Author: Dan Blank

Today I would like to talk about the value of creative side projects. I know, I know, you are likely already saying, “Dan, I’m swamped. I have zero energy or time for a side project.”

I didn’t either, until I took on a huge side project this week. Let’s explore why taking on more creative work can sometimes jumpstart a stalled creative process.

I would define a ‘side project’ as pursuing an idea that is separate from your normal work, and may not have any immediate strategic function. You aren’t pursuing it because you think you can make a lot of money quickly.

Rather, it is an exploration of creativity itself.

For a novelist, a side project could be crafting a series of poems.
For a musician, it could be designing and making their own furniture.
For an artist, it could be learning to play the banjo.

Last Friday, with zero preparation, I suddenly decided to start a daily vlog. A vlog is basically a ‘video log,’ much like a video diary.

For the past week, I have written, recorded, edited, and published seven videos. This is all in addition to my normal workload and personal responsibilities. Here are the videos:

Let me summarize the good and the bad of doing this:

• The bad: Each took about four hours to create. Like you, there is no way I felt I had 4 extra hours of creative energy that was unused each day. Yet, I found the time/energy every day for the last seven days.
• The good: The work has fueled me creatively this week — I have felt so enthusiastic about creating. Doing videos is a lot of work. Doing daily videos is kind of crazy. That level of commitment, that kind of a deadline, creates an excitement around the project, which is really gratifying.

Okay, let me use this example as a way to explore the value of side projects for your own creative work:

Focus on Meaning First

By a “side” project, I don’t mean “insignificant.” So often, our daily professional and personal responsibilities are defined for us. From the moment we wake up, we know where we need to be, and what we have to do. Perhaps you dream of doing something else — stretching a part of yourself that feels neglected.

A side project is our chance to address something we believe in deeply.

For my vlogs, I used this opportunity to tackle deep topics that I rarely see discussed. The first 6 vlogs covered:

1. Anxiety and your creative work
2. How to get out of a creative funk
3. How to manage guilt around creative work
4. The reality of how to get good at your creative work
5. Why copying is okay in your creative work
6. Jealousy and your creative work

You can see a trend: one theme (creative work) approached from many angles. I tried to focused on aspects that I rarely see addressed… talking openly about being jealous, having anxiety, and working through guilt. These are day to day realities for many professionals.

Every Moment Can Be a Creative Moment

Because I have a daily deadline, I’m looking for creative moments all around me. These do not have to be complex things. So far, many have been simple actions:

• My cat doing something cute
• The sunrise
• My kid turning on the light in the morning

It has been fun to view the world in this manner. With every moment as an opportunity to create.

The More You Tell Stories, The Better You Get At It

These videos are produced quickly, but each tries to tell a story. Consider the difference between:

Telling one story per week (52 per year)
Telling one story per day (365 per year)

How much better will I get at storytelling in a shorter period of time doing this?

I actually had the experience this week of needing to fill some space in a video, and realizing that I was hungry for hot dogs. So I filmed the process of going to the store, walking down the aisle, picking out the hot dogs, cooking it and serving it. Doing so was filled with lots of creative decisions about what to film, how to film it, and how to edit it.

Maybe your side project will have nothing to do with video. But regardless of what your creative focus is: learning to tell a story even better is at the crux of it.

Practicing Honesty

A key element of storytelling is honesty. In these videos, I have challenged myself to be more honest. In the very first one, I admitted that what kickstarted the series was seeing someone else’s video, and feeling envious. So I took action.

I rarely hear people say, “Boy, was I jealous of someone today.” Too often, we hide that part of ourselves, we mask it, we posture around it. Admitting that felt freeing. That I turned it into something positive felt even better.

Most of the videos feature my home, because that is my every day reality… I work from home. Does it feel exposing to show this? Not really. But I did have to think about it for a moment, and I consider that in the edits. Where is the line for me? I decide that every day.

I also talked about how elements of the videos themselves were copies of another filmmaker I follow: Casey Neistat. I don’t want to take credit for his work, and wanted to explore the value of copying in the creative process, which I did in the second video.

Three Tips for Embracing Creative Side Projects

If you want to pursue your own creative side project, here is my advice:

• Choose something you are passionate about that isn’t strategic. This shouldn’t be a “get rich quick idea.” It should be something that feels good.
• Create tight deadline. Without deadlines, you will obsess over quality, and never share your work in progress.
• Find a small group of collaborators who can give you feedback.

In a mastermind group I run, one of the members talked about hitting a period of burnout. But then, a creative side project left them enthused and full of energy. My reaction was this:

“Isn’t it funny how creative work is sometimes the solution to overwhelm?”

In the age of overwhelm, sometimes the path forward is not to cut away, but to do more… more of what fuels you.

Will I continue these videos? For now, yes. I’m going to try. It seems as though the benefits far outweigh the costs; but the real value is this:

I wake up excited to tell a new story each day.

Isn’t that what it’s all about?

What creative side projects would you like to fill your days with?

And of course, please subscribe to my daily vlog on YouTube!
Thanks.
-Dan

When you release your work — your book, your art, your business — the biggest thing you fear is not failure, but silence.

That no one cared.

Deep down, you are certain that your work matters, that it can change people’s lives. But part of you resists being the one shouting from the rooftops about your work — you would prefer that other people doing that for you.

When others talk about how great your stuff is, it creates social proof, which is a key aspect of encouraging more sales. More on that below.

Today, I want to talk about specific tactics for getting reviews for your work. These are reviews that would appear on a retailer such as Amazon or Etsy. They are meant to help others make buying decisions, and it encourages the retailer itself to see that your work is popular, and therefore worthy of being promoted a bit more.

In the examples below, I’m going to use a sample context that assumes you are an author trying to get more reviews for your book on Amazon. But keep in mind, the same tactics apply to other creative work: art, a business, crafts, and so much else.

I also want to be clear: I am taking about reader reviews, or fan reviews. Yes, there are other types of reviews — media reviews, critic reviews, book blog reviews, review services, community reviews, etc. I’m not going to talk about those today. Those places are inundated with people pitching them books. Instead, I want to focus entirely on two aspects:

1. Turning your fans into reviewers
2. Getting more reviews that appear at the point of sale within an online retailer. I’m going to use Amazon as the stand in for online retailers here, but it applies to many other websites and industries.

Why? Because to me, focusing on reader reviews is timeless in terms of a long-term strategy of supporting your work. It also encourages great customers service practices to over-deliver to your readers. This is why I love how someone such as Amanda Palmer has found great success by focusing her love and attention on “her people,” those who love and support her work. (This is a blog post I wrote about her on that topic.) I’m less interested in analyzing services that work today, but may not work in 6 months, which keeps authors on a constant spin cycle of trying to follow the latest trend.

Okay, let’s dig in…

Social Proof Sells Your Work For You

I am always amazed at how many recently published books on Amazon have zero reviews. I mean, compare your gut reaction to three books on the same topic or genre that you are considering buying:

• Book A has zero reviews.
• Book B has 36 reviews.
• Book C has 142 reviews.

That is not to say that the number of reviews indicates which book is objectively better. It doesn’t. The book with zero reviews could be amazing.

But, when placed in the mode of where to invest your time and money, you may begin wondering, “If it’s so amazing, why is no one shouting about it?”

Let’s change the example. You are out on a date with your special someone. In front of you are three Italian restaurants. One is packed. One seems to have a healthy vibe with many of the tables filled, and one is empty. The waitstaff is just standing around, bored.

Which restaurant do you go into? Or rather, which do you cross off your list first?

Now let’s talk about your book. Imagine that the day you release your book, 25 reviews are posted. Wouldn’t that be great? To not sit there, refreshing Amazon, and seeing nothing but silence?

This is why whenever I see a new business owner obsessing over their logo, their business cards, their website, their brochures, I cringe. Sure, these things matter, but they pale in comparison to the value of social proof. To others talking about your work with enthusiasm. This, after all, is “word of mouth marketing,” which tends to be the only kind of marketing that is consistently effective.

We can see social proof around us in all kinds of subtle ways. When you are reading a blog, consider the difference between these two sentences:

1. “Click here to see my best articles.”
2. “Click here to read my most popular articles.”

The former indicates the stuff you hope I like. The latter, the stuff that everyone is actually talking about. Huge difference.

In the book Influence, Robert B. Cialdini lists social proof as a key aspect of marketing. He says that people are likely to rely on social proof when they are uncertain, so they tend to follow the lead of others who are similar to themselves. (If you are interested in marketing and haven’t read the book, order it right now. Seriously. See — social proof at work!)

Okay, okay, let’s talk about the nuts and bolts of getting reviews…

Focus People on Taking Actions that Matter

I’ll bet you have been overwhelmed with all the things you are told you have to do in order to promote your work. That you have to have a huge email list, a popular blog and podcast, and of course, loads of followers on every social media channel.

When considering your readers — think of actions that are truly meaningful. For instance, I go to a lot of author websites, and often find that they point me to 1,000 places at once. It’s not unusual for me to see a clutter of information, and links up top to seven or more social media feeds. This, despite the fact that they are only active on two of them. I mean, why send me to a Pinterest account that was last updated in 2013?

So often, we worry about being popular everywhere. “Follow me here, follow me there, follow me everywhere!!!!!”

Bleh.

Instead consider: what actions matter to your work? Put your reader’s focus there. My gut is that the list is pretty short. You hope people discover your work. That they buy it. That they love it. That they tell someone. That they become a fan.

Put your energy there. Brainstorm 1,000 creative ways to make those specific things happen.

This is what I loved about my experience in helping Sarah Towle successfully reach her $40,000 funding goal for her Kickstarter last year. Our goal was so specific, so we put months of creative thought into how to reach that singular goal. We went all in, and the focus allowed us to consider dozens of fun — and meaningful — ideas that leads to a huge goal.

Likewise, John Robin is an author in a Mastermind group that I run who is funding his book on a platform called Inkshares. The book doesn’t publish until later in 2016, and his singular focus is identifying loads of creative ways to get people to preorder.

So far he has 366 preorders for a book that isn’t even finished yet. Is John coasting on his credentials from previously published books? Nope, he’s a first time novelist. What’s more: since these folks are a part of the publishing journey, I’ll bet a sizable amount of them leave reviews in the first week. Can you imagine as a first time author, having 100 posted to Amazon in the week of release?

I would bet that this will be the reality for John.

So the first step to getting reviews is to identify a handful of key goals that matter for your work. If you want reader reviews, then prioritize them, and put real creative energy into considering how you can get them. Oh, let’s talk about that now…

You Have to Make the Ask

Too often, we assume that people will know how to support your work. We assume that they know to leave a review. Where to leave it. When to leave it.

They don’t.

You have to ask them to review you book.

You can do so in the obvious places: in your social media feeds, blog, newsletter, podcast, email, phone, in-person, billboards, telegrams, carrier pigeons… okay, yes, I’m getting carried away.

But also: in the book itself. It’s become common for an author to place their website at the end of the book, and promote other books. Encourage readers to leave a review as well.

Think of it this way: the reader just spent hours and hours with that book, with you whispering your story in their ear. That’s a very intimate thing. The moment they finish it, they are bursting with thoughts and emotions about the book. Give them an outlet for it.

I mean, can you imagine watching a movie you loved in a theater, and walking out into the lobby only to have the director and the star waiting for you, asking, “What did you think?”

Author Miranda Beverly-Whittemore sent a simple ask to her email list when she published a new short story:

“I sent an email out to my newsletter, saying there were ten copies of the short story available in exchange for an honest Amazon review in the next three days. We heard back from ten people within an hour.”

It’s worth noting that her email list is not huge, it’s a few hundred people. But… it’s a few hundreds of the right people, her biggest fans.

When making the ask to your reader don’t be boring about it — make it meaningful. People read as a way of experiencing, a way of crafting their own identity. Consider how you can encourage them to leave a review as a way that feels special to their needs. Perhaps you invite them to reach out to you after they leave a review. Tell them that you would love to read it. What reader wouldn’t want to be recognized by the author?

Feasibly, you could even offer them some kind of bonus. If they email you with a link to a review, you could give them a free short story, access to a fan program, another book, or simply a heartfelt thank you.

Now, some of you may be resisting in this moment. You may be thinking, “Dan, I’m a writer, and I’m an introvert. I don’t want to be emailing with readers.”

You, of course, get to choose that. You can choose every aspect of how you create and how you manage your career. But I obsess about actions that lead to meaningful success. I have been watching a wonderful interview series this week with musician G.E. Smith. After loads of stories of his success and the famous folks he has worked with, he was asked, “Do you have any regrets?” His response astounded me:

“Sure. Everything. EVERYTHING. I would have worked harder. I would have learned more. I would have been a better musician. The whole thing. But that’s balanced by all the great stuff too.”

The success he has had has given him a taste that if he had only tried harder, the sky was the limit. That video has 49 views on YouTube. I think all 49 of them are from me.

When I consider providing advice to you, this is what I keep in mind. That you can look back knowing that you did work that matters, and you didn’t leave opportunity untapped.

Don’t wait for others to take initiative. Ask for reviews.

Create an Action Team.

In the past I have written about the power of creating a “street team,” and that advice still holds. You may not call it that, but consider identifying a small group of folks who you know will take action to support your work.

This could be 5 people, it could be 100. The caveat is this: they must be on board to take actions.

I saw this recently with two examples. The first was an invitation from Michael Hyatt to join the launch team for the upcoming release of his new book. One of the bullet points: “leave a review on Amazon.”

And another email I received from Jonathan Fields who is preparing a similar team for the launch of his upcoming book:

In trade, don’t think about the stuff you give members of your action team, instead consider the identity you can give them. You can make them feel like insiders. To give them access to you and behind the scenes to your success and make it feel as it is their own. To meet other super fans.

Give them what they want most: an identity they are proud of. Make them feel special, like an insider. This is the big secret of customer service and creating raving fans.

For instance: imagine you are invited to an early preview dinner at a new local restaurant that is about to open. This makes you feel special. You are one of the first to be invited in, and the general public can’t even access it yet! This isn’t about free food, but about the identity it gives you.

Incentivize People to Take Action

For those who are not in your inner circle, consider incentivizing people to take action by making them feel a part of the creative process. That buy supporting your work, they are supporting something that they believe in. In doing so, they are part of the creative process.

This is part of why we go to art galleries. Because it reflects on our own perception of our creativity.

Giving away books with the hopes of an honest review is a good strategy. But it is one of many.

Keep in mind that too many authors think that giving away a free copy is some kind of windfall to a potential reader. It is not always viewed that way by the recipient. The problem for most readers is not the price tag, but the TIME. How long does it take to read a book? 6-10 hours? People are swamped, and avid readers have a long list of books to read. So just giving away a book may not be enough.

Consider what else you can use to incentivize people to leave a review:

• Bonus content
• Fan club forums
• A coupon code
• Contests and prizes

Focus on Conversions — Ensuring Your Peeps Follow Through.

Create a communication system with would-be reviewers. Meaning, you set an expectation for when you will follow up with them. Why? Because this is common: people tell you “Oh, I will definitely leave a review!” And they never do.

This can happen for 1,000 reasons, but mostly because they are busy with other things. Perhaps they forget. They simply can’t prioritize it when you aren’t standing right in front of them.

The trick: this has to be a communication system. This is where the value of an email list comes in, or a thriving social media feed, or even just a well organized rolodex. (Remember those?)

This isn’t just around book launch either. You can set a schedule of every quarter, sending an email to your list asking them to leave a review for your book if they haven’t already.

This is something that many authors who want to jumpstart new life into an older book can consider. You could frame a new program around a book that you know people enjoy, but could reach more people. Make every aspect fun… make it about the reader and their experience/identity. Giveaways are just one of many tactics to get attention and build momentum.

Seed Reviews

Sometimes, readers simply don’t know how to write a decent book review. They freeze because they aren’t sure what to say. Whenever I see a rash of reviews for a book on Amazon that are light and vague, it pains me:

“Great characters, I was engaged the whole time!”

A review should be helpful to prospective readers. It is about encouraging honest feedback of your work in a way that encourages people to make good buying decisions.

When reaching out to fans and asking them to leave reviews, you can seed that request with ideas:

1. An actual how-to
2. With words or phrases
3. Aspects of the book
4. Questions to use as prompts
5. Examples of great reviews

If you are working toward a book launch, begin to setup this process months before your book is released. Set a schedule, and encourage people to post them when it matters most near book launch.

Who will you ask?
How will you ask?
How will you follow up?
How will you use reviews?
Who can you get books to?

These are questions you don’t want to leave to the last minute.

What NOT To Do

Don’t pay for reader reviews.

Don’t try to game the system, and don’t overthink it. There are loads of articles about how Amazon culls reviews that it thinks are spammy or that the author orchestrated with close friends. A reactionary conclusion could be, “Never ask for reviews because Amazon will penalize you.” Keep in mind there is a natural way to do this, and an unnatural way. Amazon is looking for the unnatural way.

Focus on Timeless Practices, Not Fly-By-Night Trends

For this post, I didn’t want to give you any “will work today, but not tomorrow” tactics. Just good foundational practices.

A practice is something you can do every single month. Small ways that you avoid what I see most authors do: Make a huge rush to get 25 reviews in the first week their book comes out. But then, months and years later, not a single additional review is left. Their work doesn’t grow in influence, it languishes.

This is what I think about when I walk around a really good used bookstore. What I think about when I wander the stacks in a library: “Is this book relevant? Is it vibrant.”

In libraries and bookstores, you don’t always have indicators of this. The sales associate may be on the other side of the store. But online, we do have this context. Encouraging reviews is just good form — it illustrates that the book is alive in the hearts and minds of readers.

Caring is the Most Important Tactic Here

Publishing is a business. No, that business may not be your primary goal, but when we sell something on Amazon, it can’t be ignored that this is a retail experience.

One of my favorite quotes is this:

“Caring is a powerful business advantage.”
— Scott Johnson

Which means this: in a crowded marketplace, stand out by caring.

Be accessible to your readers. Thank them for anything they do to support your work, including the reviews they leave. This can happen in 1,000 subtle ways.

When my wife sells her art on Etsy, she includes extras in the package she mails: stickers, cards, and she hand-decorates the envelopes. This creates a personal connection.

If you are selling on Amazon, you don’t have that option, which is why it is so important to develop a platform where you can connect directly with your readers. This can be a newsletter, a Facebook group, or so much else.

People want to be recognized for their contributions. So often in life, we aren’t. Our efforts are overlooked. Be the person who doesn’t overlook that effort.

Send a thank you letter, a thank you email, or some other way of recognizing those who go out of their way to support your work with a review.

Use Reviews to Get More Reviews

I began this post by talking about the power of social proof. This applies here again — use the reviews you are getting as social proof to encourage more reviews.

Put them on your website, and anywhere your book description appears. If you have an email newsletter or active social media channels, put them there. Not in a spammy way, but in a caring and thankful way.

This is also a way to reward your reviewers by thanking them publicly.

You are modeling behavior for those who haven’t reviewed. “Do you want to support my work? Don’t just follow me on Twitter, review me on Amazon. Look at how Diana and Terry did it — aren’t they awesome?!”

Show readers that they have become part of a special insiders club by reviewing your books. That they have gone from “casual fan” to “super fan,” and that this helps shape their identity. That, by reviewing your work, they are true supporters of writing that they love. It is part of their creative process.

I didn’t expect this post to be nearly 3,500 words, and part of me feels as though I left so much out! Please let me know what I missed — what other tactics can one use to encourage reader reviews?

Thank you!
-Dan

Again and again I hear from people that they struggle with social media. Two challenges always come up. Tell me if you resonate with these:

1. Overwhelm – it takes a lot of time and feels like a distraction. You wonder how people manage it all.
2. Effectiveness – your efforts on social media seem to fall flat, and you lack any real sense of connection with others. The “social” part of “social media” seems to be missing.

Bottom line: You just don’t feel good about social media, and it doesn’t give you a sense of accomplishment when you use it. It makes you feel like I did in the 7th grade lunchroom in 1986. Everyone had their Benetton game on fire, and I couldn’t figure out why my Smurf sweatshirt wasn’t gaining me friends.

So let’s — RIGHT NOW — solve this social media problem for you once and for all. I’m going to take you through five steps to social media bliss.

Let’s dig in.

Step 1: Put all of your eggs in one basket.

Whenever I see someone’s social media feed that’s lifeless, it is often because they are half-assing it. They are trying to do too many things and are spread way too thin. For instance, they’re trying to juggle all of these at once:

• Twitter updates
• Facebook updates
• Tumblr reblogs
• Instagram posts
• Snapchat stories (okay, this likely won’t apply to you if you are over 13)
• LinkedIn connections
• and so much else.

Spreading your eggs among too many different baskets has you running around trying to ensure all the eggs are safe. You take the boring middle-of-the road strategy for each. You are out of breath just keeping up with it all.

But when all of your eggs are in one basket, consider the difference. You protect that basket as if your life depends on it. You are all in with that basket. You want that basket of eggs to hatch, to learn to fly, to populate the earth with your amazing creations.

That is how I recommend you view social media. Stop half-assing it on all the channels you are told you “have to be on.”

Should you be strategic here? Sure. Do the needed research to understand:

• Who your audience is.
• What social media channels engage them most.
• Why that is — how it aligns to their passions or challenges.

You may even want to go through a testing period after you do this research. Set a time limit, like 60 days, to experiment with a handful of social channels. See what works for you, and test every assumption you have about if/how it engages your ideal audience.

Here is an example of how Leah Shoemaker, who is a designer on my team, focuses her social media efforts:

• Leah loves Instagram because it is simple and visual – perfect for design work. When she used Facebook she found she was constantly getting caught up in links that weren’t on topic (click bait). Now when she gets distracted by social media, she is getting distracted by amazing artists’ work.
• However, when she was running social media on behalf of other businesses she found Facebook engaged people in deeper conversations and was better for promoting events, and Twitter helped make real connections with other industry professionals.

She chose specific channels based on the effectiveness around her goals.

The first step here is simple. Pick ONE or TWO social media channels to focus on. All of the rest you should ignore. Think of it this way: it’s difficult to date 6 people at once, right? Impossible to meet the relationship needs to truly honor each person.

So view social media as a bit of a marriage at first. Invest in ONE person. Or in this case, one channel.

When I interviewed Dani Shapiro recently, she talked about how challenging it is when the device we create on is also the device filled with distraction — the computer.

So you could pop into Facebook or Twitter for a specific business purpose, and find yourself easily distracted by other things. I mean, Facebook and Twitter work really hard to distract you.

To help keep yourself on track, consider using time tracking tools such as RescueTime or Freedom.

Above I described how Leah chose specific social media channels for specific uses; she uses time tracking software for the following reasons:

• To track how much time she was actually spending on certain websites so she could truly see where she needed to re-prioritize her time. In other words, she wasn’t guessing, and she wasn’t relying just on her emotions — she had actual data to see where she could be the most productive.
• She set goals in the program, attributed different websites and computer programs into “productive” categories, and could then see visual charts and graphs as to where her time was going.

Charts and graphs make everything better, right?!

Step 2: View social media as a salon, not a press release.

If your marketing strategy is “Tweet about my thing, then Tweet about it again” you are in trouble.

Not only isn’t that really marketing, it is just the worst use of social media. Don’t think of social media as advertising, where you measure effectiveness by “reach” and “frequency,” but rather think of it as a gathering of like minds.

This could be a salon, a cafe, a dinner party, or that awkward collection of stranded parents in the corner at a five-year-old’s birthday party. (Yes, I have a five-year-old.)

What do you talk about? Two things:

• First, if you are a caring and empathetic human being, you will first ask questions. You will endeavor to bridge the gap between you and them by seeking out stories, interests, and shared challenges.
• Second, you don’t tell people what you do for a living. No one cares about the job that you took on a lark when you were 28 and have been trapped in for the past 15 years. Instead tell them what you are passionate about. How do you like spending your time? Don’t bore them with how you spend 10 hours a day at some job. Instead, focus on the one hour a week that lights your fire.

How can you talk about your values, your goals, the thing you most hope to create in the world? First, you have to know what your mission is, then you have to reach people who will also feel aligned to this.

Let’s say that you are an author considering how to use social media. Which option sounds better?

• I wrote this book — you should buy it. (Advertising)
• I wrote this book because I was really inspired by (INSERT CREATIVE HERO). They encouraged me to think about _________. Do you have any experiences similar to this? (Discussion)

One of these adds spam to the world. The other creates a relationship. Always invest in the relationship. It is “social” media, after all.

Step 3: Tell us what you want to say in your heart, not what you think we want to hear.

Find your voice. If you are just going to retweet the same things as everyone else; just mimic the “best practices” and trends of the moment, then please do me a favor. Don’t bother.

The world doesn’t need for you to be the millionth person to retweet something. What we need is your unique voice.

My son has been watching Mister Rogers, and it reminds me of his singular, powerful message: “I love you just the way you are.”

That never before in the history of mankind has there ever been anyone like you. And never again will there be anyone like you.

This is your moment. What would you like to say to the world?

Step 4: Reward those you are already connected to.

Every time someone tells me, “Gee Dan, I hate Twitter, I only have 60 followers,” I want to puke.

Can you imagine having a party and having 60 people show up? Or you have a book signing and 60 people are in line to meet you? That would be awesome right? Why is that a “dream,” but 60 followers on Twitter is often considered an embarrassing failure?

If I could encourage you to do just ONE thing, it is this: instead of vying for that 61st follower, why not instead focus your energy on making the 60 people who chose to follow you feel like the most special people ever.

No, this is not about catering to an audience, but rather, appreciating that you have one. You can still be your weird offbeat self. But perhaps pay attention to those who have opted in to care about you.

I mean, isn’t that what we really want? To be recognized. To be appreciated. To be… break out the Kleenex… loved?

This isn’t rocket science either. Ask your audience questions. Respond to them. For example, I wrote three blog posts recently that each asked a question at the end. I received dozens and dozens of responses, and then responded back to each one.

It felt AMAZING. Recognize those who recognize you.

Step 5: Identify five people to invest in.

Grow your audience by investing in them. Find five new people on social media whose work you love. Invest in them. Tell them what you love about their work and give them a follow. The key is to make this authentic — to truly find work that inspires you, and be honest with the person about how you feel.

Consider how much you would brighten their day by not just clicking “follow,” but sending a thank you Tweet. And perhaps not just that, but sending them a thank you email. And then perhaps sending them a thank you letter in the mail.

And imagine how much they would notice you if you sent them a plate of brownies. I’m. Not. Kidding.

There has been so much talk about “vying for influencers’ attention” in the past five years. Do you know what influencers like? Brownies. Do you know how many brownies they receive in the mail each year? NONE. Give them brownies. With a lovely handwritten thank you letter.

Free Worksheet

Click here to download my free worksheet that helps you take these five steps to social media bliss:

If you would like to hear more of my thoughts on social media, here are some previous blog posts I have shared on the topic:

• My social media mid-life crisis (December 2015)
• How to Stand Out on Social Media: CARE (November 2014)
• The Mindless Robots of Social Media “Best Practices” (July 2014)
• I Am Changing How I Use Social Media: MORE Social, LESS Media (January 2014)
• Attack of the Social Media Zombies (August 2013)

Are you still struggling with social media? Reply below and let me know how my team and I can help you with a specific challenge you are trying to work past.

Thanks!
-Dan

I just launched a new series of articles with my friend, New York Times bestselling author Miranda Beverly-Whittemore. The aim is to provide honest, practical advice to writers negotiating the murky waters of publication, especially around their roles in publicity and marketing, where so much is expected and often so little guidance is offered.

The series is called “How I Book,” and we are posting the series on Medium.com. We are planning weekly posts throughout the winter and spring. Here are the first two:

• Five Things I Wish I’d Known Five Months Before I Published My First Novel (3,800 words)
• How Publishers Build Book Buzz By Sending Out Secret Early Copies (1,700 words)

This is a topic I will be talking a lot about in the coming weeks: how does one develop an audience for their work? How do you launch your work into the world in a way that is both compelling and filled with meaning?

Earlier this week I also published a piece on Writer Unboxed. Yes, it’s been a busy week of publishing articles! That one is titled Don’t Worry, It Only Gets Harder. Sorry for the ominous title. The crux of the piece is a quote from author Dani Shapiro. Despite being on Oprah, having multiple bestselling books, having been published in The New Yorker, Dani says this about the daily practice of writing:

“Not only doesn’t it get any easier, it actually gets harder.”

The piece encourages you to invest in your craft and your support system. This consists of your collaborators (yes, you need collaborators), your mental health (we DO NOT talk about this enough), your physical health, and doubling down on connecting with those who already support and love your work.

As I think about what it takes to develop a body of work that you are proud of, to craft and launch your work, and to develop an audience, I think that Casey Neistat explains it really well:

“There are two rules that I always adhere to: work hard and be brave. I think the essence of hard work is that you’ll never be the best-looking, the tallest, the most talented, the most capable. You’ll never have the most money. There will always be someone better at whatever you’re doing than you are. But you can always be the hardest working person in the room and I think the hardest working person will always win.”

“Life shrinks and expands in direct proportion to one’s willingness to take on risk.”

“I think when it comes to exploring, the act of exploration is the act of assuming risk. The greater risk taker is the greater explorer.”

When you consider what it takes to launch your work and develop an audience, what are the questions I can answer for you?

Thanks.
-Dan

P.S. Yes, this is a final heads-up that registration for my Fearless Work course ends tonight at midnight.

It will be a one-hour conversation live with me. Bring your questions, I’d love to talk.

Thanks! Looking forward to the conversation!