am so picturing the wal-mart guy handing out smiling face stickers with a stream of cuss words right now. *snort*
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Related articles
- Six Ways to Throw Your Audience a Curveball (in a Good Way) (socialmouths.com)
- How to Recover From a Social Media Hangover (copyblogger.com)
- How Millionaires Approach Social Media (problogger.net)
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