Why I un-followed 47,000 people on Twitter

Remember when the band members from Metallica all got short haircuts? I remember hearing people say, “those sell-outs” and “it just isn’t the same seeing them with short hair.” Did anybody consider that after having long greasy hair for almost two decades, they were ready for a change? Long hair can be hard to manage, and so can a huge Twitter following.

When I first joined Twitter I was trying to get a book published. I still have a few good friends from the old days when I was using a blogspot blog – http://adriandayton.blogspot.com. For those of you that knew me back then I had one goal- to get my first book published. It was a book about virtues, so I figured a bigger following was better. So I grew… and grew.. and grew my following.

Somewhere along the way I switched gears and started talking to other lawyers about social media. This was a far more narrow niche and required a very tight focus. For this very specific group a big following wasn’t nearly as helpful or attractive. Worse still, I was following so many people that my Twitter stream was filled with content that was at best irrelevant and at worse distracting. The biggest challenge for me was that I could no longer focus on new followers or qualified prospects because they were lost in the noise. It was time to get a hair cut.

Months ago I noticed that Alexis Neely had trimmed down the list of people she followed- so I asked her how that went for her. She responded, “I have no regrets.” Than I noticed that one of the nicest people I know on Twitter, Del Williams had done the same. She told me how great it was to no longer have so many auto-DM’s and the SPAM coming her way all the time. She told me about a program called http://unfollowall.com that let’s you un-follow everyone with a click of a button. If you have a larger following it takes about 15 clicks- but it sure beats going through them all manually.

Do I regret it?

Actually no, you see the people that CARE have sent me a message and I have followed them back immediately, the people that don’t care- well, why were we following each other in the first place? Seth Godin says the magic number is 10. I have written about this before, but 10 raving fans will make any business successful. By following 50,000 it was making it hard to focus on the 10- or 100 people that I really care about.

If you were un-followed in what I refer to as “The Great Cleanse,” please shoot me a message and let me know so that I can follow you back. And this time, my following you back will mean more. Please don’t be upset with me though, I would hate to have to “sleep with one eye open.” (that’s a Metallica reference if you didn’t catch it.)

Don’t Start a Blog You Can’t Finish

“Quitting smoking is easy, I’ve done it hundreds of times.” -Mark Twain

Starting a blog is easy. Finishing a blog, now that takes work. As I speak to attorneys all over the country about blogging, one of the #1 fears that I hear from them is:

“I don’t want to start something I can’t finish”

Two weeks ago I talked about Why anybody can blog, but most people fail. This week I want to talk about how attorneys can create an effective blog strategy AND have increased productivity. We are going to talk about how lawyers can create a process that will guarantee they can make their blog a reality.

The Devil is in the details

As professionals we work well under pressure. Deadlines, due dates and clients in crisis. These things don’t phase us, after all it is our job to make the problems of our clients our problems. This means that every client call is most likely urgent. There are always new fires to put out. It is impossible to plan for the calls, so we need to be ready to clear our schedule and help our clients solve their emergencies. This high volume of urgent and important matters can make it difficult to work on those things that matter the most to us. Some of the things that are the most important to us, aren’t urgent and certainly aren’t emergencies:

-watching your son’s soccer game
-dinner with your family
-date night with your spouse
-lunch with your best client
-follow up calls with your best prospects

None of these items are urgent, but it can be safely said they are all extremely important. Steven Covey describes the conflict of urgent/important versus not urgent/important with this 2×2 matrix

Sometimes we get so bogged down that when we finally have free time we spend it in the bottom right quadrant- doing things that are not important or urgent. Becoming “stuck” and living our lives in quadrants 1 and 4 is very common. There are four secrets to escaping them.

1. Have a clear vision of your future

What’s the point? Why are you creating the blog? What is your end goal? What matters most to you? Will your blog help you get there? If you can’t answer these questions- your blog will die an ignominious death. You won’t have the motivation to keep going.

2. Have a set time each week for planning

You’ll never find time for blogging. You can’t “make” time for blogging either. You need to schedule it, and that requires you to have a planning process. Set aside time each week to schedule your week and make it a priority to blog at times when you are less likely to have distractions.

3. Build accountability into your blogging goal

Who else knows about your goal to blog? Does your wife know? Does your boss know? Your business partner? Your coach? Make sure someone is checking up on you. Almost daily I hear professionals complain that they aren’t good at keeping regular commitments. Being accountable to someone else can help.

4. Make blogging a habit (this is probably the hardest step)

This comes as no surprise, it is difficult to start new habits.

“Man, I can’t floss my teeth. People talk about how hard it is to stop smoking; about as hard as it is to start flossing.” – Mitch Hedberg

If Mitch were alive today, may he rest in peace, I think he would agree that blogging is AT LEAST as hard to start as flossing. It takes commitment and dedication.

Ok, that is all I have to say right now. My wife is calling me, and it’s time to take my son to the park. Let me end by saying, if blogging is important to you, make it happen. If not, don’t beat yourself up for not doing it.

Are you like Madonna or Willie Nelson?

I think it’s fitting to start a blog post about Madonna and Willie Nelson by telling you a short story about my departed Grandfather. He would be 102 years old today. His wife, my Grandmother Lois, is still alive and turns 101 this January. I spent my summer’s working on a cattle ranch for my Grandfather- and he was constantly teaching me. He would tell me which plants were edible, how to move cattle and most importantly- proper dinner table manners.

“I’ll have the butter please,” my Grandpa said to me.

“Here it is,” I said as I quickly handed it to him.

“Now Adrian, good manners is not just about passing things when they are asked for, and saying ‘please’ and ‘thank-you.’ Having good manners means anticipating what people will need BEFORE they ask for it. When you see someone breaking their bread, go ahead and pass them the butter. If they don’t have anything to drink, offer to poor them some water.”

Anticipation is a powerful tool both for dinner-table manners and for business. Now on to the rock stars.

Madonna doesn’t have to anticipate. She is a pop-icon that is always recreating herself. She has such talent and charisma that whatever she chooses to be or however she choose to re-invent herself, people adore her for it. Or think about a production company like Pixar. Everything they create is solid gold, so they have the luxury to create from nothing something fantastic in every one of their productions. Unless you have CRAZY talent, you may not be able to be like Madonna.  You may need to learn the art of anticipation.

Willie Nelson didn’t have crazy talent. At least not in the way Madonna did. Willie Nelson was an extremely talented song writer.  He wrote big hits like “Crazy” for Patsy Cline.  The problem was, he didn’t want to write, he wanted to sing- but none of the major record labels would sign him.  They said he didn’t have the singing voice to be a star.  Instead of trying to force it, he changed tactics.  Willie noticed a movement in country music towards a little rougher cowboy.  Call this the “Harley Davidson Movement.”  He saw this growing trend, and he realized that it was going to be big.  Maybe even bigger than country itself at the time, so instead of trying to create the new trend- he decided to ride the wave by writing music to resonate with this new growing market.  He anticipated their needs before they knew they had them, and not only did he land a huge record deal and propel his career to stardom- he even got to sing and play the music his way.

How can you possibly anticipate the next big trend? How about anticipating the needs your clients will have next?  Do you need to read their minds, or shuffle through their garbage? No, but I would recommend you start by listening to them.  You need to be tuned it.  Talk to them.  Ask them what is keeping them up at night.  If one client calls with a new concern, chances are there will be other clients with similar concerns.  Find out from the source. It’s not the only way, but it gives you the best chance of success.  Madonna’s are one-in-a-million but new smart business people that are able to anticipate are springing up everyday.

Anybody can learn to anticipate, but for starters take a lesson from my Grandfather, and pass me the butter.

Why anybody can blog, but most people fail

As I sat at the dinner table, picking at my meatloaf, my Father looked directly at me.
“Adrian, I hear you haven’t been practicing your piano. We’ve talked about this before.”
“Dad, I really want to learn to play piano, life is just really busy right now,” I argued.
“Adrian, we do the things in life we want to do.“

In dozens of conversations with busy professional I hear time and time again similar excuses to the ones I made to my Father as a kid.

“I’m too busy.”
“I barely have time to respond to all my emails.”
“I don’t want to commit to something I can’t stick with.”

Most people who try to blog fail for three major reasons. 1. They aren’t sufficiently motivated to blog. 2. They aren’t organized enough to blog. 3. They don’t know what to say.

Motivation

If you don’t believe that blogging will help build your business, build your reputation, or gain valuable exposure for you- you may not have sufficient motivation to make blogging a priority in your life. That is ok, blogging isn’t for everybody. Last week in my post: Do you believe in social media? we talked about this very point. If you really want to start blogging, these questions may help you: What will blogging mean to your career? What networking opportunities will blogging provide you with? How will landing a new client through your blog affect how you are perceived in your office? If answering these questions motivates you to start blogging, you are part of the way there. The next step is to make a plan.

Organization

“I’m just not good at keeping weekly or daily commitments.”

We all do the things in life we want to do. What do you want most? Do you want to write a book? Do you want to travel to Europe? Do you want to buy a rental property? Make it happen. Create a plan and follow it- but stop saying you really want to do something and start planning to make it happen.

When it comes to blogging you need a schedule. Set aside time every day or every week when you can blog free from distractions. If you don’t have any free time, reevaluate some of the other “essential” tasks that are filling your days and find out which tasks are keeping you from achieving the things you most want to accomplish. Eliminate the the time sinks.

I schedule time three days a week to blog, sometimes I only come up with 2 blog posts, some weeks I come up with 4, but it is part of schedule. One of the biggest mistakes people make that start blogging or using social media is underestimating the commitment. I’m not talking about wasting time on Twitter or Facebook. You can easily waste 2 hours each day on social networking, but that isn’t the point here. The point is schedule time in a strategic way so that when you write and when you spend time online you are maximizing that opportunity by either creating content, learning, or building relationships. Your time and energy are your most valuable resources, so use them wisely.

Figuring out what to say

What are you the best at? Where do you have expertise? What is a topic you are passionate about? What types of news articles make your blood boil? You always have things to talk about, you just need to start saying them online.

Another great way to get started is to blog about questions people frequently ask you, or questions you personally would like answered. If the questions are interesting and important to your clients, they will most likely be helpful to others as well.

When I know I have to blog on a regular basis, it changes the way I see the world. In the middle of conversations I will often say, “wow that would make a great blog post.” Blogging changes the way you think. Suddenly an idea can become much more. Your simple thought bubble makes for a compelling blog post. You just need to start writing them down.

Overcoming fear

What if people don’t like my posts? What if people don’t read them? What if people criticize my writing?

For most people the problem isn’t that they don’t have anything to say. The problem is that they are afraid. Fear can be crippling, and fear of saying the wrong thing keeps people from blogging. Overcoming this fear takes practice. Through repetition your confidence and skill level will grow and and your fear will dissipate. Learn by doing, and the more you blog the better you will be.

If you are motivated to blog, make it part of your routine and make it happen. It isn’t easy. It requires dedication, creativity and hard work. It can be amazing though. Blogging is great for so many reasons. Get over these major hurdles and blogging can work for you. Just remember what my Dad taught me:

“We do the things in life we want to do.”

52 posts = blog critical mass

“Lawyers don’t want leads, they want clients” -Anonymous

Lawyers sometimes act as if the rules of business don’t apply to them. They don’t need to market, they don’t need to calculate the cost of goods sold, they don’t need to project manage and they certainly don’t need leads that may or may not convert into any real business. It is time that lawyers start to pay attention to insights from the rest of the business world. Last week Andrea Stimmel, Marketer of the Year, shared with me her opinion that for lawyers to stay on top of the latest trends they need to watch what other industries are doing with social media. Hubspot’s inbound marketing survey of 1,400 small-to-medium sized businesses allows you to do just that. You can see the entire report here.

Before I share with you what I found to be the most relevant statistics to lawyers, I just need to clarify one thing. This report speaks a lot about “leads” – not necessarily about new clients. Leads take two forms- (1) potential clients that come to your blog or website and call you to ask you questions, or (2) potential clients that “opt-in” by submitting their name and email address on your site.  If your site isn’t set up for that, fix it. Leads drive appointments and appointments drive new engagements.

Now for the good stuff.

1.  Businesses that used blogs brought in more business, but only after reaching a critical mass of posts.  The magic number when it comes to blog posts is 52.  Businesses that reach 52 posts double the number of leads they bring in each month according to the report.

So why 52 posts?  The report provides a number of different reasons.  Companies that hit the big 52 have a commitment to posting regularly and they also have a critical mass of pages indexed by Google- this helps boost their search engine results substantially because it helps them rank for dozens if not more than a hundred different key works.

2.  Twitter matters.  Businesses that used Twitter on average doubled the number of leads in comparison to those that didn’t use Twitter.  Another interesting fact, you don’t need a huge following on Twitter.  In fact those businesses with 100-500 followers on Twitter fared extremely well – better than those with more than 501 followers.  This shows that quality not quantity matters on Twitter.  A few hundred targeted followers is all your business needs.  ”Customers with large numbers of followers are probably attracting viewers who are exclusively interested in the content,” the report explains.  A gigantic Twitter following is great for sites that are trying to generate traffic, but not so much those trying to bring in leads.

Twitter takeaway: “Follow to get followers.  Build your Twitter reach by following companies and individuals related to your industry.  They will likely follow you [back].” It is worth it, at least until you reach a few hundred followers.

3.  Increase the number of indexed pages on your site.  Simply put, you need a critical mass of content on your site and that content needs to be tagged appropriately.

Conclusions:

-There is a clearly defined business case for blogs and social media- but you need the appropriate strategy behind it.  Use your blog to generate leads, and then create a process for follow-up so that your leads are converted into new clients.

-Use Twitter.  It helps people find your site and has been shown to substantially increase the number of leads generated.

-The rule of 52.  You need your blog to reach 52 posts as quickly as possible.  If you are blogging once per week, this will take a year- twice a week, 6 months.  You get the idea.  If you can find ways to bring in guest bloggers, task associates with creating the content, or even brining on an intern to research blog topics for you, it makes sense.

Do these statistics apply to lawyers and law firms?  The practice of law is different, right?  Just keep telling yourself that, and wait for the phone to ring.  In the meantime for those that are looking to actively market and build your business, learn from these statistics.  Hat tip to Stephen Fairley from the Rainmaker Institute for pointing out the Hubspot report to me.

If you don’t think these statistics apply to the legal market, tell us why.  Share your experience.  I’ve spoken to a number of lawyers that have never found a single client through blogging or Twitter.  Most of them gave up too early.  Did they reach 52 posts?  Was their site designed to generate leads?  Please share your experiences and insights here.

To help you remember the number 52, I’ve also included a little music video to help you get ready for the weekend.

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