Yesterday I was enjoying a nice Friday afternoon finishing up the work of the week and then taking a couple hours off before a big meeting this weekend. Friday is usually a day when I start to unwind from the week and take everything into perspective. I am usually already working on refocusing for next week to ensure we are staying to true to our objectives and vision.
Friday is also a day I completely turn all thoughts on inspiring others to clear their minds for the weekend to turbo! My content on the social networks on Friday is less formal, more personal (not that it’s ever formal, ha). I focus on helping my followers feel empowered, energized and excited to take on life and biz in the week ahead. I inspire them to “take a weekend” and enjoy life so they can come back refreshed.
Just because I trust you with my email or as a LinkedIn connection doesn’t mean you should spam me.
As I enjoyed my Friday afternoon I couldn’t help but notice how my iPhone was consistently buzzing and beeping. I was receiving message after message from business leaders and entrepreneurs whom I have entrusted my email address to. The messages were coming from email and LinkedIn.
There were a few in particular that grabbed my attention more than others. Unfortunately it wasn’t because they were good. It was because they were complete spam.
I received messages to join groups, purchase SEO services, get a mortgage, attend events, buy a new book being launched and even another invite for a Microsoft Excel training courses that I had received a couple times already throughout the week. None of the emails I received focused on any value to me. None of them even mentioned how they could help my business. Instead they were focused on “me, me me” in regard to the person sending them. Nothing about “me” the recipient. #fail
Hello people, have you thought about getting to know me first? For the LinkedIn
spammers, I never asked for your emails. I never signed up for your newsletter so please don’t assume that because I entrusted you as a LinkedIn contact the right for you to spam me every Friday afternoon.
What happened to hello, my name is “insert name here”, how are you today? Why don’t you build a relationship with me? Why don’t you offer me something useful before you spam me on Facebook groups, LinkedIn and email? Why don’t you provide me more value?
My advice to everyone reading this is to not spend your time thinking about how you can your audience, clients and partner more stuff. Instead focus on what value you can offer them above and beyond what everyone else is doing. Imagine if you did that? Imagine if you offered a whitepaper that can help me grow my business for download via your LinkedIn account? I might just sign up for your newsletter?! What if you provided me a video with tips on how I could do something more quickly in Excel to help my clients. Or even better how about a blog post that provides an integrated set of content to help me such as a whitepaper, video, case study and a comprehensive blog post with free tips? Now we’re talking. Now you might be providing me value versus trying to sell me something.
Remember every brand touch and communication you have with me is a reflection of you and your brand. Just because you “can” spam me doesn’t mean that you should.
10 Tips To Provide Value vs. Sell More Stuff
1. Know your audience. Everything always comes back to your audience. Who are they? What are their demographics? What do they do for business? Who do they serve?
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