I just got an email from a freelancer who said she was writing a piece for a major national publication for men who really, really want nice abs.
We want to include advice from people who have made a lot of money, or know about people who have made money from social media. Obviously, you fit this article perfectly and we’d love to feature you as an expert to offer some advice to our readers.
The quotes need to be precise and exacting. For example, the following is good: ‘Set up four accounts with XXX and promote XXX, XX times a day. Say ‘XXX’ to your followers’ to entice them in. Once you get up to XXX followers, then you can start to earn.’
First of all, I can think of several people who would be surprised to hear I was an expert in getting rich quick through social media. Me, for instance.
I also realized I can’t name a single person who I can say for sure has gotten “rich” through using social media. “Obviously I’m not talking about Zuck.”
I remember going to dinner at BlogWorld a few years ago and seeing a table of eight or 10 people who seemed a bit shinier and better dressed than the rest of the bloggers. Someone in my group told me that was the “Million Dollar Club,” for people who had earned more than $1 million through blogging. If that was true, I didn’t know those people then and I don’t know them now.
Also, it would probably have been more accurate to describe them as affiliate marketers rather than bloggers.
Here’s my response to the journalist:
This is not at all what I do with social media, this is not what I recommend to people and, frankly, the idea that people can quickly set up accounts and make lots of money with social media is what is destroying social media. Feel free to quote me on that.
For once, I think I was justified in riding a high horse. But I don’t think it will make any difference. I’m sure we will see some ridiculous clickbait headline soon about how social media can earn you more money to buy protein supplements.