About a year ago, I wrote the “Help Others Manifesto,” and it set the tone for how I conducted myself and my business over the last 12 months. Now, it’s time to set the tone for teaching others and what I have learned by helping others. Teaching is helping; but with a more directed and specific purpose.
Teaching about social media and small business
My personal and business life has been transformed by the expansion of my network enabled by social media. Much of my success in social media has been organic. I didn’t start with a plan but as I saw my network grow I began to develop one. I’m not a one-trick pony so I won’t be teaching schemes or tricks. Instead, I’ll be teaching what has really worked to expand my business and personal network in a real, authentic and sustainable way.
As my exposure to social media increased, I sought out sources of knowledge to learn what was working for the early movers in the space and what was not. I found that not many folks in the business-to-business (B2B) space had moved into social media early. I kept digging and learning. I applied many techniques to my social media activities and slowly but surely developed a strategy that works.
How the teaching will look
If you visit here often you’ll notice that many post titles now begin with “How to.” These are the posts that explain what is working for me in my business right now. If you are new to social media in the B2B space, many of these posts will be immediately useful to you. For example:
How social media opened the door to the ‘Rainman’ suite
How Thesis Theme makes managing blog post images easy
Why you want to help start something
Not all the teaching will be free. I’ve submitted a chapter to a book that will be published shortly. The book won’t be expensive ($10); but, unlike this blog, you will have to pay to read that chapter as well as those contributed by 47 other writers in the social media and community space.
Private communities and forums. I am spending more and more of my online time in private forums like Third Tribe Marketing and Kitchen Table Companies (affiliate link). While I am not paid to participate in these forums, you do need to be a member to interact with me there. I prefer these forums for a couple of reasons. First, I get as much or more out of them as I put in. Second, these forums are true communities where friendships are forged and potential future business alliances identified.
General rule of thumb
Helping and providing general knowledge will remain free. Personally assisting you with the practical application of that knowledge will have a cost ranging from nominal to not-so-nominal depending upon the extent of my involvement in the transfer of that knowledge. The reason for this decision to begin charging for some of what I do in social media is simple. Since my primary responsibilities still lie with running ColorMetrix, my time is very limited.
One option is to work with Shelby Sapusek and Panoramic Interactive. We collaborate on many ColorMetrix projects and, as a result, we have frequent and in-depth conversations about social media and marketing. Through Shelby you can gain indirect access to me as I am always willing to assist her with setting up social media strategies. She is also far better than I am at day-to-day implementation of such a strategy.