Consistency is defined as being marked by harmony, regularity, or steady continuity and free from variation or contradiction; showing steady conformity to character, profession, belief, or custom. Doesn’t that also sound like a great rule of thumb for a social media practice?

Humans tend to be attracted to balance and consistency.  A person can only be as successful in their life’s endeavors as they are consistent in their life’s behaviors. In other words you have to “walk the talk.” This is true on the “online or offline world.”

This means that as a leader, your actions (what you say, what you do, where you spend your time, what you deem as being important, the decisions you make etc) must be consistent… day in and day out.  That way, the people who follow what you say and do – will see consistency in your actions and behaviors.

Here are five common statements I make when speaking or writing on the importance of consistency.

1. Consistent people tell the truth. They do not need to remember what “partial truth/falsehood” they might have told.

2. Consistent people are loyal to their employers and/or employees – each and every day.

3. Consistent people are well rounded and maintain a healthy balance in all aspects of their lives. They know who they are and what’s important.

4. Consistent people set goals and track them to be sure they are growing in the mental, physical, social, and spiritual aspects of life.

5. Consistent people are ones that we recognize as having great integrity anytime their name is mentioned. They are never too high… or too low.

In short, success on the web is also about consistency. Consistency does not mean that a leader is boring but instead implies they are solid, reliable and tuned-in. So, my challenge to you (and to me)—is to work on being consistent in all social media activities.  If we do this, we will all be amazed, at the return on investment of the time we put in.

Ryan T. Sauers

www.ryansauersblog.com

1. The highest degree of personal values, ethics and integrity. Superior ethics may not always win the marketing battle but most always win the marketing war.
2. Continual positive outlook and enthusiastic vision. This is a key separator between great, good and poor marketers.
3. Use of creativity to differentiate yourself from the competition. When products or services appear the same to the customer– creativity by the top marketing professional in approach and positioning makes all the difference.
4. Reliability, consistency and dependability. These three traits separate the average marketer from the superstar marketing professional. Enough said!
5. A sense of being “human” that builds brand loyalty. Being human and using humor makes your efforts and campaigns likable, and people like brands that make them warm and fuzzy.
6. Unyielding belief in your organization and yourself. Real winners KNOW there are no shortcuts and that they will “win” in end by doing the little things right.
7. Creative posturing that differentiates you in your market and makes you clearly known by all of your stakeholders. Superior positioning reduces competition– which is a great and value added bonus for doing your job well.
8. Passion to excel and to be the best at what you do. This is a personal characteristic that is evident to others. There is no sense in striving for second best. So… don’t!
9. Push the envelope. The marketer who appreciates the past, is dedicated to the present AND pushes the envelope with a vision for the future is the one that will achieve success.

So, remember the discipline of marketing is more important than ever in 2010 and beyond… and it is the job of the CMO, or top marketing executive, to exhibit the highest degree of excellence in all that s/he does. Have you seen such a great CMO in action? What other characteristics should we mention?

Ryan T. Sauers

You see… whatever their PERCEPTION of something is– IS their REALITY of something.

What does this mean? Are you lost?

Ok—here goes…

Whatever a person “perceives” to be true in the world around them (their perception) is completely true to them (their reality).

All people take in information and then make decisions about the information in different ways. So no matter how a person goes about the process of making a decision– the end result is the same! So think about it from a marketing point of view… the other person now has a “perception” of you in their mind and this perception is their reality.

So the learning lesson we must ponder as we communicate with OR market to others is this:

It is not what “we say we are all about” but it is what “others say we are about.”

Do others perceive you the way you hope that they do? This is a question we MUST all ask ourselves.

The best marketing and communications individuals are those that are able to purposefully and intentionally make the “perception they seek” closely match how they are ultimately perceived by others.

Do you ever think about how you/your organization seeks to be perceived and whether or not this is the reality of how others actually perceive it? Do you realize that the superb new tools available to all of us through Social Media—give us a great way to impact how we market ourselves and control perception and reality?

How do you perceive this post? I hope it matches the reality I was seeking to achieve.

Ryan T. Sauers

Think about it.

All human beings have the desire and need to “truly be heard”. In addition, human beings seek to be understood, appreciated and connected to others. Many painful times in our lives have come about because we said something we did not mean OR do not say something we should have said. Such situations often cause pain to both us and others. No good!

Does this apply to new communication mediums such as Social Media? You bet it does. In such new arenas- listening is more important than ever.

Missed opportunities for communications growth occur when we fail to further develop a relationship because we do not get to know a person better. In other words, we have “talked” to them a lot but have learned little about them– as we have instead focused on our needs, wants and desires.

The people I enjoy the most, in all parts of life, are those who are the best listeners. Why?

The reason is simple– these people make me feel important. Don’t we all want to feel that way? Don’t we all, whether offline OR online, TRULY want have a meaningful conversation?

Our goal should be to consistently improve our listening skills. And, remember “hearing and listening” are two very different things. Such strong listening skills– will not only make you a better person– but also a better communicator, marketer and leader in all endeavors- online or offline.

What do you think?

Ryan Sauers

Why is it that so many people today are defined by the proverbial “box” and quite frankly seem to like to stay in the comfortable confines of a box?

Think about it.

Most people sleep on a “bed/box” talk on a “phone/box”, email from a “blackberry/box”, type on a “laptop/box”, eat from a “drive thru/box lunch”, drive to work in a “car/box”, and then set their AM wake up call to be made from a “alarm clock.box” etc. No wonder people are so comfortable with box type thinking.

Organizations are no different than people– as organizations are made up of people.

I challenge everyone who seeks to be a leader to “live outside the box.” Furthermore, look at 2010 as it is, and see our organizational problems for what they are… etc instead of looking at them as worse than they are.

Lets focus on seeing things that others do not see and being a leader who is not adverse to trying new ways of doing things. Let’s work to find a better way to do things… and then work to make these things a reality.

Living outside the box, is uncomfortable to many who love their simple, black and white (no gray), four walls up… and “box oriented” world.
However, to compete now and the years ahead– the box has to go away and the four walls must come down to allow free energy, creativity, and unbridled ideas to occur.

What box do you face? Do you like the confines of your box?

Ryan Sauers

Getting more sales is more than having a power handshake. Getting more sales is more than saying someone’s first name repeated times. Getting more sales is more than a having a cool power tie. Getting more sales is more than having a snazzy PowerPoint. Getting more sales is more than cranking out lots of phone calls a day Getting more sales is more than supplying the hot ticket to game or event. Getting more sales is more than using buzzwords and acronyms. So these are things to think about when we think about getting more sales.

Now, ready for the secret?

OK… Sales is no secret at all. Sorry I wish there was one.

Here is what sales is about. Sales is a process based on trust and the building of strong human relationships. It is an art not a science. It is about giving more than getting. It is about helping more than selling. I have never “sold anyone” on anything. It goes against the very fabric of what sales is all about. There are no sales shortcuts, no gimmicks, nor anything other than trust, value, seeking to understand how to meet others needs, building relationships and living by the highest code of ethics. Sales is about doing the right thing.

So there you have it. I hope you will Get More Sales – Today but achieving more sales today– is actually a natural byproduct of a salesperson having done the things mentioned in the paragraph above– consistently– day in and day out.

What do you value in your sales efforts?

Ryan T. Sauers

www.sauersgroup.com
www.twitter.com/ryansauers

Another thing I have seen is when you go out with a group of people for an event, night on the town, sports game etc… some people spend more time posting and/or sharing their status updates thru FaceBook or thru other social technologies than they do conversing with the “real world group” they are physically with and enjoying the moment. This is sad but true.

How about this one? How many people will drop any conversation they are having in real time/with a real human… to attend to their beeping phone or mobile device AND thus in short make the statement that the “other device” is more important than the person who they are talking to. This too happens all the time.

I see so many people texting and emailing… that I wonder how many people, even good communicators, have lost the ability to personally communicate as well in real time. Think about it for a second…

All such “non-personal” communications allow an individual time to think and respond accordingly once they determine what they want to say. In other words there response can be carefully calculated and done on that person’s time table. In personal communications (face to face or on the phone) this time lag/barrier does not exist. So, with more and more communications taking place in mediums– that are not personal in nature—my question remains… are people losing their edge in their personal communication skills?

All of these are serious things to consider. Quite frankly, there are simply no rules in society regarding how the worlds of rapidly changing social technologies and basic social etiquette should coincide.

We need a new generation of rules. What rules do you consider important? What things should be considered in terms of balancing the need to be polite to others yet realizing technology is here to stay?

Ryan Sauers

www.sauersblog.com
www.sauersgroup.com

It is my thinking that the past objective and main reason for wanting to attend such reunions has been to — “catch up” with old classmates and friends and to rekindle old relationships.

Would you also agree that many people are interested to learn what their old classmates are up to, what is going on in their lives, where they work, where they live, about their family etc? Most people, are interested to hear a quick broad brush of what “so and so” is doing these days… even if it is from afar.

I think such information is in part why “high school and college reunions” have been such a big deal in the past. Isn’t it true that many people attend simply so that they can “re-connect” with old friends that they have lost touch with, while others go to “brag and show off” about how much s/he has accomplished etc? I would think this is true for some people.

With that said, things have changed. With the advent of the all powerful Google search engine, and Social Media tools like Face Book, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs, YouTube and much more… you can find whatever information you desire to find about almost any classmate. With a few key strokes and some deliberate searching… you can “more or less” learn uncover what most classmates have been up to, what they are involved with, where they spend their time etc.

So, the question of the day is– does the advent of so much readily available information before a reunion– effect the objective, feel, and intent of such reunions?

Does the fact you can, if you so desire, obtain most of the information, about an old friend or classmate, BEFORE a reunion help or hurt reunions. Will it affect the way reunions might FEEL in the coming months and years? Do you think Social Media is going to help such reunions gain attendance or lose attendance? Will Social Media change the way people feel when arrive at a reunion “in real life” such as making a person more comfortable because they have “kept up” with someone online?

What do you think? Other Thoughts?

Ryan Sauers www.sauersblog.com

To begin with, TRUE communications occur only when what is being expressed by the sender is clearly understood by the receiver. If someone says s/he is a good communicator but most people cannot follow/understand what the individual has written or said– the fact of the matter is– that person is either not a good communicator or has failed in his/her communications attempt.

An easy time to observe this is during negotiation situations– or times of hostility– when people are tense OR upset with one another. During such times, it is easy to observe the communications process OR lack thereof it quite clearly.

In these times, one party tends to think the vantage point s/he is coming from is “what is right” and that the other person/parties point of view “is wrong”.

When this begins to happen– one way and stifled COMMUNICATION is occurring instead of the flowing two way stream of communications.

One of the best skills that a great “communications person” has is solid listening skills. This skill is oftentimes overlooked but, as the old saying goes, we have “two ears and one mouth” for a reason.

So for true and successful communications to occur– all parties– the sender and receiver… must be willing to listen, willing to hear the other side out, willing to clearly explain a message that can be understood, and lastly if all else fails… be willing to “AGREE TO DISAGREE– AGREEABLY.”

What differences do you observe between communication and communications?

Management is based on the “process”, in that it focuses on maintaining systems to provide goods and services efficiently. For example, management tasks include planning, budgeting, organizing, staffing, and controlling progress towards achieving firmly defined objectives. The elements of management therefore create predictability in anticipating future developments and assessing on-going operations.

Leadership, on the other hand, is prospective: it defines what the future should look like, aligns the organization with a common vision, and provides inspiration to achieve transformational goals. Yet despite their very different functions and attributes, leadership and management are not separate but complementary as both sets of skills are required for organizations to be successful.

Here are some other ways to look at the differences between managers and leaders.

> A manager takes care of where you are; a leader takes you to a new place.
> A manager deals with complexity; a leader deals with uncertainty.
> A manager is concerned with finding the facts; a leader makes decisions.
> A manager is concerned with doing things right; a leader is concerned with doing the right things.
> A manager’s critical concern is efficiency; a leader focuses on effectiveness.
> A manager creates policies; a leader establishes principles.
> A manager sees and hears what is going on; a leader hears when there is no sound and sees when there is no light.

What are your thoughts? How do you define leadership? Management? What is more important leadership or management?

Ryan T. Sauers

www.sauersgroup.com www.sauersblog.com