“But why?” he asked. “But why would you want to get to 10,000?”
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I was searching through my old emails for something completely unrelated when I came across this email which I had sent to a group of people after explaining to them exactly how to get to 10,000 connections, aka “the magic number”. This was a follow up email I’d sent to a group who had taken the “How to be a Rising Star in Media” class. This was the response I’d received from one of the attendees:
You’ll have to forgive me. I’m old and social media ignorant,
although I did have a page or FB for awhile (but deactivated), and
have a current page on Linkedin.This is not a facetious question: Why would I want to get to 10,000?
What does it benefit me, other than being known or followed by 10,000
people. Is there a way to generate revenue by doing this?
The only way I could explain it was to tell three stories. I still maintain what I said is true: “You have to want it because you see value in the results.” But if you don’t yet see the value…
Here are the stories I told:
Story One—10 years ago.
Back when I was in advertising, I did a TV ad campaign. It was for Lotus Notes — a social sharing software that came out 1-1/2 years before the Internet was invented. The campaign was filled with amazing visuals of what the future of information sharing might look like (a guy dressed in a suit made out of newspaper, standing on a rooftop in LA with a giant megaphone). Foreshadowing Twitter, no doubt, 10 years ago. Anyway, the campaign went on to win tons of awards, including being exhibited in MOMA. Lotus was sold to IBM shortly after the campaign ran for $3.5 billion.
I used to be so awkwardly self-conscious that I could barely finish a sentence.
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I left that job, and didn’t see that client for 10 years. And when I finally tracked him down and got him on the phone (he was by now CMO of Time, Inc), I said, “Hey, it’s Lisa Hickey. I don’t know if you remember me…” and he cut me off and said, “Of course I remember you. You made me famous.”
I immediately decided that “making people famous” was a marketable skill. It’s what I do. I like nothing better than seeing someone succeed because of some extraordinary talent they didn’t know they had. Nothing. And social media makes it easier and faster than ever before.
Story Two—2 years ago.
Believe it or not, I’m old too. And I embrace social media with all the vim of a 22-year-old. Why? Because it changes me. I will never grow old-old if I keep changing. Of that I am sure.
And I’ve learned this from social media: if you can talk to everybody, you can talk to anybody.
I used to be terrified to talk on the phone. I used to be so awkwardly self-conscious that I could barely finish a sentence. But three months after I embraced social media, I got asked to speak in public. And then again. And again. Rooms filled with 25, 50, 100 people. At one presentation, there were a bunch of people I knew from advertising. And I started out by saying “I bet half of you are here only because you didn’t actually believe I could speak in public” It was the biggest laugh I ever got.
If asked to speak in front of 1,000 people, I’d jump at the chance. I’d just practice on my 27,000 twitter followers first.
Story Three—Last night.
I hadn’t been on my personal Twitter account for ages. I’d put a link or two up there, just to keep it alive, but I was barely interacting with anyone.
But by midnight, I was finally caught up with work, and I jumped on Twitter, and this time, I had something to say. I tweeted: “Amazing. Comments on my post about inequality in education say: we don’t think people need that good an education.”
… people connect with you because they share your values. And because they share your values, they do things for you – things that you need – BEFORE you ask them to.
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And two people immediately responded to that tweet — a VP at the Wall Street Journal who joked that all the leaders are actually “risk-takers with C averages'” And the second person was Erin Burnett who runs a news show on CNN, and she said “that sounds like a story for CNN.”
THAT’s what I mean when I say “at 10,000 connections, you are your own media company.” I was seen as potential news — by someone at CNN. This exact thing – no, not exactly this, but stories like this — happen to me ALL the time.
I used to have a quote that said, “Social Media accelerates serendipity.” What does that mean?
Jeff Jarvis (of “What would google do” fame) explains serendipity as “unexpected relevance”. But I see it as this – people connect with you because they share your values. And because they share your values, they do things for you – things that you need – BEFORE you ask them to. Before you may even know you need them. It’s quite extraordinary.
You have to find your story. The one only you can tell. And then believe that you can tell it well.
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But can you monetize it? Most of the speaking engagements I did were paid. I never billed myself as a public speaker – people just asked me to speak because there was such passion in my tweets. (boy does that sound silly. But true) I’ve gotten job offers, met VCs, asked to do consulting work, got a part in a movie, got countless radio and print interviews — all without having to promote myself. (The line in the documentary I appeared in said, “Don’t be the person looking for a job. Be the person doing something interesting.”)
All that happened just by going on social media and saying or sharing stuff that was interesting. And important. And “unexpectedly relevant” to people. I can’t tell you how to do exactly that – I had something to say, I had a story only I could tell. You have to find your story. The one only you can tell. And then believe that you can tell it well.
I get that you may not want all that. You may not want to be seen as “news”. “Being your own media company” may sound like a chore. But that’s what *can* happen, if that’s what you want.
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So that’s the “why”. The Rising Stars Training will tell you “how”.
We’re having another “How to be a Rising Star in Media” class Tuesday May 10th at Noon EST, 9 am PST. Won’t you join us?
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Photo: Pixabay
I’m really glad that I took this class and just so happen to have Malcolm Gladwell’s book “The Tipping Point.” Just started reading it for more understanding. Thanks Lisa!