A few more things I don’t understand about internet marketers
Yesterday I shared a couple of things about online marketers that, while I see the use of doing in the right way, seem to have undue influence placed on the success or failure of their businesses, shows, channels, what have you.
Essentially it comes down to a lack of real contact and communication with real people, opting instead for the tech to be the secret sauce to their success.
A hammer builds a house, but it doesn’t drive nails without a human being putting some muscle behind it. It’s kind of how I view all these internet gadgets, hacks, tools. They’re useful, but they’re not going to build the house. One needs to know how to use them, and perhaps more importantly know when to put them away once they’ve done all they can do.
In that spirit, here are a couple more quirks about internet marketing that either I don’t understand, or the people doing them don’t understand what they’re doing, much less why they’re doing it.
- Over-editing everything. A podcast, my particular speciality, is a conversation between two people – not two robots. Thus it makes sense to leave a few umm’s, uhhh’s, ya knows, etc. in the finished product. Sure you want to get mostof them, especially those 3 second gaps between the person asking the question and the guest beginning the answer, but mistakes can actually be a blessing. People are endeared to others, especially somewhat public personalities who are a bit “unokay” and not afraid to hit the publish button in spite of it. Sometimes the mistakes are what make a show, movie, etc. truly memorable. We kind of expect these things to be perfect, but when they’re not, we’re reminded of our humanity and feel a bit more “okay” ourselves. I always crack up a bit inside when a client freaks out about such and such not being perfect, as though they’re going to alienate their audience. If anything, the errors, the stutters, the typos will make a person more attractive, listenable, and most important, relatable.
- Giving a rat’s patewty what people think about their show, business, message, etc. Feedback from one’s audience can be useful, IF (and it’s a big if) one is 100% secure and confident in their message, knows what to say and how to say it. If they’re not, feedback will be the bane of their existence. It will drive you crazy as 10 different people will give 11 different opinions on your show. Assuming you’re lucky enough to have 10 people reach out and give feedback. It’s tempting to get one piece of feedback from one person and think, “OMG, everyone is thinking this, I need to change what I’m doing IMMEDIATELY!” And god help you if the feedback is negative.
The reality is that no one really cares one way or the other, and on those rare occasions you get unfairly criticized, there are ways to turn it in your favor. I’ve said before that 3-star reviews are worse than 1-star reviews. You can’t do anything with a 3-star. It’s just sitting there like an old fart in study hall. At least a 1-star might be written by a deranged psychopath who means to do you harm, which you can then use to rally support among those who love you no matter what.
Use all of the cow, as they say.
These are lessons learned in the trenches. There are many more to be learned by your humble email host, but these are a few I’ve gleaned over the years. Tune in tomorrow for Part 3.
James Newcomb