Don’t Hold Your Breath Waiting for A Social Media Parade in Your Honor

by Andrew Hanelly on September 28, 2010

social media parade

This blog post is not going to change the world.

Despite how good I’ll feel when I finally hit “publish,” there probably won’t be anyone out there anxious to celebrate my social media success.

And the sound of one man clapping is just kind of sad. 

So, I’ll hit “publish,” and then I’ll perish. Temporarily at least.

I’ll walk away and dive back in to the pile of work eying me as I type these very words.

I’ll put my nose to the grindstone and get back to work. I won’t hold my breath waiting for the social media world to celebrate my work because it’s just not going to happen. It doesn’t work like that. But there’s a tendency to think that it does.

We figure that all it will take is one stand-out, absolutely amazing piece of content that will light the world on fire. We put all of our eggs in this basket, we hit “publish” and we wait. And nothing happens.

And it shouldn’t. We shouldn’t want to be a one-hit wonder in the world of social media. That rarely happens and even more rarely turns in to anything substantial, despite some false-hope-breeding exceptions.

What we need is structure and discipline. We need consistency. That’s the only way to get traction in this space. That’s what works.

Rome, Influence and Things That Were Not Built in a Day

The biggest names in blogging all have something in common: they’ve been at it for a while. I’m sure that each one of them would tell you that there is no such thing as overnight success. Chris Brogan even blogged about it.

If we take a closer look at the archive pages from some of the social media empire-makers, there is some perspective to be gained:

  • January 9, 2006: First post by Brian Clark on Copyblogger.com
  • September 3, 2005: First post by Andy Beal on MarketingPilgrim.com
  • July 1, 2005: First post by Jeff Jarvis on BuzzMachine.com
  • September 29, 2004: First post by Darren Rowse on Problogger.net
  • March 23, 2004: First post by Chris Brogan on ChrisBrogan.com
  • January 15, 2002: First post by Seth Godin on SethGodin.Typepad.com

These guys all started a while ago and probably even before the date associated with the first post in their archives. They’ve been doing it for a long time and they’ve been doing it well. There are no substantial gaps in their archives.

They crank out solid content at a regular pace and they’ve earned results: they’ve sold books, they’ve been booked as speakers, they’ve (probably) seen an increase in consulting offers, and we’ve all heard of them.

We all Retweet their content and link to it. We all take their word as gospel. We try to practice what they preach.

They didn’t wait for their parade. They did the unglamorous work of paving the way with structure and discipline.

And look how far they’ve come.

[image: twak]

Andrew Hanelly

Written by: Andrew Hanelly

Andrew is VP of Digital Experience at TMG and for one semester in college, was a sociology major. Follow him on Twitter and Google+.

  • bill

    In other news: patience is a virtue. Very good advice, Andrew.

  • http://opinionatlarge.com Eric

    clap…clap…clap… ;)

    no, but seriously. great piece. it’s so true. and applies to almost anything we do professionally. just gotta keep your head down and take pleasure in the grind. it’s ironic that the people who achieve success are the ones who don’t mind being unsuccessful, but it’s the truth.

    -eric

  • http://www.twitter.com/hanelly Andrew Hanelly

    @bill: So I guess this post could have been summed up in 4 words. Now I just feel like a windbag :)

    @Eric: I’ve got to say that reading your stuff had me thinking about this in the first place. It’s not all roses, and it doesn’t come easy. It takes commitment, dedication, and…time. Your comment on the sandbox about being tireless and hungry got me thinking.

  • Skylar

    To be fair, isn’t one man clapping the same thing as a guy giving himself a bunch of high-fives?

  • http://www.twitter.com/hanelly Andrew Hanelly

    @Skylar: If you’re giving it to yourself, is it really a high-five? And isn’t that image sadder anyway?

  • http://lisajohnsonfitness.com Lisa Johnson

    Props to Brian Clark and Andy Beal for having a subscription link at the bottom of their first post. That’s kinda impressive. :-)

    This is a great post, I tweeted it out …

    Lisa

    • http://www.twitter.com/hanelly Andrew Hanelly

      @Lisa: Thanks for the kind words. I agree with you – those guys have been getting it done for years, and getting it done right.

  • http://www.remarkable-communication.com/ Sonia Simone

    Wow, what a cool idea for a post! I love it!

    And I’d never read the very first Copyblogger post. Because if I had, you know, I woulda commented on it. ;)

    • http://www.twitter.com/hanelly Andrew Hanelly

      @Sonia: I appreciate you saying that. And yes, you would have left your mark in the form of something insightful and probably funny. Taking a peek at your archives – you’ve been at it for a while, too, which is probably why I got so excited to see your name in the comments on this post!

  • http://www.siradib.com Adib

    I’m intrigued to leave a comment because I could totally relate. I’ve been making the mistake of expecting too much, and when I don’t get it, I wait and wait, and it affects how constantly I post. Thanks for this tip!

    You might want to say thanks to Darren for tweeting this.

    • http://www.twitter.com/hanelly Andrew Hanelly

      @Adib: I hear you. When you write and get no response (which is 99% of the time I write), it’s easy to get demoralized. It’s easy to keep checking analytics and hoping traffic skyrocketed, but I find that to be a distraction. It’s important to benchmark and check how you’re doing, but obsessing over it has never been helpful to me.

      Thanks for the tip that Darren Tweeted it. He’s been a blogger I’ve paid attention to since day 1 and really has paved the way for a lot of people, in my opinion.

  • http://x-equals.com/blog/ Brandon Oelling

    “I’ll put my nose to the grindstone and get back to work.”

    This quote hits the nail on the head Andrew!

    Just keep plowing good content out there and the rest follows.

    Overnight success is an oxymoron … hard work begets luck EVERY TIME!

    |Brandon Oelling
    {x=}

    • http://www.twitter.com/hanelly Andrew Hanelly

      @Brandon: Thanks man. Your line “hard work begets luck EVERY TIME!” reminds me of one of my favorite quotes ever, from Thomas Jefferson: “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”

  • http://www.marketingpilgrim.com Andy Beal

    Many thanks for the kudos!

    • http://www.twitter.com/hanelly Andrew Hanelly

      @Andy: No problemo. It’s the least I could do to give a shout out after reading your stuff for so long. You’ve earned your success and it’s an inspiration.

  • Tom

    Social media makes the difficult seem easy. Because of the low barrier to entry, many have jumped on hoping it will launch them into Internet fame, which they falsely equate with real-world success. They tend to gloss over the fact that many of those successful in social media were real-world success before they got into social media. The social media component simply accentuates what was already there, through, you said it “hard work.” Bravo.

  • http://www.chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan…

    My first posts ever were in 1998 on a WYSIWYG editor on a Geocities and then a Tripod site. They were lost to even the wayback machine, though little bits of them still show kinda sorta. Yep. 11 years.

    But even starting in 2004, it took me a while to get anywhere.

    Still waiting on the parade, but I wanted a pony first.

    • http://www.twitter.com/hanelly Andrew Hanelly

      @Chris: 11 years later and still incredibly humble. Well done, sir.

      I spent some time trying to really dig deep to find the “first” rumblings made by those listed, but I’m not at the Indiana Jones level of web archeology yet, so I figured the point would be good enough just going from the archives of current blogs.

      Your comment just emphasizes the value of the long-haul even more, in my opinion. Thanks for dropping by.

  • kenye

    Don’t hold your breath waiting for anything. Go out and get it.

    • http://www.twitter.com/hanelly Andrew Hanelly

      @kenye: Right on, dude.

  • yeahBUT

    Yeah but how much of this is do to the fact that all of these guys have established brands where anything they say gets spread like wildfire just because of who they are.

    • http://www.twitter.com/hanelly Andrew Hanelly

      @yeahBUT: Nothing sells itself. Any offline notoriety can certainly boost an online presence, but by no means were any of these guys born with people listening to them (as far as I know). Each one of them earned it through hard work, being consistent, and more hard work.

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  • http://www.copyblogger.com Brian Clark

    My first “post” was in 1998 as well – but we called them “ezines” back then. And it was a total pain to publish anything compared to today.

    Now, I’m off to scold Sonia for never reading the first post on Copyblogger. Good thing I didn’t know that before she became my business partner. ;)

    • http://www.twitter.com/hanelly Andrew Hanelly

      13 years ago? I guess the rest of us have some catching up to do. Wow.

      I think the fact that it’s easier than ever to publish helps usher in the notion that success can’t be that hard either.

      But the greats have been at it for much longer, and much more consistently, than their current archives may indicate.

      Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment, Brian. And Sonia, sorry this blog was the messenger, it probably seemed like a safe place to leave a comment no one would ever see :)

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