On Getting Noticed
Photography: Standing out by fabbio [modified]
I recently read an excellent article by Ankesh Kothari on getting others to talk about you. His key points are as follows: do something worthy of talking about, make more friends by self-disclosing, provide tools to help others talk about you, and reward people when they promote you.
I’d like to take this opportunity to add another point to the list, and it’s one I believe to be as important as all the others combined.
If you want to get noticed, if you want others to talk about you, you need to start by talking about them.
Using curiosity in your favor
We’ve all heard our name uttered somewhere across a room and looked up to investigate.
If you’re a blogger or webmaster you would have followed-up inbound links to see how and why you or your work had been mentioned. Even bloggers on the “A-list” haven’t been able to resist this temptation.
It’s why celebrities get so miffed by what’s written about them in gossip magazines and tabloids. It’s why Robert Scoble took a break from blogging. We create web content for others: naturally, we care what others think of it.
By talking about others you increase your chances of getting noticed by them. Of course, if you’re talking about someone who gets talked about by a lot of people it’s easy to get lost in the noise. The less someone is talked about the more likely the are to trace everything said about them to its source. On the other hand, if you do manage to get heard by a high-profile figure the possible rewards could be far greater.
The difference between talk and gossip
In web terms, talking about someone is a flexible term. You could write about something that person said, link to their website in your blogroll, link to something they’ve written inside one of your own articles (as I’ve done several times already in this post), and so on. Every time you mention another location on the web you are participating in this ‘talk’.
A cheap method of getting noticed is to gossip or insult. We’ve all read content solely dedicated to the purpose of attacking another person, whether they’re a controversial figure or someone you can’t imagine upsetting anybody.
Sure, this kind of ‘talk’ will get others to notice you but they’ll either ignore you or simply return the favor, talking about you in negative terms that will damage your reputation. This kind of practice is one of the worst things about the web.
Talking more
Next time you create content take a step back and consider how you could use it to talk about others.
An easy and fluid way to do this is to weave links under words, sentences and fragments when you are aware of others talking about the same things. This not only adds depth to what you are saying but ensures you are actively ‘talking’ about others. With each outbound link you are making a connection with other writers and, in turn, inviting them to talk about you.
See it: [Jeff Atwood of Coding Horror does this really well]
WordPress automatically sends out your ‘talk’ in the form of trackbacks. If your blogging software doesn’t support automatic trackbacks then you should learn how to do this manually. Webmasters will have to rely on analytics programs to pick up inbound links.
Talking loudly
The more you talk about someone or their ideas the more likely you are to be noticed by them or other people who are interested in what they do. The first commenter on this blog (if I remember correctly) was Collis Ta’eed, who writes at Freelance Switch and is a co-founder of Blog Action Day.
Collis’ curiosity was obviously piqued by a post I wrote examining what makes Freelance Switch a great blog. If I’d simply included one of his articles in a link round-up he probably wouldn’t have noticed, but because I discussed his work in such depth it was hard for him to ignore.
The louder you ‘talk’, the more likely you are to get noticed.
You can also see the circular nature of this strategy in practice in the paragraph above. First, I talked about Collis, then Collis noticed me, now I’m talking about Collis again!
Something you can do today
Next time you create content try to weave several links into your words. You might have previously bookmarked some interesting articles which would be relevant to what you’re writing, and you can draw on these for your links. If not, you could try searching for what others have said on the points raised in your article. Do others agree with you? Do others disagree?
At first the process will seem awkward but with practice it will begin to feel natural, to the point where your mind recalls possible links you could use as you write.
It’s a great habit to get into as it both helps you get noticed while also adding another layer of depth to your content. If you’re someone who hasn’t done much of this and you decide to give it a try, I’d be interested to see a link to your efforts in the comments section.
