Heroes in Business - Be A Giver First

Episode Date: October 12, 2021

Episode 15 from my Social Media On Steroids Podcast series, "Be A Giver First," I share three shot lists on how you can always ensure you are giving value in your marketing and not just selling.    

Hi, and welcome to the Social Media on Steroids podcast. I'm Dan Schindler, and I created the Social Media on Steroids brand of education, training, consulting, and services to help others learn from my experience of achieving extraordinary results with content marketing on social. I attracted a following of over 1 million people and reach millions more online each month, 100% organically. In this series, I share the strategies that helped me cross all the milestones it took to get there and that we still use. And please, before we dive in, take down my email address in case you have questions. I answer all questions and I take suggestions for topics to be covered in this

series. You can reach me directly at dan at advancedsocialmarketing.com. And of course, the website is the same URL. Follow the blog there and the Advanced Social Marketing YouTube YouTube channel. Okay, let's jump in. All right. Hello. Welcome to episode 15. Be a giver first. Always be giving. And why? Why should we be a giver? Well, part of the answer is in my episode three of this podcast series, which is called content to grow your following. And I talk about the 80-20 rule. The 80 is the 80% of giving, not just selling. You've got to give more than the time you spend selling. This is so crucial in content marketing on social, whether it's Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, knickknack, paddywhack, anything. It's all the same. You have to do this to really make it work.

And there's many ways to be a giver. And I'm going to list some items of three big categories. The first one is to literally just give stuff away, give away tools. Maybe you have tools or apps, things like that. So I'll give you an example. I have a tool that I created. It's really simple. I mean, it's caveman simple. still almost nine years in as I'm recording this and October 4th of 2021, it's how we schedule, how we plan out our editorial calendar for our clients and for Drum Talk TV and for this company, Advanced Social Marketing and the Social Media Unstewards brand of podcasts and courses and workshops and content that we post all over is it's a simple tool to help lay out what you're going to post when this is so important. And I have another episode called what to post or when to post the real scoop or the real answer. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's it. But my point is that I have something that I just give away. I also have something called

six steps to daily success. And by the way, write me and say, I want that. And I'll send it to you. No obligation, nothing else associated with it. Just stuff to help you out. Giveaway tips, giveaway tools. The PDF is a reminder of tips and strategies, must haves, must dos, must havenins. I give that out every time someone signs up for my email list. And anytime someone just asks for it or anytime I see someone who needs it, well, that's pretty much everybody. And I can't keep up with that. But yeah, give stuff like that away. And I'm going to interrupt myself here and remind, don't worry about people receiving so much from you

that they don't need you anymore. I'm going to say that again. Don't worry about giving away so much that you think people will think they don't need you anymore. It really is the opposite. The more you give, the more you're building brand love and trust, and the more value you're giving people. And one day, most of them are going to realize, wow, look at all this great stuff. This has really helped. And this is the free stuff. I can only imagine what the paid stuff is like. Wink, wink. It's just kidding, sort of. I can only imagine what the paid stuff is like. I need to work with this person. I promise you, they will never take everything you give away for free and put

everything together so well that they never need your expertise. Give away your expertise enough to show them that they need you and enough to help them, to help them do something with that information right now that'll help them get better results. And what I'm talking about here with these three lists I'm giving you, this relates to anything, whether you're a fellow content marketer, a social media manager or administrator, whether you sell shoes, potato chips, have a restaurant, whether you do business consulting,

whether you have a yoga studio, whether you, no matter what it is, this works and you must do it. Let's continue with the list of literally giving stuff away. So next, a mini book. Give away a mini book. It's easy to create a mini book, whether it's digital, whether it's in print. There's plenty of companies that'll help you publish your own little mini book. It's about the size of a wallet. Give it away at events. Carry some with you. Give

them away when you meet people. This is a great way to show people. It's a great calling card and people love free stuff, right? As long as it's not a bonk on the head. So stop bonking them on the head with what's for sale, what's for sale, what's for sale. Give stuff away. Heck with the mini book, give away an entire book. I have books that I wrote for marketing in the music industry, and I give these away every time we do an event from Singapore to Japan to Anaheim, the NAMM show, Canada, all over. When I travel and we do these events, I always have a box of them and I do a signing. Give, give, give, give, give, give stuff away. Have a drawing for a real session with you that you normally

would charge for, not just your free consulting sessions. Don't make that sound special. Everybody does that. And that's okay. You still should do it. That's the best way to learn what people need and how you can help them and learn if you can, in fact, help them and show them that you can. Hey, great way to kick off a nice, long, deep business relationship with somebody. But it would serve you well to also do contests or drawings where you're giving away whatever it is, whether it's product or services. If it's a shoe, if you have a shoe store, give away shoes. If you're a restaurant, give away $100 coupon for the family. Have some sort of contest. If you're like me and you do business consulting,

marketing, something like, give away a $2,500 session. Give it away. Suck people in to want to love what you do and want to be part of it. Think about that. Love what you do and get others to fall in love with wanting to be part of it. So next list, that was literally give stuff away. The next list is give away strategies. Give away your info. Side note, when someone first told me this 13 years ago, 12 years ago, I thought it was nuts.

Like, what? So I had a video production company, and this guy was telling me I should do a blog. First of all, he had to explain what the hell that was a blog. Sounds like something I coughed up when I had the flu, um, which I've only had four times in my life, believe it or not. And I don't get flu shots. So, Hey, um, but I was like, what do you mean, Mark? And he said, yeah, yeah, yeah. You do video production. So you should do a blog and show people how to take better pictures, how to make better video. Mark, why would I do that if those are the services I'm selling? And he tried to explain to me how this all worked.

And it took me a long time to get it. A long time. Now I totally get it. And I'm passing it on to you. So this is big. Give away your strategies. Give away your strategies, give away your info. No one's ever going to put everything together and be able to say, oh, I don't need her course. Now I've got 833 pieces of content from her that I can,

that's never going to happen. So do a podcast. Hey, that sounds familiar. I do podcast workshops, by the way, if you're interested, and it includes producing your first four episodes for you, helping you pick out the music, helping you pick out the framework, helping to serialize it, helping to find your brand's work. Anyways, do a podcast and give away info.

Does that sound familiar? That's what I'm doing. That's why I do this. Posts on social with infographics or flow charts about, and not just for services, but products too. If it's a shoe store, why these shoes are great? Why should you choose walking shoes versus running shoes versus cross trainers if you're looking for something for active wear? What shoes are best for standing at a trade show for 12 hours? If you're a man or a woman, you need to wear dress shoes, but you don't want to just be toast at the end of the day from the knees down, right? There's so much you can post about

that will make people edified, that will educate them, that will entertain them and make you that go-to place for information they need and want to follow. Think about that for a minute. Give them info. Make videos showing people the why, what, how, and what if of what you provide. What? The why, what, how, and what if? So let me explain how that works. Well, have different primary internal representational systems. Some of us are visual, like I am. Some of us are auditory, that's hearing. Some of us are auditory digital, that's self-talk. That's that voice in the head.

Sometimes many. And some of us are kinesthetic, means they feel things. They're more feeling. And you can tell what someone is if you listen to the predicates and how they talk. You know, when people say, can you hear me? Or think about that. Or can you feel me? Do you grasp that?

Let's build that foundation. Or isn't that vivid? Doesn't that, can you see that? Do you see what I'm saying? So the last one was visual. Kinesthetic is, can you grasp that? Do you get a firm grip on that? Let's lay that foundation. Can you feel me? That's kinesthetic is, can you grasp that? Do you get a firm grip on that? Let's lay that foundation.

Can you feel me? That's kinesthetic. Auditory digital is, think about it. Does that make sense? Think about it. I say, does that make sense a lot? But I'm not necessarily kinesthetic because I want to make sure that people,

when I'm teaching live, that what I'm saying makes sense because my wife says a lot of stuff I say doesn't make sense. So I got to ask. And then what was the other one? Auditory is, do you hear me? Listen to what I'm saying. That sounds clear, right? Those are all predicates that I'll tell you. So those different internal representation systems also have different ways of wanting to learn information. Some are why people, some are what people, some are how people, some are what if. The why is why am I here? Why am I listening to this podcast? Why is this information important? You got to take care of that first. And then what? What is it? What do you do? What is it for? And then how? Okay, I got that. I understand why. And now I know what,

but how do you do it? How do you do it? I want to do it. How do you do it? I'll take my workshops and courses. But really, how do you do it? And then you get them past that. Now you've got to give them the what if. What if you do this, what are the results you should expect? So give, give, give. Give this stuff away. It is so important. Don't be afraid to give so much information that they won't need you. If you're good at what you do, that'll never happen. If you really have value to offer people, that'll never happen.

If what you offer people is more than a one-time purchase or a one-time experience, that will never happen. Number three, the third list, be inclusive. Make them part of what you're doing. It's number four of my five to keep your brand alive. In fact, I think that was the first episode I did of this podcast series, five to keep your brand alive. Number one, stay relevant. Oops, sorry. Stay present. The order really doesn't matter. But my list is number one, stay relevant. Oops, sorry, stay present. The order really doesn't matter. But my list is number one, stay present. Number two, stay relevant.

Number three, be helpful to others. You can't do that by just selling and advertising. Number four, be inclusive. I'll explain. And number five, position yourself as an expert in your field. And all of the above equals number five. But being inclusive in what you do, again, whether you have a shoe store, a restaurant,

a yoga studio, you're a musician, you're a consultant, you do marketing, whatever it is, include them. Ask for testimonials. Oh, I see you follow my channel all the time. Tell me what you've gleaned from this. Let us know what you've learned. How has it worked out? Or people on your email list or people who you've actually worked with. Get testimonials. Post them. Make sense? You can also ask them to submit videos that have to do with what you do. Yes, don't worry about competition or anything like that. Let's say you have a restaurant. If you have an Italian restaurant, have you ever made homemade pizza? Do you make your own lasagna? Do you make your own antipasto salad? Ask people

to submit theirs. Let's say you have a nursery or a garden center. Have rose growing contests. Have people send in their garden. Best borders, best flowers, most colorful, best foliage, most tropical, go on and on and on. You get the idea, right? And this works for anything. Yoga studio, show us your most challenging position and how long did it take you to get in it? And were you able to get out or someone else type in the buttons for you on this post? There's so many ways to include people. Let me tell you my Drum Talk TV story with that. Oh, and by the way, like I say, you run contests, which ties to the first list. Give stuff away. So in the first year of Drum Talk TV,

up till about the ninth month, there was no video on Facebook. But people were still messaging in saying, will you share my video? Will you share my video, will you share my video? Will you share my video? Will you post my video? Will you share my video? And they were using YouTube links. And no, because I knew even back then that YouTube links on Facebook don't work. I mean, they play, but Facebook squashes the heck out of the reach on that. So it's not a good strategy. And then when Facebook introduced video, people were doing the same thing. Will you post my video? Will you post my video? Will you share my video? Will you share my video? No, that's not a good strategy and then when facebook introduced video people were doing the same thing we post my video we post my video we share my video we share my video no that's not what we do so i had crafted this auto response message that said thank you for your interest but the jump talk tv facebook page is for the content that we produce covering events and working with the artists

educators and makers of great gear there are plenty of Facebook groups where you can share your video. Have a great day. It probably sounded real off-putting and snobby and negative, and certainly that's not me, and that's not what the intent was. So one day, there's hundreds of messages. We finally turned it off, actually, the Facebook messaging. Why do that when you get people to your website to email you there and get them on your website? But hundreds of messages. We finally turned it off, actually, the Facebook messaging. Why do that? When you get people to your website to email you there and get them on your website. But anyways, we turn off the messaging and I was looking at all these videos stacked up in there, these messages. And I thought to myself, you know what? I'm going to watch one of these. I want to see what's up,

what's going on. What are they sending us for goodness sakes, right? So I opened up one of these videos to see what it was. And I wish you could see me. I'll do a visual version of this eventually. But so I'm sitting there with my frown on and my eyes, you know, just staring at the screen, arms crossed after I hit play. And I felt as I'm watching the video and watch this guy play and watch his smile. I remember the video. I felt my face loosen up, my arms uncross, fall into my, my hands fall into my lap and a smile develop on my face. And halfway through that smile, I realized, wait a minute, if I'm enjoying this, there's a good chance that a huge portion of our audience will enjoy this. And we did a complete 180. I called our webmaster who did a lot more than that at the time called Lori, Lori, Lori, we got to create a portal where people could

submit videos and we're going to post people's videos who follow that. She said, wait, I thought we weren't. I said, I know, I know, I know. I'll explain later, but we've got to create this. So we've created, and this was and this was almost nine years ago. Well, eight years ago. About eight years ago right now, in fact. And we created a portal for our fans to submit videos, and we screened them, and the ones that passed muster, there was rules, there's tips, there's guidelines,

there's ideas, suggestions. But the ones that passed muster, we go ahead and we post. And I got to tell you, that was huge. We went from about 100,000 fans to 200,000 fans in three months. And it did not hurt my feeling that a lot of people were more interested in our fans videos than my videos, or some other things I was posting on Drum Talk TV or even some of our interviews. So my point is being inclusive and letting them in and be part of the experience. Sorry, I hit my microphone stand there and create an experience for them to be part of. That's the number one way you can be inclusive. And then at the end of the year,

we do highlights. On Sundays, we show best of last week. Best of based on how many comments, how many shares, how many video views. Make it fun for people. Stop just selling to people and be inclusive. Give stuff away. Literally give stuff away, like I said. Give away strategies, tips, your info.

Make it inclusive. Make them part of the experience. Give them that opportunity and do not just be selling. So there you go. Hope that was helpful. Be a giver first and be a giver always, in all ways. So if you want to learn more or need your team trained, I have special mastery courses happening, very deep dives. There's some self-guided modules and an eight-week program, two hours a day, one day a week live with me. Plus, those are Fridays, plus a Monday one-hour Q&A session with me for anybody who signs up. Even after those eight weeks are over, everyone who's ever gone through this program is welcome to come to these Monday sessions. If they want, you don't have to. You don't even have to come with a question. Come see what other questions other

people have. Learn from that. Be a lot of fun. Or if you just have questions yourself, send me an email, dan at advancedsocialmarketing.com. Even if you just have questions, reach out, let me help. You can learn about my mastery mastermind classes at advancedsocialmarketing.com slash learning hyphen opportunities, or just go to the main site and just look for the learning opportunities tab. And there you go. I feel like there's something. Oh yeah. So remember, if you're serious about what you do, get serious about how you market it. Sign up for my newsletter and get my six steps to daily success PDF at advanced social marketing.com and get notifications about my free workshops and

other learning opportunities, as well as the wacky changes on the major platforms. Stay up to date and see how I can help you further at the same URL. Check out the blog there and follow the Advanced Social Marketing YouTube channel as well. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn at linkedin.com slash in slash Dan Schindler. Happy marketing.