Marketing Advisor, Mentor, & Educator

Kevin C. Whelan

Digital Strategy

How to listen to any article

I don’t have time to read every good article I come across. Nobody does.

I might skim them from my phone in a spare moment, but unless it’s highly captivating, I just don’t set a lot of time aside.

And that means a lot of good stuff goes unread. So, I’ve started sending articles to Instapaper, then have it read it to me while I do other things.

Instapaper has a premium option for $29.99/year that reads out articles at a speed you prefer. It’s like iPhone’s “Speak” function, but you can set it to a much slower pace so you can actually digest what’s being read.

The voice sounds robotic, yes. It’s not a world-class feature. But I find I’m able to “read” a lot more articles I would otherwise have no time for this way.

Now I send articles I find to Instapaper and set up a list to listen to while I clean dishes or go walking.

Give it a try if you find yourself in a similar situation.

Big fan.

 

 

Should You Buy Social Media Followers?

It’s long been known that you can easily buy followers on social media from various places. Most often, you’re buying bots and fake accounts, so for most of this article that’s the kind of “buying” I’m referring to.

This is a controversial topic for some, so I want to look at both the pros and cons of buying social media followers for your business.

Towards the end of this article, I’ll also talk about some ethical ways to buy followers if you are interested in doing so.

Pros

1. Social Proof

As far as I can tell, there’s really only one business benefit to buying followers, and that is social proof (i.e. you look more credible with more followers).

Having tens of thousands of subscribers could make you look like a well-established and beloved company. People might consciously or unconsciously think you’re more credible, making them more likely to follow you and/or buy from you.

On the surface, that seems like a fairly good reason to buy followers. You get new customers trusting you more quickly and you could even build your real following faster.

2. Ego Boost

The main non-business benefit I can see in buying followers is the ego-stoking it provides. We feel good when we are perceived as authorities in our industry. We feel successful, we look successful, and that feels good all around.

Cons

Since we are comparing both pros and cons to buying social media followers, what possible downsides could there be?

1. Trust Factors

Buying followers is a shortcut to perceived popularity. It’s what happens when you have not been doing the necessary work required to build a brand organically.

If people find out you have been buying followers, they would naturally wonder where else you’re cutting corners and whether you can be trusted.

Even if they suspect you bought followers, their trust in your has been diminished.

Identifying whether someone has purchased followers is fairly easy. You can look who follows any account (on Instagram and Twitter, at least) and after some time you’ll see a trend as to whether they are real or obviously fake. You may need to do some scrolling, as often followers are bought early in the account’s history and are buried deeper in the list of followers. There are other ways to do this for different platforms as well.

2. Deception

Buying followers is a form of deception. Good marketing is never deceptive. Good marketing requires having a quality product or service to begin with. When your product or service is great to begin with, marketing becomes about transferring enthusiasm about your offer to your potential customers. No hype or sales-y-ness required.

If people think you’re being deceptive, are they more or less likely to buy from you?

3. Low Engagement

When you buy followers, you also get low engagement. If you have a million followers but only 1,000 likes on your post, the platform will naturally skew towards not showing content as frequently to your true followers.

Platforms are algorithmically built to show good content as the priority to keep people engaged. They determine what is good content by the amount engagement (clicks, likes, shares etc.) relative to your followers and number of times your posts are viewed.

For example, posts that get a lot of likes quickly after publishing will continue showing up at a higher rate for a longer period of time. Posts that get ignored by most followers are less likely to be displayed in general.

4. No Direct Business Benefit

Fake followers are not customers. They’re usually not even real people. Therefore, don’t expect them to buy anything!

Ethically Buying Social Media Followers

In this article, I’ve been focused on whether you should buy fake followers on social media. I’ve been focused on the kind that produces the most number of followers fastest, which is to buy bots and fake accounts.

There are at least three other ways to “buy” real followers more ethically (directly or indirectly).

1. Advertising

You can advertise on most social media platforms with a message that compels people to follow you. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook etc. all have ad platforms that enable you to either promote a link or promote your own profile to increase followers.

If your core message is good, this is a sound and ethical way to grow your following. You’re essentially exposing people to your value proposition in the hopes it catches some attention and captures new followers.

I actually followed someone this way on Twitter the other day. They were advertising a link to some resource to help consultants. I clicked his profile instead, saw a relevant value proposition (he helps consultants with their business) and his latest posts were interesting to me. So I followed him, which is an indirect benefit to his ad spend.

Advertising to relevant audiences with a relevant message is an ethical way to build your following.

2. Follow/Unfollow

This area ventures a bit more into the grey but I don’t see it as an unethical way to grow your following.

There are tools out there that allow you to follow people based on who they follow (i.e. follow all followers of x influencer), hashtags they use, and other factors.  These same tools often unfollow them if you don’t get a follow-back, just so you don’t accrue a big disparity between the number of people you follow vs. the number who follow you.

The idea is that the tool follows real people, they see a notification, read your profile, and follow back if your content and profile description is relevant.

You can also do this manually if you have the time. It’s got a low success rate but it works when you target people correctly.

There is potential that if you follow/unfollow too many people too quickly, you can get banned from posting or following people for a period of time. There are settings you can use to slow this down.

Do this too many times and your account could get blocked, so be careful.

3. Strategic Interactions

Much like the idea above, you can use paid tools that engage with people based on who they follow, words in their posts, or hashtags they use. Engagement means liking, sharing, commenting, etc. The goal is to get people to notice you, read your profile, and then follow you.

This too will have a low success rate if you’re using a tool. It’s the shotgun approach. It works better when you do it manually to highly specific people and add value to them over time.

This method is also most often perceived as spam, so be careful not to overdo it if you decide on this methodology. Spam is not marketing, so I don’t support this method for companies looking to do things right.

 

Conclusion

In business, there’s one essential asset that must be developed, fostered, and protected at all times, and that is trust.

When you buy social media followers, your primary risk is people either knowing or guessing that your followers are fake.

If they find out your followers were purchased, their trust in your will be reduced to whatever degree they expect you to be honest. Even if they suspect you have bought your followers, the trust has been affected

I’m not saying you should or should not buy followers. If you’re going to do it, I recommend advertising since it’s the above-board way to do things and is the least resemblance to spam.

However, if your sole goal is immediate financial growth and you think you can get a greater return on your marketing efforts by buying followers, than by all means do it. But know the risks.

Good marketing aims to be ethical and truthful at all times, so for me, I’d rather not blur the lines into the grey area if I can avoid it, either for myself or my clients.

Tell me your thoughts in the comments!

This Is What Good Marketing Feels Like

At the time of this writing, I have an adorable 11-month old pup named Luna.

She’s learning every day about how to be more polite and to follow the rules we give her. And she’s getting better!

One thing we taught her was to lay down while we’re eating instead of begging us for food. Typical dog stuff. She used to whine and stand at our feet in the hopes that we’ll give her some scraps from the table.

Now, she’s much better. She knows to lie down when we eat and rarely makes a peep. But recently, she’s been trying a new tactic… and admittedly, it’s working on me.

Lately, she’s been very subtly placing her paw on my feet when I’m eating. Just the gentlest, cutest nudge. Sometimes, she even rests it ever-so-lightly on my foot, just to remind me that she’s there.

And you know what? It doesn’t bug me at all. In fact, it’s endearing.

It also keeps her top-of-mind should I wish to pass off a bite of my food. While I don’t like to feed her scraps from the table, she often gets a little treat here or there when she tries this trick. I didn’t even realize it happening until today.

What did that teach me?

Luna reminded me what good marketing should feel like to your customers and prospective customers.

Finding a way to gently nudge your customers, in a way that doesn’t annoy them, in a way that either adds value or builds a relationship, is how you should be thinking about your marketing.

Social media, email marketing, blog content, and even advertising should feel positive to your potential customers. It should get people’s attention while not being aggressive or overbearing. Just.. ever.. so.. subtle.

And what does that do? It makes people aware of you. It keeps you top of mind. It also doesn’t annoy them when you do it this way. In fact, they grow fonder of your business if you do it right.

As a result, they buy from you.

That’s how good marketing works. That’s how you should be thinking about engaging with your target market with your ongoing marketing efforts.

It’s not just the first impression that counts, it’s how you stay in people’s minds over time that leads to the sale.

There Are No Shortcuts in Business

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When I was a kid, one of my household chores was to vacuum.

We had what I thought was an 80-lb vacuum, which I would lug around the house every other week.

Sure enough, when I was done, my dad would inspect my work and tell me whether he signed off or not.

Usually, I had packed away the vacuum already and was one foot out the door to play my friends when he comes back and tells me I missed a spot.

Not one spot, but a lot of spots.

Sure enough, I had to ramble back in, haul out the vacuum and redo the entire set of stairs that I so hastily did the first time.

Every time this happened, the chore took a long longer and was a lot more arduous than it could have been.

This taught me a lesson. I hold a belief now which I attribute to these moments which is that if you’re going to do a job, do it right the first time.

The car dealership

I recently purchased a car, and we visited all of 3 locations. We knew we wanted a Toyota because we heard they run forever.

The first place I went to was an independent dealership that mostly sold Toyotas.

We looked around and they had nothing within our budget and interests.

The salesman asked me if I’d like to leave my contact info in case anything comes up within my range.

Not more than a few days later, I get a call from an overseas call centre telling me I’ve been approved for auto financing.

I asked how they got my contact information and the person told me that I must have given my information at some car dealership.

I had written it on the back of a business card with an invitation to contact me should a vehicle fitting my needs become available.

I had not given them permission to resell my contact information to car financiers.

And even though I’ve asked to be removed from their list, I still get calls, and just yesterday, a text message.

So what happened here?

1. Breach of Trust

This dealership broke the cardinal rule of business, which is to earn and keep trust.

The car salesman seemed fairly genuine. I had enough trust to leave him with my information. And now I’d never go back.

In fact, I’m not one to leave reviews on Google, but I have a good mind to start.

He broke my trust to make a quick buck. He sold my personal information to a company who keeps calling me, despite being asked to be removed from their contact list.

2. Lack of Permission

The second major issue here is a lack of permission. When contacting individuals, whether by phone, email or otherwise, without their permission, you aren’t doing marketing. You’re trying to take a shortcut. It’s spam, and it builds a bad reputation. It can also be illegal according to the CAN-SPAM Act (US) and CASL (Canada).

To make one thing clear, sales calls are fair game. If your company is listed in the phone book or has their telephone number online – you’re fair game according to the law and business expectations.

But spamming people without their permission is a shortcut. It may make you a quick buck today, but it doesn’t build a business.

There are no shortcuts in business (or in life).

What Makes You Noticeably Different from Your Competition?

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It was a beautiful fall day. The sky was clear, the weather was mild, and the sun was out in full force; the birds were chirping and the grass was green; the leaves started changing, but only slightly.

In short, it was the best day of my life.

What happened that day? I got married to my extraordinary wife.

I never felt better. Leading up to it, however, was a different story.

Planning a wedding is hard. It’s easy to underestimate the sheer number of decisions needing to be made.

From the outside, yes it looks like a big ordeal. But from the inside, it’s even more involved than it looks.

At least that was my experience, and I have a background in event planning.

Choosing suppliers

During the planning process, you start looking for all of the vendors and suppliers you’ll need for the wedding.

You have venues to consider, photographers, caterers, florists, bakers, suit and dress stores, restaurants, officiants, musicians, limo drivers, hair stylists, decorations, wedding invitations, bachelor/bachelorette planning, and the list goes on and on… endlessly.

I was reflecting on how many decisions we made. Some were easy, and some were not.

When it came to selecting a DJ for the evening festivities, we were given several recommendations from friends and did some additional searching to find the right person or company.

A wedding DJ is important. They set the tone for the entire evening. The proceedings are either under their control, or it’s out of control in general.

Friends of ours referred us to a DJ group they used for their wedding and gave glowing recommendations.

They couldn’t stop talking about how amazing this DJ and his wife were for their wedding reception. They told us that they wanted to literally throw money at them by the end of the night, they were that good.

“What did this DJ do that was so special?”, I wondered.

It turns out, it had very little to do with the music or performance, although that was great too.

“Wait, what?”, you might ask? Why would someone rave about a DJ service outside of their ability to play great music and keep things on schedule?

It turns out, the number one thing that came up during their raving review was the extras they provided. The differentiators.

This DJ group (a husband and wife duo) was not like any of the other DJs we encountered in our search. And we wouldn’t have known to even look for it, had someone not told us.

Their difference is that they take care of all those little things that could possibly (and often do) go wrong in an evening.

They make sure everyone is where they are supposed to be at the right times. They make sure the speeches run according to schedule. They even bring a Mary Poppins-style bag containing everything a bride and groom could possibly need in the course of the evening.

They think of it all so we don’t have to.

In short, they were our advocates. They filled all of the missing gaps and had years of experience behind them. They made sure almost nothing could go awry. If something did go wrong, they found a way to fix it.

The DJs’ differentiators were their willingness and ability to take control of issues either before they happened, or right as they happened, without intervention from the bride and groom.

Their difference they provided was offering relief for my bride and I from the stress of problem solving when unforeseen incidents cropped up.

Their ability to produce an amazing evening from a music perspective is table stakes in their industry. All DJs we spoke to seemed to have that.

But their willingness to go the extra mile on the day and their experience to help us to plan things properly in advance was not something anybody was willing (or able) to offer like they did.

The takeaway

In business, the best strategic advantage you can have is a differentiator.

When comparing apples to apples, it’s the ones with a valued difference that will win every time.

What makes you and your business so unique that you can’t be directly compared to someone else?

For me, I offer conflict-free advice and help business owners win back their time. I offer advocacy for their cause and alignment with their interests.

I don’t know of any others who offer the same kind of service that I do, which makes it easy to contrast against traditional consulting and agency service providers.

And that’s why I get referrals. That’s why companies stay with me.

What do you offer that is both valued by your clients or customers and can’t be found elsewhere? What do you do differently that your customers tell you they value?

It doesn’t need to cost you a single penny. All it takes is listening to your customer and watching for opportunities to give them a better experience.

If you have a key differentiator, I’d love to hear it in the comments below.

Be sure to subscribe on this page for more ideas like this in your inbox.

The Most Important Career Asset You Can Develop

This article originally appeared in my Digital Strategy Digest emails. Subscribe on this page to get more content like this, as well as original articles on digital strategy, tools, resources and more.

Every so often, someone writes an article that hits the mark so perfectly that I no longer feel compelled to write about it. In this case, the writer was Ryan Holiday, author, and former Director of Marketing at American Apparel.

In this article, Ryan talks about one of the most important assets you can develop in your career: a platform.

Ryan describes a platform in a broader way than you might be expecting:

“In my definition, a platform is the combination of the tools, relationships, access, and audience that you have to bear on spreading your ideas—not just once, but over the course of a career.

So a platform is your social media and the stage you stand on, but it also includes your friends, your body of work, the community your work exists in, the media outlets and influencers who appreciate what you do, your e-mail list, the trust you’ve built, your sources of income, and countless other assets.”

Whether you’re an employee for a company or you run your own business, having a platform will help to mitigate career risks and generate opportunities for you.

Using many examples—from Winston Churchill to Michael Hyatt and James Altucher—Ryan makes this point in a clear and compelling fashion.

There are many strategic elements to creating your platform, but it doesn’t need to be complicated. Give it a read and think about the potentials in your own career.

Full Article: Here’s the Most Important Career (and Life) Asset You Can Develop

Why a One-Size-Fits-All Digital Strategy Won’t Fit

You will never see me publish marketing advice for “all companies” on this blog or anywhere else.

Every company is unique—that goes without saying.

The mix of tactics used are often very similar from one company to another, but how they are employed will vary dramatically. Especially in the details.

And rightly so.

As an example, a general digital marketing principle is to create the best content you can develop—and to do so often. But will that work for you?

What does good content look like in your business and industry? Are they lengthy e-books, 1-minute video tidbits, 3-hour podcasts, quick and easy blog posts, epic 5,000+ word articles, or some combination of each?

Furthermore, do you have the resources to create this content? Is it interesting to your customers? How will you promote it? Will it produce an ROI? If so, how?

And content marketing is just one of many tactics. There is an endless number of other tactics to consider.

We agree that every business is unique, but why do the digital strategies have to be so complicated? Can’t we make broad generalities about all businesses that have some level of inherent truth?

We can. We do. And it doesn’t need to be complicated. But broad generalities are not advice. When it comes to advice, the devil is in the details.

Do your clients want to hear from you twice per week? What do they expect from your content? How polished does it need to be? What tone are you communicating with?

Broad, one-size-fits-all strategies can sometimes work, but how you execute on the tactics and the ways in which you differentiate will determine your success.

“Dominating” Your Business

When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 after being fired, he had his work cut out for him.

During the final quarter of 1996, Apple’s sales had plummeted by 30%. They were in big trouble.

What did he do? Famously, he made cuts. He laid off over 3,000 people.

But more importantly, he cut back Apple’s hardware and software products by 70%, leaving just four products: one desktop and one portable device for each of the consumer and corporate markets.

Simple.

Why did he do this? There are lots of reasons that I won’t get into nor do I have the expertise to comment on all of them.

But importantly—perhaps even philosophically, strategically, or practically, depending on who you ask—he did it to take back control. He needed to have only products on which he and the rest of Apple could focus to make them exceptional.

Many of us run complex businesses. We have long lists of products and services. A lot of moving parts. Operationally, it’s a lot to manage.

We have websites that grow into behemoths, and more marketing and communications channels than we can count.

While we can’t always pare back our businesses to the point where we are back in complete domination over it, we should always be thinking about (and moving towards) closing the gap.

While that doesn’t mean we need to micro-manage our business, it does mean constantly trying to simplify what we do in order to allow the business to be clear and focused on all fronts.

Use of the word ‘dominate’

Domination is a strong word, and I use it for the sake of contrast.

I’m not talking about dominating your clients, staff, or suppliers. I’m talking about having firm control over how your business operates.

We lose this control as a business grows and our offerings become more complex, but the areas in which we no longer have a firm grasp deserves our attention.

The natural tendency is to add. Add new products, new people, new managers; always adding layers.

But if we’re not careful, our businesses will begin to run us.

This website and my services as an example

This website is an example of being very “pared back”. It started with a blank slate and only the essentials are being added on as I go.

As it continues to grow, there will be more and more pages to manage. More information to keep up to date. More work involved to maintain it.

It’s purpose-built. I have complete control over it. Even though there are likely to be a number of small mistakes, typos, and errors (I work quickly and iterate out loud), it is manageable.

And that’s how I’m looking at my business and service offering as a whole.

Under this umbrella, I offer one service with two core components: digital strategy consulting and implementation management.

This is a service that doesn’t require many client and allows me to go deep with each one.

Operational complexity is low, which means I can focus on my client work and completely own how the service is delivered to continue to making my work the best it can be.

What are you doing to take back your dominance over your business? Leave a comment below and be sure to subscribe at the bottom of this page.

Why Digital Strategy is Not an Event, It’s a Process

There comes a point in every business where we must stop and ask ourselves, what’s our strategy here?

When it comes to marketing, the natural progression for most businesses is to start with a few simple tactics, then build a “strategy” around them.

But that’s putting the cart before the horse. You might get some results, but this approach is inherently limiting because the business logic isn’t fully played out and the focus is too narrow.

Strategy is not just the “why” behind the tactics, it’s also the “how”. How are we going to use those tactics to a meaningful end, and how will it lead to a result we intend?

Let’s say you are aware that you need to start focusing on how all of these pieces fit together. You’re ready to create a strategy and start implementing.

The problem is, a static strategy won’t get you very far.

General Patton didn’t go to war with a pre-devised, unchanging strategy. He started with a hypothesis, which was only the first draft of the strategy, then he revised it along the way.

As with all strategies, it required ongoing attention and iteration, depending on the new situations and available resources.

Ideally, your initial strategy is a good one. It should get you momentum. But if you don’t revise it, you’re acting in accordance with yesterday’s world.

At the very least, a good strategy requires ongoing questioning about “why are we still doing this”, “is this still the best use of our time and resources?”, “how exactly is this going to lead to our intended business result?”.

That’s why I don’t offer one-time digital strategy projects at the moment. I’d be setting people up to fail unless I knew there was capable oversight.

Sure, I could create a strategy to get you started, and it might have some results, but it depends on the speed in which your business, the goals, and the market changes, and how you adapt to those things.

A baseball player may have a strategy every time she goes to the plate, but as soon as the first pitch comes out, the strategy begins to evolve according to the situation. The “how” becomes more important.

The only exception to this rule is for very small businesses who can use a standard approach to their marketing.

If you’re a very small business, it’s usually a bit easier. You need a website, as much content as you can muster, some social media, and if you’re really disciplined, some email communications with your customers.

As a company grows, however, the nuances become more crucial if the plan is to achieve business results.

Strategy is not a one-time action. That’s the first hypothesis.

Good strategy is constant questioning, analysis, scrutiny, and iteration over time.

The Unexpected Part-Time Job of the Business Owner

Ever since you started your business, you’ve been overseeing your marketing.

It started when you had your logo designed, followed by some business cards, maybe a brochure or two.

It later became a website. The company started creating thought leadership in the form of a blog. You may have even started a newsletter.

Before long, layers of complexity get added in. Your website now has an e-commerce functionality, you hire some SEO professionals to help your website rank higher, you start to advertise online.

The further you go, the more unsure you get.

“Am I investing my money wisely? Is this working? I don’t understand these reports, can someone explain them to me?”

Costs begin to add up. You’re now spending a healthy sum on your marketing, most of which you don’t really understand.

The paradox here? You’re still managing it.

You’re hoping your suppliers are doing a good job, that the advice you get is sound, that their work is of professional quality.

But really, you have no idea. You understand the broad strokes. But as the expenses begin to mount, you start to feel a bit lost.

The worst part? You don’t have an advocate.

Well, you do. Your suppliers are all advocating for your success.

But they’re also advocating for their own. They want you to keep paying them to do the services you hired them to do. The conflict of incentives is present, while well-intentioned.

Your true advocates (staff, friends, business contacts, family) don’t know any better than you about whether what you’re paying for is working or not. Or whether you’re spending your money prudently.

To add insult to injury, you are already way too time-strapped to do this oversight yourself. Another delegated job becomes your own, if you’re not careful.

This is the Unexpected Part-Time Job of the Business Owner. If you’re not careful, you’ll spend a lot of your time and money navigating this digital landscape with less-than-ideal effectiveness.

Nobody ever expects this new job. It becomes the lynchpin role in the growth of your organization, but it’s managed by the wrong person: you.

The solution is, of course, my digital strategy consulting services.

If not me, then someone qualified needs to be your non-partial advocate. The conflict of incentives is too real to leave it in the hands of your marketing agency or worse, your own.

Your marketing suppliers will all benefit from having someone qualified to explain their work product to. Someone who understands and appreciates the nuances of their work. Less justification, quicker decisions, more effective outcomes.

Subscribe to my mailing list below to learn how you can be a better digital strategist (not tactician) of your own business.