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Business Tip: Longevity vs. Popularity

In my nearly 7 years as an entrepreneur in the middle of the rise of social media, there has been so many lessons that I have learned about creating a successful business in this space. 

One of the things I have learned is as new as this media is, so many of the same old-school business rules apply. In any business, it is important to have some degree of popularity within your audience or customers to attract sales. But the key to a truly successful business is to have longevity. 

These days, people assess their success with how popular they are. The number of likes and followers have a true impact on your business. 

However, I have also seen many popular people and their "brands" fall off because they didn't have a plan for longevity.

Here are some of my tips for longevity for your business.

• Create a business plan - I cannot stress this enough! Without a road map for success and understanding your business and what it is you want to grow into, you're stacking the odds against you. Your popularity alone will not sustain your longevity. 
• Stick to it - I started doing videos about 5 years ago and I stuck to it! I knew that I wanted my brand to be known for having a cooking show because it is my talent and strength as a personality. No matter how hard, no matter the obstacles I faced, I never stopped with my cooking show. (Please don't look through my first videos...SO EMBARRASSING!) 
• Try new things - As much as I say to stick with it, also be realistic that not all your ideas will be good. Trust me, I've had a couple flops too! One of the things that help businesses have longevity is that they are always evolving and offering fresh products and content. Since I knew my talent was being an on-camera talent, I started with a cooking show, then I tried hosting a live cooking talk show (that was FUN!). We did the live cooking talk show for about a year. Now, that I have experience in it and the technology is so much better now, I plan to do it again! We learned the first time, flopped and now we're ready to make it better! 
• Cookie cutter is BORING - In the age of personal branding, if you have a blog or trying to become a "personality", you absolutely cannot be a cookie-cutter generic version of yourself. What makes you any different than the next mommy-blogger? How many other food bloggers are taking the same exact photo as you right now? What makes your marketing tips any better than the next marketing expert or aficionado? YOUR PERSONALITY. Audiences are drawn to people who they can relate to. It doesn't matter if you're a restaurant groupie blogger, a mommy product reviewer or a fashion blogger. Audiences will be captivated with your "brand" because of YOU. Trust me.

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