Whose Party is it Anyway?

I was thinking about the upcoming holidays and wanted to have some Friday fun. Today at The Blog Herald I am talking about tapping into the power of Tupperware parties to market your blog. Did you know that you can host an online party now?

When you sell Tupperware, you know you are commercially leveraging your friendship. Marketing a blog is the same way. Sure, blogging "friendships" are different than the real life, meat space friendships which shape our daily lives. But they're still relationships. You're selling Tupperware, whether you like it or not.

• Is your blogging home inviting? You'd never stage a Tupperware party with a sink full of dishes and stuff piled up on the coffee table. Look at your site. Ask yourself if the content is cleanly presented. Are your sidebars stuffed with needless distractions? Dump them (I shall take my own advice son). A popular blog is usually a tidy blog.
• Are you ready to explain yourself? You need to know the blogging product, just as you would know how that 30-piece kitchen set works. If you want to market your blog, know what makes it different from others. Say it plainly and often. It's impossible to overstate your core message.
• Did you ask for the order? Because you must. The call to action at a Tupperware party is asking for the quantity and shipping information. Yours might be soliciting an RSS subscription. Pass the pen: the deal isn't done until the ink is dry. Provide a clear call to action.
• Say thanks. If you were holding a Tupperware party, you'd send out thank you cards the next morning. In blogging terms, what extra value can you offer a new RSS subscriber? A free eBook, perhaps? Make it something of value which lines up well with your site's message.
• Deliver. It wasn't a successful Tupperware party if the orders don't find their new homes in a timely manner. For the blogger, delivery is paying off on the promise of the site. Post frequently. Stay on-message. Answer comments. Be what you say you are, or your readers will find someone else who is.

If this were your Tupperware party, what else would you suggest and add?

Comments

[Tiffany Monhollonh]

What a great comparison! There are so many ways this is applicable. The idea that you're leveraging the power of a friendship in the transaction process is particularly interesting in the blogging aspect, because most people aren't going to subscribe, engage, etc. until they either know you or know someone who knows and reccomends you.

For example, I love the traffic I get when a story gets Stumbled and people randomly access my site, but what's even more meaningful is the relationships I form when people visit my site through a friend's, etc.

[Valeria Maltoni]

Absolutely, Tiffany. The interesting conversations are going to be with people who have invested time in getting to know you, and vice versa, of course. This is a medium, it's not the answer to all things relational. The right approaches and dynamics still need to be in place for the conversation to carry everyone to the next level.

[David Reich]

Gee, I never thought of that. I'm gonna have a public relations party. You're invited.

[Carolyn Ann]

Does the comparison really work?

A blog has a radically different "product" from a Tupperware party. For one thing, you can specify what you want at a T* party. With appropriate apologies to T*-oriented folk... Just causing trouble, is all... :-) (T* being shorter than "Tupperware".) With a blog, the producer specifies the product being delivered.

Blogging, I think, is more akin to a newspaper: we can elect to read it, or not. The content is provided, but the choice of whether to read it? There isn't a viable, material product: it's all ideas and their expression, with no tangible, real or concrete form. It seems real, but the entire expression can be (cynically) rephrased as electrical pulses, recorded, stored and delivered. A piece of Tupperware is a "concrete" product: it's real, it can be handled, and traded. A blog post? I'm not sure that can be traded, except when a blogger agrees to trade their words in exchange for something (usually something more concrete, like money!) (Doesn't that reduce their credibility? I'm still not sure about that one.)

I think a lot depends on why "you" blog. I do it because I like writing; other do it for the lucre it brings; and still others because it might help their jobs. Anyone blogging for financial gain, whether it's immediate, as in "we'll pay you to provide commentary", or more long-term, has to pay attention to their public "space". Others, like myself, don't have to. By way of analogy, when I was single, I found it a lot easier to go buy more coffee mugs than wash the ones in the sink. I probably provided some new lifeforms to the ecosphere, but I didn't care if my guests were offended by my kitchen or not. (Heck, I was usually offended by my kitchen. Why should my guests not get the full, er, well, I'd probably be better not saying that. :-) I still cringe when I recall my Mom asking when I was going to do some cleaning - and my informative response being "Huh?")

Actually, in an indirect way, someone concerned about their blog readership can always use the statistics to figure out what people read. But, again, that has more in common with a newspaper tailoring its reporting to readers' expectations than the purchasing of "real" products, regardless of the forum in which they are purchased. Whew; I can take a breath, now.

It's an interesting idea you put forward, Valeria: but I have to hedge my bets on whether it works or not. :-)

Carolyn Ann

[Valeria Maltoni]

@David -- let me know when you do ;-) I'll be happy to attend.

@Carolyn Ann -- looking at the comparison in concrete terms, I am on board with your thought process. Product is not the same as outcome in a literal sense. Walking away with a nice set of elegant Tupperware (I do respond to design) is different from taking away an idea. Yet, metaphorically, it may not be. In the same way as a new container makes you feel better abut the food that is stored in it (it will be fresher, last longer, etc.) a new idea may be the container for your knowledge and experience and allow it to remold itself in a new form. This was the wrapper I put around my post at the Blog Herald, where the Tupperware party is an illustration of the psychology and methods of influence. Looking at it that way, the dynamics of social interaction are constructed on such things as attractiveness, similarity, compliments, contact and cooperation, conditioning and association. Thank you for seeing it differently... I would not want to force round pegs into square holes at any point in time ;-)

[SalesQueen]

Great post! Keep it Simple and Successful!

[Jack Brice]

As someone who is just beginning their blogging life I certainly appreciate the comments. Great analogy. Oops sorry about the burp.