nice article, hopefully you can continue to share advice with our readers. Thank for sharing

nice article, hopefully you can continue to share advice with our readers. Thank for sharing

Now here's my link…

(KIDDING!)

Thanks for the feedback on the popup, that’s the first negative comment we’ve gotten about it and up until now it’s been testing really well on the 2 minute delay.

Truth is, I’ve seen almost everyone I know be “That Guy”, including me, including you. The key is balance. We’re all trying to keep our businesses profitable, and at times, we’ll all err on the side of the marketer in us. And that’s actually okay. Some business mixes with social media.

But I’m not talking about “the fine line” here. I’m talking about, out and out, blatant self-promotion without even the *attempt* to connect.

Tinu

The fact that we are here identifies as as people who need to be careful about being seen at “that guy”

We all know the kind of guy Tinu is talking about, and any normal person shuns him… but WE all have to watch for this too. (like that pop up that came up in the middle of me writing this ).

I don’t want to be “that guy”

I love your blog, thanks for stopping by. It’s gone so far beyond the blog comment spam though, hasn’t it? It’s to the point where you’re getting spam on Twitter, Facebook, Plurk… it’s crazy.

I try to do what I say I will. Glad you’re getting the emails but no I’m really not “better”. Just doing what I can while I can to wrap up some old business and follow through on my word as far as this daily newsletter.

Thanks, and great to see you.

Tinu

Great of you to stop by. I am having a great time digging through your back pages. And the That Guy post is of great inspriation to me.

Thanks for your compliments on the dialogue. You’re right, some times the only way to show that something is not a good idea is to show it in action.

The rule-breaker thing is really true. ONly 2 things seem to work with them;

1- Show them the money. IE, they’re using the lazy way because they get a couple of clicks, not realizing it’s not a big achievement. If you can show them that with a little work, they can get ten times as many, they’re more likely to listen.

2- Get a bigger expert to say it. For some, it doesn’t matter when a professional with a small loyal following gives them advice. They don’t think someone was recently a peer or even an expert they know personally could possibly have the answer. But get some “guru” or point to an identical message at Forrester Research and suddenly it’s gospel.

Being that guy, for sure doesn’t work — over the years I’ve learned though – this depends on what your definition of “works” is.

I love the dialogue you’ve written out here- and the illustration for that matter. I also really appreciate the fact that you’re trying to help people see that this isn’t the best way to achieve their goals.

I think a lot of especially “clever” marketers like to see themselves as rule-breakers. I’ve found that telling them there is a better way of behaving to be a waste of time — they laugh off my advice like I’m some uptight school marm.

This approach works better I think — illustrating that rather than thinking about their approach to social media as right or wrong, they need to think about what works and what doesn’t. Being that guy certainly *doesn’t* work.