The best marketing advice I can give you!

As a business or brand, you want to focus and invest in advertising and clever marketing or even on the hot new social media campaigns. That is fine but you are missing one of the best investments you can make for your business and that is investing into your employees.

You can spend countless dollars on marketing and marketing materials but if you do not have good employees then these efforts are pretty much going to waste. The more you invest into your employees the higher the output and quality of service you will get out of them. Then you will see those marketing efforts truly flourish!

You cannot expect an employee that has been working for your business that has not been shown any love (by love I mean raises, growth in the company, chances for professional development) to go to bat for you and tell people about your business. What you will get is a disgruntled employee who will do nothing more than talk bad about the business. You do not have to show employee’s monetary “love” to invest into them. Recognition of efforts and talent and even a “thank you for being such a great employee” goes a long way.

When you have happy employees, they will be enthusiastic and creative and service will improve and you will see a much great ROI (Return On Investment) than any marketing effort with unhappy employees. If you foster employee growth and happiness you will in turn create a culture of creative’s and that is worth your dollar! 

#TSMB Social Media Spotlight

            This week “Social Media Spotlight” will go to two different businesses doing one thing right. These two businesses are actually local businesses here in Fresno California and even though they belong in two completely different markets, they are doing the same thing.

            Cedar Lanes is a local bowling alley with a long history here in Fresno. It has been open far longer than I have been born and was the place to be in its prime. Offering a great experience, good food, great drinks, and funny shoes. Many years have passed and now it is only kept open because of the wishes of its previous owner.  I would often go to Cedar Lanes, have a drink with my Grandmother, look around, and see an empty shell of something that was awesome when I was growing up. Well to my surprise, I found out that Cedar Lanes had a Twitter account. They were starting up conversations and engaging the local Twitter community. Also talk about transparency it took me about two weeks to figure out who it was. After watching the interactions of Cedar Lanes and the greater Fresno Twitter community, I started to see people checking in, eating dinner there, and stopping in for a drink or two. They also held a “Mad Men” premier party. I actually feel that if they had not had a presence on Twitter they would not have this increase in business. Now there are talks of Tweetups, occasional bowling meetups and Karaoke from the Twitter community and this was all done by a simple Twitter account and a want to just talk with people. They get it, they are on top of the game, and they are now in the works of changing up things and making more of an effort in social media to breath new life into the old alley.

            The other business that has just gotten it right off the bat is Custom Drywall. Now what you might say is what is a “drywall” company doing on social media. Well the question you should ask yourself is why not!? The owner of the business is an innovator he recognized that there is no one else in his industry on Twitter let alone social media. Talking to him, he says he employs an 80/20 rule and this should be adopted by all businesses. It means 80% conversations (AKA BSing) and 20% about business. You hear it from so many social media professionals that engagement is what needs to happen but so many businesses truly fail at it. This business saw an opportunity and has now seized it. Creating conversation with the community and just talking with them will soon bring a great ROI. Those who have talked and interacted with Custom Drywall will remember this name when they need work done. Most businesses often give up on social media because it doesn’t bring instant ROI but those who stay with it will see that a relationship built with potential customers and clients is far greater than that.

            These businesses with different markets and different customers and clients have done the one thing you should do and that is creating a relationship with the community and to engage in conversation. So if two local businesses get it I put the question out to the rest of the businesses of Fresno if they get it why do not you. Why don’t you take a moment and check them out and take notes! 

ROI = Realization of Influence

In the development of new ROI strategies, the result is a truly a measurement of influence. No, it’s not a score. It’s a metric of cause and effect. As such, you become an architect of influence as you define the change or actions you wish to see. In the strategies that you develop over time as by definition, you introduce initiatives that cause effect or change behavior and you can measure it. While you still calculate return on investment, you are also measuring the realization of influence. And, it’s far more accurate than a traditional influence score.