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Help Others and You Will Help Yourself

The 80/20 rule – you’ll hear about this when Twitter experts talk about the best way to use Twitter.  Spend 80% of your time promoting others and talking about topics other than yourself, and spend 20% of your time on the things that matter to you.  Many Tweeters question the need to do this – some don’t understand it, some just don’t do it.

Why would I spend time helping someone else on Twitter? What am I going to get out of it?

Google serves as a great example to me of “helping others is really helping yourself.”  They have introduced so many free productivity tools, and I think that, notwithstanding the firestorm surrounding Google Buzz’s privacy issues, people really appreciate them for it.  When they give all this cool stuff away for free, they’re buying something for themselves.  When you promote the awesome new blog post of your friend, you are figuratively given a chip that you may be able to cash in later.

Besides that, it’s just good karma!

Comments

  1. 80/20 rule should be used on all networks.
    Th Go Giver is based on this principle as well; giving to others drives success.
    You can tell by this one question that almost all those new to social networking ask, 'what's it going to do for me,' that the focus is stuck in the wrong direction. Seth Godin and others refer to this as a funnel that's pointed the wrong way.

    Your article is a good reminder to keep me on track when I'm online.
    Cheers,
    Todd

  2. Helping others 80% of the time? It runs counter intuitive to what is considered “a productive workday.” However, the principals of networking and the ways that it can further your business interests are the same now as they were before Social Media existed.

  3. Great stuff Chris — and this is the most difficult aspect for people to grasp and it takes a lot of exposure to Twitter to begin getting it — and many times by the time people realize it — they have burned their entire reputation in the channel.

  4. Oooh — like that shot at Microsoft at the end. 🙂

  5. Hey man, it's an honest question. For what it's worth, Google is putting out so many products that are helpful to people in their daily lives, and it occurred to me that Micro$haft isn't doing the same thing. Or they are and they're just not designing or marketing the products very well.

  6. Totally agree — big difference in the way the two have built their companies — Google has built a ton of good will over the years with all of these free services.

  7. Whoa, when did you build this site Chris- awesome!

    I did BNI (Business Networkers International) for a while and they preach the same thing- givers gain. The more you give the more you get.

    Besides it's more fun to talk about the cool stuff other people are doing.

    Gotta go tweet and FB about your site now 😉

  8. Just started up a bit over a week ago. Thanks man!

  9. MyFinancialObjectives says:

    Sounds like an extension of the Golden Rule… Something I try to live by, (except i will admit during my random bits of passive aggressive road rage, which not to spin too far off topic usually spur from other driver's rage/obliviousness while driving.

Trackbacks

  1. […] 3.  Be helpful to others. It’s not all about you.  Retweet, recommend others, offer assistance when you can. The 80/20 rule is in effect! […]

  2. […] 3.  Be helpful to others. It’s not all about you.  Retweet, recommend others, offer assistance when you can. The 80/20 rule is in effect! […]

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