Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

Thinking, writing, business ideas … You’re only a stranger once.

October 6, 2008

Mind if I Ask Your Network to Help Me Beat Your Car with a Sledgehammer?

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 12:23 pm

Social Media Is Connecting People with People

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Would you stop connecting people to people for one small second?

Put down that shiny object and consider these statements.

Mind if I ask your network to help me beat your car with a sledgehammer?

I’m hoping you’ll personally help me throw a puppy off a high building.

I’m about to shamelessly self-promote my new money-making seminar.

Repeat after me.

Just because you say you’re going to do it,
doesn’t make it right and it doesn’t make it any more appealing.

Social media is about connecting people to people, not people to products.
The joke about shameless self-promotion isn’t funny, because it’s meant to be promotion, not a joke.

And when someone follows it with . . .

If you help me run over this puppy now, I’ll help you when you want to run over a puppy in the future.

Get my point?

Don’t ask folks to be shameless with you. Ew.

I value the people in my network and hope they trust me.
False jokes about shameless self-promotion devalue that.

If you want help promoting your product . . .

Give me a reason to feel proud to pass it on.

It takes more effort to offer a reason to show off what you do, but I’ll love you for it.

The real question is: Why would anyone have to joke about shameless self-promotion if the product is worth talking about?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!


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22 Comments to “Mind if I Ask Your Network to Help Me Beat Your Car with a Sledgehammer?”

  1. October 6th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
    Amy Derby said

    Kill the kittens. Kill the kittens.

    Oh wait… :-)

    This kinda reminds me of something someone I can’t remember once said (somewhere, sometime) about how transparency = being just you enough to sell a product. Maybe his brother is the social media moron who came up with this one?

    Shameless self-promotion = stupid. If you suck, passing a note to a billion people to say “I suck. Pass it on.” just doesn’t seem smart to me.

  2. October 6th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hey Amy!
    I agree that everything you do should be a walking talking representation of what your value is. :)

  3. October 6th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
    Roy Jacobsen said

    You remind me of the time one of my best friends attended a religious conference, where he met a number of people. After the conference, he told me, one of the people he met contacted him to about the tremendous business opportunities of [insert company name that rhymes with "tramway"].

    His response: “You attended a religious conference hoping to meet people you can pitch your business too? Do you not see the problem here?”

  4. October 6th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
    George said

    Good post Liz. I like your attitude.
    George

  5. October 6th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
    Kathy said

    It’s amazing how RUDE people can be when they can’t see the results of their actions first hand!

    Unfortunately, the “global village” tends to have more than it’s fair share of jerks who pop from group to group, breaking up interesting conversations with a poorly delivered, “Enough about what you all are talking about, now let’s talk about ME and my new product!”

    However, as Roy points out, these jerks aren’t limited to online and act like this in “real life” as well! So maybe that rudeness is not the result of not being able see people’s reactions - which is even more sad!

    The saying, “Your actions are speaking so loudly that I can’t hear what you’re saying” applies here.

  6. October 6th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
    Todd Smith said

    Great point, Liz. I read that from someone on Twitter: “I”m going to do some shameless self-promotion.” Believe me, it didn’t make me want to follow him. I immediately thought of him as selfish and pushy and lost interest in what he was promoting. Thanks you. The sledgehammer/puppy analogies really make it clear. Just because you say you’re going to do it doesn’t make it right, or more appealing. :)

  7. October 6th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
    paul merrill said

    LOVE this post!!

    “Give me a reason to feel proud to pass it on” is a wonderful concept. You deserve an honorary PhD for that, in my book.

    I retweeted you on it.

  8. October 6th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
    Ed Borasky said

    Reminds me of the old joke, “Excuse me sir, is my eye hurting your elbow?”

    BTW … were you the one who pointed me at Ellen Weber’s site?

  9. October 6th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
    Troy Worman said

    This is a great piece of writing. I will be proud to pass it along.

  10. October 7th, 2008 at 12:41 am
    marti garaughty said

    hi Liz… OK, here’s who I am and here’s what I want to sell you, ummmmm I mean…

    No kidding, re “Don’t ask folks to be shameless with you. Ew. I value the people in my network and hope they trust me”…

    It takes so much time to build a solid, trustworthy reputation online and 2 seconds to destroy it.

    Your puppy analogy makes the point perfectly clear but I’m not sure why so many people still don’t get it!

  11. October 7th, 2008 at 5:19 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Roy,
    Exactly, when a person starts promoting shameless, he or she loses sight of the fact that on the other end of the conversation is another human being, not a buying machine. It’s blind disrespect.

  12. October 7th, 2008 at 5:25 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi George,
    Obviously you’ve been aproached by a shameless self-promoter before. :)

  13. October 7th, 2008 at 5:28 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Kathy,
    Rude is a good word for it, and I’ve been practicing polite ways of saying just that. Thank you for adding one to the list — the one about actions speaking so loudly that I can’t hear your words. :)

    I’m still working on finding a way to say how sad it is that product can’t speak for itself.

  14. October 7th, 2008 at 5:31 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Todd,
    Those two analogies were the soft ones that I came up with. The others were stronger. :)

    When folks say that next time they’ll return the favor I so want to say “What makes you think I would ever want to act like you’re acting now?”

  15. October 7th, 2008 at 5:34 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Paul!
    Thanks for the support. It seems to me that it works like this.

    It’s easy — dare I say, the lazy way out — to say that “I’m shameless self-promoting. It takes a little work and creativity to offer other folks a compelling reason to want to open their networks and pass along what you have.

  16. October 7th, 2008 at 5:37 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Ed!
    Great point about the elbow in the eye. That makes me think about pointing out that someone’s foot is in their own mouth.

    Might have been me, I love Ellen and her work. :)

  17. October 7th, 2008 at 5:37 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Troy!
    Great to know you’re still listening in. I’d be proud if you even passed on my name. :)

  18. October 7th, 2008 at 5:40 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Marti,
    I really think the folks who don’t get it don’t want to. They don’t want to because that sort of “bully my way in” sales pitch still works with people who don’t like to say no. It sets up an ultimatum and makes the listener choose between the guy talking and the people who aren’t there. :)

  19. October 7th, 2008 at 11:28 am
    Cath Lawson said

    Hi Liz - I shouldn’t laugh but the way you put it was so funny.

    I am contacted all the time to review products that aren’t worth promoting. And I always find it kind of insulting that the seller would want to harm my reputation by persuading me to peddle crap to my friends.

  20. October 8th, 2008 at 5:53 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Cath,
    I used to think when I got such requests who do they think I am? Then I realized that they’re not thinking of me in any sense. :)

  21. October 8th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
    Is Social Media Marketing in Trouble? | Beyond Niche Marketing said

    [...] over at Successful Blog.  She has built an active, vibrant online community.  Her latest post, Mind if I Ask Your Network to Help Me Beat Your Car with a Sledgehammer? makes me ask the question, “Is Social Media Marketing in [...]

  22. October 24th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
    Moving Forward and Standing Still . . . - Liz Strauss at Successful Blog - Thinking, writing, business ideas . . . You’re only a stranger once. said

    [...] Mind if I Ask Your Network to Help Me Beat Your Car with a Sledgehammer? [...]

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