Social Media and You

A solid definition of your ideal client is essential to online business success. But creating that definition is no slide.  Nonetheless, lately I’ve been on the brink of progress in that department.

Identifying your niche market, recognizing the sort of person who most relates to you and your business can be tricky. You might think your market is busy moms or people with dogs or investment bankers. But to be actually useful in marketing, your definition has to be far more specific.

And not just predictably specific. It’s not busy moms who live in Peoria and are under the age of 30. That stuff’s important, but not the key. The key is that your busy moms need a shoulder to cry on, or they need affordable diapers, or they need care for their aging parents.

Who they are is of interest, but what they need is bankable.

For me, the ideal client picture has been fuzzy. When I started in this biz, I thought it was okay to focus on ‘small businesses.’  So it’s been a long road from there. You get closer, over time, to a good working definition.

But it’s what you learn about yourself that’s mind blowing.

Blogging. A strange concept. Flinging your moods and tirades out in public like so much laundry on the line.

Only a tiny percent take on such a challenge, no matter how crucially necessary the experts tell us that blogging may be. It is both a tedious chore and an immense privilege.

As shown on Jonathan Fields’ Awake at the Wheel today, there’s a lot of confusion about the nature and value of this particular kind of communication.

To my mind, the ultimate worth of blogging is the creation of community. Some blogs have accomplished this; most have not. It’s easy to feel alone and scared as a blogger, posting day after day with no participation from other people.

One reason to comment as much as you possibly can on blog posts is that the courage (chutzpah?) and determination of the author are noteworthy, if nothing else.

But an even better reason to respond regularly to blog posts is that your comments are indexed quickly and prominently. Solely by virtue of commenting, you can find yourself on Google’s first page for the given content with amazing speed.

In short, it’s hard to beat the SEO of commenting. Do it today, okay?!?