A content writer who's made over $300,000 online breaks personal branding into two things: social proof (follower quality matters more than count) and the "job to be done" (a clear statement of the specific value you provide). You need both to sell yourself.
So you've decided to sell your soul on the internet? No? You're just selling services and marketing yourself? Okay, I think I can help with that. I've sold over $300,000 of content writing services in the last 2 years. To sell yourself on the internet, you need to understand 2 concepts: social proof and the job to be done. Let's start with social proof. Social proof is defined as the psychological concept that people are influenced in their decision-making by others. It's why women think married men are hotter and why a Harvard degree is special. They both signify the approval of others, in these cases, a girl's approval, and a fancy school's approval. Online, this means we look at a few things when making purchases. 1. Number of followers. How many people think this person is legit? 2. Quality of followers. Do smart people think this person is legit? 3. Reviews. Do people talk about this person in a good light? Do they have good things to say about them? Because you can see if people you follow also follow a person, this means that it's not just about the quantity of followers, it's about the quality. If I come across an account on Twitter with 1,000 followers, but it's followed by really smart people that I trust, then I trust the account. But if I come across an account with 100,000 followers and no quality followers, no mutuals or anything, then I don't trust them. I, I, it's not even worth checking. It's probably a bunch of bots. 500 smart wealthy followers beats 5,000 idiots and bots any day. Focus on stacking up the quality of followers by interacting with quality people, engaging with their content, and sending cold messages. People even just seeing you interacting with smart people on your timeline will build up social proof that you're a smart internet person too. By By building up social proof that smart, quality people think you're respectable, you'll have an easier time selling yourself, even if you're not respectable. Okay, the second concept is called "Your Job to Be Done." I first heard this idea from blogger Lenny Rachitsky. He said it was the second biggest lesson he learned growing his newsletter to 500,000 subscribers. Because I want to grow my newsletter that big one day, I made sure to listen up. With your job to be done, you have to focus on your specific job and try to do it better than anyone else. For Lenny, who worked in product management, that meant helping product builders build better products. For writer Barry Weiss, that means helping you understand what's going on in the news. For me, that means helping you become a smarter content strategist and win the great online game. Everybody has a job to be done. You need to do it at the highest level you possibly can. But doing the job isn't good enough to just sell yourself online. To sell your services, and maybe your soul, you need to communicate your job in a clear, succinct way. It's not enough to just do a good job. People need to know what your job is. This helps people feel comfortable with you and have a clear understanding of who they're talking to. I was working with a founder who recommended recommended putting your company's job to be done on the first slide of a pitch deck instead of your company's logo. Your job to be done is more important and communicates more than just your logo. The same thing is true for a personal brand. That's why I don't emphasize my logo too much. Instead, I emphasize the call to action for my newsletter. You need to do your job plus communicate your job to be done. All right, so to review, here's how you sell your soul— I mean, services on the internet. Build up social proof and clearly communicate your job to be done. All right, go win the great online game.
