The Art (and Timing) of Asking For Help

Posted: 29 Oct 2013 06:00 AM PDT

I hate to ask for help.

Part of it is not wanting to bother others but mostly its not wanting to be vulnerable or to admit that I need help. And unfortunately I’ve needed to ask others for help more than I would like this year.

But when I do ask for help, I make sure I am only asking people for help that I have helped in the past. This is one thing that baffles me is how often my first interaction with someone will be when they ask me to help them.

“Hey buddy! Look you don’t know me but I wrote this blog post today that is about a topic you and your audience could care less about, but would you mind RTing it for me? I normally wouldn’t ask, but well you have more followers than I do, so I thought it would be a nice way to leverage your network for my benefit. Thanks buddy!”

Really?

I get this constantly and I bet you do too. So I wanted to share a foolproof plan for getting more people that you don’t know to help you.

Help them first.

That’s it. If you want someone to RT your marketing post, then RT their’s first. I do this constantly, if there’s someone that I want to share my content, I will first share their latest post (assuming it’s good). Often, they will turn around and share my newest post later that day.

Call it a way to ask for help without really asking for help They appreciate me sharing their content, plus they are also happy that they were able to return the favor and share my content.