Everyone loves free samples - a little taste or trial of an item to entice someone to want more. Sounds a bit like a blog, eh?
Sampling is a powerful marketing technique adopted throughout the consumer retailing world from taste treats at the local supermarket to free goodies at local events and fairs. Newspapers have long thrived on free samples giving away a day or week of free papers to entice loyal readers. If it didn’t work, or were not so powerful, the big consumer giants would have long abandoned it. Instead, many brand reps make a living by giving you little taste treats wherever the public may gather.
Blogs, in truth, are no more than samples of a person’s thinking, writing and professional work. They provide small bits of a person’s thinking on a subject, a.k.a writers from The Huffington Post, to tidbits that tease about larger offerings through a person’s full-fledged book or a company’s more robust web site. For thought-leaders, they are similar to the newspaper samples on your driveway, providing a taste of the deep knowledge available in hopes that you’ll want more and subscribe.
During this season of gift giving, consider your blog a gift you give to the world. Although blogs take hard work, and it’s truly sometimes harder to write short than long, a blog is just a small offering of what you have to give to the world-at-large. It’s why so many job seekers are encouraged to start blogging as their ever-present capabilities portfolio. But in the spirit of the season, blogs are also free – freely given for all to read, consider or comment. They are a sample of you.
Thanks Rhona. Once I started to get started with various forms of social media I realized after a short time that it was I, me, mine all the time. Yuck. I now realize and have made a New Year’s resolution that I will cut back on the self-promotion and see if I can find ways to promote the people involved with social media that are making a postive difference in the world.
Some excellent thoughts Rhona, and I like that you put the ‘gift of blogging’ in a positive light. Yes, every post reflects me in some way. And I will now be looking at every blog post I read as an extension of the person who wrote it. Thanks!
Charlene: I do think every blog post is a person putting him or herself out there. It’s the one reason above all to be careful with comments and feedback as we are commenting on a person’s personal expression. Similar to viewing a piece of art, or a letter received, we don’t have to always like the art or the contents, but we can still appreciate the time and effort as well as the writer/artists desire to communicate.
Thanks Rhona for such an enlightening post, I really like the expression “Blogs, in truth, are no more than samples of a person’s thinking, writing and professional work” agree! I believe it’s a piece of you, which is shared for the enrichment of the others.
Thank you for reminding