The Magpie Syndrome

Rebecca is a coach. She wants to help women who have experienced bad relationship breakdowns. She’s got a basic website together, printed some business cards and a leaflet but she hasn’t a clue where to start finding her new clients.

She’s been along to a local networking event and met an approachable chap called Simon. Simon runs a coaching business too and is proudly tweeting and updating his Facebook profile at regular intervals during the meeting.

Rebecca has heard of Twitter and Facebook. Both seem to be in the newspaper headlines most weeks because of some footballer or Big Brother star that have got themselves in trouble with a tweet or two.

But how do you use Facebook and Twitter in business?

But she’s not really understood why anyone would use them in their business. Simon is full of enthusiasm. He tells her that he spends most of his day tweeting, commenting and liking and proudly explains that he’s up to 5,412 Twitter followers and it won’t be long before he has reached his maximum number of Facebook Friends.

Simon is “talking” to people all over the world and he’s always on the look out for the latest app that will help him reach out to more people. His Klout score is up, he’s listed on all the Twitter directories he can find and regularly checks (and tweets!) his influencer ratings on any website he can find that shows it.

Impressive Stats, Simon!

Rebecca is impressed and is very excited to get back to her office to sign up to all the websites Simon has recommended.

She spends the next couple of weeks sorting out her new accounts. She begins to realise that what seems simple to start is beginning to get more and more complicated. Rebecca decides she needs to learn as much as possible about this new social media world and reads every blog she can find.

So much to learn … and most of it for free

She starts signing up for all the dozens and dozens of free webinars and teleseminars that promise to show her the “quickest and fastest way to make money on social media”. She’s trying out a couple of websites that promise to give her 10,000 new followers in the next month … all automatically, without her having to do a thing except grant access to her account.

She begins downloading apps on to her phone to help manage her social media accounts so she can keep up with it all, even when she’s away from her desk. And she loves having an email come through alerting her to a new follower – after all, it’s only polite to check them out, reply to them and try to start a conversation every time.

Rebecca is beginning to feel like she knows what she is doing. She’s loving all this social media stuff and spends hours on it every day. She’s even been able to give other people advice on how to set up their profiles and has even written a few articles for her blog on how best to use social media to grow a new business.

But wait!

Wasn’t Rebecca a coach? A coach who wanted to focus on helping women who has experienced a relationship breakdown?

What has “how to use social media to grow your business” articles got to do with dealing with emotional rejection?

Why would you be impressed with social media influencer scores when all you care about is how to mend your breaking heart?

The reality is that Rebecca may have a few thousand Twitter followers, be chatting to friends on Facebook all over the world and got herself a 87% influencing rank according to one website, but her bank balance is looking rather small.

What’s happened to the income?

All this focus on the latest social media sites and the applications that are designed to improve your effectiveness and efficiency in building a business has only resulted in Rebecca feeling very, very poor.

Yes, a few clients have called up and arranged some 1-2-1 sessions. But these few clients are not going to allow Rebecca to feel her business could support her, let alone her family and partner’s expectations for her to contribute to the household budget.

Unfortunately, Rebecca has become victim to the virus that is infecting today’s entrepreneurs and small business owners …

… The Magpie Syndrome

This excerpt has been taken from Karen’s new book due out on the 1st February.  To find out more and how you could get your hands on a special VIP copy, go to www.ShinyShinyBook.com (If only to check out my Brownie picture from when I was 9!!)

Other articles you may be interested in:

1. The Road Runner Syndrome: Has your small business got it?
2. You and I: Does it matter which word to use?
3. Social Media: What’s the worst thing you can do?