How To Become A Super Achiever For Your Business

I just read an article on Forbes about how to become a super achiever for your business. All ten points that the author, Jenna Goudreau, made focused on personal attitude, smart thinking, and doing the right things.

As I was reading her advice, I realized that all of it also translates into social media success. If you apply the advice on how to be a super-achiever personally to social media, your potential of becoming a social media super-achiever is just as great. Apply it to your business, and you will probably see the results you’ve always wanted to see.

#1: Dedication to a Vision

Just like you must be dedicated personally to build a business and making connections, you must be dedicated to social media. You can’t just create a Facebook page, Twitter account and Pinterest profile and hope that the rest will just happen. You can’t dedicate an hour once a month to social media and hope it takes off. Social media is not a miracle worker and no one will find you or be interested in your business if you don’t dedicate an appropriate amount of time and research to it. Your vision is to grow your reach and business through these platforms, so you must be diligently working at it.

#2: Intelligent Persistence

Number 1 leads right into number 2: Even when you do devote the proper time to social media, and you are persistently engaged, you need to do it intelligently. If you devote an hour a day on each platform you’re on and still nothing happens, then maybe you’re not doing it right. Are you posting content that is applicable to your targeted audience? Is it original content? Is it thought-provoking? Do you include visuals and helpful information or are you simply trying to sell your business? Not only do you have to invest time, but you also need to do the right things as you utilize this time.

#3: Fostering a community

The more people you have on your side, the easier it is to spread the news. Create a social media following that is actually interested in your brand or product. Create fans and advocates, not just likes. Gather groups around you on Google+, through a Facebook Group, or by creating brand advocates. The possibilities are vast and social media gives you the chance not just to sell a product, but to also make this product a lifestyle worthy of an entire community.

#4: Listen and Remain Open

The key to social media success is not to feed your followers but to listen to them. Listen to their input and ideas and respond to them. Join their conversations on your own. Let them know you’re there. Let them know you’re interested. Just like making friends or business partners, you have to give in order to receive.

#5: Good Story Telling

That being said, you do have to give as well. And again, if we want to apply the friendship principle: You can’t just give anything. No one wants your trash or your left-overs and no one wants to just be “fit in” if you happen to have an hour open. If you didn’t invest in your personal relationships, you would probably be very lonely. Just the same goes on social media. Think of what it is your followers would actually like to hear and see. You can even ask them! Do some research. And then apply the friendship principle. Give them something of value and actually make friends.

#6: Testing Ideas In The Market

When you expand your business, or start a new business, you’d be smart to test the idea before you invest thousand or millions of dollars into it. Sometimes, you have to take a risk, but I am betting that all of us would rather be on the safe side. Social media lends its hand to testing the waters. This is a great place to gauge reactions or solicit input and feedback. See what the interest level of your community or the general public is by reaching out online. Of course social media itself can be tested. If Facebook works well, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t expand your community by adding other social media channels. The good thing is that testing within the social media realm doesn’t come at a great monetary cost. If one avenue doesn’t work, you can just try another.

#7: Managing Emotions

On social media platforms, it is easy to say things you wouldn’t say to someone’s face. It’s easy to forget that there is still a real person on the end of the receiving screen. So people can get pretty nasty with their comments. It is important to respond, but to respond positively. Maybe it’s time to block a particular user if you have to. The key is to not engage in an emotional, and potentially destructive-to-your-brand argument. What you’ve send stays online forever, so be mindful of your own emotions and respect those of others for greatest social media success.

#8: Constantly Evolving

So Facebook is working out for you and your likes keep growing. That’s awesome. So now, maybe it’s time to expand your reach by investing into another platform. Are you utilizing Twitter to its fullest extend? Have you created your own blog yet? Is your business related to many visuals that you could share on Pinterest? Would you benefit from another set of followers on Google+? There are plenty of creative options to grow you business and social media is often the fastest, easiest and most cost-effective way to do it.

#9: Practicing Patience

We expect everything online to take off immediately because we keep reading stories about this or that going viral. Grumpy Cat was so easily spread. If the Harlem Shake had been your business idea, you’d be filthy rich now. We need to keep in mind, however, that what spreads virally is often not at all, or just indirectly, related to an actual business. And only a very small fraction on all the things posted online actually does go viral (and having a marketing expert help with this is usually key). Like all quality work, social media takes time. When done right, your online community should steadily keep growing. However an overnight explosion is highly unlikely. Patience usually pays off, though, and when implementing the right tactics, it also will on social media.

#10: Pursuing Happiness

If you’re happy and you know it, people will clap their hands. And follow you. Your audience, even if online, is made up of real people, capable of reading real emotions. If you’re posting just for the sake of posting, they will get tired of reading it real soon. If you have a real passion for social media, however, and know how to work it, people will like reading your content and you will be successful. When you were a kid, the best advice was to do what makes you happy. That’s still true today. If you like social media, go for it! If you know you should be on it but you just really don’t know how, hire someone else to do it for you. Social media has such great marketing potential and reaches a vast audience not easily reached through any other medium. Don’t waste that potential!

Anne Pelczar blogs for Branding Personality and Anne’s Career Blog. She has an BA in Communications from CSU Fullerton. Connect with her on Twitter or on LinkedIn.