Professional Blogging Isn’t About You

By Stephen Palmer • April 13th, 2009 • Email This Post • Print This Post

One of my blog readers once posted the following comment on an article:

“Thank you for opening my eyes on the power of blogging. Before reading your article I had a negative point of view on blogs. In my opinion it was a loud statement saying ‘I need attention, does anyone care?’

I learned as I was growing up to be as secret as possible, since it gives less opportunities for people to find your weak spots and make a fool of you. It’s a way of thinking that I have been trying to get out of for a while now. And now that I am building a business I realize that I need to let people know me in more than one way. What a shift!…”

This perception is understandable given the flood of “me-centric” blogs in existence. Writing about yourself and your family is fine for private blogs, when the purpose is to stay connected with family and friends.

But for professional bloggers, business owners, and marketers, focusing your blog on you, your company, and/or your product breaks the most cardinal rule of the new marketing model.

Rule number one for professional bloggers is that it’s not about you — it’s about your readers.

Interrupt advertising — the old method — used TV, magazine, radio, and newspaper ads and other media to shove products and companies in your face. It had one goal: to generate revenues to the company.

What Has Changed?

The new model, permission marketing, isn’t about you. It isn’t about your company. It isn’t about your product.

It’s about your customers. It’s about fulfilling their desires. It’s about creating value for them on their terms. Your customers are in the driver’s seat; you simply provide the mode of transportation, meaning the products and services that they want.

The nature of the media has changed. Media consumers aren’t forced to listen to you anymore. TV viewers have TiVo. Radio listeners have iPods. Website users don’t have to sit through commercials — if they don’t find what they want immediately, they’re gone.

How To Succeed In the New Model

The only way to succeed under the new rules is to create value for people on their terms. If you’re a real estate agent, you can’t blog about how great you are; you’ve got to provide content that your readers care about. Talk about changing real estate laws. Give them tips and advice for staging their home and maximizing their returns.

If you’re a financial advisor, don’t try to convince readers to use you. Give them massive amounts of free, relevant content. Establish your value in their minds.

All of your blogging must be directed towards your readers — solving their problems, fulfilling their desires, alleviating their fears. A professional blog isn’t your platform to shout to the world how great you are. It’s a living room where you host and serve guests and focus your attention solely on them.

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Stephen Palmer is a marketing consultant and persuasive writer with KGaps Consulting, a co-founder of The Center for Social Leadership, and the New York Times best-selling co-author of Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity.

He is a liberal-arts graduate of George Wythe University and a graduate of the “non-traditional business school” Wizard Academy.

Stephen resides in Round Rock, Texas with his gorgeous wife Karina, awesome son Alex, and princess daughters Libby, Avery, and Laela. Stephen and Karina blog about their magical life on Palmer Journeys.