by Victoria Krayna
Amplified global competition, rapidly developing advancements in technology, fluctuations of customer demand, and a destructively turbulent economy have produced lean organizations. To thrive in today’s economy it takes focus, motivation, determination, and follow-through to maintain competitive advantage.
Overcoming the inertia of competing priorities, energy drainers, and the three ‘P’s – Pleasing, Procrastination, and Perfectionism requires championing excellence in each endeavor, relationship, and process one is involved in. Social Media can, if abused fall into this category.
Two social media resources that have brought me corporate clients as well as individual clients are LinkedIn and my blog – http://www.lifestagingblog.com/. My LinkedIn profile is already optimized to appear in search engines. This means that when someone ‘Googles’ my name, my LinkedIn profile will be one of the first results that shows up. Case in point:
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4TSHB_enUS358US423&q=victoria+krayna
Confession: I have ‘Googled’ potential clients, employers, employees, and suitors…especially suitors [Watching out for Emotional Vampires, Werewolves, Momma's Boys, Boundary Bulldozers...]. I have also ‘Googled’ my students, current clients, and competitors [Verbal Whoop-ass is a free serviced offered through Lifestaging by Victoria for Social Media offenders]. Your competitors, potential clients, employers…and suitors are doing the same with you. This reason alone is why you want to have a consistent digital footprint. LinkedIn is the perfect place to start doing that from both a personal and a professional perspective.
While my LinkedIn profile introduces my services, my blog ‘seals the deal’. LinkedIn is my cyber-executive summary; my blog is an extended executive bio. It establishes me as an industry expert.
And then there’s Twitter. Twitter reinforces my industry expertise…and it’s fun.
Just like ‘The love of money can be the root of all evil’, so can the love of Social Media. It can become more than an innocent ‘Time Bandit’; it can be a serious financial thief. Stealing time from one’s employer equates to stealing money. Look at it this way; if an individual makes a purchase, and then decides to return that item he or she would be entitled to a refund. Time does not have that luxury. There is no ‘refund’ for poorly-invested time.
5 Tips for Recovering from Social Media OCD
* Stop and ask yourself many times until this becomes a habit: Is this activity productive toward a goal or am I robbing myself, my family, and/or my employer of precious resources?
* Determine the true cost of being ‘Twitter-pated’ [Emotional, recreational, spiritual, relational, financial,
opportunity-cost]
* Turn off your gadgets…email, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blackeberries, Iphones, cell-phones; shut them
down, put them in ‘time-out’.
* Obtain a ruthless, highly-focused, A-type personality accountability partner.
* Back down your salary to the minute. For every minute wasted on Social Media OCD, put the dollar
equivalent into a clear jar. Use cash.
If an individual is truly committed to one’s own personal and professional goals it positions that individual to learn, grow, and become an inspiration through which others are blessed by that individual’s unique gifts, aptitudes, experiences, passions, training, and skills. Commitment to a well-defined course of action, plus a clear future picture, focus, and drive ignites action.
So…Get back to work!
Victoria Krayna is the Founder/CEO of Life-staging by Victoria. She is a strategic, results-driven professional who has held progressively responsible positions in Retail, Healthcare, and Education. She is highly successful in driving high-value revenue and profit gains, cost savings, and improved organizational productivity and performance. She is a visionary change agent with a talent for recruiting and developing other leaders with an equal desire to excel and win. Victoria Krayna holds a Masters in Management Degree with an emphasis on Organizational Culture. Her blog, http://www.Lifestagingblog/ features articles that prepare individuals and organizations for breakthrough strategies
