The end of the chase
Every company must balance its efforts between creating useful products or services and promoting and marketing those offerings.
The same is true for individuals like me (consultants, authors, influencers, “thought leaders”). We can spend time building and stoking our audience, or we can spend time developing insights and serving customers with them.
Having published a book on social media in 2008, 16 long years ago, I’m well aware of the value of — and effort required for — generating an enthusiastic following. I got popular just by starting early, staying the course, and saying interesting things along the way.
Now the whole effort bores me. I’m a lot better at thinking up ideas than I am at feeding the beast.
Promotion in context
Does this mean I’m going to stop posting on social media?
No.
It means that my efforts moving forward will focus on the following:
- Serving clients. This includes both those who pay and others out there like them who can benefit from what I have learned.
- Writing on this blog about what I have learned.
- Posting links to some of that information on LinkedIn.
The first two will take up most of my time. About 90% of my effort will go into learning, generating insight, and writing, while 10% will go towards helping gain visibility for that information.
More steak, less sizzle.
When opportunities arise to boost visibility for my insights, I’ll take them. I’m not shy, and no one benefits from insights they can’t see.
I’m just done with the game of endless efforts to polish my image, “go viral,” latch onto new platforms, make videos, start a podcast, blah, blah, blah.
What about you?
I’ve seen the people who post videos every day, buy followers, latch onto the latest promotional trends, and endlessly pursue the life of the influencer.
If that’s you, good luck. My only advice to you is to recognize that self-promotion is an endless treadmill, and unless you concentrate on sharing things that actually help people, your following will just move on. Social-media generated dopamine is addictive, but rarely rewarding.
I’m just too old to worry about pursuing that crap. It seems hollow to me.
I’ll post what I know. If you like it, share it. I’m not judging anyone else’s choices. That’s just who I am now.
Such truth in this. And I pay attention more when it’s less about trying to attract “likes” and more about providing information I’m actually interested in.