How to succeed quickly on the Internet

I usually get asked questions by email which seem very specific but are as vast as the universe itself. These questions are of the following kind: “What can I do with my brand/company to position it on the Internet quickly?”, “How can I reach all my potential audience on the social web?” or “I need some advice to increase my company/brand on the Internet, help me!”

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Some are even more bold and direct: “What do I do to be successful in social media?”, “How do I maximise my effort on the Internet and social networks to obtain real results?”, “I need any type of advice you can give me to get results in social media” or “Could you give me any idea to sell more online?”

Success awaits you

Clearly everyone wants to be successful on the social web and Internet. And, of course, they, want that success to be fast, simple, effortless and using a special trick you download from the Internet. Oh, and I forget! It must also be free.

This is the answer to those who ask how to quickly be successful on the Internet and in social networks overnight:

• Help out a lot. Helping out isn’t taking advantage of a situation.
• Share large amounts of useful and valuable content. Sharing doesn’t mean your own content.
• Make it visual: use photos and videos. Remember they must be useful and valuable.
• Say what you think. Be yourself. Use your own voice.
• Just accept that many people won’t like you. That will help you focus on those who do.
• Decide what it is you want to do and do it.
• If you have something to say, say it.
• Create chaos, start revolutions, bring about disruptive innovations, go against the flow.
• Launch as many ideas as you can. Start things that are easy and quick to start, take on small risks.
• Adopt a small movements strategy — those are the ones that matter.
• Market what you do, make the most of every occasion, however small. Everything can be communicated. Marketing involves coherence, intelligence, subtlety and results. However, self-glorification means laziness, selfishness, despair and babble.
• Do whatever may create change in people/customers and show it to the world.
• Make your strong point your life constant in your daily work flow. That’s how you’ll be creating something that no one else usually does.
• Come up with a blog that serves a purpose to both you and your audience, a blog that makes them better. Create it, launch it against the market and blog 366 days a year (yes, you read it right, 366!).
• Don’t work for the likes, comments or RTs. Do it to get deeper into the problem and find the solution.
• Consider euros in the bank as your end measurement. And work towards achieving them.
• Invest time, Sundays, nap times, holidays, vacations and Christmas to creating your personal brand.
• Connect in the most human way possible with the people you know in the social web. That’s what they’re expecting.
• Use the social media universe — not the other way round!
• There’s life beyond LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest — just kidding!
• Forget about online reputation and invest time in monitoring, analytics, ROI and online branding.
• Ignore Whatsapp.
• Be very active. You should be everywhere at all times, helping and being useful.
• Don’t take calls while you’re doing important work.
• Close Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and your email and do what needs to be done to make an impact.
• Don’t accept meaningless meetings, only those with clear objectives, a defined agenda and with people in charge at every step. That is, accept only 5% of your meetings.
• If you want to do business, go do it. But don’t say you’re going to network at an event if you’re there to do business.
• Don’t go to so many conferences, seminars or workshops. Instead, spend more time with a blank sheet of paper and do, experiment, fail and try something different.
• Being an expert won’t help you to be successful. It will only serve to see how wide, round and deep your own bellybutton is.
• Change masters degrees and advanced courses for blogs, videos, TED conferences and your own experiences.
• Trace your own plan, establish your goals, develop a strategy and find your spark.
• Don’t say you’re an online/social entrepreneur, prove it!
• Use all your followers, readers, fans and connections to promote those beneath you. It’s easy, doesn’t take much time and it seems to be a strategy that works.
• If no one offers you to take part in an event, workshop, initiative or movement, build one yourself and invite yourself. Think of something amazing.
• Results are king, not content.
• Take the maximum possible number of fans, followers or whatever you want to call them to your website.
• Use calls to actions wherever you go.
• Take care of your community.
• Talk to clients and ask them in what other ways you could help them.
• Stay human and value human relationships above everything else.
• Transparency, honesty, authenticity, coherence, being consistent and passionate, excitement and determination are the keys for anything to work.

I told you, overnight. You want to be successful? Then go and be successful.

You don’t claim or pretend victory, you win it!

Photo credit: Studio 54.