What in your business do you personally have control over?

Being your own boss and setting up a business that runs around you is the height of being in control. Decisions are yours, and the buck stops with you, right?

Social media has been a gift for fledgling business owners, over the last decade to get in front of an audience. For little to no cost, we have been able to find people we want to connect and work with. It has been great. But that audience only exists on those third party platforms. You may have put all the work into building a community but if it is all hosted on social media, it can go as quickly as a policy change.

So how do you keep this valuable asset on track? And how do you go about owning your audience?

Most of you knew this was coming… the good old email list. Having your own collection of emails or ways to contact and direct message your target market, you can weather the uncertainty of Silicon Valley. 

Your list needs nurturing; a funnel of people being presented the opportunity to join semi-regular touch points and to be curated so it stays a valuable asset.

The good news is, there are plenty of services or softwares (such as MailChimp) who can do a lot of curating for you. The really good news is that a basic spreadsheet could be your Minimal Effective Dose (MED- I will come back to this idea in a future blog.)

You could even go to more old or new school -text by collecting mobile numbers, or turn to the super old school – snail mail. In a world of full email boxes, low inventory mailboxes greatly increases your visibility.

At the time of writing this blog, a cyclone had gone through Gibson and Hawkes Bay. In lots of areas, there was without power at all for over a week. That means no phone, emails, or social media. And although the post was very very slow, when it did get through, it was tangible. It forced locals to help other locals in ways that had felt almost lost.

My point here is, no matter what business you do/have/run, starting to focus in your immediate vicinity can really make an impact that can’t be affected  by someone else’s decision making.

Other things to think about to connect with your audience:

• Diversifying your social media
• Word of mouth’
• Networking
• Hosting your own website (with blogs, video + chat capabilities)

Time to take action! How are you going to own your audience today?

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Next month, Minimal Effective Dose- applied.