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I was recently onsite at a Dealership client in Michigan and was PLEASANTLY surprised to see that the ENTIRE management team was immersed in the 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People Training! Every week they read a new chapter and discuss it in the Manger's Meeting. When I came to the dealership to train they were on habit 6... "SYNERGY"! They were so kind to invite me to share some of my thoughts and knowledge as a FranklinCovey Trainer and I had such an amazing time explaining my interpretation of Dr.Covey's message.
This video is of me "free styling" my thoughts about the 6th Habit and how it all comes together.
Enjoy!
When I was asked last year to develop a social media marketing service, the first question they asked was whether I already had software in mind or if it needed to be built. I told them that the software had already been developed and it was free. This didn't go over well at first; they’d always used premium social media software in the past.
“How good could it be if it’s free?” they asked.
I told them that it’s not only free, but it was also the best software available. I took the computer, typed in f-a-c-e-b-o-o-k-dot-c-o-m, and proceeded to explain why it wasn’t just about me being cheap, but that it’s also better to post to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest from facebook.com, twitter.com, plus.google.com, and pinterest.com.
Here’s why:
You Don’t Need a Shell on Top
With search engine marketing, there’s an argument that can be made that pulling in third-party data is a benefit. The sheer amounts of data available through the search engines and from outside sources makes it conceivable that there are benefits to using software to manage campaigns, track keywords (particularly for SEO reasons), and monitor results. Then again, the Google Adwords UI has become pretty darn slick in recent months, so I don’t think I’d even use software for that.
At least it’s debatable with search and other marketing arenas. On social, there’s simply no debate necessary. There is no software out there that makes posting, monitoring, and reporting results easier than the actual websites and mobile apps themselves. Are there benefits? Sure. There are also major drawbacks and too much room for error that makes them worthless.
A couple of years ago, they were effective because Facebook and Twitter hadn’t matured. Today, they’re doing just fine handling their own data, controlling their own posts, and making it easier to monitor.
It almost sorta kinda makes sense with a taco.
Don’t get me wrong. I use tools. I love Buffer for scheduling posts on Twitter to keep them spread out and on Facebook when I won’t be available to post myself. I like the multiple views available through software like Hootsuite. However, there are too many high-dollar shells being put on top of the interfaces that do nothing more than make the reports look pretty.
What’s worse is that many of them attempt to prove their value by offering features such as content suggestions and automated posting. Scheduling and automation are two different things and there’s simply no need to take content suggestions from software (more on that later).
Social Plugins Hurt Websites
This one might make some software companies really upset with me, but it has to be said. You should never, ever, ever, ever, ever add plugins or wigdets to your website without two things: a really good reason and the backing of a major software company. Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn – their plugins and widgets aren’t perfect, but at least they’re safe. Everything else – dump them.
The native widgets are all you need. It always amazes me when I see Facebook plugins, for example, that weren’t built by Facebook. There was a rise in popularity of the little ribbon at the bottom of pages for a while. Thankfully, most realized that they slow the page load times down and can cause errors on certain browsers. They also realized that they didn’t do anything useful other than give the marketing manager at the company something to show the boss and put unearned cash into the pockets of the company that sold it to them.
They don’t work. They aren’t effective. They do much more harm than good. Unfortunately, those are the best-case scenarios. In some cases, they can actually do true harm to a site as can be seen in the image to the right.
There’s a reason that social media companies develop software. It’s less expensive for them to support software than to employ the people necessary to make social media actually work for their clients. It’s sexy because it’s visual, tangible, and seems to be sophisticated. In other marketing arenas, software is often all that’s needed. In social media, it does nothing other than make people feel good.
Social Media is Creative. Software is Not.
As I hinted at before, when software is used to find content or determine what to post, the battle is already lost.
I’d put my team of specialists up against IBM’s Watson if it did social media management. Until a piece of software is able to craft a Facebook post or Tweet that has the ability to reach the minds of the audience rather than just reaching their feeds for the sake of reaching their feeds, software is not the solution for this.
Some would argue that it saves time from having to look for content to post. I would argue that the technology to do that has been around for a while. It’s called Google. There’s also RSS feed readers (NOT to post automatically, of course) that gives any industry plenty of content in just the same manner as the social software provides. This isn’t new technology.
The biggest challenge with this is that it takes the human eye out of the equation in many circumstances. Software, for all the good that it can do, does tend to make us lazy. It’s laziness that turns good pages mediocre. Manual vetting of content and inspiration that only comes to humans can turn a good page into a fantastic one.
“But, it saves time!”
That’s what some will say. I would argue that the five minutes it saves a day isn’t worth being half as effective.
Dashboards are Completely Overrated
The data is there. Facebook Insights aren’t perfect, but they present the data in an acceptable manner. Dashboards definitely do make things prettier. They also speed up the reporting process for marketing companies. However, they don’t understand nuance.
I’ve seen both sides. I’ve seen gorgeous automated reports and dashboards that didn’t tell the whole picture and I’ve seen manually-created reports and native dashboards that deliver the real results. A dashboard doesn’t know that the picture of a local attraction that received 50 likes, 15 shares, and 10 comments is less successful of a post than an inventory item that received 20 likes, 10 shares, and 5 comments, particularly if that inventory item was sold the day after it was posted.
The information provided by the social sites themselves manually gathered and analyzed by humans gives a much more accurate picture of the effectiveness of a campaign than any dashboard or report. It doesn't matter how pretty the graphs are. It’s still only numbers being provided in a different format. Reports need to say more than just the numbers. They need to demonstrate success.
There is a reason we have people who sell cars. This video is for everyone in the business.
Someone once told me that most aeronautical engineers will tell you that there is no possible way the bumblebee can fly. His wingspan isn’t broad enough, he is too heavy and his body build makes it impossible for him to fly. Fortunately, the bumblebee doesn’t understand aeronautics, so he just goes along and flies anyway!
Decide to have a “bumblebee attitude” and just fly anyway! All of the good this world has to offer is on your side. Fight to be the best you, you can be! Fight to reach success! Fight to make it big in every area of life! Despise second best! Despise the fear of failure and rejection and live your life to the max! Don’t listen to the naysayer’s and critics. Don’t listen to the media, the economy and the news. Have a bumblebee attitude and fly anyway!
“Success means doing the best we can with what we have. Success is the doing, not the getting; in the trying, not the triumph. Success is a personal standard, reaching for the highest that is in us, becoming all that we can be.”
- Zig Ziglar
Do Your Best Today!
When we do the best we can, where we are, with what we have now, we will live in success! So many people hold back and save their best for later. They wait for a reunion, an occasion, an event, a specific job, an important person with a special title or even a stranger before they show off everything they know and can do. The difference between “The Average Joes” and “The Pros” in sports, business and in every area of life is the discipline to do your best in your field every day.
Think like a champion!
Champions are people with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of the odds against them. They are a bit unrealistic in how they see life, as they don’t reason with reality. They make the impossible happen and never considered it impossible.”
- Grant Cardone
So many times we can get hung up on focusing on the things we don’t have, rather than on the things we do have. We think we need more equipment, more programs, more incentives, more people, more training and more money to be our best. Now, don’t misunderstand me; more equipment, more programs, more incentives, more training and more money is good and will add value to our lives, helping us become and release our best. However, if we are not maximizing what we have in our ability, in the areas of the influence and equipment we have now, we won’t when we get more, either. Use what you have now. Sharpen your skills you have now. Master your craft! Practice doing your best and when it comes time for “Game Day,” you’ll perform your best.
“Don’t be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are hard jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the bigger ones tend to take care of themselves.”
- Dale Carnegie
Give your best in every matter, both small and large, and you will experience the best each matter has to offer. Give your best now! Don’t wait until later or tomorrow. Start where you are now. Don’t let circumstances, people or excuses hold you back from giving your best. If it’s in your power to do it now, don’t wait until tomorrow.
“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”
- Matthew 6:34 (New Living Translation Bible)
Don’t Wait Till Tomorrow!
Tomorrow has enough worries, problems and situations of it’s own. Why add more on top of it to make things even more difficult to deal with. Deal with it today! I once heard someone say that today is a gift, and that’s why it’s called “the present.” We need to open up our today with the same excitement, attitude and efforts as if it really is a present. We are alive today. Today, we can make a change. Today is always the best time to deal with ourselves. Today!
One of the biggest problems that face our today is our worry about tomorrow. Worry is one of the greatest issues that paralyze people, keeping them from moving into the greatness for which they have been created. I once heard someone say, “I don’t worry about the things I can change, because I can change them. I don’t worry about the things I can’t change, because I can’t change them. Therefore, I just don’t worry.” This is probably the most liberating statement I have ever heard! Stop and think about the truth of that statement! How many times have you changed the situations you were going through by worrying about them day and night? And if they did change from you worrying about them, they probably changed for the worse! Someone once said, “Worry is like a rocking chair — it gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you anywhere.”
Share your best with the world today, have a bumblebee attitude, don’t worry about tomorrow and, no matter what happens, you will be an Ultimate Success!
