Learning from another persons A-Ha moment

Mar 20th, 2007 | By Steven Hodson | Category: The Social Web

One of my favorite blogs has got to be gaping void by Hugh MacLeod and I am sure I am not alone. However it is more than just his cartoons on business cards that draws me to the blog. Yes the morning chuckle over coffee ranks right along with Dilbert; but there are times that what he writes about makes the stop almost seem like a double bonus.

His post today was one of those times and while he may have meant for the topic to be more oriented to marketer I also think there are a couple of the paragraphs near the end of the Seth Godin quote he used to make his point also applies to bloggers. Now I’m not sure what the proper etiquette is here since he got permission from Seth for the larger quote so I hope I’m not stepping on toes if I quote a smaller part of the larger whole.

The main quote Hugh uses is from Seth Godin’s book “All Marketers Are Liars” and is about the Authenticity of the Soy Luck Club but the part that got me was this

Instead, Vivian is growing by reaching out to communities that will choose to pay attention, to individuals who have a worldview that will embrace the story she’s trying to tell.

and

Of course, Vivian will really have a home run once her loyal customers start telling stories to their friends—friends who might not share the worldview but are eager to do something that others are doing, eager to hang out at a place beloved by their best friends. That’s how Starbucks succeeded and how the Soy Luck Club will as well.

Maybe it is just my morning caffeine deficiency but I thought those two things apply equally well to blogging. After all as bloggers we need to reach out to our community of readers but we also need to reach out to other bloggers as well. That is what takes us all beyond the pyjama wearing obsessive’s sitting in front of a glowing computer screen in a dark basement.

Like any business; or profession, though we have an inherent need to grow and the only way we can do that is to get our current “customers” to pass the word. Sure it might be nice to get a meteoric rise in popularity; ala digg.com, but that flash of readership may not last. I know myself I would rather take the slow methodical approach which in this day and age of MTV soundbites and quick spin bits doesn’t produce as immediate results. the results it does produce though over time is longer lasting and more rewarding.

Thanks Hugh for another great starting point of my day