Let me give you something for free!

Posted by Lesley Hays

I’d like to share something with you… that sharing’s pretty cool!

Jason Fried is from 37 Signals, the company behind the suite of products Bluewire now uses to manage projects (Basecamp) and contacts (Highrise).

Taking a look at the kind of companies that also use these products, I think he knows something about marketing… This video discusses the merits of “marketing by sharing”: getting the word out about your product, service or business by teaching and sharing information.

Jason starts by explaining how he subconciously stocked his kitchen with utensils and books by companies and chefs who had taught him something in the past. In this case, through TV shows. He goes on to, firstly, reassure us that nobody’s going to put these chefs out of business by opening a world class restaurant using the recipe books they’ve published, and that the equivilent thing is highly unlikely to happen in your own industry. Then he discusses a few other examples of companies who teach you something, like a deli that runs classes on how to start your own deli!

At Bluewire Media, it’s pretty clear we care about sharing good content with you — we run this blog, for starters! We believe that the more you give out, the more you get back, by increasing:

• awareness of you and your company,
• your authority and credibility in the industry and amongst your target market,
• relationships with your target market based on mutual respect and giving, rather than sales pitch after sales pitch.

Like Jason says, why not stop right now… Write down something you know, a process, how to do something, to share it with somebody else. Now why not email it to your colleagues, send it out in your next newsletter or post it to your company Facebook page? Or just start your own blog: check out wordpress.com or get in touch with us.