2015 Goals - Media, SEO, & Three-Legged Barstools

Everybody has goals for the new year so, why should I be any different? If your goals are resolutions well … we know what happens to most of those. No, I shall have goals.

Let’s start with revenues

I have always looked at revenue sources as the legs on a barstool. Starting out in business, I was a one-legged barstool or … a pogo stick. While the barstools below look kind of cool, they don’t strike me as being all that stable.

Being a one-legged barstool means that all of your revenue eggs are in one basket and that has never been a comfortable feeling. Slowly I worked my way into having three solid legs and that is a very good feeling! That being said, If one leg gets lopped off, over you go unless … you have another leg(s) in reserve. Fortunately, I do and right now I find myself activating a new third leg.[Tweet “If your revenue streams look like a 3-legged barstool, not good”]

The lesson here is to keep some legs in storage so that, when needed, they just need to be dusted off, polished, and installed. If you rest on your laurels, you may find yourself resting instead on your ass.

On to SEO

SEO has been on my to-do list for quite some time. I have not really approached it that seriously because, well … I haven’t wanted to. Let’s just say that my perception of the needed skills to do this effectively just do not fall into my wheelhouse. This IS NOT me …

Still, you gotta’ do what you gotta’ do. I do understand some of the VERY VERY basics. The smartest thing I did was to install WordPress SEO by Yoast on my sites. What I love about this plugin is that it actually helps, and teaches, you how to increase the SEO on every article that you write. It makes suggestions where appropriate and it has this little light bulb that turns to green when you have reached, at the very least. a marginally good level.

The plugin is constantly updated to meet the changes to Google algorithms etc. Their articles and EBooks are great! I bought one last year and now all I have to do is READ IT and put those suggestions to work. This also means that I will be posting more often.

The bad news about learning SEO is that I am also going to have to learn how to read and interpret Google Analytics. To me, this is anything but a win-win. More of a lose-lose. I will never be an SEO or Analytics expert. I could stop right there but, successful people do what unsuccessful people won’t do even though they hate the thought of it just as much as the next guy (losers).

I’m working on media

I’ve never been much of a media guy however, people do love images, images are what people pay attention to, and they are also what seems to drive conversation and engagement so … I’m a media guy.

This is going to require substantial changes to my writing and sharing behaviors and I expect that this is also going to be a painful work in progress on both. Here are just a few of my goals and tools but first …

I won’t be taking any selfies because I personally agree that …

You will thank me for this later. What I will do …

Integrate images with social updates and articles – The fact is that you can add images to almost any update on any of the major social channels including LinkedIn. It just takes a little more time but, I suspect that the payback will make it worth it. This also holds true with articles. Whereas in the past I may have added screenshots here and there, welcome to my new world.

YouTube – I already have a YouTube channel and I have managed to become fairly adept at creating screencasts. Frankly, I am amazed at the hits that I get from YouTube! My tool of choice for creating these videos, and one that I would highly recommend, is called Screencast-O-Matic. It is easy to use, flexible, and will also allow you to do some simple editing and to merge webcam video with screen recordings. I plan to experiment with these more advanced functions during the creation of my video series … “The Complete Video Guide to Nimble Social CRM”.

Canva – Canva is a great free tool for creating great images for your website or other areas. I’m a guy who can barely draw stick people so, any help that I can get is much appreciated! My other favorite tools are PowerPoint and PicMonkey.

Podcasting – I know nothing about podcasting but … I’m going to figure this out and give it a whirl!

Infographics – This will probably be a huge stretch for me as it combines two of my glaring weaknesses – images and statistics. But, you never know until you try.

EBook – This past year my first book “The Small Business’ Guide to Social CRM” was published. While I do not see another book in my future, and EBook might be different. God knows that I have already written enough materials to at least begin to put one together. This might be a quality giveaway or maybe even a tiny new leg on my revenue barstool.

My last goal frightens me and this might cost me my “man card” but, I am also going to look into Pinterest. I have a client and, looking at their business, Pinterest was a perfect vehicle for them. This meant that I at least had to develop a basic understanding of that platform and I was actually impressed and amazed. If the octaves in my voice begin to rise, I may need to rethink my newfound enthusiasm.

How about you? What are some of your goals for 2015 and what are you willing to do to achieve them?

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Craig M. Jamieson

Managing Member at Adaptive Business Services

Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. Adaptive Business Services provides solutions related to the sales professional. We are a Nimble CRM Solution Partner. Craig also conducts training and workshops primarily in social selling and communication skills. Craig is also the author of "The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM", now available on Amazon!