This
is post number 1,000 for this blog. That equals over 500,000 words
discussing many topics but all central to the disruptive nature of
social technology.
Writing 1,000 articles is like launching 1,000 hot air balloons.
Some get attention and some don’t. Some come across as “hot air” while
others create value in the content and context of the opinions
expressed. Some are crafted well while others are filled with grammar
and spelling errors that the “crowd” is keen to point out (and I am
improving on this). Some soar across the landscape while others fall
to the ground gaining little distance. Overall launching 1,000 post over a three-year period has taught me a lot and provided me with more than expected.
What Have I Learned?
I probably could write another 1,000 post reflecting on what I have learned but instead I’ll give a summary of the most valuable lessons learned.
- I am not a professional journalist and my readers don’t care
- Social distribution of content is an extremely powerful force that
reaches more people than we know and creates an affinity to thoughts,
ideas and valuable conversations.
- The exchange and referrals from readers is the most important and
valuable learning process and the experience accelerates more learning.
Learning begets innovative thoughts on the fringe of new discoveries
which attracts more readers.
- Creating and distributing content is like laying pavement for a
road that takes you into the future. You may not know exacting what the
future looks like but the conversations will guide you there and the
future becomes clearer as does its directional forces.
- People are thoughtful, kind and appreciative of conversations they
can identify with and the “virtual relationships” become as strong as
traditional relations. It is this strength that creates and motivates
a never-ending desire to learn about yourself and the quality of the
world we create online and off-line.
- Conversations create opportunities. Opportunities to apply your
skill set to creating value that justifies an economic exchange. Your
content establishes the quality of your thinking which reflects your
true skill set that others may want to use. We live in a knowledge
driven digital economy. Both the knowledge of and effective use of
digital wares is what fuels this economy.
- Sharing what you learn is a very rewarding experience that helps you learn more.
The Right Kind Of Exposure Fuels Opportunity
Creating
the right kind of content exposes you to the world of consumption. If
your content is distributed to the right audience and consumed by the
right people then opportunity will be attracted to or created for you. Lets look at the exposure created by this blog:
First the numbers. 1,000 post created over 180,000
visitors, over 7,000 comments, over 6,000 retweets, rankings in the top
50,000 sites in the USA and top 100,000 in the world. Traffic created
from relative and relevant content creates exposure which begets
opportunities.
Besides the numbers there are qualitative gains including:
noted as featured blogger in Business Weeks Business Exchange, chosen
as Blogger of the month by Social Media Today, ranking in Advertising
Age Power 150 and top 100 blogs in The Daily Reviewer, added as a
contributing columnist in Personal Branding Magazine, asked to serve on
Business Weeks Market Advisory Board, featured blogger at New Media
Hires, Content Management Connections and AlwaysOn. Ask to speak at
dozens of media events and corporate conferences, produced dozens of
videos with Social Media Connections, published two books and five
white papers and each has been downloaded over 5,000 times. All of this came as a result of this blog.
So What Is My ROI?
Ah, the ever pervasive question about ROI that seems top of mind for everyone. Let me try and put this into perspective to my experience with this blog.
First of all the above quantitative and qualitative results came
from the content and context to specific audiences interested in my
perspectives. The content and context created a “pull” which resulted
in an ever-growing audience. Subsequently came the qualitative results
which produced
the exposure this blog received as a result of many distribution
points. Thus it started with distributed content which fueled exposure
and pulled an audience to the blog and the authors. The process never
ends and if it does so will any chance you have for a transaction.
My investment was time, a little technology cost and a lot of
thinking about content and context. My return on investment was, is and
will continue to be more than I expect because I am developing
relations with excellent people and organizations and some of them
actually pay me to help them learn what I have learned and apply it to
their own business. You ask how much? That’s for me to know and you
to learn and create on your own. The rewards have been both
qualitative and quantitative. With the greatest reward being valuable
relationship that help me continue to learn.
It doesn’t matter whether you offer the market products or
services getting results is dependent upon the content, context, the
process and the relationships you build