The Shawshank Redemption the most viral product and best example of word of mouth marketing ever?
September 20, 2011Announcement: RARE Business Presents RARE Forum – Will you be there?
October 1, 2011
When I realised that this was going to be my 300th blog post since I started posting in November 2009, I racked my brains trying to think of doing something that befitted the 300th post.
And I couldn’t come up with anything.
Then I thought…..Phew! 300. That’s quite a lot. When I tot it all up that’s probably some where in the region of 150,000 words or the size of a Harry Potter book.
I still can’t quite believe that since November 2009 I’ve written 300 posts about marketing, business and all things to do with the customer.
So, what I thought I’d do at this milestone (of sorts) is to take a look back and share a few ways that I’ve benefitted from all of this blogging:
- It’s been a great way to keep in touch with my clients and to share a few ideas with them;
- I’ve been asked to speak at numerous events, some paid and others not;
- I’ve received calls and emails out of the blue asking me to help, from some big and small companies;
- It’s helped me write a book;
- It’s helped me think about, set up and organise a new and upcoming event: RARE Forum www.rareforum.co.uk (more on that in a later post); and
- I’ve met some amazing people.
But, it’s not how I have benefitted that is the most important thing for me. The most important thing is what I have learnt along the way. The big lessons for me are:
- Blogging is a great way of sharing and developing ideas;
- It’s not easy to write. Both to write something down and to come up with ideas about what to write about. I don’t consider myself a natural writer and I know I find it hard from time to time. But, I hope my ideas and writing have gotten better over time;
- Blogging has given me an outlet to capture thoughts, ideas and stories. In doing so it makes me look at the world in different ways. I also think that it helps me be more creative and come up with better strategies and ways for doing business for my clients ;
- It’s a great way of meeting people. It’s even better if you are proactive about it.
- But, I think the biggest lesson overall for me was said by Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing and science fiction writing fame when he said: “Content isn’t king…..Conversation is king”. My blog is not about me sitting in front of my laptop jotting down ideas that may or may not help. It’s become a tool that is a conversation starter.
That’s my biggest lessons so far and I look forward to the next 300 posts and the conversations that it allows me to start or participate it.
12 Comments
Congratulations, Adrian. It’s a great achievement, particularly in view of the quality of the content you’ve produced.
I can’t think of anything more fitting to mark the milestone than to share what you’ve learnt along the way, an exercise which seems to be the essence of blogging – something that benefits you and benefits your readers. As a relative ‘newbie’ those lessons you’ve shared are a great encouragement to me continue.
I look forward to your next 300 posts!
Hi Guy,
Thanks for your comment and your support.
It’s funny to me how the time and number of posts seem to have flown by and how much I have grown to love blogging. Long may it continue 🙂
I look forward to reading and learning from you too on your blogging journey.
Adrian
Hi Adrian,
Congratulations on this milestone, one of many more to come, I am sure. I resonate with each of your blogging lessons. Add one more:
Blogging fosters mindfulness – having a topic, even a broad one, that you are committed to writing about on a regular basis impacts how you meet the world around you. Your eyes and ears, and even your other senses, get attuned to particular types of experience and insights surrounding daily existence. Conversations and seemingly random comments foster curiosity. It’s like setting up an incubator inside your mind, which on one hand feeds the writing and, on the other hand, leads to even more conversations and relationships. Put both hands together, as I applaud your work and commitment to sharing all you have to offer.
Marc
Hi Marc,
That’s a great additional insight and one that I attempted to relate in Lesson 3. You, however, have put it so much better than I did and I thank you for that. You have shown me one other lesson and that is: If you share your thoughts with your friends and/or your clients it gives them and you the opportunity to greatly improve the clarity of my thinking.
Thanks you for that,
Adrian
Well done Adrian – 300 posts is a big achievement, and you are doing just what you intend, starting conversations!
Kate
Hi Kate,
Thanks for your comments and encouragement. Looking forward to the next 300 conversations.
Best wishes,
Adrian
Seth Godin once wrote on his blog that blogging was all about taking an idea and refining it, making it comprehensible and interesting and entertaining.
I have been reading your blog for a while (not all 300 posts I am ashamed to say) but one of your points really sticks in my mind
“Does your CEO, or you as CEO, deal with your customers directly?
No? Why not?”
I think you had Seth beat that day
Well done
Hi James,
That’s very kind and I’m proud to be compared to Seth Godin. I really love his work and style.
I must give credit to my friend, Stefan Topfer of Winweb.com, for the inspiration for that post. It was his story that was really at the heart of it. I was only the messenger that day 🙂
Adrian
300 posts is quite an accomplishment, congratulations!
I don’t know if I’ve ever heard conversation is king, but i have sure heard content is king many, many times. The way Cory explains it, it makes sense. Perhaps that’s the reason why Facebook now has 800 million plus users.
The thing I truly enjoy about the Internet is that you can learn from all sorts of different people about virtually anything. And you’re right, it’s the conversation that happens among people, not just content, that is king.
Hi Greg,
Thank you for the congrats…..it kinda snuck on me…the 300 that is.
Cory has a great way of explaining it. I think what is also important is that you have to have the right type and quality of content to trigger great conversations otherwise it all just feels a bit noisy.
Adrian
Congrats on the 300 posts! Hope you have another 300 in you…
From my own experience blogging I can agree that it is indeed very difficult to put up quality content week after week. All the extraneous technical stuff, finding hosting, setting up WordPress, messing around with plugins, etc. is easy. Sitting down and creating original, compelling content is the hard part. You’d think writing gets easier the more you do it but, for me at least, it’s always a challenge.
To me the conversations that follow as a result of my blog-post is always the most rewarding part of the entire process
Hi Alex,
Thanks for dropping by. I hope that I have many more than 300 🙂 Personally, I find that the actual writing part has gotten a lot easier. It’s, as you say, the coming up with quality ideas and insights that is a challenge for me sometimes.
That’s why I’m always looking for ideas, collecting clippings, making notes on my phone or in my notebook. How do you collect and develop ideas?
Adrian