Navigating the Social Media Maze: Tips and Tools to Market your Career Practice
21/08/19
Catherine Cunningham is the Director of The Career Consultancy, a specialist Career Transition / Career Management firm in Adelaide. Catherine will be presenting a workshop at the 2019 CDAA National Conference on creating a strong social media presence to become a 'go-to' career expert in your market.
When I started as a consultant many years ago, I was given the 60 – 20 – 20 percent rule and I’ve found it a useful tool ever since. It goes like this…
To be a successful consultant, in any given week, you should be chargeable for three days, you should spend one day on product development/admin and you use the final day for your marketing/selling.
Like most consultants, I absolutely dread the selling. Yet, operating as I do in the B2B (Business to Business) market, I can’t avoid the cold calling and face to face meetings.
There is good news for those of you who operate in the B2C (Business to Consumer) or the B2K (I’ve made this one up and it refers to Business to Kids). Much of your sales activity can be wrapped up into your marketing and can be done remotely, without the need to put yourself on the line and chase B2B leads.
The issue for all of us remains how to know what to do to get the biggest bang for our buck. And how to do it without taking up too much of our time. Oh, and of course, how to do it on the smell of an oily rag!
Penetrating the Maze
I still remember being on a four hour train trip in France, doggedly writing content for my new website. It was such a mess. One page was impossible to finish before the content was written for another page which, in turn, was dependent on some still-to-be-researched piece of information. I had no eyes for the countryside flashing past me: my constant mantra was…'You know that eventually it will all come together. Just keep going.'
I also remember reading endless blogs about SEO, Google rankings, Facebook ads and too many other marketing concepts that I knew nothing about. There may have been a light at the end of the tunnel, but it was a very long way away!
Finally, I remember the great relief I felt when I could talk through marketing issues with James, a very reasonably priced expert from Brisbane who refined many aspects of my marketing.
In my session at the upcoming 2019 CDAA National Conference, I aim to be as much like James as I can. Instead of you having to start from scratch, as I did, I will present sales and marketing activities that are achievable and reasonably priced (if not free!). And, you’ll have fun actually creating your own content that you can take away and use immediately.
Look before you buy!
This session will be interactive, so you might want to look at my current social media content to hone your thoughts about what you would most like to beg, steal or borrow. Listed below are hyperlinks to specific examples across all key sites, each with a distinct tone to suit the audience.
People Like Us
You may have noticed that I didn’t include any hyperlinks to my website in the above list. It’s long finished, of course, but it needs a total make-over now. Yet, I resist the urge. Yes, marketing is about the 4 Ps but it is also about living within your resources.
I’m not a marketing expert. I’m a career practitioner. I can’t afford to pay experts to write and design my content. I’ve taken the long and (mostly) enjoyable journey to learn how to use social media effectively.
The session at the National Conference is designed to short-cut this process for you. Time is money for all of us. My session title says it all.