“What’s all this business blogging and Web 2.0 stuff about anyway?”, I hear you ask.

You might enjoy one of my favourite, bite-sized videos, “Bring the Love Back” by Geert Desager. It explains the problem with the one-way communication of traditional advertising and websites (ie. Web 1.0). It’ll make you smile…

Instead of blasting information one way, Web 2.0 tools such as business blogs and social networks enable you to have a two-way conversation with your customers. They empower the customer to participate and add to the conversation, giving you critical feedback on your product or service. They enable you to listen and empathise with your customers and develop a trusting relationship with them.

Establishing trust is the first thing you need to do in order to sell them your ideas. Your goal is to woo them step by step, instead of expecting to go from coffee to marriage all on date one!

Let me know what you think of the video. There should be a follow-up from Geert very soon and I’ll post it for you here if it’s any good.

Cheers

Gina Couper

After over a year of boning up on business blogging and other new media and social networking tools, I’m finally doin’ it! Taking action with my very first post at my own business blog, here at Juicy Onion. Wooo-hooooo!

So what’s in it for you? Well, if you’re a business owner or entrepreneur new to the Internet and wanting to sell yourself online - maybe this will inspire and encourage you to give it a go…

Having previously worked at Amazon.co.uk and other high tech companies in the Internet space - why did it take me so damn long?

Firstly, transformation in the Internet - Web 2.0. Internet years are like dog years, and so much had changed during my 5 year maternal hibernation from the web, raising my two girls. I discovered that marketing on the Internet is no longer about dealing with and converting “eyeballs” (as we used to call them at Amazon) - or “Interruption Marketing”. Due to mankind’s never-ending, primal quest for connection and community, social networking platforms (blogs, Facebook, Twitter etc) have mushroomed. Doing business on the web is now about being yourself, telling your story, be-friending the right people, and dishing up something juicy, something of value that your new friends will buy into and rave about. In other words, the rulez have changed, matey-patatey.

Secondly, Mindset. Being away all those years focused on parenting my kids, I guess I lost confidence in myself as a business person. (Add to that moving country for the 4th time, hubby launching his own biz simultaneously, two active pre-schoolers and you get one interesting year). But this week I have been “in the zone”, “on a roll”, “on fire”. How’d I do that?…

After a few days playing around on Twitter as a newbie, it all came together in one big Tweeting epiphany:

Next, one of my new Twitter friends posted a link on their blog to Michael Port’s interview of mindset guru Jim Carson. Amazing! After listening, I became aware of my “inner gremlin” or limiting “self-talk”. I thanked my never-ending question for sharing (mine is, “Did I get it right/Am I doing it right?”). I realised it was just my gremlin who was the one asking, “Who would want to hear what you have to say?”, and “is what you have to say really that interesting, anyway?”.

Lastly, my sister Cathy invited me to a seminar by Prof Martin Seligman on positive psychology. I profiled my signature strengths (more on that next time). Wow: teamwork, leadership, creativity and curiosity came out tops. “Maybe I do have something to contribute to budding web marketers”, I thought to myself. The final boost I needed to get going!

So here I am, with you - sharing my journey as a New Media Marketer/Corporate Storyteller. I’ll be sharing my insights and the practical tools and mindset techniques that help me succeed in selling myself online. And in doing so, it might just inspire you to get going as well.

Ask yourself - “What self-talk am I buying into?”. Thank it for sharing, and create some space for your real voice to shine. When you do this, telling your story takes no energy, in fact it’s a buzz. Now, that’s what I call Juicy!

Let the fun begin,

Gina Couper.

PS. I acknowledge my new media marketing mentor, Coach Deb, who encouraged me to just do a little bit each day towards my goals, when I was in the world of “overwhelm”. And of course, for all of her and JP’s cutting edge info and tools.