For small businesses and entrepreneurs, marketing has always been about doing more with less. Less money, less time, less staff. The concept of doing more with less is becoming a harsh reality for me as by the end of this week both of my kids will be home from school for the summer and I will be working with less time, forced to make more of each minute to keep my business goals on track. Can anyone relate??

For modern marketers and entrepreneurs, the use of digital marketing and social media has afforded us a wonderful opportunity! Never before have we been able to keep in touch with such a vast network so easily, quickly, and cheaply. Never before have we been able to build businesses and connect with a niche audience of people that we can serve, so easily.

Yes, I know from talking to many of you that social media and keeping up with all the latest platforms and marketing strategies can be daunting and anything but easy. So, let’s keep it simple, do what we can (and know how to) do and maximize our reach. Here are a few points of inspiration to get you started:

1. Focus – There’s power in focus! I encourage you to focus your social media and digital marketing efforts on one or maybe two goals at a time. Don’t worry, once you get rolling with the first one or two you can tackle more. Just try not to overwhelm yourself! For example, just post and interact on one social media outlet, like LinkedIn; and write a blog once a week and interact on a networking site like ActiveRain. Now, does that sound too overwhelming?
2. Create a plan – Next you need to create a plan and it doesn’t have to be too complex. For me, I blog on Tuesdays. That’s my plan. It’s not too complex or rigid but it helps me to have that blog deadline on Tuesday. And I even look forward to sitting down and focusing on my blog each week. How about you? Perhaps you start out with one blog a week and one post a day on one social media site. Is that reasonable? If not, what is?
3. Engage – Finally, the fun part, engaging with your audience! Carve out time each day, not much to start, even just 15 minutes, to engage with your audience. By this I mean thanking people that liked your posts, answering questions, following folks that followed you, commenting on their posts, asking questions, and just building relationships with your community.

Following these three simple steps will help you to do more networking, relationship building, prospecting, and establishing yourself as a trusted expert in order to grow your business and connect with more opportunities.

If you would like to see more of my step-by-step plan for consistently keeping in touch with your network to grow your business, download the infographic for FREE.

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Cheers!
Melissa

(I love helping entrepreneurs and independent professionals build successful businesses using social media and effective communication. If I can help you, please drop me a line.)