Not too active on Twitter. You can find me on LI.
Boston
Joined May 2009
- Tweets1.7K
- Following77
- Followers874
- Likes767
Facts do not change minds.
Communities do.
Want to transform your audience? Stop throwing data at them and start building relationship. That's where the magic happens.
Joined a few quality people to watch this documentary. One of the most important things I’ve watched in a long time. Get into a community, people. Your longevity depends on it.
Watched an amazing documentary Join or Die 🔥
Core insight: all of our well-being - political, economic, personal, health - depends on how many social support groups we are in!
I know, sounds obvious to some - but it took Bob Putnam YEARS of meticulous research to prove it..
This is why I continue to join new "clubs" - both online and soon IRL. This "social capital" is irreplaceable by anything else out there!
Thanks a TON to @mizmaclean and @stephsmithio for organizing, and @joesardone and folks from @getriver_io for joining and hosting the event 💪
#buildinpublic #indiehackers
A SaaS revolution is coming for the 99%
Interesting prediction from @codorniou on the blue ocean that is SaaS for frontline workers
tcrn.ch/4bk5ajd via @techcrunch
It sucks when you have a brilliant community idea, talk to a few potential members, and realize you're assumptions were way off.
It sucks way more to build one and spend the next six months struggling to get people to talk to each other and feeling foolish.
Talk to people.
If you send a newsletter, this is well worth a gander. I'm a violater of no. 8 and 10, and happy to get called out so I can change it.
I read 50 newsletters in my inbox yesterday.
And I've got some thoughts:
1. Some of you use WAY too many emojis
2. A lot of the ads are the same.
The creator newsletter "biz" is being funded by fewer people/companies than you think
3. I didn't even glance at the bottom sections of any of the newsletters (where authors put the same boilerplate stuff every time).
If that's where you're promoting your stuff - you're putting it in the place readers are least likely to read it.
4. The sender name impacts my excitement level for the issue more than the subject line.
5. None of the emails that solely promoted a product offer provided any value in the email along with the offer.
They were pure sales attempts (not great).
6. Most newsletters are overwritten.
7. I didn't keep track (should have), but I'd guess I only clicked about 10 total links from the 50 newsletters I read.
8. The more casual, informal, and simple the design, the more valuable the newsletter tended to be and the more clear the writing was.
9. A couple of the newsletters were from people who hadn't sent one in a while.
It was nice to hear from them again, but I didn't realize they had been gone until they resurfaced.
They weren't "missed."
10. I completely ignored sponsor sections at the top of newsletters - scrolled right past them because it was obvious they were ads.
What have you noticed in the newsletters you read?
***
Speaking of newsletters...
Tomorrow mine will include a breakdown of 25 ways to measure the success of your newsletter.
Hit the link on my profile to get it.
April MacLean retweeted
The purpose of liberal arts education is not to build your career. It’s to broaden your mind.
You don’t have to justify a major based on job prospects. The only explanation necessary is “it interests me.”
The true value of college is improving your ability to think and learn.
April MacLean retweeted
I see Twitter switched to the @CMX logo 😂
A complete change of name and brand to something cold and colorless is definitely what Twitter needed.
April MacLean retweeted
I keep joining communities only to find that they’re mostly neglected by their leader.
If you keep inviting people to your parties and don’t bother showing up to take care of them, don’t expect them to keep coming back or trust you for long.#ewdavid
April MacLean retweeted
"The customer is always right" needs to die.
What's always right is preserving the quality and culture of what you're building and protecting your team. Not every customer will allow that to happen. Instead, some of them will need your backup product: das boot.
April MacLean retweeted
Small rooms= better energy, more engagement.
If you're launching a community and thinking through the logistics of setting up topic channels or throwing an event, this principle is very helpful:
April MacLean retweeted
Baffled that more community platforms don't tie to CRM software. PEOPLE. WE NEED TO MEASURE.
I've talked to a few people who want to start a career in community and don't know where to start learning.
It's very easy: join a ton of communities and observe.
Great community building starts with empathy for the experience.
April MacLean retweeted
Avoiding stress and burnout comes down to the 20-20-20 rule.
After 20 minutes of work, stare at something 20 feet away and then go live in the forest for 20 years.
Follow me for more incredible life advice.
Scaling community, 101:
Back home, I was part of a community of 27,000 people, attached to a formal organization.
Jen was in charge of the community and she was outstanding.
She understood how to preserve and scale a community:
The 27k of us never got together. There was a well-attended annual conference and smaller local chapters where we met monthly.
There were even smaller "volunteer clean-ups" where we did yard work and chores for single elderly individuals, with about 10 of us per project.
The sign of a communication amateur: lack of context.
Particularly in community, lack of context is a total engagement killer.
Online, context is more than king; it's a win-win act of efficiency.
Context allows people to give better answers and lessen their cognitive load.
Avoid ambiguity. If you want great answers, make it easy to get them. Don't post a novel about your idea and say "what do you guys think?".
What do we think of what?
Your writing style?
The taste of Yoohoo?
Ask for specifics.
#yoohooisdelicious