In my recent post on advertising too much, I was asked if I was referring to people trying really hard to get a job or just people advertising goods and services. The answer actually applies to both cases, or if you will to anyone who is spending too much time trying to convince you to buy and not enough time on actually providing good content that will justify interest in finding out what someone has to offer.
So how do you balance advertising of any kind with good content? I hear suggested ratios of 4 to 1, where you give four pieces of information away and then make an offer. And I think if that works, its useful to do. I’ll admit that I tend to just give away a lot of information and occasionally make an offer. I don’t have a specific ratio down, but I know I’m offering more than 4 pieces of information. However, my focus is more on interaction and specifically on trying to start conversations and then take those conversations into a direction where possible business can result. So my focus is really about providing content and from that content creating discussion which may or may not lead to business. As I continue to develop my product line, this may change some, but overall I prefer to focus more on content and socializing as a way of creating relationships.
I think, if you are going to advertise, that you do need to keep in mind that ultimately you are creating relationships and as such you need to ask: How do I want people to perceive my interactions with them? The example I used last week of the person who mentions his book in every post shows me someone who hasn’t really thought through the kind of impression he can make on someone who visits his website for the first time.
Successful marketing, networking, sales, and advertising has to include some awareness of the perception you want people to have about your activities and the actions you want people to take. You also need to know what perceptions and actions you don’t want people to take. Once you know what you want people to do or not do, then you need to determine if your activities are encouraging your preferred action. This can be determined by surveying people (irritating to fill out) or by simply observing how people respond to what you are doing.
For example, on Linkedin groups I regularly post excerpts of my blog and a link back to it. I do this to offer content and get some discussion to occur. Sometimes I’ll be contacted by people who want to connect and I use that invitation as an opportunity to not just connect via Linkedin but also offline, if possible. Only once have I been contacted by someone who complained about the posting I do, and once he understood I was primarily focused on offering content to start up conversations, he saw the value of my activity. Is there some advertising of some kind in my activity? Just a bit, because I am using my postings as an opportunity to establish reputation, but overall the focus is on providing to the community, instead of trying to get something from it.
What do you think? How would you balance content and advertising?
