If you want people to like your Facebook page. Follow you on Twitter. Read your blog
If you want them to watch your videos. Sign up for your emails. Recommend you on LinkedIn. Review you on Yelp. Positively.
If you want people to ultimately spend money. Buy your product. Hire you or your firm. Tell others. Evangelize.
You’ve got to do the work.
As Seth Godin puts it, “the hard parts”.
If you’re a painter, painting isn’t the hard part.
If you’re a consultant, consulting isn’t the hard part.
Writing. Designing. Selling. Those aren’t hard for writers, designers, and salesmen.
The hard part is building relationships. Nurturing clients. Treating unique individuals as unique individuals.
Caring.
Truly caring.
Time and time again I see business owners looking for shortcuts to build their online presence. Their fan base. Their social collateral. Their digital reputation.
Permission.
There is no shortcut to permission. To loyalty.
That’s what makes the hard parts hard.
That’s why you can’t beat Nordstrom. Zappos. Joie de Vivre. Copyblogger. Gary Vaynerchuck. Chick-fil-a. Seth Godin.
They care.
They’ve taken years to produce great products with great service. They’ve built their brands around being generous and putting customers first.
You can run a contest, give away cheap prizes, and run up the social stats all you want to.
But if you want to build something great, there are no shortcuts.