I'm a learning junkie. I love to attend seminars, conferences and read great books on how to make myself and my business better. It's one of the reasons I started Teneo Results!
I just attended the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers Conference in Calgary, Alberta. My biggest take away from the event was the importance of adding search engine optimization and social media to our marketing plans.
Its hard to believe that ten years ago, we were all bracing ourselves for Y2K and the possible blow up of our computer systems. Now, we are exploring how search engine optimization can increase traffic to our websites, who's connected to who on Linked In, and how we can tweet in 140 characters or less!
Here's a few surprising stats shared by Mitch Joel, one of the presenters:
- There are more grandparents than teenagers on Facebook
- Over 50% of You Tube users are over 34 years of age
Are these your customers? Could this be a great source for prospecting?
During the past few months, I've been dabbling in social media. To be honest, I really wasn't sure if Facebook, Twitter and all the other platforms would increase my business...never mind trying to find time in an already full day to actually use them! But after this conference, I've realized how vital it is to add social media and other Web 2.0 technology to our 2010 marketing plans.
At the conference, I asked several leading edge tech gurus if using social media had lead to exponential growth for their businesses...and the response was overwhelmingly NO, but it is growing their business. Unfortunately, there is no quick and easy fix to grow your business these days! But the consensus is that a combination of several media, including social media, allows us to stay top of mind and connected with our prospects and clients. In this already crazy world, it has added more complexity to the way we do business...but ultimately, if we take advantage of it, it will lead to more opportunities.
So how are you connecting with your clients and prospects? How could you use social media to build stronger connections...and create new ones?
Take the time to enjoy the holiday season as we brace ourselves for a more complex, faster paced, technology driven decade. Hmmm, I wonder where we will find ourselves in the next ten years (and to think I was only worried about surviving my daughters' teen years!)
