How To Be More Memorable

Let’s face it. If you’re participating at all in the online space, be it through Twitter, Facebook, Google +, or a blog – at some point, you just want to be noticed. While it’s true that I write for myself first, I’d be lying if I said I don’t care if anyone reads it or not. The fact is, we all want to garner some sort of attention for the work we are putting forward online.

Beyond simply getting noticed, though, is another level. Being noticed is fleeting. Having an A-Lister with a couple hundred thousand followers re-tweet your blog post is fun for a while. But eventually that traffic spike dwindles, and you go back to the small time. Trust me on this one.

Beyond getting noticed is being memorable. Think of being memorable as getting noticed, compounded. Being noticed adds on top of itself every time someone shares your content, every time someone replies or mentions you, or shares your post. Over time, all that getting noticed gets you somewhere. Eventually, you’re more top of mind. And if you’re leveraging the power of the social web for your business, that’s a very, very good thing.

But going from noticed to memorable is not an easy thing. There is so much competition for eyeballs these days, and it’s getting worse all the time. Big brands with their fancy budgets have hit the social web in force, and smaller bloggers have had to work even harder for eyeballs. So what’s a little blogger to do? Well, thankfully, there’s hope for us yet.

Tell her about it.

You know when you’re a teenager and you have a crush on a boy or girl, and you’re too scared to tell him or her? Then years later you find out that he or she had a crush on you too? That’s missed opportunity.

Not telling someone what you’re about almost always equals missed opportunities. Yet I see so many people who blog their hearts out, and I never, ever see their posts. Then they come up to me at an event and say, “Hey, did you see my last blog post?”. I ask if they posted a link to on Twitter or Facebook. Often, they’ll say no. Well, ok then, it’s no wonder I didn’t see it!

If you’re publishing content, that’s great. But if you’re publishing content, and then proceeding to not tell anyone about it, that’s not great. If you want to be memorable, you have to let the world know you exist. Just like you never got anywhere with that girl in the 10th grade because you didn’t speak up, the same holds true online.

Be proud of the work you’re creating, and don’t be shy to share it.

Say hello to my new blog post.

What does a teaser like “New blog post!” inspire you to do? Wait, nothing? Why is that? Because there’s no context. Get a little more creative in your approach to writing catchy, enticing teasers for your posts. It can be challenging to be snappy in 140 characters or less (120 if you want it to be re-tweetable), but with practice, you’ll get there. Here are a few examples of catchy teasers:

In-person trumps online, every time.

Some people have told me I’m well-connected in the digital marketing/social media world, and I suppose that’s true. I chock it up to two things – first, I work in the media industry, and I’m a teacher – and by virtue of those two things I meet a LOT of people. But the third way I’ve done it is, I go out and meet people in person whenever possible. I shake real hands, and say hello. I transition my online connections into the offline world as quickly as I can.

The minute you step into someone’s physical presence, you go from being just that guy or gal from Twitter to a real living, breathing person that they can look in the eye. You become memorable to them. The reverse is true too – if you meet people in person at an event, chances are they will go home and look you up online. They stand a much better chance of remembering you in the long term because they’ve made that face to face connection, and you become even more memorable if they find you’re active online and presenting good content.

So, get out from behind that keyboard once in a while and go to some meet ups. Find someone in your online community that you want to meet in person and invite them for coffee. Take your online relationships to the next level by getting physically in front of people.

And in the end…the love you take is equal to the love you make.

You’re already producing good stuff. Maybe you’re getting noticed occasionally, that’s great. Now take the notice you’re getting and start to compound it.

I firmly believe that you get out of this world what you put into it. If that’s the case, then like The Beatles said,  you need to make it in order to take it. Don’t expect that just because an A-Lister tweets your link that you’re suddenly going to be Internet Famous too. It doesn’t work that way.

Become memorable by telling people what you’re up to. Write compelling teasers to your content. And get out from behind your keyboard once in a while and shake some real, human hands.

[photo by Flood]