This week the good folks at LinkedIn Sales Solutions shared one of my newsletter articles with their crowd. Take a look for yourself.
You can see the post here.
They have almost 450,000 followers! Woo hoo! All my hard work has paid off. I’ve had my work been shared by LinkedIn Sales Solutions – on LinkedIn – and called a “social selling expert” (emphasis mine).
I am flattered someone at LinkedIn found something I wrote relevant and interesting enough to share it with their audience.
And I was SO EXCITED because now I just KNEW the leads were going to come in. I braced myself for the onslaught by taking the rest of the day off from my usual work to respond to comments, connection requests and InMails from people DIEING to hire me to teach their team social selling.
And what happened?
I didn’t get a single new connection request from anyone relevant. I didn’t get any InMails. And my phone didn’t ring even one time as a result of this exposure.
I did have 9 people I know reacted to the post on LinkedIn’s original post. I did have 7 people I know who were kind enough to comment on the original post. I replied to all of them, so there are 14 comments on the post.
So I posted it to my timeline, thinking my connections would LOVE to support me and celebrate with me.
This time, I got 27 views, and my wife reacted to it (thanks sweetheart – I always appreciate your support!).
And it got me thinking: many years ago, whenever Oprah Winfrey would mention something as one of her favorite things, that product’s sales would go through the roof, sometimes just for a little while, and sometimes it was life changing. They even coined a phrase about this: the “Oprah Effect.”
And people would do ANYTHING to get on Oprah’s show or be mentioned by Oprah, in hopes of driving THEIR BUSINESS through the roof.
Sometimes it worked. Many times it didn’t.
But now, Oprah no longer has a show. And we have a LOT more options for entertainment than we did when the “Oprah Effect” was in full effect.
And now even when someone with a huge (and relevant) following mentions you, it’s no guarantee of a spike in ANYTHING.
My advice to you is simple: Stop waiting for YOUR Oprah Effect.
IT ISN’T COMING!
INSTEAD…
Create great content. Share it with relevant people. Get a response. Have some conversations. Do it over and over and over again.
Make it happen for YOU and YOUR BUSINESS. You don’t need an Oprah Effect. You just need to do great work, over and over again, and you will create your own big break.
And don’t get wrapped up in the ego of getting mentioned by someone with a huge following. Not only does it not pay the bills, it’s not even worth taking the afternoon off of work because the phone isn’t ringing on its own.
You’re welcome to connect with me at any time, because Oprah’s not calling me either!