Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Teach a man about content marketing and you give him an incredible business advantage. This age of such advanced social media sharing and interactions can seem almost daunting to some, especially those who simply monitor their various accounts, maintaining their virtual side of life. However, with the right guidance, social media can turn from an interactive yearbook to a highly valuable business resource.
Making a name for yourself is key, especially in a time like this where address books resemble national directories. We?re all sheep in a highly competitive field of business. It?s time to get noticed. I spoke with Brian Clark, founder of Copyblogger, about the do?s and don?ts of using the internet to sell yourself, and eventually finding your way to the front of the herd.
As a kid, what did you envision yourself doing when you grew up, outside of a professional baseball player or rockstar?
That?s interesting. I really went a long time having no idea what I wanted to do outside of those rockstar, athlete kind of fantasies. The first thing I would like to say is don?t worry about it too much. I notice that a lot younger people are more comfortable with taking time, exploring, traveling and not being afraid to try new things and fail. All of this stuff is incredibly valuable. I think in generations past, like my own, there?s been this emphasis on ?you have to know what you want to do and you have to work specifically for that, you can?t fail and this and that.? It?s all ridiculous.
So I would say find your own path. That doesn?t mean you don?t have to work for it. It just means that the answer might not be revealed to you as a young person. If you think about it, it makes sense. When you?re young you figure out who you are, what you want to do. 
Don?t worry if it takes a while. I don?t think I really figured out what I wanted to do until I was about thirty. I went to college; I didn?t know what I wanted to do after college. I took the LSAT and did extremely well and I said, ?Oh, I must need to be a lawyer.? Of course, that wasn?t necessarily true. I appreciate my legal education. I didn?t enjoy practicing law all that much but it taught me a lot of incredibly valuable stuff about business and persuasion. It ultimately set me on the path I needed to go on, but I?m in a very different place now than I was then.
When you were applying to schools, what were your intentions? Were you going in undeclared? Or did you go in with a certain mindset that you wanted to achieve this, this and this?
When I entered college I had no idea, none at all. A little background: I was adopted at birth. I had wonderful, hardworking parents who did everything they could do for me. But no one in my family had ever gone to college before so it was one of those things where I was the first one in that position. I still remember when the school contacted my parents and they thought I was in trouble, but they just wanted to let them know that I had taken an I.Q. test and they wanted to put me in the advanced placement courses.
So at that point my parents were like, you?re smart, you have to study hard, go to college and all that. It was different for them, because that wasn?t the path that they grew up with but they recognized immediately that this was the path that I needed to be on. They pushed me to study. I was a pretty good kid until about my senior year when I started learning how to have fun. They kept me on the right track when that happened.
Going into college I didn?t understand what I wanted to do and I think this was a blessing. My parents didn?t have an agenda. They just wanted me to study hard and do well. I hope I can take that path with my kids, as well. I think a lot of parents try to live vicariously through their children after a certain point instead of letting them do what they want to do. I would rather my children follow their own path like I was allowed to do.
Tell me a bit about your move from college to law school.
I went to college at Texas A&M then went to law school at the University of Houston, which at the time was the number one intellectual property law school in the nation. That?s what I was interested in early on: trademarks, copyrights, patents. And to a certain degree patents are much more technically oriented than I was. That served me well, seeing that I now run a software company.
What was the first job you had after school that pointed you in the direction you are going down now?
I did well in law school. I did everything you were supposed to do. I got a good job with a high-power law firm. It was very much an eye opener. I got to see what that life was like. I have always had a different work experience. I have never sat in a cubicle. In my first real job, I had an office and a secretary that I?didn?t?even know how to use. It?s very bizarre to me and I was never quite comfortable with it. I had amazing experiences, like being flown on a private jet to go file a brief, by myself. It was the pilot and me. Just crazy stuff.
And I think the powerful law firms do stuff like that to get you hooked in to the thrill. When they do, they own you. You get married, you have kids, you buy a big house and you?re never going to leave. A lot of lawyers are unhappy with what they do but they can?t think of anything else that?s so lucrative. I did it from ?94 to ?98?I saw a lot. But I knew that I had to get away from it.
I just took the plunge and it really was one of those attitudes where I?didn?t?care necessarily what happened.
?I?didn?t?care if I had to be a starving artist. I just knew that I wanted to live life on my own terms. It was an incredible leap of faith at the time. The thing that really motivated me at the time was the internet. There?s gotta be a way to take my love of writing and marry it to this medium and develop a business model to figure out a way to make a living. It took me a while but eventually I got there.What about the internet was so appealing? I mean, what differences are there between the online and offline models?
The first couple years I was trying to do the totally online thing. In fact, I was trying to do, at the time, all anyone really understood. I was creating content online. I was building an audience and trying to monetize through advertising, because that?s just what you did. The interesting thing about the early days of the internet was, and probably the biggest mistake that people made, was that they just imported offline concepts online, which was, of course, monetizing content with advertising. I never made a dime really, not anything that could support me, from that model.
But it was interesting, I quit my job and needed to support myself. So I started publishing this email newsletter about legal issues related to online marketing and advertising. All of a sudden I was flooded with clients. I only wanted to pay the bills, I wasn?t looking to build a law firm or anything like that. That was my first taste of what we now call content marketing, which is publishing content but not necessarily selling advertising, but basically advertising yourself. That was an epiphany for me and that?s obviously fueled my philosophy going forward to start a couple of successful real estate brokerages and then ultimately Copyblogger.
This is all really interesting to me because I have my own music blog that has been gaining a decent following for the stage it?s in, but hasn?t been making any money off of ads. I also co-host a radio show that we?ve been promoting through the site, selling ourselves, like what you said earlier, which seems to be the right path.
Yeah, it?s harder than people think, even when you have the massive traffic. Let me give you an example. TechCrunch was a massive tech blog powered by advertising and eventually they started selling conferences. They were eventually acquired for $25 million. Our company, which started as a blog, is worth probably $35-40 million. And those are not made up numbers. We did a lot of work, developed a lot of software. I know there?s a lot of?start ups?out there looking at developing apps in that business model. They?re relying on Apple, and in the case of eBooks, Amazon, as a mediary, which is dangerous because you?re not in control. That?s why we preach ?Develop your own audience,? that way you don?t have to rely on an Apple or Amazon, but rather yourself.
How prevalent is social media in your approach to reaching out to people?
Other than content, which is the backbone, social media has been everything. We never took any VC money, no angel investment, never done any advertising.
The entire company, with one hundred thousand customers, was built out of my effort and my partner?s effort, creating great content for people, and social media?s the way to spread it.
?Now when we first started, Twitter didn?t exist and Facebook was just starting. You had things like Digg and Delicious, which were the beginning of social media distribution outside of blogs. You put something out, people like it, they spread it. It?s really been an evolution and it?s always been about creating something that people want to share. There?s no magic. You?re not going to randomly create something that takes off, it just doesn?t work.A great example is Buffer. They had a content marketing strategy where they just guest posted everywhere getting the word out, instead of relying on Apple or whatever, and they have been an incredible success. That?s along the same line as what we have seen, we just started a little bit earlier. The wonderful thing for anyone creating content is that one: Facebook and Twitter have made social media mainstream. Number two: that made it really easy. And number three, and this is the most important thing: it?s become cool to share great stuff. You have probably seen this yourself. Even if it?s not yours you want to share it with your fans, your friends and your followers. Then they look at you as someone important because you?re sharing good stuff. The most amazing thing that I think social media has spawned ? think about who benefits the most from that ? the content creators.?You are in a very powerful position if you?re creating great content that people want to share.
What do you feel is more important, quality or quantity with regards to content? Is it more important for someone in my position to try to flood Twitter to get our name out? Or to release high quality posts here or there to show people we actually have something?
If you have to make a complete choice then quality will win every time. I started Copyblogger with two posts a week. Now we do about six a week, but that?s because we can, and only because we can make all six of those high quality. You don?t ever want to put out poor content, just to put something out. You might only have the ability to come out with one epic whatever, it could be an article, a podcast, a video, an infographic. However, often you can make something that is truly good then that?s what you should do. With that said, the more you can get to the point where you?re putting out quality on a regular basis, it?doesn?t?have to be every day. It just has to be regular and consistent. Whether it?s four times a month or four times a week, you?re gonna do well.
If you?re going to put something out just to put something out you?re not going to do well, I see it every day. It?s terrible really, it?s heartbreaking. It?s not like they?re not trying, they?re just misguided on what?s actually going to work. So put out stuff that?s not content for content?s sake. It?s gotta be the kind of content that will lead your business objectives. That?s why we have this, not the greatest term in the world, content marketing. It?s content that?s not just content. It?s content that acts as marketing. It brings the right audience to you, not just any audience. I think that?s another place where people get hung up.
You?re releasing a series of free eBooks this fall. What can people expect to take away from these?
Everything we?re talking about here is explored in way more detail. We can do sound bites and we can do interviews and I hope that brings more people in. People have to accept the initial premise before they?re going to dive in and do the work. The first eBook is a deeper exploration of what you and I are talking about now. The following books are, okay, ?How do you develop a strategy?? ?How do you actually create content?? and ?How do you get the word out?? That?s the idea, step by step by step; let us help you do this. We have software that works with this as well so it?s not like we?re just doing this out of the goodness of our hearts, but this is how content marketing works. Give first, educate people, put them into a position to do business with you, and that?s what we?re trying to do.
To wrap up, if there was one piece of advice you really could have used somewhere along the line, what would it be?
I have had a rebellious streak in me since the beginning and I think that it served me well that a lot of that rebellion could be dissipated. A lot of times when you?re rebelling against things you?re actually in quite a bit of conflict. You?re going against what people expect of you. I know for a lot of people it makes them uncomfortable, it causes them a great deal of angst. It?s not necessary.?
I wish someone had told me, ?You know, you don?t have to do things according to someone else?s plan in order to be successful.?
More often than not, especially in the world we live in, doing things your own unique way, coupled with fundamentals, I mean, I see a lot of people who are incredibly unique in their approach but they disregard everything that?s ever worked, especially when it comes to human psychology, and they fail. I say be unique, pay attention to the fundamentals and do what you want. That?s the advice I would have loved to have and that?s the advice I?ll give you right now.
Source: http://www.getbusymedia.com/interview-with-a-serial-entrepreneur-recovering-attorney/
big ten tournament 2012 dennis quaid bruce weber fired notorious big biggie smalls lyrics azores emmylou harris
কোন মন্তব্য নেই:
একটি মন্তব্য পোস্ট করুন