Are you confused by SEO, WEB, Social?

by | Sep 22, 2016 | Social Media Tips & Trends

hand-851207_1920SEO… Web Site, Facebook, Instagram, Snap Chat… Social.

Are you an Entrepreneur? Do you have a small business or a dream for one?  What do you do first? Where do you spend your limited resources of money and time?

Don’t you dare consider not valuing your time even more then money. Time is your biggest resource and without time you have nothing. Time is not free, time is you blood, your connection with your kids, your life, and your sleep.

The real questions you need to answer is… who is your customer, what makes them tick and how do they consume media?

You will have companies coming and trying to sell you $2500 websites, $500 a month Search Engine Optimization (SEO), $1000 branding packages, $500 a month social media packages and more training options then you can shake a stick at.  You will also have companies trying to sell you selfie sticks and the latest apps.  Yet what do you really need.

So who is your customer?  Where do they spend their time? What makes them decided to engage a product or brand?  This is truly the first questions you need to ask yourself.

If you don’t know who your customer is, then you really need to start at that step.  If you know who your customer is, then you need to understand them.  So let me give you an example and we can work on it together.

Lets say you are have a small business. You are a fashion designer and make great clothing up-cycled from used materials.  You have always taken old clothing and made something new out of them.  You now have decided to make a business of it.

So far your customers have come to you by word of mouth or through your natural network of friends and family.  Your customers are mostly women between the ages of 20 and 50.  Yet what makes them tick.

You can ask yourself 50 questions about them and build a bunch of info. Remember you may have several target markets so you may have to do this exercise several times.   Lets try something just a little different that helps paint a picture.  We all know a picture is worth a thousand words.

Take out a piece of paper.  Draw your customer. Yes draw.  Use a piece of paper and an actual implement like a pen or a pencil.  No this is not something you want to do on your phone.  Ok, lets do it.  So draw them. Then start putting words or pictures around your person. These are just some suggestions of subjects.

  • What car do they drive?
  • What drink do they like?
  • Where do they go to eat?
  • How will they vote?
  • Are they married, straight, gay, bi, trans etc.
  • What kind of pet do they have?
  • Do they own or rent?
  • Do they recycle?
  • Do they believe in global warming?
  • Who do they vote for?
  • What volunteering do they do?
  • Are they involved in their kids schools?
  • Where do they shop?
  • How often do they get their nails done?
  • What makeup do they wear?
  • What exercise do they do?
  • Where do they travel?
  • What are their hobbies?
  • What social media platforms are they on?
  • How much time do they spend on Social a day?
  • What times a day do they consume media?
  • What books do they read?
  • What magazines do they read?
  • What is their favorite drink?
  • What music do they like?
  • Who are their closest confidants?
  • What is their favorite TV show?
  • What movies do they like?
  • Where do they go out?
  • Who are their influencers ?
  • Who do they hate?
  • What makes they buy something?
  • What kind of sales get their attention?

You may find that you have more than one answer to many of these questions. That is OK.  Put it down on paper.  If you get stuck you can take one of your answers and go off on that.  So for example if you say they drive a mini-van. What does that mean?  Take the Minivan Mama and go through the process asking all these questions about the Minivan Mama.  You need to pull out who your customer really is.  You need to know what makes them tick.

IT IS NOT about what makes YOU tick.  It is about what makes your customer tick.

This picture will tell you more about your customers then you would have thought. It might show you that you actually have several target markets and a couple markets that may be worth expanding into.

Try it and let me know how it goes for you.