Relationship Engines

This is an older video that I just realized never got uploaded to Facebook. I was having some issues with my camera, but the content is something I really believe in – Building Your Relationship Engines. We live in a world where so many are scrambling to build viewership. We are all told to increase our reach, get more subscribers, build our list, etc. It's not viewership or audience that we want. It's attention. Attention is what enables our content to stand out in a never ending stream of content. Attention is what enables us to bring people to a cause or issue. Attention is the commodity we want, not viewership. In a world where every service has a chart showing growth of subscribers or followers, it's hard sometimes to remember that what we really want is relationships. And what we need are relationships engines – vehicles that actively build trust, relevance and attention with a community of like-minded individuals. Great examples of relationship engines are podcasts and video blogs. Newsletters, blogs and social channels can also be used to effectively build relationships. Hell, almost anything can be a relationship engine, but it requires that we stop thinking about conversion and quick sales and more about vulnerability and connecting with people. It's about being of service and value to our community, not the other way around. I speak, in the video, of an individual who was struggling with how much time he was investing in a podcast for a Not For Profit organization when there are so many demands for his time. My feeling is that he should pour more time, not less, into the podcast because it will pay off in spades a year or two from now. In fact, I would suggest it might even be the single greatest asset he has created. Relationship engines take grit. They are an investment in the future and require insane amounts of effort and commitment to continue producing. This is why most podcasts fail within the first year. It's anything but easy and the return on your time spent is often disappointing and anything but financially self-sustaining. It can take years of work to see the payoff. But for those who stick it out and fight to build their community one hard-won listener after another, the investment will pay off. They are creating something much larger that one day will begin to snowball and reap rewards we can't even imagine at the beginning. The only question is how long are we willing to push that rock up the hill. Want more like this? How to build a community of practice/support: https://www.facebook.com/SeanHowardPhotography/videos/865791213536439/?permPage=1