Thought Leadership
Clearly, blogs are a powerful medium through which people can offer ideas, at little or no cost to themselves, to as wide of an audience as is willing to read them. But blogs have a bad reputation because in their early days, a lot of people treated them as online diaries. For lots of people, a negative impression formed, as the result of the self-expression and self-importance that characterized the posts on LiveJournal.
But it's not just an opportunity to talk; it's also an opportunity to lead. Since anybody can have a voice now, and attract an audience by producing content at little or no cost to themselves, it's worth taking a shot.
One of the classic books on marketing is called Positioning. I really like this book because it's a quick, easy read, and it re-enforces all of its points using examples of big-name companies you've heard of. It articulates a lot of concepts about what works and what doesn't. Once you read it, you'll never watch television commercials the same way again. Personally, I'm stunned that the book makes such compelling arguments, and that now, 30 years after its publication, so many companies are still making the mistakes that the authors caution against.
Where was I. Ah, yes...if you don't want to read the book, here's the most important point from the book: when you enter any market, be first.
Simple, but most people get this wrong. When you look at the history of any product, it's the company or brand that came first to which all of the benefits accrue. The imitations that follow tend to struggle, and usually end up (at best) second to the player who got there first. Think Coca-Cola (the original cola), Xerox (the original copy machine), NyQuil (the original nighttime cold medicine), McDonald's (the original fast food joint), and Polaroid (the original instant photograph).
There are exceptions to this, of course. Google wasn't the first search engine, and Facebook wasn't the first social network. There's still something to be said for strategy and execution.
But "being first" is very difficult for most people. It's really only useful advice if you're starting from zero, but let's face it...that's exactly where most of us are. And given a blank sheet of paper, an empty canvas to fill, most of us choose to follow and do what's been done before.
Why? Because being first, and being original, takes more than vision; it also takes guts. It reveals vulnerability, and so it's a risky proposition.
David Meerman Scott writes that by establishing yourself as an expert on the Internet, by producing useful and interesting content for an audience, you become a "thought leader". I like this phrase. You might not be the first person to try doing something, but maybe your approach, or style of execution, is what some people need to hear.
Go start something. There's no shortage of new ideas, but there's a big shortage of people who are bold enough to go first.
But it's not just an opportunity to talk; it's also an opportunity to lead. Since anybody can have a voice now, and attract an audience by producing content at little or no cost to themselves, it's worth taking a shot.
One of the classic books on marketing is called Positioning. I really like this book because it's a quick, easy read, and it re-enforces all of its points using examples of big-name companies you've heard of. It articulates a lot of concepts about what works and what doesn't. Once you read it, you'll never watch television commercials the same way again. Personally, I'm stunned that the book makes such compelling arguments, and that now, 30 years after its publication, so many companies are still making the mistakes that the authors caution against.
Where was I. Ah, yes...if you don't want to read the book, here's the most important point from the book: when you enter any market, be first.
Simple, but most people get this wrong. When you look at the history of any product, it's the company or brand that came first to which all of the benefits accrue. The imitations that follow tend to struggle, and usually end up (at best) second to the player who got there first. Think Coca-Cola (the original cola), Xerox (the original copy machine), NyQuil (the original nighttime cold medicine), McDonald's (the original fast food joint), and Polaroid (the original instant photograph).
There are exceptions to this, of course. Google wasn't the first search engine, and Facebook wasn't the first social network. There's still something to be said for strategy and execution.
But "being first" is very difficult for most people. It's really only useful advice if you're starting from zero, but let's face it...that's exactly where most of us are. And given a blank sheet of paper, an empty canvas to fill, most of us choose to follow and do what's been done before.
Why? Because being first, and being original, takes more than vision; it also takes guts. It reveals vulnerability, and so it's a risky proposition.
David Meerman Scott writes that by establishing yourself as an expert on the Internet, by producing useful and interesting content for an audience, you become a "thought leader". I like this phrase. You might not be the first person to try doing something, but maybe your approach, or style of execution, is what some people need to hear.
Go start something. There's no shortage of new ideas, but there's a big shortage of people who are bold enough to go first.