One of my dad’s recollections that really stuck with me came from his munchkin days in the 1950s when he was watching his small town’s TV repair lady fix the family TV set.

She had a portable tube-testing machine the size of a small toolbox, where she routinely plugged in tube after tube until she found the faulty one. She’d then replace it with a new tube and that was that.

When my dad asked how the machine worked — after all, it was the essence of her livelihood — the response he got was totally unsatisfactory:

I don’t know. It just works.

Hopefully, she was able to retire before transistors happened.

Recently, the Sprout Social Index revealed the results of a study that compared the priorities of social media marketers with those of social media consumers.

It wasn’t pretty.

Here’s how the social media marketers responded:

1. Posts that teach something (61%),
2. Posts that tell a story (58%), and
3. Posts that inspire (53%).

Here are the top three priorities listed by the social media consumers:

1. Posts that announce discounts or sales (72%),
2. Posts that showcase new products or services (60%), and
3. Posts that teach something (59%).

None of us has to be an Einstein to see that sharing knowledge is an action upon which everyone can agree to be a constructive move for all involved.

Better yet, it serves to advance the concept of authority within your niche:

• If you’re just starting your journey to achieve the Dot Com lifestyle, use the 80/20 rule to zero in on who your most likely paying customers are and then offer them additional information about your product or service.
• If you’ve got a buyers’ list already, don’t carpet-bomb them with a litany of offers; send tips as to how to make the best use of what they’ve already purchased from you.

Your postings and messages will no doubt be much more welcomed.

As to sales and discounts, how tough is that to implement?

For example, each hub site in our online portfolio makes a point of having a quality product featured at an attractive saving or totally gratis.

This ad on the home page of our snarky sports site — The Daily Player — continues to get results for us:

This underscores a key reason why it’s a huge advantage to have an online presence on your own terms, as opposed to those of someone else.

Connecting and engaging with your customers is the entire point of any business. Just be certain you’re listening to them instead of running campaigns by the numbers because that’s what everyone else is doing. Keep in mind only 3% or so of new online businesses make it past the first year or two.

If you understand what works and confirm why it does, your odds of success in achieving the Dot Com lifestyle become infinitely more favorable.