Feb
26

An Open Letter to My Audience: What Do YOU Need From Me?

I blog a lot about the importance of audience.  Now I’d like to understand my own audience a bit better.

NOTE: This is a long and winding post, and you may be in a hurry.  If so, let me ask you for a quick favor: my whole reason for writing this post is to better understand you.  Here’s how you can help me do that:

  • Short version:  In the comments, please list 3 things YOU would like to see discussed more often on my blog.
  • Slightly longer, yet ultimately more useful version:  Take this short survey to help me better understand your experience level, what topics you’re interested in and why, so I can better provide you with discussions you’ll care about.

And now, back to the post at hand.

Writing in the Dark

As a writer, I like to be read.  I also like knowing that what I’ve written is beneficial to the people who read it.  And I like to converse and debate with my audience in ways that advance our collective understanding of the topics we’re passionate about.

Lately, many of us who blog about social media have been urging its practitioners to improve.  We’re tired of the mediocrity and we’re demanding more from this rich medium that’s practically overflowing with potential.

The problem is, that potential never seems to be reached because we all spend too much time rehashing the same topics and polishing our own reputations, rather than collectively pushing the medium forward.

But for those of us who would like to discuss these issues at a more “advanced” level, there’s a catch:

Because our audiences come to us for advice and insights, we spend the bulk of our time educating others and far too little time pursuing the lessons we need to improve ourselves.

What we need is to do both at once.  But how?

NOT by Biting the Hand That Feeds You

As our commenters have pointed out across these “improvement” manifestos, the vast majority of the people who read our blogs are the people who need to be educated by us.  Forsaking them would be bad business and bad karma, because it’s unwise (and unprofitable) to turn our backs on those very people who have validated us as being “knowledgeable” in the first place.

Instead of lamenting what we perceive as a lack of quality in social media, we’re better off leading by example.  This includes:

  • Producing the best media that we can create ourselves
  • Providing examples of work that we believe is exemplary
  • Explaining HOW to create work that matters, with examples
  • Interviewing the very practitioners that we would like to learn from
  • Conducting experiments to gather, analyze and summarize our own data
  • Focusing less on the quantity of our own output and more on the quality
  • Refraining from “doing it wrong” when we recognize our own bad habits
  • Innovating within existing tools and formats to show what’s possible

By doing so, we can continue to provide the insights we’ve become known for, while streamlining our own processes and minimizing the amount of white noise that we, ourselves, generate.

But there’s still one missing link:  we need to know who we’re talking to in the first place.

Preaching to the Void

This week, I taught a two-hour “social media crash course” at Baltimore’s Creative Alliance.  The attendees varied widely in their experience levels and their intentions for social media.  Some wanted to sell their work, some wanted to network with peers, and some had almost no online experience whatsoever.

But they all had one thing in common: I could see them.

Online, we never really know who we’re interfacing with.  We’re never sure how much attention they’re giving us, or when they lose interest, or why.  All we know is that X number of visitors read what we write, and a subset of them share our media with others.  Even the best analytic tools can’t provide the same context as a personal relationship.

So let’s try asking for one.

As I mentioned above, I’d like to know more about you.  This is not so I can market to you, or place demographically-appropriate ads on my blog.  As you may have noticed, this blog is ad-free and I don’t expect to change that anytime soon.  What I am interested in is better serving you.

Because you want to learn, and so do I.  And the more I know about you, the better equipped I’ll be to provide you with the information you care about, in a format that will encourage debate and discussion.  When both sides feel they’re directly connected, that’s the first step toward improving social media (and our overall experiences), day by day.

Have a second?  Leave a comment and let me know 3 things you’d like to see discussed more often on this blog.

Have a minute?  Take this short survey, so I can wrap my head around the slightly bigger picture of me, you and “us.”

And thanks for sharing.

(Also, thanks to Jordan Cooper, Christopher Penn, Lindsay Baish, Steve Klabnik and verso, whose tweets helped me shape the direction of this post.  See?  Audiences do make a difference…)

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Posted by Justin Armchair Sociology, Blogging, My Social Media POV Subscribe to RSS feed
  • SexCpotatoes

    Hey Justin,

    So if we suggest here, then take the poll, we get double the influence! Awesome!

    I think your blog might benefit from organizing the posts into 'Beginner, Intermediate, & Advanced' skill levels (using tags or what-have-you). So when you start the post, we know what level you are aiming for in your audience.

    That's not to say a beginner wouldn't be able to glean signifigant insights into the world of “New Media” from your advanced or intermediate posts, but it might be a handy way for newer people to go back and read your older blog posts based on their discovery level. Or you could set up a guide page to your old blog posts, based on what should be read first, basically structuring your past blog posts into a more bookish format!

    You could try segmenting the week like the Crossword puzzles do, structuring it so that you have 1 or 2 beginner posts early, and graduating to a great advanced musing at the end of the week. Of course this structure would be harder to keep as you are constantly reading new articles and might be inspired to do a ground-breaking advanced post on a Monday, and a beginner post on Friday. Not to mention those 'flash topics' that come to you suddenly and you just have to push out there before someone else realizes what you were going to say, and says it first.

    That takes care of the suggestions for now.

    Request time: I, for one would like to see your critique on the various services, programs, and sites dealing with social media. What are your picks for the tools to bring your online life together (I recently got on Threadsy, and it's pretty cool, but I still have to use Brizzly to catch up on all the conversation I missed when I was offline-at work or sleeping).

    There are a few different tweet-scheduling services. How intuitive are they, which do you feel is the best?

    What is the best twitter-phone? I know that (Tweet_book) http://twitter.com/tweet_book just finished his third Twitter Novel (this one entirely on his BlackBerry). Perhaps you could track down and interview people who find new and inventive ways to use twitter? Crap. That was another suggestion, not a request.

    Gonna go for now. I'll be back if conversation picks up later today and I have anything else to add.

  • http://www.jacksonwightman.com/ Jackson Wightman

    I will give you an on the fly version of suggestions re content:

    - Rants: You do “rants” well. It is nice to read something funny in the workday, esp as most social media blogs are anything but. More of this would be welcome.

    - Cases/examples: There is a tendency for social media bloggers to lament the “shittiness” of folks using the tools (not saying this is you, just a prevalent thing in this space). Few, however, ever examine REAL cases of firms getting it right. Why this is I will never understand. Maybe you could do more on actual cases and the generalizable lessons they contain. Biz people, who undoubtedly number among your readers, are schooled via the case method (if they receive biz education) so it may be a helpful and instructive approach for them. I am not saying that you should join the chorus of folks yelling about how awesome Starbucks is at social media but maybe there are other less obvious examples that are worth highlighting – say smaller fish doing cool stuff.

    I guess I only got to 2. Apologies man.

  • http://justinkownacki.blogspot.com Justin Kownacki

    Three reasons I think more social media “experts” don't offer positive case studies:

    * They don't participate in any because they don't actually do real work; they just talk about the tools.

    * They (or their clients) are afraid of betraying “insider secrets” gleaned from their successes. And since social media consulting is so competitive, no one wants to risk giving away the one insight they think separates them from the pack.

    * There aren't many positive examples to begin with. Once you get past the legends everybody knows (Dell Hell, Comcast Cares, Motrin Moms, Domino's on YouTube), you're left in a subjective wasteland where no one knows what “success” looks like, so they can't report on how (or if) they've achieved it.

    All of which makes for interesting food for thought for future posts… Thanks!

  • http://justinkownacki.blogspot.com Justin Kownacki

    Structuring the release schedule of posts would have its pros and cons… Interviews on a certain day, How-To on another… It's worth considering, though part of a blog's usefulness is its ability to tap into the zeitgeist on the fly. (Lord knows what we're all talking about today won't be what we're talking about next week, unless we're talking about Social Media ROI or Best Blogging Practices, because those dead horses will be beaten until we're all out of clubs.)

  • http://www.handsonblog.org/ JKatPOLI

    I'm transitioning from personal blogging to business blogging. That transition, finding the right voice and tone… GAH! I still want to be authentic, but there does seem to be a bit of a difference in tone. If you have thoughts about that, I'll be reading…

  • http://www.jacksonwightman.com/ Jackson Wightman

    Insightful. Tks.

    It is a crying shame that small and medium enterprises (the group that do much for the economy and employment) are not profiled more often. Most of us are not big and never will be (and will never have Frank Eliason on our payroll).

  • http://justinkownacki.blogspot.com Justin Kownacki

    From what I know of Frank Eliason, he's a smart, hardworking guy who was willing to take on a project with undefined boundaries and make it his own. Each company can't hire Frank Eliason, but they can all hire “a” Frank Eliason. In fact, there's probably one buried somewhere in the trenches in most companies right now, waiting for an opportunity to do more than whatever the limitations decreed by his or her job description. Smart companies would implement processes to find those individuals and empower them to help the company succeed.

  • http://justinkownacki.blogspot.com Justin Kownacki

    Your tone should match your intention. I'm sarcastic and occasionally offensive because I'm an individual, and even when I'm employed by a client, I'm still an individual — everyone knows what they're getting when they hire me. It doesn't mean I'm incompetent or unprofessional, but it does mean I'm not going to approach problems the same way someone else might.

    When blogging for business, speak the way you'd want businesses to perceive you if they were sitting beside you. Your words and your actions end up telling the same story in the long run, so as long as you know what your story is, the tone finds itself.

  • Matt

    I love reading your blog, and all of the other social media “experts”. I think you guys have great ideas and unique perspective, but here is the thing: it doesn't work. Let me explain. Most of the stuff you write about is flexible, you can change tracks when the wind shifts and you can write about anything you please. As for authorization, if any you sell your boss on it and you are good to go. You are missing a HUGE sector.

    I work for local government. I'm dragging these people kicking and screaming into the 21st century and I'm not getting much help. I have public record laws to deal with and layer upon layer of bureaucracy. Most of that isn't your problem, but here is how you can help.

    How do you sustainably create content on a single subject – as any agency might have to? How do you attract users/readers that primarily are using social media for entertainment? How do you address critics that say government employees shouldn't be “playing online”?

    Keep up the good work.

  • SexCpotatoes

    I've given this some thought in the past, and this is what you do, Matt.

    Pitch the new media as an opportunity to talk to the people they serve, as well as interesting other people in visiting the area.

    Say you have a Town that twitters, The Mayor or whomever is put in charge of that, they should highlight local Garage Sale days, give shoutouts to Church picnics, Highlight Poker/Fun Runs and charities, as well as local businesses to patronize.

    If you're in the water department, use it as a platform to teach the residents about their water system. If you're using a monster from the 1960s, tweet about all the makeshift repairs and possible epidemics that could be spread. Show the people how you're committed to giving them the safest, cleanest water for them and their children.

    Street department: Can take reports of issues with potholes, non-functioning street lights. Were the lights (every other one) turned off because of budget woes?

    There's no end to the possibilities. YES there will be chronic complainers and people making a nuisance of themselves, there always are. BUT you will find that engaging with people over their concerns and having the ability to speak with, not just pronounce TO, will keep you getting elected or keep you employed.

    You can sit down and formulate plans with each of the departments that are going to tweet. On various issues to educate the public about, and share links to online content such as NEW state standards for tree trimming or what-not.

    The only problems that might crop up are someone hacking the account, and PEOPLE WHO DON'T CARE (the government people).

    Tell these people that if they can't justify their jobs to the people they are supposed to be serving, then they should resign and let someone who needs a job, and who will do their best to serve the people take their place.

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  • ecogordo

    of course mediocrity can't be improved. there is a learning curve here, but people can be inspired and the cream will rise to the top. But how many people read the NY Times? still, why am I here rather than reading the NY Times? because you are a person and I met you. as you said that is key and local is key. Blog local, blog people, blog striving for better to break down barriers. beginners, please read some books, please.

  • SexCpotatoes

    Well, books might not do it for everyone. They could always go to http://www.podcamp.org and find the nearest podcamp to attend. I'm volunteering, helping put together the PodCamp Cleveland meetup, a FREE technology unconference to teach people how to blog, podcast, and use social media better!

  • Matt

    great tips, thanks for the help!

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