The Journey to Selling Online – How to, What is Important, Next Steps
Debunking the myth of personal branding, community management, sales and more sales.
Too many of us believe what the Internet gurus routinely chime online.
That to grow our business, we need to have a shiny personal brand.
That to sell our products and services like hotcakes, we need to nurture a community.
Doing that well means a non-stop ringing cash register going kaching, kaching, kaching until it stops puffing.
How do I know this?
Because I have been there.
The entire Bottomsup Perspective team has gone through this lifecycle of social media trending, boom, and bust.
In the beginning, we went along with the tips. After all, spamming others with posts, sexy images, millionaire-lifestyle videos are free. We paid for our smartphones already!
We hop onto the content treadmill and start increasing the speed button every other day.
1 post a day.
2 posts a day.
2 posts and 1 video a day.
2 posts, 1 video, and 3 tweets a day.
We got faster and faster on the digital content treadmill. The funny thing is, we never hopped off. We never thought about how to do things better. We never knew what worked and whatnot.
Why?
We never hopped off!
Now, think about everyone around you. Have they been running on the content treadmill non-stop?
Next question.
How would they improve on their personal branding skills when they continue pumping out content non-stop? They are doomed to repeat the mechanics of the previous posts!
AND THEN.
They start lamenting about the lack of engagement. Well. That is for sure. We, the audience, are fickle. We want novelty.
We want to know how your 6-pack abs crush the broccoli in my hands.
We want to know how your dog photo on Instagram got you a dental product endorsement deal.
We want to know how your 1 word “Hello” tweet got sold for $1 million worth of Dogecoin as an NFT.
Do you want real good personal brand strategies that work?
Show and tell.
And then, there is community management.
Kevin is fond of promoting community management. Community, community, community. And the next moment, he goes community, community, community. When he hops on our livestream, he goes community, community, community.
Don’t get me wrong. Having our own community is a brilliant thing.
Just one thing.
Have you tested the resilience of your community?
How do you test it?
Simple.
Sell them something.
DM all of them. Let them know you are getting ready for a Black Friday supreme mega sale, and all products and services are going at 50%. You can try selling yourself at a 70% discount too.
Now, go grab a coffee.
Sit back.
Watch.
Nothing happens for the first hour. You stay calm.
Nothing happens for the second hour. You twiddle your thumbs.
Nothing happens for the first day. You keep chewing your gum.
And then.
You cry foul. You cannot believe that your community did not respond to your goodwill 50% sale.
Now, the bad news.
This is what I am going to say.
OF COURSE!
No one wants to be nurtured to become lifetime customers. The agenda behind your community management makes people uncomfortable. No friends want to be sold to. No followers want to be sold incessantly.
So, what happens?
They become dead followers.
Your community headcount becomes a fake statistic. A vain one.
Now, this is not about doom and gloom.
Personal branding and community management have a place in digital marketing. However, it takes more time than we expect for good results.
Patience is the game.
And this long game rewards the patience and those who grind even when no one does.
For more insights, listen to our conversation on YouTube here.
Enjoy!
Aldric,
On Behalf of the Bottomsup Perspective Team