So you (or they) decided not to “do” Social Media

No, I don't want to do social media. However what do I do if someone else is talking about me or my company.

Usually when I talk to people about social media it’s because they are ready to “do” social media. however every once in a while I get to talk to the people who have decided they are NOT going to “do” social media.

Normally I have these conversations per the request of anther interested party. For example, a son or daughter who is working for their father’s company wants to incorporate Social Media into their marketing plan and the father does not want to “do” it.

And even though I sell social media services, I know that once someone has made up their mind, there’s not much I can do. So my goal in these conversations is to educate them and hopefully get them to at the very least monitor what other people are saying about them.

My conversation usually starts with “Ok, that’s great, I totally understand not wanting to “do” social media. Honestly it is not a good venue for all businesses, and since you know your target audience better than me, you will know if it’s a good match or not. However, I do strongly suggest monitoring what others are saying about you.”

This is usually something people who are very new to social media don’t always grasp. Just because you are not “doing” social media for you or your company doesn’t mean other people are not talking about you or your company via social media. Just because you don’t want to tweet about you or your company doesn’t mean your customers or competitors are not talking about you, your company, your products, or your services.

So my suggestion is to use www.google.com/alerts to, at the very least, monitor if people are talking about you.

This suggestion usually spikes people’s interested, primarily “if they are talking about me, or my business what can I do about it?” Now all of a sudden the person who has decided not to “do” social media now wants to learn more. Honestly this is all I really want. I just want the opportunity to explain to the “won’t do social media” people how social media works… what they can do… if they choose to… after they have been well-educated.

More often than not, they leave with the same decision – they don’t want to “do” social media. But they do agree to set up Google Alerts, and they do agree to monitor what people are saying, and they do agree to respond to posts, comments, tweets, etc if they require a response. So even though they won’t be “doing” social media, they are “doing” social media at a level they are comfortable with.

If you would like to learn more, or if you have a “won’t do” person I’d love to chat!

Natalie Morris
nmorris@morrismc.com
www.morrismc.com

COSE – so many opportunities

COSE is such a wonderful organization. If you are willing to take the time and get involved they offer so many opportunities. Not only opportunities to network and meet other Ohio based businesses but opportunities to learn from experts, and as I have found lately, opportunities to showcase your own expertise.

A few weeks ago I was asked to do a workshop for COSE. It is part of their Educational Series, starting at the 101 level and going up to the 301 level. I jumped at the chance and I am so happy that I did! Although the class started out very quite within a very short time people were engaged and asking questions. Although it was only a 101 class, there were quite a few advanced questions and conversations that came up. We had a nice discussion on Social Media etiquette as well as what the future holds.

COSE recorded the 2 hour class and will be posting it on their website next week. So next week I will review the presentation and give you the link to hear it for your self!

Have a wonderful day,
Natalie

www.morrismc.com
www.myteamsocialmedia.co
nmorris@morrismc.com

A stitch in time

With all the chaos that comes with running a business and always being the person who has all the answers sometimes I lose track of making my life easier. Much of what I do is not difficult work, it doesn’t take any real high skill level, pretty much anyone could do it. So the question is why am I doing it? Well as much as I hate to admit it the reason is me. Not only am I a bit of a control freak, and I don’t like giving up any control, but more importantly, I am the only one who “knows” what needs to be done. Like I said, it’s not rocket science, but at the same time, I can’t expect someone to do something if they don’t even know what they should be doing.

however, and I am sure if you are a “person in charge” you have had the same problem, it takes much more time to write out a procedure, develop a process, and train someone to do it properly than it would be to just do it yourself. So instead of taking the time to write it all out, you just hand it off to someone, they mess it up, and you make the decision you are the only one who can do it, because everyone else messes it up. Right? Anyone else out there with the same experience? I am sure most of you are raising your hand.

The alternative is to write it out, spend the time, make the effort and get it done, only to realize that there are a hundred exceptions that make your whole process useless. And you are back to doing it yourself… But if you write a process for each situation that does not fit the original process, over time you will have gathered enough information that it will actually be helpful to you.

So the question is how do you decided it will be worth your time, and when it won’t?

Here are a few questions I ask myself

• How often am I doing this activity?
• Do I like or dislike doing this activity?
• If I sat down with someone could I teach them how to do it in less than twice the time it takes me to do the activity?
• How many variables are there that will cause the procedure to change?

If it’s an activity I only do once in a while, I don’t mind doing it, and it would take me 5 times as long to teach someone as it would take me to do it, and even after I tought them there would be so many variables that I would just need to teach them all over again, than no, it’s not worth my time. However if I do the same task often, I don’t like doing it, I could teach someone fairly easily and the variables are minor, then it’s totally worth my time to get it off my desk.

If I am still not sure if it’s worth my time I try to be rational:

[{(number of times I do the task in a month) x 12} x (the amount of time it takes me to complete the task) ] x (my billing rate) = Cost to stay the same

{(the amount of time it takes me to write the process) + (the amount of time it will take me to train someone to follow the process) + (the amount of time it will take me to write a process for the likely variables)} x (my billing rate) = Cost to change

Usually once I look at the numbers it is very clear what I need to do.

So take a minute or two to look at your daily or weekly tasks and see what makes sense for you to be doing or not to be doing.

Good luck,

Natalie

www.morrismc.com

www.myteamsocialmedia.com

Making the most of your time

So a friend asked me if I could watch her kids this morning, which I am more than happy to do because they are darling children. However it cut into my “work” morning by about an hour. I didn’t have anything really that needed to get done, but I didn’t want to miss anything important either. So as the kids were getting ready, I pulled out my smart phone, checked my calendar and my e-mail. Posted an update on my Linked In and Twitter and had more than enough quality time to spend with the kids before I ran them up to camp.

When I got back to the office, I wasn’t surprized by any un-expected e-mails and I had already planned what I was going to write about for my blog.

The trick is using your mobile device to allow you to do things you normally would have to decline. If I couldn’t check my e-mail and reply to an urgent request I may have declined spending time with my little friends. If I had not been able to do some “work related” tasks while I was waiting for them to get ready, I may have declined the opportunity to help a friend. If I had been locked into my computer, or if I had to worry about lugging my laptop, I may have just said “sorry, no”. However because I was able to check my e-mail, do a few work related tasks, and didn’t have to take anything other than my phone with me, I was happy to say “yes, I’d love to!”

The moral of the story, although you have to be careful not to let your mobile device take control of your life, if used properly it can give you the freedom to do those special things that really make a difference in your quality of life.

You can choose what people say about you: “She was always working” or “She was always there for me”.

Take charge!
Natalie
www.morrismc.com
www.myteamsocialmedia.com

Habits

“Habits are routines of behavior that are repeated regularly and tend to occur subconsciously, without one’s directly thinking consciously about them” Merriam Webster dictionary.

What I find amazing about habits is how easy it is to start a bad one and how hard it is to start a good one! Then on the flip side, it is so easy to break good habits and so hard to break bad one.

When my blog was up and running I had gotten into a great habit of writing posts every week. After I started having issues with the blog I immediately stopped blogging. But what was even worse is all my social media habits suffered. Where I had been checking everything everyday, once I stopped writing the blog, the rest of my social media dwindled down to a few times a week.

The good new, now that I have my blog back I am sure I can get back into the “habit” of being on top of my social media!

So join me and make the decision to change your habit!

Natalie,

www.morrismc.com

Finally Back Up

Oh thank heavens!

My hosting company decided to not host blogs anymore so I needed to transfer to one of the free blogging platforms, which honestly isn’t a big deal. I set my clients up all the time on WordPress so I thought this would be a no brainer.

Oh was I wrong! It probably wouldn’t have been a problem if I would have just dedicated 2 hours to the transfer in the beginning and just followed through with the process. Instead, I tried to sneak it in when I had 10 minutes here and 10 minutes there.

Not a good idea! I am happy to say, if you can see this post, than I am back in business!

Have a terrific day, and welcome back!
Natalie

Using Social Media to Promote a Non-Profit Event

Although you can use this method to promote any event, non-profits have the benefit of making people feel good about promoting them. If you are an accountant and want people to come to your accounting seminar this might not work to well for you. However save the lions, polar bears, starving children, or even the local stay has a tendency of pulling on heart strings.

 So what to do to promote your event?

1. Who’s your audience?
   • Families? Parents? Boomers? Genx? GenY? Are you looking for corporate sponsors? Big money?
2. Where are you going to find them?
   •  Facebook? LinkedIn? Twitter?
3. What are your objectives
   • Attendance? Donations? Sponsorship? Education?
4. How can you engage them? 
   • What else are they interested in? Are they local? What other groups are they part of? What other groups would promote you?
5. How can you use your existing resources?
   • Add a Facebook Fan Page link to e-mail signatures? Send out an e-blast with your group’s link? Try a viral e-mail to friends and family? Put a post-it in mailings?
6. Determine campaign champion
   • Who can do this? Who has the time? Who has the know-how?

Now your plan is close to being functional. Bring out a calendar and chart everything you plan on doing for the plan. Do it all right now. If you put it off to do later, it just won’t get done. What tweets are you sending? Who is responsible for updating the events? When will the e-mail blast go out? Determine the exact tools and tactics you are going to use. Determine the exact wording each post/update/tweet will have. The more you do right now, the more likely your campaign is to succeed if you put it off it will either not happen or you will put so much ramp-up time into it each day that it won’t be worth the effort.

The MOST IMPORTANT thing for this whole process to work is to ask people to help you and to give them a good reason why they should.

So here it goes! Please help the Cleveland Animal Protective League! They rescue thousands of animals every year and place them in loving homes. They work with the community to promote animal health even in the feral populations. Through April the Cleveland APL is collecting Doggy Dollars and Kitty Cash to help save the cats and dogs of Cleveland.  http://www.firstgiving.com/nataliemorris

Natalie Morris

www.morrismc.com

www.myteamsocialmedia.com

Refreshed and Renewed

I’ve been a bit remiss in my blogging. However I have a good excuse! I was on vacation. I had the best intention of blogging while in Florida however, I didn’t. Although I was able to keep up with all my clients, and get enough work done to not fall behind, I just couldn’t motivate myself to write a blog.

There was a time when I would have felt bad, decided I needed to write 4 new blogs to catch up, feel completely overwhelmed, put it off, until the next day only to have something come up that put it off again, and again, and again. However not any more! So I didn’t write a blog for 2 weeks. I am sure you all survived.

So today I want to talk about spring. I was looking in my herb garden and saw the chives are already coming up, the parsley looks like it made it and I am sure the mint will have taken over another couple of feet. Spring is all about growth. About trying again, about not giving up, about showing the world that even when the Earth turns into an ice box the flowers always comes back!

So your social media plan took the back burner over the winter, so you gave up on your blog, so you forgot you Linked In login, it’s OK! It’s SRING time and we are ready to try again!

Here’s what I want you to do.

1. Write down what you have been doing – i.e. reading my blog and pat your self on your back for doing it
2. Write down what you had been doing but some how managed to stop – update your profile daily
3. Write down what you would like to be doing to help your social media campaign.
4. Now that you have your list – prioritize what you can commit to do and scratch off what you can’t

It’s spring time if the sun can warm up Cleveland I know you can succeed in your Social Media campaign!

Natalie Morris

www.morrismc.com

www.myteamsocialmedia.com

Not just another insurance guy

So I go to a lot of networking events, and I meet a lot of people. The truth of the matter is most people go to networking events to do one of two things.

1. Catch up with people they already know
2. Meet people who want to buy their products.

Of course there are different types of networking events, some are designed for passing referrals, others are educational, others are purely networking. I try to balance mine out.

When I first started going to networking events my goal was to sell my services, however I really hate selling, so I decided to be lazy and just go to meet new people. Once I started meeting all these new people and since I didn’t have an agenda I was able to really get to know them. I started listening to their needs and found that I had all sorts of connections that I could make.

Of course that’s what everyone says! I know that I have heard that 100 times, there are even those people who will set up an appointment with you to “get to know you better” only to have you trapped in a Panera’s to listen to their sales pitch!

Even though I am suspicious of this “trick” I completely believe in getting to know people better. So I am willing to take the chance.

So here’s my story. In my Grow NEO networking group one of the insurance agents asked if we could get together to “get to know each other”. I must admit the flags went up, but we were meeting on my side of town and only for an hour so I figured it was worth a try.

Well I was pleasantly surprised! Jeremy Soditch is an insurance agent for New York Life who really does understand the meaning of customer service. He was completely interested in what I had to say and didn’t push his services on me at all. We spent the vast majority of our time together discussing how he can use Social Media to help his clients.

The tag line on the bottom of his e-mail says “I am passionately committed to protecting families, and increasing the standard of living and the quality of life for my clients” and I can honestly say I believe him. So if you are in need of a great insurance agent who really does care, I would recommend Jeremy J. Soditch an agent for New York Life jsoditch@ft.newyorklife.com.

Natalie Morris
Morris MC, Ltd
nmorris@morrismc.com
www.morrismc.com
www.myteamsocialmedia.com

Looking For A Change?

Every few years I find myself itching for a change. Each change ends up enhancing my life and making me happier, however often the courage required to make that change takes me weeks, months, or even years to build up! It sometimes requires that I do a lot of research, some times I need to talk to everyone I know to get their opinion, sometimes it’s just lengthy conversations with myself. Sometimes its obvious that the benefits will out weigh the risks, but sometimes it’s not.

But no matter what, I know that “I need a change”.

Let’s focus on Jobs. So often we find ourselves going from opportunity to opportunity, without ever really being in control of our destiny. Yes you may be great at selling insurance but is that where you want to be in 30 years? Yes, you may be making great money at your job, but do you really want to spend 80% of your time traveling? Yes, you may have great benefits and a stable income but do you really want to be behind the scenes forever?

• Do you like your industry?
• Do you like your company?
• Do you like your job?
• Do you like who you work with for/with?
• Do you like who you are?
• Do you like who you are becoming?

If you don’t know, consider joining our Career Launch Spring Workshop Series.

Fast Focus Career’s spring workshop is a three-session workshop series that helps people identify well-suited careers tailored to their strengths and interests.

The Career Launch Workshop Series runs Feb.27, March 6 and March 13. It is designed to help professionals go from underemployed to super-employed. You will dig deeper to explore and uncover different possibilities and new job fields matched to YOU.

By matching skills, interests and passions to a person’s job, one can dramatically: Accelerate career advancement, derive real joy from work, work effectively within organizations, increase sales, service, technology performance, find a meaningful career.

I will be speaking at the last seminar on using Social Media to enhance your career goals.

http://events.linkedin.com/Career-Launch-Spring-Workshop/pub/222030

Starts:	Saturday February 27, 2010, 09:00AM
Ends:	Saturday March 13, 2010, 09:00AM
Event Type:	Training/Seminar
Location:	Corporate College East 4400 Richmond Rd Warrensville Heights, OH 44122 US
Price:	http://www.fastfocuscareers.com
Website:	http://www.mimivanderhaven.com/boutique/307
Industry:	professional training
Keywords:	employment, careers, workshop, advancement, jobs
Intended For:	Professionals
Organization:	Fast Focus Careers

Hope to see you there!

Natalie

http://www.morrismc.com
http://www.myteamsocialmedia.com