But Wait! The Mind-Blowing Follow-Up

But Wait! The Mind-Blowing Follow-Up I am Learning by Warrior Girl, Youre a Warrior Mama Now When I had my first monthly Business Building Day on Dec 1 posted the (mind-blowing!) results here, I got some amazeballs comments that gave me lots of food for thought. It also gave me a lot of but wait! moments, as in But wait! I still need to say X, Y and or Z! or But wait! Theres a bit of BS here, too! So, I just had to follow-up that post with this one. So, make sure you go there first and read it before continuing. Dont worry. Ill be here when you get back. Im patient (although only when Im in the computer. In person, not so much). First, I hafta call bullshit on myself. It was nice that nobody called bullshit on me, but that doesnt make it OK to not call it at all. And the piece I felt was BSing you? The fact that I claimed I wasnt online to market myself. Yes, its true that Im here to build relationships and find my tribe and connect and provide resources-   all of that, yes, yes, yes and yes. But what do I say to people that ask me why Im on twitter, and what the use is of them to be on twitter? My response, If youre not a small business looking to market yourself, well, theres really no big reason to be on twitter. I mean, yes, you can get the news that way join in on conversations about your favorite show meet like-minded people, but seriously, would I be on twitter if I wasnt a solopreneur looking for cheap/easy marketing? Probably not. Would I be here, blogging, if I wasnt looking to build my platform (a phrase my literary agent used Ive become a bit obsessed with), establish myself as an expert, and grow my business? Probably not. But while I got here because I needed a (cheap!) way to market myself (from my cubicle, originally!), I stay because its fun, and I love the people Ive met, and I think its amazeballs to feel like Im helping people with my posts and my tweets and whatever else Im putting out into the world. Which brings me to You have to actually market yourself on these platforms. If youre looking to build your business, its not enough to build relationships and find your tribe and connect and provide resources you have to let people know what you have to offer. I cant tell you how many times Ive had a conversation with someone that said, Well, Ive been on twitter for 2 years and tweet regularly 5 days a week, but Ive never made a sale/gotten a client/had anyone ask about my services/products! And how do you have 4,500 followers when I have 87? I usually ask how often they   tweet about their business, and thats when I get the blank look. I dont wanna be a slimy spammer! or I dont wanna bother my followers! or I dont wanna piss people off by only posting about my business! is what I get in return. And I agree with all those things: I dont wanna be a slimy spammer, bother my followers, or piss people off by only tweeting about my business, either. But my god (wo)man, you have to let people know what your e doing! Thats the whole freakin point of Twitter! And if you tweet a dozen times a day, then how is tweeting once or twice about your business being a slimy spammer? Yes, theres absolutely a balance nothings worse than checking out a profile and only seeing blogged: Your Mom Smells and blogged: Your Mom Still Smells and New product: Perfume for Your Mom. Same goes for your blog, if every single post talks about a new product you listed or a new service youre offering. But really do you think youre gonna turn into that?! I mean, really?! Really?! Probably not really. Every single person whos voiced that concern to me is sweet lovely couldnt be a slimy spammer if they tried! If they tried! If you cant trust that Im talking about you, then just work the math 4 non-promotional tweets for every promotional tweet. Done and done. For what its worth, when I have a new blog post, I schedule it to be tweeted twice a day: once around lunch and once after dinner. If I wanna promote someth ing else, Ill make sure I only have 3 promotional tweets/day so I dont feel like a slimy spammer. But seriously, if you dont open your mouth and tell your tweeples why youre there, how do you expect them to know? And, um, if they dont wanna hear it, theyll go away. And then you know that theyre not your people. Its a great gatekeeping tactic. And trust me   you wanna be a gatekeeper. You gotta show up and act as a participant. Thats also the line between slimy spammer cool contributor. When you show up, youre adding to the conversation, not sucking the life out of it or putting it back on you and what you wanna yell at everyone. The first time I took Blogging Your Way, I was absolutely there as a participant, and because I did the work and was there every day, I created really strong bonds. Like, these-participants-are-still-keeping-in-touch-with-me-two-years-later-and-signing-up-to-work-with-me strong. The second time I took it? Well, I was there to market myself, primarily, with secondary emphasis on the content of the course. Um, that totally worked less well. I came on strong the first week, commenting and writing in the forums and, um, yelling about my stuff, but after that first week I dropped off. I didnt have the time or the motivation, really, to go on the site participate. I ended up catching up on 2+ weeks of content in the last week, and by then it was past the point. The lesson? Unless Im really, truly a participant in the e-courses I take, its not gonna be such a great marketing tool after all. Nobody likes a yeller. Ya gotta look at selling/marketing positively. I know, I know, that slimy spammer or slippery salesperson keeps coming up! I hear this from my clients all the time, too: I wanna sell myself my business but I dont wanna be icky about it! Well, I hate to say it, but The Ickiness starts with you! If you see sales and marketing as icky, then it will be icky. No buts about it. So why not come up with a new word for selling and/or marketing that is, I dont know, maybe a little fun? Something you can look forward to? I use the word pimping because it always makes me laugh I gotta pimp my e-course today! It takes all the slimy slipperiness away because its just, well, ridiculous. I know someone who used the word invite,while a client of mine came up with ballyhoo. Find your word thatll make ya look forward to spreading your awesomeness across the land in a way that makes ya happy. I swear, its possible. Dont be an idiot with your money. Seriously. Take out the blog ads you can afford (some are super duper pricey!). Dont throw $50/day at Facebook ads. Whenever possible, spend just a bit to get your feet wet and then track how that advertising stream is working for you. For example, I recently bought a 3-month ad on a great blog so that I could offer a giveaway there. While this ad has given me a lot of traffic to my site, the peeps that get to my homepage leave 10 seconds later. 10 seconds! Google Analytics tells me that, on average, new peeps spend about 2 and a half minutes on my site. Obviously, while I enjoy this blog still feel like this was a good investment (its easy to feel good about spending your money when you know youre supporting something you believe in!), this ad didnt really work for me because, well, I guess theyre just not my peeps! But Im glad that I gave it some time to see how it would work before deciding if I wanted to renew. Marketing advertising takes time to see results, so dont discount anything too early. Lastly, and I mentioned this in Tough (Question) Tuesday this week, being genuine is so, so key. Ive been getting that word a lot lately enough to notice. Your marketing works because youre so genuine. You wrote something similar to that other blogger, but your version sat better with me it was so genuine. And yes, I agree! I am genuine! Im just this long-winded and enthusiastic and honest and loud in real life, for better or for worse ?? But my god (wo)man, dont try to imitate my genuineosity. Take the time to understand what makes you genuine and unique (this and this are good starts), and then just trust me that its enough. It absolutely is. If you think that my genuine is better than your genuine, I will so give you a knuckle sandwich. And that is not a good sandwich to swallow. I hope my But Wait!s make you come up with some of your own. But dont wait to put them into practice! Keep in mind its all a big experiment, so have fun mixing that potion together and seeing what turns into a prince and what just bursts into flames. I have a feeling Ill still be experimenting with my marketing well into my career, and if I stop, Im absolutely doing something wrong. So take a deep breath and dive in! Youll probably find some hidden treasures. OK, all analogies are over. What are you still doing here? Get goin!