Blog as if Everyone's Reading

Surely you’ve heard the expression “Dance as if Nobody’s Watching.” In my case that’s probably good advice. My wife is the dancer in our family – I’m not so graceful.

But I blog pretty well. And I am an active conversationalist. So recently I’ve taken up the topic “What To Do When Nobody Says Anything Meaningful.” Here’s what I mean:

If you follow are following conventional marketing wisdom you are:

• Learning how to blog
• Setting up a Facebook Fan Page
• Creating a LinkedIn Group
• …etc

And you are excited. At first. But after a while your enthusiasm wanes. You hear crickets chirping because nobody is commenting on your blog. Your groups may have become portals for spammers who are clearly self-promoting and simply want to take advantage of the work that you have put in. Sigh. Maybe you should just give up…

NO, you should NOT give up! Things are just starting, and you have to be consistent if you want to build “quality” communities. So here’s my advice to all of you who are just starting out:

1. There’s a good chance that people are listening, they just haven’t responded…yet. Hey we’re all busy. The vast majority of cyber-community members are ‘lurkers.’ We are here watching and listening, but will probably only engage in the public conversation on rare occasions. Don’t sweat it: the fact that these people became Fans, signed up for your RSS feed and download your podcasts is important. Keep going. They are interested in what you are saying (so long as you are saying things that matter to them).
2. Set some clear guidelines for your groups:

• Be clear about the kind of content you want people to post.
• Don’t be shy about removing posts and/or users (after a reminder). Clearly spammers won’t add anything to the conversation.
• Be an active moderator.
• Seed discussions.

My bottom line: Blog as is Everyone’s Reading. Soon enough you’ll realize that they are.

But if you disagree. feel free to comment.