January 31, 2014 / in Blogging, General Information / by Jason Terry
Post written by Jason Terry, Entrepreneur | Social Coach | Web Developer | Scuba Instructor | Guitar Player | Cruise Traveler | Lego Collector
If you’re like many of the companies we meet, you’ve been around for a long time. You have a good team. You have a good product or service. You have a bunch of great customers. You sponsor a charity. And you have a few company events each year where you get to spend quality personal time with the people you work with.
You see, we believe that the people that stay connected to us really do care about our success. Being there for us when we’re having a hard time. Celebrating with us when we have a big win or something amazing happens. They want to know what is going on with us. That’s just one reason why Facebook owns so many eyeballs.
It plugs into that raw human emotion of wanting to feel like you belong.
We’ve done a lot of business in Kansas City over the years, and I can tell you from personal experience that the majority of the work came from people that care about us personally. We make a concerted effort to surround ourselves with awesome people (aka people that don’t suck). The kind of people that we love to help. The kind of people that appreciate us for how much we invest in them personally and professionally.
People that understand good relationship is a two way street.
I bet you’re the same way. You work with people you like. That you enjoy being around. That want to help you just as much as you want to help them. You like them because you’re getting something out of the relationship while you’re investing yourself in the relationship. (I hope you don’t have to work with people you can’t stand because your company needs the revenue so badly. In our experience that doesn’t lead to success because you or your team are miserable and can’t do your best work.)
Do you agree that business is won through trusted relationships? If so, then you would probably agree that it’s important to stay top of mind with your trusted relationships. In fact, it’s important for your entire team to stay top of mind with their trusted relationships. You can only go to so many coffees and lunches in a week… and you still need to do that. However, it’s so much more efficient to tell an awesome story once and share it with hundreds or even thousands of trusted relationships through social.
If your company isn’t telling stories, you must want to be the best kept secret in Kansas City.
That might seem like a really basic business concept, but I challenge you to look at how your company is staying top of mind with your clients, prospects and yes, even your employees.
I could spend the rest of 2014 blogging about wins for Blue Gurus that happened because we are consistently telling stories just like this one to our audience on a regular basis. An audience of people that care about us. And our success. And our hopes. Because we care about, and routinely invest in, them personally and professionally.
If you’re asking yourself how you can help your business grow, START TELLING STORIES. If you stick with it, the magic will happen. It will surprise you. Don’t expect countless comments on the blog on your website…or for poeple to hit the “LIKE” button. That doesn’t happen as often as you might think it would. Instead, you can count on your clients, friends and family telling you the next time they talk to you that they liked your story. And that’s when you’ll know it’s working. It feels amazing and extremely rewarding to know that your stories resonated with people, motivated them, helped them through a difficult personal or professional hurdle, and more.
Get started as soon as you can. It takes months for people to realize you’re telling stories and to start paying attention. If you have no idea what you’re doing or just need help making sure it gets done, we are here for you.
A functional shift has happened. In 2009 it was like moving a mountain to get people to consider blogging. Today, just about everyone we talk to is either blogging or considering a blog and needs help making it happen.
So get going. I can’t wait to hear YOUR stories.