Amanda brown talks to Graham and Kevin about using social media in your business, and about how she is using social media in her own 100 day launch for the Celebration Project.
After a corporate career working for Ford Motor Company and Merchant Banks, Amanda became a garden designer and for the last 7 years has run her marketing consultancy business, Alterra Consulting.
She invested heavily in a deep understanding of social media platforms, like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. For Amanda, social media is about ‘expressing your individuality’. She says the best form of social media is in fact meeting people face-to-face.
We picked up a number of tips during the podcast…
TIP #1: As a marketing consultant, one of the first things she determines when meeting a new client is, how and where they meet their customers. She finds out what is their process for finding their new customers.
TIP #2: Amanda discussed her MODEL social media approach for small businesses. You know, the ones that don’t have marketing departments, but do have great projects!
- In a 100-day time frame she recommends that you create a large ‘white paper’ on your project.
- Which can be broken down, or sliced up into 4 blog posts.
- Several email communications.
- 10 or more tweets or Facebook or LinkedIn posts.
- This is ‘re-purposing’ of content. It is logical – create a big piece of work, then break it into lots of single-idea subjects that resonate with your ideal customer.
TIP #3: Make use of Twitter. Search out the influencers in your market and send them a message using the Twitter platform. Amanda told us how she had done this successfully with Darren Rowse, the Australian founder of ProBlogger. Amanda wanted to sound out Darren about using a hyphen in a URL. And she got an answer she was able to act upon.
TIP #4: Amanda advises you should be scheduling at least 5 Tweets per day to create the kind of exposure your local business requires.
TIP #5: Amanda also advises you do add your job role and company in the line under your name but to help you get found by other people searching LinkedIn, be sure to add a few words to highlight what value you bring to others. (Graham: I took immediate action on this, because I wasn’t doing that – check my profile and link to me on LinkedIn https://uk.linkedin.com/in/graham-arrowsmith-45b4b41).
TIP #6: An excellent way to use LinkedIn for search is by using the ‘advanced people search’…
Linked-In Advanced People Search
And then we got onto Amanda’s new project. She is a services expert. She has never sold a product before. Until now.
Amanda told us about her 100 day challenge to create a new product. Her inspiration came from her Mastermind group and external inspiration like John Lee Dumas, an American entrepreneur who also chats with inspiring entrepreneurs in his podcast Entrepreneur On Fire.
Most impressively, Amanda wishes to devote part of the profits from the product sale to support a couple of charities: ‘Soroptimist Internatiional’ and ‘Pencils of Promise’
The product is called The Celebration Project. It runs counter the sheer weight of bad news we are all subject to in the media every day. The Celebration Project will offer a journal for people to add their wins to, little or otherwise. The compilation of these celebrations is sure going to make you look back on your life and see more of the good you have experienced, wouldn’t you say?
Amanda discussed the challenges of the 100 day launch – sourcing product, website development, branding, the creation of an email list – TIP #7: she will leverage (carefully) her ambassadors – friendly referrers. Maybe this is something we can all leverage in our own businesses. Think about it, how many ambassadors could you generate for the work you do?
When asked to provide her advice about THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS to focus upon in the next 100 days, she advised:
- Sell a dream. We are all taught to solve a problem, but it is equally valid to attend to a person’s desires.
- Do ONE thing at a time. This is all about being efficient.
- DO NOT WORRY about the risk of failure. Be tenacious.
TIP #8: At the end of the next 100 days most of all Amanda wants to be clear about one thing: what are the questions her audience are asking. This is all about understanding her customer avatar.You can connect with Amanda on Twitter (send her a question! J )
Her twitter name is @amanda_brown
And email address: amanda@alterra-consulting.co.uk
