We are now in the age of haters!
Let me explain.
Given that marketing and communications has evolved into much more direct, tighter connections with our audiences (a very GOOD thing), how people respond is also much more direct and visible.
In the past, if someone didn’t like or was jealous of something you said, did or represented in your marketplace they would complain, perhaps tell some of their friends and, at worst, blast out a letter or review that stated their negative point of view.
Today, since you are now involved transparently with your marketplace via sites like YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Periscope, Meerkat, etc… your haters have ready access to step into the conversation and even hijack the message you are putting out unless you learn to manage it.
To many people (no doubt some of you reading this now) getting hated on is the one of the biggest concerns or fears you have…part of that comes from the innate human need to be loved, though a big part of your fear has to do with not knowing how that will impact you or your audience and how you can respond or deal with your haters.
Here’s the GOOD side of having haters though…
Unless you have haters, you are unknown and that is NEVER a good thing in business
Being invisible in business today is FAR worse than having a small segment of your market not agree with your opinion or the value you bring to your market.
So, simply put, you know you are heading in the right direction when you start to see the haters…that means you are reaching a substantial enough part of your market to reach the haters.
With the haters come the champions, your raving fans and the silent majority that will also see you, be reached by your message and slowly become converted as you brand yourself, your business and your value in your market.
Remember, being hated by a small segment of your market is NOT the worst thing…here are 10 things you should fear more than being hated in your marketplace.
- Being invisible, you gain nothing from not catching your market’s attention
- Being boring, so your visible – who cares…no relationship, no interest and no sales
- Not trusted…haters hate because you take a stand and are consistent enough to be hated for an opinion or direction which means you will also have champions who can trust your direction and value – trust is the secret weapon of influence required for people to like and buy from you
- Being fake...you can avoid haters by catering to everyone, being fake with your opinions and your marketing…in the end that catches up with you and you end up not appealing to anyone
- You live in fear of being hated which prevents you from being who you really are depriving the world, your friends/family and your customers from seeing the best in you because you fear being criticized
- Avoiding feedback…sometimes the best feedback you get will be from haters. When you dig through the emotion, you can find patterns of criticism that can lead you to improve your message or product
- Not connecting...you could be working your butt off trying to market your business but if you aren’t seeing some haters chances are you are not making the connection you need to in order to dominate your market
- Letting haters stop you. Every great person, entrepreneur and creative genius has had haters – if they had of let the first haters prevent them from moving forward they would never have reached that place in their lives
- Hating back…take the higher ground, operate above the haters and continue to serve the people you know you are helping and improving life for. Spend zero energy in responding to haters, put all of that energy into serving those that see the value in what you are doing
- Avoiding Your Dreams…whatever you do, do NOT allow haters to steal your dreams, passions and goals. They WISHED they could be in your place but instead of placing that desire into the right direction, going out and building that life for themselves they decide to turn that longing into negative energy and criticize others. How crazy would it be if you let them derail your future?
Haters going to hate, the fact that they begin to appear only means that you are on the right track…double down on your future, keep your eye on continuing to grow your influence and value realizing that you are onto something really special…all because you have recognized the haters.
