Yin vs YangThe Battle for Success in Life

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Article by Peter J. Normandia. Follow me on twitter.

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For the last three plus years, I have been engrossed with the web, social media, and its effect on the way businesses market their products and services. My company, Pixel Mobb is an elite unit of versatile talent producing high end new media. We specialize in building brands.

Based on this experience, I thought it would be a great value to list the top ten lessons I have learned on the web as a business, blogger, and every day web surfer.

1. Information is Today’s Money Maker

Welcome to the information age. On the web, people, businesses, and anyone in between are all after one thing: Information. They will stop at nothing to get it, mercilessly entering phrases into their favorite search engine until they find what they seek. You do it, I do it, we all do it. Now that we know what everyone is after, we can move on.

2. Branding is Everything

Branding your business, or self, is the key to success on the web. Remember, people are looking for information. Once you figure out what information you are going to provide, the next step is to build a ‘brand’ around it. You don’t have to be Nike to take branding your business serious. Know what value your information holds, who is after it, and then brand yourself as that answer. Branding encompasses your web design, brand message, and defines who you are in the minds of your target market.

3. The Value of Your Information or Service = Your ROI

We understand that everyone is after information. However, a key to success on the web is using web analytics (tracking) to help determine exactly how many people are actually searching for that information daily. You may be the foremost expert on how to build doghouses from snow, but if no one is looking for that information, it is useless to start a blog or business about it.

I am not going to get into the depths of analytics, and how to use the information. There are endless resources on the web that can explain it much better than me. In fact, that’s how I learned. Just be sure you understand the value of being able to see how much of a market there is for your idea, before you dive into it.

4. The Web is the Central Hub for any Business

Years ago, if people wanted information, they had to find it. If a business created a brochure, commercial, or even a website, they focused their efforts on giving as much information as possible all at once, for fear of the client not getting more than one impression.

Well obviously, the web has changed everything. Now businesses know, whatever marketing they do, the target market is most likely to check the website before contacting the business. It’s just easier for them. Why go to the hassle of calling someone, and speaking to them, when the information is only a few clicks away?

Businesses know this, and the trend has been toward more enticing marketing pieces with less information. In fact, the less, the better. Put the relevant information on your site, and let that be the ‘central hub’ of information for your business. That means, if anyone wants to know anything about your blog, or business, they have to go to the site to find out. The marketing pieces simply concentrate on spreading your brand’s message, not necessarily the info about it.

5. Social Media takes time for any ROI

So you opened up a twitter account, and now what? You have been tweeting away, even on Facebook, and trying all sorts of things to gain traffic. After a few months of effort, it is getting kind of redundant. What can you do?

You may not want to hear this, but just keep going. Social Media can take time, and a little luck, to really work for you. The basic idea is to keep plugging away until you get what you are looking for. Do not pay much attention to the ‘subscriber number flexing’ of other sites. Simply put, concentrate on putting out the best information you can, and tough it out. Eventually, if your information is valuable enough, the fruits of your labor will begin to blossom.

6. Every Social Media weapon has its Uses

Okay, so I signed up for twitter, facebook, linkedin, myspace, digg, reddit, stumbleupon, and every forum I could find, but I have not had much success. What’s the deal?

If this sounds like you, let me help you out. Social Media tools, like the above sites, are like Martial Arts weapons. You don’t have to master every weapon to become an effective Martial Artist. You start off mastering one, and when you are done with that, then you move on. The same goes for the web. Try out one Social Media weapon at a time, and see how it truly works. If you just jump all over everything, you may never see which one truly should be your brand’s weapon of choice.

7. Practice makes Permanent

Like anything else in life, practicing using the web to your advantage is the only way to learn. You can read up on methods, ideas, and strategies all day, but the truth is, until you try them for yourself, you never know how they will work. Every blog, business, and entity is slightly different from the rest. What works for one, may not work for the other. That’s okay. Just put the time in, and everything else will follow.

8. Your Competition is Your Friend

Growing up in the real world, I learned all about the sometimes cutthroat competition between similar businesses. Well, the web has changed that too. Now, your biggest competition is also your biggest asset.

Remember, we spoke about the value of information for a target market. This blog is all about the daily battle for success in life. It is a personal development (PD) blog, which means, that other PD blogs are my FRIEND.

How can that be? Well remember, people who read PD blogs are my target market. On the web, it is quite easy to surf from one blog to another. So chances are, if they like my competition’s blog, they will probably enjoy mine as well, and vice versa. That is why if you link up with the competition, both of you can benefit from each other’s traffic.

9. Building a Web Presence is Hard G** Damn Work

Sounds so easy, right? Well don’t get too excited. Building a web presence takes relentless effort and dedication to be successful. It rarely happens overnight, and if it does, there was probably a lot of work prior to getting to that point. So tuck your chin, and get on the virtual mat to take your lumps. Think of it this way. If you are not working on getting that traffic, that traffic isn’t stopping. It’s going somewhere else.

10. Can it Be That it is All So Simple?

Love ending with a Wu-Tang classic! The truth is, using the web to your advantage is really simple. It takes a plan, execution, and then you make adjustments, and start again. Simply put, you have to put in the work to learn how business works. However, be warned, there is no excuse. Every piece of information you desire is located somewhere on this world wide wondrous web, which means success is only fingertips away.

photo credit

Article by Peter J. Normandia. Follow me on Twitter.

Every Wednesday is Personal Development in Business…

It took us a year to figure out what I am about to share with you. I may be a bit of a slow learner, but at least it definitely all makes sense now. For any entrepreneurs out there, here is some advice that may save you the same trouble my partner and I experienced while building our company.

I am partners in a media production agency called Reimagine. We are a two man team. My partner specializes in design and creative direction. I handle the video side, client relations, project management, with a smidgen of content writing thrown in.

Making Our Mark

Our main issue has been in branding Reimagine over the last year. When we first opened, we were lucky enough to get a couple of major jobs right off the bat. However, this caused us to put off building our own image for the time being. It was only recently, this became a top priority for us.

For some reason, it always seems easier to help brand other people’s companies then your own. We tend to do design driven, edgy work, and wanted  to attract medium to large clients who had no problem paying for our talents. Usually that means attracting Agencies. To do so, we wanted to provide a very professional image. We wanted to be like the million dollar companies racking up the clients in our industry. We wanted to convey the impression that we were just like them.

The Reality

The problem is, we were not just like them. In fact, nothing could be further than the truth. Two men in a start-up business is no comparison to a seasoned slew of veterans in a million dollar company, no matter what image we projected. Our website and print media may look like a million dollar company, but after working with us for a a few months, it is apparent we are simply a small talented team.

That’s when my partner and a colleague figured out a better way. The solution they discovered seemed so simple, it was like, why didn’t I think of that? All of a sudden, it all made sense, and we had a concept for our branding. What was the concept?

We are a two man team that is hungry, talented, unique, off the wall, and easily accessible.

In other words, we would just be ourselves. We didn’t need to pretend to be something we were not. Actually, we realized it was quite beneficial for us to relish in the fact we were a small company with less overhead.

We even took it a step further. My partner and I are polar opposites. Whatever he can do well, I can’t, and vice versa. He’s way to the left, and I grew up conservative. It’s what makes us such a well rounded pair. We decided that this would be our identity. We didn’t have to be like the big companies to succeed. We had to just be ourselves and play to our advantages. 

Suddenly the longing for an identity dissipated into thin air. It seems the concept we were searching for was right in front of our eyes all along.

Playing to Your Advantage

I think the original problem we had when looking at our company was we were too focused on where we wanted to be, and not where we were. Building your dream company happens one step at a time, and there are advantages and disadvantages for every step along the way. One of the advantages we were ignoring was the fact that we were a small personable team. We were too concerned with the giant shadow of some of the major players to just simply be ourselves. However, unlike the big wigs, we are extremely adaptable, easily accessible, and also, a bit less expensive. That was our advantage, and that’s the best way to brand ourselves.

For anyone else building their business image, try answering these questions:

• Who are you?
• What do you do best?
• What are the positives for a client that chooses your product or services?

Take the answers to these questions and start from there. No matter who you are, or where you are starting from, I guarantee there is some advantage to your position. You just have to find it. It is amazing, but if you think about it, there are always advantages to every position, from high to low. Just like Poker, it all depends on what your hand is, and how you play it.

Remember, you can not please everyone. However, rest assure that there is a deep pleasure derived from the relief of no longer pretending to be something you are not. Trust me on that.

Feedback

Have any of you had a similar experience with your business? Ever try to project yourself to be something you are not, when in reality, the best option was simply to be yourself? Leave your answeres in the comments below….

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