Having endured a few tumultuous years, I am grateful that 2013 shaped up nicely. Every success would not have been possible without helping hands. And I’d like to dedicate this update to these 4 broad groups of kind-hearted; many whom I had nothing of value to offer, yet they paid it forward without asking for anything in return. I’ve also made a few notes about them that I hope can benefit you.

I was inspired by Jon Loomer to do a post like this; he’s a great Facebook marketing coach whose blog I’ve followed closely in recent months.

Inspirational Mentor and Leader

Key figures to landing my first 2 projects are Andrew Jones and Jay Loh. Andrew, whom I refer to as my mentor, was generous to connect me to a few important people and also offered me the first opportunity to get my hands dirty in social influence marketing. Andrew is a selfless career coach who has made me feel more accountable while managing both my business and studies.

Jay was my boss at my former workplace. This year, he started his other business in architecture and interior design and he presented me the opportunity to do Facebook marketing for his company. Like Andrew, Jay is both magnanimous and open-minded towards experimentation. During my time at my former workplace, Jay displayed his ability to lead and galvanise his team to work towards a common goal. I’m really fortunate to have the opportunity to learn from him.

Regardless of profession, you need inspirational leaders and mentors who you look to, like Andrew and Jay. Leaders and mentors provide the motivation to better yourself, not only through their words of wisdom but also through how they act and consistently achieve success that’s in line with your beliefs.

Non-Official Partner Network

Another key figure to landing my 3rd project was Khyathi Kumar. Like me, Khyathi is managing both her work and studies. She’s an amazing social media strategist whom I had an opportunity to meet and learn from. (We met through Twitter!) Like Andrew and Jay, Khyathi is selfless with her knowledge and it was through her that I landed my largest project yet.

Referrals are important but difficult to obtain; to have referrals knock on your door, you need to build and preserve trust in others. It also takes a slice of luck to encounter people like Khyathi, who took the leap of faith and placed her trust in me to do a good job for the client. Many professionals today are more worried about their reputations and people like Khyathi are rare to come by. So if you meet people like her, treasure them. Reciprocate the trust they show.

Equally as important as Khyathi is Martin Pasquier, a brilliant social media strategist who’s expanded his agency to Singapore. Martin was generous to offer me advice when I needed help with my project. What surprised me the most was the 100% attention he gave me when I was describing the problem. He even took notes! I am truly thankful for his help, without which I would not have made major improvements to the ongoing ad campaigns.

Content Contributor

What an amazing tool Twitter has turned out for me. Without it, I wouldn’t have met Shawn Tay, a content contributor to my blog. You might be amazed to know that we have never met in real life until 2 weeks ago, and that’s after he’s contributed to our blog for 3 months! Shawn has a different perspective towards the function of social media and he has brought breadth to the content we share. I look forward to improving our continued partnership into 2014, bringing you useful content that’s unique to our working experience.

Content marketing is extremely important for both personal and corporate branding. But producing quality content regularly requires a lot of effort. Thus you need to build a strong network of willing content contributors, because many of these content don’t generate revenue directly. Moving forward, content consolidation is likely to happen and you’ll be much better positioned to have your content consumed by teaming up and distributing them in order to increase the possibility of having your content seen.

Like-minded Friends

Friends are extremely important too, not just in the personal sense but also those you fight along everyday. Special mentions to Jeffrey Paine and Kevin Chan. An unplanned meeting with Jeffrey, whom I refer to loosely as my mentor, revealed a few insights (secrets!) into Facebook ads which I would have never known. On the other hand, Kevin is a young and successful entrepreneur who brought me along for a session of BNI, and it really got me going in 2013. The most important point about having like-minded friends like them is that their success is contagious and they really motivate you to keep going, no matter how hard and unrewarding things may seem at the moment.

2013 is coming to an end; I hope it has been a great year for you. If it hasn’t, I hope you can look back, take home the positives and look forward to a better 2014.

I’m keen to speak to and hopefully meet many of you, so feel free to tweet me at @JasonHJH. I’ve also included Linkedin and Google+ if you prefer those platforms instead. I won’t bite

Last but not the least, here’s wishing you a Merry Christmas.