This is where I share my ideas, inspiration & thoughts. Generally though I'm just the Creator of Rockstar Awesomeness and this tumblog is further proof of that.
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I’ve spent quite a bit of time recently trying to figure out how I can improve the marketing of my personal brand, this blog & my Twitter profile, because let’s face it – things like website traffic & Twitter followers are kind of a ego stroke / boost these days…
But ego stroking aside, I started pondering why people were really following me and why there are some other online personas with massive, massive amounts of people following them.
My conclusion? People follow successful and inspirational people. That’s it. If you don’t provide value on either of those two fronts, I doubt that you’re gonna get a large enough following of people to even consider yourself an online celebrity (so that’s a bit of a #egoboostfail).
And then back to me… I guess that WooThemes’ popularity has been absolutely immense in establishing my reputation as a credible entrepreneur. Irrespective of the fact that I’m accessible (in terms of interaction) and probably “fun” to follow – or even irrespective of WooThemes’ perceived success – I think the fact that WooThemes is regarded as a successful company, is just about enough to give my own reputation enough credibility.
So I’d take the gamble and say that WooThemes has added substance to the way I market myself as “Adii Rockstar” and without that substance the marketing efforts just would not have been as successful. What do you think?
I’d agree, woothemes would definitely have a major impact on those who follow you. Keeping a loyal following however is about consistently adding unique value, bottom line, which is a difficult thing in general.
I follow you because of WordPress, it’s one of the main areas I focus on following
Hey Adii,
You did a pretty good job of marketing yourself before WooThemes, I think over time you’ve managed to learn a lot more about marketing and this has done lots for both Woo and your own “brand”.
Never forget however that people are sheep and will follow where they are led.
Gavin
Woothemes has enormously effected your online rep. I’ve followed your blog for a long time but never took a real interest in what you had to say until fall 08. The success of woothemes provides a great deal of evidence that what you’ve to say doesn’t just sound good, but also works in practice.
> People follow successful and inspirational people. That’s it.
I follow people on Twitter/elsewhere based on whether they deliver value in their tweets. The fact that they are successful/inspirational or not makes no difference. If an inspirational person tweets garbage, I unfollow them promptly.
People’s achievements buy them credibility. It’s that simple.
I read your blog because you built Woothemes. That’s it. You may have been brilliant independent of Woo but on the web, with so many voices, people must use some sort of filter… and achievements are the laziest type of filters.
Adii, I have a fairly well thought-out response for you with regards to where I personally think both your successes and failures lie with regards to marketing substance. But I’m not going to post it because of the character limits you’re imposing…. can’t even finish this very comment without gett
I follow what you’re doing because I’ve followed your work since your first theme release, and it just keeps on getting better.
P.S You say a lot of what you say is opinionated. True. You always have been opinionated. You even fought with Small Potatoe! But you know what they say: people are interested in those who spark interest, reaction, provocation. What’s better: being opinionated or boring? Rhetorical question.
I think it is your achievements that attracts people to follow you. You are the leader and people want to emulate you or learn from you.
Richard I think you have to be opinionated otherwise people would not follow you because people like to follow leaders and not those who ride on two boats.
Big fan of all your blogging / video content, including the non-woo related stuff. Funny, I actually found and became interested in your blog through your @adii twitter presence before realizing you were one of the guys behind WooThemes (which I had also heard of before).
How about a blog post about online advertising strategy? Which channels work best for woo? ideas on ROI?
That’s my feeling as well. Basically – without WooThemes, people just wouldn’t believe what I had to say, because a lot of what I say on here is very opinionated.
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That’s my feeling as well. Basically – without WooThemes, people just wouldn’t believe what I had to say, because a lot of what I say on here is very opinionated.
People “were” sheep in the past, but I’d like to think that all 3000-odd people that follow me on Twitter (for example) do so, because they made that decision themselves. People just tend to be more intelligent online…
You mention something that I’ve been trying to move away lately and that’s the tag of a WP designer / developer. I’d much prefer people to regard me as an entrepreneur first & foremost.
Ok, so what in terms of ego stroking do you take in to account more, your 3000 followers who may/may not engage with you on a daily basis or the people who engage in dialogue with you via the blog?
Me personally, I’d say comments and people spreading what I’ve done via RT, Digg etc.
I prefer to think of people as social, in social situations you have leaders, directors, and listeners. All these roles need to be filled for a community. Leaders are sometimes listeners, listeners are sometimes leaders etc… Just because one person listens does not make them sheep. Using negative terms like sheep disconnect you; when you think of people (especially your followers) as a animal, you lose the humanization that is necessary for connection and conversation.
That’s not to say there aren’t any other filters… because there are… but those filters fall under your “inspirational” proviser. Tangible projects/businesses monopolise your “successful” proviser. And to get to the “inspirational” proviser before the successful one is extremely difficult!
Good point. And that’s why this is an experiment…
Would however love to hear your thoughts. E-mail perhaps!? 