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Social media gives the impression that you’re interacting with others, but it has the potential to create an echo chamber. You believe you’ve reached new people, but you are only talking to yourself. Get out there and stretch a bit. Leave your home turf and visit a networking event, conference, or even Internet forum that you do not control. You’ve got to press the flesh a bit to get out the word. Even if that flesh is still digital. We think of social media (Twitter, Facebook, blogging) as fast media. After all, it goes straight from your keyboard to your readers’ screens Instantly! Through the tubes! And yet, it takes forever to make a difference. You have to build a list, a following, a name on all those social media platforms. You have to provide quality content again and again and again to your fans. You have to earn it. Slowly. Social media is like farming. You have to till the soil and work the land, but the results are worth it. Just remember that it takes time. Imagine going to a movie theater that only served one size of drink Or only showed movies at one time of day. Or only had one seat in each theater. Even if all those things were exactly the size, time, and seat you wanted, you would be disappointed by your lack of choices. Despite the “perfect fit” of each and every element, you would want the option of imagining different outcomes for your purchases. You might even resent being “forced” to buy at all. As you lead small projects, it’s important to remember that choices create comfort. Your consumers want to have options, and if you don’t give them any, they will take their business elsewhere. Prophecies of doom always get press. It’s easy to stand up in front of the cameras and proclaim that you have some secret knowledge that tells you the exact date and time at which the world will come crashing to an end. And it’s not just the religious kooks who get our attention. We’ll listen to anyone that grabs the microphone to tell us that the world of publishing/marketing/government/education is about to be turned upside down. But most (if not all) predictions of disaster fail to arrive on schedule. The truth is that real change doesn’t have a schedule. It doesn’t announce its presence until it’s already upon us. We do not know the hour of its arrival. One day… …you stop using 3.5 inch disks. …it’s easier to get videos in the mail than go to Blockbuster. …everyone has a Facebook account. And you realize that the apocalypse arrived, no one really noticed, and the world moved on. You couldn’t have prepared for it if you wanted to because you wouldn’t have understood it. The kind of change that upends the world happens regardless of how we feel about it. No predictions required. …could really hurt them. They don’t know why you use material A instead of material B. You’ll have to explain it. Twice. They don’t know what the industry standard is in your market. You’ll have to tell them. And they still might doubt you are telling them the whole story. They don’t know how long you or your competitors have been in business. Or what their real problem is. All they know is what your office looks like, how much their gut says they should trust you and what you tell them. Your true fans were not earned cheaply. You produced something amazing, and now they believe in you. Yet, there’s this huge temptation to take them for granted. Don’t. Don’t blow off their emails because you’ve already answered their questions somewhere on your site. Don’t mock them even if they deserve it. It hurts them double. Don’t act like they don’t understand you or what you do. They do. That’s why they rave about you. Yes, you do owe them something. They make it possible for you to do what you love instead of flipping burgers. Respect that. |
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Copyright © 2012 Mark Truman - All Rights Reserved |
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