I was speaking with someone last week about this blog. They were kind enough to ask about using some of the content and in the course of the conversation they said something to the effect of “I don’t know how you are able to write five days a week” so I thought that maybe I’d attempt to answer that question. As I do so I’m hoping it provide a little insight into some business thinking you can use.
The hardest part for me is finding a topic each day. I mean it’s not just what pops into my head but also is what pops in aomething that might be of interest to anyone other than me and, more importantly, does it have a broad enough business application to be relevant to you, the reader, no matter what your business might be. As I’ve written many times, it’s about your customer, not you.
As part of my daily routine I scan over 1,000 articles each day. I do this to stay on top of tech, marketing, social media, and other business and media trends because these are the topics with which my clients need help. That content ranges from the sort of stuff you might also pick up in “mainstream” media down to granular topics such as web analytic and SEM. These articles will generally provide a starting point. You’ve read screeds on research, on things happening in social media, and marketing trends. Most of those posts came from reading something that sparked a thought.
Sometimes (yesterday for example) something going on in my own life prompts a post. We forget sometimes that our own narrow perspective may have application to other folks’ lives and as we were taught in education class you work from the known (what happened to me might have happened to you) to the unknown (what happened related to a broader business theme). There are also posts that are just fun for me – Foodie Friday tends to be that way as was the TunesDay stuff I wrote about music each Tuesday. Which brings up another point.
I stopped writing those posts because they were the least read. I also have cut back on some of the research-related posts since they too tend to drive less readership. Again, it’s about what interests you, not just me. I don’t write about politics other than when something in the political sphere has non-political takeaways for us. Why not? Because inevitably one side or the other gets angry, justifiably or not, and might stop reading.
Finally, I keep an ongoing list of topics. Links to articles, random thoughts, and even photos which prompt a thought are posted in a drafts folder as I go throughout my day. When I’m ready to write that folder is my first stop. The hard part is making the point that came to me while telling a compelling story of some sort. Then it becomes a matter of presenting it to you in a concise, clear manner. Mechanically, I write in WordPress, I add an image, I proof twice, I check spelling, and I edit.
Since this is now about 100 words longer than my usual rant, I’ll stop here. Hopefully you can apply that methodology to your business. Look for things that might prompt a thought – new products, new platforms, new practices. Consider them for a moment, hold them if they resonate, act on them when you can. Any questions?
Consult Keith 