I recently had a discussion with a group of bloggers who post often on the subject of social media. Some interesting comments were made that much of the content being published today is old, boring and/or uninspiring.
I have to agree. More and more often, you see the same numerical, mainstream posts: "5 Ways to Track Social Media ROI" or "12 WordPress Plugins to Drive Blog Traffic." Even better, the ridiculous, unrelated analogies: "Social Media is Like a Lotus Blossom" and "How to Take Home Gold at the Social Media Triatholon."
It's like someone, somewhere created a post template on the "The Top 10 Cookie Cutter, Sell-out Blog Posts that are Sure to Drive Meaningless Traffic" and everyone reading followed suit. Sure they're annoying, but you can't deny they are effective at generating buzz.
It got me thinking... why are these posts so popular? True, the numerical posts help prepare a reader on how much content he or she can expect. And the analogies are just downright funny in most instances. I've often caught myself reading through them just wondering how far these authors will reach to create a link between social media and something completely ridiculous like an ice rink.
But deeper than that, I think the reason these posts fair so well in the blogosphere because they are easy for other people to understand. Many readers, especially the social media newbies, don't have a lot time or energy to decipher the meaning behind higher level posts of thought leaders and the philosophies they encrypt in them. They don't want to read things over 3 times to figure out what exactly the point is. They want easy. They want quick. And most importantly, they want to be entertained. They're in a different stage of learning than we are and I guess you could say are expecting something different because of that.
The problem is, not all of us bloggers are willing to compromise ourselves or sell-out to the needs of the mainstream. We want to write about topics that inspire us today, not two years ago. We're writing for ourselves and people who are on our same level of understanding. We're writing from within. From my experience, the posts that come from ourselves internally rather than what's already been deemed reliable and safe are harder to come by but easier to remember. They may not create the biggest flame, but they definitely burn, and in many instances, for much longer.
Who are you writing for?
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