Musk versus X.com, PayPal, Twitter … the limitations of transferable knowledge

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Elon Musk’s recent antics have demonstrated the limitations of transferable knowledge — AKA the Mike Ashley syndrome.

So who’s Mike Ashley? He’s a British billionaire retail entrepreneur who bought English football club Newcastle United without much appreciation of what it would take to run a big established business, and manage the expectations of a global audience — sound familiar?

Culture shock

Ashley had a tangential connection with sport, in that the focus of his entrepreneurialism is in the sporting goods market, via Sports Direct. But, as Ashley came to learn, there’s a big difference between putting bums in a sweatpants and bums on seats.

Musk, like Ashley, seemed to demonstrate an unwillingness to learn and a strident intention to stamp upon their respective purchases their own brand of command and control, at the expense of the existing culture:

Mike Ashley fails to understand the heritage of this great stadium. He has “renamed” it sportsdirect.com@stjamespark, although nobody ever calls it that.

…

The constant bad decisions that have characterised the Mike Ashley years, from the sackings of Keegan and Hughton to the sale of Carroll and Barton, have caused many to take a stand. These fans seem unlikely to return while Ashley is still in charge.

An understanding of large-scale infrastructure, a grasp of business finance, and a knowledge of identifying markets are all examples of knowledge that’s transferable, but it’s Musk’s management style that appears to have not made the transition, and we’re witnessing a clash of cultures at Twitter — indeed, as the departures continue, with each person leaves, so too goes knowledge, expertise, and culture.

I’m confident Musk wouldn’t have imposed onerous working conditions on the employees of his own ventures, risking the infrastructure critical to their existence, but that is what’s happened at Twitter:

“Twitter has also been around for ~15 years. [So,] a lot of infrastructure ‘cruft’ has built up. “Is that important, or can it be turned off” is the kind of thing best answered via asking people. 50% of Twitter was let go today, and your oral tradition just walked out the door too.”

Who spends $44 billion and instigates a regime of mind games to bend everyone to their will? Elon Musk, but I suspect few else. Musk founded X.com and PayPal, so it isn’t as if he doesn’t have experience with software, but there too were huge tensions with investors and employees, a short tenure as a CEO, problematic approaches to infrastructure, and acrimonious departures.

Managing failure

Some time ago, a friend had been asked to build a web application for a local business. Like me, my friend wanted to first learn something about the business and to interview the people who would have been using his application. The managing director insisted the thoughts of their employees weren’t important, and was intent on having the application built in secret, as a surprise. The surprise was on them because their employees hated it, were infuriated that they hadn’t been consulted (the application didn’t deal with a whole list of problems they’d reported to management), and some chose to leave as a result.

Again, there are similar features here with what’s been happening at Twitter, and while I don’t think Twitter is going to vanish (although it could fail soon), I suspect Musk is going to learn a hard and perhaps expensive lesson before things improve.

Understanding the people and the culture of a business isn’t some fuzzy warm thing that glows in articles like this, it’s an essential attribute to be understood and be made foundational to most everything else.

As the Qatar World Cup 2022 begins, it’s going to be interesting to see how Twitter copes, and like Ashley before him, the Beautiful Game could where Musk meets his match!

Creating an author platform

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If running a business, or being a self-published author, is analogous to spinning plates (which, incidentally, it is), then marketing is like catching rain drops.

If you’re a self-publisher, then you just have to accept that you’re also a business person and a marketeer. Once you make that mental leap, you’ll be in a better and stronger position to promote your novels not as something merely personal — important as that distinction may be to you — but as a product, one that you package and deliver to the correct demographic profile of people, which is to say your ideal reader.

Now, I’m not here to prescribe what I have done as the definitive approach to building an author platform for your novels. No, because I just can’t be so sure what I’ve done is the correct thing to do. The fact is, these things are fluid, and it may be that in time, I need to change things around. What I can say is, what I’ve created is — to the best of my knowledge and abilities — what I believe to be the best approach for me.

I say this as someone who’s been designing and developing websites since 1999. I’ve also been an aspiring writing for much longer, but only a published author for little over a year.

In this article, I’m only going to discuss what I did, with what tools, and with which services. Yes, alternatives exist. But since I’m not using them, I don’t think it would be appropriate to recommend something I have no personal experience in using.

A website as a foundation

Whatever you choose to build — physical or otherwise — you need to begin with the correct foundations. When considering an author platform, you begin with a website.

WordPress

I specifically chose WordPress, so that I could manage things myself. WordPress is an excellent content management system (or CMS), that is simple to install, configure, manage, and extend via Plugins. Plugins are — as their name suggests — things your plug into WordPress, which offer capabilities above and beyond what the default software is capable of achieving.

WordPress gives you two options: you either host your website with them, or; you host it yourself. In principle, if you’re not technically literate, it’s easier to allow WordPress to host your website. But that simplicity comes at a price; if you want to use your own designs for your website, you’ll need to pay extra for that.

Because of my background, I host my own version of WordPress, which allows me maximum flexibility. But it also means I have to do everything myself, with zero assistance from WordPress.

As you’ll no doubt notice, the Wayne Smallman website has a very distinctive style. You’ll also notice I have a list of my Novels & Novellas at the top of the home page. You won’t find any option in WordPress to allow you to do that. I wrote the necessary code to permit that.

I wanted to create a style that had the appearance of being busy, but in reality be quite bare and stark. I think that’s worked.

Creating stickiness

I know, stickiness conjures up some odd connotations. But the fact is, your author platform should aspire to be an exercise in creating a man-size fly trap; once a person is lured in, you want to ensnare them with your charms, talents and charisma. Or at least that’s the plan. But, crucially, you don’t want your intentions to be obvious, annoying, or [HEY, I’VE JUST PUBLISHED MY LATEST NOVEL!] .. distracting.

For instance, on the left of my website, you’ll see a search option, positioned just above buttons which allude to myself on Twitter and Facebook. If someone performs a search, they’re usually looking for something quite specific (obviously), which is typically indicative of a repeat visitor searching for something they read previously. Always a good sign.

At the top is another button, alluding to my Newsletter. Why at the top? While it’s great to have people follow you on Twitter or Facebook, a newsletter is something more personal, because the visitor has given you something very valuable; their name and email address, and their permission for you to send them messages. Once people begin to subscribe to something like a newsletter, you have a captive audience, ready to absorb your knowledge, whit, whims, and experiences. Again, a good sign.

Another major benefit of WordPress is the ability to make comments on articles — or Posts, in WordPress parlance. Firstly, you need to understand that you are going to receive a truly glacial slab of crappy and stupid “spam” comments. No escape. So just manage the best you can. WordPress offers some tools to deal with it, but ultimately, you’ll have to trudge through gazilions of moronic comments riddled with links to porn, fake watches, illegal drugs, and no end of other appallingly written offers.

Newsletters

A newsletter is an invaluable resource for any type of business, and authors (aspiring or otherwise) are no different in that respect. I chose MailChimp and their Forever Free plan. Initially, I’d built my own newsletter with freely available software. Why do this? Because I didn’t like the idea of paying. However, when I thought about it, the Forever Free plan is hugely accommodating, and should I exceed their 2,000 subscriber limit, I’d most likely be an established author by that stage anyway, and paying a monthly fee wouldn’t be so onerous a thing.

I cannot stress the importance of consistency. By that, I’m referring not just to design but also your message and self image. As you’d expect, I eschewed the free Templates for MailChimp’s various Campaigns and I designed my own so that they match the design of the website. Also, because I’m a programmer, I was able to build a Page within WordPress (akin to a Post, but with subtly different options) and embed the MailChimp sign-up form, accompanied by my very own blurb.

What goes into your newsletter is up to you, but I’d think carefully. Don’t just re-use what is already available on your website. Consider giving your subscribers something they might find valuable. As an example, my “Continuum” approach to writing means I have a vast and sprawling universe within which characters, places, technologies, and events exist. I can’t explore or explain everything I write about in detail; some things need to remain vague for the purposes of what is yet to come. But in some instances, I can elaborate, and it’s these excursions into the Continuum that I’ll be offering to my subscribers, giving them access to things money literally cannot buy.

Creating social media satellites

Facebook and Twitter are your friends. Firstly, grab yourself a Facebook Page, and choose your type wisely. “Artist, Band or Public Figure” is probably the way to go on that one. Secondly, sign up with Twitter and choose a username that’s your name, assuming the name faeries haven’t already swooped in and taken that one. If so, consider using first name initial and surname, or something similar.

Please, give some serious thought to the names you chose for both your Facebook Page, and your Twitter username. If you’re serious about becoming a successful author, people are going to search for you by your name. So calling your Facebook Page something philosophical / pretentious, like: “The Journey”, or using something spurious / sad, such as: “ilikecats” as a Twitter username are both beyond the realms of unbelievable uselessness and adrift in an ocean of irredeemable irrelevance. Incidentally, “ilikecats” is gone, so you’re out of luck on that one. Sorry.

Collectively, you may have heard people refer to Twitter and Facebook as social media, and / or social networking. While broadly interchangeable, they’re slightly different in purpose. But for the sake of this article, I’m not going to delve into the minutia, because you just won’t feel the difference at this stage. If you’re still curious, give me a shout and I’ll talk specifics.

Of course, there are other places you could join, but the trick is to not spread yourself so thinly that your presence is so gossamer thin and tenuous, reaching out to you is as burdensome an exercise as it is akin to hosting a seance. Be realistic.

Facebook Page

Because I’m just starting out as an author, my personal Facebook Page isn’t exactly the bustling epicentre of modern literature. But popularity aside, you need to build something with the expectation of tens of thousands, rather than ten. Or 9. So think Manhattan tower block, not two-birth tent.

First, choose a photograph of yourself, or a logo and use that for the Profile Picture that appears in the square on the left. Second, choose an appropriate and specific picture for the Cover. Ideally, the cover of your most recent novel and not a picture of your favourite pet cat, or your children.

Depending on the type of Page you’ve chosen, if you have the “Event, Milestone” option, choose Event and include your previous works with their corresponding publication dates. Why do this? You’re building a new Page that has history to it. That sense of provenance gives gravitas and reassurance to any would-be reader who might otherwise think you just came down with the last shower of rain.

If you’re not on Goodreads, you’re some kind of insane masochistic author who wants to feel the pain of continually struggling to gain exposure. Oh, you are signed up with Goodreads? Excellent. Now while you’re in Facebook:

  1. first, connect your Facebook account to Goodreads;
  2. then navigate to the Goodreads App Page;
  3. now, click the “Add to my Page” link in the menu on the left below the Goodreads photo and confirm;
  4. and finally, click the “Setup your Goodreads tab.” link.

Assuming everything went according to plan, you should now see the Goodreads Tab on you Facebook Page.

When people “like” a Page on Facebook, it is — in my opinion — one step away from (or closer to) them being a subscriber to your newsletter (in theory if not practice), in that those people are happy for you to bring things to their attention at your discretion. Don’t bore them with personal trivia and minutia. Do provide them with meaningful and worthy sources of knowledge and resources.

If you’re out and about, take relevant photographs and post them to your Page. If you have a book launch, make that an Event. If your hit the Amazon best sellers’ list, make that a Milestone. If someone wrote a glowing review, or you wrote an article or a guest post on another website, post that as a Status update:

  1. first, paste the link;
  2. after a while, Facebook should detect the link and grab the title, introduction, and — if present — a graphic or photograph;
  3. select the link and begin typing to replace the link with something more appropriate — don’t worry, your link is safe;
  4. and finally, click the “Post” button.

By all means, tease with suggestions, ideas, and anything else you think might entice and invite inquiry. Give them an insight into what you’re presently working on. Work to engage your followers and make them a part of your journey towards literary fame and success. If they like you, they might just help you along the way.

Twitter

Twitter is your uninterrupted stream of consciousness laid bare. But that isn’t an invitation to repeat any of the aforementioned nonsense, like boring the crap out of people. Most of what I mentioned previously for Facebook is transferable to Twitter — with the obvious exception of the technical specifics.

Twitter has a certain immediacy and reach that should allow you to make contact with other authors, your readers, and visa versa. Don’t continually push your novels, or you’re just going to annoy people and look like an over eager, egomaniacal fool. Not a good place to be.

When writing your Twitter profile, think about the consistency of your approach, be concise, and include a link to a specific Page or Post on your WordPress website (which I have yet to do for me personally, but have done for Octane). Why specific? Because we love measuring our success, don’t we? Of course we do. And one of the best ways to measure is to funnel people according to the various channels through which we present ourselves.

Similarly to Facebook, Twitter permits a certain level of customisation. You’ll notice that my author profile has both a background image (which is taken directly from my website) and a logo graphic behind my profile details.

You & I, fellow authors

So, Goodreads again. You are an author, correct? If so, make sure Goodreads knows about this and begin the process of including your books. And that’s as far as I’m going to go with Goodreads, because it’s an article unto itself. However, what I can do is point you to a template I’ve created for posting on Goodreads Groups.

Marketing

Like any marketing campaign, when you funnel people towards a particular goal, you’re essentially pointing them to a “Landing Page“, which is where your offer is to be found. I know this must sound dreadfully prosaic and clinical, but if you don’t approach writing with some kind of business mentality, you are — to paraphrase the Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman and dramatist Lucius Annaeus Seneca — a person who knows not which port they sail from, where no wind is favourable. Or you could just be spectacularly fortunate and hit self-publishing gold at the first attempt. However, to quote Forbes Bingley — a recurring character in many of my as-yet to be written novels — hope is for the unprepared.

Measuring success and failure

As an experience, failure is perhaps more valuable than success, assuming you’re able to learn anything from either. To derive value from failure you must firstly know where you went wrong and then formulate a methodical approach to avoiding any such repetition. To enjoy success, you must plot a course through the wreckage of previous failures and formulate a methodical approach to repeating the journey again and again and again.

I use Google Analytics to track people moving around a website. Google offer a massive and sprawling service, one that some might find intimidating. I also use Clicky, which is much more human scale and offers a simpler window to your website. I do recommend using both, and both offer a means of including their code within WordPress in a relatively pain-free way.

I use Clicky’s Spy tool, which allows me to see traffic to my website in real time, which is great for when people make comments. Clicky can determine the name of the person who made a comment and then recognise them on subsequent returns, which allows me to react in a timely manner and respond accordingly. Just to be clear, when people make any comment on WordPress, they must first provide a name and email address, so there’s so privacy chicanery at work here.

So, let’s say you write a Post, or do a guest writing spot somewhere that provides an author link to a Post about one of your books. Unless you’re tracking the visits to your website, you won’t have the first clue where the visits came from. More to the point, you won’t have clue one whether you had any visits in the first place. So that sudden spike in visitors you had a week ago? Yes, that one you have no idea about at the time. How unfortunate, and a mistake you’re doomed to repeat, unless you use Google Analytics, or Clicky. Or both.

Also, you could be running a promotion on Smashwords or Goodreads, and that traffic is your measure of just what kind of success (or failure) your campaign is experiencing. Similarly, you could just be trying to figure out where the subscribers to your newsletter are coming from. Or, you’re just trying to determine which of your novel Posts or Pages is the most popular, and at what time of the day, or even which day of the week, or in which country! Yes, you have that much control it’s almost obscene.

More importantly, you’ll get to see where people are coming from, like your Twitter or Facebook Page, your Goodreads Author profile, or just about anywhere.

Your goals, channels, and funnels

Look, I’m not a professional marketeer, nor do I purport to be, either. Instead, I work in conjunction with professional marketeers within the organisations I provide web design and web application development services to. In an effort to keep things simple, your goals — in order of importance — are:

  1. books;
  2. newsletter;
  3. Goodreads Author profile;
  4. Twitter and / or Facebook Page.

Your channels are everywhere you’re to be found. Your goal funnels are the routes to those books you keep writing, and their efficacy relies entirely on how you build and manage them. Each time someone “likes”, follows, or elects to sign up with something you offer, they are one step closer to either buying and book and becoming a reader, or a worthy and known admirer of your literary works.

I’m hoping you’re kind of overwhelmed, but in a buzzing-tingling sort of way, where the empowerment you feel is likely to point you in directions you hadn’t previously considered. Feel free to include me in the acknowledgements of your next novel. No pressure, honest.

Twitter to show a measure of trust in businesses?

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Twitter may soon be wearing a business hat. Some will argue it has been for a while, but I’m talking about an official doffing of the cap towards businesses, with services specific to their needs. And critically, arguably the most important thing to emerge might be an indicator of Twitter’s trust in you and your business.
Twitter, the global social network

Putting the social into social media marketing

So there I was last night, working my way through the Answers forum on LinkedIn and up came the question: How are you generating leads using social media? To which I replied:

“Essentially, it’s all about what the offer is and how it fits your target audience. So many people get sucked into the Facebook-Twitter thing, thinking they just need to get a ton of friends / followers and then post links to their stuff. Wrong.

The same rules apply to social media as in real life — you build relationships around common interests, and this takes time and a degree of sincerity.

I recently published an ebook about WordPress for businesses. That being my proposition, my network of friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter did the rest. But that would not have happened had I not assisted in helping them promote their own content.”

So the leads come as a result a number of factors:

  1. the trust in you by those in your network
  2. the quality of your network (those with the same approach as you)
  3. the value of your offer to those in your network

And at its core, that’s life, and social media is not so special that anyone could make a case for its sudden departure from those simple rules. Yes, there’s more to this than a simple 1-2-3 guide to life, social media and everything in between, but that’s as good a place to start as any.

Twitter’s take on trust

This morning, my curated news source that is Twitter unearthed an interesting headline that caught my eye. By the looks of things, Twitter are readying new business features:

“After close to five months of beta testing, Twitter is preparing to launch a suite of business features tied to a central Twitter Business Center.”

So, it looks like Twitter are finally getting their act together and offering some of the features we’ve grown accustom to with CoTweet and HootSuite. But in amongst the brief overview of this proposed new direction by Twitter was mention of something that’s almost throw-away, but could have far reaching and profound consequences for businesses on Twitter:

“Other new capabilities include customization of business profile pages, verified account badges for corporations and organizations (not just people)…”

A verified account on Twitter is a much sought after prize. Why? Because it’s an indicator of trust in you as an individual and a brand by Twitter. That might not be the reason for a verified account (it’s typically used by famous people to show it’s them and not someone masquerading as them), but the value is there for all to see.

Reputation, recognition and Ra Ra skirts

For businesses, the criteria would need to be different. Yes, there’s still going to be people trying to pass themselves off as the Sony’s and the PayPal’s of this world, but for the legitimate businesses like Octane, this really is all about trust and the enormous value that brings along. However, it does all depend on what criteria they choose to use. As I pointed out in a LinkedIn Answers topic last night:

“Getting a profile verified is like knitting fog — almost impossible. Sorry, that’s not entirely correct. If you’re an almost unknown yet gorgeous US female presenter on some bizarre cable channel aimed at guys, then yes, you’re guaranteed.”

A brand new social media metric

Done right and Twitter could have a brand new metric on their hands — up there with Google’s PageRank, the much maligned but still much used Alexa rank and the very real possibility of a PeopleRank, should Facebook get their way — one used by others as an indictor of trust and to help determine the value of a business.

Recommended and related reading

Creating a Landing Page for Twitter, Facebook

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Congratulations! You and your staff are on Facebook and Twitter. Now what? Chances are, there are people out there who want to know a little more about who you guys are and what you do. But, as part of a corporate entity, it’s not just the individuals they’re interested in, it’s your company, too. So what do you do?

Twitter, the global social networkAssuming your staff’s Twitter / Facebook profiles are company owned, you could just point all their visitors from Twitter and Facebook to your very corporate “About Us” page, but that’s often a little staid and obvious. This is about social networking, and each person you designate as customer facing is just that — a person.

Facebook, the global social networkSo rather than have a catch-all web page or blog article that just lumps everyone together into an amorphous blog of “we” and “us” business speak, why not let those people write something of their own in an article of their own? Why not let them talk about themselves, what they do, their interests, why they’re on Facebook, Twitter etc (here’s where corporate guidelines will need to be observed, to ensure some degree of consistency) and what their follow policy is?

If the social web is about the conversation, then what’s the conversation worth if we don’t talk to people? As I’ve said for years, people must first buy into people before they buy from people.

Taking things a step further, I’d recommend letting your team add photos of themselves, to give that personal touch, so that those in their social network can see the person they’re communicating with. Then add links to those personalized web pages into Facebook and Twitter, and voila! Everyone has their very own ‘landing page’.

What should a landing page include?

  1. Start with something about you and your role in the business.
  2. Then follow with something about you and your own interests, either within or outside the business.
  3. Talk about why you’re on Twitter / Facebook and what you intend to get out of being their.
  4. Discuss your follow policy — how and why you choose to follow certain people, and whether you reciprocate their following you.
  5. The advantages of having landing pages

There are possible other advantages here, too. For example:

  • If you choose to have each landing page as a blog article, then you have a collection of articles enriched with information about key members of staff, which will greatly increase the chances of your website being found. Let’s say you have a very active social networker on your team, having their name more visibly attached to your business increases your search visibility and helps with the smooth transition of trust between both you and your staff.
  • If you have a socially active team, active in different social networks, your business stands a much greater chance of being exposed to a far wider and deeper audience, of not just prospective clients / customers, but of suppliers, industry leaders and possible future employees, or perhaps investors.

In creating landing pages for Twitter, Facebook et al, you’re people first and business second. And since business is all about people, coming second never looked so good.

How to use LinkedIn to promote your business

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LinkedIn is fast turning into a great place to meet exactly the right kind of people that can benefit your business most. Be they prospective new clients or staff, suppliers or respected industry leaders. For purveyors or information, LinkedIn can also be the venue to share what you write about.

LinkedIn, the professional business network

Earlier this evening (which, by the time you read this will be the day before), I found a question on LinkedIn’s Q&A, asking: How do you promote your business / services / blog using LinkedIn?

Posting your blog articles and services web pages on LinkedIn

I thought this was an excellent question, so I decided to reply, and offer that reply here for all to read, but expanded with more detail.

Posting to related groups

It’s tempting to join a related group and just post your stuff there. While that is a legitimate avenue for promoting your articles, I would suggest you do so only when your article offers something, like advice, help, tips etc. Something people will find useful.

Some people can — and will — interpret the posting of your articles to groups as being “spammy” and overly self promotional. Often, the people that are being spammy don’t follow up any of the comments.

That’s the problem with pushing articles about your services — they’re out-and-out self-promotional. The focus needs to be on adding value to the members of the group. Give them something to remember you by.

Of course, there are exceptions, but you need to be totally sure you’re offering something that will really help people out and not come over as being just another sales pitch.

Posting to the Q&A

I personally answer questions on LinkedIn’s Q&A and reference some of my own articles, if (again) that article offers specific and related advice, particular to the question.

So by all means, post links to your own articles and web pages, so long as they’re relevant to the question and likely to help in answering it.

The goal is to be useful — I also post links to articles, written by other people, which helps demonstrate impartiality on my part.

Trust is a quality of relationships that doesn’t come quickly or cheaply, and isn’t bought, sold, nor is it transferrable. So ultimately, this is an exercise is acquiring trust.

Posting to your status

The status update is a good, simple method to promote your articles, but you really need to be already engaging with people for them to want to engage with you — it’s essentially like Twitter, so the same rules apply.

I use Twitter, and use HootSuite in particular, which is a web application that enhances Twitter by offering a lot more features, such as options to schedule messages (otherwise known as “Tweets”) and a option to shorten URLs so that they fit into the 140 character allowance.

HootSuite also allows you to connect to your LinkedIn account, so you can post messages straight to your LinkedIn profile’s status. I personally use this sparingly, instead only posting messages / updates that are specifically related to Octane and my business activities in general, or articles that people will find useful.

A recent example being an article on how to stop eleven hidden security threats, which came on the back of my own article offering seven security tips for your computer and the web.

My recommendations for posting articles and web pages to LinkedIn are:

  1. Try to avoid posting general and off-topic status updates and instead focus on updates that a particular to you and your business activities.
  2. If you post to groups, follow up any comments. Sounds obvious, I know, but you’d be surprised how many people just “fire and forget”.
  3. When answering questions in the Q&A, why not suggest an expert? You’ll be helping to build trust with the person you’re suggesting, while demonstrating that you’re a good source for referrals.
  4. Also, whatever you do, if you see a odd or apparently naive questions (of which there can be many), don’t be tempted fire off a glib or dismissive comment. LinkedIn is, after all, a network for professionals — so leave the stupid remarks to the amateurs.
  5. Use something like Clicky web analytics to monitor the click activity of your articles in real time, in addition to using Google Analytics. Why? When you see clicks come in from a group, for example, follow the link back to see If there have been any comments and reply.
  6. If you’re using a link shortening tool (like bit.ly or ow.ly, which is part of HootSuite) ensure you have an account with them, so you can view their own click traffic statistics.

Above all, make yourself a resource to other people, so that they value your contributions, and in turn value you.