Ever since your first tweet on Twitter back in the day, you’ve become enamored with the idea of becoming the next social media guru. In fact, your Klout score recently increased. That’s always a great indicator, right?
But hold on! Here are five
reasons why you aren’t a social media guru.
1. You don’t preach enough to your fans about making time to form relationships only to ignore them later on. You know the gurus who tweet, “If I reply to everyone, I’ll never sleep. LOL >.<”
You think, “Please, excuse us peons for um…’forming relationships’ with you.”
I’m always amazed how Bruce Sallan and Mack Collier manage to return emails, tweet back and express gratitude. So far, these guys practice what they preach. Kudos, guys!
2. You don’t kiss up enough. Seriously! Some gurus gush over everyone with insincere phrases. When was the last time you met a person in real life who ended each sentence with “smoochies, baby”? I haven’t yet and I’m glad.
If a more down to earth approach is your style then Triberr’s founder, Dino Dogan and C.C. Chapman are your guys to emulate. You may not like everything they say or the way they say it but they’re as real as they come.
3. You don’t write to please everyone. Many social media gurus give vague advice or the same advice rephrased to please everyone. Their tweets go viral, their Google + has been plussed out. You know the phrases: “Relationships are important. You’re important!” “Let’s Sing Kumbaya! Love you!”
The fans go wild! They retweet the heck out of it. They feel they have formed a bond with the guru but most of the time those gurus are the same ones mentioned in #1.
But face it, you like the gurus who don’t care if they tick off others as long as they hold true to their convictions and deliver a unique message. If you don’t have any hang ups about dealing with reality then Marc Ensign is your guy. But I’m warning you if you prefer to live in Barney World where everyone sings “I love you. You love me.” He’s not your guy. Go look for the Smoochies people in #3.
4. You’re not a smooth talking hustler. You can smell those people a mile away. They stink of poop! Have you ever listened to a free 30 minute webinar where the speaker talks about herself for 5 minutes then talks about what she is going to talk about for the next 5 minutes then talks about what others are saying about the topic for another 5 minutes then gives vague information for the next 5 minutes only to find out that you have to buy a book or a program to get the information promised in the webinar? Ugh!
That’s why I like Chris Brogan’s phrase “Selly Sell.” He tells you straight up that he is going to sell you something in his email. If you don’t like it, that’s ok with him. Hit delete and move on. He will still continue to be a nice guy.
That kind of true intention gets my respect. For the others, unsubscribe, unfollow, unlike, un everything!
5. You won’t shy away from Mr. Trouble. Doesn’t it bother you when someone with an opposing view confronts a social media guru and the guru completely ignores the comment and focuses on the other people’s praises instead? Kind of cowardly. Looks like he’s hiding something.
Recently on #bloggab and #blogchat, Mr. Instigator showed up. His goal was to provoke a fight with the host or the guest or both!
In this example, Mr. Instigator accused Marc Ensign of being a fraud and tricking people in the chat into buying his book. Bam! But with humor and conviction, Marc throws the knockdown punch. “The book is free to everyone!”
Take that! Oh wait! Marc never even mentioned the free book on his website until Mr. Instigator showed up. Bam! Mr. Instigator is out for the count! That’s how you handle opposition: head on.
So forget about being a social media guru and stick to being a down to earth friendly person willing to interact with others in online and off line.
Whew! Got that off my chest. What’s your great social media guru pet peeve?