Social media has transformed our world into one great big small town, dominated, as all vibrant towns used to be, by the strength of relationship, the currency of caring, and the power of word of mouth.
— Gary Vaynerchuk, The Thank You Economy
This, you know. Social media gives you the best opportunity to talk to fellow business owners and loyal customers since, well, the last time you strolled down a thriving main street.
Best of all, social media doesn’t mind if you’re in your pajamas.
We also know that social media contributes to tipping points and even revolutions. It connects neighbor to neighbor and grandson to grandma.
Social media has reinvented word of mouth by creating word of type, swipe, and tap.
But before there can be sharing, there has to be something to share. And there has to be people who want to share it.
And this is where Early Adopters come in.
What is an Early Adopter?
They’re the people who wait in line for the latest iDevice. They’re the people try out new software before you’ve even heard of it.
According to The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development:
“Passionate, early users of new technology or products who understand its value before mainstream markets.”
Yes, they’re most often associated with tech.
But they’re also the people who try out the new restaurant in town before the reviews come out. Or the newest microwaveable meal at the grocery store. Or the salon that just opened. Or the doula that just started her practice. Or the artist that hung her first show.
Early Adopters rely on curiosity to fuel their purchasing decisions far more than brand names or customer reviews.
But Early Adopters do more than just buy your stuff.
Whether your business is 30 days old or 30 years old, you can harness your own Early Adopter community. Your new widget or service may be a hard sell for those who are used to using something else but, harness your Early Adopters, and you’ll be able to make your initial offering much more palatable to the masses.
Game? Here’s how you do it:
Use Early Adopters to make in-progress products better.
Create an email list for people who are specifically interested in a new product. Email them regularly with content tangential to the development of your product. Ask for feedback, opinion, and personal experiences. Create a conversation that informs the development of the product you’re working on.
Use Early Adopters to get feedback on in-use products.
Since Early Adopters are those most likely to “get it,” utilize them to provide the feedback that gaps your designer experience with the user experience of those you’re selling to. Survey the first wave of buyers and seek to understand how they’re using the product and why they wouldn’t live without it anymore. Adjust sales copy, your positioning, and your product/service based on a careful analysis of this feedback.
Use Early Adopters to produce more.
We spend too much time in development and not nearly enough time in testing, deployment, and analysis. Create a first run product that is high in quality but lacking in bells & whistles. Sell these products (or services) to an invite-only list (see point 1) and solicit feedback so that you can create a second run product with the features, bells, & whistles your wider audience actually wants. Then you’ll be creating your next first run product instead of banging your head against your desk wondering why the first product didn’t sell.
Reward Early Adopters for giving you a hand.
Reward? On this budget?! A mention on Twitter, an email conversation, or sending them a preview copy of your next product are all great – and cheap – ways to reward your Early Adopters. Luckily, they don’t require much more than acknowledgment and the very first heads up on what you’ve got coming next.
I know, I’m an Early Adopter.
Start finding your Early Adopters today.
Run a sales report, create a Twitter list, thank them by name on your Facebook page, create your “Sneak Peek” email list… do something that helps you identify these key people in your business.
But first, leave me a response below and tell me what you’re going to do with them!
“How are you going to use Google+?” That’s the question on early adopters’ lips.
We have been programmed to look at each and every evolution of Web 2.0 as something to use, something that can be harnessed to do our bidding and serve our needs. The race to establish your profile, the mad hunt for followers, the not-so-social tactics for driving eyeballs back to your site… it’s all pretty familiar now.
Let me offer you a different thought about this new “platform:” Google+ is not just another evolution of Web 2.0 but a genuine step into the world of Web 3.0.
Web 3.0 has been defined as the Semantic Web, where the machines & algorithms understand us just as well as our friends and family. But I think we’re a ways off from having machines that truly comprehend the nuances of human communication. Instead, it appears that we’re entering an era of true integration with technology, at least in the connected class.
The tool that has become synonymous with search now offers a way to create a virtual representation of yourself.
Actually, that’s not quite right.
Your Google+ profile is a direct representation of who you are online. Nothing virtual about it.
You owe it to yourself to create the best “you” there as possible. Why? Google has already integrated itself into your life: Gmail, docs, calendar, maps… This isn’t about business versus personal, networking versus socializing. This is about the whole you, the well-rounded you.
And this is about what people find when they look for you.
Case in point, check out what pops up when I Google myself:
Yep, my G+ profile is listed above this very website. The one that bares my name! Now, I asked around and discovered that this isn’t yet the case for everyone. And, no doubt, if you haven’t yet activated a G+ account, this is not that case. But just how much longer is this going to be a new thang? Not long.
How you build out your profile, connections, +1’s, and comments will affect how the almighty G-machine understands you and that in turn will affect how real live human beings understand you.
The implications are vast.
How am I reacting to this new platform? Well, since I believe G+ represents a fundamental shift in how we integrate the ‘net into our total lives, I’m having a bit of an existential crisis! Okay, that’s a bit dramatic. But I feel pressure to create a compelling profile that avoids fluff, pitches, and blatant advertising.
I have confidence that I’m all I need to sell me – so how can I translate me into updates, links, and photos?
That’s the (multi) million dollar question.
I’m striving to create a stream of content that, when taken as a whole, invites people to learn more about me. On the flip side, I’m endeavoring to offer Google what it needs to offer me the best experience of the online world as possible.
That’s putting a lot of faith in a corporation. I think they deserve it. And they’ve done their best to earn it.
What are your thoughts on Google+? Are you using it yet – and, if so, how? And if you haven’t joined the party, are you hungry to give it a try?
In any discussion of social media, blogging, networking, or any means of connecting one person to another, there is an inevitable point of resistance for many: I am an introvert.
Wallflower, you bring me joy.
You there in the corner, shy, soft-spoken, it’s time to turn your intro out.
It might surprise you to know that many of your entrepreneurial role models are introverts: Chris Guillebeau, Darren Rowse, Chris Garrett…
Me.
You don’t have to be a wam-bam-thank-ya-mam extrovert to get ahead in business. To build a network. To create a following of loyal fans.
You need to know your strengths, as they relate to yourself & to others.
Your inward business plan…
As an introvert, you lead a rich internal life. Instead of having an intuitive sense of others, you probably have an intuitive sense of yourself. You know what works for you, how you will react to different situations, what excites you, and why certain stimulus shuts you down.
That knowledge is invaluable in building a business platform that works for you – regardless of if it has been done before.
Your outward social profile…
Introverts naturally gravitate to low barrier social tools like blogging or Twitter. There, we can prepare our thoughts, research our answers, and quietly observe. Skills we’ve honed but rarely get to use in more immediate social circumstances.
The real trick in using social media as an introvert is learning to reveal the process. Instead of closing up your social process deep inside, letting it out – allowing others to see how you work through conversations, experiences, and questions – will naturally bring a sense of expertise, authority, and transparency to the profile you’re building.
Your growing relationships…
So much of building a business is nurturing relationships. Extroverts may have an easy time of finding new people to add to their ever-expanding network. But introverts rule the roost when it comes to taking those relationships to deeper levels.
With much of our lives lived at superficial-at-best levels, a business owner who takes the time to cultivate deep, lasting relationships with her customers, partners, and colleagues is a business owner worth investing in.
Introverts do well with deep relationships and conversations rather than chit-chat. Be generous in introducing people to each other as well. Then it’s easier for you to ask for introductions from your good contacts.
Nancy Ancowitz, author Self Promotion for Introverts (via Inc Magazine)
The internet has made it possible to connect to surprisingly perfect people. Perfect for you, that is. Take advantage of the low barriers and starting forming relationships that matter.
Use our own inner mind work to work out what others are feeling & experiencing and use that to connect with them. You may not be able to do that in real time or in person but give it an extra 30 seconds and you might be a social situation master! Conducting business in the online space allows you to do just that.
Your sense of self…
When it comes down to it though, as an introvert, it’s often lack of confidence in yourself that creates the biggest barrier to social exploration.
The good news is that the digital age means that your “authentic self” can still be a persona. In fact, developing a persona can help you get in touch with the deepest truths of our own quiet selves.
If you meet me at a conference or workshop, you would likely pass me by pretty quickly. Although I’m working on my social shortcomings, I’m not close to be where I’d like to be. I don’t ask the right questions, my stories ramble, and my words are awkward.
But my personal brilliance is bubbling just below the surface.
Online, I allow that brilliance to shine through. That is who I am. I know that I ask the right questions, tell remarkable stories, choose the right words (at least sometimes!), and make you feel at ease.
It’s not that the digital world allows me to be someone I am not, it’s that the barriers to my own sense are broken down.
Introvert, it’s your time to shine.
How can you challenge yourself to allow your own personal brilliance to brighten the lives of others today?
laser cut doily clock by uncommon - click image for more info
As the mother of a two year old, I am acutely aware that there is one life skill that my daughter may never really need to learn: how to read an analog clock.
I can remember many hours (days… weeks…) being spent on this important skill. Little hand, big hand, counting by fives, system of twelve. The wonders of the analog clock never cease!
Except that analog clocks are now more like quaint little treasures – accessory on a wall, bling around the wrist – than an actual tool for finding our way in time.
In fact, many have decried 2011 as the year that the mighty wristwatch would become obsolete entirely.
We exclusively access time through the interface of our digital devices: computers, tablets, and cell phones.
Time outside the network barely exists.
Our digital world has taken over a very simple, tangible part of the analog.
* * *
I graduated from college in 2004 – the year Facebook was founded. I blogged on Xanga and my first social network was a very brief experience with MySpace. I’m old school.
While I was blogging, I was fueled internally by a very external life. I was engaged in school organizations, doing deep work in theology, politically active. Ideas flowed into me via experience and flowed out of me via the net. It was a beautiful way to live. Connected.
After college and a crisis of personal faith [in myself], I stopped blogging. I was no longer connected, experientially or digitally. There was nothing to fuel me. I withdrew. It wasn’t pretty.
Craving the connection I had before, I opened an account on MySpace. It lasted a week or two. The last status update I made read something like this:
Had the most amazing first date last night!
That first date is now my husband.
I didn’t start blogging or networking again for 3 years. I needed to plug back into experience. I needed to be & feel something deeper than pixels & posts. It took me 3 whole years to rediscover the depth of my own spirit.
* * *
I’ve said before how much the phrase “in real life” bothers me. I’ve also said before how real & deeply connected I am through the relationships I’ve cultivated in my digital world.
Analog – the physical & tangible world – and digital – the electrons & code world – are very much the same to me.
To be fully alive in either, requires a profound experience of life around you.
It’s not enough to try to cover up either world with superficial relationships, well-crafted marketing messages, or feeble calls to action. We can be artificial in the analog world too.
The way you interact with the world – whether digital or analog – is a reflection of the experiences you absorb & create.
Strive to do something that matters. Plan to find love, make love, and be love. Learn and teach. Be mindful of your smallest experiences as shared stories with the wider world.
To share the experience, we must really live the experience, as it unfolds moment to moment.
— Gwen Bell, Digital Warriorship
Mindfulness is at the heart of truly enjoying the experience of life. You can go through life flying from moment to moment, never being aware of the passage of life just below your feet. Or you can experience the feeling of each moment. You can breathe in & breathe out life.
Mindfulness is critical whether you’re accessing the analog world or the digital.
Acting with compassion & kindness, leading with your passion, engaging with beauty – that’s where you’ll find “realness.” And real is never obsolete.
What experience is your digital world reflecting? What experience is your analog world reflecting
If social media has changed anything, it’s made us all think more about how our businesses and ourselves are one and the same. That’s why I recommend to all over my web design clients that their mug shot & a tiny bio appear in a prominent place on their website.
Customers & clients want to understand who they’re sending their money to.
Rightfully so.
Watch the video above to find out how to add an “about me” blurb as a widget in your sidebar on your WordPress blog/site. Then share the know-how with your friends by clicking the share buttons below.
Here’s an example of the code I used in the video that you can copy & paste!
Tara Gentile is on a mission to turn the small business owners of today into the economic powerhouses of tomorrow. She's the creator of Quiet Power Strategy®, a business design system and entrepreneurial family. She's also the host of Profit. Power. Pursuit., which Entrepreneur named one of the 24 top woman-hosted business podcasts.
