Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

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May 13, 2009

Why Hire the Blog When You Can Hire the the Brain Behind It?

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 8:12 am

A Photograph or a Photographer?



This week, I sat with a client who sings with an elite choir. The quality of what they do is outstanding. They’re known for loving attention to every detail. When they sing Russian opera, they study the deep meaning of the words, not merely clear pronunciation. It comes through in every blissful sound they blend, share, and offer. Their musical director is exceptional. Their production staff is to die for. Their board is prestigious and powerful.

The music they make is heavenly.

But aside from an occasional sale to a friend in Japan and the many CDs sold go to friends and supporters. The choir is hardly known outside of their personal and professional network.

That’s why my client was meeting with me.

“I was thinking we should use the Internet. I thought maybe a piece of your blog or some others,” he said.

I said, “What do you want for the choir? What’s your goal?

He told me without hesitation. “We should have a grammy — more than one.”

“You could do that. You’ll reach my audience and they’ll love you. But I’d like to suggest something more and more lasting. Why not build an audience of your own?”

Hire the Brain Behind the Blog

Often first conversations with clients start with how to get their information on many influential blogs. That leads to discussions of buying, renting, or borrowing bloggers’ influence, determining the right audiences, and how much information on the Internet is misstated, misdirected, or outright ignored.

Boring products need to be “pushed” or “seeded” into the market.
Compelling valuable resources don’t.
One look at Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, or FriendFeed shows that we like to share great things with our friends. Susan Boyle’s YouTube video is an example of great content that didn’t need to be pushed or seeded. It felt good to share it. It made us feel part of something bigger than ourselves.

Using those thoughts and basic strategy — start with the reachable and move out with purpose and logic — we scoped out the existing and realistic possibilities. The plan my choir friend and I started looked something like this one.

Great word of mouth depends on three things:

  1. The product has to be outstanding — and the vision has to be clear.
  2. The way to share it has to easy, growing from the community’s natural connections.
  3. People need to feel proud that they were part of the process.

It sure seemed that my choir client had step 1 — an outstanding product and vision — covered. We moved on to the strategy for building out the community and letting them enjoy the process. We set out to make it easy, meaningful, and about the folks who would help. We were building a movement more than a strategy.

And we’ll be well on our way to a network, a community that loves the choir, not one that was borrowed from a network of blogs.

You can hire the blog or you can hire the brain behind it.

It’s a matter of short-term or longer-term thinking.

Do you look at your blogger relationships as a chance to tap into new strategic ideas?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

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Filed under Marketing, Successful Blog | 10 Comments »




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10 Comments to “Why Hire the Blog When You Can Hire the the Brain Behind It?”

  1. May 13th, 2009 at 9:14 am
    Edie McRae said

    I agree 100% Liz! Too many are quick to open their checkbooks and say “You do it” instead of taking the time to learn the tools and do for themselves. In the long run, it is best to have the knowledge to tap the power of your OWN list.

  2. May 13th, 2009 at 10:27 am
    Doyle Albee said

    Liz:

    Great points. One thing I believe people underestimate when they build a community is the fact that if you build a fan base, they want more information about you, and they will often share it with their friends. One constant challenge in PR is finding a story angle to appeal to a mass audience. On a blog, you can focus your appeal more heavily to those who want the information.

    For example, if you run a small software company, the fact that you just got your 5,000th user might not be news to TechCrunch, but your users will be happy to know that the community is growing and may be more likely to share with others. Why would anyone chose not to talk to their customers?

  3. May 13th, 2009 at 11:51 am
    NFL Rumors said

    Interesting thoughts. I do not know why someone would pushed a boring product. If it is boring that it will likely fail.

    The hardest thing to do is somehow get on some of the top Blogs. It is really hard to get something to go viral anymore.

  4. May 13th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
    Todd Smith said

    Interesting idea, Liz. Why go for bits of exposure on other people’s blogs when you can build a loyal network of supporters online and offline revolving around your own blog?! It’s more work but, like you say, it’s a more long term solution.

    Can you give some examples of how you can make people feel proud to be a part of the process?

  5. May 13th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Edie!
    What worries me is that folks are stuck thinking that putting information on a blog is same as having the influence of the blogger or actually connecting with the blogger’s audience. They don’t realize how quickly information on the web gets buried under the new information that comes seconds later.

    Relationships last.

  6. May 13th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Yeah, Doyle,
    And even more, connecting with a community and those the community knows is a great way to start really growing.

    Seeding a blog post is just another form of broadcasting if you think about it. :)

  7. May 13th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi NFL Rumors,
    Only a small niche of products will do well on the top blogs — obviously those that appeal to the readers of those blogs. The rest need to find other strategies. The rest is a world of products that sppeal to folks, some of whom don’t yet even read blogs. :)

  8. May 13th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Todd,
    As Brian Clark says “Your blog isn’t your business, it’s an asset.” What you want to build a community around is loyal fans of your products. Your blog offers one place they can talk about them.

    Find one fan and that fan has a network of his own.

    Don’t expect everyone to come to your party (your blog) go and visit theirs too. See what they like to do and talk about there. Then incorporate ideas that work into the environment you’re building for them where you work. That may make your place of business a regular spot to visit when they go out. :)

  9. May 13th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
    Troy said

    Great post. Great comments.

  10. May 17th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
    Todd Smith said

    Thanks for your reply to my comment, Liz. I’ve been traveling and out of internet reach. I always appreciate your thoughtful comments!

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