Doing Things For Free – A Good Move?
December 8, 2009 – 8:19 am | by Daryl TayI’m about halfway through Mitch Joel’s book called Six Pixels of Separation and in the early chapters he talks about how he started blogging as a way to grow his business and even though it felt weird giving away content for free (he used to be a journalist), it wasn’t long before it producing content for free led to tangible benefits, the latest of which of course is his book deal.
[note: throughout this blog post I use the word "attention" not in a "HEY LOOK AT ME" way, but in the way we choose to give a person attention over other people, or a brand attention over other brands. It is a form of earned attention, not interruptive attention like TV advertising]
This got me thinking about my own journey with blogging and social media and I realised I never shared the story of my first job offer, so I’ll do it here.
I started blogging in January 2008 (though I had a “website” since 1996) and it was primarily for the social media class I was taking under Michael Netzley at the time. It quickly took on a life of its own and by March I had started Social Media Breakfast | Singapore with Derrick, by April I was a panelist at an IDC conference, speaking to 450 global marketing executives from P&G and eventually speaking at ad:tech Singapore in 2009.
This led to me getting called up by someone present at ad:tech and after a couple of interviews, they offered me my first job offer (coincidentally, the company had a colour in it’s name as well). I didn’t take it but I sincerely believe that blogging and starting Social Media Breakfast | Singapore for free led to all these opportunities and it is all these opportunities and connections that eventually built enough of a network and experience to land me my job today.
At job interviews, people have given me flak for not being “entrepreneurial” enough and giving away stuff for free. I think that’s losing the forest for the trees. For me, everything changed when I realised I was now my own TV, radio and print channel rolled up in one. As Seth Godin says “In a world of free, everyone can play.”
As Chris Anderson illustrates in “Free” the first step is using free to get people to pay attention to you, the second step is converting that attention into something of value. This is especially true in the attention economy, as ours is.
My blog and Social Media Breakfast earned me the “attention” that was converted into references, networks and relationships which in turn served as a way to earn more “attention” that was converted into a job.
People balk at free because of their inability to convert the earned attention into something of value.
That fault is theirs, not with free.
Tags: ad:tech, attention economy, michael netzley, mitch joel, p&G, six pixels of separation, social media breakfast
5 Responses to “Doing Things For Free – A Good Move?”
By Daphne Maia on Dec 9, 2009 | Reply
Paulo Coelho gives away free e-books. I think that’s a brilliant move.
Sharing info is always a good thing. I think people should stop thinking about this with such a narrow mind (i.e. I can actually charge people for this content) because in the end, it doesn’t benefit you nor people in your industry nor people who are interested in the subject. (Besides, you also have to address the question of whether there’ll be sufficient people willing to pay for your content to make it worth your while of marketing it too).
I’m gonna get my copy of “Six Pixels of Separation” with the book vouchers that my dad will give me for Christmas (every year) haha!
By Daryl Tay on Dec 9, 2009 | Reply
Yes it’s about building that awareness as a first step with free and then converting that ‘branding’ or ‘presence’ or ‘attention’ into something of value. Maybe it’s a link, maybe it’s a speaking engagement, maybe it’s a job reference, but it’s ultimately how to use it! And yes I do agree the “let’s just be concerned with money” is a narrow approach. Money is part of the system, but it isn’t THE system!!
By Roderick on Dec 20, 2009 | Reply
Hey,
That’s interesting. I have written an article about giving things away for free too. Sean D’Souza came up with the concept ‘Bikini Concept’ and said that marketers should give 90% of the content free because there will be people who are willing to pay to see the last 10%.
By Daryl Tay on Dec 20, 2009 | Reply
@Roderick: Thanks for the comment. Yes absolutely true. There’s a ‘momentum’ or ‘traction’ built with free that can be used as a good lead-in for the last 10% as you mentioned. It’s just whether people do it properly.