Blogging, social networks, newsletters: Your prospective clients are watching you

Thanks to social networks, blogging and newsletters, your prospective clients or customers can see what you’re doing, like never before. As a result, the basics of developing your business today are extremely simple.

It’s all about DOING rather than SAYING.

• If you want to be regarded as a leader, stop talking about leadership and start leading.
• If you want more followers, stop asking people to follow you and do something worth following.
• If you want people to talk about your business, stop pestering them for referrals and build a business worth talking about.

Hard to hide

Yes, you can call yourself a leader, beg people to follow you or pester people for referrals. The thing is, it doesn’t work! Why? Because your prospective clients or customers can see what you do on social networks, what you say on your blog and what you write in your newsletter. If there is a disconnect between what you claim and what you do, they notice it.

Once they smell bullshit, they’re gone – and rightly so!

The opportunity

That same exposure offers an incredible opportunity, for those who are prepared to lead, prepared to do something worth following and prepared to create a business that’s worth talking about. Just as it has never been harder for the fakes to hide – it has never been easier for the best people to get noticed.

So, with all that exposure out there, what should we do?

• It’s easy to be a sheep. That’s why it’s so common.
• It’s easy to offer a range of services that are just like all your competitors.
• It’s easy to quote your favourite business guru, rather than tell us what you think.

It’s easy, but there’s no value there. There’s nothing to inspire your prospective clients. There’s nothing to justify why they should follow you, talk about you or hire you.

The decision

Every business owner today is presented with a decision, based on the following 2 options:

1. Build a presence that confirms your leadership, originality and value.
2. Follow the flock and always struggle; struggle to be noticed, struggle to grow your business, struggle to earn above average fees and struggle to be taken seriously.

I recommend option 1. If you think it’s the hardest option, consider the cost of being regarded as a sheep, by your prospective clients and customers.