Bloggers & Marketers: How to Win Friends and Influence People

By: | December 30, 2017 | Tags: , , , , , |

Are you ready for a review of HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE?

Dale Carnegie’s classic set the bar high for books.

“Books about what?” you may ask. HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE is about marketing, persuasion, and relationships.

Basically, HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE has something for anyone looking to boost their skills in order to be successful.

Let’s get started learning how to win friends and influence people.

How to Win Friends and Influence People

HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE.

New Year’s weekend is a time to reminisce about the year that’s ending and celebrate the hope that the new year brings.

Many people spend New Year’s Eve with friends.

Therefore, the time seems fitting to review Dale Carnegie’s HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE.

Of course, this is a blogging tips site.

The tips in Carnegie’s book, HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE, can be applied to bloggers and marketers.

Carnegie’s book teaches you how to persuade people.

Do bloggers want to persuade people to follow their blog? Of course.

Do marketers want to persuade consumers to buy their products and services? Absolutely.

Do most content marketers want to make money blogging? As far as I know.

Carnegie’s tips in HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE will explain how to do all these.

This post will explain how to apply Carnegie’s classic tips to blogging and marketing.

In many places, I paraphrase Carnegie’s tips to apply to bloggers and marketers.

Why did I choose Carnegie’s book HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE?

Last year, I was asked to participate in an expert interview. The members of the panel and myself were asked to name the book that affected our website growth the most.

The most common answer by the influencers who responded was Dale Carnegie’s HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE.

Those respondents explained why they found the book so valuable: it helped them negotiate prices to potential customers. Then I realized, in addition to influencing people to buy our products and services, we are influencing them to follow our blogs.

Has the book helped me become more persuasive since I did the reading? Definitely! This post will explain how so you can be more persuasive also.

The Book’s Value for You

According to the preface, when the book first came out, it filled a human need. Bloggers have a need to influence people to follow their blogs. 

In addition to the business to consumer (B2C) relationship we have with our readers, we try to get along with them in other ways as well. Often we are heckled by negative commenters, more commonly referred to as online trolls. For many reasons, Dale Carnegie’s book, HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE can help us as bloggers.

Recently, one such troll came to my blog. Preferring to see the good in people, I cut the heckler slack, and I was criticized for not being harsh enough.

Despite my writing an article on 47 ways to deal with negative blog comments, it is clear that I can benefit from a book on human relations such as this one. 

As part of his research for his book, Carnegie interviewed the most successful people in the world and read the biographies of the most successful people who ever lived. He spent years conducting this research.

HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE: Takeaways

Rule 1: Do not criticize negative commenters.

When I wrote the post about how to deal with negative blog comments, people asked if the degree of negativity mattered. Are we talking about an attack on the blogger or a criticism? According to Carnegie, it doesn’t matter. Do NOT criticize the commenter. You will incur resentment. 

But, what if the online troll was obviously in the wrong; shouldn’t the troll apologize?

Not according to Carnegie. He explains there is no way for you to win the argument.

In the comments section, don’t try to win an argument, not on your blog and not on other bloggers’ sites.  You will make the commenter or admin blogger (if you are networking on other blogs) feel uncomfortable at best and embarrassed at worst. 

According to Carnegie, you can’t win an argument because if you win, it will be at the cost of the other person’s pride. 

You can not have both victory and another person’s goodwill, Carnegie continued.  Ben Franklin said it first.

What You Should Do:

Show respect for other people’s opinions. Don’t tell people they are wrong. 

Start by commenting: I may be wrong but…” This attitude is so disarming, Your critic may admit they are wrong too. 

Carnegie goes as far as to say it may even help you beat the [online] competition. 

When people are told they are wrong, they harden their hearts and go on believing the way they always did. 

Do not write words like, “Undoubtedly.” Write “I believe” or “My understanding is…”. 

If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.  It is easier than trying to defend yourself.

If you make a mistake, admit it. It takes away the air of defensiveness. Do not make excuses. 

Admitting you are wrong will show courage and character. 

Begin in a friendly way. 

Compliment before you criticize.

People don’t want to change their minds but they might be led to. A drop of honey is worth a pound of vinegar. 

“People don’t criticize themselves for anything, no matter how wrong they may be (20.)” 

What You Should Do:

“Instead of condemning people, let’s try to understand them. Let’s try to figure out why they do what they do. That’s a lot more profitable and intriguing than criticism, and it breeds sympathy, tolerance, and kindness. ‘To know all is to forgive all (29).”

Carnegie recommends saying this to your critic: “I don’t blame you one iota for feeling as you do.”

3/4 of the people you meet will want sympathy. Give it to them and they will like you. 

What if You MUST criticize?

Sometimes pointing out someone’s mistake is unavoidable.

I was in this quandary once. An enthusiastic blogger wanted to guest post for me. He explained he’d devised a system for lowering your Alexa score and wanted to reveal it to my readers.

Exciting! The only problem was he had lowered his Alexa score to one million! One million?! I heard under 200,000 is considered a strong score. I couldn’t let him guest post for me about this topic and I had to honestly explain to him why not.

According to Carnegie, start with genuine praise before you criticize. This lets the other person save face.

Carnegie’s tips worked. To this day, the blogger never guest posted but still remains a loyal and friendly reader.

Rule 2: The only way I can get you to do anything is by giving you what you want.

Carnegie discusses the craving to be important. I have a good friend who coaches me on how to be more persuasive. Look in my right sidebar. Do you see what he suggested I write about my book’s cover? Get started building your successful blog!

People want to be successful. They have a need to feel successful.

How does this impact you? Show appreciation to your commenters.

How You Should Respond to Commenters: 

Restate the comment so the commenter feels understood. Then find merit in the comment and praise the commenter. I go as far as to praise the gravatar. I am sincere also. I am always sincere in my compliments, and you should be too.

This is exactly what Carnegie recommends: “Let’s try to figure out the other person’s good points. Then forget flattery. Give honest, sincere appreciation (39).”

Begin with praise and honest appreciation for the comment. 

According to Carnegie’s tips, you should give each commenter a unique comment as well.

Rule 3: Arouse in other people an eager want.

Tell your readers how what you want will benefit them.

Examples of how I apply this principle to my blogging:

I encourage people, “Skyrocket your blog traffic.” Bloggers want more traffic. What do I want? I want them to subscribe to my blog, so I write this on my optin box. 

I tell people, “Get started building your successful blog! Bloggers want to be successful. What do I want? I want them to buy my ebook.

I tell people they will get a free tools PDF. Bloggers want to save time and money which the tools PDF will provide for them. What do I want? I give out these downloadable optins so people subscribe to my blog. 

I make money blogging by writing sponsored posts. However, when I offered to write reviews for people with new tools and websites relevant to my niche, I struggled to find people to sponsor my writing.

When my husband suggested I let them know they’d be exposed to more than 23,000 people, a combination of my social media followers and blog readers combined, I had a much easier time making money. I told them they’d get what they wanted– publicity– instead of telling them what I wanted– to write a sponsored review. 

In a Nutshell: Fundamental Techniques in Handling People

Carnie’s next section also deals with how to persuade people to do what you want.

PRINCIPAL 4: Encourage other people to talk about themselves.

Carnegie’s book is called How to Win Friends as well as How to Influence People. Equally, and even more importantly, you want to win friends– make connections and forge relationships with other bloggers. 

The Mostly Blogging blogging community rocks! We have such an engaged group! People write me marveling at how interesting our comments are and questioning how they can generate that level of engagement on their blogs as well.

Principal 5 answers that question.

PRINCIPAL 5: Talk about what interests the other person.

Question your commenters. Get them talking on your blog. Have dialogue.

Be a good online listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves. Be more interested in other people than you are yourself.

If you want people to subscribe to your blog, you will interest them if you appear interested in them. If they blog about their accomplishments, for example, ask follow-up questions.

PRINCIPAL 6: Make the other person feel important and do it sincerely. 

When you comment on other people’s blogs, this tip is crucial.

Make the other person feel important– a great way to network. 

I explained the successful monetization pitches I make now.

Companies write and ask me for links to their website.

I ask if I can review their tool and share it with my readers and social media followers resulting in widespread exposure for them. 

“Both of us are eternally interested in solving our problems. And if salespeople can show us how their services or merchandise will help us solve our problems, they won’t need to sell us. We’ll buy. And customers like to feel that they are buying— not being sold (48).”

Be sympathetic to the other person’s ideas and desires. 

What everybody wants is a magic phrase: it creates goodwill and makes the other person listen attentively. 

How to win friends and influence people is what we want to do as bloggers: we want to influence people to follow our blogs. We also want to be a good influence in their lives by empowering readers with our information.

How to influence your readers:

According to Carnegie, If you want to improve a person, act like they already have the quality you desire in them. They will live up to your expectation rather than let you down. 

An example for you would be telling your readers your tips are easy to follow. When you treat people like they are capable, they act capable, according to Carnegie and other behavior theorists.

Certainly, if you are a content marketer. you need to influence consumers so they buy from you.

How to make people want to buy from you?

Unselfishly help them. “The rare individual who unselfishly tries to serve others has an enormous advantage. He has little competition (49).”

Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view. Whether you’re trying to make a sale or win an argument with an online troll, this tip will take you far.

How to market your products and services:

Carnegie’s tips: 

Get the other person saying “yes” immediately.

Begin in a friendly way. 

It is advisable to try to market your product your service as soon as someone says yes to signing onto your blog– they are in a zone of acceptance. Carnegie predicts that they continue in an accepting open attitude. 

Carnegie recommends starting any sales pitch by asking questions that will generate a “yes” response. By the time you are ready to make your pitch, they’ll already be in the habit of saying yes to you. 

Are you put off by what sounds like manipulation?

“Looking at the other person’s point of view and arousing in him an eager want for something is not to be construed as manipulating that person so that he will do something that is only for your benefit and his detriment. Each party should gain from the negotiation (50).” 

How to Get People to Like You

Be genuinely interested in others.

“You can make more friends… by becoming interested in other people… by trying to get other people interested in you (53).” 

“The New York Telephone Company made a detailed study of telephone conversations to find out which word is the most frequently used. You have guessed it: it is the personal pronoun “I.” “I.” “I.” It was used 3,900 times in 500 telephone conversations. “I.” “I.” “I.” “I.”

When you see a group photograph that you are in, whose picture do you look for first?

If we merely try to impress people and get people interested in us, we will never have many true, sincere friends. Friends, real friends, are not made that way.”

“Alfred Adler, the famous Viennese psychologist, wrote a book entitled WHAT LIFE SHOULD MEAN TO YOU. In that book, he writes, “It is the individual who is not interested in his fellow men who has the greatest difficulties in life (56).” 

“You have to be interested in people if you want to be a successful writer of stories (56).” Bloggers, as well as authors, tell stories. 

“I never forgot that to be genuinely interested in other people is a most important quality for a salesperson to possess— for any person, for that matter (59).”

“If we want to make friends, let’s put ourselves out to do things for other people— things that require time, energy, unselfishness, and thoughtfulness (60).”  So many successful bloggers retweet other bloggers’ tweets every opportunity they get. This is just an example of ways successful bloggers try to help each other. 

Note: This blog offers opportunities for bloggers to help each other. We stumble each other’s links in our StumbleUpon group and we help promote each other’s blog posts in our Blogger Collaboration group.

Carnegie discusses the importance of remembering people’s birthdays (60). You are a busy blogger! Do you have the time to be bothered with this?

When I first met blogger Michael Rios, I asked him to explain his massive amount of blog followers.

He offered two explanations: He sends bloggers good wishes when they celebrate a birthday and condolences when they mourned a loss. Note: You might wonder how Michael knew about either of these events. Easy! People blogged about how they observed those events.

For a while, I was keeping track of my reader’s birthdays in my Google Calendar app. The Google Calendar app will allow you to keep track of bloggers’ birthdays. 

“Showing a genuine interest in others not only wins friends for you but may develop in its customers a loyalty to your company (60-61).” 

More Tips For Getting People to Like You

Learn people’s names.

This tip does apply. I read you should learn your readers’ names. 

You may say you know your readers’ names but many bloggers use pseudonyms. 

Carnegie acknowledges people are too busy to learn names. You are busy bloggers. I get that.  Carnegie describes how important it will make people like your readers feel when you learn their names. 

For those of you that might have trouble remembering names, Carnegie offers a tip. When communicating with people, use their name often. The reinforcement will help you remember. 

Conclusion

Not every tip Carnegie offers relates to your world in the blogosphere. For example, one of Carnegie’s tips is to smile. However, many of his tips will help you succeed in both blogging and marketing success. I know; his tips have already helped me.

Although the point of this article was to help bloggers and marketers apply Carnegie’s principles to become more successful, you can, of course, apply these principles to any area of your life.

For example, Carnegie reports people scheduled to be fired applied these principles; then, instead of being fired, were given raises.

HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE Recap

Carnegie’s book stressed the following principles:

PRINCIPLE 1: Don’t criticize, condemn or complain.

PRINCIPLE 2: Give honest and sincere appreciation.

PRINCIPLE 3: Arouse in the other person an eager want.”

PRINCIPAL 4: Encourage other people to talk about themselves

PRINCIPAL 5: Talk about what interests the other person– a great way to network

PRINCIPAL 6: Make the other person feel important and do it sincerely. 

 

Readers, please share so other bloggers and marketers learn Carnegie’s famous principles.

I look forward to your views in the comments section. What do think of Carnegie’s rules for how to win friends and influence people? Do you agree with him that the principles are effective?

  1. Ryoma Sakamoto . Japan

    Hello! !
    I wish that you may also spend your time with your loved ones.
    Ryoma.

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Ryoma,
      I hope that you are having a restful holiday season with your loved ones as well. Thank you so much!
      Janice

  2. DEXTER ROONA

    This wasn’t a quick write. Great thoughts and ideas in this post. I see you got in one last post before 2018 comes in 😉 Stumbled and Flipped for you.

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Dexter,
      Thank you for the compliments on my book review. However, this was not my last post of 2017. I always publish both Saturday and Sunday and didn’t want to break that pattern. (I also publish Mondays and Tuesdays consistently) I think Google rewards us if we publish consistently.
      I got to know you better this year. I look forward to furthering communication in 2018.
      Happy new year. Thank you for your comments.
      Janice

  3. Jeanette S. Hall

    Janice,
    Have owned and read the book by Carnegie since Junior High school! (For the record, did not help me back then we were all too shallow due to our stage in life.) Has helped me in my profession career as a network engineer, immensely!

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Jeanette,
      So we have something else in common! We both love Carnegie’s classic book. I’m glad! Thanks for writing to tell me, and happy new year to you!
      Janice

  4. ingrid levin

    These are great tips!

    May you and your family have a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year!?

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Ingrid,
      I appreciate your kind words! Thank you for coming by this weekend. Happy new year to you too!
      Janice

  5. Moss

    Hi Janice,

    Great article for the end of year round up, so to speak. I haven’t read this book by Caniegie, but I ‘ve heard a lot about him being a genius.

    And with all the emphasis and insight about how his book has help others including you, I think it’s a must read.

    Furthermore, getting people to like and follow you doesn’t have to be difficult. The best strategy is to be personal in your communication with your target audience. Use and mention their names when communicating with then.

    Also in your email, address them personally, it’s the first step in getting people to like you because it shows that you care.

    Thanks for sharing Janice!

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Moss,
      Thanks for commenting on my book review. I plan on contacting you further regarding forum participation in the new year.
      Regarding the names, sometimes I’m afraid I’ll guess wrong and so I’m afraid to use the names. Like Carnegie said though, practice makes perfect!
      Happy New Year to you!
      Janice

  6. Moss

    Hi Janice,

    Just had a glitches here. After writing and posting my comments about this post, everything disappeared, and I’m doing it all over again.

    Well, I haven’t read this book by Caniegie, but have heard a lot about him. And with all the emphasis, insights, and testimonials, i think it’s a good read, because if his strand tips can help you get things done, then it should be on the to do list.

    However, an amazing tips that can help you get people to like and follow you is to be personal. Use their names when communicating with them in all marketing channels including emails. It shows that you care about them.

    When they find out about your interests on them, they’re sure to like and follow you.

    Thanks for sharing Janice!

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Moss,
      I’m sorry you had difficulties yesterday. Both your comments are here! No worries! Happy New Year to you and your loved ones.
      Janice

  7. Ryan Biddulph

    Hi Janice,

    I love how you dissected that comment, according to the classic book’s principles. Very smart and effective.

    I am in love with A Course in Miracles. It is a tough read at first – I only do a few lines at a time – but I learned that 2 emotions exist: love and fear. Most humans do things from fear. A handful do things from love, predominantly. I am gradually doing much more from love and much less from fear. In the case of a negative commentor, and when I spotted a few 1 star reviews on my audio books yesterday (LOL they did in fact make me laugh at first 😉 I realize that these people see the world as they see themselves, and if they are critical of me, and are not vibing from love, they are fearful. They are scared. Afraid. In pain.

    No adult or even small child is critical unless they are afraid, and fearful. So I have more compassion for these folks. I do release them right away though because I know that responding to a fearful person tends to buy into the illusion of fear, which is not there anyway. Again; another tough to embrace concept from the book, but one that has changed my life dramatically.

    Whatever you wish to experience, give freely. I love promoting my blogging buddies because it feels fun. Then I turn around, and without any heavy expectations, I see a bunch of blogging buddies promote me, endorse me and help people out. Winning friends and influencing folks comes easily to the heart-centered blogger who operates mainly from an energy of love and harmony, versus from a place of fear and division.

    Happy New Year to you and your family Janice!

    Ryan

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Ryan,
      I appreciate your detailed comments about my book review.
      I once put a video on YouTube and got one thumbs down. I was sad! If someone doesn’t have something nice to say, they shouldn’t say anything.
      Some people find joy in ruffling feathers simply because they can.
      Take care and happy new year to you and your wife, Kelly, I think her name is.
      Looking forward to “seeing” you next year.
      Janice

  8. aini

    Thank you so much for this post 🙂
    I didn’t realize how important is this ,not to criticize bad comments. When some one gave bad comments on my posts, I used to reply them rudely. Because that hurts you know 🙂
    But after reading your post I am feeling quiet good and now I know how to deal with such kind of things.
    May God bless you always <3

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Aini,
      I’m so glad my review and Carnegie’s tips helped you. Thanks for coming by to tell me.
      May God bless you as well.
      Janice

  9. Martha

    Excellent tips Janice and just in time to follow for the new year! Wishing you the best New Year!

    • Janice Wald

      HI Martha,
      Great to see you. Thanks for coming by to wish me well in the new year. I hope you have a happy and healthy new year as well. I’m glad you liked my book review. Thanks for writing to tell me.
      Janice

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Azra,
      We’re having some friends over. How about you? Any big plans? Thanks for your comments.
      Janice

  10. Ashutosh Singh

    Hi Janice,

    It’s a very thoughtful article. I think it’s take a very long time to think over and over which gives this very nice. Seriously it is very nice I read it completely around for an hour.

    And also, I never read this book before so today I ordered it on Amazon. I am excited to read this book.

    Thank you very much
    Ashutosh singh

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Ashutosh,
      Thanks for writing to tell me you enjoyed my review so much you ordered the book! I’m glad I could inspire you! Another commenter wrote to say he plans on purchasing it and reading it as well.
      I’m glad I can recommend books for bloggers!
      Happy New Year!
      Janice

  11. Eugenia

    Excellent information and a perfect ending for 2017. My takeaway is to read Dale Carnegie’s book and heed the advice regarding bad comments. I ignore bad comments and if there is profanity, I delete it.

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Eugenia,
      Wow! You get profanity? I never get profanity! I do get a lot of spam comments. People just looking for a link, I guess. Frustrating for me.
      I try to diffuse bad comments. Happily, that seems to work.
      Thanks for writing and happy new year to you.
      Janice

      • Eugenia

        I get profanity once in a while in spam. I had a follower that liked to use the f___ word just in normal conversation. I had to reset him to a no-follow status. I have many lovely followers that would not appreciate seeing profanity and I prefer my blog not to reflect negative comments or the use of profanity.

  12. Sophie

    Love this! Sometimes you must criticize, and this is really good info on how to do! Thanks.

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Sophie,
      Thank you so much for the kind words about my review. I agree. Carnegie offered great tips for dealing with negativity– don’t. Basically, the “customer” is always right. Thanks for commenting.
      Janice

  13. JordyJords

    This is awesome! Congratulations for the exposure on this post. I just ordered this book and I am very much looking forward to reading it. Thank you for sharing! Very interesting to read about how to deal with negativity… such an important thing in the world we live in today.

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Jordy,
      Thanks so much for writing to tell me you ordered HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE. It honestly never occurred to me people would buy the book. I’m flattered that my review inspired you. Your comment– about the principles that help us deal with negativity– is the part of my review that seems to have generated the most reaction from readers.
      I am excited that I inspired reactions. Thanks again for your comments.
      Janice

      • Jordyjords

        I will let you know once I read the book!!!! Always looking for great book recommendations 🙂

  14. Caleb

    Hi,
    Having read the book myself, I totally agree with you. The lessons/ideas in the book can certainly be implemented in virtually all spheres of life.

    Thanks for the review.

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