How to Drive Action With Social Media Without Chest Thumping

"Blogs don't make money. Businesses do." [David Ridley]

Substitute the word blog with Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, etc. Now that we got that out of the way, what's your business?

Some version of this conversation has been in my head for a while.

In the last couple of years I've gotten many questions about my participation in social media by people who thought I marketed myself successfully and wanted to figure out what it would do for them.

As an important aside, this is a question I often get from women. Because let's face it, women tend to be less self-promotional and activities like blogging, tweeting (or twittering), LinkedIn networking, the Facebook community, etc. are seen as a solid step in the self-promotional department.

The question they're really asking is: how do you not only gain exposure with the blog through awareness building... how do you actually drive business?

To answer it properly, I'll let you in on a secret.

Why I do it

My first answer when someone asked me years ago -- why do you blog? -- was "to connect ideas and people." That's an outcome of the activity, it's me meeting part of one of my declared goals, not the reason.

The reason why I blog is that I'm a pragmatic, purpose-driven thinker, and I need a place where to hone my craft and grow professionally -- I do it for me. I could keep a log somewhere. If I did that, I would lose your perspective -- in the comments, reactions (links, tweets, email questions) -- my learning from it, and my accountability. Sharing has a way of upping the ante. I like that.

Like everything else I do, this activity has an objective, a few SMART goals attached to it, and a strategy.

To recap, in simpler terms: I'm passionate about sharing (intent) what I know (motivation), and with it who I am (core values) to become a better version of myself (big audacious objective), which leads to opportunities for the business I'm in (goals), through the activities I participate in (strategy).

Outcomes of how I do it

On the path to becoming a better version of myself -- mind you, I like me just fine now -- I create opportunities to let situations and people inform my thinking.

I use speaking engagements, choice articles, eBooks, this blog, #kaizenblog chat on Twitter to help people and businesses think through the steps they need to form their own strategies and succeed -- talk does change our lives. Connecting ideas and people is the broad term I use for commerce. 

I'm most interested in spreading more ideas, connecting more people, so they can drive more action for their business. These are the results I seek. My own outcomes are more opportunities to speak, write, share -- speaking, writing, sharing begets more of it, and in turn more business.

I built one of the first social networks with Fast Company as a lab to test ideas and get them done. I experimented with content to get the right mix and balance of professionals -- corporate, consulting, service providers -- to make it work.

How to drive action with social media without chest thumping

Contrary to common belief, you don't have to spend all day on Twitter or your social network of choice talking about yourself to drive action. It's not about the tools. It's about proper alignment.

You do the work, master your craft, and communicate the benefits of your project, product, or service in the places where your likely clients are. Mastery and communication -- in balance. The best work you can do, plus the clearest path to signing up for it, so the people who want what you have can opt in.

That's how you drive action without chest thumping.

With social media, you engage the social aspects. Which means you integrate and connect everything you do, share across channels (preferably where your likely customers are), test things (formats, messages, incentives, timing), and build on what works.

Think about ways to capture testimonials while you share your narrative. Let others recommend you.

I use the blog as my hub and integrate other outposts as needed. Because I have a strategy and align the content to drive action around it, other blogs and networks that pull this content for their own uses don't get the same benefits I do.

***

Meryl Streep received 16 Academy Award nominations, winning 2, and 25 Golden Globe nominations, winning 7. Her work has also earned her 2 Emmy Awards, 2 Screen Actors Guild Awards, 1 Cannes Film Festival award, 4 New York Film Critics Circle Awards, 5 Grammy Award nominations, 1 BAFTA award, 1 Australian Film Institute Award and 1 Tony Award nomination, amongst others.

What does she work on?

Do you have a hard time tooting your own horn? Why? What would help you get passed that perception? Do you invest time wanting to deconstruct how someone else is doing it and wanting to be like them?

***

Next week we'll talk about a case study on how to use social media to get your message out to the world. 

___________

Bonus reading:

Meet 5 Entrepreneurs who Run Circles Around Social Media Gurus

© 2010 Valeria Maltoni. All rights reserved.

Comments

[Eric Pratum]

I find that a lot of people have a hard time imagining having a blog or anything else social media-esque without mostly talking about themselves. Of course, a good piece of advice beginners usually get is to talk about what they do, what's important to them, what they know, etc, but if they don't combine that with reading other people's content, I find that what they produce eventually shifts to being all about them, their traffic or comments slowly decrease, and they end up thinking they'll just never get the return they're hoping for.

If people looking for advice on how to drive business without constantly self-promoting keep in mind that they need to strike a balance between what is about ME and what is about WE or YOU, I believe they are much more likely to see returns.

[Lisa Stockwell]

Thank you for the post Valeria. True value in your thoughts.

[Jim Barbagallo]

I think you hit the nail on the head, Valeria, with your point that one has to first define a social media strategy (with, perhaps a blog as the hub)and then build the supporting content around it. Without a specific strategy, any resulting business benefits are pure luck and likely won't be repeated.

[Andre Ivanchuk]

Much goes back to the "why".

Without understanding the purpose behind what you're doing, you've got a long journey of circles ahead.

When the objectives are clear, whether there's monetary rewards or not - momentum, satisfaction and success are achieved.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Eric - what works best is probably a balance. If there was no filter or personality, the site would be just like anyone else's. The authors of many mature blogs tend to interpret the information and content of others without providing the proper credit or link back. I resist that trend because it allows me to present new material to my readers so we can expand together. If that helps, I never really got many comments. That's more due to the complex nature of this content, rather than the lack of engagement by the community to readers. Quantitative and qualitative data provide me with feedback on engagement.

@Lisa - my pleasure. Probably not the easy formula post... it felt closest to the truth.

@Jim - and strategy needs to be on its toes, so to speak, to keep up with the ever changing nature of the online medium as context.

@Andre - although I would challenge that in many cases the objective is a clear lie. We'll reserve that conversation for another day. Good food for thought, thank you.

[Brandon Cox]

I love this! I think sometimes making money with a blog is a terrible idea because it might just cause us to miss the bigger point. We might trade influence for a quick buck, which would be tragic.

[Susan Mazza]

I always get such tremendous value from your posts so I am personally really glad you choose to share your thoughts and ideas with us in this way.

Thank you for providing the path to driving action with social media without the chest thumping - a message many of my women friends and clients in particular can benefit from not just when it comes to social media but when it comes to their leadership and managing their careers.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Brandon - it really depends on your objective. And you might find ways to provide value to the community, and sustain your blogging at the same time. Money is not evil, it's love of money that tends to create issues.

@Susan - glad the content is useful. I'm thinking it might be worth focusing on leadership a bit more in future posts, esp addressing concerns and issues women often think about. Good suggestion, thank you.

[Eric Pratum]

@Valeria Good point about the filter and personality. I agree. There aren't many reasons for people to read blogs that have no discernible voice, don't take a stand, etc. You make an interesting point about resisting the urge to essentially re-purpose the content of others. I don't know that I have an opinion one way or the other on the topic, but I can well imagine that a beginning blogger could get the wrong idea when they are given what is more or less a good piece of advice "Comment on what other people in your industry are saying and doing." At some point when pressed for time, they are likely to start just talking more about everyone else's ideas than about their own.