Welcome to this week's MIND your business podcast, brought to you by the MINDs at MIND Development and Design. We are here to educate you and empower you with regard to your business website and getting the most out of it. If you have questions about web development, design, SEO, content marketing, PPC, social media and what it all means to your business, please hit us up on Facebook with your questions, email us at info@minddnd.com or just hit that big beautiful and irresitibly enticing "Ask A Question" button to your right on our website. In the spirit of diligent, proper and appropriately shameless self promotion, we're giving you your info on the go now as we are available on iTunes and Spreaker so we can come with you anywhere and even be a part of your family holiday gatherings. We've been known to spice up a family picnic or two... Hey, we are well into the 4th quarter of the ball game known as 2014 and we know you're looking at how the heck you can make 2015 a better year for your business...so, joining us on our weekly pow wow today is our social media and Internet marketing swami Kris Bradley, who is going to make like Boz Scaggs and give you the dirty lowdown on 3 social media trends you need to prepare for and be ready fo in 2015 in your social media efforts. Kris, as always, it's great to have you here on the show so you can rescue our listeners from having to listen to my blathering for the whole 20 minutes. Thank you for making some time to talk, man... ================== There you have it, friends. If you still have questions, hit us up. info@minddnd.com, hit us up on Facebook or click the "Ask a Question" button on our website. ================= Welcome back to the MIND Your Business podcast...great to have that social media insight from Kris Bradley on the first part of the show. Now's the time to be prepping for 2015....y'know, I owe you all an apology. If you were listening last week to the podcast about 5 Steps to DynOMite website content, I missed an opportunity at the end to give you another idea for your blog posts. I've been trying to work these in wherever possible, because it's no easy task coming up with good post ideas week after week. Well, I'm gonna make it up to you this week. A few years back, I was discussing this same topic with a former employer and talking about what we could do to give back to the community and/or to a local charity because, as a marketer, I recognize the importance of people knowing about what we're doing to "give back"...but, as a human being, I recognize the importance of honesty behind the purpose. So in this discussion, the response I got was "yeah...philanthropy's hot right now." "Philanthropy's hot." EHHHNNNNNNGHHHHHHH! Wrong answer! I honestly couldn't believe what I was hearing. Do these people really NOT care so much that they will only engage in philanthropy because it's "hot." As you can tell, that's been stuck in my craw for a while because it's so wrong and it's so WHAT is wrong with the face of corporate America in general today. It's all about how you look...not how you actually are. Yet, consumers are getting more and more wise to the truth and whether your actions back up your words or not. People know you can tell them anything...they now want to see more proof than ever of what you tell them. Today's consumers are more educated than EVER! So...with that in MIND...your blog post topic for this week may be a bit of a challenge. I want you to look at your current mission statement and see if it answers this question: "Other than making money and providing good service, what is your MISSION?" [ repeat ] Do a blog post on this. Take a good look at your mission statement and scrutinize your own words. Does your mission statement say more than "At ABC company we believe in delivering top notch service because we care." or something like that? That's all well and good, but it's been said many times over by too many companies who don't care, so unfortunately those words are meaningless to most of the people who would read them on your blog. Why did YOU decide to get into your line of work? What attracted you to the kind of business you do? What do you think YOU can do to improve your business arena? What are the good things about your industry and what do you think needs to be better? Most importantly...what do you believe YOU can do to make a positive difference? At the end of the day, your prospective clients just want to know how you can help them and that you really, truly do care beyond the capacity to earn money. If your heart is in your business, it will show. I hate most sales training, because a lot of it is just glorified manipulation, but there are a handful of valid lessons to be learned. A big one is that "people do business with people they know, like and trust Take advantage of your blog page to show the heart behind what you do and how you serve your clients. Thank you again for listening to this week's MIND Your Business podcast. Thank you Kris Bradley for your social media insight this week and If YOU have questions about web development, design, SEO, content marketing, PPC, social media and what it all means to your business, please hit us up on Facebook with your questions, email us at info@minddnd.com or just hit that fast and bulbous "Ask A Question" button to your right on our website.