Social Media Tips to Keep You Popular

If you want to stay “popular” on the social media posting sites, there are a few things you need to keep in mind.  You may be a gregarious soul that loves everyone and relishes the social part of this media, but there are a few staunch professionals out there who expect you to play by the game rules.   The following are just a handful of tips that will help you stay within those expected boundaries.

THE READERS CHOICE
I know this may be hard to believe, but not everyone posts to every known social media option available! If there is a particular person you want to connect with – research their website and see if they encourage their viewers to connect via email, Facebook, Twitter… and follow that suggestion.

You will also want to watch how frequently they participate!  I was doing a bit of Social Media building just last night and I saw something interesting occurring… there were people on Twitter who had tons of people they were following, a handful that were following them, and absolutely zero posts!  I am not sure what their purpose is – but it did not appear to me to be communicating.

That is one thing I really like about Twitter… those little tidbits of information help me “assess” whether someone will be interactive or not… after all -  it is the “players” you want to be courting.

BREVITY:  LESS IS MORE
Being brief has become a necessity!  With all the information coming at us from a myriad of directions, we almost have a brain freeze when it comes to communication.

Twitter, LinkedIn, and Plaxo have the fixed 140 characters built in, and for the most part… your first communication probably shouldn’t be longer than that.

Learn to be brief, and if you have a larger message – - break it down into several smaller ones.   Not only will you have more visibility opportunities- your intended audience will be more likely to make that quick read rather than “click, delete” when it appears to be the intro to War and Peace.

REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS
Don’t set yourself up for disappointment by expecting everyone to respond.  There is no need to waste your limited characters asking them to “get back to me”… it is a given, that if your message interests them – they will!

Do not follow up unless you are serious about making the connection, and even then – don’t do so without resentment or frustration… just with another short, powerful, positive message.

EXERCISE CLARITY
Put your message or request right up front!
Especially if you are using short messages – say up front what it is clearly your intent to communicate.  People tend to read the first part of a message, then skip to the bottom – or even delete rather than making that skip… you don’t want to risk the meat of your message being missed.

THE CONNECTION IS YOUR OBJECTIVE
Keep in mind that what you really want is to develop authentic relationships with people that

(a) you can serve at a high level, or

(b)relationships with professionals who serve your same target market.

In the beginning – it is not necessary for the person to be interested in discussing your project, product, or service… What matters is whether you are able to make a connection that allows you to focus on building a relationship; a relationship upon which future business potential may occur.

BE CONFIDENT – NOT NEEDY
Be very cautious about using the words “I need to talk to you.”  The phrase smacks of insecurity! When you become comfortable with any outcome and rather than feeling rejected can just say “Next!” you will begin making authentic contacts.

DON’T SHOW HIGH MAINTENANCE
Although you may feel that constantly emailing or texting, or posting, or Twitting  is nothing more than staying in touch with prospects – consider that it might come across that you are just going to be high maintenance and that opening the door to communicating/networking with you might
consume a lot of valuable time.

Unless your messages have a time to response consideration … leave a little breathing room in the frequency of your communication.  It’s a little
like dating – if you come on too strong, too soon – it feels alittle freaky!

These are just a few of many valuable ideas that will help you better network in the social media – - and in conventional marketing if that remains your best marketing practice.

Anna Weber
4-Dimensional Success
www.4-DSuccess.com

Pricing – Six Tips to Find Your Value

Pricing – Expectations and Perceptions

We are deluged with online information products and other programs and services which run the gamut from pricing as low as $7 to items offered in the thousands of dollars range. As someone who may be creating these products, you are probably just as confused as the consumer when it comes to setting your prices.

Unfortunately, there is no standardized guideline or formula that tells you how to calculate your pricing – nothing that says if you have 3 videos and a 97 page workbook that you should price the product at $67. So what do you do?   Pick a number out of the sky, or look to the one competitor who seems to be charging what you would pay?

It is never going to be an easy task, but there are six important things to consider before you decide on your pricing that will help you make a better decision than the two just mentioned.

Setting the Price

Once you have set your price it will be difficult to raise it significantly so take the time to really review where you will set your pricing before you put any marketing materials out.

I do have one professional acquaintance who does, however, have a marketing model where her raises prices every year. Through the year she takes time to modify her program and product just a little so there is more value, but she is not extending her valuable resources to ramp up a whole new product.  Her modified and improved content, in her mind, is worth the increased pricing.

Understand Your Buying Patterns

The second consideration is to be very aware of what your own buying standards are. There is an interesting psychological dynamic that you will normally be driven to price your products and services according to the fees with which you personally are comfortable in making your own purchases.

When you are aware of this fact, you must decide if you really want to continue to embrace that feeling, or if you want to push beyond your limiting beliefs and assess the value of your offering based entirely on the value you know it will provide your clients.

Assess the Long-term Value you Provide

Do not think about the product as a one time sale that is an expense to your buyers!  Think about how you will impact their lives future-forward.

I just had a Mastermind session with a young man who is starting to market to orthodontists. What he has to remember is that he is not making one sale for his clients – what he is bringing is a family of patients that represents revenue for many years to come, not to mention additional referrals from those family members!

I recently looked at what I provide my clients from a different perspective as well.  There is an old German saying that when you give a man a fish, you feed him for one day; when you teach him to fish, you feed him for life.  The life-changing aspect of my program does just that – - shakes up their thinking about how they manage their personal and professional lives so that they make consistently better choices.  This gives me the confidence that my services are not an expense, but a long term asset or investment in the lives of my clients.

Understand that Pricing is Based on Perception

Fortunately…pricing is based on the perception of the value the product delivers – based on some balance between your point of view and that of your prospective buyer. A buyer’s decision to purchase will always be driven by need, comfort and expectations. If you want to sell to buyers in the upper price range – it is essential that you market to a target that is used to, and comfortable with, spending money for the things they want, as long as their expectations of the perceived value are ultimately – and consistently – met, they will continue to spend and it might as well be with you.

Pricing is Equal to Value

In our culture, that fine blend between price and value is based on the perception that higher prices indicate more value. This fact is supported every day in virtually every industry – we have standard cars and luxury ones. There are shoes at Payless and shoes at Bakers; there are cosmetics at Walgreens and cosmetics from Arbonne; and there are off the rack at Target clothes and designer items at Macys. In some cases the pricing difference in merited; in others, it is probably nothing more than the perception.

I had a friend who was getting frustrated to the point of giving up her coaching practice because the $300 per month clients she had were just not performing at the success level she knew they could be. She knew one of the dynamics was that they didn’t have as much “skin in the game” and losing the $300 was apparently not all that painful to them, but she had a hard time selling herself on higher fees.

At the highest level of her frustration she raised her fees to $1500, thinking if she only had one client instead of five, she could better serve them and would give them five times the value in her coaching services. An interesting phenomenon occurred – she suddenly had five $1500 clients who saw the value of what she was trying to help them accomplish and they were performing at high levels and getting amazing results. Same coach, same processes – - different clients – - different perceptions and expectations!

Allow Enough Revenue to Provide Quality

Which brings me to the final consideration:  How much time do you have to devote to providing quality customer service?  If you are struggling with the amount of revenue you are generating, maybe your best next decision is to raise your prices to a level where you give your buyers two primary things:  the results they expect when purchasing your offering and the kind of stellar service that keeps them coming back looking for your next one!

… Until next time, do yourself a favor and take time to consider the value of what you offer.

Anna Weber
4-Dimensional Success
www.4-DSuccess.com

Always… engaging you in positive, life-altering actions that will provide you with long-term, sustainable benefit.

Fast Forward…

4-Dimensional Success

Fast Forward…

I am amazed at how frequently my friend Dr. Joyce Mills’ comment comes to mind:  “When you know where you are you will know where you are going!”  In my message for you today, it is imperative that you have that kind of clarity.  I imagine it is easy for you to say, “I am here in this state today, but want to be in a very different one over the course of the next two years.”  The clarity about where you are will help you decide the steps necessary to get where you are going!

Take a few moments of quiet reflection and fast forward two years. Take out a piece of paper and answer the following questions.  Don’t just read through them and have a passive mental connection – really take the time to get in touch with yourself and actively engage yourself in the process by writing down each response.  I did this over the weekend and rather than feeling frustrated that my objectives were unrealistic, I gained clarity about how to actually attain them!

How do you feel?

What are you doing?

Do you like what you see?

I am not necessarily talking about the material things that you may have amassed; I am talking about the new you!  Did you seem different to yourself?  Did you seem wiser, perhaps calmer – more in tune with things – perhaps at peace?

When you are willing to work forward with a specific strategy – you truly can glimpse your future, and the amazing thing is that if you fast forward and think about the process in which you engaged and feel how differently things have become – you have at your disposal a perfect tool to design your strategy – by working backwards as to how you got there.  Just keep in mind that the big change in your future begins with the smaller changes you are willing to make in yourself and the manner in which you strategize your future!

My little eZine is called Giving You the Edge for a very specific reason:  when a well-planned and executed strategy begins to come together, you gain an almost unfair advantage within your business community.  The changes in your personal life impact the business choices you make, and you gain an increased ability to look two years into your future – seeing the process and feeling the results of your efforts.

This fast forward process helps reveal all the positive steps you have taken; it allows you to sense the mistakes you might have made and gives you the advantage of wisely making better decisions as you execute your strategy.  Making right choices is foundational to creating the future you desire; they give you the freedom and lifestyle that you want at an accelerated pace.  When you fail to fast forward you are faced, at that two-year mark, with wondering why things seem to continually fail you or feeling discouraged and disappointed that you seem to be caught in a position of merely accepting what life throws your way.

Vision without action is doomed to fail; if you find and copy the success principles of those around you it is possible to gain leverage through team efforts, marketing concepts and little known tips, tools and resources.  As you learn to fast forward and strategize your success, you begin to execute one of the primary success principles:  “People don’t make money – systems do!”  Combine your desire with clarity of purpose and direction and create a strategy (system)  and you will leave your competitors behind in a cloud of dust.  You will experience a new you; a person who works from systems, seeks continual new skill sets, and learns to outsource activities that don’t maximize your greatest revenue generating skills.

Go ahead… fast forward two years:

• · Reveal what you really desire,
• · learn what it takes to keep you motivated, and
• · uncover the systematic, strategy-developing steps necessary to drive you toward all that you see in your amazing future.

Until the muses visit me again… I encourage you to engage in positive, life-altering activities that will provide you with long-term, sustainable benefit.

Anna

4-Dimensional Succes

www.4-DSuccess.com

Keeping the Momentum…

Anna Weber (4-Dimensional Success)

Do you ever experience undue pain because you know you have a ton of unfinished projects nagging at your subconscious? Does that pain then compel you to list all your unfinished projects, with a sudden, intense desire to prioritize them, breathe life back into them, and finish each of them by a specific date? Or do you just shake your head in wonder at why you continue to sabotage yourself?

It is human nature to get excited about something, dig in and make a bit of progress, then… move on to something else. But, why do we behave in this manner? Sometimes the initial excitement wanes and we get bored or simply lose interest. Other times we come face to face with a problem we seem not able to resolve and lose our confidence or move on to something that is easy or without issues.

And then – there are other moments when we find ourselves dealing with the fear of – - success! I have experienced this a few times in my own life. Once, in my mid twenties I was building a very successful name in my clothing design and had a gentleman from Australia make me a really exciting offer – which I promptly refused for a myriad of reasons that came streaming from my heart, mind and mouth! He looked at me like I had just declared war, or some other horrid unsavory act, and responded that it was clearly evident that I was afraid of success. I could understand being afraid of failure – but success? That just didn’t register in my head at that time. I look back in life and see a few other times when I put myself out there – expecting success and for some reason – pulled myself back.

The most recent event occurred with the submission of a chapter for a book I am co-authoring with three amazing celebrity authors. I was excited enough to say, “Yes” to the offer, complete the chapter and the required interview questions and quickly dusted off my hands, and put it to sleep – until the day of my interview! I was suddenly feeling very anxious about the whole thing and not really understanding why. After all, I had already completed the work and a bit of minor editing here and there was all that would be left. Taking myself off to a quiet place, I remembered Colin’s admonishment some twenty years prior that I was afraid of success and finally understood! I was looking at a potentially significant change in my life and my career and had not yet wrapped myself around all the emotional or actual aspects of that change.

This time, however, I will respond to the opportunity differently – because I now know that success builds success, and I can handle whatever comes from this newest opportunity. I now understand the elements of being accountable and finding pride in completion. I get excited with the primary reward of a job well-done, that being the privilege of setting a new goal and accepting a new challenge! So, what sage advice can I provide you to help you when you find yourself with too many unfinished projects dragging down your energy? What can I do to help you keep your momentum?
1. Nothing has so great an impact as action! Whether you decide to simply make a list of what has to be completed, or make an assessment of which should take priority – become engaged in the commitment to completion.

2. Touch base with your feelings and determine why you set a project aside. Once you understand that you will be armed with the resources to modify your thinking and your behavior. Ask the tough questions:

a. Did I just get bored and disinterested? If so, is there anything that can revive my original excitement? If not, am I best to just scratch this off the list and remove any sense of guilt about it being nothing more than a passing interest?

b. If I lacked confidence or skills, what must I do to modify that? Do I need additional training or just a long talk with someone who can help me see that I am capable and help rebuild my belief in my ability?

c. Am I afraid of success or failure? If so, what will it take for me to change my thinking? If I am afraid of success is it because I am not sure how I will deal with the potential changes, or am I just unsure of what those changes will be? Am I afraid of possible sacrifices I may have to make, and if so, how can I modify my thinking to gain clarity about those sacrifices to decide they are worth the desired result?

3. Choose to optimize your time so that you may be actively engaged in a positive outcome rather than just being busy for the sake of being busy!

a. Be aware of your use of time by periodically recording your activities and reviewing how you might make adjustments that will improve how you use it.

b. Look your “time wasters” full in the face and decide how you are going to eliminate them! Can you outsource tasks that are not your best use of time? Can you create a system that helps you get through a “process” more quickly? Can you add software or technology that automates tasks?

c. Become very sensitive about things that distract you and work to remove those distractions! Can you place those emails that don’t need immediate attention into a file that you can look at during a time period that is not disrupting your highest productivity, or breaking an important focus? Can you block your time so that you do nothing but that which is listed in that block, such as phone calls or product development?

d. Develop an awareness of the value of your time and learn to ask yourself, “Is what I am doing at this very moment moving me forward to the one goal I seek to achieve?”

Do you want to know more about how to keep your momentum – or address why you seem unable to do so? Check out your opportunities at 4-Dimensional Success.