I came across this website and video today that made is incredibly blog worthy!  I am pretty passionate about this.

Ok, so let’s think about life.  How do most people live their lives?  The answer is “through obligation and duty.”  People get themselves into situations where they are “obligated” to go to work, “obligated” to stay home for the weekend because of the dogs, “obligated” to call a complaining customer back.  The funny thing is, when you decide to make things FUN they are no longer “have to’s” but rather “get to’s.”

Watch this brief video and I think you’ll understand more what I mean.

Just recently I became aware of an unintended security nightmare because of social media.  It just so happens that the fastest growing demographic on Facebook is women over the age of 50.  Ok, so why does that cause a security problem you ask?  Since the majority of this segment of the population is married, many women are including their maiden names on Facebook.  This way, they can reconnect with old friends who haven’t seen them in 30+ years and have no idea what their married name is.  An herein lies the problem.

What does your bank ask for when you call them with a question?  You guessed it.  Your mother’s maiden name.  So if you are in your 20’s or 30’s and your mother just got on Facebook and included her maiden name, you could have a problem!  You mom could potentially be helping thieves steal your identity!   An identity thief can easily see who your relatives are on facebook with the new “relatives” tag.   Something needs to be done with this system fast!

Comment below on your thoughts and possible solutions to this problem.

For those of you who know me well, you know that I am very close with my family.  I feel so privileged, because there are so few children this day and age that can share that feeling with me.

Well, as many of you may know, I come from a background of entrepreneurs.  My family has owned and operated restaurants since 1923.  You would think I would weight 300 lbs, right!  Well, growing up I’ve always looked up to my father for his work ethic.  He always provided for my family the entire time throughout my childhood.  He’s had lot of different businesses and has always been successful.

A couple years ago he made a gamble to come to Fort Myers and start a food chain called Lion’s Choice.  It’s the most amazing food EVER!  Well, the circumstances in Fort Myers certainly changed some, and needless to say he was forced to close down both the restaurants he had opened.  In a situation where many people would just want to give up, my dad had been studying the real estate market down here for a couple of years.  He actually took the closing of the restaurants as an opportunity to follow his passion in real estate.  I think we can all learn from his courage to continue on, even though the temptation to quit was staring at him in the face.

Well with his studying of the local Fort Myers Real Estate Market, he has positioned himself to do quite well and I’m so incredibly proud.  His website can be found at this link Fort Myers FL Homes.  If you are considering purchasing (or selling) a home in SWFL, the opportunity is ridiculous right now!  I actually saw a home on his site that was a 4 bed 2.5 bath home built in 2006 that was almost 2,400 sq.ft. under air for $94,000.  No kidding.  It even had granite countertops.  Like I said, there are amazing deals out there right now.

Sometimes I just have moments of inspiration that must be logged.  I guess the saying goes, “A short pencil is better than a long memory.”  I feel like I’ve heard the phrase a million times, “every time one door shuts, another opens.”  I tend to believe the cliche quote, but I think there is a lot more to it.

If you ask anyone how to open a door, the response will likely be, “turn the knob and push.”  That’s true in most cases, but I’ll argue that most of the time we’re trying to open the wrong door.  Let me explain.  If it’s so easy to open the door, most times the thing that we’re after behind the door isn’t that great.  We are always hoping for another door and another door and another door.  You get the point.  The REAL good stuff remains behind “locked” doors.  Think about it, people only lock doors that have something valuable behind it.  So if you go to turn the knob and push on that door, it won’t open.  That’s the door you want to open, it has the good stuff!

So how do you open a locked door?  I think you’ll agree that if the door has a lock, you need a key!  Ok, so now we must take a different approach.  Where do we find a key?  The proverbial key in this situation is knowledge.  We must gain the appropriate knowledge to be able to unlock the greatness and potential behind the locked door.  When a person sets their mind to constant never ending learning and improvement, they -in essence – give themselves the keys to unlock unlimited potential.

Everybody knows that social media is all of the craze. I’m actually a steering committee member of the Social Media Club of Southwest Florida.  Needless to say, social media is so mainstream that businesses are wading in unchartered waters to market there.  That’s a great thing, well, assuming the business knows how to market there.

Here are some great tips that I’ve learned over the years.  Not all of them are original, actually I’m pretty sure that someone has probably written about them at some point.  The reality behind these tips is the fact that I want to help local business owners survive and thrive with this ever changing market.

Most business owners go into social media to get more business.  That’s a great strategy, but it’s a long term one.  If you simply go on Facebook and Twitter to tell everyone about your business or opportunity, no one will listen.  One of the best speakers on the topic that I have seen live is Perry Belcher.  He talks about Social Media like it’s a party.  Think about this. If you’re going to a networking event, you would never want to be the person that goes straight up to someone and throws your card in their face and tells them to buy from you now!  What would you do if someone did that to you?  I’m pretty sure you would either ignore them, tell them to leave, or stop being acquaintances with them.  OR ALL OF THE ABOVE.

You see people go on Facebook and Twitter because it’s a way to connect with other people…not businesses.

Social Media Etiquette Mistake #1 – Creating a personal Facebook Profile for your business

People don’t become “friends” with businesses!  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been requested by a local club, restaurant, heck even lawn mowing company to become their friend.  I am not friends with your company.  Deal with it.  I may be friends with the owner, but not the company.  That’s a big fat invitation that says, be my friend so I can market to you.  Not cool

Instead, set up a Fan page for your business in Facebook.  It only takes a couple of minutes to set up and there is no limit to the number of fans that you can have.  With a personal profile, your limit is 5,000.

Social Media Etiquette Mistake #2 – Fake or bad profile picture

More important than even your bio, your profile picture in Social Media is how others judge if they want to follow you or be your friend.  I wish it wasn’t this way, but in social media, people completely judge a book by its cover.  I’ve seen many people put up pictures of celebrities, pictures of their business logo, or just a terrible picture of themselves.  This can cause you to lose many connections that you could have had.

Put in a good picture of your smiling or at least doing something really cool.  You want people to feel welcomed when they look at your profile picture.

Social Media Etiquette Mistake #3 – Requesting to be everyone’s friend or follow as many people as possible

If you’re using social media in hopes that you will increase your business from usage, you need to have a good plan about who you want in your social circle.  This is the perfect opportunity to speak to your target market.  I’ve seen some people in Twitter go on and follow 2,001 people in their first couple days.  This is the maximum allowance from Twitter.  This looks really bad on the user, because people know that you went out and just followed as many people as possible in hopes that some would follow you back.  You should go out, however, and follow people with similar interests, especially those who live in your geographical area.  You can go to http://www.twellow.com to search in your local area.

It’s also a good idea to follow people who have a significant amount of followers to see how they interact with their followers.  Obviously, they are doing something right to have that many followers.  The more captivated followers you have, the great your influence in the social media world.

Let me know with your comments some of the biggest social media mistakes that you have seen in your experiences.

Ladies and Gentlemen!  I am so excited about this new Social Media tool.  I believe I’m the first test account in the world.  Watch the video below to check out my Big Strand unveiling.

Contact me directly brad@braddohack.com if you’re interested in the possibility of being accepted for free to test/use the product.

As many of you know, over the past week I decided to do a social media experiment. Actually, it was more of a human interaction and communication experiment more than anything. Here’s why…last Monday, I was speaking with a close group of friends about relationships in today’s society. We all know that we have more technology available to us to make communicating “easier” than ever. You literally can reach me using snail mail (which I rarely get), an old fashioned telephone call, texting, Google chatting, Skyping, Facebooking, Twittering, commenting on my blog, (oh and how could I forget) and emailing one of my many email addresses.

A Look at Communication in the Past

We are bombarded with communication, but the question was “are people really connecting?” There is definitely something to be said about human interaction. During our conversation last week I brought up a point about communication 200 years ago. At that time, the only real way to communicate was in person. Yes, they had the Pony Express, so you could send snail mail. That could take a month for someone to receive your message though. Back in that day, personal relationships were greatly cherished. Think about the soldiers going off to war in the Revolutionary War or even the Civil War. They would tell their wives that they were going away for an undetermined amount of time and there was no assurance they would come back at all. No such things as cell phones to call to check in and certainly no such thing as skype with video to see each other and have a live conversation. Yet, in this time people fell madly in love and the divorce rate was inconsequential compared to today’s roughly 50% divorce rate for first marriages.
What does all of this mean? Our theory is that people now always need the constant reassurance that everything is ok. In this world of negativity, people anticipate what they see on TV will come true. Trust and faith have declined greatly and communication has gotten more hollow.

The Experiment

For one week, we didn’t stop communicating with technology altogether…we’re not that crazy.  Actually, we challenged ourselves for an entire week to make communication more personal.  Obviously running an Internet Marketing Company I couldn’t stop communicating as a whole, but rather we called people back who texted, emailed, chatted, facebooked, etc.  We wanted to see what effects actually speaking to someone had on our relationships.

The Results

From the experiment, I was able to connect with people on a much different level.  I talked to people on the phone who I’ve never spoken with in the past.  In one instance in particular, I set up a business meeting with a prospect who I would have never spoken to otherwise.  In other cases, I developed closer relationships with those who I already consider friends.

Lessons Learned

This was not an easy experiment.  In  many cases, it is so much easier to simply text someone a quick question or answer.  It’s also a ton of fun to post and interact on Social Media.   I’ve decided to break down the lessons to person and business lessons.

Personal:

I will not stop texting and using Social Media.  No way.  There are just too many benefits that come with them, including ease of interaction and time saving.  Instead, I will look at as many chances to interact in real conversations as possible.  This past week I called people to wish them happy birthday instead of the typical Facebook “Happy Birthday!” wall post.   People sincerely appreciate you taking the time to call.  That will always be the case.

Business:

Some great marketing lessons came from the Social Media Experiment as well.  The internet and techn0logy give us great abilities to communicate with people in the masses, but once the communication lines are open it’s good to give personal touch.

One of they ways to do this is to come up with a follow up system for your prospects.  It doesn’t matter how you meet someone, but it does matter how you follow up with them.  Email marketing is a great leverage tool to use, but at some point, if you’re asking people to spend thousands of dollars on your products or services, you need to develop that relationship.  The relationship can be built in person, over the phone or even through videos (if you’re really good).  Simple emails and copy writing are not enough for people to know you, like you and trust you.

Take all of your messages and focus on building relationships.

Even with all of the communication technology in the world, there will never be a substitute for building relationships.

Let me know by posting your comments below how you think technology affects our current communication.

You’ve probably noticed in my blog that I post a combination of business related things to help people and fun posts.  This happens to fall in the latter category!  Last night for the Advancing Business Leaders Annual Celebration at Hotel Indigo Heather Brooks who performed that catchy and annoying Zoom Tan Commercial performed it live.  Well, it just happens to be my girlfriend’s favorite song for some reason.

Here’s the live rendition and killer moves to support…

It’s apparent that Twitter is blowing up, and now more than ever you want to be on the forefront of integrating it with your presence on the web.  If you have a blog or website, it’s a really good idea to integrate a Twitter Flash Badge into it to keep people up-to-date and allow them to follow you directly from your website.  You can see exactly how to do this in the video below.  If you like the video, please comment and give it 5 stars on YouTube .

So, in a couple of days Jillian Pattee and I are celebrating our 6 month anniversary of being together.  I realize that 6 months doesn’t seem like a lot, but she really is the most incredible girl in the entire universe.  I’ve thought that she was the most incredible girl in the entire universe since I met her, so I figured I couldn’t really have a “personal” blog without mentioning her.

Reflecting over the past 6 months, I’m extremely grateful for so many things.  We actually met about a year and a half ago at a business networking meeting.  As it would have it, there was a seat available next to her.  I obviously took the opportunity to sit next to her.  We only got to talk a little bit.  She actually makes fun of me now, because I sent her an email and said something about “talking business,” instead of actually asking her out on a date.  What can I say?  It worked!  We only dated a couple of times and then became really close friends.  Since then, well things have changed .  Some of my favorite moments have been just us “being.”  Although one of my friends think’s Jillian is high maintenance (cough, cough, Hammer), we have fun together doing pretty much everything.  So Jillian, here’s to you being the most incredible girl in the entire universe!  I love you.