Social Media Realities_1stPositionMarketing and SocialMediaDelivered

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Social Media Realities_1stPositionMarketing and SocialMediaDelivered

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What is the value of a "fan" or a "follower" to a brand?

I saw this question posted on Linkedin awhile back. "What's the value of a "fan" or a "follower" to a brand? Aren't these fans likely your loyal customers already, so how is capturing them on Twitter increasing revenue?" I answered the question back then and I think the same still holds true today and going forward. Since then there has been at least one study trying to determine an exact dollar amount to a fan. But I think that there are far too many factors and variables to determine that sort of thing across the board. So here is my answer to that question, updated a bit for clarity.

Let me answer that by asking these questions: What is the value of any of your business' loyal customers? What does it mean to your business to have repeat customers? How much are they worth to you over a month, a year, a lifetime? Put a value on that and you will have your answer.

Traditionally it has been much cheaper and easier to market to an existing customer than to find a new one. I suspect that is still true, but the internet and social media- Twitter and Facebook in particular- are quickly changing that. It is now much easier for your consumers to find information about and connect with businesses. Do you want them to connect with you, or with your competitors? It is also much easier for your competitors to find and connect with consumers. So again, do you want to connect with your customers, or do you want your competitors connecting with them? You can bet that if you are not staying in touch and building relationships with your customers, someone else is!

Customer loyalty is crucial for small businesses to maintain and grow their sales and profits. But consumers can be pretty fickle, especially in tough economic times. So you need to do all that is practical to earn and keep that loyalty.

One of the best ways to do this is through social media. It’s such a great tool for this because you can use it to learn more about your customers (prospects too) and to let them learn more about you. It makes it much easier to establish a personal connection with them.

People prefer to do business with people they know, like, and trust and social media is wonderful at facilitating interactions and exchanging communications between consumers and the people behind a business. What other medium allows one to conduct research, share information, advertise sales/promotions/events, generate publicity, drive traffic to a website, and communicate directly with customers and prospects (thus building relationships and establishing trust) as quickly, easily, and affordably as social media?

Those kinds of benefits are well worth the time, effort, and money spent developing fans and followers. If you can calculate the savings to your company that social media brings and add that to the business won through your social media efforts, you will have your answer to what the value of a fan or follower is.

Is it Time For Small Businesses to Focus on Mobile Marketing?

I've been reading a lot lately on the growing trend of mobile marketing. And I think it is a growing trend that is just now really starting to gain momentum and will explode within the next few years. This is due in part to the recovering economy and the growth of smartphone sales, but also because of some other drivers that I will talk about later in the article. I also believe that is an untapped or underutilized medium and marketing method for small businesses. But is it time for small businesses to focus on mobile marketing as a core marketing strategy and practice? Here is why I think every small business owner and manager needs to take a close look at mobile marketing and give serious consideration to adding it to their marketing strategy sooner rather than later.

What is Mobile Marketing

But first let's address the question of what mobile marketing is. Basically it is marketing on or with a mobile device. The Mobile Marketing Association says, "Mobile marketing is a set of practices that enables organizations to communicate and engage with their audience in an interactive and relevant manner though any mobile device or network." These devices are usually mobile phones, laptops, netbooks, iPads and the like and the networks are most always wireless networks like Verizon, Sprint or AT&T. Types and mechanisms of mobile marketing include SMS (Short Message Service) which are short codes sent via text messaging, MMS (Multimedia Message Service) which contain timed slide shows of text, images, video, and audio, In-game marketing, Mobile web marketing (websites that are designed specifically to be viewed on mobile phones), Bluetooth hotspots, Infrared waves (which are very limited in distance), Location-based services (sending advertising messages directly to consumers based on their current location), and User-controlled media which often requires users to initiate the contact and requires their express consent to receive future communications .

Mobile Marketing Practices/Tactics and Channels

There are many ways (practices or tactics) to execute mobile marketing. Mobile marketing mainly relies on three channels- mobile applications (apps), mobile messaging (SMS, MMS, and WAP) and mobile websites (websites specially designed and optimized for viewing on a mobile device) to deliver mobile content and advertising/messaging. Using SMS to send short text coupon codes which consumers can access on their mobile phones and present at check-out is a and great way to drive traffic to a business. And dedicated apps on mobile phones make getting marketing content to users fast, easy, and even fun.

Mobile Marketing Extends and Enhances other Marketing Practices

But mobile marketing can be executed through other channels not specifically designed or used for mobile marketing. For example, coupon codes can also be sent through email or posting on a website, even on social media sites. And just having a web presence alone can be a form of mobile marketing, because mobile phone users can access websites through their phone's web browsers. Being involved with social media and providing useful content such as business hours and location, products and services provided, customer reviews, pictures and video of products, the business, or staff, and everyone's favorite- deals and specials- is a way to be involved in mobile marketing.

So even though a practice or tactic isn't used solely for mobile marketing, it's use can be extended to mobile and serve a very useful function as a mobile marketing practice or tactic. Additionally, your marketing can often be enhanced with the ability to know where customers are and reward them for visiting your business (as with services that use GPS such as Foursquare) and to give them the ability to grab coupons and other deals off social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, or off your website, to entice consumers who live in the area or who are in the area for other reasons (shopping, eating, running errands, working, commuting, or whatever) to stop in to your business and spend some money with you.

Smartphone Sales are Growing

The mobile phone industry analyst firm, Gartner, estimates that 172 million of the 1.2 billion mobile phones that were sold worldwide in 2009 were smartphones. (http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/23/smartphone-iphone-sales-2009-gartner/) And the research company Nielsen expects smartphone handsets to surpass feature handsets in the marketplace by the end of 2011. (http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/smartphones-to-overtake-feature-phones-in-u-s-by-2011/ )

Here is a quote from a recent article on Nielsenwire with a link to a chart of past and projected sales growth:

"We are just at the beginning of a new wireless era where smartphones will become the standard device consumers will use to connect to friends, the internet and the world at large. The share of smartphones as a proportion of overall device sales has increased to 29% for phone purchasers in the last six months and 45% of respondents to a Nielsen survey indicated that their next device will be a smartphone. If we combine these intentional data points with falling prices and increasing capabilities of these devices along with an explosion of applications for devices, we are seeing the beginning of a groundswell. This increase will be so rapid, that by the end of 2011, Nielsen expects more smartphones in the U.S. market than feature phones." (http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/smartphones-to-overtake-feature-phones-in-u-s-by-2011/) This link also contains a chart of past and projected smartphone and feature phone sales.


Increased Online Ad Spending

Advertisers are increasing their spending online to reach these mobile consumers- even small businesses. Several recent articles and sources have confirmed this. And while online Ad spending is still not on par with TV Ad spending, it is growing. MAGNA, an industry analyst firm and division of IPG's mediabrands, said in their Advertising Forecast released in April, 2010 that they expect online spending to reach 21.9% of all Ad expenditures by 2015.

WebVisible's latest State of Small Business Online Advertising for the 4th quarter of 2009 revealed these important things: 1) small businesses are increasing their online Ad spending, 2) small businesses are increasing in sophistication of online advertising, 3) as small businesses grow and have success, they spend at a higher rate on advertising (though that's really no surprise) and 4) even the smallest of businesses are finding that online techniques make a difference in their ability to reach local consumers. This last bit of information is exciting, because the key to most small businesses' success, particularly those that have very limited advertising budgets, is to effectively reach local customers.

Mobile Channel Adoption Surges and is Expected to Double in the Next 12 Months

Mobile channel adoption has been surging ahead by marketers. Marketing technology provider Unica , based on a recent survey, says that already one third of marketers are using some form of mobile marketing. Marketers in the Unica survey revealed that their adoption of the three major mobile channels will double in the next 12 months with the fastest growth coming from marketers using mobile websites and mobile applications. Mobile messaging is currently the most widely used mobile channel and will continue to grow but the other channels are expected to grow faster in proportion to messaging and will continue to grow in adoption rate and usage beyond the next 12 months. This is being fueled by the surging popularity of mobile devices such as smartphones and phones and other devices that use 3G. From Dec. 2008 to Dec. 2009 US mobile phone subscribers with unlimited data plans increased from 16% to 21% and several phones now require the purchase of these data plans when purchasing the phones. During the same time period, smartphone ownership increased from 11% to 17% while 3G phone ownership increased from 32% to 43%. (http://www.marketingcharts.com/direct/mobile-marketing-popularity-rapidly-grows-12241/unica-mobile-marketing-tactics-mar-2010jpg)

Smartphone Owners Use their Phone's Smart Functions

Smartphone owners actually use the features of those devices. Consider these findings from Nielsen's Mobile Insight Survey:

"Smartphones show higher application usage than feature phones even at the basic built-in application level. During Nielsen's Mobile Insights survey we asked the respondents about features they've used in the last 30 days. The good news for the smartphone market is that people are actually taking advantage of the device capabilities."

"The percentage of people who use their phone for only voice communications drops from 14% among new feature phone owners to 3% of smartphone owners. The use of the built-in camera and video capability jumps by almost 20% for both categories, due to the generally better quality and user friendliness of the features. Smartphones also often have a better speaker which translates into more frequent usage from about half of feature phone owners to about two-thirds of smartphone owners. Not surprisingly the use of Wi-Fi increases 10-fold from 5% for feature phone owners to 50% for smartphone users to satisfy the need for fast downloads."

Technology, Social Media, and the Desire for Convenience are the Drivers

This is all being driven by technology (the lowered costs of online advertising, faster and more stable wireless networks such as 3G and 4G, the trackability of digital marketing, cheaper smartphone handsets, the rapid development and dissemination of apps, and the added and enhanced features of smartphones), social media (particularly geolocation tagging sites such as Foursquare and Gowalla) and consumers' desire for convenience (to be able to access information easily and quickly wherever they go). Gone are the days of needing to do your research on local restaurants, coffee shops, bars and nightclubs, retail outlets, or even auto repair shops, before you leave home or the office. Now it can all be done on the fly- whenever a consumer has a need or a desire for a product or service. Your wife calls you on your way home from work and tells you to stop by the store and pick-up milk and bread. No problem. You can use an app to find stores with deals and coupons for products. You're out with your family on the weekend doing some shopping and get hungry and need a kid friendly place to eat fast. Grab your phone and search Google to find a restaurant close by and check reviews and customer comments in the search results and on sites like Yelp or on social media. You can then check their website, your coupon app, and social media sites for discounts and deals to the restaurant(s) of your choice. And do it all on the go in just a matter of minutes. Just think about the implications this has for marketers to drive impulse shopping and market convenience goods and services!

Are You Ready?

When you take into account that with smartphones, apps, and social media services consumers now have the ability to search for nearby businesses on the go; access reviews on comments about those businesses; see information on the products and services of local businesses- even pictures and video; check-in with geolocation tagged services to earn badges, mayorships and real rewards from participating businesses; and download coupons to use in local businesses right on the spot, then mobile marketing makes sense for just about every kind of small business to use. For retail stores, restaurants, and cafes it is a no-brainer. Mobile marketing is an inexpensive, highly trackable, and surprisingly easy to use method of marketing. It puts even small retail stores and restaurants on a more even playing field with the chains and big box stores. And I think it is about to explode in popularity.

My answer to whether or not it is time for small businesses to focus on mobile marketing is a resounding yes. But each business will need to make that determination for themselves based on the type of business they are, the industry they are in, the customers they serve, and the resources available to them. As you make that decision keep in mind this question: are you going to be where your customers are and give them access to information about your business the way they want it, when they want it? Those that do now will be in an enviable position to those that don't when the inevitable mobile marketing explosion happens.

Social Media as a Viable Marketing Avenue for Business

Social media outlets such as Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin, and Twitter are very popular among people of all demographics and ages. They allow for a real-time look into the daily lives of friends and family. The social media users range from elementary schoolers to grandmas wanting to keep in touch. This wide range of appeal has grown social media very quickly. For business owners, social media is almost a no-brainer marketing strategy but there are still many businesses that fail to recognize the importance of what a ‘tweet’ or “status update” or a Facebook Fan Page can do for their company, their brand, and their profits.

Consumers use the internet to reach out to companies whether it is for research or customer service matters. Companies maintaining websites are able to generate interest and sales from a virtual international marketplace. Marketing personnel work hard to ensure their website and their products are being prominently displayed in front of their target audience using many resources. Now, with the advent and popularity of social media sites, companies literally have front row tickets to their target marketplace.

Talk Directly

Social media sites encourage and enable real-time interaction between individuals. Companies taking advantage of this resource will find that they can get the exact message they want to deliver to their intended audience. They open the doors to associating directly with their customer base, where information that filters back can be invaluable. Feedback that results on social media can help a company understand what their customers are thinking, looking for, needing, and feeling. In turn, a company can provide necessary solutions as they are needed.

Deal Directly

Companies that are reaching out directly to their customers through social media, will likely be remembered and subsequently develop a following of potential customers based on friend referrals. It is a prime opportunity for businesses to reveal sale information, events, and even company news to the public. Social media tools also allow companies to follow current trends and get a first-hand look at what people are talking about. Depending on the nature of a business, it can be crucial to have this kind of knowledge over the competition. Now that there are agreements in place with Google and Bing to include your social media updates in search results, these updates can significantly increase the traffic to your blog, social media profile, and website, as well as increase the overall ranking of your web pages.

Network Directly

Another advantage of being an active participant in the social media world is the endless opportunities for your own business to connect with vendors, affiliates, and job seekers. With so many industries becoming involved in social media, companies may even take advantage of the learning opportunities to improve their business, using resources they never knew existed. Essentially, social media sites are breaking down many barriers and allowing B2B connections to thrive.

Creativity Is Empowering

One of the key elements of a good social media plan is consistency and another is creativity. The point of having direct access to your customers is to get them interested in your business, get them excited about your products or services, and get them to like you. Your plan to market on social media sites must be strong because it can be all too easy to get behind on tasks and eventually abandon your efforts altogether. Random quips and comedy may work from time to time, but you must go into social media with a plan if you want to be successful. You want to stay recognizable and reliable on all sites to keep the consumers interested and looking for more. The reliability of your company is essential because, especially now, consumers are going to buy from those whom they trust and like on some level. Your daily presence in their updates and news feeds can mean a lot, to both your customers and your bottom line.

Social media sites are relatively easy to set up and use, but it truly is the brains behind the words that will make a difference. Staying on top of social media updates and consistently delivering strong content is a full time job. For smaller businesses or solo entrepreneurs, this can be especially challenging. For this reason many companies are choosing to to get help from experts, while some are continuing to handle it in-house, with mixed results. With careful planning and dedication to this marketing avenue, results will definitely be seen in both the short and the long term if handled correctly from the start. Social media and business go together like bread and butter. For some companies, social media interaction may in fact become the proverbial ‘bread and butter’ of the company profits.

Get Clients with Specific Goals -by Jennifer Davey

Most successful individuals will tell you that the secret to their success has been a clear plan that defines where they are going and what steps they are taking to get there. This is great advice. A great plan can make all the difference in the world to your business. But for a plan to be more than just words on paper, it needs to be specific.

Vague goals will lead to vague actions. Stating that you want to get new clients within the next month is a great goal, but it isn’t really helpful. You need to take that vague goal and really focus the microscope on it. How many clients do you want to get? What type of clients do you want to get? Thinking clearly about exactly what you want will allow you to set up a great plan to accomplish your goals.

Clarity in your goal setting will allow success. Most goals are very lofty. Being specific gives you the knowledge needed to attack the goal on a daily basis to create success over time. In order to get specific, you must spend the time necessary to discover exactly what it is you want. Then you can list the steps needed to take to get to that specific want.

Making specific goals will allow you to break them into smaller goals. Getting 20 new clients in July is a great goal, but it may send a shiver down your spine every single time you think about it. However, if you get specific about what clients you want and how you will get them, the goal becomes manageable. You can set small daily goals for yourself that will add up to the original goal of 20 new clients by the end of July. Instead of tackling a monster, you are just dealing with his limbs each day.

When you tackle smaller goals on the path to the larger goal, it creates a feeling of success. This feeling will drive you. It will make you want to tackle those goals with gusto, ensuring their completion.

The road to success is lined by specificity. Don’t shy away from specifics. Get really detailed and spend the time necessary to set yourself up to win. Many people don’t get specific with goals because it is scary to put what you want into clear terms. You might not believe it’s possible or that you deserve it. Ignore the skeptic inside your head. Get specific and find out exactly what you want. Only then can you truly go after it.

Small Business Coach and Marketing Strategist, Jennifer Davey, is the author of the “Getting Clients Home Study Program”, the step-by-step guide to getting clients, building your business and making more income. Grab a FREE copy of her 14-Step Formula for Getting Clients and Report “What you Need to Know to Be Successful at Getting Clients” visit http://jjscoaching.com/free-report/

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I love St. Patrick's Day. It's a fun holiday. What other holiday encourages you to celebrate with festivities, wear lots of green (I look pretty good in green), and drink beer? And who doesn't love an Irish brougue? It's such a wonderful accent and all day I get to pretend I know how to use it and say things like "Top o' the morning to ya", and call my kids "wee little lassy" or "wee little lad."

Regardless of one's heritage, everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day. People of all nationalities and cultures are welcome to celebrate the day and appreciate Irish culture. That openess and connection with people is something I've also experienced with social media. Even though everyone is different we can all find something of common interest that binds us together and makes us feel like a community. In today's rapidly paced culture where we don't even get to know our neighbor's anymore, having some sense of community is comforting.

For today's small businesses it is important, almost critical, to have that kind of connection with their prospects to attract new customers and with their existing customers or clients to build loyalty. So what is your business doing to encourage a St. Patrick's Day spirit of celebration, connection and community?

Getting Clients - Defining Your Niche is a Critical Step. By Jennifer Davey

As a small business owner, self employed professional or service provider clearly defining your niche makes getting clients take a lot less effort.

Defining your niche helps you attract clients by making it easier to target them. Once you know your niche, finding places to market to that niche becomes easy. Defining your niche also helps you clearly and simply explain to your network the types of clients that would be appropriate to refer to you.

Since it’s not possible to be all things, to all of the people, a clearly defined niche will allow you to tell your ideal clients how you benefit them. You can share with potential clients how you solve their problems, and help with their struggles. It becomes easy for you to position yourself as EXACTLY what your clients are looking for.

A clear niche allows you to make the most of your marketing budget because you are not marketing to less than ideal clients. Since you’re narrowing where you market, and who you market to, you will get a much better return on your marketing investment.

Best of all, defining your niche allows you to become the expert. Clients always prefer to work with the expert and experts make more income.

Small Business Coach and Marketing Strategist, Jennifer Davey, is the author of the “Getting Clients Home Study Program”, the step-by-step guide to getting clients, building your business and making more income. For a FREE copy of her 14-Step Formula for Getting Clients and Report “What you Need to Know to Be Successful at Getting Clients” visit http://jjscoaching.com/free-marketing-tips/

The Importance of a Unique Business Identity

By Jane M Cooke

Every business faces competition in its specialty and market. To compete effectively, not only does it need a unique, identifiable service or product but also needs to stand out in other ways. This unique presentation is the Brand.

Business Identity is the way you present your brand. This is how your business is presented through various media in an easily identifiable manner. The business message and identity should come through and be memorable. Business identity looks at presenting a business in a uniform, attractive way creating a positive and memorable impression.

What does a business identity consist of?
Business identity is the presentation of business through various elements which easily refer to the business. Some of the elements that identify your business are

1. The Logo - This has to be a graphical identifier for your business whether used in print or online presentations.
2. The Tag line - This identifies your position with respect to your offer, your customers and your competition.
3. Business Card - An essential tool for communicating your brand as part of your networking efforts. It should have all your identity information including address, email, phone numbers and these days some social media info if it is relevant to your type of business.
4. Brochure - An important element in presenting an overview of your offer.
5. Stationary - Used commonly for a variety of communication or work related activities, this must easily identify with your brand.
6. Email Signature - This must be standardized for all communications to make it easy to contact your business.
7. Website - There are elements of your website which uniquely present your brand. This includes your logo, tag line, information, icons and so on.

This can be extended with complimentary offers. Some examples which can further extend your business identity are

1. T-shirts
2. Coffee Mugs
3. Pens
4. Ebooks

Business Identity Design
This is an important process before finalization of the unique identity selected. A number of important factors need to be considered

1. The logo - It is the most important image of your business.
2. The tagline - It has to be short and memorable, and it is in perfect synch with the logo.
3. The typography/font to be used - It has to be readable and has to be decided for each element.
4. The color scheme - This is important as it decides the look and feel and how the elements stand with each other.
5. The texture - This has to do with the print elements.
6. The iconography - This will be used in your stationary, business cards, brochures and the websites.

All the elements should be in alignment with each other. The online and print elements must match.
The perfect business identity design is one which does not surprise but meets expectations and links perfectly to your brand.
Jane M Cooke has helped businesses with Identity solutions since 2004. If you are looking for a professional Business Identity Design visit us at Dharne & Company.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jane_M_Cooke


http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Importance-of-a-Unique-Business-Identity&id=3904997

Is Your Marketing Melting on Contact?

It snowed yesterday here in my town for the better part of 12 hours. It was a pretty steady snow with the occasional light spells and heavy spells intermittent. There were even times when it was very heavy with large, fluffy flakes falling to the ground in dense bursts. It was quite beautiful.

And what was the grand total accumulation of all of this? A trace to maybe a half inch of snow that barely covered the grass in my lawn. That’s it! All that snow and it only accumulated maybe a half inch total.

This begs the question, why didn’t we get more like a half foot of snow instead of a paltry half inch? As I learned from a meteorologist on a local TV channel, it was because the snow was falling into a warm column of air that extended from the ground to about 1,000 feet in the air. Above that there was plenty of cold air- and moisture- and hence plenty of snow. But it was melting on contact because it was falling into a hostile environment for snow to survive. The ground and the air right above were so warm that most of the snow simply melted as it hit the ground.

Usually when a storm such as this moves in, the cold air and snow will overwhelm the warmer air and lower the temperature until there is a single column of air from ground to clouds that is at or below freezing. But the stronger March sun and relatively warm air mass already in place prevented this from happening. The snow did not start accumulating until after the sun set and the ground cooled. But even then the temperatures remained just above freezing until late. So there never was much of an accumulation.

Our marketing can be a lot like this weather phenomenon. We pour marketing and advertising messages at an audience over and over and yet we receive only a very small response. Why? Because we are sending our messages into a hostile environment and most simply melt on contact. What makes an environment hostile to our marketing efforts? Many things- maybe it is a poor economic climate, maybe it is bad messaging or promotion through the wrong channel or channels, maybe it is the wrong product or service, or maybe the price is wrong.

But in this analogy, it is the recipient (the ground) that is rejecting the marketing (the snow). So I want to focus on the target. If you know you have a good product or service that meets a need, is priced right, and is promoted right and consistently but it is still not selling well, the reason probably is you are targeting the wrong audience.

The very first thing you must decide is who your product is for. If you are selling athletic shoes, are you selling to serious runners, basketball players, sports enthusiasts, or someone who wears them as casual shoes? If you are selling restaurant meals, are you selling to someone looking for an elegant full service dining experience or someone looking to pick-up a quick bite and go? If you are selling a service, is it for the end consumer, a client, another business (and who does that business sell to), or to a non-profit or government agency?

These things matter immensely. If you target the wrong audience, nothing else you have done right matters. Consumers can simply not be overwhelmed by your marketing anymore if they have no need or desire for your product. The light of the internet, social media, and open access to information at one's fingertips prevents this from happening. If you ignore this and keep pouring you marketing efforts into hostile environments, all of it will result in the same end as the snow that fell in my yard yesterday – melted on contact.

How Dieting is Like Marketing/Running Your Business Part 2

Don’t Let Temptations Sabotage You
Last week I posted about the similarities I have noticed between dieting and marketing or running a business. This week's post is a continuation of that and focuses on one of the main saboteurs of any diet (or business)- temptations.

If you are anything like me you probably have a hard time sticking to your diet because you are constantly being bombarded with temptation. Maybe you still have left over Christmas goodies like cookies or candy sitting around the house, or your spouse keeps baking pies and cakes even though you repeatedly tell him or her you are eating healthy now. And the TV bombards you with images of Thick burgers, juicy steaks, candy and all kinds of goodies- it’s amazing how much you notice these things when you are dieting! And just try checking out at the grocery store, the drug store or Wal-Mart without passing multiple displays of sweets and junk food. These temptations do not help you stick to your healthy eating plan! And when you give in to temptation to eat that piece of cake or that bag of potato chips you feel guilty. Guilt produces negative feelings about yourself and that usually leads to find something comforting- which for many of us is food. If not kept under control, these negative feelings will lead to more destructive thoughts and behavior and before long you are off your diet and have given up on exercise too.

Similarly, we have distractions in our daily business that keep us from doing what we set out to do this year. We can’t take that new salesman out and train him because we are having to put out fires around the office. We can’t write that new proposal or whitepaper because we keep getting distracted by email or Twitter. Every time you sit down to plan your marketing or budget for the next quarter or year the phone rings or someone drops by your office. The distractions and temptations are seemingly endless.

One very powerful solution works for both your dieting and business challenges - identify whatever it is that is sabotaging your efforts and get rid of them (or remove yourself from them). If you are tempted to surf the internet instead of working, disconnect yourself from it. If that is not an option, get a laptop with no internet connection and block out time to write that proposal, newsletter, whitepaper or whatever. If email is the culprit, turn off the “bing” notification every time you receive one or turn off your speakers. And again, you could disconnect from the internet while you work. If the phone or office drop-ins are a problem, block out time to do your task and let everyone in the office/store/etc. know that you are not to be disturbed during this time. Have someone answer your phone for you or turn off the ringer and let it go to voicemail. Have your assistant or receptionist intercept visitors with clear instructions as to who gets in and who does not and how those turned away should be handled. Put a sign on your door (or cubicle) to let people know what you are working on, your wish not to be disturbed unless it is a true emergency (you might want to cover this with your staff too) and when you will be available to them. You could even take an old laptop with no internet access down to your favorite hangout or park bench and work away. You’ll benefit from the change of scenery and the fresh air.

It sounds simple. And it really is if you have some discipline. But don’t expect it to be as easy as it sounds, not at first. Try just one of these approaches at a time and evaluate what works and what does not. Create your own approach to eliminating distractions and get your team involved in creating solutions. This not only helps you come up with solutions it lets them know your intentions and will help them “buy-in” to your approach. And it may even spark them to do the same for themselves. Before long, your whole office will be more productive. And co-workers might just stop dropping by your desk with plate fulls of brownies too!