Red Zone Marketing's Blog

Social Media: Now what should I be doing?

You’ve spent the time and effort to get your social media sites developed, now what?

The premise of social media is to present something of value to others in your social network. Valuable content is defined as something that others:

•    Find interesting or informative
•    Deem worthy to take the time to read or view
•    Want more of and thus will follow you to see what’s next
•    Will pass along for others to see

So where does all of this great, valuable content come from? Do you have to be a prolific writer or hire someone that is? And how difficult will it be to get content through compliance? The good news is that there are solutions to the continual release of valuable content.

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The Service Dilemma for Small, Boutique Firms

When I call my favorite airlines, if I don’t get the answer I was hoping for or am having trouble getting the person to understand my request, I don’t continue trying with the same person. I politely end the call and redial to get someone else. More often than not I am able to get closer to what I am requesting by taking this action. It is a hidden benefit of working with a large firm.

The problem with a small company is that there is no one else to call - except another company. And if you think people do this, but certainly not to your company - I ask you to reconsider. Loyalty is harder than ever to come by and even harder to maintain. People have so many options and there is so much noise. Not having the skill set to help a client is one thing. Not having the ability to listen and service a client is unacceptable for a small firm. Some of the most powerful perceived benefits of working with a small firm are the lack of inflexible bureaucracy and the higher level of understanding and personal service.

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2 Myths and 1 Absolute for Making Your Employees Better

Motivating and getting your staff to be as good as, or better than you, is an ongoing challenge. And, although I am not the perfect boss, I have certainly learned some truths over the past 15 years with both my own employees and through consulting on the inner workings of high producing financial services firms. In financial services, the employees often deal directly with clients and prospective clients. Their interactions are critical to the success of the organization. Here are 2 myths and one absolute for creating a better more aligned staff:

Pay them at or above industry standard and they will be great employees: MYTH

Empower them to make decisions and they will be focused on proactively serving as if it were their own company: MYTH

These two above will always be myths and will NEVER work unless they… BELIEVE in you and the firm: ABSOLUTE

Employees that are charged with interacting with prospects or clients need to believe in the mission and direction of the firm and, moreover, they really need to like the people they are working for. If they don’t, it is physically impossible to give what others who do believe will be able to give and accomplish.

However, simply sharing the mission and having employees memorize it doesn’t get them to believe it. One firm I worked with thought the solution was to have their 20 employees chant the mission every Monday morning (they were trying to emulate Walmart). The actual impact of this ritual resulted in the staff rejecting the mission and calling in sick on Monday’s.

So, how do you get your employees to “believe” in what you are doing? Here are 3 fairly simple strategies that I’ve seen work at productive, well-aligned firms:

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Endless work to do? No time to grow? Here’s a solution.

Do you ever wish you could bring in a “to the rescue” assistant to help with an overload of work or long wish list of marketing activities? More and more firms we know, including ours, have hired virtual assistants to help with everything from special projects to longer term tasks. The first reaction I get, however, when I mention a virtual assistant is, “Does that really work? How do you know if they’re actually doing work?”

The answer is - it does work, but you need to separate your current thinking about your current employees from the possibilities of hiring a virtual assistant. For instance, you may, from time to time, observe your salaried employees cut off a little time with a longer lunch or leave early when you’re not in the office. And because of that you believe that a virtual assistant would never work because you wouldn’t be there to watch over them. ERASE this thinking!!

You actually have more control over a virtual assistant. You will pay anywhere from $10 per hour to $40 per hour to get very specific work done. You can manage them based on results, and if work is not getting done, you move on. No drama. Providing these services are individuals, companies, and there’s also an association to help you find just the right skill set in an assistant. These virtual assistants specialize in administrative tasks like scheduling client review appointments and sending out email newsletters or mailings, all the way to helping with prospecting, research, sales, marketing support, and social media data mining. Too good to be true? Here are some examples.

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