From the course: Guy Kawasaki on How to Rock Social Media

Perfect your posts

- So my next piece of advice is how to perfect your posts. This is a relatively high level recommendation here, so. Some key concepts. First of all, always add value. You add value by providing information, what just happened, analysis, what does it mean that this happened, assistance, how to avoid this bad thing, or how to have this good thing happen. And finally, there's entertainment. Drop-dead funny video. So always be adding value. Information, analysis, assistance, or entertainment. Next concept. Pass what I call the reshare test. The reshare test works like this. You want to post such great stuff that the people who follow you get it and then reshare it to their followers. That's a very important test. It's a higher level test. Because, well, I'll use a restaurant analogy. You eat at a restaurant, you tip the valet, you tip the waiter. No big deal, it's kind of socially acceptable, right? But how about you eat at a restaurant and it's so good that you go online and you tell people to eat there. You tell your colleagues, your friends, your family, you must eat at this place. When you do that, you are risking your reputation. I want you to post such great stuff that people are willing to risk their reputation by resharing what you posted. Think of the difference between a tip and telling people to eat at a restaurant. The final advice here is to embrace what I call the NPR model. You know, NPR provides great content 365 days a year. They run such great content that they are able to run the pledge drive. Nobody likes the pledge drive. I don't like the pledge drive, you don't like the pledge drive, not even NPR likes the pledge drive. And yet people not only tolerate the pledge drive, they actually give money. What a concept! And why does this work? It works because NPR has provided such great content that people feel, really, a psychological need to reciprocate, to somehow pay NPR back, do something for NPR. So when you post, ask yourself are you passing the reshare test and embracing the NPR model? Because if you passed the reshare test and you're providing such great stuff that people feel like they need to reciprocate, then you have earned the right to use social media as a marketing platform, and you can promote your book, your conference, your webinar, whatever you want to promote. But it's because you have added value, you've passed the reshare test, and you've embraced the NPR model.

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