Writing skills are the new divide of social media era
Stumbled upon Brian Clark’s recent article which nails some insightful points about social media marketing.
The most important conversation is not between seller and buyer, but between prospective and existing buyers.
I suppose many sellers would pay dearly to know what existing buyers say to the prospects. The catch is, they don’t have to wait until it happens by itself — it probably won’t, if there are no social objects the conversation can be built around.
And then comes the second step of social media marketing:
While social media marketing with content and conversation will bring you business, you’ll get more business the better you expressly point out the benefits of buying. More importantly, you should expressly ask people to do business with you.
Not an easy task, because, on one side, people are sensible to the sales efforts, and on the other side, people usually have no idea of buying anything unless told so. That’s why writing skills Brian talks about are so important. And that’s where lies a new divide of social media era.
You are brilliant when you live at full, not when you see far or speak eloquently.
Thinking priority
Four things are needed to implement a project: people, money, time, and thinking. The first three are in most cases utterly lacking. So, being good at thinking is crucial.
An example of what I mean is David Allen’s natural planning model. Asking “Why?” is so simple, and yet so often it is asked when it is too late.
Being smart isn’t an inborn quality. Thinking is a skill that needs training, and however beautiful are the anticipated results, training requires some effort. And yet, 30 years after Edward de Bono’s CoRT, a thinking course still isn’t included in most school’s curricula. Perhaps that’s why so many projects fail, even those with plenty of money, time and workforce.
From Upanishad
As your desire is, so is your will.
As your will is, so is your deed.
As your deed is, so is your destiny.
(Upanishad, via Deepak Chopra’s Seven Spiritual Laws of Success).
In fact, it’s an entire program of personal development with four successive levels, starting from discerning desires and then proceeding to will (I think it’s about habits / perception patterns / attention management) to deeds (action management) to destiny. Very close to Ignatius Loyola’s idea of discernment of spirits as the first step of spiritual development.
Back to Chopra’s book — it’s a wise and refreshing one. Deep books often have misleading names, it looks rather like publisher’s advice. It’s also interesting how easily Chopra integrates some Christian concepts, like the expression “state of grace” he uses there. Looking forward to reading “The Third Jesus”.
Our personalities change very gently and slowly, like a tree grows. We just notice one day that formerly it was different.
Social models and reality
People who follows popular social models — like a-list blogger, web2.0 startup founder, stock investor, visionary millionaire etc. — have less chance of success than those who serves them.
There is plenty of examples, from WordPress that serves bloggers to investors that serve visionaries. It’s not that there aren’t any successful bloggers or visionaries out there, I just think the successful ones don’t dream to become a successful one in the first place — instead, they like helping people and making life better.
Ego-looped dreams have no power because they simply don’t go any farther than ego and so don’t have access to the power of the universe.
Akousmata
Akousma (plural akousmata) is a Greek word Pythagoreans used for their maxims, it is translated as ‘things heard’ (the same root as in acoustic). It is also possible that akousmata were used as a sort of tokens/passwords. So I thought it would be a good name for microcontent I am introducing here — short phrases I heard somewhere or said myself — for example, in my twitter.
It’s always hard to explain an akousma or it takes a lot of words, but you can quickly grasp it, if there are your “passwords” inside. I mean some words which are keys to bigger patterns, just like a name of a resort we once visited easily arises an entire sea of memories.
To be humble means to follow only your own way, which doesn’t lead everywhere. So, to be humble means to disagree with many other people.
What is the single most important thing right now? The answer is crucial and never obvious.
What is the single most important thing of all times? It is to be able to ask this very question, that is, to have a “second attention” for it.