Seth's Blog : Amplifying social proof



Amplifying social proof

Trust is the biggest hurdle.

And trust largely comes from social proof.

Is everyone doing this?

Is it safe?

Will I be embarrassed/ridiculed/left out/left behind/feel stupid?

Social proof shares a word with social networks, but they're only loosely related.

Social proof is the story we end up believing.

Your job as a marketer, then, is to take the threads of social proof and weave them together into something powerful.

No, you can't fake this (and shouldn't try). But you can amplify it. You can focus the proof on a tiny cohort, so that it has more impact. You can invest in media that acts as a megaphone, multiplying the impact of the proof you already have.

One way to be trusted is to be trust the people you seek to serve.

Mostly, you can work to build something that's worth trusting. 

       

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Seth's Blog : The momentum myth



The momentum myth

Roller coasters work because of momentum—the quantity of motion from the downhill allows the car to make it up the next rise. Without momentum, the car would merely stop. But few things in the world of ideas follow the same rules. 

Ideas have no mass, they don't coast.

Authors fall into this trap over and over again. They believe that a big launch, the huge push upfront, the bending of the media in their favor (at any cost) is the way to ensure that weeks two and three and eleven will continue to show solid growth.

A decade ago, I wrote two different posts for friends who were launching books. The ideas still stand.

I'm betting that an analysis of the Billboard charts over the last fifty years would confirm that the speed a song makes it to the top has no correlation with how long it stays at the top.

Here's a look at the cumulative sales for Your Turn, the book I published in November 2014. And you'd find a similar curve for most successful books.

The launch is the launch. What happens after the launch, though, isn't the result of momentum. It's the result of a different kind of showing up, of word of mouth, of the book (or whatever tool you're using to cause change) being part of something else, something bigger.

Fast starts are never as important as a cultural hook, consistently showing up and committing to a process.

       

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• The toddler strategy
• Striking a chord
• The problem you can't talk about
• On being treated like an adult
• Rigor

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Seth's Blog : The toddler strategy



The toddler strategy

Most people don't get too upset at anything a two-year-old kid says to them.

That's because we don't believe that toddlers have a particularly good grasp on the nuances of the world, nor do they possess much in the way of empathy. Mostly, though, it turns out that getting mad at a toddler doesn't do any good, because he's not going to change as a result (not for a few years, anyway).

Couldn't the same be said for your uninformed critics? For the people who bring you down without knowing any better, for those that sabotage your best work, or undermine your confidence for selfish reasons?

It's hardly productive to ruin your day and your work trying to teach these folks a lesson.

Better, I think, to treat them like a toddler. Buy them a lollipop, smile and walk away.

       

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• Striking a chord
• The problem you can't talk about
• On being treated like an adult
• Rigor
• Calling your finding

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