so i’ve managed to recenter myself after many personal challenges and refocus my energy. channeling myself into more productive mindsets and thinking more positive thoughts.  yeah, it’s a lot like “the secret.”  heck, it is the secret. a perspective of abundance and positive thought.  it works.

call it a reboot.  i’m back. and happy to be back.

share this crazy talk

Hide Sites

1. ignore social media – there are still a large number of folks that don’t see the need to engage in social media in any form – facebook, linkedin, activerain, blogging, youtube or twitter.  they still don’t see the need, don’t understand it, or are afraid of it.  my advice?  get over your fear, learn about it, read the success stories.  but get on it.  not 6 months from now.  get on it now.
2. spend too much time on social media – i’ve seen a number of people get caught up in the new gadgetry, gizmos and whizbang tools that come along.  they spend so much time – figuring the new technology out, playing with it, tweaking it – that they forget what their core purpose is in business.  it’s something i succumbed to years ago when i was still selling.  i was working on creating the perfect contact management program for my business.  i spent so much time building the perfect mousetrap, i lost sight of the primary objective – catching mice.  don’t spend all day on facebook.  don’t tweet all night on twitter.  don’t spend 3 hours per day on your blog.  use these tools to engage consumers and prospects.  then go out and meet these people face to face.  do business.
3. use social media to sell – so many people see these tools as another method to advertise their wares.  they jump on facebook and start posting advertorials in their status updates about how great their service is or posting a new property listing.  and that’s all they post.  they spam their twitter followers with advertising messages.  you know what?  if you’re not going to provide me with some value or tell me something interesting that’s going on in your world, i don’t want to hear about your listing.  and if you continue to do so, i’m gonna kick you out of my network.  i love sioux falls, south dakota, but i’m not moving there.  so stop advertising your listings to me.

don’t let any of these mindsets kill your business.  you’d be crazy to.

share this crazy talk

Hide Sites

given the fact that the upcoming stewart title success series class is on the topic of advanced blogging, and my man derec shuler (@derecshuler on twitter) has tasked me with the section on publicizing and registering a blog, i figured i’d make this an interactive example using technorati to claim your blog.

some that follow me on various sites (@bradhanks on twitter by the way) probably thought this blog was abandoned, since nothing’s been posted for awhile. but i assure you, i was mulling over lots of ideas to write on.  really.  it’s just that preparing taxes, authoring courses, parenting and traveling halfway around the globe kinda got in the way.  ok.  busted.  whiney, sniveling excuses for no blog posts. enough.

claim your blog. now.

surprise!

so imagine my surprise when i log onto technorati (i know, i know – some time has gone by…) only to find that i hadn’t registered my own blog, real estate dementia.  this, after another twitter friend of mine, @stevenstearns, repeatedly drilled into my head the importance of registering my blog with multiple directories.  did i heed the advice of my jedi master?  umm … no.  which is exactly why i’m featuring my own addled-headed behavior in this post.  it’s downright crazy.

register today. or get lost.

not that registering your blog is going to make it an overnight success, bringing traffic by the boatload.  in a sea of sameness in the blogosphere, it’s hard to be found among all the other fishing boats bobbing about in open water.  rough and expansive open water i might add.  some statistics place the number of blogs at over 120 million.  that’s a lot of damn boats. and most of them look the same.

good quality, high value, community driven blogs attract readers (you have been paying attention, right class?). these qualities are what help your boat stand out in that expansive sea. but tools like technorati also can put a light on your boat.  it ain’t magic, but it’s a good start.

the vast majority of blogs out there go unregistered with blog directories, and even more go abandoned after a short time. now that’s just crazy. and in the words of jack nicholson from the movie ‘as good as it gets‘ – “go sell crazy somewhere else; we’re all stocked up here.”

so here goes everyone: Technorati Profile

one last thing…

for those of you wondering about the whole “interactive” experience i referenced at the beginning of this post: this is where irl comes into play.  ask the students who were in the classroom.

share this crazy talk

Hide Sites