by desing | Faith & Purpose, Tools
We go through our lives each and every day getting up, handling the tasks of the day, come home, get up and then off until tomorrow so that we can do it all over again. When you wake up in the morning, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Have you ever awoken one morning and felt sucky and in return had a sucky day? On the other hand, have you ever started off your day with a smile on your face, proclaiming greatness over your day and “ironically” have a great day. Do you allow the circumstances of the day dictate your thoughts or reactions? When you are moving though your everyday lives – are you aware of the things you think and the words you speak?
I know I just asked a lot of questions and it can be plenty to take in at first. But hang in there with me. Your thoughts and words have FAR more power than you think and you have the power to dominate your thoughts and the words that come out your mouth. You own the rights to both. One of the keys to having your desires manifest is to focus your attention on what it is that you desire. When you focus on fear, doubt, inabilities then that is the energy you are pulling towards yourself. I’m sure you’ve heard that the energy you put out into this world is the same energy that you will get back. Thoughts and words are the most powerful energies which usually transform into planning and action. Every great idea, business, invention started out in thought form. Then after you think about it, you start speaking then planning for it and acting on it.
I find it hilarious when people say well they hope for the worst so then they will not be disappointed the worst happens. WRONG! When you hope for the worst, then that is exactly what can happen. Someone shared something with me something that I thought was so special and I would like to share it with you. He asked a few of us if we knew about Murphy’s Law (when everything that can go wrong actually goes wrong), and we all shook our heads in familiarity with this concept. But then he said that he thinks the exact opposite of that – any and every thing that can go right will. That was so powerful! So here is a list of some pointers that I want you to keep in mind so you can manifest the power of your thoughts and words over your life to help you embrace your legacy. Also, I want you to consider reading the following books – The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale and The Laws of Thinking: 20 Secrets to Your Divine Power to Your Mind to Manifest Prosperity by E. Bernard Jordan. They have been instrumental in me changing my thoughts and the words I speak and I’m sure they will do the same for you. You cannot change your situation until you change your way of thinking.
- Don’t pick it up. When the negative thoughts and words come to your mind, picture them as heavy boxes that you refuse to pick up. Leave those boxes right there and walk away from them.
- Discipline your mind. Throughout your day, analyze the words you speak and the thoughts that come to your mind. Is it you ego talking? Be conscious of your thoughts and discipline your mind to kick out the nonsense.
- Cancel it out. For every negative thought that comes to your mind, cancel it out with 2 positive ones.
- Focus on what you do want. Keep focusing on how you want the circumstances to come out, keep the mental picture at the forefront of your mind instead of worrying what you don’t want to happen.
- Know your purpose. You are here on this earth, right now for a purpose that is bigger than yourself. God has given you purpose over your life. Your purpose is using your natural talents and abilities to fulfill a human need. Think and act according to that purpose. If you are walking in your purpose, then have faith and trust the journey.
- Believe in yourself. Believe in your ability, knowing that no one else can be you. You have to have confidence in your own power to overcome any defeating thoughts or words that are spoken over your life.
- Minimize obstacles in your mind. Obstacles are as big as you make them, you can choose to make them the biggest thing in your life or you can choose to change your attitude towards them. Yes there are obstacles, but they happen so that you can grow into the place that you were called to be. You have the power to overcome the fears and doubts that come with obstacles.
- Empty your mind and refill it. At the top of each day, empty your mind of the chatter and negative talk and fill it with positive ones. Take five minutes to affirm favor, prosperity over your day. Believe and tell yourself positive affirmations over each day and over your life.
- Share with others. When someone comes to you for advice, be of encouraging words. Speak positive words to them. So many times we are quick to react to the negative instead of shifting our focus to the positive.
- Check your attitude. Your thoughts will surely dictate your attitude, you have to have the power to check yourself and know when your attitude is out of line. Do not let your emotions control your attitude!
by desing | Tools
Utilizing Social Media to Market Your Business
When the phrase “Social Media” comes to mind, the first immediate thoughts are that of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Four Square and countless other platforms online users subscribe to daily. Most often than not, their responses are followed by, “What is that and why should I use it?” Using it and not using social media can be the underlying factor of your brand or business advancing with today’s ever changing technology.
However, using social media to market your brand, if utilized correctly can not only build clientele but it can build a community, communication, and character. When used correctly, your main objectives should be to build and strengthen your brand, communicate to your existing and future audience base, and drive that audience to take some type of action. Whether that action is to buy your product, sign up to your newsletter or blog or simply follow you, these are the actions that develop a brand’s social media presence.
Let’s take a closer look at these areas and how they might apply to your social media efforts.
Objective #1: Build and Strengthen Your Brand
When it comes to building and reinforcing your brand, social media is one of the most powerful marketing tools available. It gives you the strongest and broadest opportunity to both find your target audience and to engage in conversation with them.
These days, you have no choice but to differentiate yourself from your competitors. Ways to do is to think about the specific qualities that make your company different from your competitors. By building your awareness on what makes you different, you can use social media as a soapbox to announce to your audience.
If you’re a service professional, target a specific niche and build a blog and Twitter strategy around that. Demonstrate your expertise in working with a certain type of client and then seek out those types of clients to have conversation with. Look for new ways to connect with them and encourage your current clients to socially share your articles with their networks.
Objective #2: Actively Communicate to your Existing and Future Audience Base
Social media is about increasing the conversation about your brand. This makes social media platforms prime outlets for PR driven companies who want to know what customers are saying about them. Setting up even a baseline of social media monitoring systems can go a long way toward helping you follow these conversations. Whether you’re launching new products and aiming to get people buzzing about it or trying to reach out to a new target audience to share information about one of your best selling services, the actions taken by others can be tracked to help you know more about your customers.
Objective #3: “CTA” Creating Your Call to Action
One of smartest reasons to use social media is for the potential boost it can have to your conversion efforts. Whether you’re looking to drive sales, increase leads or simply drive people to action, conversions can be virtually tracked.
Obvious options like buying your products or becoming a lead spring to mind, but don’t forget about other valuable actions like subscribing to your newsletter, retweeting a blog post or downloading a white paper.
An exercise highly encourage to try is to make a list of ways you think about the different ways you might be able to use social media to increase conversions for each item. Often times, this is the best way to start planning your social media efforts.
Objective #4: Using Hootsuite – for those who feel like we do not have the time
All of these social media outlets can seem overwhelming at first, but there are options for those of you who feel as though there just isn’t enough time in the day. For those of your who can not keep up, there is a website Hootsuite that allows you to schedule your social media messages. You can schedule your tweets, Facebook posts, LinkedIn updates and more! So take a few minutes out of your day to plan and schedule your posts. And in case you were wondering, Hootsuite is a free-service with upgrade options. Remember that you may have to curb your message to your audience in different Social Media outlets. Those fans you may have on Facebook may be slightly different from your Twitter followers – so your message should match your audience. Finally, remember this note “quality over quantity”. Do not post dozens of messages without substantial content that will appeal to your audience simply because you want to have an abundance of posts. Actions like these, will eventually overwhelm your audience and may lead to an “unlike” or “unfollow”. Keep it simple and substantial! Know get to it!
The Objectives Have Been Made, Now Start Building Your Social Media Plan
Reviewing your business’ social media approach with each of the above objectives in mind helps you set the stage for your social media efforts. The blueprint in trying to get you to figure out why you want and need to start utilizing social media to market your brand is already laid out. Now start building!
