Stand Out Online (and Beat the Robots)

For businesses and solopreneurs, attention equals money. More attention, more money. Our share of attention is shrinking with AI here. Let's tackle.

  By  

Ken Morico

  on  4/29/2023

With social media getting more saturated and AI tools enabling more people to create content faster than ever, it can seem like we are all swimming with attention sharks.

For many businesses and solopreneurs, attention equals money. More attention, more money. With more entrants and AI tools, our share of the attention pie is shrinking with every passing day and revenue generation will be increasingly difficult.

What can we do? How can we stand out online? Leverage our personal stories and experiences. For example, when I worked for a large ad agency, I would sometimes study old magazine advertisements for fun. I remember seeing one for a car from the 1960s. It was just a one-line copy block and a photo of the car. How simple. Those days are long gone. We need to work much harder to move product – either physical or intangible. We need personality and grit.

We’ve all heard the adages “There is no bad press” and “stay top of mind.” These resonate because your name takes space in your audience’s consciousness. The repetition of the name in effect becomes a positive brainwashing… creating familiarity and making the audience receptive when positive messages come forward. Showing up consistently is one way stand out. If you’re not seen you’re not moving product.

Get jealous of people with large followings. Some people will push back on social media follower counts, saying they are “vanity metrics”. Guy Kawasaki, Apple alum and startup founder, once said, “Who doesn’t want more followers? Everyone wants more followers.” Let jealousy lead you to action.

Follower counts (and even better high number of comments) demonstrate social proof. It shows your message finds a home with others and should find a home with new customers / followers.

So, what can I do to harness the attention I deserve (the attention I rightly deserve)?

The 4-Step Attention Shark Solution:

1. Create an awesome profile photo. Since people are much more trusted than brands / logos, WE need to launch our product and brand into awareness. Profile photos are used everywhere online. It’s the most important aspect of your online presence. You can even integrate your brand colors into your personal profile photo to ensure continuity. It’s important that the photo be cropped properly. Profile photos can get adjusted to many sizes and may distort. I personally like profile photos that look straight on at the camera. It makes me feel like the person is speaking directly to me and should create a more emotional connection.

Here are some profile photos that stood out to me and displayed accurately:

2. Create consistency. Post everyday. This is really hard, but you can use tools like a pre-scheduler and by over-creating content when you sit down to create content. Usually, if you are in a mood to create content then you normally can create more than you intend to. This is because you are “in the zone”. Break larger content pieces into smaller pieces and trickle out your content.
3. Showcase your personality but leverage AI. A great way to showcase your personality is to create short-form videos. They prove you aren’t just a disembodied online entity, but a real person. It will put your new followers at ease that they aren’t being fooled by a bot. Think of AI and ChatGPT as an extra pair of hands. A writer. An editor. Ask it for ideas and edit the responses. Ask it to rewrite something you previously posted. You might be surprised by how intelligent you actually are!
4. Learn from others creators. See whom you want to model and get inspiration from their content. How long is it? Are they creating Twitter Threads? LinkedIn carousels? Short-form videos? Something is working. Study and test on your own content.

Using these solutions will help you stand out and keep up with fast content creators. Speed is the game. Set up a routine to succeed (more on that in future letters – stay subscribed).

Robots don’t tell personal stories because they don’t have your experiences. They are locked inside your brain. There is no computer API to snatch your thoughts. There isn’t a computer program to tell your_stories in _your voice.

I know I got discouraged several times when I saw competitors in my niche succeeding with higher follower counts. But I take comfort knowing there is always room for unique voices within the same niche. The audience on the Internet is ENORMOUS. There’s always a receptive place to land our content plane.

Now, let’s takeoff.

The Morico Letter – 4/29/2023

Tactical Quick Tips

• Capcut — video editor for mobile and desktop makes creating short form videos a breeze. It’s the best and simplest video editor I’ve ever used. See the video I created using Capcut on Twitter.

Ken’s Reading List – Only Worthwhile Reads

• New reports say business travel isn’t going back to normal – ever — (CNBC) Business travelers are younger and less affluent… client acquisition is still essential for business flights and other interesting facts.
• How to Clean Your Apple Devices — For the clean freaks, Apple gives some instructions to get the grime safely off your expensive devices.

As always, thank you for being a subscriber. Comments? Just reply to this email. If you need 1:1 guidance for growth marketing | website development | business coaching, let me know.

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Stay strong and I wish you luck in your journey.

Regards,

Ken Morico