We were fortunate to meet a local author at the birth of sm2communicate in 2012, and then just this year we bumped into Julie New (http://whoaretheflowers.com/) again at a networking event. This time she passed on a signed copy of her new book to us.
Julie is an amazing life coach and her book talks about people looking after themselves, (or “their garden”) first in their list of priorities and daily activities. This got us thinking about how businesses could nurture their own “gardens” or connections with customers through social media
We have always said that social media needs to be approached as if you are going to run in a marathon, it takes time, preparation, and effort, but making the decision to get involved is often the first step.
The commitment any person or business needs with their social media can be compared to Julie’s analogy of “the tree”, whereby you need to feed and water the roots to make the tree grow strong and its branches spread wide.
With social media, your branches are your connections or customers, but these cannot grow unless you have regular content to feed your roots, and a strong commitment to stay firm in your journey. Connecting and engaging with your customers and prospective ones, and importantly taking care of those relationships helps you to grow your business.
Do not be afraid to “branch out” and try something new, instead think of being social as nourishing the very roots of your business.