I like Facebook a lot, but I’ve had to develop a strategy to beat its habit of sometimes inadvertently “hiding” potentially useful information from those who most need it. A good example is the amazingly educative story told on 18th August 2014 by the award winning Nigerian writer, Charles Ayo Dada on his Facebook wall.
Charles shared a true personal story that I believe MANY MANY people (even non-writers!) will find extremely useful to read!
He titled it:
“HOW I MADE MY FIRST MILLION AS A WRITER SELLING BOOKS…”
In the PDF version I’ve created, I’ve added this subtitle:
“A True Story About Potentially Traumatizing Sales & Marketing Dilemmas Book Authors Face in Nigeria”
When I read Charles’ heart wrenching account of his ordeal as a newbie writer in the Nigerian space, I knew more people would benefit than the small number I’d seen commenting on, and LIKING it.
But I knew that not all those who needed to read it, used the Internet, talk less Facebook. I also knew that even those who did use the web were not all connected with Charles on that platform.
What was more, I knew that even some of those who were connected with Charles on Facebook, would NOT (possibly NEVER) see that particular post, due to Facebook’s “habit” of burying old posts under new feeds that follow.
And that was why offering Charles’ story in a PDF format that people can download, print out and share in digital or print format instantly made sense to me.
This is why I strongly advocate that those who use it for business promotion LEARN how to mould Facebook’s “abilities” to suit their purposes, instead of letting it force THEM into its mould.
However, rather than bothering Charles to do it (the guy had done his bit – I was the busy body who wanted to do more!), I simply made out time yesterday evening, after publishing my blog post for the day, to do it myself.
By the time you read this, will have sent it to Charles via email/Facebook and also posted THIS download link (i.e. http://tinyurl.com/Charles1stMillion) to it in the comments for the original “Story” post of Facebook, for interested others to download.
Note that the download link is hosted on a FREE web service – so I cannot say for how long it will remain active.
So, in case you read this and the link does NOT work, you can contact Charles for a copy via his Facebook profile, or email me via tayo at tksola dot com, so I can send it to you as an email attachment.
Question: Why am I doing this?
Answer…
If you’ve been following my work, you know I have a habit of identifying potentially useful content and repackaging it to be accessible by a wider audience.
Examples include the growing number of videos and audios that I have created PDF and Power Point text based transcripts of.
I recently wrote a new personal philosophy paper (in 2013 – see screen shot/download link below). It explains why I go out of my way to create these resources, on behalf of others. and share FREELY to others.
In the above paper, I noted that many in my part of the world – Africa, and especially Nigeria – often lack good Internet connectivity speeds. As a result, they are unable to conveniently watch videos or listen to/download audios – which can be quite large.
Consequently, for anyone who really wishes to successfully reach them with a message, s/he needs to employ an intelligent mix of media and formats.
My decade long web marketing experience has taught me that offering text based PDF, image and slide show ALTERNATIVE versions of such useful content can often yield valuable benefits.
That approach has helped me connect better with prospective buyers of my products and services and also close more sales. And it has also made public service information and education I offer reach those who really need them.
It is this expertise I possess, that I put at the disposal of others who I identify to offer material that can benefit others.
Since not everyone has the skills I possess, I contribute my own bit by using my expertise to help them represent the useful content they offer in other formats, to reach more people.
And that’s why I created this PDF version of the excellent story told by Charles Ayo Dada. It deserves to be made as widely accessible to all as possible.
Hopefully this PDF version will help to achieve that goal. I urge you to share it via email and in print to as many as you know will benefit from reading it.
Charles has done us all a great service by writing this story.
Those about to venture into this vocation, and indeed those already engaged in it will find useful wisdom to take away from it.
I wish you well!
PS: Do you wonder why I did not just offer the file as a direct download from here – my own personal domain name based website (i.e. tayosolagbade.com) – like I had done for others?
Well, it’s so as to avoid incurring any content copyright related penalties from search engines etc. You see this time around the repackaged information was ALREADY published in TEXT form online – specifically on Facebook, a very popular platform.
That means the search engines already linked it with the author’s name – Charles – and his profile. Putting up the verbatim text in my PDF version on my domain could sent wrong signals.
By hosting it on a 3rd party site, and sharing the download link (giving the file itself to the author) I achieve my goal of delivering the PDF to those who want it, without jeopardizing my online brand’s integrity in handling someone else’s original content.
In fact you will notice, when you download the PDF that I did not even bother to append my name to it.
These days, it’s better to be safe than sorry…LOL!!!
PPS: Oh yes, one more thing. If by any chance the reader – or any other person(s) – think I’ve done this to curry favour from Charles, I strongly advise that you THINK AGAIN.
I’ve already linked to the PDF personal philosophy paper that lists other similar resources I’ve created in the past. Once again I link to it HERE – click and read it, to better understand my purpose.
This is what I do. I am a Self-Development/Performance Improvement Specialist.
Helping others make the most of themselves is a passion of mine.
I need NO incentive from anyone to do it. I also require no “thanks” for doing it.
All I ask is that you share with others, and make the most of what you learn!