There’s no cookie-cutter answer to a successful social media strategy. The idea is to engage your customers and followers, and how you do that could be a subject of several books. But a look at some successful social media campaigns could provide some interesting ideas.

One of the top campaigns, if not the best of all times, was launched by Old Spice with its memorable “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” video/commercial. Trying to revive its brand, the company hired an Oregon agency that decided to target women as the primary buyers of their men’s body wash. read more »

There is an old story, shared by personal development pioneer and radio legend Earl Nightingale, about a fellow that said to his woodstove, “Give me heat. Then I will put in some wood.”

Of course, the fellow never did get any heat from that woodstove.

He simply didn’t understand one of the key rules of life; one must put wood in first and then the stove will return heat. As it concerns social media, far too many people expect to see positive results from social media before they have put in the wood, or in this case, valuable content. read more »

When bestselling author Napoleon Hill wrote about the idea of a Mastermind in his books “Think and Grow Rich” and “The Law of Success,” he defined it as “coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose.”

“Economic advantages may be created by any person who surrounds himself with the advice, counsel, and personal cooperation of a group of men who are willing to lend him wholehearted aid, in a spirit of perfect harmony. This form of cooperative alliance has been the basis of nearly every great fortune,” he wrote in “Think and Grow Rich.” read more »

A newly created group in Gig Harbor has been meeting for several months, attracting business owners from as far as South Kitsap and Tacoma. The focus of the group, called Alliance of Women Owned Businesses, is on education, but members say they have been enjoying one of the side benefits: networking.

The nonprofit association is focused on women who own businesses, but anyone is invited to join and attend the meetings, from students to organizations as well as men. Membership, which began to be offered this past fall, is available in several categories including business supporter. read more »

Have you ever attended a networking event, collected a bunch of business cards, and when you go through them the next day, you can’t remember who many of them are? Or try to think of someone you met and had a conversation with, but you can’t remember their name or their business?

It’s all well and good to pass out business cards, but if people don’t remember you, they won’t be calling to follow up, and they certainly won’t think of you for their future needs.

Here are five tips on how to make yourself memorable (in a good way) when meeting other people face-to-face read more »

“You look really familiar, are you on Facebook?” She turns to me and smiles and the conversation begins. This is another networking opportunity that I like to approach as if I’m in a party. I always tend to go to the people who look the most uncomfortable, based on their eyes and their body language. My mission is to put them at ease by offering them something to eat or drink (even if I’m not the host), or to engage them in basic conversation. This is the beginning of the relationship-building process in which connections are made. These connections may someday turn into professional opportunities or simply remain a friendship. Either way, we both will have learned something that we didn’t expect. read more »