Want more people to interact with you on Twitter?
More readers for you blog?
Or maybe you just want to spread your message to the widest audience?
Here’s how: Give people what THEY want.
So many authors, blogger, entrepreneurs come to me asking “How do I get noticed?”
I tell them to do what I do… STOP trying to get and start giving.
This is not a sermon… it’s just good marketing. You will succeed when you find out what your audience wants and give it to them.
Want more followers. Be follow worthy. Be seen as someone who GIVES help, support and attention to others.
One great example of GIVING is my friend Azim Jamal. He and his co-author Harvey McKinnonwrote a book called The Power of Giving. They get attention from it, but gave all the royalties to charity.
When it came time to promote The Power of Giving paperback, they asked how they could reach more people with the message. The answer GIVE MORE. Azim went to a blogger convention and talked to bloggers about how they give. 50 interviews with bloggers that they could use freely.
NOT talking about Azim and his book.. it’s all about them. Here’s one with Big time blogger and NY TIMES best seller Chris Brogan (author of Trust Agents
I know you’re right, because this is the advice I’ve seen over and over again. But at a certain point the rubber needs to meet the road. Not everyone can afford to wait around not making any money while they have fun, give and do good work. I do as much as I can, but it’s time for me to look for a “real” job.
I guess for some people it’s just not in the cards.
Shasta
If you are waiting around and playing games, you’ll have the results you describe.
Reminds me of the business consulting session I had a couple weeks back… When I asked what the owner’s goal was he said “I need more traffic”
I asked if how this would affect his income and he said he did’t know. After some discussion, we established that he had a sound idea for the business and was making some profits, but NOT from website traffic.
So often we all (Me included for sure) ache for a short term solution that looks like it will cure everything. In fact, most of the time, it’s some fundamental we’ve missed.
I don’t know your situation, but often I hear from people frustrated by their social media results when they didn’t have a goal.
The cards aren’t against you… it’s not “in the cards” for anyone to hit it big from the channel or platform. In other words, a Facebook profile is NOT a business. A Twitter account is NOT a job.
If you do want to seek employment, your social media experience will help there too.. especially if you offer more than just being a social media person (though there are those jobs). Business is connections and today there are so many ways to connect with ANY resources you need.
Best wishes on the job search. Hope you LinkedIn profile is up to date 🙂
Hmm… Thanks for this. My goal is to sell books and/or get a book contract. But reading this makes me wonder if there is a little more of the “Steal underwear. … Make money.” element than I cared to admit.
Still. I don’t quite see how people buy the cow when they get the milk for free. You talk here about a product-based business. What if it’s just content?
Yup, LinkedIn is certainly up-to-date and I’m hoping my years of newspaper experience and my 4.03 GPA count as “more than just being a social media person”!
Shasta
In the old days when people couldn’t learn about the real you, such things as having had a a job and GPA were the best they can do. Today, it’s ancient history.
From what I’ve heard, it’s now quite normal to look at what a job candidate is up do in real time. Easy to see who is a giver and who has qualities outside of old school job market qualifications.
If you are thinking of yourself as a commodity with X years of experience and Y certificates, you are selling yourself short.
Don’t be so worried about giving to much. Call it karma, God, or the universe, you get more when you give more. So if you aren’t getting the results you want, you know how the equation works.
I don’t know much about you. Just seeing that you are here, open to discussion and participating make me think you have more on the ball than most.
Good luck on the job search.
Well, you’ve been doing this for longer than I have and have had more success at it than I have, so I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. I decided to make my book free this weekend in part from your advice, so we’ll have a chance to see if you’re right! 🙂
Thanks for the discussion. BTW, I’m going to reference this conversation in tomorrow’s blog post if you care to stop by!
http://www.outrageousfortune.net
Shasta
Sorry to hear that you think I recommend you give away your book for the weekend… especially as some sort of test on whether social media works.
First off, there are way too many variable in promotion to tell anything from one move like this.
But my main concern is that you are thinking that social media is about giving away books.
I give away book all the time. It’s always part of a bigger strategy.
Simply, lower a price without any promotional support might allow a few people to download the book who otherwise would pass it by, but will not cause a book to take off…. at least in any scenario I’ve seen.
Sure, there is some possibility that one person reading your blog will see your desperation, pick up the book, and decide to take some action that fixes your situation. It would be pure chance, as the stories of great books lost due to bad marketing is legion.
If what you have posted here works, you’ll be proving me wrong, not right 🙂