No such thing as a small favor

Got a minute for me?

There is no such thing as a small favor when you are a creative professional. 

Everything interrupts the work, everything takes longer than expected, and everything is a hassle.

In the post industrial age, we are all creative professionals.

Are you writing for strangers or friends?

This is another in a string of posts that began after I heard Seth Godin say "People don't buy books from strangers."  

It turns out this whole idea of selling to strangers is central to what Godin is teaching. Another Godin post on the subject, copied below:

Strangers and friends

Most marketers are organized around more. More share. More customers.

And if you want to do that fast, it means marketing to strangers. Strangers that don't care about you, don't trust you and aren't listening to you.

You market to a friend differently. A friend isn't necessarily someone you went to summer camp with, it's someone who gives you the benefit of the doubt. Someone who will listen, at least once, to your pitch.

I was talking to an author about his next project. The question I asked him was, "are you writing this for strangers or friends?" The implications are huge. It impacts how you design the cover, how you price it, what it's about, where you sell it, when you publish it, how much you pay for store displays, etc...

You need to treat friends differently at every step along the way. First, don't confuse the moments you're supporting them or connecting with them with the moments when you are doing business. Second, understand that the most powerful win is when your friends tell their friends about you. This is worth 1000 times more than you talking about yourself.

The cool thing is that now, everyone has ten times as many friends as they used to. The social graph online is a fascinating, exponential factor in growing the list of people who might be willing to hear what you have to say (once). 

Which means that your site and offer and products can be organized around friend selling instead of stranger setting.

Guaranteed: if you sell a friend the way you sell a stranger, you've made neither a sale or a friend.

Writing for Strangers by Seth Godin

 Writing for Strangers

"is different than writing for friends.

"A blog post for strangers needs a title like, “11 proven ways to improve productivity,” while a blog that is aimed at subscribers and long-time readers could be titled, “Try this!”

"Same goes for novels and other sorts of books.

"The novelist with regular readers doesn’t have to reintroduce each character anew each time. The business book writer can ignore his editor who clamors for complete clarity on every page, and actually engage the audience as patient, thinking humans instead.

"Going forward, it’s difficult to imagine much scale in the stranger end of the business.

"Which means you better hurry up and make a lot of friends."

Seth Godin, June 3, 2012
http://www.thedominoproject.com/2012/06/writing-for-strangers.html

media in the waiting room

The other day I found myself sitting in a hospital waiting room. There were old magazines on a table and a flat screen television on the wall playing the crime show CSI.

I was reading a book I brought with me, Michael Hyatt's book on social media, Platform.

As I read, I was suddenly struck by the difference in tone between the messages I was reading in the book and the messages I was seeing on the screen.

The book was about generosity, honesty and patience. The screen was about fear, violence, and death.

Successful mass media aims for the the lowest common denominator: the lizard brain and the mob. Successful social media aims for an individual.

When reading or watching any media, it is useful to stop occasionally and ask: Who was this crafted for? And why?

The most effective blog post

A topic of value is the one thing that determines whether a blog post will get a lot of hits.

High traffic posts have something worthwhile to say. Something that matters. Something of value to the reader. It may take daily posting for a year or two or three, but eventually people with something to say will build a following.

Easier said than done.

Friends, fans, followers, family and strangers

If I  "friend" someone on Facebook, are we really friends? I don't think so.

Friends 
(HT Personal Euphoria for image.)

Here's my quick pass at words to describe Internet Age relationships.

• Friend - Someone you know personally and trust. You probably meet them in person.
• Fan - Someone who knows and likes your work. They have given you premission to contact them, and wait eagerly to hear what you have to say. A fan is an evangelist. He or she will tell other people about your work, attend your workshops, and buy your work. You may meet them once or twice at a workshop or event, and exchange emails. Or, you may never meet them.
• Follower - Someone who likes your work. They may or may not have given you permission to contact them. A follower might tell other people about your work. They will buy occasionally, and might subscribe to an RSS feed to keep track of what you are doing. They generally support your work. You may never meet them.
• Family - People you are related to by birth or marriage.  
• Stranger - All the millions and billions of people in the world. They don't know you, or your work, and they probably don't want to. Most of them have no interest in your work, and never will. It just doesn't mean anything in their lives.They have NOT given you permission to connect to or talk with them--and they never will.

People don't buy books from strangers #3

People don't buy books from strangers. - Seth Godin

This statement goes to the heart of what Godin is teaching.

Before the Internet, a writer wrote for four or five people. They were the gatekeepers with the power to get a writer published. A powerful agent, editor or publisher could make or break a career. 

After the Internet, the gatekeepers are gone. Anyone can publish world-wide at no cost.

Instead of writing for four or five people with the power to choose a writer and present his or her work to an audience of strangers, writers are suddenly writing directly to the audience.

This is really scary. Not a single writer that I know is comfortable with this. At least one said angrily, "It's Bullshit!"

Fair enough. Fortunately, there is a simple way to test Godin's statement.

Pick up the Manhattan phone book and start calling names, beginning at "A." When the stranger at the other end answers say, "I would like you to buy my book."  

If people buy books from strangers your entire print run should be gone by the time you reach "D".