The internet is a big world, with an increasing amount of users and over 255 million websites. (Check out this mind-blowing infographic if you want to quantify how overwhelmed you should feel.) What I hear from people when they first meet me and find out I’m into internet marketing, they say “I don’t even know where to start.” Or maybe something like this:

Sorry I haven’t gotten the material for you for my email newsletter, I just don’t know what to write.

My friend/high school kid/boyfriend set up my Facebook page… so what do I do now?

I have a WordPress blog but haven’t touched it in months.

Really it’s the same idea of “I don’t know where to start”… just much more specific. You know you need help but what exactly you need help with is unclear. Some ideas for you:

Look at what other people are doing.
Now I’m a big fan of running your own race but sometimes, your ‘competitors’ are doing things that are 1) cool and 2) work. Why would they spend the time/money on them? Because it either reaches their target audience or it directly makes them money, that’s why.

If you are stuck on what to write for your real estate blog, Google ‘real estate blog’ and find some cool ones. Read them, and you’ll no doubt get your own inspiration.



Baffled by how some restaurants use Twitter? Follow some. See which tweets get the most reaction and you’ll come up with your own idea based on it.

These people you are inspired by can be in your geographic area (other businesses in Bar Harbor Maine) and/or in a similar industry (professional kite flyers). Generating ideas are like doing exercise, the more you do it, the easier it gets. Suddenly, you’ll start having your own ideas just walking down the street, you really will.

Just try it.
How many people do you know who are waiting until their website looks perfect or their Facebook page has a custom design before posting? I know quite a few.

The perfection excuse (waiting until perfect conditions exist to act) keeps us all from doing what we can do in business and in life. Unless you call someone a jerkface on social media or take down your whole website, it’s all fixable. Just remember, 1) back up and 2) have a geek to call in case you need a bailout. Otherwise, experiment away with this stuff. We’re all experimenting here because the landscape changes all the time. This is not a test. You will not be fined for not completing your LinkedIn profile or laughed out of town for uploading only 20 photos without captions to Flickr.

So I hope this pep talk/kick in the pants helps you a bit on where to start, mainly that there are no right answers and doing something is much better than doing nothing!

Once you get comfortable, step back and become purposeful.
So you’ve got some traction on Facebook, how can you use this for your business? Schedule out your sharing, thinking about what you say, why you’re saying it, and what in the ideal world people would do related to your business.

Let’s say you share a product photo every Friday. Why not add a caption about the product and a link to where to buy it on your website? Why not give away a sample to the person who leaves the funniest comment?

So think about yourself as having gotten pretty good on the treadmill, and now it’s time to add interval training to help yourself get down to your goal mile time. (Can you tell I am on a bit of an exercise kick lately?)

If you are busy or uninterested, build your team.
This ain’t my first rodeo people. If you come to me blocked, I can give you places to start. Then, based on what you know about your business, we can figure out which ones could actually work.

I also can give you some perspective of ‘normal’. From helping dozens of businesses, I have seen their web traffic, social media growth, email open rates, etc. I also know how to snoop around a bit and tell you, for example, that your 25% email open rate is actually pretty good (in most industries anyway). Sometimes people think they are totally behind when really they are actually fairly typical… and just need to know how to do more.

The thing with social media is people sort of get it. Just like I sort of get payroll, taxes, and basic business law I suppose. But I have a payroll service, accountant, and lawyer so I don’t have to invest my time learning really specific skills that won’t make me more money. Hiring someone like me could be a good investment not only in your business but in personal sanity. And whether it’s this company or someone like us, it can be a good investment for you if you just don’t have the time or the interest.

Some things I do for inspiration:

So I hope you now feel inspired to start, whatever it is you’re thinking of starting! If you do, share in the comments so we can all be inspired by you.

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