I had the pleasure of attending yet another wonderful Tweetup in Indianapolis last Saturday night. In case you don’t know, a Tweetup is an actual gethering or friends we have met virtually through Twitter. John and I had already been to Symphony on the Prairie, but left shortly after intermission because it was freezing! Here it was the end of August, and we had layers of clothing and a blanket covering us. Something was wrong with that picture. I digress….
Anyhow, I dropped John off at home about 9:45, and headed downtown to see old friends and make new ones. I enjoy Tweetups for a few different reasons, which I will write about another time, but suffice to say it involves the ability to connect with people on an entirely different level than would otherwise be possible at that early stage of a relationship. Twitter allows that.
Our Tweetup was scheduled because Social Media icon, but more importantly good guy, Robert Scoble, or @scobleizer as the entire Twitterverse knows him, was in town for the Red Bull Indianapolis MotoGP race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We wanted him to feel welcome. What better way than a good old-fashioned Tweetup…Hoosier Hospitality at its finest!
When I met Robert, I told him my name and my company name, Myrland Marketing. He asked what I did. I told him that I work with firms/businesses to help them grow. He asked if I did marketing consulting, to which I said yes, I’m a Professional Marketing Advisor. I don’t remember his exact words, but Robert asked me what the newest, best marketing tactic is I would recommend to businesses. I paused for a moment, then said it would have to be Social Media. Then I told him that even though that’s true, I didn’t know that I would recommend that until I knew more about the business and what their needs are, where they’d been, who their customers or clients are, what they are selling, and where they wanted to go. He politely nodded in agreement.
I share the same advice to you, regardless of your role in your firm. Whether you are a Receptionist, Rainmaker, Salesperson, CEO, Marketing Assistant, CMO, PR Specialist, Internet Czar, or any other extremely important person such as ALL of those I’ve mentioned, it’s important to step back, step up and look over your entire situation before you jump in to any one marketing strategy or technique.
Our businesses are like puzzles. There are many pieces to these puzzles, but they all fit together perfectly. These pieces come in the form of products and services, pricing, people, infrastructure, goals, revenue projections, marketing tactics, and many others. If one piece is missing, the picture can never be completed as intended. It takes time to fit these pieces together to create that amazing picture on the front of your puzzle box, but what is most important is the fact that you first know exactly what you want it to look like….the big picture that is the reason you are in business to begin with. It’s important to take the time to decide and define how you want it to look. If you hadn’t first seen the picture on the front of the puzzle boxes you have, you wouldn’t know how to put them together.
It’s your job, and it’s my job, with the help of many others, internally and sometimes externally, to decide what your big picture is, then to decide what pieces need to fit together to create that vision of what it should look like when it’s successfully assembled, and how it will make you and your clients feel when it’s complete.
Step back. Step up. Look over your entire situation. You might be surprised by what you see…but maybe not. Maybe you already knew all along, and just need a little help and guidance to see what all your puzzle pieces are, and how they should fit together.
