Tag: Objectives

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Common Community Building Obstacles that Can Hinder Your Success

Like any business advertising or marketing strategy, there are bound to be obstacles that can hinder your success. For this reason, understanding some of the many common obstacles to community building now will prevent them from destroying your results in the future. In addition, knowing what to watch out for can mitigate the problems and help you be more successful than your wildest dreams.

 

Here are four common community-building obstacles that can hinder your success and tips on how to avoid or improve them:

 

Unique and Valuable Content

 

Continually creating and sharing valuable content is no easy feat. Repurposing content, sharing boring promotions, or expecting your community to do most of the work won’t help you either. Instead, developing and sharing content that is unique to that platform will inspire more engagement.

 

Asking questions and getting to know your audience more by figuring out their needs and frustrations will provide you with endless content ideas. What keeps them up at night? If you know your audience and what makes them who they are, you will know what content to produce. If you’re not sure, ask them.

 

Platform and Tools

 

Not using the right tools or platform for your target audience is the first mistake many make. Just because a platform is easy for you to use doesn’t mean it will translate to your audience. If you use a platform or software not used by the common public, you must add additional content to teach them how to use it and why they should even try. Working with difficult tools or confusing information will only deter them from participating or showing up. Instead, pick a well-known tool, and even if it’s not perfect, stick to it if that is where your audience is.

 

Market Competition

 

Competition is inevitable, and it only gets bigger the more avenues or tools you use for your business. However, doing the right research on your competition and developing superior resources makes it a non-issue. You can always do better.

 

One strategy is to find and join your competitors’ groups within your niche and see what comments and information they receive. Then, watch how they answer their customers or help lead them toward purchasing. Then, as you learn, find ways to make it better with your distinctive touch.

 

Consistency

 

Finally, but certainly not least, consistency is a common struggle to many businesses who start a brand community. Finding the right balance of content to share and working with your members’ schedules is the best way to achieve this. Adopting and learning automation tools will also help perfect consistency. Consistency shows your members that you are there to value them, not use them for money.

 

Knowing these common obstacles should provide you with the tools to build a more successful brand or online community from the start. Consistent materials, schedule, and image with the right tools and education are essential to running a profitable and valuable brand community. Keeping up with your industry and always supplying valuable and powerful content can be a lot of work but is crucial to the success of your community.

 

Harness the Power of Consistency

 

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Essential Community Building Statistics to Know

If you want to grow a community or build one around your brand, you must know the facts. Statistics show that if you’re going to start a business, building a community around it is vital if you’re going to succeed. Fortunately, many consumers are looking for more information directly from the source to build relationships with honest and valuable brands. They seek trust and validity before they can make a purchase or commit to a brand.

 

The following are some essential community building statistics to know to further promote and grow your brand:

 

  • Nearly a 1/3 of Users Follow Brands Using Social Media – Because so many social media users and those who love being part of communities follow brands using social media, it tells you that if big brands are doing it, it can work for you too. So, you really don’t have to be Red Bull to benefit from building community.

 

  • Ninety Percent of Buyers Report Using Positive Online Reviews to Make Their Purchase Decisions – Reviews work according to buyers’ own words. They like reading positive reviews to help make their choice.

 

  • Almost Thirty Percent of Online Customers Report Using Brand Communities for Research – Many people who want to buy things feel more comfortable going to a community run by the brand to find out what customers are saying and get a sense of the integrity of the creator.

 

  • The Common Community Objectives Include: Customer retention, lower support costs, and innovation – People who create communities cite these reasons for spending a lot of effort developing engaging and informative safe communities for their customers and interested parties.

 

  • Only 40% of Small Businesses Compared to 75% of Large Corporations Build Communities – This is likely because it can be a lot of work to set it up and keep it running. However, with the advent of so many options, it’s getting a lot easier to do it.

 

  • Over 95% of Adult Smartphone Users are Using Social Media and Brand Groups – Because so many people in the USA (77%) have smartphones having a mobile-friendly community will pay off since most users love being involved in brand groups using their technology.

 

  • Almost 90% of Business Leaders State Community Building is Essential to Growth – The main reason for this is that it’s one more way to help lead your ideal customer through the buying journey successfully.

 

The fact is, online or brand communities are what sets you apart from your competition and can further solidify your chances of success. If you want increased awareness, recognition, and loyalty, then running a community is vital. Overall, these statistics prove the power and benefits online, or brand communities can provide to businesses.

 

A Comprehensive Social Media Influencer Checklist

 

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Always Plan First and Last

The thing that marks a good business is planning. A business plan for where they hope to bring their business and daily plans to guide their actions to achieve it.

 

You’ve likely heard the famous quote “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail” many times before, and that is because it is so powerful and accurate. There is no other way to put it. Just because you don’t plan doesn’t mean you don’t know the direction it will go. As statistics prove over again, you are more likely to go down than up.

Business Plan Resources You Can Use

Here are a few tips and tricks to apply for better planning your day and business:

 

Plan First and Last

An often-used productivity hack by many businesses and entrepreneurs includes creating a to-do list at the beginning and end of their workday. This strategy improves your business overall by increasing your time management skills, consistency, and accountability.

 

When you start and end with a to-do list, you allow flexibility and ensure you are always working on your top priorities and staying on topic—enabling you to cut out unnecessary or mundane tasks that only keep you away from your main objective.

 

Not only that, but it can also be a great reminder and motivational factor. Lists enable you to be ready to go and can give you the push to get started sooner.

 

Make It Simple and Fun

Planning doesn’t have to be complicated, and business isn’t always dull. Use colorful pens or fun phone applications to write down your goals. Add fun and small rewards when you accomplish each step. Remember to keep it simple, and to the point, so it doesn’t overwhelm you.

 

Think Small, Medium, and Large

Think about three objectives you want to accomplish for that day but organize them into three separate categories:

 

  • One Large – The task you want to do right away as it’s the hardest to do and makes the most significant impact on your main objective for that month.
  • One Medium – This is the bulk of your day that isn’t too hard to do but likely to use more of your time—for example, a group meeting or coffee with a client.
  • One Small – This is the task you can focus on at the end of your day and relax. Ideally, you want this task to be easy and pretty mindless.

 

This method aims to give you a starting point and organize your day where you are not running out of energy and momentum.

 

Don’t let your days get away from you anymore with these planning tips. Remember, a business without a plan is one that will likely fail. Don’t let that be you when you have the power and control to make it happen with the right strategy and commitment to daily action.

 

How to Be Realistic About Time

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Why Your To-Do Lists Are Failing You

Did you make a to-do list for the day? If so, how far have you gone, or did you completely forget about it already? Well, don’t worry too much. As roughly 41% of items on most people’s to-do lists never get done, you are not alone.

Get Your Goals into Your Calendar

Most people are not making the right to-do lists either.  The best way to fix it and have it work for you and not against you is first to understand the common reasons why they fail in the first place.

Here are five common reasons to-do lists fail and how you can do better:

 

Way too Many Things to Do

To-do lists should never be pages long or used for the long term. Instead, they should focus on daily tasks within a certain period of time you plan to get to work. Meaning you should have multiple to-do lists, not one overwhelming one that will surely get you lost.

 

Unclear Deadlines

You must set hard deadlines and have the discipline to follow through. A to-do list without them only gives you the permission to take your time or not do it at all. Understand how long it really takes to do each activity, including prep, and clean up – and never assume you can do double the amount of work you can do overnight.

 

You Don’t Account for The Unexpected

No ones’ schedule is perfect, so don’t plan it that way. Account for flexibility and always include an extra fifteen minutes each day for the unexpected. You may end up in the bathroom or traffic a little longer than you realized, for example. So, don’t schedule important meetings or errands to accomplish back-to-back with the idea that everything will go smoothly.

 

It Was Created with A Long-Term Mindset

In other words, you are giving yourself too much time to complete tasks or are creating to-do lists for more than one day. Your to-do lists will guide and maintain your 90-day action plan. They are not meant to replace it. Be sure the lists are to the point and a direct path for achieving your primary objective for that day or even a 90-minute period.

 

Unorganized and Unclear Main Objectives

Taking the time to dissect and pinpoint what you want to achieve is crucial to accomplishing them. If you can’t have a firm grip on what you want, you can’t be sure you will have the right plan either. Unclear objectives lead to unorganized plans, ideas, and actions. Learn to understand what you need and want and prioritize to get things done in a timely and orderly fashion.

 

Don’t let your to-do lists fail you anymore. To-do lists are great to utilize and guide your day to ensure you are on the right trajectory to long-term success, as long as they are done correctly.