Soup Or Bowl. A {growtoon}.
Feb 8th
Join the growtoonists each Friday for a humorous take on marketing, social media, and current business events.
Joey Strawn is a social media strategist who loves enjoying a good book and then drawing in it. Check him out on Twitter: @joey_strawn
Dear Facebook. Please let me pay you.
Feb 7th
There is probably nothing more debated, despised, and dissected on the social web than Facebook’s ever-changing scheme to monetize its vast audience.
One of the newest ploys — attaching advertisements to our specific personal posts — seems remarkably invasive.
My Facebook mobile stream is now dominated by banner ads. I have to pay extra to assure the people who like me actually see what I have to say (and I still can’t reach ALL of them).
Tom Webster has written humorously and accurately about some of the non-sensical “targeted ads” that are pretty far off the mark.
This all adds up to a really stupid business model. Facebook, you’re just pissing off people every day. Just let me give you a monthly fee to make all this go away, OK?
I understand the company needs to make money (and I WANT them to make money) but why not at least honor your customers by providing an option that allows us to stop being annoyed? Let us give you a few bucks a month to end the insanity.
Recurring revenue, with zero customer acquisition cost. Sounds like an enviable plan to me!
I can’t think of a reason why Facebook would not create this option … other than perhaps they have done a calculation showing the potential to constantly annoy people and stir controversy will be more profitable over time than being good to its customers.
Another reason of course, and perhaps the primary one, is a source of pride that Facebook promises that “It’s free and always will be.”
OK, I get that. But I really, really, really want to give you money. More than a few of us would. What if your customers DON’T WANT IT TO BE FREE?
Let’s assume that the people who would pay for Facebook, like me, never click on ads any way. They’re just folks who don’t want to be bothered by the latest monetization scheme. So their current ad revenue potential is zero. If 1 percent of Facebook’s users paid $20 a year to make the ads disappear, that is $200 million to the bottom line from people who were contributing nothing, and probably would contribute nothing forever.
Heck, you can still charge us to water our Farmville crops, ping us to suggest a gift to send, or charge us for any other “extra” you come up with. Just get rid of the ads, let us access ALL of our friends, provide some measure of privacy — and the money is yours. Please. Take it.
Social Media’s Mass Attention Myth
Feb 6th
By Srinivas Rao, Contributing {grow} Columnist
On two separate occasions and in two different ways I’ve been discouraged from the pursuit of mass attention. The irony is that it came from people who many of us consider wildly popular.
Mass attention is almost unattainable and it’s not clear that you want it. – Seth Godin
There’s no value to working hard on being really popular. – Chris Brogan
Despite knowing this, the following question comes up over and over again
- How do I get more traffic
- How do I grow my audience?
Ask it enough times and you might as well be asking “How do I get mass attention?”
The end of the popular kid in school
If you’ve spent time in junior high then you probably had some point in your life when you wanted to be one of the popular kids. Maybe they dressed better than you did. They had the latest pair of air Jordans. They got all the attention. You wished you were one of them. But take a look at the popular kids from high school now … their popularity in that point of time is meaningless.
Fame is Relative
My dad has no idea who Seth Godin is even though there are copies of his books sitting right on my the desk. When he saw my pictures from New Media Expo with Guy Kawasaki he wondered what all the fuss was about. It’s possible you’re reading this and you’ve never heard of me, Mark Schaefer or anybody else who I’ve mentioned. Maybe we need to be asking ourselves a different question than how do I get more attention?
How Do I Take Better Care of the Attention I Have?
A few years ago I dreamed of becoming “famous” by interviewing the most successful people because I thought they would share my interviews. That didn’t happen. The audience only started to grow when I focused on how to make my content as valuable as possible for the people who were already there, even if there were only a few of them. This is how audiences and readers turn into tribes and communities. I think we should abandon all of the following questions
- How do I get more traffic
- How do I get m more eyeballs
- How do I grow my audience
Diminishing those who spend their valued attention with you to nothing but metrics and measurements is tragic. ALWAYS remember that there is a human being on the other end of the screen. Whether you’re selling widgets or e-books, you have people and tribe members, not buyers, listeners, or an audience. If we can start to see the world through this lens, which requires a leap of faith, I believe the metrics will take care of themselves.
The Future Belongs to the Fanatics
Here are some people I’ve met who have built tribes of absolute fanatics.
- Danielle Laporte has a cult following. People hang on her words. They spread her message for her. I published interviews with her and Tim Ferriss in the same week. Guess which one was more popular … by a landslide?
- Talk to an Erika Lyremark fan and you’ll see the same effect. It’s a tribe of fanatics spreading a message to the few they deem worthy of an invitation. It’s an exclusive club that people want to be a part of.
- Mars Dorian, is a regular contributor here at {grow} and is having the same effect on people. Ask any of his fans what they think about him and you’ll get something along the lines of “I can’t wait to meet that guy in person.”
When these people talk, the tribe listens. If you’re wondering why, the answer is simple. They care. They show up when we need them. They tug at our heartstrings. We miss them when they’re not around. There’s no blog post that can tell you how to do this. There’s no three step formula. It’s just a way of showing up in the world.
Disrupt the mainstream, fragment the masses
The way I see it you can either give all your energy to five fanatics or pursue the lukewarm masses. I think the choice is obvious. You might be frustrated reading this because unlike my last few posts I haven’t offered a single tactic. But I”ll leave you with this quote.
“People who are scrambling for tactics are almost always stalling. Strategy is important, but tactics tend to take care of themselves.” – Seth Godin
Maybe it’s simply enough to “care deeply”?
What do YOU think?
Srinivas Rao writes about the things you should have learned in school, but never did and his the host-co founder of BlogcastFM. You can follow him on twitter @skooloflife
Five ways to be a more confident blogger
Feb 5th
I have coached and counseled a lot of people on their blogging efforts and there are some common themes I hear …
How do I find the time?
What do I write about?
How do I attract an audience?
But when I start digging, I find that none of these are usually the root cause of blogging problems. It’s something much more subtle — confidence.
That’s right. The biggest problem of all is not time, or ideas, or even organizational support. It’s having the courage to just do it.
This is a BIG DEAL. It takes guts to put yourself out there to the world. It’s scary to think that somebody might think that you’re dumb or wrong or mis-informed. For many, blogging can be a terrifying proposition, even though the passionate desire is there.
So I’ve been thinking about this. How can you overcome this trepidation and become a more confident blogger? Here are five ideas to help!
1. Limit the time you work on a post
Repeat after me: “It’s not going to be perfect, and that’s OK.”
I have never, ever pushed the “publish” button and been 100% happy with anything I have written. If I waited around for that I still would not have published my first post. Being an effective blogger means having the courage to be imperfect. In fact, I would argue that is a STRENGTH because it shows you’re human! Hurray for that.
One way to get around this (and also be a better time manager) is to set a limit. Just tell yourself that after two hours (or whatever timeframe you choose), it is what it is. Ideal blog posts for most people are between 500 and 1,000 words. So once you get to that length, you’ve made your point and you’ve run the spell-check … why not hit the publish button?
2. Re-frame the assignment
A lot of people get spooked about the word “blogger” like it is a special designation you need to earn or something. Let’s think of it another way. Can you write one 500-word essay on a topic you are passionate about just once a month? If you can do that, you can blog.
In analog terms, 500 words is one page double-spaced. Heck, you could probably do that 10 minutes before class in your school days. See, it’s not that hard, is it?
3. Write for yourself
I am getting a little fed up with this whole idea of “personas.” For many, it is a best practice to develop detailed profiles of target customers for our content and then write carefully-crafted pieces that are supposed to appeal to that personality. Seems like a lot of pressure to me.
Let’s just get over that,shall we? Your customers want to know YOU and your ideas, not what you think they want to hear. Tell YOUR story, don’t write a script. If you’re going to stand out, you need to be orginal. The only way to be original is to be yourself. Relax, have fun and your readers will find you!
4. Take advantage of personal coaching
You can read, and read, and read about blogging but I find sometimes you still need to just talk to somebody to get that little push to get over the hump. I’m not sure of the psychology behind this, but when I TALK to people about blogging, it seems to have a bigger impact, perhaps a more personal impact, than when they are just reading a post.
You can get a ton of great advice and a boost of confidence in just one hour with a blogging coach. There are tons of people willing to help out there. Look at some of your favorite blogs and consider: “Is this the type of blog I would like to aspire to” and see if they will help you. They probably will and it could be an excellent investment of your time and a little bit of money.
5. Put fear of the negative in context
I’m working on an entire post about strategies to deal with negativity but first, let’s be realistic. It is highly unlikely that you are going to get hate mail over your blog post.
In four years of blogging, I have received more than 25,000 comments from readers. Here is how many I have deleted because they were inappropriate: SIX. That is two hundredths of a percent.
That is not to say I don’t have dissenters, or even some hot debates, but that’s part of the fun, right? The point is, overall your social media connections are going to be helpful, supportive, and kind. Don’t create embarrassments in your mind that are simply never going to materialize. Focus on the overwhelmingly positive potential ahead of you — the chance to meet new friends, learn, hone a new skill, have fun, and perhaps create new business opportunities.
Blogging has changed my life and this is a magical time when ANYBODY can grab this opportunity and publish so your voice has a place in the world. Don’t let fear stop you.
How are you finding the courage to take that big step?
Image courtesy DC Comics. And I can’t wait for the new Superman movie!
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You’re in marketing for one reason: Grow.
Grow your company, reputation, customers, impact, profits. Grow yourself. This is a community that will help. It will stretch your mind, connect you to fascinating people, and provide some fun along the way. I am so glad you’re here.
-Mark SchaeferFollow Mark
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