Friday, March 26, 2010

Evolution of a Blogger

Hey- you have to start somewhere and writing a blog seemed like a great idea for me and my business a couple of years ago. And, OMG have I learned a lot in the last 2 years. It is often how much I don’t know. I have learned to be humble (at least a little bit). Blogging is making me humble and slightly insecure. Does anyone read my stuff? Do they think I am a little bit loony? I am a researcher; therefore, I try not to take it too personally. Here is what I am learning:

People are not all that interested in YOU the blogger – your readers are interested in what you can teach them. It’s not about how many people read you it’s about the quality of what you have to say to them. For example, I don’t care if you Tweet what you had for breakfast – a banana and a cup of coffee. Heck you have 140 characters-why not at least use them and take us to your tiny url? Suppose you Tweet something meaningful like “I am eating a banana shake everyday for breakfast and I have lost 5 pounds in the past 2 weeks”. It works a lot like sales: You need features, advantages, and benefits to be interesting. The basics work for Twitter, Selling, and Blogging. We have become an instant-gratification- society (Now please!) and if someone can save you time and show the value it is worthwhile.

Blogging is an ego-buster. I recently read an article in CopyBlogger (one of my favorite blogs) that suggests if you blog you should check your ego at the door. It’s true. It’s whatcha got for me -your reader and if you don’t have something good I am going to tell you or even worse – I am not going to say a word!

I share my technology insights and half the time I am stumbling along figuring out how to use the latest stuff…you may recall my Blogs on Delicious and my slight addiction to Facebook and trying to figure out what was going on in the social networking world. Now because things change and evolve quickly I am working my way through Discus and Tweet Deck. I have joined Third Tribe a blogging community but only because I have a not-so-secret crush on Seth Godin and I am pretty sure that Chris Brodan is going to teach me something – I just have no idea what it is yet.

It’s like what I had for breakfast versus the killer shake recipe. Give me something I can use! Your readers choose what you provide if you are listening. Are you listening? When I first started writing my blog I wanted everyone to like it and read it. However, then I remembered I am in Marketing! And, Marketing 101 can be summed up with these simple words from David Ogilvy, “You can’t be everything to everybody” and funny enough, it’s the same with blogging.

What have you learned about blogging? Let me hear from you. I’m listening.