What is Your Purpose for Blogging?

Personal Branding In A Wired World

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That is the first thing you need to think about if you're planning to be strategic about your blog. Then, instead of focusing on success, focus on the path that will keep you on purpose. Why? Because success changes and stays in the future - be honest, you keep upping the ante.

While the path, part of which is a process that will help you stay productive, is the here and now - the decisions you need to make tonight, every day and every week. Dan Pink quotes the recently departed Russell Ackoff (emphasis mine):

“All of our social problems arise out of doing the wrong thing righter. The more efficient you are at doing the wrong thing, the wronger you become. It is much better to do the right thing wronger than the wrong thing righter! If you do the right thing wrong and correct it, you get better!”

Being strategic means you set your tone, style and substance, instead of trying to fit the blogging mold carved before you. And it means you adapt - leaving room for flexibility, for the instances in which you change the way you use the tool for the purpose at hand. 

Purpose broader than medium

Tools and media change. When you set your sight on the reason why you do something, you can ride those changes with more ease. Chances are that integration of various media will play a better complement to your blogging efforts, than any one specific recipe - take half time on Twitter, two thirds on Facebook, and mix with LinkedIn. Shaken not stirred, two olives (and make it a vodka Martini).

The ratio of time depends on where your base is - are you mostly a micro blogging person, for example - and therefore where your connections and community form first. Do you try to build everything out at once? How is it working out?

There's a time for every purpose

The reason for diversification, which includes off line, is that different people gravitate towards different media. Whatever your purpose is, part of the appeal of having an online presence is the ability to attract like minded people as well as people not like you who you'd rarely come across otherwise.

Diversification helps you keep the ratio of new connections fresh.

We all use social networks for different things. For example, LinkedIn tends to be where people are more focused on business contacts, company and people search, business intelligence, and advice. Facebook, despite its weird usability, or maybe thanks to it, is more for meeting people with common interests. Twitter can be used effectively to expand your network exponentially.

Integration works

It's not usually just about the blog- it's about the blog ecosystem. It's the same way with many things in business - think about public or people relations and interactive marketing, perfect to go together - and in life. The key is to take small steps, make incremental improvements and changes until you feel comfortable expanding and creating a process.

Take for example going from not running at all, to training for a marathon. You start with a little bit of jogging, then insert sprints, then build some distance, then work on speed, then more distance, and so on. You find out what works for you and learn to listen to your rhythms.

Integration works for generating ideas, building a portfolio of ways in which you communicate and socialize what you learn.

***

I wanted to provide a thought piece in preparation for our #kaizenblog chat, which this week we're moving to Friday at 12ET. If you want to meet other regulars on the chat, follow the Twitter list.

The deck in this post has been with me for several months now as a visual stimulation for talking about building conversations online and offline. The title will be a bit off putting to some. Get past that and dive in with me.

What is your purpose for blogging? What are the direct and indirect ways in which you can accomplish that?

© 2006-2009 Valeria Maltoni. All rights reserved.

Comments

[Deni Kasrel]

Valeria,
As usual, another sharp preso deck by you. Concise but also plenty of incisive info.

Hard to pick a favorite, though think slide 6 is really essential -- the ecosystem...to understand the different platforms, how to best use and as you so often emphasize, engage.

Personally, I find having a blog a way to do just that -- put my ideas out and then see what others think and how they may add their own thoughts. Amplification via social media enables me to have a much broader reach and as such the variety of conversation is all the richer. I find this a most enjoyable aspect. Sometimes the conversation comes direct in comments or via Twitter, as well as down the road, offline. A tasty mixer,for sure. And yes to vodka martini (am partial to either Chopin or Grey Goose;)

Now, re the last slide, can we expect to see a cover by you any time soon?

[Russ Henneberry]

Great post. I would put a vote in to add Seth Godin's Tribes to that list at the end of your Slideshare deck. Not a real practical book but has a great philosophy behind it.

[Rich Becker]

Valeria,

Excellent timing. Someone who wants to start an educational blog (non-commercial) just asked me what they need to consider. I pointed them here and then shared an old post on how my purpose evolved over the years.

Your diversification comment is also right on the mark. Once again, we are talking about the same things at the same time. The single most problematic challenge for companies is to appreciate that someone can not write about a can of soda and hope people (beyond a few die-hard fans) will gravitate to it.

All my best,
Rich

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Deni - I get many retweets, links and comments on Twitter as well. It seems to be the place where people what to share more these days. Grey Goose sounds good.

@Russ - these days I'm all practical information when I share with others, especially in the US, I must say. This culture is one of getting to the point for sure.

@Rich - glad we're in sync and thank you for the kind referral. I was telling someone who's sprucing up their LinkedIn profile recently that they needed to make themselves interesting, too. Maybe add the book list from Amazon, something that connects to a whole new/different level.

[Pete Kunk]

I was with Pepsi Bottling in Lexington Ky working with a group of great young leaders and I started the morning off with your Blog Conversation Agent. I went to the web openned your blog and told everyone of them, if you have not subscribed by my next visit (December) there will be a BUTT Kicking!
This blog today is what I need to be more relevant, to learn and grow in the world of Soc. Med. Net.....AND to help my clients grow. Thanks for the slide on the books, resources, resources, resources....Keep it comming.Thanks so much!!

Pete Kunk