Respect, Power and Money

This is a guest post by Andrew Davis. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

“See I believe in money, power, and respect. First you get the money. Then you get the power. After you get the power, people will respect you.” (Little Kim – Money, Power and Respect)

I think this is true in gangster films and some aspects of real life but if you relate this to the world of social media, I think it works in reverse. First you get the respect, then you get the power and once you have the power then you will get the money.

Respect

Content is king. In order to have a successful blog you need to make sure your content is exceptional and that people are interested in your work. The key to any blog site is return visits. If people are returning frequently it means they have some level of respect for your work. The more frequently they return, a higher level of respect will be gained and they may even start evangelising your work for you. Gary Vay-ner-chuk is well respected in the social media world, just like Talib Kweli is respected in the hip-hop world. Both have core fans who value what they are doing in their field. Having respect is very important and is needed if you want to have influence. When you become influential you have the potential to become very powerful.

Power

If you have power and influence on the net then the world can be your oyster. You have the ability to do good (and bad), and in turn make an impact in whatever you want to do. The power has shifted from companies to individuals, like the famous philosopher Peter Parker said:

‘With great power comes great responsibility.’

There are a lot of people who have a lot of respect in their field and have used that to become very powerful and influential. Lily Allen holds a lot of power in numerous fields, whether it’s getting media coverage to selling albums. Arguably the world’s most famous blogger Perez Hilton is somebody else who has a lot of power. He has the power to start trends, break news, post gossip and has generated interaction from hundreds of people around the world. The important thing to remember here is that they gained respect first. So first you get the respect, then you get the power and once you have the power, the money will come in.

Money

Once you have the following and have become very influential in your field, as long as you play right on the money will come in. It will come in many different ways, shapes and forms and you will have the potential to make a good living out of this. In the world of blogging, Darren Rowse has managed to do this and in music there are countless musicians who have as well.

So my advice to bloggers would be this:

I believe in respect, power, and money. First you get the respect. Then you get the power. After you get the power, the money will follow you.

You can read more from Andrew on his blog, The Worst Kept Secret.