The rage in social networks right now is Pinterest, partly because it’s probably the first social network that has a much higher adoption rate by females than males, and partly because it’s an interesting concept: somewhere between visual social bookmarking and scrapbooking. What also might not be immediately obvious is that it’s just “easier” to interact there. In that way, Pinterest has something in common with Instagram, which is community around photos.

What I’m interested in, though, is Gentlemint, which I keep calling “Pinterest for dudes.” (Again, because Pinterest has a very high level of female users, the content that flows by my screen there, most often, is female-focused.) I’m not at all interested in the technology. Frankly, Pinterest works much better. I’m not interested in the longevity. Pinterest has millions and millions of users. Gentlemint is still cozy. Here’s why I think it’s interesting: because it’s very targeted content curation where the network effect isn’t the goal.

The Next Social Networks

Who cares that Facebook has 850 million users? Investors might care. Advertisers might care. But do you, really and honestly, want to sift through 850 million people? Of course not. Seth Godin said Small is the New Big eons ago. He said Tribes was the way to be. Are you feeling it yet? You will.

Pinterest points to something interesting: absolutely bite-sized curation is a trend to consider. Gentlemint points to the next trend: targeted use of curation technology to build interesting content in a group setting is hot.

Squint just a little. What if you set up a “Pinterest for Guitarists?” Not, “Hey, you can use Pinterest and build guitar boards,” but “Here’s a very targeted site of like-minded people all sharing interesting stuff.

Now, blur your eyes a little. See how it’s much more interesting to build an environment where people with similar passions can curate and share together? Look at Gentlemint again, and realize that this is kind of like Esquire magazine without the meaty articles. By the way, you could just as easily have the articles. It just requires people to write them and tack them to ‘Mint.

Growing a Channel Might Be a Team Sport

In the work I do for Human Business Works, advising mid- to larger-sized companies on customer acquisition strategies around the digital channel, I’m most certainly going to look at niche-curation content platforms as a powerful way to encourage a meaningful interaction with prospects and buyers. If I were working for Hendricks Gin right now, I’d help them build an even narrower-band Gentlemint. And in cases where I want the broader band, I’d work on showing how to integrate marketing into these curation channels in a non-jerky way.

There’s a lot to consider in this trend. Right now, you might just see yourself or your significant other pinning the heck out of recipes and great vacation destinations. Tomorrow, you’ll see a lot of permutations on the mix of tight niche curation plays.

What would you design, if you were building your own “Pinterest for _____?” Who would you target? What would that “magazine” look like? And who would be the likely sponsors of such a play?

Jacq and I just watched Adele Live At The Royal Albert Hall (amazon affiliate link), and though every song was just wonderfully done, I found myself fascinated by what Adele was doing in between each song. Because even though most people would be interested in hearing her belt out her amazing repertoire of hits, what I took away from the performance was Adele’s real magical ability: the ability to resonate with her audience.

What Adele Could Teach You About Impact

I’m writing something about this right now for my upcoming book with Julien Smith, but I had to share some of the ideas with you, because it relates very well to another piece of the puzzle for my series about building your platform. So, what was it that I saw?

Adele knew how to relate to people on their level. She talked about what it’s like to go out with friends when you’re the sober one, and your drunk friends get you into trouble. She talked about how breakups can be such drama-filled experiences (after all, both her albums are odes to her exes). She talked about the excitement she felt for playing the Royal Albert Hall, and when she did this, she talked about it the way you would talk about it, if you were chatting with your friends. It felt real, and very very much like she just wanted to share everything about what she was feeling.

Some Practice for Resonating like Adele

• When you address people in your writing, on stage, in a video or audio, never ever say “you guys.” Talk to one person: someone who matters a great deal to you, and who you’d like to share something important with at that moment.
• Share your emotions. When you’re nervous, say so. When you’re excited, say so. Many emotions that we’re told to keep to ourselves make for a better connection that bridges the gap between people.
• Find what will connect you to others. It’s almost always an oddity. I talk about my love of Batman, or I’ll mention something that happens to most of us that you thought had only happened to you. What does it do? It immediately brings us closer.

Always Treasure Your Opportunity

I’ve heard people say “my community” quite often and every time I hear it, I scrunch my face up and feel a bit sad. I’d much rather they say “the community I have the fortune to serve.” Why? Because we never own community. It’s a gift. And even if we are the supposed “leader” of such a tribe, it’s always clear and obvious that we are there in service of the people who have chosen to share their attention with us.

This starts no matter where you are in the world of platform building. If you have two people who think you’re worth their time, then humbly treasure their kindness. Learn always to heap the praise onto them. You will never win an award that wasn’t brought to you (even partially) by the people who give you their attention. Never ever let yourself feel it’s the other way around. You’re lucky to be part of their world, and you serve them.

Celebrate the Similarities

I think what got me so excited about Adele’s between-song performances was that she did such a great job of talking about the day to day that we all might have in common. Sure, very few of us have chauffeured limousines waiting for us outside our workplace, and that’s why Adele doesn’t talk as much about that part. Instead, she talks about what it’s like when you and your best friend have a falling out and how hard it is to rectify those issues, even though the original pains are probably long forgotten.

See how that works?

This is every bit as important to learn now, as you’re developing your platform, as at any other point in the journey. So, even if you’re not a fan of Adele’s music (I am!), I recommend checking out this performance, and seeing how she handles it. There’s a lot there. Rumor has it she’s done okay by herself, and I’m betting it’s not just her voice that got her there.

I had such a great experience working with award winning musical composer Rob Gokee. We did some musical work together, and the process was so amazing. Rob helped me create my theme song for Shhh! The Secret Show. So anyhow, he and I sat down to do an interview, and it’s a bit long, but it’s totally worth it. We talk about what collaboration feels like at a distance, what it takes to get music like this made for your own show, and a lot more. Rob’s a hero to me, and has been part of the community for a while. I was so fortunate to have worked with him.

Can’t see the video? Click Here

I’m a huge fan of Rob. You should get to know him. Check out his site here.

The following is part ONE of a series called Build Your Platform. If you find it interesting, please consider subscribing for free to get the rest of the series.

This post is long. You might want to bookmark it for later.

The age of social media oversaturation is upon us. People are declaring Twitter bankruptcy to go along with their email bankruptcy. They cite not wanting to start on yet another social network as their reason for not getting more involved with Google+. And just as soon as you start getting into Pinterest, you hear about Path, but wait: there’s Gentlemint, which is really a kind of Pinterest for men, and… Stop the Insanity!

Pardon me while I channel my inner Susan Powter there.

If you seek to make an impact in 2012 and beyond, the time has come to think seriously about your digital presence. How will you use a handful of social networks well? How will you create a unified presence that builds your story, empowers your interactions, and helps you rise up from being just another voice in the stream?

Note: If you just want to tinker and enjoy social media and social networks, stop reading this post and go see what’s happening in the world of Klout, Instagram, and whatever else Mashable reports on. Totally okay. Nothing wrong with that. If you’re looking to improve your chances of doing business, read on.

Build Your Platform: Goals

The goal of building your platform is to create useful information, to select the best possible media to package that information, and then to choose a series of distribution technologies for delivering your ideas to others, to encourage interactions, and to drive towards certain target results.

Simpler still: your goal is to move your ideas through a platform to encourage a human interaction. ( Julien Smith and I might be writing a whole book around this right now.Shhh!)

You can use this goal structure for a nonprofit: I want to create information that encourages donors and volunteers, then create video and text assets, distribute them via video, a blog, and email marketing, and encourage sign-ups either to donate or volunteer.

You can use this for an artist: I want to shoot “the making of” videos of my paintings, then post them on Facebook and Google+, and provide my email address for people to contact me to inquire about buying them.

You can pick whatever you want for the different elements, but if you use the above as a simple way of framing your intent, it certainly helps you better understand how you’ll implement your processes, technology, and tactics to accomplish your goals.

Create Useful Information

What do people want most? They want to learn how to improve their lives, either by solving their problems, feeding their desires, satisfying their insecurities, helping them feed their greed, or comforting their worries around disruption. The information you create and share drives your intent to acquire more customers (and remember: “customer” can be a very wide term for you – maybe you just want your platform to get more attention for the pet shelter animals in your town. Same difference).

What makes information useful? It varies per goal, per type of sale, and many other factors. If you’re selling peer mentoring to CEOs, you’re providing a mix of informative articles, interviews with people in the mentoring network, and testimonials from satisfied members. If you’re selling email marketing software, maybe your content is all about how to improve a user’s email marketing.

In creating Shhh! The Secret Show, my goal is to create information on how to make a show, while also sharing other items and ideas and thoughts that might also help you develop yourself. It’s one way to try and provide useful information. My free newsletter is designed to be personable and useful to people because I’m modeling how companies can use human business practices to build their company and grow a successful channel.

What would make your information useful? What do you believe your buyer (or your intended audience, however you want to label them) would need? Not sure? Describe your business in the comments and maybe we can all take a whack at it.

Choose Your Media

More people purchased tablets and smartphones in the US in the last handful of months (including the holidays) than they did laptops and desktop computers combined. In both cases, this signals to you that people want:

a.) to consume more media.
b.) to consume more video.
c.) to consume brief information.

In choosing how you want to reach people, you might experiment with how you’ll deliver to reach people in a few ways. I have three tools in my belt: 1.) A very active blog. 2.) a video show, and 3.) a lot of short-form social media content. See how that answers all three? It also reaches different audiences in different ways.

Choose Distribution Technologies

First, if your site is not yet mobile-friendly, get on that right away. The Genesis WordPress themes (affiliate link) are mostly mobile-dynamic now. Or you can choose to use a plug-in like WPtouch, if you’re running WordPress. If not, your main site should be configured to toggle to present differently to smartphones and tablets. This is table stakes for the game at this point. If your site isn’t mobile friendly, you might as well just BURN some part of your money monthly to signify the missed opportunities.

You might choose a few distribution methods. My current mix is:

• A blog ( [chrisbrogan.com]).
• Google+ and Twitter.
• YouTube for video.
• A free email newsletter.

I have the blog coming out a few times a week (it used to be daily and more-than-daily). The social channels, I update quite frequently. My video show is weekly. My email newsletter is weekly. If I were to get even more clever, I’d consider building some kind of monthly “roll-up” of all my content into a larger theme/form, but that’s not there. Yet. (Note to self…)

Who should you use for this or that service? (most of these people are so good that I am an affiliate for them.)

Blog host: Except for this site, I use InMotion hosting to host all my other blogs. On this site, because of volume of traffic, I use Rackspace.

Blog theme: I use Genesis themes on all my sites. This one is called Generate.

Video hosting: I prefer YouTube, but I also like Vimeo, Viddler, and there are a few other sites worth considering. But to me, it’ll always be those sites plus YouTube.

Social Networks: I’ve never had much business success with LinkedIn or Facebook, but your mileage may vary. I get great results from Twitter and Google+. You may also try Pinterest, depending on your potential buyer. There are many more networks to consider, but that might be a conversation for another time.

Email Marketing: There are many great companies providing email solutions. I’ll be announcing my new provider shortly. I also think Mailchimp and AWeber are good companies.

Anything I missed? Hit me up in the comments.

Encourage Interactions

If you don’t make it easy for people to comment, to reply, to engage with you, you’re putting a gate up between you and potential buyers. If you don’t reply, people notice (I can’t always reply to everyone, and I hear about it quite often). If you’re not giving people an easy way to take a step other than “buy now,” then you’re encouraging people to leave and do nothing.

What types of interactions? It’s up to you. People ask whether comments are better on a blog or Twitter or Google+ or … you get the point. My answer: who cares? Listen everywhere. Respond wherever you see people talking about you, your story, your ideas, your concepts. Be where people are. Does it take time? Yes. So does everything that sustains you. Growing food takes time. Making clothes takes time. Everything takes time. Stop using that as your measure. Just decide how much can be done by others and how much is your direct contribution. (Listening tools can save you time, but you must invest. More in a later post.) Interactions are silver. Referrals and purchases are gold.

Drive Towards Target Results

When I create an episode of Shhh! The Secret Show, the goal is for someone to view the show, and/or maybe to also pass it on to others. I love every comment I get, and I also encourage email responses in-show. What I’m seeking for responses in the case of this show is simply any kind of comment and/or furthering of the exploration of what we’re talking about in the episode. It’s a bit loose.

However, when I write a blog post, each post has a very specific goal that goes alongside my larger mission to help you grow a successful business channel. This post’s goals?

1.) Encourage bookmarking. (Did you bookmark this?)
2.) Encourage signups to my blog’s RSS feed.
3.) Encourage newsletter signups.

In that order, my intent with my post (after helping you) was to drive one of those three reactions. Everything else is gravy.

In other posts, my targeted goal is for you to buy something. In other posts, it’s to improve my social proof so that you see me showing you that I’m great because _____ . Every post has a goal. If this post were much shorter, there would be only one goal.

In your email newsletter, encourage one goal per post. Keep the mail brief. Sub-300-word emails are gold. In your video, encourage a single call to action, if you can. Whatever you do, try to keep everything to a single message and point, as often as possible.

Summarizing

In this post, the intent was to talk you through:

• Determining your goals for creating a platform.
• Choosing what kind of content to produce.
• Selecting media types and distribution channels.
• Encouraging interaction.
• Seeking a targeted response.

Everything about this post is geared towards helping you consider how you might build a platform to improve your chances of improving the impact of your efforts on communicating and doing business in 2012. In the rest of the series, coming soon, we’ll drill down deeper into even more of the process, and cover some details on how to accomplish some of the above.

Questions?

I support the fight against piracy and intellectual property theft. As an author and a creator, I hate when someone nabs my stuff, or doesn’t give me credit for my work, etc. Stealing is a crime. I’m not ever going to say otherwise.

I will, say, however, that I wish Hollywood and other publishers and creators would spend their time facilitating legal transactions, instead of working so hard to fight the bad guys. That above picture is so frustrating. (Can’t see it? Click Click Here).

I had every intention of purchasing an audio version of Eddie Izzard’s “Dress to Kill” concert performance. Only, the rights aren’t licensed for me because I’m in the US, and evidently, this is a UK-only project. Let’s say this again: I am over here with money looking to buy something and the publisher or distributor or some other legal holder of this material’s rights is saying, “Oh, we don’t want your money, Chris. Don’t worry about it.”

Napster Back in the Day

I was a huge Napster user back in the day. I downloaded the hell out of interesting new material, and then, when I found something I liked, I bought the better version of the music. But it was time consuming, as lots of people uploaded junk, poor copies, intentionally deceptive copies (like audio Rick-rolling), and worse.

When iTunes came along, I shook my wallet into that box like everyone else. It was awesome. Except it was fiercely limited in the “discovery” department. I “discovered” much more music via Napster than ever in iTunes. And those discoveries led me to be able to pay artists I otherwise wouldn’t have tried out.

For every pirate you’re keeping out, you’re also not helping someone like me, who wants to legitimately purchase material.

Sorry, Eddie Izzard. I guess I’ll have to wait a while to hand you some money.

I’m learning about video because I believe, strongly, that 2012 is the year that companies and individuals who can create interesting video will be able to stand out better in the oversaturation of social media. My own practice, Shhh! The Secret Show, has me learning about lighting, sound, editing, interviewing, content planning, camera angles, titles, screen casting, how to make b-roll, and more. It’s quite a step up, technically, from what I used to do with a Flip camera and a bit of waggling it around in front of my face.

And when I say this, it’s most definitely not perfect. Just watch the latest episode to note all the things I could do better. But, and this is important, it’s better for me, and it’s getting increasingly more compelling for my audience, which is the goal. If THEY like it, then I’m doing better. The thing is, if I can figure this out, so can you.

Make Better Video

• Audio is the first big secret to better video. Even if you’re just using your Kodak PlayTouch (affiliate link), make sure to stand close enough to get good audio.
• Lighting is the second big secret to better video. Even if you don’t go out and buy huge lights, don’t film in front of a window.
• Eye contact is free. Look AT the camera lens and pretend you’re looking into the eyes of a loved one.
• Speak swiftly. Oddly, when I talk really fast, people seem to positively react. I thought I’d have to speak slow like I try to do on stage. It’s the opposite in video. Not CRAZY fast, but so far, I’m finding it a secret trick.
• Brevity rules. The fact I got a few thousand people to watch 31 minutes last week is wrong. I shot 18.5 minutes this week. Let’s see how much better that does. Might get down to 10, and that’s because this is a SHOW and not bits.
• Bits. If you shoot bits, then maybe 3 minutes or less is a better guide.
• Just. Press. Record. The only way to get doing this stuff, is to get started. Learn by failing and correcting the failures.

I’m fairly convinced that video will be an important part of 2012 because of all the mobile and tablet devices that are now out-selling their laptop and desktop brethren. Yes, there will still be a place for text, but you are now a magazine and a TV station, so get thinking about what your TV channel means.

Shhh! The Secret Show

I’m dedicating the Secret Show to providing you secrets to help you succeed, plus we’ll talk every week about growing your own channel and developing your own success. If you’re interested, episode 2 is RIGHT HERE.

2012 is the year where social media oversaturation hits hard. We will scale back on our participation in social networks, and we will most certainly scale back who we choose to follow as sources. This won’t be because someone is bad or good. It will be based on whether the connection with that person adds value to the stream of information we’re cultivating or not.

In determining how to deliver value and stay relevant and visible in this new landscape, I’ve written down 97 ideas to help you build a valuable platform. Note: some of this thinking comes from writing a new book with Julien Smith that isn’t out until Fall 2012. Want some up front hints? Read this post.

97 Ideas for Building A Valuable Platform

Start Somewhere

1. Don’t fret as much about the technology. Don’t have a blog? Start one at WordPress.com or Tumblr.com. If you want more flexibility, get your own WordPress blog (affiliate link) by clicking the 4th option on this page.
2. What are you passionate about? What is useful to others? These two thoughts combined are your best bet at defining your platform.
3. You might be the “little drummer boy,” worried that what you have to say isn’t worthy. Everyone has something to contribute, especially if you remember to be the real you and not a copy of others you feel are successful.
4. Get in the habit of writing daily, even if you don’t post daily. Start with 200 words. Then 300. The current best bet for a blog post’s length is between 300-500 words. You can get that.
5. Remember that there are all kinds of platform-making choices. You can do blogs, video, newsletters, social networks, and many more avenues. What you can’t do is do ALL of those well. Pick a few and work from there. One, maybe two, is a good start.
6. Don’t be afraid to consider video or audio as part of the mix. We are inundated with text. Why not give all those shiny new smartphones and tablet computers something to consume?
7. The simplest of messages is often the one we need to hear the most. Paulo Coelho has a world record for how many languages and countries his book, The Alchemist, has been translated into for consumption. The real core of the book is about love and how all things are essentially the same.
8. People always worry about how often or rarely they should post. The answer is “how often do you have something worthy of tapping into my attention?” Do it that often.
9. It’s hard to create consistently without inspiration. Read often. Keep your eyes open. Be wary of how your world offers you stories every day.
10. No matter what other tools you use, make sure you have a website that is your “home base.” Everything else is an outpost. You can spend more time on the outposts, but your goal is to encourage a visit to the home base for a furthering of the relationship.

Click here to download a FREE Introductory Guide to the Genesis Design Framework for WordPress (PDF – 1.4 MB) (affiliate link)

Embrace Brevity

11. We are in a consumption society. People can barely read a tweet. Keep everything brief. Note how a numbered list helps with this? Do similar things. Think bite-sized.
12. We tend to overwrite. Most people’s first few paragraphs are throat-clearing, and their endings are weak. Try cutting from the beginning, and making sure the ending of what you write lands well.
13. Short sentences rule. Read The Shipping News by Annie Proulx. You can’t not write like her afterwards.
14. In video, the goal is under 2 minutes, unless it’s a speech or an interview. A trick: you can break up videos with your own “commercials.”
15. People can barely read tweets. If your blog post is super long, make it worth it.
16. Writing commentary about other people’s ideas is great – occasionally. Start formulating your own brief ideas.
17. Want to master brevity? Learn how to create useful posts on Twitter. It spreads to other mediums quite well. Participate in a few hashtag chats like #blogchat on Sunday nights (US time).
18. If you can say it with fewer words, do so.
19. Think of ways to “chunk” your content, so that people can consume it. We’re consuming more and more on mobile devices. How will you serve that marketplace?
20. Email newsletters were born to be brief. One “ask” per email is plenty.

Video. Video. Video

21. Find a video recording tool and start using it. It can be your laptop. It can be a standalone like the Kodak PlayTouch. Whatever. Just start recording. Practice getting comfortable. Delete the first dozen until you feel like you can look at the lens.
22. Get a YouTube account. You can use any other platform you want, but you must also use YouTube. It’s the #2 search engine in the world. Why would you NOT use it?
23. Practice recording daily. Practice publishing weekly. Even if it’s just a few minutes. (It’s better if it’s just a few minutes.)
24. Remember that brevity rules. 2 minute videos (or even shorter) get much more play and have many more views until the end than long videos. Yes, interviews are a different beast. Break them up with “commercials” or other ways to segment them.
25. You can edit just fine in iMovie or Windows Movie Maker. If you graduate to Final Cut Pro or Sony Vegas or whatever, great. But don’t worry about that at first. Just start with the simple and the inexpensive.
26. AUDIO is the secret to better video. People forgive a lot of visual mess if you have solid audio.
27. How I learn more and more about video comes from watching and dissecting how others do what they do. Find interesting video shows (or TV shows) and figure out how they get what they get.
28. Remember: start somewhere. You don’t have to do amazing video. You have to start telling a story that reflects you, and that is helpful to others. This is the core of a humble platform.
29. Interviews are a great way to get started in video, because you can ask others to talk about themselves. Learning about others is often helpful to people.
30. The more you practice with video, the more you’ll see rewards. We are a visual race, we humans. But don’t forget to add text in the post that contains the video.

Ideas Drive Platform
Julien Smith and I are writing a book spends a lot of time talking about this. It comes out in fall 2012.

31. If you’re the same as everyone else, how will we notice you? Ideas need contrast to make sense.
32. The best ideas are the ones people can take and make their own. Give your ideas “handles” and let people take those ideas with them when they go.
33. If you can clearly articulate your ideas, even simple ones work well.
34. Sharing other people’s ideas helps show that you don’t feel you know it all. (Humble, remember?)
35. Sometimes, a question makes for a great idea. I’ve learned plenty from admitting I don’t know something.
36. One amazing idea trumps a lot of little ideas. And yet, usually really little ideas can be amazing. Sir Richard Branson’s biggest business idea is to keep his companies small. For a long time, only the airline bucked that trend.
37. To come up with great ideas, read and listen to other people’s great ideas. To make your ideas great, share them as often as you can.
38. Hoarding ideas is like stashing ice cubes under your mattress for later. Use them when you get them, and share them liberally.
39. Never worry that someone else “stole” your idea. Ideas are free. Execution is what makes you money. I’ve met countless bitter people who “invented Facebook” years before.
40. We love learning from people who have interesting and positive ideas. It’s harder to keep an audience, if you’re forever in the negative and griping camp.

Be Yourself

41. The more I act like myself, instead of like what I thought the world wanted, the more successful I become.
42. Realize that there’s a “hot mess” line, meaning that you have to filter the “you” that you put out there a little bit. People don’t want to hear every woe and misery in your life. (Most times. Dooce not withstanding.)
43. Realize that being yourself means you won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. Embrace that.
44. The “yourself” that most people want you to be is the one that they can learn something from. And yet, if that’s not what you want to be, disregard me and be yourself.
45. Part of being yourself is untangling from other people’s expectations. This is a very difficult matter, and yet important to building your platform.
46. “Be yourself” doesn’t mean be only about yourself. Connecting with and caring about others is always a trait that earns more attention.
47. It’s great to have a lot of passions. When displaying this via your platform, try to tie them to a larger storyline so that people understand how they connect.
48. Never let your shortcomings become your reasons why not. Richard Branson is dyslexic. Ryan Blair went from gang member to millionaire success story. Excuses are Band-Aids on wounds that don’t exist.
49. Marsha Collier said it best: “You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.”
50. Start where you are. Lots of people worry that everyone’s so far ahead. Those people? They started somewhere.

Humble Is Better Marketing

51. It’s better to focus on helping and creating useful information than it is to seek and share praise about yourself.
52. Promoting others does more for your reputation and reach than promoting yourself.
53. Share other people’s great work, and create great work. Yours will be shared, at some point.
54. Leaving comments on other people’s sites with your links and promoting your stuff is poopy. It smells of desperation. Don’t do it. The only exception is when you’re invited to do so.
55. Ask about others first. The most famous people I’ve met do this and do it well. Both Sir Richard Branson and Disney CEO Bob Iger asked me about me before I could start my interviews with them. In both cases, they were sincere and interested. Learn from the big dogs.
56. The more you care about the success of others, the more you will be successful.
57. Being humble isn’t a marketing plan. It’s a requirement for doing human business.
58. Humble doesn’t mean “forgotten,” nor does it mean self-destructive. If you’re too humble, that’s also called “invisible.” Realize when the right times to chime in might be.
59. Yes, occasionally, it’s great to pat yourself on the back.
60. Remember that praise and criticism are the same: other people’s thoughts that shouldn’t sway your overall mission. (We tend to accept praise but loathe criticism. Learn to loathe it equally.)

Your Three Roles

61. Whether or not you want to be, you are now in sales and customer service, along with whatever your main goal or drive might be.
62. If you want your platform to succeed, you have to become comfortable with selling. Sell yourself. Sell your product. Whatever you’re looking to do, learn how to be open, clear, and honest with how you sell.
63. Customer service (and use this term broadly) matters. If you’re selling something, serve those who are your customers. If you’re hoping to sell, realize that how you treat your prospects is how you should treat your customers.
64. Marketing is part of sales. If you’re not finding ways to promote (humbly!) your ideas and your goals via your platform, you’ll not get the chance to have sales.
65. Listening and responding are core to customer service. It’s amazing how many people miss opportunities simply by missing a reply. (Happens to me, often.)
66. The old “ABC” from Glengarry Glen Ross was “Always Be Closing.” The new ABC is “Always Be Connecting.” Networks are what make selling easier. Your platform is part of how you network.
67. Customer service also means sometimes learning who isn’t the best customer. It’s a tough moment when you have to let a customer go, but often times, this leads to improved success. (Tread cautiously here.)
68. Most small businesses split their time in thirds: 1/3 prospecting, 1/3 executing, 1/3 serving your customers. That’s a good model for us, too.
69. If you’re doing it right, all three roles complement each other. We buy from people we know. A platform helps with that. Serving the people you care about, your community, is just what comes with the territory.
70. No matter how busy you are, if you’re not doing one of your three prime roles, you’re not working on your business or your platform.

Overnight Success

71. Building a platform takes time. Years. But you have to start somewhere.
72. Doing the work requires more time and effort than not doing it. Unemployment is also easier than working.
73. No one ever hands you success. Even those stars you sneer at, saying “but they had ____” , really have to earn it.
74. Success, as I define it, is the ability to choose how you spend your day, and a full belly.
75. It takes a lot of “kitchen table” time to find ideas that can bring you success. But you need to test those ideas out at the “lemonade stand” to know whether they have any play in the marketplace. And ultimately, the beauty of this platform you’re building will be that it provides a “campfire” around which you can gather and further develop the community. (Something that Julien and I have been musing over for years.)
76. There are very few successes in the world that happened as solo acts. You need a team, a network, and a lot of goodwill.
77. Success doesn’t just show up. It comes in tiny molecules daily. If you didn’t work today on building success, how will it come to you tomorrow?
78. Success is also about knowing what not to do, and what to cut out. Success is about stripping down to the core of what you can do for the world. This takes work.
79. Never mistake popularity for success. There are plenty of popular people who still haven’t made it.
80. Success never comes to those who don’t put in the work. If this seems like a lot of repetition, it’s because this one lesson is often skipped over.

What to Talk/Write About

81. Write about your potential audience or buyer more than you write about yourself.
82. Sometimes, the best posts or videos come from the frequently asked questions people have.
83. Share more than just a few tiny tidbits. People know if you’re trying to lure them in deeper.
84. Interviews make great content, but only if you ask great questions.
85. Product and service demos can be interesting.
86. Testimonials are good to talk about, but ESPECIALLY if you can highlight the hero, your customer, and not your product. Meaning, talk about a successful ____ customer, but don’t talk as much about the product as you do them.
87. Personal posts can make for really great content. And by personal, I mean, connect people with who you are and what you are about outside of your professional role. What else are you into?
88. Point out the great people in your community. Posts or interviews really make this happen.
89. Deliver instruction. Teaching someone how to do something never goes out of style.
90. Don’t forget to do the occasional series.

What to Avoid

91. Any post bragging about how great you are is a wasted post. You want to feel proud, but it’s just hard for people to feel it with you, unless you’ve built the relationships first.
92. Posts that are selling, but that are masked such that they don’t appear to be selling aren’t good business. If you’re going to sell something, be clear about it.
93. Try never to say “you guys.” Address one person, a very important person.
94. Try never to write about us and them.
95. Want to wow people? Don’t write nasty posts about your competitors.
96. Don’t worry about link-baiting. Worry about becoming a trusted and valuable resource.
97. Before you blog or shoot video in anger, rethink whether it’s worth it.

In the end, it’s up to you. Yes, this will take work. No, this isn’t simple. Yes, there will be mistakes. But I feel that the world is shifting from simply “use of social networks” into “seeking of value.” This is some of the way you can attain that.

What’d we miss?

I’m pretty excited about my new video show, Shhh! The Secret Show, which has its first episode here. The premise is that it’s a show to help you be a better you, and to improve your business through the effort. It ties to what I’m working on with my company, and it’s going to be a lot of fun to build.

Instead of starting off with something fully polished and perfect, I wanted to “build it in front of you,” which means that I’ll show you how I improve it each episode. I’m learning lots of new skills at the same time, including lighting, how to sync audio and video from different sources, effects, and more. As the show builds, you’ll see some new effect each time (or maybe you won’t notice them).

And, of course, there will be more to learn about through the actual content. In this first episode, I interview someone with experience consulting with over 250 really large businesses and a lot of lessons learned. Check out what you can learn from Andrea Kates here.

And please feel free to give me feedback on the show. I’m sure it will be able to use your advice and feedback.

Thanks for all your kindness over the years. This is another project where I hope to give back. I also look forward to announcing more about the show in just a few weeks! So stay tuned for that, too.

images stored on flickr

Dorothy Parker said, “I hate writing. I like having written.” I know many people who are like that about their business, their trade. I know many more people who love to fantasize about what life will be like when they make it, but they like to skip over the part with the hard work, or they give it a sentence or two.

Here’s a hint: the work part is what brings the money part.

How to Get Very Lucky In Life

A few days ago, I came a lot closer to being able to cross something huge off my bucket list. I can’t talk about it just yet, but essentially, I was able to shoot video and talk with a legend of mine. That didn’t happen because someone was looking around to find the right kind of person to do this interview. I asked for it. And I asked for it after having done that person a decent job turning around some work in short order, on top of the work I’d already handed in.

In essence, I was able to check something off of my bucket list because I worked hard enough to earn the shot at doing it.

I’m lucky like that all the time. I spent 12 years (and counting) learning how to create compelling information and nurture relationships with the people who interact with that information. After twelve hard years (many of them without making a cent or receiving much recognition), I get lucky. Luck just comes pouring in all around me. I just sit back and let it all just happen.

Yeah, right.

Luck, Like Love, is a Verb

Both luck and love are verbs that run on work. In 2012, one of my three words is “practice.” I’ve said it repeatedly like this: “the practice is the reward.” When I practice, and when I do the work, I attain luck. Your relationships work like that, don’t they? Your business relationships require nurturing. Your personal relationships require nurturing. Everything you do to add value requires work. Playing a musical instrument, singing, painting, sinking the three point shot in basketball, dealing without flipping over the cards ( Hi, Dad!), are all skills that come from a lot of work.

Make the Work Sexy

I’m on day 9 of 12 in 12 and it’s hard to stick with something every single day in a row. But by making this commitment, I’m already seeing the fertile soil where the seeds of my effort will eventually yield results. When I tackle this work every day, I start with a smile. I force a HUGE smile onto my face. WHY? Because it gets me closer to feeling like the work is sexy. When I write the 2000 words I have due every day on my book, I celebrate each finish with a private cheer and I make sure that I celebrate that work. Why? Because the practice is the reward.

Tell No One

Read this post by Derek Sivers. He’s pointing out something important that I first learned from Jacqueline: telling someone about your goals and talking about your goals out loud can have the opposite effect that you’re intending. It can signal the body that you’ve already accomplished the goal, and then a bunch of interesting reactions happen that keep you from actually doing the work you just got done telling everyone you were planning to do. I had that conversation last night with Rob Hatch as well. Evidently, talking about work is far less sexy.

But Chris: YOU Tell People Your Goals

I do, because I’m trying to model what goals can do for you. But believe me, that does make it harder. I’m writing this on day 9 of my #12in12. I don’t really want to jump down and do an hour of yoga. It’s not the work that’s hard. It’s that “hour.” But when I go back to the 25 minute program, that’s not all that useful to me. So, I’ve made it harder on myself.

But secretly, and don’t tell anyone this, I like it even more because it means that I have to work even harder to achieve these goals, because if I’ve done all the bragging, and all those chemicals supposedly tell me I’m done, then I have to work with even more effort, and something about the challenge of that is fun to me.

Being The Boss Is Sexy

I’m the boss of my own company now, and some people think that’s sexy. Of course, those of you who own your own company know exactly how nonsexy it can be (often), but let’s let the mystique linger a bit, shall we? Besides, I have a hunch.

I was an owner long before I was the boss. I owned my desk at my telephone company job, and that got me better opportunities, because I owned everything I could and make it my responsibility to do even more than the role required on paper. When I moved to my wireless telecom roles, I owned every one of them. I worked harder on projects that weren’t my assigned work while completing the job they paid me for as well. So I was an owner before I became the boss.

And now, as a boss? I never call Rob my employee. I call him my partner. He technically works for me, but Rob works with me. When I ran New Marketing Labs, we called our clients partners, too. Because business is about belonging.

So if you’re not the boss yet, become an owner. Either way, it gets you closer to doing the sexy work.

There Is Work in All Things

Watch a gorgeous red-tailed hawk find a heat pocket and glide on it a while and you’ll see all the grace and beauty of flight. But that hawk flaps more often than he glides, and his entire life is boiled down to trying to hunt for food in a dwindling habitat (which is why we can observe more and more red-tailed hawks). A duck sliding like glass across a pond is paddling furiously under the water to stay in motion.

Do the work. Make it sexy. The practice is the reward.

People seem to want to know about email list building, and how to get a big newsletter subscriber base. I have my ways. I’ll share what I know.

I sell premium WordPress themes (affiliate link) from StudioPress, because I’m a fan of the company, but also because I use them and they have served me very well. At present, I’m using the Generate theme (scroll down a little), which features a prominent email subscription link at the top of the page (see the above graphic or just click through to [chrisbrogan.com]).

This is perhaps the least customized version of a StudioPress theme I’ve ever used. Yes, Brian Gardner and team added my pretty head to my version, but beyond that, if you want what I’ve got on my site, it’ll work almost the same way out of the box. (Yes, it’s better to have a designer help you pretty it up a bit.)

But the look of the theme, while wonderful, isn’t what’s interesting. Want to see some numbers?

My Subscription Rate to My Email Newsletter

According to my stats, we’ve seen an increase of 35.41% in subscribers to my newsletter since turning on the Generate theme. Just park on that for a moment. 35 percent more people are getting my newsletter since I pushed that big graphical sign-up into the top of my site. This is huge.

If that’s not a reason to consider picking up the Generate theme, then I can’t help you.

A Bit More About My Methods

I have some other stats to share with you. My open rates.

Open Rates on Previous 4 Newsletters

35% – CB’s Next Big Deal
39% – Three Words
23% – Starting Moves Video
40% – Switch To Paper Lists

What are the industry averages? Silverpop says 22%. Epsilon says 23.8%. PR Daily says 17%.

I’m doing reasonably well, given the averages I’ve found elsewhere. How do I think I’m accomplishing this?

1. Deliver value. Give even more than your readers would ever imagine.
2. Encourage replies. Make your newsletter come from a real email address, not a “donotreply@pleasegoddontemailme.com” type of address.
3. Write in a personable tone. People respond to the sense they’re talking with a person.
4. Share useful information, not ads. The more you can help others and extract value elsewhere, the better.
5. Be clear when you’re selling.
6. Connect with people outside of the email on social channels. (Secret gold.)

Email Marketing Isn’t Dead; BAD Email Marketing Is Dead

I called this email list building the lazy way because to me, it’s lazy that I don’t spend mountains of time figuring out A/B testing, and I don’t work exceptionally hard on copywriting or crafting the most amazing headline ever. I have very little in the way of automation. It just doesn’t suit the Human Business Works brand.

Instead, I invest in being as personable and responsive as possible. I invest in creating more value than I capture. I invest in delivering as much quality as I can manage. That’s how I act lazy.

Check Out Generate

If you want to take a shot at building your newsletter in 2012 and beyond, check out the Generate theme from StudioPress. I’m sold on it, for sure.