This blog is about my journey to find my place in the world and the various things I get up to in order to make myself known to the world.
I figured that after spending many hours and a few years..working out how and what and where etc
that there are more than a zillion ways to keep in contact with your network of contacts and even more ways to find new customers. What I didn't think of was my WHY
Bloging
My bloging started a few years ago when I set up a Wordpress account and there I was, bloging about my "stuff"on a regular basis and putting it out there, when one day I realized that I was mostly talking to myself because I had not established a regular habit of communicating with people on other social networks. Don't get me wrong I had several hundred followers. But..There's always a BUT!!
The reason why I was bloging and the reason why I was collecting a list of followers wasn't at all clear. Not to my followers, certainly not to me.
Who's your target customer ?
I eventually came to the understanding that I was really aiming for the whole community. Now that sounds like a good thing but, there's that but again ;) I didn't really have a handle on what my message was, neither did I have a clear understanding of what I was trying to do with my blog or why.This became very apparent when I did a webinar with a lovely lady who has established herself as a professional wedding photographer and gone full time in less than two years!!!
You see two years ago I took the flying leap of faith and set myself up to be a full time photographer. Quitting my job as a chef, which I had been doing for over 40 years and going for it as they say. I didn't know what I was going for!! I did make some money and I did survive, but the way I was travelling it was going to take me ten more years to get anywhere near enough to provide for my future. Then I realized that I had been focussing on the money and not on the people or myself as a people.
The webinar which incidentally, was aimed at wedding photographers, gave me such an insight as to what I had been doing 'Wrong" it was like being smacked in the face with a big wet fish. Slap! Slap!
I took it full in the face.
What I had never done because I was determined to cover all aspects of photography, because I just love it so much I didn't want to miss out on anything, was I hadn't identified with my perfect customer.
In the webinar we were told to write down all of the traits and characteristics of who we thought our ideal customer was. I mean everything!
Height, weight, what they eat, what movies they watch, what food they like, what clothes they like, their background, where they come from, magazines, TV shows, pages on Facebook they might visit and it goes on and on.
Did you know? That once you've done this you get a pretty good idea of where you might connect with your "Ideal" customer. So now you can begin to form relationships on Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Instagram etc. Then when people know who you are because they've seen your activity on-line they begin to give you credibility for being authentic and a real person who cares about people and what they are doing in their lives.
Be Authentic
It's this authenticity that really counts and that's the difference between being a marketer and being there to work with people or provide a service that people want.
When they know you they are more likely to do business with you.
At about this time in my realization I stopped asking the question about what I should be doing and with which formats and just picked a couple of the social media platforms that I am familiar with and started paying more attention to where I am commenting and who I was connecting with.
Right now I am going through all of my so called "Friends"and sorting them onto groups of whether I can provide good contribution to their lives or not. When the answer is 'I don't know', then I remove myself from their lists.
It's the same with all the emails and information I get, because I subscribe to so many useful newsletters that I don't have time to read even half of them.
In fact, I will be really surprised if I get anyone reading this post right to the bottom.
At the end of they day if you present yourself as Authentic and you are real, and you have respect and consideration for others and you continue to build on developing good relationships in your network , then that will make you a person who people will seek out to do business with.
Earlier in this post I highlighted the WHY, the reason for this is that before thinking about who your customer is and what your product or service is, you must be Authentic (REAL and HONEST) and the best way to be like that, is to really understand WHY you do what you do.
With that established you will find it so much easier to do all the other things.
Where do I start?
The best way to do this is to just start with a pen and paper and sit down write it out in your own funny words, Why do I do what I do? Once you've done that the doors of understanding will start to open and your business will grow from a position of understanding to a position of strength.
Do yourself and your business favour. Write down the answer to these two simple questions.
1. Why do I do what I do?
2. Who is my Ideal client?
Now this is not a test, so there are no wrong answers and I bet most people will put to make money somewhere in their answer and that is totally OK. But why? Keep asking Why and when you read your answers back to yourself you will be able to see places where you may have strayed off track and not aiming for your Nirvana.
This exercise will also give you a great place to start your business plan.
Take action. It's all in your hands.
By doing this little task I had a much clearer understanding about who I was and where My business was heading. It also highlighted several areas that I had neglected so that I could work on re-writing my business plan with a more concise direction.
May your world rock with lots of love and laughter.
If you think you'd like to have a look at some of my work click on the link to my website Robert Munden Photography
Robert
