While social media, social networking, spending time on Facebook … however you refer to connecting with prospects and customers on the Internet … can seem very daunting and confusing, there really are just six basic elements that you need to master.

1. Research
While most people, including businesses, are on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn, does your target market spend time in each of these networks? If you’re a B2C marketing consultant, chances are you’ll find your customers spending time in the Big 4. However, if you’re a restaurant or other independently-owned small retail shop, you may be spending needless time on some of these sites. When you do your research, find definitive answers to these primary questions: Who are my primary customers? Where do they hang out? What are they interested in? What can I give them that is going to be of value to them?

2. Plan
Social media isn’t (just) a popularity contest. It’s about connecting and conversing with the right people. There are services that you can pay to increase your Twitter or Facebook following by thousands, but if none of these new-found fans are interested in what you have to offer, is it worth the investment? After you perform your research, create a plan defining the following: primary prospects, customers, primary competitors, goals, focus for your social media content, frequency, and sub-locations in each network (these can be groups, fan pages, Q&A forums, etc.).

3. Observe
If I were to ask you, why do you think you need to become active in social media, you’re likely to respond with: “I want to sell more.” A big part of selling is observing the behaviors and actions of your target market. Your research will help you find where your idea customers are spending time, but it isn’t until you join the party that you’ll discover how the prospects in each of these forums interact. Interactions on Facebook are different from the conversations on LinkedIn. You can’t create quality contributions, if you don’t understand how and why people engage in each network.

4. Engage
Engage influencers in the forums. Engage prospects in the networks. Answer questions. Ask questions. Comment on content. Generate your own. Just remember when you engage, it isn’t all about selling. Yes, your goal is to sell more … more customers, more frequently, and profitable products and services. However, if you’re new to the network and you simply jump in by pitching your products, you’re going to push most people away. Take a deep breath. Remain calm. Remember to observe. As you make an effort to get to know people by engaging them, they will want to get to know you (if you’ve done your research and you’re engaging the right people without just trying to pitch them).

5. Respond
While TV and radio ads, billboards, print ads and other passive forms of marketing where the only option for getting your message out to your market, social media changed the rules by including the quality of conversation to the quality of content. Copywriters and ad men used to get paid big bucks just to create attention-getting content. However, with social media, customers want to be heard and understood. And you have the opportunity to do so, so don’t waste it. The best way to accomplish this is to respond to the comments that your market makes. Set your alerts to notify you when someone comments on your content. If you don’t have alerts in place, schedule times to go back and review any customer created content, and make sure you respond. Remember, social media is about being social.

6. Consistency
Connecting with customers and converting them into active evangelists spreading the word about your business takes a consistent effort. People grow weary of fair-weathered friends. Your customers want to be able to connect with you regularly. If you disappear on them, they will go spend time with your competitors that pay attention to them. If you look at social media as something you have to do, instead of something that you want to do, you won’t do it regularly. And you won’t build a following … or sell more.

If you struggle with social media, you can hire on consultants to manage it for you. However, make sure when you interview them, they get to know you, your business and your goals … and create a proposal that includes these six essentials.

All the Best,

Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide

Does the title of this post turn you off? When you attend a live networking event, isn’t it all about you and your goals? How can you “succeed” if you aren’t taking care of your needs?

My kids and I had the honor of participating in a recent charity event for Fish for Life, a terrific NPO whose tagline is “spreading the love one boat at a time”. Fish for Life takes special needs children and young adults fishing from the Dana Point harbor in southern California. In addition to learning about fishing, these special anglers participate in a communal experience of watching dolphin, learning about some of the different sea life they catch and feeling honored by Fish for Life’s special red carpet introductions and awards.

When you seek out various live networking events in your area, have you considered giving of your time as a volunteer for a charity event? You can still achieve your goals of connecting with other possible partners and customers while benefiting a worthy cause.

Here are just 2 networking benefits you can gain from participating in a charity event:

1. Meeting new people in a relaxed setting.
Have you attended live networking events where it feels as if all those attending have their guard up because they don’t want to be “sold”, all they want to do is sell to you? In these settings, many attendees (you included) gear up with the goal of knowing the people they need to meet. When you participate in a charitable event, not only do you get the good will, but you have the opportunity to bond with other local movers and shakers who share a similar passion and want to get to know you because you bond over something other than business … in the beginning.

No, I am not suggesting that you give of your time for charity events just to network and see what business opportunities can benefit you. Quite the opposite. If you participate with this mindset, you will flag yourself as selfish, turning off those that are at the event. You need to go with a giving heart and not worry about your business in the beginning. However, when you work these events, the conversation naturally turns to questions of “So what do you do?” … and the doors start opening.

2. Experience how you can make a difference.
While making a living is an important reward, seeing how your skills can positively impact those in need is a priceless payoff. This is especially helpful if you seem to have lost some of the luster for loving your business. Giving of your time for a charitable cause can help you regain focus on what’s most important … getting from giving your best to others. The same holds true for your service of your customers. If you go in with a passion for positively affecting the lives of those that you serve, your rewards will be far greater than if you simple want to get to the green in their pockets.

BTW – My SmallBizMedia.TV partner, Maria, and I are very honored to be a part of helping Fish for Life grow. If you have a passion for helping those with special needs, or simply want to help, check out Fish for Life’s Facebook fan page. Simply by liking the page, you are helping to grow its exposure to help others with special needs.

All the Best,

Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide

We all want a multitude of loving, adoring, buying fans. And we put our energy out there to try and attract them to our brilliance and our fantastic products and services. But many solopreneurs are left wondering, “Where’s the love?”


You spend money on ads. You take a couple of hours a day pasting up messages, answering questions, and tweeting to the masses on the various social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. And for all of your time and effort, you’re left wondering, “Why isn’t anyone responding?”


When it comes to the Law of Attraction, you are building a relationship where you need to give people the opportunity to know, like and trust you before they will buy from you. So many solopreneurs skip past the know, like and trust and try to go right for the buy.


If you are struggling to make the connections you seek, you need to consider how strong of a customer magnet you are creating and how you are using it.


Here are the top 3 things to review for your customer magnet:


1. How do you define your ideal customers?
I guess I really should ask, “Do you define your ideal customer?” Are you taking a strategy of throwing out your message to the mass market and seeing whom you might attract? This is a dangerous strategy loaded with possibilities for wasting time and money or confusing the very people that you may want to attract.

Most solopreneurs that do define their target market fall short by only defining the Demographics and some limited version of Demands. My Small Biz Break partner, Maria, and I create a 3-D model when we help our customers define their ideal customers. Why 3-D?

First, there are 3 Ds: Demographics, Demands, and Disposition.

Second, because you need to envision that you are reaching out to a real, 3-dimensional person … because you are.

If you are writing your marketing copy and social media messages trying to reach a broad market, you will end up with a bland message that isn’t going to do much to attract anyone. You can’t speak the language that will grab your ideal customers’ attention if you don’t have a clear definition of their three Ds.


2. Where are you spending your time?
While you may be a Facebook fan, your customers may be spending time hanging out over at LinkedIn or Twitter. The reality is you need to create a marketing strategy based upon the various top social media sites where your customers spend time. While you may make the initial connect on Twitter, it’s likely they have a professional profile on LInkedIn and a more laid back interaction on Facebook. And they are likely to spend time on all three networks depending upon their Disposition and their Demand.

You can’t attract them if you aren’t spending quality time on the various networks.


3. Who are you in return?
Are you the whiz at auto responders? Do you send messages out, but spend very little time speaking with the people that leave you messages? So much of the activity that many struggling solopreneurs take on social media sites and in other forms of marketing is a one-way conversation.

Great that your followers get a canned messages from you when they “friend” or “follow” you, right? Wrong!

Do you like being treated like a spam receptacle? People want to connect with people … real people. Not a logo. Not a canned response. As a matter of fact, these actions can hurt you in some cases, turning away the very people that you want to attract.

Look at your targets as real 3-dimensional people … because they are. Don’t try speaking at them like they’re simply a demographic. And show them you’re a real 3-D person, too.


If you’re struggling with this concept, help is available. At Small Biz Break, we are hosting a live webinar to go over this topic in greater detail. We’ve aptly named it, “Discover How to Attract Your Ideal Customers and Have Them Know, Like and Trust You”.


We will be holding the webinar live on Tuesday April 12^th at 2:00PM EST. Even if you can’t make the event, but know that this insight will help create breakthrough opportunities for your solopreneur business, register. Seating is limited because we are limited on phone lines for those that prefer to call in. And if you miss the event, but you register, you will be able to listen to the playback, plus download our review sheet to help you focus on making the appropriate changes to your business.


You can register for the event here.


All the Best,


Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide

Sounds like a bold title, doesn’t it? Is this just catchy copy or is it truly possible that there are just seven essential actions solopreneurs master for breakthrough success?


The truth is many of these top small business pros worked very hard to get where they are today. Their success didn’t happen overnight. The honest ones will tell you that they struggled and made mistakes along the way. Some big mistakes. Costly mistakes. I sure have. More than once … and in multiple industries.


These are all talented people that have the entrepreneurial DNA, but before they achieved their breakthrough success, they had certain patterns or habits that kept them just on the other side of success. They fought through frustration, confusion, procrastination, small results and some degree of self-doubt … all at a cost of tremendous effort, personal pride, loss of money and cashing in a few favors with the people that supported them most.


Does this sound like your current situation?


If so, we want to help you.


My Small Biz Break partner, Maria, and I are hosting a live webinar on Tuesday March 1^st at 2:00 PM EST / 11:00 AM PST titled, “Discover the 7 Essentials for Going from Cruise Control to Crushing It in Your Business”. In this no-cost webinar, we’ll talk about the seven key actions that successful entrepreneurs mastered for breakthrough success.


You’ll discover the primary secrets of:

1. How to change your thinking to achieve bigger results

2. How to avoid procrastination, a lack of confidence and burn out while keeping focused on specific actions to achieve your desired success

3. How to attract more of the right customers

4. How to avoid multiple false starts

5. How to replace your busy work with results producing action

6. How to rally others to your cause to achieve greater success faster

… and …

7. How you can capitalize on your current achievements for greater future success


We don’t believe in taking up your time with fluff and only talking about theories. We are committed to introducing you to new ideas so you can see new possibilities. We will discuss why they’re important and we back that with practical, how-to steps so you can start taking action right away.


The first action you need to take is to register for this event. At the bottom of our Small Biz Break Events page, you will see a registration form. When you sign in your name and email address, not only will you reserve one of the limited spots to:


1. Our live 60-minute free webinar on Tuesday, March 1^st

… but for a limited number of take-action entrepreneurs who register early, we will give a complementary bonus  …

2. A one-on-one 30-minute private strategy session. We are only offering this for a limited number of people, so take action now before the other action-oriented entrepreneurs beat you to it!


We’re excited to get the opportunity to help your business reach its full potential!


All the Best,


Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide

Have you been frustrated by your marketing campaigns because other solopreneurs seem to be attracting customers while no one seems to want to talk to you?


Have you put in the hours on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube only to end up confused as to why it isn’t helping your business when so many others seem to be raving about it?


If you’ve been a loyal solopreneur reader, you know that I often talk about, not trying to sell to ‘everyone’ and the importance of defining your ideal prospect. If you’ve missed some of my earlier posts or if you want a more in-depth understanding, you may be asking …


“How do I go about creating a profile of an ideal customer? And how does that ultimately benefit my small business?”


Well, I’m glad you asked.


Because on this upcoming Tuesday, February 15^th at 6 PM EST / 3 PM PST, Michele Scism, the Results Lady from Decisive Minds, and I will be doing a live Q & A call discussing this very topic.


The title for our talk is “Discover How to Attract Your Ideal Customers and Have Them Know, Like and Trust You”.


Some of the topics we will be discussing include:

• The typically profiling method most solopreneurs use and why this creates frustration and confusion

• A 3D profiling system my Small Biz Break, partner, Maria, and I created to help you attract your ideal customers

• Why 3D profiling is a must if you want to succeed using social media so you can stop wasting time and money on marketing programs that just won’t work

Here’s the link to get more information about this no-cost show, including a way for you to register so you can listen in.


Decisive Success Strategies Teleclass

Don’t miss the show. Plus, after we’re done, Michele and I will be answering your questions live on Facebook.


Click on the link above, sign in, and discover how you can create a 3D profile of your idea customer so you can attract them to you to build your business faster.


All the Best,


Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide