Sanders Says: A New Way To Write: Friend Sourcing

When I starting writing Today We Are Rich, I had one goal: Share my story to validate and encourage others to be bold, live positive and cultivate confidence.

I’ve been talking about Abundance versus Scarcity my entire career on the lecture circuit, and with this book, I’ve finally hatched some contemporary ideas for a new generation – based on the classics of the 30’s and 40’s.

Right about the time I started the formal writing process, I created by first Facebook (fan) page. After inviting my friends my regular account, newsletter group and Twitter followers, I had about 800 people ‘liking’ my page. I used it to put out unedited ideas as I wrote them – sort of a proving ground for my book’s concepts. I’d post short pithy things my grandmother says, then note which ones resonated and which ones didn’t. Same went with my advice points. I found out pretty quickly that people are much more interactive on Facebook than they are with a blog – or Twitter for that matter.

One of my Facebook Like Friends contributed a saying her grandmother had, another offered a tweak to one of my ideas and soon, I began to rely heavily on this focus group for the evolution of Today We Are Rich. Sure, I was still telling Billye’s story, and mine too, but by making room for others it was much easier to achieve my goal as an author – validate, encourage and empower.

This isn’t typical crowd sourcing, where a group of people are aggregated then polled – with their answers being tallied up into a group-point-of-view. This was different, because my Facebook community was comprised of long time friends, colleagues and supporters of my work. When I called for some personal stories to help drive home some points, I received great ones from people I’ve known for years such as Jay Beckley (Myles Dad), Paula Cooper (Gratitude Exercise) and Stacey B. (The Quitter). They help this book become your book as well.

Maybe Mark Zuckerberg’s right: Facebook may be the way we find, buy, research or communicate things in the future. Think of crowd sourcing as a Google approach to writing (search, funnel, select from a pile) and Friend sourcing as a way of opening up your work to people that know you and care about your work – the Facebook approach to creating content that resonates.

These days on my author Facebook Page I’m sharing tips from my talks as well as details about the book launch tour for Today We Are Rich

This is a concept that's included in my next book, Today We Are Rich. Visit the book page and you can order a copy and receive a free eBook excerpt with an entire principle! You can also visit its facebook page too.