A few months back when I first started using Pinterest, I came across an amazing summer drink recipe on someone's website. As a bartending enthusiast I was excited to share this content with my followers and try the drink out myself. Almost immediately I had a couple dozen people repin this post (a testament to the viral nature of the site) and a couple of comments. To my surprise, one of the comments was from the creator of the drink recipe asking me to please remove the pin.
Of course I immediately took the pin down, but as a person who is paid to help businesses spread their content online this request initially baffled me. However, the more I thought about it I realized that this attitude is not all that uncommon among business persons.
In a psychology study it was found that children who had greater self- control were more successful later in life. The researchers measured self-control by giving each child the option to have one piece of chocolate now, or to have two pieces of chocolate in one hour. Our natural instinct may be to choose immediate gratification, however it may be to our benefit to wait.
Common sense tells us to protect our intellectual property. In a typical business relationship, the reward is immediate. Person X performs an action for person Y and immediately receives compensation.
In the online world, the road to compensation is longer and not always guaranteed, but the rewards can be exponentially greater. One way to travel down this road is outlined below.
1.Post free, valuable content online to the public
Your Initial reaction: You may see the investment of your time on something that is not immediately making you money as a waste.
My advice: Don't be too hasty my friend, plant the seeds and they will grow.
2.Celebrate the replication of your content from person to person (as long as the source of the content is made clear-a reference or link back to your original site is sufficient)
Your initial reaction: This is my intellectual property, I don't want somebody else benefitting from my work for free
My advice: Thank your lucky stars that people have found the needle in the haystack that is your content and decided that it is worthy to share with their peers. You are one step closer to seeing the benefits of your original action!
End result: Hundreds, maybe thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of people that previously had no idea about your service or business now know who you are. If you have left a good impression on them, they will remember you when they need your service in the future. Think of it as fishing with a bomb instead of a single fishing line.
Make the decision today. Do you want to be the kid that receives one piece of chocolate now or the kid that gets two pieces an hour from now?