I’ve been busy writing the content for the course I am putting out in a few weeks which will give coaches, consultants, authors, speakers, and other solopreneurs the exact steps to conquer the overwhelming aspects of online and social media marketing.
I am really excited to share this system with you—mostly because I’ve been listening very carefully over the past year….
A great majority of you have expressed your frustration at understanding how to market yourself and your business online. Many of you have been saying things like…
“I know I need to figure out all of this social media stuff, but I just don’t know where to start!”
“I just wish there was a SYSTEM I could follow that I know will produce the results I need!”
“I am tired of leaving money on the table because I don’t have a real, cohesive online presence!”
“I am so overwhelmed because I don’t know how to use these tools—I just need somebody to walk me through step by step…”
Sound familiar?
I totally get it because when I need to learn something in my own business I feel the exact same way—it’s the whole “if someone would just hold my hand and tell me what I need to do (a, b, c, d…) I wouldn’t feel so lost and stuck…”
My best mentors and coaches have provided me with those steps and that support and it’s truly been priceless in my own journey. As some of you know, I’ve built my business from scratch over the past year and a half using only social media and online marketing tools. I’ve also been learning from one of the best—the fabulous Alicia Forest—as one of her only two private coaching clients this year.
(I call her “wonder woman” because this gal has managed to build her own 6 figure-plus, thriving business while raising two small children, taking every summer off and a 4 month maternity leave, and working an average of 15 hours a week! No joke. As my husband and I look toward starting our own family, I told myself I wanted to learn from someone who has really done what I want to do—why reinvent the wheel?)
But I digress. 
So, why am I devoting a whole blog post to this?
Because as I am diligently working on finishing up writing my own step-by-step online marketing and social media system, I need your help. I want to make sure I’m covering exactly what you need around this topic…and I want your input. Some of you have already shared with me what your biggest challenges are—thanks! But I’d love to hear from more of you.
Here’s my question: What TWO things must I cover in this course for it to be of value to you?
Please do let me know in the comments, your opinions and thoughts are very important to me!
Oh, and if you are interested in being put on the priority list to be the first to find out all about the upcoming release of my course, be sure to go here. I’m offering a special bonus for those who sign up.
Merci! 
Hi Christine,
Congrats on your new course! That’s awesome! I know about half the business owners I talk to are Storefront owners, I have found MANY Storefront owners have no clue how to use Social Media and don’t see a need for it. I’m not sure if you’re planning on talking to storefront owners in your course, but there sure is a market for it!
Anyways, I hope that helps…
Sounds like we have both been busy working on courses
Since I am currently (for a little longer) owner of a coffee shop, I thought I should show people how I used Social Media and other online strategies to help make more sales.
I wish you the best on the launch of your training course… I know it will be great!
Keep up the great work!
.-= Paul Cooley´s last blog ..Business Talk – Knowing What You Want =-.
With an online coaching business, I completely understand the benefit of social media for my business. I have been using it for a while, but…
After having been using twitter for a while, I’m finding that the more people I follow and the more other people follow huge numbers, the less everyone sees my tweets. I find it difficult to follow a small selection of people with so much noise on twitter. I also have noticed that the effectiveness of my tweets have diminished as the noise increases.
Secrets to working around this problem would be very helpful, especially as twitter keeps growing.
Right on target Christine and useful. Although there are many leveraging these tools to create success in their business; many are not and losing out.
Fear of the unknown and inability to justify ‘time’ or recognizing these investments of time are needed, tend to be at the top of the list of people I speak with. I suspect your course will include the emotional side with your benefits statement.
You have a wonderful demeanor, excellent advise and I look forward to receiving more empowerment from you Christine…
.-= CSea Perkins´s last blog ..(NHTSA) proposed the first national standards to limit global warming pollution in U.S. history =-.
Hi Christine – I’m performing a similar function in acquainting and encouraging our franchisees with social media. Some of the “issues” I see as an observer of new users are a lot of broadcasting and lack of relationship-building in social media and in real-life networking. They are so focused on having to sell something that it’s all they can communicate. Cringe. Instead of making relationships work and a natural sale or referral resulting, the perception will take more work to un-do. So, etiquette would be the broad topic, I would think.
.-= Betsy Wuebker´s last blog ..SURRENDER, CONSECRATION AND FREEDOM =-.
Christine – I decided to start using Facebook to help market our business about 5 months ago. We own a boutique condo rental business in Dallas. We’re not a huge company – but we specialize in really spectacular places with lots of extras and white glove service. My goal was to try and increase referrals, but I knew that even the people who love us probably wouldn’t get too excited about us just pushing whatever condo we had available.
My solution was to develope a page where I would regularly post things that would be of value to our residents and their friends. Our posts focus on freebies, discounts, fun things to do around town, and interesting web sites – but we also sprinkle in photos and videos of places we have coming available.
It’s been successful – we have over 250 fans already, and we have increased our referrals significantly. But I had to figure out (and I’m still figuring out) everything about how to utilize Facebook by trial and error. Even understanding how my “fans” see the post! I think a great tool would be some basic information on how people use Facebook. For example, the benefits of setting up a group page versus a fan page. (I did the group page first, and then realized no one was seeing my postings!) I still would love to find something like this…in fact, I became a fan of your page hoping you might cover things like this. Here’s something i would like to learn… I know that my posts show on the wall of my fans, but if they don’t check Facebook regularly, they probably miss a lot of my postings. Is there a way to send an email to all of my fans? I’d love to set up some type of mini-survey so I can figure out how to better serve my fans – is there a way to do that?
I agree with Paul. I have a locally-based acupuncture practice. People need to come to me for my service– I don’t sell anything online. It is frustrating to me that all of the social media guides are focused on online businesses. I would love some hints about how to use social media to expand my local business.
@Paul–Thanks for your kind words! Yes, local/storefront owners and social media is a topic that doesn’t seem to get as much attention. I do think social media is applicable to those types of businesses in some ways. Thanks for the input, I will keep it in mind for the course.
@Kim–Good topics. Are you using a Twitter client by the way? Tweetdeck, Hootsuite or Seesmic Desktop all allow you to organize your followers by group which is really helpful at cutting down on all the “noise.” Plus there’s just a lot more functionality than if you were just tweeting from the Twitter.com site–easier re-tweeting, etc.
In terms of less people seeing your tweets, are you spacing your tweets out at all throughout the day? Are you sending any of your tweets to update your status on Facebook so another set of people is exposed to them (if you use FB)? Don’t be shy about repeating some of your tweets sometimes–different people use Twitter at different times of the day and the same followers most likely will not see your tweet multiple times in one day. Just some thoughts.
@CSea–Thanks for your nice words and your input! The areas you mention are two of the big ones I definitely intend to cover. I really like how you refer to part of it being the “emotional side”–very true!
@Betsy–Love what you mention and completely agree. There is definitely a lot of meat to the etiquette topic and I hope to do it some justice. Thanks for sharing.
@Sabrina–This is excellent, excellent stuff! Thanks so much for taking the time to give your thoughts and experiences. You sound like you are right on with the way you are using the Fan Page. I love that you mention bringing value for your fans.
Your groups vs. Fan Page question is a biggie and one I will be addressing in the course. In fact, I might even write one of my next blog posts on it because it does seem to come up a lot!
As for the question about emailing your fans, there is the option to “Update Fans” all at once. If you click “Edit Page” under your Fan Page pic, you’ll be taken to your Page “dashboard.” On the right hand side you will see an option to “Send an update to fans.” Hope that helps and thanks for stopping by!
@Emily–As I mentioned to Paul, I definitely agree it’s a very much neglected topic. I am glad you added your input–it reinforces that it is something I should definitely explore! Thanks!
Two things, eh? Well, I’d say a daily checklist of what to do on Twitter, like 1. first, 2. next, 3 etc.
Second, how to find what people’s felt needs are and how to address them with what you can do to help fulfill those needs, how to make it desirable.
I know one lady who has NO energy to speak of, and she is willing to try this and that, go to this one and that one, but won’t try the simple plan of clean the body/feed the body that the products I represent can offer. She hasn’t even tried the sample I left her!
.-= Clara Mae Watrous´s last blog ..Jul 10, Temperance =-.
How to deal with the overwhelm in creating a campaign that is easily maintainable by support staff and is something I only need to review and tweak, say once a month or less. I don’t need another info product I don’t have time to read, learn and implement!
I would suggest teaching us about the best social media bang for our time (Twitter, Facebook, bookmarking, blogging). I also want to know how to become an authority in my field.
.-= Karl Staib – Work Happy Now´s last blog ..Hard Fun and the Beautiful – Dog Paws Edition =-.
Christine:
I agree with the earlier comment about a daily checklist.
I’d also like to learn how to avoid information overload. As in, not being part of the problem with too many tweets or newsletters, etc.
Good luck with the book.
Hi Chirstine,
This is an interesting class subject, I learned a lot for being part of your FB group, page and I still have some questions – might be insignificant, but…the question is:
How does it work when you want to FB an article to you biz page,from a different source but you have your regular account (fan page?), my posts are always getting to be listed to my FB account but not the biz page?
Have fun with your course!