Business Tips – It’s a Sign of the Times

 Business Tips – It’s a Sign of the Times

By Nikki Viljoen – Viljoen Consulting (Pty) Ltd 

As Business Owners and Entrepreneurs, we all need to look for new opportunities – if the 2008 ‘so-called’ recession did not teach you this and if you are still in business, then I am really surprised.  If our current pandemic has not taught you this, then I am even more surprised. We have all had to ‘pivot’ and find different ways to do business. We all need to find the ‘edge’ over our competitors.  We all need to do things differently.  We all need to ‘think out of the box’ (well those who still live in a box need to – that’s for sure).  We all need to look at doing things differently or finding new ways in which to ‘work it’.

I have, for several years now been using my blog as a marketing tool and quite honestly it has worked fantastically for me.  Early in 2009 I started using Twitter – just playing around with it, ‘tweeting’ and having fun – it was, quite frankly addictive!  I had to limit the amount of time that I sat playing on it.  It opened up a huge new world for me.  I found interesting articles that I would never have even dreamed of ‘googling’ for and it put me in touch with people that I would never have ordinarily met.  It actually made me look at life in an altogether different way – a great way.  Slowly, but surely I have started building relationships with these people – virtual relationships.  Will I even meet them in person, who knows!  What I do know though is that there are some of them that I follow religiously because I enjoy the type of information that they hook me into.  I like the way that they think and I also like the way that they share.

I have also been on Facebook for a number of years now – I never looked at it other than in an absolutely ‘social’ type of way and it has been great to catch up with friends, all over the world that I had lost contact with.  What’s also great is that thanks to my web designer Meryl Rosenberg of Pixel Magic, I now also have my own ‘page’ on Facebook, which means that I can set up events, such as my workshops and as a result of that I now also have connected with other people all over the world.  Complete strangers, who I interact with on a daily basis.

Then there is LinkedIn, and I must say that I have been diligently using it more and more’, over the last couple of years and have now connected to over 30 000 people from all over the world.  Again, I have to be careful of how much time I spend on it on a daily basis, because it too is addictive and I am slowly but surely connecting in a more meaningful way, one person at a time, every day.

Now here’s the thing, I have started using Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to link to my website and thereby to my blog articles and the response has been absolutely fantastic.  On Twitter, the number of people who want to follow me has increased quite dramatically – clearly, there are people out there that want to read or hear what I have to say.  The number of hits to my website has increased, more than tripling and in the space of 5 months, I had more visitors to my website than I have had from the day that the website was launched to the end of September 2008.  How absolutely cool is that?  

The average time spent, by visitors, at the moment is around 5 ½ minutes and I am told that that is really good and it is because my website is so ‘content-rich’.  Apart from that, I got my first ‘twitter’ client in January 2010 and that makes the whole deal the sweeter!

Then there is LinkedIn, and I must say that I have been diligently using it more and more, over the last couple of years and have now connected to over 30 000 people from all over the world.  Again, I have to be careful of how much time I spend on it on a daily basis, because it too is addictive and I am slowly but surely connecting in a more meaningful way, one person at a time, every day.

Will I stop using traditional methods of Networking – not at all, but what it does do is show me that ‘new’ is not always bad and even if I don’t really understand the technical aspects of what it is that I am doing, I need to move with the times.

Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za or http://www.viljoenconsulting.co.za