HOW BUSINESS DECISIONS SHAPE CONSUMER BEHAVIOR AND HOW THIS MAY IMPACT YOUR OWN BUSINESS

When it comes to taking your startup from a concept to thriving with a well-crafted corporate culture, it all starts with decisions.  More importantly, your startup depends on your followers, who become first-time clients, and hopefully loyal customers thereafter.  Despite the lack of funding we as entrepreneurs face when starting out, there is always one skill that is not used enough and that is the use of influence.
 
Last week, Elon Must tweeted that we would possibly take Tesla private if the stock reached $420 per share.  Investors quickly bought into the stock, which increased its value from $340 to $379 per share.  The day after, Tesla was all the hype as the SEC become involved and began their investigation on Musk and his behavior.
 
Why was this a big deal?  The reason this became such great news wasn’t because Tesla was suddenly doing well.  It was because the world realized how powerful Musk’s influence was with the fact that in just a single Tweet, he would sway investors to quickly purchase shares of his own company.
 
How can you tap into your own power of influence?
 
We all have the power to influence.  Our range of influence may start out incredibly small, but with passion, creativity, and discipline, influence can offer the entrepreneur an incredible opportunity to leverage his loyal followers just like how Tesla did.  Here are a few of the most important keys to earning and having the influence you can potentially have with your audience.
 
Commit to delivering the highest value to your customers
 
Tesla is not just innovating while maintaining its standards, but prides itself on being a “mover and a shaker” even though its innovative business model disrupted the entire auto industry years ago.  As the firm grew by first focusing on the affluent in applying a price-skimming strategy by selling higher-priced cars to the market, they also positioned themselves to be perceived as a company that is committed to constant innovation and in finding new ways to offer value; just not improvement.  This level of innovation forced other car companies such as Ford and GM to begin to manufacture their own product line of electric vehicles so that they could at least maintain their own market share or “influence” in the industry.  This is the power of influence.  Tesla may not have been first to sell vehicles, but they were to the first to innovate and to expand with the right positioning in sticking with an identity that worked well with them and this is a lesson in which every entrepreneur who is starting out should take seriously in the industry they are looking to thrive in.  Instead of feeling overwhelmed or dissuaded by already well-established companies, you as the entrepreneur and founder of your company should stay consistent with your own niche and think creatively on how to gain resources from different industries, similar to how Tesla purchased their raw materials from overseas.
 
Anticipate the Timing of Change and Capitalize with Advancing Technology
 
As social media is constantly advancing, you can benefit no matter how big your market share is by always keeping up with the latest changes in the advances of Instagram or Facebook.  Instagram’s story settings allow the user to have a better relationship with their followers by interacting with them.  Followers now have the option to vote, swipe up to reply to the user’s latest news, or to at least keep in touch, but to feel a very “real-time” shared experience of their day with who they are following.  Even if your influence is small, think creatively or emulate those in the top of your industry.  Experimenting is great for now because massive action in something will give you lessons to understand your followers and niche better.  Keep a journal on what is working, what didn’t work, and some thoughts on how you can do better next time.  This approach, accompanied with consistency, with give you lessons as to which social media marketing tactics you should be cultivating.
 
Remember that the innovative entrepreneur will always be making some mistakes along the way because he is always in a state of testing new and untested material to his niche, but the lessons to succeed and to be positioned as an influencer is well worth the risk.