Why Giving Your Secrets Away is the Answer to Establishing Influence

“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” ―Pablo Picasso

There’s something special about giving something away rather than taking all the time.

It’s nice to get compliments, right? But how about giving a compliment?

There are a ton of studies that connect giving with pleasurable feelings.

Not only does being generous reduce stress, increase your life span and give you a greater sense of purpose, it can also help you build a successful brand and create influence on social media.

In fact, tons of marketers use the secret of giving to build brand awareness.

How exactly can giving help you? Well, it can…
Position you as an expert
Change someone’s life
Make a positive impact
Help you learn new things
Grow your audience
Build influence
Keep people coming back for more (retention!)

Too good to be true? Nope!

One of my gurus and marketing legends, Gary Vaynerchuk, refers to giving value as “jabbing”. He has a whole book that goes into the details: Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. Every jab is some form of value you give to your followers or customers, whether it’s entertainment, an opinion, advice or inspiration.

Giving establishes your authority and when people see you’re consistently putting out high-quality content, you increase retention.

What kind of value can you give?

Decide on what you want to teach or offer. Your skills and expertise may seem so obvious to you, but for someone just starting out who has no idea what to do, your knowledge can offer a world of value.

Educate
Everyone loves to learn. There are entire pages and social media accounts dedicated to educating others on all kind of topics. There are an increasing number of learning-based websites too (like Domestika where you’ll find my Instagram Strategy for Business Growth course!). If you can teach people something new, this is a great place to start giving value. Even better if you can find an untapped niche.

Entertain
There’s a reason memes are so popular. We love being entertained. We love to laugh, be shocked, see videos of cute animals. If you can do this continuously and consistently, you’ll become a favourite and develop a loyal following.

Inspire
You never know who’s watching and being inspired by your stories. It doesn’t matter whether you’re sharing other people’s stories or your own, if you can get people to actually feel something, you’re already doing so much better than the rest. People are flooded with so much content and media that does nothing for them. You’ll stand out by giving them something worth sharing and that makes them want to be and do better.

Connect
Connecting is so much easier today than it was even 10-15 years ago. You can connect your followers with valuable informational sources, tastemakers or even create groups designed to connect and inspire like-minded people. These are all great ways to establish yourself as an expert and grow your audience.

Create a Conversation
This is one of my favorite points because it’s social media after all. It’s all about getting people to engage in conversation. Engaging people isn’t always easy, but if you know who your target is and how to talk to them, this is the sweet spot. When people start sharing opinions, there’s more opportunity for them to connect.

Things to keep in mind

Quality over quantity

I can’t stress quality enough because I see so many brands fail at this. Before you share something ask yourself: Is this valuable for my audience? Would I want to share it myself? It’s 100% better for you to share one AWESOME piece of content once a day or once a week than 3 mediocre pieces that flop.

Consistency is key

If you want to make a positive impact and position yourself as an expert, you need to be consistent with your content. You won’t build a reputable brand without showing up every day. Whether you plan to publish a piece of content daily, every few days or once a week, make sure that establish a schedule and stick to it.

When people know that they should expect new content from you every Sunday afternoon and you consistently deliver on this promise, you’ll establish yourself as trustworthy. They’ll continue to follow you because they expect something new and exciting from you on a regular basis.

Always be learning

If you’re giving value, you have to make sure you’re up to date on the newest innovations in your field. And if you’re providing entertainment, look deep into the insights and analytics to learn what does well and what could do even better.

But Dot, what’s the point of giving all my secrets away for free? How will I monetize anything?

By consistently giving value, you develop a loyal following. After enough jabs, you can throw a right hook – ask for an email, a sign up for your course, whatever it may be. Your fans will be happy to help!

So, give your secrets away! All of them. You’ll thank me later.