Welcome to a special bonus edition!
I had the opportunity to speak at my Toastmasters club meeting and had a blast sharing the importance of social media as it relates to “owning your corner of the web”.
My talk focused on the main question, “Have You Googled Your Name?” – my point being, if you have not… you better get out there and find out what’s being said about you. More important, you need to start controlling what is being said about you!
Becoming a Subject Matter Expert is a great way to brand yourself. You bundle your awards, honors, education and experience in one location and quickly showcase your expertise. This is important both or small businesses and or those that own their job. The reason is because developing yourself as a Subject Matter Expert creates credibility. It makes you authentic… you suddenly become a real person. This doesn’t have to be in your area of business, either. Again, I work in the marina industry, but my expertise comes in baton twirling. In my speech I used the example, if your passion is in baking you may develop an apple pie fan following at your accounting firm! Haha
The source of your messaging is grounded in the principal of “Fame vs. Fortune”. You are working on this corner of the web to increase your money or your name recognition. Often it’s both, but when you start focus on one. I use “fame and fortune” as the catch phrase but I’m talking about the real world… of credibility and an extra revenue stream.
Regardless of your messaging in the “fame and fortune” decision, you need to develop an audience. If you create the most awesome message about apple pies, and no one hears it… it’s kind of like that tree falling in the forest (you know the question, if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it… did it make a sound) well, right from the start of your message development, work for collecting and creating your own audience via email.
Finally, have fun and do not get caught up on the technology! Toastmasters have the greatest advantage when it comes to social media. The organization teaches leadership, crafting a message, and delivering the message. You need all three of these skills in social media success. So what I did was show how “easy” it is to create a podcast. (Remember a podcast is just today’s version of a radio program). My Podcast is called the Two Minute Commute, because it takes a small business owner about two minutes to walk from their kitchen to their home office (haha) – but really, the commute is much shorter for all of us in the “world of small business”.
It was really fun to have an audience when I recorded my podcast via my iPhone in the front of a group of Toastmasters! I hope you have fun listening to it… and make sure to visit your local Toastmasters group – they’re everywhere! (Toastmasters.com) — and remember, “the man on the top of the mountain didn’t fall there!” V. Lombardi, Jr. Get out there and work!
Action Step
1- Look into Toastmasters it’s a great way to improve and practice your speaking and leadership skills — two skills vital to your small business. Go attend a meeting, here’s the Find a Club locator.
2- Invest the time in becoming a Subject Matter Expert!
3- Install my free app! (SmallBusinessClubApp.com)
Two ways to get more Small Business Tips …
A- Install our Free App (SmallBusinessClubApp.com –Apple or Android )
B- Subscribe to my blog at BigFishIdeas.com
Listen to Episode #96 1/2 (Bonus Toastmasters edition) of the Two Minute Commute audio blog Podcast
