“I’m not into those things,” was the response I got from a business owner, regarding Twitter and Facebook, who had sent out a request for guest bloggers, on LinkedIN’s questions, regarding his brand new blog. This is someone who has no traffic to his blog and is asking fellow business owners and professionals at random (not a targeted audience question) to write a guest post on his blog. WHAT?
This professional “isn’t into Twitter and Facebook,” you know what I might not be into them either except they are valuable free marketing tools that provide powerful ways to attract, engage, capture, and serve my ideal target market and probably yours too. It doesn’t mean I like to camp online all day, I don’t.
These are tools, not toys and should be leveraged as such. But to put his head in the proverbial sand and dismiss them when clearly he doesn’t know who his target market is and has no idea how to drive targeted traffic (or better yet get out in front of it where it flows), is just poor business.
I am regularly appalled at the depths of ignorance of so called professionals. Don’t dismiss a set of tools because you don’t like them or you “aren’t into them.” Your ignorance will not prove to be bliss but instead prove to be your demise. I had opened the door if he’d had any questions or wanted a tip or two. I even steered him to #blogchat on Sunday nights on Twitter 9pm. He is firm in his desire not to go farther.
Please don’t do this to yourself. You don’t have to like the tools to understand their power and find a person or service that can work with you with your marketing. I regularly do group teleseminars and webinars for DIYers and mentor those who want one-on-one guidance and custom tailored plans.
Can you blog without Twitter? Sure you can, but you better have a hot and buying list already built because you are likely to find it difficult to build one without networks of that type. Seth Godin has mastered it with being a bestselling author and legend in marketing. He is avowed non-twitterer and has a loyal tribe, built long before these networks ever came into being, and that same tribe (I am in it) tweets his content for him.
I encourage you always to ask for whatever it is you need to move forward and when you do be targeted and specific. When launching a blog, any old guest poster isn’t going to make a whit of difference, you need guest bloggers with an audience that is your target too and you need to have built those relationships long before you need them.
I’d welcome your comments here always. I’ve been sitting on my opinions for a bit too long, this is not the first rant and won’t be the last!
