5 Unexpected Ways to Unlock Your Creativity

You know those times when you can’t think of a good idea? When you’re ready to bang your head against the desk because you can’t even think of a bad idea? It happens to the best of us. No one is immune to Creativity Lockdown Syndrome. But before you throw your project out the window or decide the only way to get through the idea desert is to dive head first into a Netflix and Cheeto binge, there is another way.

After pouring over thousands of projects with thousands of creatives over the years, I’ve picked up a few tricks to get your wheels turning again.

Here are 5 unexpected ways to unlock your creativity, even when your usual inspirational soundtrack and motivational movie clips aren’t producing results:

1. Stand up and turn around

Seriously. Physically stand up out of your chair, then turn and face the other way. You might actually *hear* the sound of a good idea dropping into your brain. As the saying goes, humans are creatures of habit, making it easy to create routines that put our brains on autopilot. By changing up where or how you’re sitting, it shakes up the status quo and gets your brain thinking in new ways, which opens you up to new ideas.

Still stuck? Ask yourself this open-ended question: “What is the truth about this problem or situation?” and let the answer tumble out. Your mind will start creating answers for any question you ask it. Take a pen and paper, and write out whatever comes to mind.

2. Drink a teaspoon of booze

You know how some great writers and artists are legendary drunks? One reason is because alcohol lowers inhibitions, muffles the inner critic and gives your inner wild-and-crazy guy a chance to run the show. Sadly, the era of the three-martini lunch has passed, and it is generally ill-advised to get hammered on the job.

But I’ve found that just a teaspoon of liquor can get you loosened up without jeopardizing your reputation. Maybe it’s the stimulation of sense-memory from the smell and the taste in your mouth, or maybe it’s your body responding to the tincture itself, but it works – if you let it.

If it’s not possible for you to take the world’s tiniest shot (not all people can have even a teaspoon of alcohol), try just “acting drunk” by letting your body go loose and allowing yourself to ramble like a wicked old sot. You might just surprise yourself.

“Often people display a curious respect for a man drunk, rather like the respect of simple races for the insane… There is something awe-inspiring in one who has lost all inhibitions.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

3. Make some 5-minute art

Especially if the reason you’re stuck is emotional (low self-esteem, jealousy, fear of failure, perfectionism…any of those monsters from under the bed) making some 5-Minute Art can be revelatory. Just grab a piece of typing paper and a pen, and draw out the FEELING you are having.

Use stick figures or big scrawls – don’t worry, no one is ever going to see this – and just allow yourself to express on paper what it feels like to be so jealous, afraid or stuck. Getting a visual image of your feelings often gives you a new perspective on them, and can free up the blocked energy that’s holding your good ideas hostage.

4. Copy someone

Of course I’m not recommending plagiarism, in the illegal, unethical kind of way. Here’s the thing, the next time you’re stuck, try straight-up imitating the work of someone you admire. Just for a few minutes, pretend you are that person.

Allow their genius to inhabit you for a minute, and let yourself borrow their phrasing, style or flair. Be a copycat. You will probably want to revise and polish later, but your homage will at least give you something fun and unusual to start with.

If for some reason you can’t think of someone you admire to copy, try creating a character or alter ego you can put on for a little while. This technique was made famous by Beyonce Knowles when she announced her alter ego, Sasha Fierce, to the world. When you assume a character, you shift your attitude and focus instantly because you see the world through a different lens.

This opens your creative thinking and problem solving processes in new ways, opening you up to new ideas you would not have been able to consider before.

“Through others we become ourselves.” – Lev S. Vygotsky

5. Take a tiny step toward a big goal

Overwhelm is so real. You get paralyzed when your projects are too big so start smaller. Set your timer for 15 minutes and do as much as you can in that time. Maybe you’ll just make a list of people you could reach out to for help or advice, or you’ll open a new notebook in Evernote.

If you spend just 15 minutes a day, every single day, working on the projects that matter most to you, you will achieve astonishing results. Baby steps often lead to quantum leaps, so keep going, no matter what.

How do you become creative when you’re unmotivated? Share your thoughts below!

from
https://addicted2success.com/success-advice/5-unexpected-ways-to-unlock-your-creativity/

(Part 2) Conquering the Impossible Space Between Where You Are Now and Where You Want to Be

I wrote a blog post based on a mini-series I did for my Subscribers on the Achieve the Impossible App and have packaged it up in two parts to share here. If you missed Part One, quick click on it and have a read over that first before reading any further!

One of the first obstacles we’re going to face on this journey towards risk is one that often strikes a damaging blow to our pride and can sometimes take us to our knees. As you embark on this journey, I can almost guarantee that we will take a wrong turn from time to time, we will read the map wrong (I’ll take the hit, I’m the navigator – sorry!) which will send us off course.

When you’ve taken a wrong turn driving, what is your first thought? DAMN IT. (Yep, me too!) What’s your second thought? Is it ‘ahh, I’ve stuffed up. I’m gonna just pull over and sit here until either the roads and maps magically change in my favor or someone comes to rescue me?’ Or do we think ‘Ok, what’s the quickest way to get back on my path?’

Mistakes Will Happen

When we stuff up, make a mistake, choose the wrong software, tell the wrong people or say the wrong thing, we don’t just pack up our dreams and hide. NO. We pick ourselves back up. We face the right direction (or what we believe is the right direction) and we MOVE FORWARD.

I don’t care if you start by walking one ginger step at a time, just start! Those small steps gain momentum and eventually lead to a jog, then before you know it, you’re back running!

Mistakes aren’t meant to end us, they are there to redirect us. Anytime you embark on an unknown journey you’re going to make mistakes.How you respond is the only thing I want you to focus on. Respond with reflection, movement and momentum in the direction of your dreams.

On our journey, we’re going to make mistakes and take wrong turns from time to time, but we choose to pick ourselves back up, and get back on that journey! We’re not staying stuck, we’re ‘running to risk’! As we get back on this journey, we’re going to need to make a decision to take action and invest in risk.

“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit at home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” – Dale Carnegie

Sounds like I’m about to write a message on Warren Buffett’s worst nightmare. But that’s not the risk I’m talking about and it’s not the investing I’m talking about. Sleep tight, Warren. This risk I’m talking about is the thing that stands between you and your dream. The thing that you’ve told yourself is too strong, too powerful and too insurmountable to climb.

It’s often the case that the risk we perceive in our own minds is actually far greater than it truly is in reality. I remember as a child, visiting a museum and being fascinated by a scary looking dinosaur down the other side of the room. It looked ferocious and intimidating from across the room, and as I walked closer and closer, the dinosaur, through the magic of perspective, got bigger and bigger.

That’s where I feel we are at right now on our journey towards risk. We’ve identified the risk standing between us and our dreams, and we’re taking the tentative first steps towards it. As we step closer and closer to risk, it will look bigger. You’ll start to compare the size of it to you, and don’t be surprised if it grows each step you take. But, have faith.

The closer I got to the dinosaur, the bigger it became. I had a choice to let fear or faith determine my next steps. I continued walking step by step towards the prehistoric creature. Then something strange happened.

Yes, the closer I got to the creature, the bigger it became. But then something else came into the picture. The closer I got, the more detail I was noticing. What I thought were bone-crunching teeth were actually a matte white plastic, what I thought was impenetrable skin was old flaking greeny-brown paint. Those eyes that glared at you from across the room, were now nothing but big marble sized spheres of glass.

When we step towards fear, yes it gets bigger – but as we invest in faith and continue to live our lives in the direction of our dreams, we expose the master of risk…FEAR.

False

Evidence

Appearing

Real

Invest in those extra steps this week as you get closer to risk to point out the finer details, you’re going to realise it’s not as scary as it once seemed. Those steps aren’t always going to come easy though, because the journey towards risk is an interesting one.

There’ll be times when you’re pumped full of Adrenalin, bashing down every obstacle that comes your way. There will be times where you’re cruising on a nice downhill slope, enjoying the scenery and wondering why it took you this long to convince yourself to get here!

Then there’ll be times when things aren’t easy. Just like my climb this evening up a little mountain by my home on the Sunshine Coast of Australia. I started out full of energy, pumped for the adventure ahead, then five minutes into the usually very achievable rocky steps, my legs started really feeling it.

“You’ll never know your strength until you’ve faced your struggles.”

The Adrenalin gave way to frustration, to fear and to my quickly draining self-belief in my fitness. I continued one painful step at a time. I wasn’t going the pace I normally would, but knew this mountain could be conquered one slow step at a time.

As I slowly neared the end of the steps, my legs were burning, my heart pounding and my mindset weakening. Two quiet words burst through my pain…

‘Stay strong’

I’m pretty sure I’ve never said this going up the mountain before, but it seemed fitting. As I climbed one step at a time, ‘stay strong’ became my repeated mantra. After the season of pain and intentional mindset building, I reached the summit of the mountain and cruised my way back down.

There is such an incredibly untapped power within our self-belief and mindset, which shapes our self-talk. On your journey towards your risk, I can almost guarantee you’ll be faced with steps that seem too difficult, too challenging, too much to conquer.

Remember…’stay strong’. You’re on this path for a reason – you’re capable of completing it. You’ve come this far, see it through. Your ‘impossible’ dream is counting on you to conquer fear and run to risk!

This blog is based off the mini-series ‘Run to Risk’ first featured on the Achieve the Impossible App, accompanied by downloadable wallpapers and daily inspiring messages to inspire, challenge and equip you to achieve your impossible dream. Download the Achieve the Impossible App and start your free trial today!

from
https://addicted2success.com/motivation/part-2-conquering-the-impossible-space-between-where-you-are-now-and-where-you-want-to-be/

(Part 1) Conquering the Impossible Space Between Where You Are Now and Where You Want to Be

Deep down, you know exactly what you are capable of. There’s even moments where you get a glimpse of all the potential you have. You can get there. You just have to be willing to sacrifice the habits, things and situations that are standing in the way of your success. I honestly believe “Running to Risk” has the power to unlock mindsets and belief systems that have been holding you back from your true potential (I’m naturally conservative so it’s big coming from me!)

Before we do something crazy and ‘run to risk’, let’s take stock of where we are today and our foundational beliefs in our potential and true capacity. In the day-to-day act of living, waking up, coffee, breakfast, school drop-offs, work, more coffee, home, homework, dinner, finish off emails, glass or two of (insert drink here), collapse on couch, Netflix etc. We can become disconnected with our true potential and capacity.

You are being pulled from all sides – your family, your boss, your colleagues, your partner, your friends, even your dog. You can be forgiven for prioritising the present over the future.

To set up this series on healthy and personal-capacity fuelled risk, I want you to invest a moment or two searching deep within yourself.

• What’s in your heart for 2019?
• What is one thing you would look back on come 31st Dec 2019 and be proud of your personal accomplishment?
• What’s something that scares you?
• What’s that one thing that has been on the back of your mind that you’d love to put your name to in your lifetime?

The answer to the above is the thing we’re going to focus on in part one of this post. We’re focusing on it because with every achievement that challenges our personal capacity and unlocks our potential, there will be an element of risk.

Risk Is Scary!

Risk stares you in the face from afar and says ‘don’t you dare approach. Don’t even try’. This is when you’re faced with a decision to make, and the best (and also worst!) thing about it is you’re the only one who can make it!

As you make this decision to ‘run to risk’, the regret of not running has to be stronger than your personal comfort. Your comfort must give way to your calling. Your present must give way to your potential.

Think about the one thing on your heart – the thing that helps you step into your calling and potential. The thing with risk looming all over it. Let’s build the strength, self-belief, courage, boldness and tenacity to ‘Run to Risk.’ But what about timing? I’m not sure if I should be pursuing my dream now.

“You can’t always wait for the perfect time. Sometimes, you have to dare to do it because life is too short to wonder what might have been.”

We’re not running to risk for a laugh and a good time, we’re running to risk because that dream in our hearts for 2019 is worth pursuing. When faced with the potential of risk, we often come up with thoughts and reasons to justify our lack of momentum or progress.

I don’t know how!

I don’t have the money!

I don’t have the connections!

But one of the most common excuses I hear (I know, because I hear it from myself) is a little sentence that has killed more dreams and crushed more souls than most. ’It’s not the right time’.

It’s one of the most powerful excuses because it bulldozes every other excuse by default. You’ll always meet more people, money comes and goes, but once time is gone, it’s gone forever. This excuse becomes our default without us even realising it.

I remember when I was wanting to launch a few online courses, a podcast and a book. (These are all my risks for 2019). But they were also my goals for 2017 and 2018. Sadly, I put my insecurities ahead of my identity and my convenience over my calling. Looking back now, each excuse I held to for not launching these projects was based on timing.

First, the IG algorithms were affecting posts, then someone else launched a podcast in my niche and gosh, I couldn’t do that! Next, as I was writing my IG Online Course, another one came on the market. Nope, can’t do that now. I’ll wait until the marketing heat dies down on that one. The exact same situation with my book launch…it just wasn’t quite the right time.

Here’s what I learnt and something I want to share with you, there’s never a right time to do the thing that’s on your heart. The right time will never simply show up, you’ve got the time, now it’s up to you to make it right!

Looking back, I’ve felt the pain of regret and don’t want to let the fear of risk lead to regret again. Now is the time to look risk dead square in the eyes and say ‘ready or not, here I come’. Yeah, the I could start now I guess…I know what I want to do and I kinda believe now is as good of time as any…I’m honestly not sure where to start.

“Never be afraid to try something new, because life gets boring when you stay within the limits of what you already know.”

Now It’s Time!

We’ve just told risk we’re coming for it. We’ve made the decision to put our calling over our comfort and choose to be lead by faith not fear. Now it’s the time to start. We’re starting right now because we have been given the time, and we’ve got complete power and control to make it the ‘right time’. We’ve made the decision to go after that thing that’s on our heart, the thing we’ve always wanted to do, the thing that has been too risky.

Not anymore. Today, we start.

There is huge power in the start. When we start, we have the luxury of being on home ground. We are making more decisions for ourselves, rather than having to make decisions based on responses which we will have to inevitably do down the road.

Today, we start.

We’re filled fresh with enthusiasm, passion and driven by our desire to accomplish something meaningful this year. Yesterday, we may have had a loss to our name, we may have stumbled and fallen…but you’ve picked yourself up.

Today, we start.

We look to the future with our heads held high, the hopes of a brighter future with that dream in our heart knowing that we are valiantly pursuing it despite the risk. We know our dream, we know we are capable of achieving it, we know we’ve got the time and today, we start.

We start the journey as we ‘Run to Risk’.This blog is based off the mini-series ‘Run to Risk’ first featured on the Achieve the Impossible App, accompanied by downloadable wallpapers and daily inspiring messages to inspire, challenge and equip you to achieve your impossible dream. Download the Achieve the Impossible App and start your free trial today!

from
https://addicted2success.com/motivation/part-1-conquering-the-impossible-space-between-where-you-are-now-and-where-you-want-to-be/

The Creator Of ‘Dilbert’ Will Teach You A Lot — Here’s What He Taught Me.

3 Powerful Techniques That Will Help You Really Get Things Done

Setting goals and having the ideas to achieve more success in life is easy. Whether it is to lose weight, to earn more, to build a successful blog, or to get rid of a bad habit, most people fail to stick to their plans after a few weeks. And some give up after a few short days.

People just don’t follow through. They fall back into their old behaviors and they procrastinate when they are supposed to get things done. So what can you do to stick to your goals and follow your plans? What can you do to really get the things that you want to be done, done?

Here are 3 powerful techniques you can apply:

1. Schedule and Block Your Time

First, schedule and block your time for the project or task that you want to get done. For example, if you want to write a 2,000-word article, what you need to do then is to schedule the writing. You want to make sure that it becomes your priority so that it will definitely happen.

Time blocking is one of the most powerful techniques anyone can leverage to get things done. If you have just bought a book but you find that you don’t have time to read it, just schedule the time.

For instance, use this Saturday morning to read the book. You can block 9 AM to 12 PM on your calendar, and use these 3 hours block to read the book. When you do so, you are giving clear instructions to your mind when and what you should do. As what Tony Robbins said, “Clarity is power”. When you know exactly what you need to do and specifically when to do the task, your chances of doing it will be much higher.

More importantly, when you block your time, you are literally telling the world that you will be unavailable for other things during that period. You have scheduled your priority and other things have to wait. This is why time blocking is such a powerful technique that you can apply to make sure you get more things done.

“The key is not to prioritise what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” – Stephen Covey

2. Change Your Environment

Next, change your environment. If time blocking is not enough, change your environment as well. We often underestimate how the environment can affect our lives. In fact, the environment you’re in plays a vital role in shaping your life. A productive and positive environment favors good habits and positive behaviors.

If your environment is noisy and you can’t focus, and you want to write an article in that surrounding, you set yourself up to fail. You must learn to use your environment to support you rather than against you. Create a favorable environment so that you are more inclined to take action rather than procrastinating.

Take the example from above, if you want to read a book, but your environment is noisy and distracting, just change your location. Grab your book and read it in a nearby coffee house while enjoying your favorite hot mocha. The key is that you must design or change your environment so that it favors you.

If you want to make it a habit to drink more water, fill your water bottle and place it on your work desk. Whenever you see it, you will remember to drink more water. If you want to watch less TV, keep the remote control away or take out the batteries. This way, you create the inconvenience and it makes you less likely to watch TV.

Thus, redesign a work environment that helps you get things done. Remember, you are a product of your environment. So if you want to change your life, change your environment.

3. Build Up the Commitment

So now that you have blocked out 3 hours this Saturday from 9 AM to 12 PM to read a book that you have just bought at a nearby café. What if you still fail to follow through? Well, here’s the third technique you can apply – increase your commitment.

What you want to do here is to increase the stake and make yourself more committed to taking action. For instance, you can make a bet with a friend that you will read 100 pages of the book. And if you don’t, you will give him or her $50.

How’s that for increasing your commitment? Of course, there are many ways how you can put yourself on the line. You can also invite a friend to read together in the café so that he can become your accountability partner and make sure you show up and read.

“Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes…but no plans.” – Peter F. Drucker

When you make a public commitment, you put yourself on the line and your reputation is at stake. Hence, you become more committed to the action. According to Dr. Gail Matthews from the Dominican University of California, people who write down their goals, make action commitments, and share their progress with someone else have a much higher chance of actually achieving their goals.

Hence, to increase your commitment toward your goals, you can:

• Write them down
• Create specific action plans, and
• Make yourself accountable by sharing your progress with someone else.

When your level of commitment is high, you will do whatever it takes to accomplish your goals.

These are the 3 techniques that you can implement to help you get things done. Remember, schedule your actions so that they will definitely happen. Change your environment so that you set yourself up to win. And create the commitment so that you will hold yourself accountable and accomplish the task.

from
https://addicted2success.com/success-advice/3-powerful-techniques-that-will-help-you-really-get-things-done/

The 5 Best Cities in the USA for Startups and Entrepreneurs

You’re an entrepreneur? That’s awesome! Want to start a new business? That’s great. Want to know where to start it? That’s a bit of a tall order for an answer in just a few words. Choosing the right city can be just as important for entrepreneurs as choosing the right business model.

Some cities are so expensive that they become unaffordable for a fledgling business. Others may not be as expensive but may lack the resources you need to work your magic. Some cities don’t have enough capital to spare to invest in your business. Others lack the skilled human resources you need to succeed. Still others, like Silicone Valley and the East Coast, are saturated with businesses. So how does one pick the right city to do business in? The answer is simple. You make a list and go with the option that suits you.

Top Cities in the U.S. for Entrepreneurs

There are a number of factors to consider when it comes to the best cities to start businesses in. Some of the factors considered when compiling such lists include information on:

• Living costs
• Projected job growth
• Entrepreneurial resources
• The Kauffman Index

These factors, along with some number crunching, help narrow down your list of options. We have selected 5 of the best cities in this respect. They are:

1. San Diego, California
2. Los Angeles, California
3. Dallas, Texas
4. Miami, Florida
5. Austin, Texas

Let’s have a closer look at each city and what makes it ideal for business.

1. San Diego, California

This city has a higher per-capita density of entrepreneurs than even San Francisco and San Jose. There are also a ton of business-based events and resources you can take advantage of. A good example is StartUp San Diego. The service provides support to new businesses and connects business owners with peers. It also hosts a week-long entrepreneurship event in June.

StartUp San Diego isn’t the only support you get in the city. Others like Seed San Diego connect businesses with local venture capitalists. San Diego is by no means a cheap city, but it is still one of the least expensive in California. There is also a concentration of diverse talent in the city. From biotech to the military to school, the talent you’re looking for is likely just around the corner.

2. Los Angeles, California

L.A. may be known for the Hollywood lifestyle, but it’s also one of the most populous cities in America. It has one of the highest numbers of business owners per capita in the country. The “Silicon Beach” crowd makes L.A. a great city for startups and business owners. Silicon Beach is technically just Westside but the term is used loosely.

It generally refers to the startup culture currently growing in L.A. Plus the fast-paced, energetic L.A. lifestyle attracts tons of skilled talent from across the country. If nothing else, you’ll be catching glimpses of celebrities more often than anywhere else.

3. Dallas, Texas

Dallas stays true to traditional Texan hospitality, especially towards businesses and business owners. Dallas does not have as many businesses as other cities in Texas, but it goes out of its way to be friendly to them. It’s also much more supportive of its entrepreneurial citizens. The Dallas Entrepreneurship Center is one of the biggest attractions for business owners in the city.

It offers support to new businesses and even provides co-shared spaces for you to work. There are also a number of accelerators that can really help your business take off. Tech Wildcatters is one of the most well-known accelerators in the city and is popular with local fledging businesses.

4. Miami, Florida

Miami has come a long way from being a tourist attraction and a place for people to retire comfortably. You’d be surprised to know that Miami is actually one of the best cities in America to start your business. The city has a very impressive startup density. Around 107 out of every 1,000 businesses are a new business.

That’s more than a whopping 10% of all businesses in the locality. It also has the most number of business owners per capita on this list. Miami is swimming in skilled talent that can help propel your business to success. And when you’re looking for a break from the office, there’s always the beach and great food to distract you.

5. Austin, Texas

Austin or “Silicone Hills” is the number one city to start a new business in, according to experts. The startup density is second only to Miami, standing at around 104 new businesses for every 1,000 businesses. There’s also a huge entrepreneurial population. 1 out of every 200 people you meet there is a business owner. In terms of living costs, Austin is much more inexpensive than other cities in the USA. It’s even currently the best city in the US for Millennials to buy their first homes.

Entrepreneurship is not without its glamor and allure. But people tend to ignore the grit, determination, and hard work that get successful entrepreneurs to where they are. Being an entrepreneur is not easy. As Uncle Ben said, “With great power comes great responsibility”.

You’re not just responsible for yourself, but also for your employees as well. People depend on your decisions to make a living. So make sure you put thought into your choices, including the city you decide to start your business in.

from
https://addicted2success.com/entrepreneur-profile/the-5-best-cities-in-the-usa-for-startups-and-entrepreneurs/

7 Lessons From the Most Influential Businesses on Social Media

Is social media marketing dead? Not only are some social media platforms shedding users and losing efficacy as marketing channels, but the bad press surrounding issues of privacy alone is enough to demoralize even the biggest champions of social media.

Looking ahead, however, it’s clear that social media isn’t going anywhere. Businesses that fail to embrace what’s good about Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and the other major platforms will miss out on opportunities to engage with customers and create a valuable buzz.

The truth is—as noted in Fundera’s “The 30 Most Influential Companies on Social Media in 2019” report—lots of meaningful conversations and important issues are not only being raised, but addressed, by influential companies on social. The medium is still quite effective for companies looking to become leaders in their field, and even plays a major role in helping boost profits and market share for some industry-leading businesses.

Business owners, marketers, and social media professionals everywhere would be wise to take notes from some of the most influential businesses on social media today.

By taking note of the seven lessons below, you’ll understand how to use social media to positively impact your business:

1. Vary your presence across platforms

There are a handful of important social media platforms that almost certainly require your presence as a business: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Depending on your business, industry, and market, you may also want to post on Snapchat, or Pinterest, for example.

If you are familiar with these platforms, you know how different they can be in terms of content, demographics, and efficacy for driving traffic or engagement. That’s why it’s important to have accounts with each, and to post tailored content to each one as needed.

Having accounts on every major platform not only increases total reach across social media, but hedges the risk in case one site changes their algorithm and decreases your ability to impact followers.

2. It’s okay to focus your efforts on one platform

Yes, it’s important to be present on all major social media platforms. That being said, if you’ve identified one or two platforms in particular where your content most resonates—maybe you’ve tapped into the perfect demographic match on Snapchat, or found that posting your best content on LinkedIn gets the most engagement—then by all means, lean into it.

Uber, for example, tops the list of companies in the “Transportation, Logistics, and Warehousing” sector with 24 million followers. Of that number, an incredible 21 million are on Facebook alone.

On the other hand, fellow sector-topper Tesla has just a few hundred thousand Facebook followers, with millions more on Instagram and Twitter. These imbalances aren’t accidental—clearly, both companies see better engagement on these respective platforms, and perhaps see better customer acquisition, retention, and engagement as a result.

3. Every kind of business should be on social

Lots of businesses, including B2B businesses, think that what they do doesn’t translate well to social media. There’s no way to make selling a service fun or sexy, many think, so they create social media handles but do nothing with them, or ignore the entire practice altogether.

But any kind of company can have a robust and buzzy social media presence. From UPS to UnitedHealth Group to Rio Tinto (a London-based mineral and metal mining company), businesses across the spectrum can and do have hundreds of thousands of social media followers.

“Social media is about sociology and psychology more than technology.” – Brian Solis

4. Make the impersonal personal

It’s easy to say that every kind of business should be using social media. The question is, how? One of the best ways that more “impersonal” businesses—namely, service businesses, rather than product-based businesses—can make an impact on social is to find ways to make themselves, and their stories, more personal.

What does that mean? For UPS it means highlighting the stories of their drivers and other employees. For Lyft, it means celebrating rides as “connections” rather than, well, rides. For BHP, that means showcasing how the company fights climate change and champions social responsibility.

Remember, no matter what your company is, does, or produces, it can be much more than that. It’s also a place where people—your employees—come together to make a difference. Demonstrating that will go a long way towards making your impersonal service feel like a personal mission.

5. Large followings don’t equal big engagement

It’s easy to get caught up in the race to collect as many social media followers as possible. That’s why some brands resort to buying followers, even if they are bots or ghost accounts. The problem with this method is that if you accrue followers who don’t engage with your content or account, it kind of defeats the purpose of having social media accounts in the first place. Plus, platforms like Instagram will rank your content lower on people’s feeds if you have a low engagement-to-follower ratio.

Comparing the follower counts and engagement levels of Barrick Gold to BHP, you’ll find that even though Barrick Gold has more followers, BHP gets more engagement on their posts. You should aim to be more like BHP—because, to paraphrase the old saying, if a tree falls in the forest, and none of your social media followers comment on it, does it make a sound?

“Content Doesn’t Win. Optimized Content Wins” – Liana Evans

6. Interweave individual accounts with your business accounts

Your business’s social media accounts don’t have to operate in isolation. Part of what makes the accounts of Tesla and The Boring Company so popular is that they are tied, in more ways than one, to the accounts of their CEO, Elon Musk.

Use your personal account to promote the content posted on your business account, and vice versa. Ask employees, influencers, and friends to engage with your content. The bottom line is that your business account doesn’t need to do all the heavy lifting. Let your personal brand contribute to the impact your business account makes.

7. Social media can be a difference maker for your bottom line

Many business owners think of social media as a fun, if not particularly effective, marketing channel. And while that may be true for many businesses, that doesn’t have to be the case for yours.

Take Domino’s, for example. For years, Domino’s played second-fiddle to Pizza Hut in the fast food pizza business. As it turns out, social played a major role in helping Domino’s supplant their rival.

Domino’s blew past Pizza Hut by developing an effective digital marketing strategy, which included giving customers the ability to order pizza through social media. Did you know you can order Domino’s through Facebook’s Messenger app, or via Twitter with a hashtag and emoji?

Not only did these ordering methods increase engagement and build buzz, but it helped boost Domino’s digital sales. Social media can simply be a way to attract and entertain customers, or it can drive a major new revenue stream for your business. As Domino’s demonstrates, you’re only limited by what you’re willing to try on these platforms.

Making an impact on social media is difficult, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth the effort. We can see just how important each social media platform has become to some of the world’s most influential companies—and how those same platforms can change the way your business appears to customers, engages with other brands, and even operates. Take these lessons to heart when building your social media presence and you’ll see the difference.

How do you use social media for your business? Do you engage in social selling? Share your ideas and thoughts below!

from
https://addicted2success.com/success-advice/7-lessons-from-the-most-influential-businesses-on-social-media/