While reading an article about Rupert Murdoch’s take on the failure of traditional publishing professionals to connect with their readers, my social media furnace almost blew a gasket. (Do furnaces even have gaskets? Probably not. I guess I should stick to social media…)
Anyway, I’m reading this article and I start to think about how many people I know (either personally or social media-ly) who have done the exact same thing, but with blogs. The parallels are voluminous.
“It’s not newspapers that might become obsolete. It’s some of the editors, reporters, and proprietors who are forgetting a newspaper’s most precious asset: the bond with its readers,” said Murdoch.
Ouch! Tell the truth, does that sound like anyone you know? You know it does. I personally need two hands to name the people I know who have successful blogs who used to give their readers “the business” but who are now absolutely, wholly out of step with their readers.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those people standing at the edge of the kingdom, throwing eggs at social media “royalty”; nor am I the disgruntled odd ball who says, “Wow, that person’s success sure has changed them!” Of course people change! It is my hope that no one is the exact same person they were yesterday. That would…um…not be good.
The hallmarks of social media narcissism are painfully obvious:
- Being totally unresponsive to comments – even the really good ones. Chances are you started a blog because you wanted to be in some kind of regular content with your market/audience. Why kill the vibe by being the blog owner who never responds to anything? That’s just bogus. Yeah, yeah, I get that you can’t respond to everything. Sure. If you’ve ever heard me speak, you would know that I don’t advocate responding to everything. But, dude/ette, that’s a cop out.
- Forgetting your peeps. Any blogger does a fair amount of blogging for themselves. That is, they blog about the topics they want, when they want. But, don’t forget your readers. Always ask yourself, “Do my readers want to hear all this stuff?” And, when in doubt, ask — or at least say, “Hey, I’m going to go off on a tangent here for a moment.” Remember, blogs are a conversation and you wouldn’t abruptly change the conversation during a face-to-face.
- Repurposing dead-as-a-doornail content. If I read one more blog post about J&J or Motrin, I think I’ll…. C’mon stop phoning it in. Unless you have something totally and shockingly original to say, link to a well-written story and bail on the topic.
- Going and staying for self. My Aunt Agnes has a saying, “Self promotion stinks.” Now, I don’t know if I agree with that totally, but I understand where she’s coming from. If all you’re doing is promoting your services, your events and your products and you’re not sharing good information that can help your readers, later for you. Pamela Slim said she goes by the 80/20% rule and I agree with that. The day of 75/25% are over.
- Becoming a hold-your-feet-to-the-fire expert who grills-the-experts and gets them to spill-the-beans. There’s not much explanation needed here except to say, don’t get all info-marketing on me, mmmkay?
Hey, you, get off your cloud…we’re over here!
This goes for you too, podcasters and community owners!
Total aside: And, speaking of self-promo (see, I’m not totally weird) I’m a track chair for next year’s NetPromoter conference in San Fran. Save 800 bucks on your registration. There, I did it.
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“Repurposing dead-as-a-doornail content”
This is my all time pet hate. If someone else has already announced some news in adequate detail and you have nothing more meaningful to add – just write a short few lines on why the think the resource is good and what you think and link to it.
One of my golden rules – don’t reinvent the wheel.
Nice post – thank you.
Hey Lena!
What great reminders. I am personally very guilty of your bullet #1: not responding to comments. Often, after I finally finish a long post, I am so excited to run to the next thing that I don’t go back and give detailed responses. I love reading each comment as it comes in — I just don’t always acknowledge them publicly which just sucks. So that is on the resolution list for 2009.
I like what you say also about it being OK to grow and change. What I have seen some people do is develop new blogs and brands for emerging interests, instead of trying to cram all new interests into their original blog. That way they can give attention to the new ideas and develop a new audience.
It sure isn’t easy to strike a perfect balance of giving away great stuff and making a healthy living — but I agree that keeping your readers first and foremost in your sights is the best way to stay on track.
All the best,
-Pam
Good post. There’s one part that confused me and I want to understand what you mean by this (as I don’t want to miss out on a great point
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“Becoming a hold-your-feet-to-the-fire expert who grills-the-experts and gets them to spill-the-beans. There’s not much explanation needed here except to say, don’t get all info-marketing on me, mmmkay?”
Can you clarify? Thanks so much!
I agree with the above comment…not sure what you mean. I get pretty good responses when I post interviews with experts on my blog…