Followers Do Not Guarantee Success

Image from socialmediagrow.com

by Melinda Anderson

Lately, I have been getting offers from social media companies for either free followers or bought followers. Now, I am sure that some of these companies are legitimate and are just like DragonTech Writing. We are all trying to get customers and clients to pay bills.  However, followers  either free or bought does not guarantee that I , or anybody else, will have actual clients.

Followers, no matter what social media site you use, is nothing more than a game of statistics. According to the statistics professor I had in college, statistics is quite frankly a bunch of crap. Statistics are numbers that can be manipulated to represent any kind of data you could want. Of course, those numbers could also be used by competitors to represent data they want to high light.

For instance, I have 382 friends on Facebook, 428 followers on Twitter, 6 or more on Google+ and Pinterest, maybe 10 on Linked In, and over 100 on WordPress. At a glance, the numbers look pretty good especially Facebook, Twitter, and WordPress. You’d think, I’d have at least one client or customer purchasing my services and or product. You would be wrong.

The 382 Facebook friends are a mix of family members, friends, friends of friends, and gaming buddies. I use to be addicted to Farmville among other Facebook games. Only one of the Facebook friends has bought my services but it was for cross-stitch not writing. Out of 382 friends, no one has bought my writing services or products.

Out of 428 Twitter followers, none have purchased anything. Although, I have been asked to review a lot of music by various bands. In regards to Google+, Pinterest, and Linked In, I just barely started to actively use those sites so I probably shouldn’t analyze those numbers just yet.

I know that between my two companies, I have over 100 followers on WordPress. WordPress does a good job at crunching numbers and presenting them in an understandable format. However, on a good day, I maybe get 11 views with 6 visits. This means that 5 people will look at one of my blogs but they don’t stay. Again, no clients or customers.

My point is these, I already have free followers that are not clients or customers. Why do I need more? Further, if I am currently not selling products or services, why would I buy followers with no guarantee of success.

Five Things You Don’t Need To Include On Your Resume From Forbes

Five things you don’t need to include on your resume

This article has some great tips if you are starting to job hunt with the new year. However, I have a few more tips to add.

Keep your resume to one page. I cannot emphasize this enough. You have about ten seconds to impress whoever is reviewing the resumes. They do not have time to read a 2 page resume. Highlight your skills that pertain to the job that you are applying for.

Your profile from social media sites should not be included unless your profile contains parts of your portfolio. For instance, I would include my LinkedIn profile but not my personal Facebook profile. What I do on my free time socially is none of my employers business.

Your resume is a reflection of your skills not a fashion show. Unless, you are applying for a profession that is based on looks such as modeling or hair styling, do not include a picture of yourself.

Most important have fun, it is your resume. It is a reflection of your skills and your personality. If the company likes what you have to offer, they will contact you.

Good Luck and Happy New Year!

Marketing

I just finished a free slide show called Marketing 101: The Fundamentals by SBDC Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. It had a lot of information that seems extremely useful; especially, since I am going to run the marketing side of the business. However, it had information that I just didn’t understand and probably won’t until I actually start working on our marketing plan.

A marketing plan says this is our product or service, this is how much we charge for our product or service, this is our target audience, this is how we are going to reach our target audience, this is how much we are going to spend to reach our target audience. For example, My husband, Jason, has started a painting company with his friend, Darin, A & M Coatings. Their service is painting and or staining walls, floors, ceilings, etc. Their basic fee is  $2.20 a square foot. Their target audience is business owners, contractors, and home owners. They spent maybe a total of $20 to print out business cards from home. They then drove around, looked for buildings that were being built, and talked to the contractors or business owner’s. After about one week, they put in about 10 different bids and got 6 of them.

My partner, Neil, has talked to people at various different career fairs. We have our business cards and flyers that we hand out to anyone and everyone. We have a blog page and a Facebook page. We are both on Linked In and members of various different groups. We also do not have any work coming in.

The slide show mentioned taking doing polls and surveys to find out what consumers want or need in regards to your business, products, or services. Both of us, Neil and myself, are technical writers. Neil specializes in process documentation and instructional design. I specialize in documenting software, writing service bulletins, and creating layouts. We are also adding services such as business plans and resumes just to kinda give us a kick start. Here’s the question, anyone can answer, what kind of marketing ads or promotions would like to see from us?

What is a technical writer?

A technical writer gathers complex information or ideas, interviews subject matter experts (SME), researches the information for accuracy, runs tests to ensure the information is accurate using usability standards, edits the information for inaccurate information, takes or creates images to help bring the information to life, uses or creates templates that are in line with a companies brand, and consistently meets deadlines.

A technical writer has to know how to use different desktop publishing from Microsoft Word to Robohelp, image manipulation software from Paint to Adobe Illustrator, social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, and quick press such as blogging and Wiki.

A technical writer utilizes skills such as analytical thinking, time management, database or document management, problem solving, creative thinking, and project management.

In other words, a technical writer takes complex information from scientists or engineers and turns it into a concise, accurate document for end users such as client and customers.

We are the intermediary between those who create and those who buy the creations, we are very proud to be that intermediary.