Do Things That Don’t Scale

A blog postBy Andrew Phillips

Famous entrepreneur and investor, Paul Graham, once said, “Do Things That Don’t Scale”

• This means rather than focusing on “growth hacking” and large exponential growth, it is actually better to focus on personalized and thoughtful customer outreach.

• There is a reason that you feel loyal to a brand whenever they reply to your comment or post on social media. It is extremely uncommon for these huge brands to notice you.

• Therefore, when a company takes actions that show they really care, and are not all about profit, it pays dividends in customer loyalty and eventual revenue.

Using this strategy with online communities:

Step 1: Become a trusted subject matter expert first • Find online communities where your customers already

hang out, rather than expecting everyone to come to you.• Focus on very specific groups that have an online forum

that is well-known within the community.• Help answer member’s questions and problems, and post

helpful articles (not just about your product).

Step 2:

Step 2: Post valuable content without promoting your product/service • Avoid product plugs and attempting to point a

conversation towards your product or service. This behavior will make the community resent you and may get you kicked out.

• As you build up your reputation, you can start explaining your product, but the less early-on promotion you do, the more the community will respect you and your product.

Final Step

Step 3: Capitalize on your credibility to bring these target customers to your platform of choice • By taking your community engagement slowly (as you

would your dating life), you will build a level of authority within the community.

• Now is the time to recommend that the community check out your platform of choice (website, blog, book, email list).

• Remember that this trust is earned slowly, but can be gone in a split-second.