Become the Digital Mayor of your town
Forget the local newspaper. Why can’t you be the one who interviews all the local principals? Why can’t you taste and review every dish in every restaurant in your town? Why can't you be the best local authority on everything and anything?
You’re busy running your company. Great. You are also a media company now too. That includes everyone.
I love this idea from Gary Vaynerchuck. That survival and relevance today depends on creating content and providing value to the people you’re serving.
He suggests that the number one asset of the day is attention. Whether you’re selling health food, selling fast food, building houses or fixing sore backs, the first thing you need before we can even start sharing what we do is someone’s attention.
And with the array of tools and platforms on offer, that give each and every one of us unprecedented access to capture the attention of unprecedented numbers of people, thinking like a media company seems like a pretty smart way to go.
When you become the definitive guide and source of ALL local information you get noticed, your trust levels increase. You’re serving the needs of the community. You’re an indispensable resource. The community needs the information you’ve just produced. And oh, what’s this, you’re a real estate agent too? Oh well guess who everyone wants to sell their home? The guy down the road they’ve never heard of? Or you, the digital mayor?
Create content at scale. And do it for THEM. Don’t do it to line your own pockets. Don’t be sneaky, holding back the good stuff, the old bait and switch. No, just give. Give your best stuff. Give it away for free. Be the one to make their lives easier and watch what happens.
As Gary says: jab, jab, jab, right hook.
Give and serve and be helpful and give some more. And once they’ve come to know you and trust you, then you can ASK.
First you build your capital in the trust economy with the jab, jab, jab. And then it’s time to spend the trust capital you’ve accumulated by asking them to buy from you. And again, nothing sneaky. Straight up and honest:
Thanks for supporting me. I hope you’re getting great value from all the work I’ve put out. I’m selling this thing, if you want one, you can buy it here. Done.
Then back to creating more content. Jab, jab, jab, jab, jab, jab, jab…
