Category: General, Marketing
1 Person at a Time
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My mom just found out about okdork.com. She saw me writing pieces while we were on the plane to San Francisco last night.
Do any other online diarist/bloggers/journalists have their parents reading their sites? Does that make you change or censor some of the things you would write about?
Regardless, the point of this article is about converting one at a time. Every subscriber on bloglines or daily reader is REALLY important to me. I know I don’t say it enough but I care☺ I explained to her what I write about and the websites name and now she will be checking daily. Not sure if this makes sense but to me if I can get 1 person to use my service that is an easy sell, I will do it.
Pete from pc4media highlighted how to get rid of people you don’t want but converting someone who may want your product is an immensely powerful marketing tactic. Now you have a friend for life.
The same goes for Facebook. I have met people on the streets or at socials who went to some school, graduated and don’t have a valid email address anymore. I imagine some people wouldn’t do anything but I get their information and set them up with an account from their alma mater the next day. This is partially about a good consumer experience and more importantly I feel that since I have taken my time to go through Facebook with that person they will take more time to be involved with the service.
I know one at a time doesn’t scale but my assumption is these new followers will at least advocate the goodwill you shared with them if not talk about your product if they like it.
PS. My mom thought this article was funny. Hi mom!!!
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noah kagan wrote 1 Person at a Time on June 2nd, 2006 and there are 12 comments. There will be one more after you add yours, though. Read more posts by noah kagan.
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Noah Kagan is a diarist. He likes to write about himself in third person and he enjoys writing about business. His ideas are the products of divine inspiration from Steve Jobs.
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12 Responses to “1 Person at a Time”
June 2nd, 2006
11:38 am
My parents don’t read my blog, but I have some aunts and uncles who do. I don’t know why they find it interesting…they are definitely not entrepreneurial people or interested in the latest startup.
June 2nd, 2006
11:53 am
My mother discovered my Consumerism Commentary blog a few months ago and immediately recognized the writing as mine. I never really shared my personal finances with my parents, so it’s kind of surreal.
June 2nd, 2006
12:18 pm
My Dad found out about my blog and then so did my Mom. I do have to censor what I write about. I’ve even had my Dad call a doctor about some health problems I deal with. It can be frustrating, but in other ways, it’s cool because they understand what I’m doing and what my perspective on issues is.
June 2nd, 2006
5:22 pm
My parents, professors, deans, and faculty all read my blog at least somewhat. There is a need for discretion but I am not afraid to vent.
June 2nd, 2006
7:19 pm
I usually edit my writing before publishing because the NSA or FBI could be reading. Then I realize I also send the link of my blog to my mom and dad so I edit again :).
You are right to point out that the goodwill of even just one customer is the best marketing tool you can have.
June 3rd, 2006
12:18 am
My whole family reads my blog. When they ask, “what are you up to?” Now, I can say: Read my blog without having to answer.
So efficient.
June 5th, 2006
9:15 am
My dad actually writes on my blog occasionally…so no possibility (or need) for censoring there.
One at a time can scale - you bring on 1 reader, who tells 5 other readers, who each tell 5 more readers. It scales when you make the effort to reach out to each reader at the early stages — get those “early adopters” hooked and working for you via evangelism.
The “one at a time” strategy actually generated business for me, so it definitely works.
It’s time consuming though; but I think it shows real dedication above and beyond what’s commonplace. Of course when you have thousands of readers it might be impossible, but the approach is appreciated and infiltrates one’s blog writing even when the readership is big.
June 5th, 2006
9:21 am
My mom just called last night to ask me to send the URL for my blog to her … most of my posts are written so that I will not have any regrets if / when any ancestor or descendant reads what I write.
As for the customer conversion, I think it’s an interesting use of the term “converting”, which also has religious connotations, and, in fact, I think what you want is for your customers to “get religion” regarding your product or service. I wonder if entrepreneurs could benefit from learning more about how effective ministries operate, especially with respect to recruiting and retention.
Your approach to helping people and hoping that will propagate out reminds me of the concepts of karma and being a mensch (about which I wrote a bit a while back, http://gumption.typepad.com/blog/2005/03/on_karma_and_be.html) and Rafael’s observation brings to mind the notion of pre-emptive self-disclosure … or, perhaps more colorfully, “RTFB” (http://gumption.typepad.com/blog/2004/07/rtfb.html).
June 5th, 2006
5:58 pm
I think if you start to regulate your site you lose some of your personality. Don’t worry about the parents, or anyone else. Keep writing.
June 5th, 2006
9:37 pm
in the future, facebook will have major social and political implications on how we do things. it is a really amazing phenomenon.
June 5th, 2006
10:04 pm
I asked my parents to read mine and to give me some feedback…it seems if you ask them for it, it won’t happen! You’d think parents might want to know what we’re up to? Perhaps only when they think we don’t want them to know…. hmpf!
June 7th, 2006
8:02 am
i am just listening another time to all of our interviews including yours and checking your blog. thanks again & good luck for your new job.
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