Conversation Playbook

For a long time I measured myself by followers. I checked the number every morning and felt a small lift when it went up. It never paid an invoice.

The work that brought me clients was smaller and slower. A reply on a post that turned into a twenty-minute call. A DM from someone who had read one line I wrote about a bad hire and wanted to talk about it. Followers don't ask you questions. People do.

This is the playbook I use now. It has one rule for writing, one routine for commenting, and one number to track.

Write for one person you can name. Everyone else will read along.

Rule one

Pick the person before you write

Before I write a post, I choose one person I want to reach. Not a job title in the abstract. A specific person I could describe in a sentence: a director who just inherited a team that doesn't trust her, or a founder who has been doing sales alone for two years.

Then I write the post as if I'm answering that one person across a table. The test is simple. If that person could read it and decide something this week, the post is finished. If it only sounds good, I cut it.

Rule two

A fifteen-minute commenting routine

1. 1. Make a list of five people

   Choose five people you'd like to work with, clients or peers or people who write about the work you care about. Keep the list short enough to actually read.

2. 2. Leave a comment that adds something

   A number from your own work, a story in two sentences, or a respectful disagreement. Skip "great post" and skip the emoji. A comment that adds nothing gets no reply.

3. 3. Answer every reply within a day

   When someone answers you, answer back. That's where the conversation starts, and a conversation is what you're trying to build.

4. 4. Send one DM, only after a real exchange

   If two people have replied to each other in public, a short message is welcome. A pitch in a first DM is not. Ask about the thing they wrote, and stop there.

Rule three

Track conversations, not followers

Track thisConversations started this week

Track thisReplies you received to your comments

Track thisCalls that came from a DM or a comment thread

Ignore thisFollower count for the week

Write the numbers in the same sheet you use for the rest of your week. On Friday, look at the calls and ask which conversations produced them. Then do more of that and less of everything else.

If you start this week

1. Monday: write the name of one person you want to reach on a sticky note and keep it next to your screen.
2. Tuesday: pick five people for your commenting list.
3. Wednesday to Friday: run the fifteen-minute routine once a day.
4. Friday: count conversations, not followers, and write down which one led somewhere.

Keep reading

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