There’s a popular phrase often attributed to entrepreneur and speaker Seth Godin that goes something like this:
“Don’t strive to be seen, strive to be missed.”
I like that, but don’t love it. Here’s why. While there’s an inherent and obvious weakness in striving to be seen, it also feels inauthentic to strive to be missed. Today’s consumers and clients, aka your potential followers, are smart. They notice and pick up more than you realize and inauthenticity blinds like the flash of a strobe.
Instead of striving to be missed, you should strive to be genuine. That’s what you have to lead with. That’s the core of everything.
From there, the ways to differentiate yourself are three fold:
- Establish relationships
- Be intentional
- Provide value
Relationship Marketing
The first one is the hardest. If you’re posting your content to crickets it doesn’t necessarily mean the content is bad. More than likely, you haven’t connected yourself with the people who care about what you have to say. But those people are out there. Think about it this way when you are trying to find out what to write about or who to build relationships with.
First you decide, well I like automobiles. Too broad. So you have to get deeper. Trucks. What kind of trucks? Fords. What kind of Ford? Ford Bronco. Which year(s)? Specifically ’68-’72. What do you like about them? Taking pictures of them? Repairing them? Test driving them? Racing them?
Point is, you can get uber specific and there are going to be people out there who are interested in the same thing you are. And it’s better to have 250 people following you who are interested in racing ’68-’72 Ford Bronco’s because you know they care what you have to say.
It’s better to have 250 people interested in what you have to say, than 1,000 casual followers.
That concept might be hard for some people to grasp because our culture teaches us that more is better. More followers. More money. More success. It’s not always true. In fact, it’s often not true at all. Quality followers will always lead you down the right path and open the right doors.
Be Intentional
This one is simple in concept, but often overlooked. If you’re going to do something, have a strong reason why. If you’re going to write something, make sure you establish why and who you are writing it for. If you’re running a branding campaign make sure you know what your goals are, who you’re trying to attract, and what the benefits of attracting those people are. Define it all before you start.
Provide Value
Value is the glue that binds it all together. You start by being genuinely interested in something. Then you build relationships by attracting like-minded people. You act deliberately and on purpose, and provide value around that topic. Value could be in many forms. It could just be an image that makes your followers happy. It could be a 5,000 word case study on something you’ve spent a lot of time gaining knowledge on. The key here is to give away all this value for free. At least for a set amount of time. This will establish you as a trustworthy brand and once you have trust, the possibilities are limitless.
