Social Divas

“Your Fortune is in the Follow Up!” By Ali Brown

Ali Brown - Entrepreneur

Most business owners are good at making an offer to prospects or reaching out to new customers. It’s the follow-up where they fall down. Why? Because they figure, “if they wanted my services, they’d finish the transaction,” or they worry, “if I bother them too much, I’ll come off as needy.”
Here’s the thing: While you’re worrying about bugging a prospective customer or telling yourself that maybe “they’re just not that into me,” someone else is following up and sealing the deal!

“No” is just a little bump on the road to “yes.”

Remember that most people do need time to make a decision, but they also need to hear/see/feel your message repeatedly. Also remember, they are busy people too, so when someone expresses interest in your offerings, but they aren’t quite ready to sign on the dotted line, they can often be persuaded with a polite follow up.
And listen to what they say. For example, maybe you’re trying to convince a local business to purchase advertising on your website. They might say, “This sounds like a good opportunity, but I’ve already used up my marketing dollars for this quarter.” By following up before the beginning of the next quarter, you could get on your contact’s radar and get her business while she’s in the planning stages.
Here are some other follow-up methods to consider:

Ask if they’d like to be added to your ezine

Creating an email newsletter is a great way to keep in contact with prospects and update them on new promotions or offerings. Ask their permission first, and include useful content in your ezine so it’s not a pure sales message. Once people get used to receiving timely and insightful information from you, they’ll become more likely to hire you for business.

Create an automatic email series

Also called auto-responder series, this is a programmed set of emails you set up in your shopping cart or email program. You can create a series of mini-lessons related to your specialty, top 10 tips, 5 key strategies, 7 secrets to success, etc. and have each delivered a few days apart. This can be used in addition to your ezine if you have one.

Send useful articles or links

If you know the prospect pretty well, you could email her occasionally when you come across articles that might be useful for her business or see networking events she might like to attend. That way you’re keeping the lines of communication open without pressuring her. I try to do this for my current clients as well. When I’m catching up on business publications (usually during my fly time), I tear out articles if I know a client would appreciate. I then have my assistant scan them, and I email it along with a short note.

Send a card

The holidays and birthdays are a great time to reconnect with prospects and spread seasonal cheer. But consider sending a card at other times of the year, perhaps a mid-summer greeting or a Labour Day card (as people return from vacation, this can be a good time to snag new business). This way you’ll become more memorable and have an excuse to connect with people outside of the regular occasions. A great resource to help speed the process is SendOutCards, but a hand-written card is best when you have time.

Pick up the phone

It’s funny that this one may sound like a revelation in today’s world! We don’t seem to even bother to leave voicemail messages anymore—so imagine how powerful a real live phone call can be to a potential client. I’ve recently shifted the structure of my business so my team members have more live contact with my customers and prospects, and it truly does make a difference. We get feedback that we simply don’t get with email communications, and it’s helping us better tailor our future offerings.
You don’t have to go into it with a hard sell in mind. Instead, think of it as a courtesy call. Your goal should be to find out how your prospect is doing right now, and let them know you are here should they have any questions, or need your service. These calls are also a good opportunity to negotiate a deal that is mutually beneficial, and in the end, it nurtures a long-term relationship.

Hold an event

Consider hosting a discussion group on a timely topic, a networking breakfast, or a free seminar on an issue that will interest potential customers. Invite prospects who were on the fence and use the opportunity to also bring in new people. When you are seen as a leader and connector, you are perceived as being a leader and connector in your business, and that can help them.

The bottom line with all follow up? Be persistent, but always be polite.
Do YOU have follow-up strategies you use that work well? Please join the conversation and share below!

“Entrepreneur mentor Ali Brown teaches women around the world how to start and grow profitable businesses that make a positive impact. Get her FREE CD “Top 10 Secrets for Entrepreneurial Women” at www.AliBrown.com”

LinkedIn Leverage Part 4: Leveraging LinkedIn Groups For Derrière Kicking Connections And Expert Status

We’re here at Part 4 of our LinkedIn Leverage online training/blog series!

Thank you to everyone still following. Or if you’ve just joined us, you can find links to previous lesson at the bottom of this blog post.

In this lesson I’m going to teach you about using LinkedIn groups to make some great connections and also to position yourself as an authority in your industry.

What do you say we skip the formalities and get right into the lesson?

1. Joining LinkedIn Groups

There are two ways you can be involved in LinkedIn Groups

1. Joining an already established group
2. Creating your own

Until you become more experienced in using LinkedIn, stick with joining groups already established.

There are various kinds of groups you can join that may be beneficial to you, a few of them are listed below:

• Local area groups – used for networking with other business owners in your area
• Industry groups – used for networking and sharing expertise with similar business owners
• Educational groups – groups you join in order to new learn things. For example if you’re an accountant and want to learn more about marketing
• Support groups – groups set up to provide support to each other or to a cause

You can only join up to 50 groups though, and once you’ve been on LinkedIn for a couple months those spots get filled up pretty fast. So be pedantic about what groups you are connected to.

To find LinkedIn groups relevant to you, do a simple LinkedIn search using keywords related to what you want to join.

Search for LinkedIn Groups by Keyword

LinkedIn Group Search Results

2. Provide value, value, value

Before I start touting my services and trying to convert the group members into leads, I provide value.

By value, I mean

- Not talking about myself right away (besides an introduction)

- Answering as many questions as I can from other group members

- Providing insight to someone else’s post

- Complimenting other members blog posts/links/achievements that they’ve put in the group

- Liking all relevant posts other members have made

I do this for a week at least.

This shows members two things:

1. That I’m in the group to help others
2. That I know what I’m talking about and am an authority

3. Identify your target, take aim and shoot

You’ve been in the group for a couple weeks now, you have a fair idea of the top influencers.

Now you need to pick the ones you think are your ideal clients, or they may be great joint venture partners, or they may just have a few contacts he/she can you refer you to.

Once you’ve identified these key people, send them a connection request! (Refer back to Part 3 on how to do this).

Make sure to include a personal message in the request, that asks about them and their business.

There is a heap more for you to learn about leveraging LinkedIn groups to make derriere kicking connections and authority status, so we’ll leave that to next week.

Your action tasks for this week are:

• Join 2 new groups that are active (have posted within the last day and there are at least 5 new posts per week)
• Provide value in each of those groups (answer questions, provide insight etc)
• Find the top influencers and connect with them

Make sure to let me know in the comments what discoveries you’ve found!

Past Lessons:
LinkedIn Leverage Part 1: Creating Your Profile for LinkedIn Completeness

LinkedIn Leverage Part 2: Creating Your Profile for LinkedIn Completeness

LinkedIn Leverage Part 3: Seeking and Connecting with Targeted Connections

LinkedIn Leverage Part 3: Seeking and Connecting with Targeted Connections

Hello you Derrière Kicking Savvy Genius!

Welcome to LinkedIn Leverage Part 3: Seeking and Connecting with Targeted Connections where I will show you what you need to know in order to find other derrière kicking women just like you that could potentially lead to clients, workshop attendees, joint venture partners and referrals.

LinkedIn is not about what you know, but who you know.

Spending only 15 minutes a week, you will see yourself accepting a flurry of new connections and well on your way to getting more clients and referrals.

So let’s get into the lesson for LinkedIn Leverage Part 3: Seeking and Connecting with Targeted Connections.

Getting in touch in the first place

There are three ways you can make contact with people and connect with them:

1. Invitations – These are done either by visiting a profile and clicking the Connect button, or by entering in an email address or email list.
2. Introductions – Introductions are either done through a direct connection (1st Degree) of yours to anyone in their network that you would like an introduction to. The connection receives your request for an introduction and can then choose whether they want to forward it or not.
3. InMail – InMails are a premium service by LinkedIn and is the internal email system. You get a set amount of InMail credits per month.

Searching for Derrière Kicking Connections

There are a few ways you can search for targeted connections.

One of them is to upload your email address book and LinkedIn will send out all your requests automatically.

This is great if you want to save time, however the message that is sent with the request is the generic one created by LinkedIn.

I’ve found that having that generic LinkedIn messages are the biggest pet hate for some people. But if you personally don’t really care whether the connection request comes with a generic message or personal message because you check out profiles before connecting anyway or you just want to connect with everyone, then go ahead and send bulk requests.

I personally don’t see anything wrong with bulk requests and do accept most because I always check out a profile first to see how I can help the requestee or how the requestee can help me.

Another way to find new connections is to do a simple search in LinkedIn.

Know what industry you’re looking for, for example “business coach Perth” and have a look at the results that come up.

LinkedIn usually filters the search results by relevance, so all your 1st and 2nd connections will show up first. You will then be able to go down the list for people who aren’t a connection already to connect with.

This is more of a targeted way than adding bulk email addresses, so make sure you send a personal message with each request. What I do is have a look through their profile for anything we may have in common, or something I can comment on. If their profile is bare, I check if they have a website and look at that.

I then send a quick message which is something like:

“Hi Lulu,

I would love to connect with you and learn more about your work with coaching women in business.

Phillipa Kiripatea”

It doesn’t need to be anything extensive, just to the point.

Be open to accepting connections

LinkedIn is for making connections. So be open to connection requests and to letting people know who you are.

• Open your profile so non-connections can see the full view – change settings at https://www.linkedin.com/settings/?tab=email
• Edit your Contact area to show people that you are open to connections
• Don’t get offended if someone doesn’t send you a personal message. Check out the persons profile and if you think you can help that person or vice versa, accept and you take the step to starting the conversation.

You will find you are getting more people wanting to connect with you when your activity in LinkedIn picks up. So when you’re adding connections regularly, participating in group conversations, updating your status update and using LinkedIn Answers.

Groups are especially good for growing your network because you have a chance to communicate directly with so many like-minded people. If you do this, people will find you and your network will grow naturally.

Follow these steps along with the previous 2 lessons, and you will be well on your way to getting more leads, clients, referrals and joint venture partners via LinkedIn.

Your task for this week is to:

Be sure to head over to Social Divas Facebook page and let me know how you are going with this week’s task.

What is your biggest frustration with LinkedIn?
Let me know in the comments so  I can give you the solution in a future LinkedIn Leverage lesson.

Past Lessons:
LinkedIn Leverage Part 1: Creating Your Profile for LinkedIn Completeness

LinkedIn Leverage Part 2: Creating Your Profile for LinkedIn Completeness

LinkedIn Leverage Part 2: Creating Your Profile For LinkedIn Completeness

Here we are at Part 2 of our LinkedIn Leverage online training/blog series.

How are you going with Part 1?

On the Social Divas Facebook page, I tasked fans to go out and connect with 10 new connections, maybe you can do the same.

Let’s get to the lesson – 5 more tips to creating your profile for LinkedIn completeness.

6. ABC, easy as 123…

I still wonder why some people don’t put any education details on their profile. Yes, I agree, experience is more valued than education and I know some people didn’t even go to school at all, but if you did go to school, you should be putting those details in your LinkedIn profile.

Not showing your education details means previous classmates will find it harder to find you – and if an ex-classmate is not an ideal client, half the work of rapport building is already done!

By showing your education details it helps you to complete your profile and also raises your chances of getting contacted with potential opportunities

7. Will you recommend me?

To be able to complete your LinkedIn profile to LinkedIn’s standards, you need to receive 3 recommendations to get to 100%.

The power of LinkedIn recommendations is amazing. Because recommendations connect to the person”s profile whom recommended you, potential clients are able to see that it’s an actual persona providing the recommendation.

I recommend you get at least 1 LinkedIn recommendation for each position you have listed in your profile. You can get recommendations from current or previous clients, workshop attendees, joint venture partners, staff or business partners.

LinkedIn makes it super simple for you to request recommendations.

Action tip: Send out 3 requests for a recommendation via LinkedIn from past or current clients.

Also, give 3 recommendations for service providers whom have done work for you in the past or even currently.

8. Acquire Some Connections

LinkedIn is for finding professional connections. So one of the first steps you should take when on LinkedIn is finding great people to connect with.

Start off with people you know – clients, work colleagues, joint venture partners, mentors, business coaches etc.

Then start looking for your ideal client. If you know the keywords your ideal client will use when listing their heading in LinkedIn, this will be easy. For me, it’s “business coach Perth”, and if I want, I can just change Perth to another city.

Let readers of your profile know what you are looking for and who are looking for and remember to include your keywords in there for extra SEO lovin’.

10. Do you want people to contact you?

Number 10 on our list of Creating Your Profile For LinkedIn Completeness is to let people know if you can be contacted or not.

This section shouldn’t be neglected, but often is.

Yes, there are default bullet points that LinkedIn provides but by all means do not stop there. Use your own derriere kicking words to tell readers why you have created your LinkedIn profile and what you want to get out of it.

If you are open to being contacted for client opportunities, joint venture opportunities etc, then say so. If you just want to network with those that you already know, then say so.

Let everyone know what your LinkedIn contact policy is by writing what your objective is for being on the networking site.

There you now have 10 steps to getting your LinkedIn profile complete to LinkedIn’s standards and also for your own benefit.

This week, go through all the steps and make sure you are doing/have done everything on the list. To make it easy, print out this blog post as well as last weeks one and create yourself a little manual.

Make sure you come back next week for Part 3 which will be about adding derriere kicking connections!

Next Lesson:

LinkedIn Leverage Part 3: Seeking and Connecting with Targeted Connections

How To Stop Social Media From Becoming A Time Drainer

Do you remember when you would get phone calls or visits 100 times a day, interrupting you when you’re in the zone?

Well the biggest time sucker now is what we love most – social media.
You cannot get away from it, no matter where you look, it’s there, stalking your every move.
Our phones are still making noise, but instead of ringing, it’s Facebook or Twitter notifications. We jump on the computer and one of the first things we do is open up our favourite social media site.
So let’s work out how we can stop social media from being a time drainer. Once we’ve done that, we can then work on using to attract leads and make money.

Create a strategic plan

Open up an Excel spreadsheet, a mind mapping app on your iPad or just use a good old fashion piece of paper (I use butchers paper and blu-tac it to my wall).
Jot out each day, update and what you will be doing with your time. While you’re at it, you might as well plan out your days in full, from checking emails, to writing blog posts, to updating Facebook.
This will be your map – follow it and you won’t get lost.

Schedule Your Posts

Facebook has a great new feature where you can schedule your posts.
Use it.
What I do each morning for my clients whose social media profiles I manage is schedule the days posts. I usually do 3 per day.
On Fridays I schedule for the weekend, just in case I’m out enjoying the sun, tech free and can’t update their profiles.
It’s really simple.
For Twitter, you can use the Buffer App. Go check it out, it’s a real handy tool.

Schedule your business 3 months in advance

Don’t be scared. Scheduling 3 months in advance isn’t hard and only takes about an hour with no distractions.
What I do is get out a piece of butchers paper, section it off into thirds, and use each third as a month.
At the top of each section I write out my financial goals for that month.
Then I write out the day and date down each section, and then I put in all the days when I know I’ve got something on – like training days, holidays etc.
After I’ve done that I put in my workshop dates and from there I put in marketing activities I can do to promote those workshops or make my business more visible. I schedule in sales calls, when I’m going to write blog posts and what topics I’m going to write about.
By doing this, I know exactly what I need to be posting about on social networking sites because I know what I need to be promoting.

My 3 month business plan with workshops and marketing activities mapped out

Participate in conversations

Just because you’ve scheduled in your posts for the rest of week, doesn’t mean you can ditch social media all together. You still need to check it a couple times a day for new comments or posts that you can add value to the conversation.
Conversation and connection is key in social media.
You only have to check it 2 or 3 times a day for 10 minutes. Answer questions, ask questions and comment on other businesses or peoples posts whom you want as a client or want a connection with – whether it be on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.
You’ll soon be recognised and have them emailing you in no time.

Leverage your personal profiles

A lot of people say that you should keep your personal life and business separate.
I say fooey.
Your business is just an extension of you, it’s like if you had a 3rd arm. People aren’t going to feel connected to your arm if they don’t know you as a person. It’s just an arm, who really cares?
Your ideal clients will choose your business over their competitors if they connected with you as a person and not with the other business owner.
Add your clients as friends on your Facebook personal profile, let them get to know you better, build a strong rapport with you. Let them see your flaws and your embarrasing family member that posts garbage on Facebook – it makes you human, and last time I checked, humans buy from humans.

If you’re not comfortable with them seeing your every move, put them in a list and only share certain updates with that list – they’ll never know.

Share your personal experiences on your Facebook business page, you never know there may be someone reading it feeling the exact same way and because now they have something in common with you, they are more likely to buy from you.
Social media is amazing if used the right way. It doesn’t have to be a time sucker, if you have the determination it can bring you tons of new clients, profit and even help you save time.

I would love to hear from you. Please share in the comments what tactics you are utilising to save time on social media.

Advice To Women Who Want To Create Their Own Website

This post is thanks to my beautiful friend and accountability buddy Theressa Young-Ngoungou of Chic Web Designs. Theressa helps derriere kicking women like you feel empowered with clarity about creating a ‘Foxy as Hell’ WordPress website

There are many reasons why we, women in business, choose to take the Web Design DIY route.

Deciding to go DIY is one thing, executing it is something quite different.

The road to DIY can be a very liberating journey if approached with the right attitude and realistic expectations. Really grasping the basics can open the door to a higher level of design implementation and the ability to design at a higher level will give you so much independence and freedom.

On the other hand, impatience and inflated expectations will inevitably lead to a DIY disaster. There are women out there who, 2 years down the track, are still coming to terms with the basics. That has to be a frustrating place to be and would ultimately limit the growth of your website. To keep you from heading down this road I’ve penned some advice to help prevent this from happening to you.

Always be kind to yourself

Us women are so damn hard on ourselves. We’re our own worst enemy and at times expect impossible things of ourselves.

Learning Web Design takes patience and an open mind. You can’t, and shouldn’t expect to know everything all at once.

I make no secret of the fact that you will run into problems when you choose to DIY but even accomplished Designers hit brick walls.

When I run into problems I find that sleeping on it brings me the answer. And the answer is always under my nose; I’m just so involved that I can’t see it. Taking a step back will usually do the trick.

Don’t be seduced by overwhelm

Overwhelm is inevitable if you don’t have a plan of attack. Formulate a plan and don’t digress because the minute you start to divert your attention to some other shiny thing you think would look great on your site, overwhelm slowly creeps in and steals away your path of direction.

You’re plan should cover:

• Your websites purpose
• Keyword research & target market
• Domain & Hosting
• Setting up a branded email account
• Articulating your websites structure
• Developing your content and graphics

Don’t be afraid to touch

I believe that Web Design requires a kinesthetic approach. If you don’t touch it, how do you know what it’s capable of doing or more importantly, what it’s not capable of doing?

I’m a self taught Web Designer and this has been one of the most powerful forms of learning for me. My most valuable lessons have been learnt through making mistakes.

Understand your users

What works for you, may not be helpful to your users. By understanding their wants and needs you can develop the ideal “user

experience” (UX) that effortlessly guides them to what they want.

Keep the process as simple as possible and don’t try to get too fancy because sometimes fancy just becomes confusing and confusing ultimately leads to click outs.

I want to know, what challenges do you have with websites? Let me know in the comments below.

ABOUT THERESSA

LinkedIn Leverage Part 1: Creating Your Profile for LinkedIn Completeness

Welcome to the first part of our LinkedIn Leverage series.

This 12 part series will take you through the basics of LinkedIn and setting up your foundation, through to more advanced techniques you can use to connect with high quality people and find hot prospects and clients.

LinkedIn is THE network every business coach, life coach, mentor and speaker has to be on.
If you hate social networking and would compromise with just one, go for LinkedIn.
Unlike Facebook and Twitter that are generally used for personal purposes, LinkedIn is just straight up business. “Skip the fluff talk, what do you want” kind of thing.
You don’t build rapport by posting funny images, you do it by providing solutions, results and referrals.

Let’s get to the lesson – Getting started with LinkedIn by creating your profile to LinkedIn’s completeness standards.

1. Make sure to list your full name

Who agrees that in this era of social media, privacy is pretty much dead. Anyone with a working brain will be able to find information about you on the internet. So having your name on LinkedIn as just your initials or using abbreviations instead of using your full name is quite pointless. The aim of LinkedIn is to find and make connections. If you’re going to hide away, you should have thought about that before going into business.
So, list your full name in your LinkedIn profile.

2. Put up a photo of yourself

I get asked this question quite a bit:

• Should I put my logo in?
• Just leave it blank?
• A photo of myself?

There are lots of reasons some don’t to put their own photo up. Maybe you have a face for radio, you’re camera shy, you don’t have any professional photos…
This is a social networking platform. People want to connect with people. They want to make sure that you’re a geniune person, that they can trust you and you are approachable.
Get some professional photos taken or find your very best one and put that up. If there is someone in the photo with you or you don’t like the background, head over to fiverr.com and find someone good with photoshop skills to fix it up for you.

3. You professional, SEO laden headline

You Professional Headline is the piece of text under your name. It also appears in LinkedIn search results. This spot is ideal for keywords and branding yourself as the expert.
Put in what you do to help clients and your business name.

My headline is stuffed with keywords, but still reads well

In the screenshot above of my headline, you can see that it is stuffed with the term ‘Social Media’.

Why not just say “Director at Social Divas | Social Media Strategist, Speaker, Trainer & Coach”?

Because LinkedIn loves keywords. The more you use them in your profile the more you will show up in search results for them. Go ahead and search for ‘social media perth’ right now. I bet that I’m in the top 3, most times I’m at the very top.

4. Keep your status update updated

If you asked me if you should bother updating your LinkedIn status a few months ago I would have said no.
But now LinkedIn shares your status update on your profile, you don’t want people visiting your profile and seeing an old update. They may think your LinkedIn profile has been deserted and won’t bother connecting with you.
I’m NOT saying to just post anything and everything, and now that LinkedIn doesn’t allow Twitter to auto-share, that’s made it a bit harder for some.
The status update area is for putting things that are relevant -

• Share the events you are attending
• Share your own blog posts
• Share other relevant blog posts
• Ask questions

Stay relevant and aim at posting an update at least once a week.

5. Display your previous work experience

Let people viewing your profile know where you used to work and what other businesses you ran.
This will help complete your profile and also show to others what experience you have. If all you have is your current business, those viewing your profile may think that you don’t have any previous experience or that you’ve been doing nothing all those previous years.
Of course you don’t have to list every single job you’ve had, but list those that are relevant to your current position at least.

So there are your first 5 tips to LinkedIn Leverage and completing your profile to LinkedIn’s standards. Get working on them right away.

On Thursday we’ll have 5 more tips to completing your profile. Make sure you sign up to our email list so you get notified when the post is up.

Do you have any questions about how you can leverage LinkedIn better?
Ask them in the comments below so I can answer them in a blog post.

Welcome Ami O’Brien – Social Divas new Media Blogger

Here in the Social Divas office we are thrilled to welcome the newest diva to our team.

Ami O’Brien comes from a strong communication and marketing background, was in the navy for 4 years (so she knows how to kick some serious derrière) and manages her own website about everyday life and lessons whilst still being a fulltime mother to her adorable 3 year daughter Makayla-lee. Before Ami kicks off as Social Divas newest media blogger and content writer we thought that we would sit down with her and get a little more personal – so that we could share everything with you.

 SD: So Ami, welcome to the diva team, tell us about yourself in 5 words:

AO: Thank you, it is great to be here I am very excited; ok – 5 words Hmmm Creative, Passionate, Loud, Mother, (and definitely) Diva! Ha ha

 SD: Thanks for that, they are some great word choices – so lets expand on that – tell me about your background.

AO: Sure, well I come from a small coastal town in NSW but moved to Perth some 8 years ago while I was in the Navy. I have a 3.5-year-old daughter who is so very independent and bubbly – she amazes me everyday.

I have been writing since I was 6, I have a huge passion for writing – I find the written word a very strong way to communicate, and I also love marketing. I have been in the communications and marketing field of work pretty much my whole life.

I manage a small website which I blog about my own life and am in the process of releasing a new website. I hope to release a book in the next 5 years and just generally love giving and helping other people.

 SD: You sound very busy.

AO: I am, but I love it, I am not the type to just sit back, I much prefer to keep busy, esp. when it comes to helping others.

 SD: Well that is great news for us here at Social Divas, so some more creative questions; what or who are you currently obsessed with?

AO: Well apart from writing, I am very, very obsessed with social media, social networking – anyone who knows me could tell you that I am always connected while on the go, whether that is with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, through my emails and yes even texts – my iPhone does not stop making noises – it drives my partner insane. Ha ha.

 SD: Wow – Ok so who inspires you?

AO: Oh that is a good one; I am really inspired by Strong, Powerful Women in Business. My top pick would have to be Naomi Simson. Her dedication to creating happier workplaces and spreading that happiness to pretty much everyone  – well it is contagious. It helps that she also is the founder of one of the most successful online Australian businesses RedBalloon, she is an author, a blogger, international speaker and female entrepreneur and the reason I am obsessed with things like FiveThanksADay and how happiness at work is not a dirty word – like I said, contagious and inspirational.

 SD: Thanks for that Ami; she does sound amazing, so for the last question, describe your ideal working day?

AO: Well that is an easy one, it would have to be on one of these beautiful Perth sunny days and it would involve great coffee in Kings Park working from my laptop enjoying the sunshine, gorgeous views and amazing scenery and to finish the day off there would be a nice glass of Australian red with a good book.

SD: That sounds like a great working day Ami, well we look forward to hearing much more from you coming up on our own Social Divas blog. You can follow her on the following social networking sites:

 T: @amzobrien

F: amiobrien

W: www.amiobrien.com

L: Ami O’Brien

Why You Need to Create a Facebook Success Action Plan

If you have a vision of what you would like to achieve from your Facebook efforts, it’s of the essence to create an action plan of how and when you’re going to do it. This is the time to set particular goals, assign timelines and watch as quantifiable results begin to evidence.

You’ll break down each and every action item into manageable undertakings, to guard against becoming overwhelmed. And when you fulfill each of your own self-imposed deadlines, plan to give yourself a special reinforcement. This will assist you in following through and staying committed.

You’ll go through an unbelievable sense of relief and achievement when you complete your Facebook Success Action Plan. It’s sort of like constructing a dream home, from the beginning blueprint right up to the day you move in. A detailed plan turns into a fantastic reality. There’s no more questioning, “How can I possibly accomplish this without wasting lots of time?”

A Facebook Success Action Plan is an uncomplicated list of all of the jobs that you need to carry out to accomplish an objective. It differs from a To Do list in that it concentrates on the accomplishment of an exclusive goal.

Whenever you would like to achieve something important through your Facebook efforts, draw up a Facebook Success Action Plan. This assists you in thinking about what you need to do to accomplish that matter, and then that you are able to get help where you need it and monitor your forward motion.

To draw up a success Action Plan, merely list the jobs that you need to carry out to accomplish your goal, in the order that you need to accomplish them. This is really simple, but is nevertheless really valuable!

There are a number of advantages to having a success plan to accomplish your goals:

• It can help you to comprehend what tasks you need to do to accomplish your goal
• It can provide you a way to have a clear time-line on each of your jobs so that you are able to track goal progress
• It can give you lucidity for the resources that you need to accomplish your goal

Maybe one of the greatest benefits is that you are able to on a regular basis evaluate your progress and cross off the things that you’re doing to achieve your goals through Facebook.

Remember if you need to accomplish a goal, a success plan of action will help you distinguish what needs to be done, the resources you need, and track your progress towards your goal.

Would you like help with your Facebook Success Action Plan? Contact me for a free social media strategy session.

Epic Fail: 5 of the Worst Social Media Campaigns…Ever

This article is courtesy of SEOmap.com

With more and more companies turning to social media, more and more social media campaigns are being created. Some companies have done their research and know how to push out the right content to reach their audience and generate successful results. And then there are those who blindly throw themselves into social media without a plan, and these companies end up on the worst social media campaign list.

Qwikster

In 2011, Netflix decided that it was going to introduce Qwikster, which would be the DVD component of Netflix while Netflix focused on streaming. Though the idea seemed a little strange to begin with (why fix something that’s not broken?), Qwikster quickly fell into a social media nightmare. Unfortunately for the name, the Twitter handle “Qwikster” was already taken, and it belonged to Jason Castillo, a high schooler who enjoyed weed. People on Twitter had a field day with this, and eventually the Qwikster idea was dismissed.

ChapStick

ChapStick made the ultimate social media mistake—they deleted fan comments. In an attempt to use social media, ChapStick posted a picture of a woman bending over a couch searching for her ChapStick. Facebook fans took the picture as an open invitation to get inappropriate and simply express their disgust for the picture and the company, and instead of trying to do damage control, ChapStick continued to delete the posts. As any social networker knows, deleting your customers’ comments only fuels the hatred and generates more comments, and as more and more comments piled in, ChapStick eventually gave up.

Durex South Africa

It’s hard for a condom brand to keep from being inappropriate, but there’s being inappropriate and then there’s crossing the line. And Durex South Africa jumped far across that line when they sent out the following tweet.

DurexSA: Why did God give men penises? So they’d have at least one way to shut a woman up. #DurexJoke

Durex South Africa eventually apologized for their tasteless humor, but the damage had already been done.

Woody Harrelson

Woody Harrelson was scheduled to go live on Reddit’s AMA (Ask Me Anything) forum, in which he posted that although he was pressed for time, he was willing to answer “anything”. But instead of using it to truly answer questions to his fans, he instead answered everything with a promo for his upcoming movie. Fans were not happy and called him out on using the forum as a promotional tool, and he even got a nasty response from Reddit themselves.

Boners BBQ

If you want to earn business, you shouldn’t use social media to openly bash your customers, and that’s exactly what Boners BBQ did. After a customer failed to tip her server, Boners BBQ turned to Facebook and Twitter and told the world that “Stefanie S.” didn’t tip her server on a $40 tab after receiving a generous discount—and they also linked to the woman’s personal account. They then told other restaurants that if she were to enter their establishment, they should tell her to play “hide and go f@#$ yourself”. A debate ensued, and eventually Boners BBQ recanted, but the damage was already out in public.

Presented with the assistance of SEOmap a group of marketing professionals dedicated to sharing knowledge about SEO, you can download their latest SEO BOOK for free by visiting their website.