Is Your Blog a Media Property

September 2, 2008 · Comments

hodgepodge There are many ways to blog, and there are many reasons to use these tools to build content for the web. No one way is right. Here’s a blogging tip: decide early on whether you’re writing your blog for your own entertainment or if you’re building something with it.

This fork in the road is a useful one for deciding what level of success you can aspire to achieve. If you’re writing for yourself, that’s excellent! You’ll certainly find people who appreciate what you write about. But if you’re intending to build a media property, either to support your business or as the very core of your business, this requires different consideration. My goal with this post is to point out a few differences between blogging styles, and to give you ideas on how you might build your blog into a media property, should that be your goal.

Quick definition: I intend the term “media property” to mean that the blog stands alone, offers easy and obvious value to its subscriber base, and supports a point of view and subject matter. This can range anywhere from a great personal blog that covers a certain topic area, or it might be a new media property, with several blogs and authors. It could be your company blog, if done well.

First, a Random Sampling

I went to Twitter Search and put in a search for people posting new blog posts. Here were the first five I pulled up:

  1. How to Take Effective Notes
  2. Metallic Silver DS on the Way
  3. Castle Crashers Is Everything Too Human Isn’t
  4. Imagine When This is How It Works
  5. Local Flavor: It’s Really All About the Flavor

Post 1 comes from someone who’s clearly blogging to provide information. It’s proudly a geek’s blog, and I found the punchy posts informative. Though it doesn’t appear the author is making a play to grow or be a larger media property, I think the basic premises could go in that direction, should that be an interest.

Post 2 is from a site that’s clearly intending to be a media property, with a gazillion ads around the post, and a little bit of informative news. It obviously competes with the Engadget/Gizmodo crowd. Nothing wrong with this, and with the right amount of traffic, this site’s probably making the author(s) a little money, too.

Post 3 is from a game enthusiast’s blog. It’s not intended to be a media property per se, but there’s some opinion information for one to enjoy.

Post 4 looks to be a personal blog. It’s interesting, but very personal.

Post 5 was from a company, a market, and it was definitely a media property in support of a business. The post was entertaining. The blog design was fresh. And the information was useful to me as a reader.

From here, let’s talk about what the core components of your blog might be, should you decide to build your blog to be a media property.

Elements of a Successful Media Property

Entertain Me – First, if you’re intending to blog in this form, be entertaining. Is the story entertaining? Because without that, there’s precious little else you’ll accomplish. Read Duncan Riley’s The Inquisitr. It is perpetually entertaining. He went with a blend of popular news and tech news. Why? Do they really mix? Who cares? It’s working for Duncan.

Be Productive – If you’re going to put out media, do it all the time. Christopher S. Penn produces information all the time for the Financial Aid Podcast and blog. He’s the authority people go to for quality financial aid information, partly because it’s great material, but also because he delivers it all the time.

Deliver Value – I really love what Mike Gunderoy’s been doing with Web Worker Daily. Mike and the rest of the team there give me something useful every day. In fact, most of the GigaOm sites are winners to me, and I get a sense of value out of the posts there.

Be Unique – It’s important to keep your blog fresh. This is soooo challenging, and yet, lots of people are doing it every day. Be very cautious about not doing a “me too” property. There are clones and clones and clones out there of certain bloggers and blogging theme areas. Please don’t add to the clutter. If you’re writing a “yeah, what ____ said” blog post more than twice a week, you’re not working hard enough. I’m sorry, but that’s not going to cut it in the longer run. Riff off other people’s stuff from time to time. By all means. Linking and sharing on the web is great. But if you’re not breaking new material out and doing your own unique thing, it’ll get tiresome fast for most readers.

Be Responsive – Blogs are a two way communications product. It’s okay to act more and more like a professional media property if you want (cough cough Huffington Post cough cough). But if you’re bothering to use a blogging platform and working within the space, be human and make two way connections on your platform. One person doing this consistently well for years and years is Robert Scoble. He’s always been human, and still participates in the flow of it all daily.

With this in mind, here are a few more steps for moving your blog from something that’s interesting and receives a few comments here and there, to being a product you’re proud to produce, and that provides value to yourself or your company. Your mileage may vary, and feel free to add your own ideas to the comments section.

Some Blogging Tips for Moving Towards Being a Media Property

  • Build your posts with a goal in mind. “If I write this type of post, I’ll get more business offers,” or “When I write this post, I’ll get more links,” or “This kind of post is great for conversations.” I’m not here to judge your goal, but rest assured that media properties have goals.
  • Consider an editorial calendar. If you’re blogging daily, it might be useful to put up a quick calendar with topics, so that you can measure out how many posts a month are about X and how many are about Y. This helps you balance your coverage. Also note which posts do well, on which days, etc.
  • Edit. If you’re going to write quality stuff, edit. Remove excess writing. Take out the dead weight. Edit.
  • Bank a few posts for when you don’t have a ready topic for your next post. Not months in advance, but a few days or a week out is reasonable.
  • Obsess over your audience (aka the people who comment and give you feedback). It’s a synergy, this media property stuff, and you can’t just write in a vacuum. (Well, you can, but that’s traditional media).
  • Find ways to offer more. Give more value. Create special extras. Go somewhere different for your readership.
  • If it’s a business, treat it like one.
  • If it’s for passion and thought leadership, be passionate and lead.

There are many ways to blog. No one way is the best. Experiment with what you’re comfortable with, and learn from your efforts. And should you find yourself following some of this advice, and you find your efforts are hitting a certain level of response and growth, excellent. If not, share with us what’s going on, and maybe some of the smart people who visit this site can share and help you push through.

What did I miss?

These posts are made for sharing. Feel free to repost all or portions of this (as long as it’s not for profit). If you do post it, please make sure you kindly link back to [chrisbrogan.com] and give me credit. Thanks!

Photo credit, noise collusion

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  • dkdanielson
    For a Media Property, you need really consistency. Consistency of style, consistency of content, and consistency of posting. We attempt to achieve this by having multiple authors (to ensure content is up daily at a minimum). Each blogger follows a different "beat" but it all ties into our overall theme.

    However, one problem with group blogs, is consistency of style. However, most of our bloggers came to my attention by having comments that I felt could've been stand-alone blog posts. Yet, another reason to give thought to your comments!
  • Good stuff to think about as I have been thinking about getting a blog started for a bit now.

    What I'm struggling with is the 'being unique' and 'adding value' pieces ... :)

    How do you know if you are achieving uniqueness and adding value when you are 1st starting out?

    Does anyone have suggestions on what you have done in starting up a blog and measuring these things? what did you do? what tools did you use?


    --
    http://twitter.com/franswaa

    --
  • I definitely wouldn't bill my blog as a Media Property---"experimental personal site" is how i'd refer to it. But that's not to say i wouldn't like it to be more.

    I've realized recently that my site should be more of a portal or portfolio showcasing a mix of my photos and other projects with less emphasis on my spotty blogging.

    I recently switched my WordPress theme towards that goal, but it still needs work.
  • I started my blog as a complement to my business site, because it is a new line of business I'm offering to my clients. This gives me more freedom to talk about things that were not part of my original business plan, and it's growing since then.

    Should I call it a Media Property? If I review your tips list, I should. When you are writing a blog to support your business, that's your goal. The editorial calendar sometimes it's hard to keep, but from a user point of view a fresh blog is necessary. Quality content is something that is never stressed enough.

    Chris, you have another great point here, I like the concepts you are raising lately, I liked the Social Media Pastor thing, and I like this Media Property.
  • I think one way of thinking about this issue is to think about your blog in terms of what story are you telling. Does your blog tell a story of professionalism? Of generosity? Of intellectual engagement? and so on...

    If you flip this around you can start to think about your target audience. What kind of story do they want to listen to? (information, breaking news, innovation, thoughtful commentary, etc) How do they want to be entertained?

    We've been telling stories since the first days of language. Blogs are the latest permutation of cultural storytelling. They tell stories about the people that write them, read them and the cultures in which they emerge.

    Thinking about my business blog as a story has improved the way I approach my audience, the things I write about and how I write it.
  • On the subject of: "Elements of Successful Media Property"
    A recent commentator told me: "If I’m reading a blog I really only expect two things to continue coming back: teach me something or make me laugh. Don’t care how you do it." Which reinforces the fact that readers thirst for value and they like to be entertained.

    I can see how/where being unique is challenging. BUT, stop trying to be something you're not and the road gets much, much easier to tread. Try to hard being something you're not and it becomes ever more difficult to produce good content.

    And as far as "Being Responsive" goes, I think this is where more and more people fail. They want to speak authoritatively on a subject and yet fail to interact when readers engage with them. Engaging in the conversation is as easy as taking the time to respond to comments. It's the biggest "Thank you" you can give to a new reader. It's the biggest form of welcoming that you can offer someone new to your site.
  • Heather K. Margolis
    First of all, get out of my head! You hit the nail right on the head. I just had a conversation with a co-worker yesterday about our corporate blog to be. We're reinventing our website and introducing a blog that is long overdue. As a company that provides sales enablement and excellerated SFA we need to be seen to sales organizations (management and reps) as the authority on enabling teams to be more efficient and effective. My stand is that this does not mean taughting our products. It means giving advice on anything that a sales organization might need from effective presentations to call scripts to lead generation, much the way hubspot does for marketing professionals. We are going to see you speak at the Inbound Marketing Summit and I will be at the New Marketing Summit so I look forward to getting your take.
  • @Diane - consistency. What a great one. When some of the bloggers started taking on other writers, I noticed that I could tell right away when it was a newbie writer versus some of the core talent. I guess it's fair to let them ramp up, but then I wonder whether traditional properties would do that. Maybe not. Maybe their editorial team blends up the posts until they sound just like the rest of the authors. And if that's how it's done, maybe I'll allow for some lumps in my oatmeal.

    @Frank - you'll know when you get engagement, including comments and ideas and traffic.

    @Jeremiah - your site does well to show your work as a portfolio. Makes sense to me.

    @Josep - I'm happy it worked for you. I look forward to seeing how your blog evolves after you apply this thinking.

    @Jon - storytelling is definitely a core element to good writing. You've got a great idea there. I'm glad you consider your audience when thinking about how to tell those stories.

    @Ricardo - where I worry the most about being responsive is when it comes to scaling. With me, I'm a one man show. It's hard to reach out and touch every single person that wants to communicate with me. I don't have a staff or secret private helpers. It makes the effort pretty tricky. But I'm doing it, because I want that personal touch to matter.

    @Heather- oh, I'm in your head, and I'm staying there until November! I look forward to talking with you at both events. : )
  • Selina
    Good Morning! Thanks for this Chris. This blog piece deals with questions I have been thinking about, in formulating and answering questions about what my core vision is.

    One helpful piece of advice I received from a great source, is to write a mission and value statement, as you would for any business, keeping it to 6 points-3 for each. A very short list forces you to define the core issues, drill down and really rank those things which are the most important to help define focus.

    Now if it were only that simple!
  • Very good post, Chris.

    You once again nailed the difference between business blog - blog for supporting your business and other types of blogs.

    I just want to add couple things.

    First, Focus. Focus on your business difference from competitors. Your posts must be not only about your business, but also express the difference from competitors. It should answer the question "why I should buy from you instead of the other guy".

    Second, I want to guess a need of frequent posting. In my opinion, it is a myth that you must post daily or so...

    It is a long discussion about it and best of all it is expressed in my e-book "The New Rules of Business Blogs". You are welcome to check it out in my blog at www.positioningstrategy.com. Please feel free to download it and discuss post frequency issue here or anywhere you want.
  • Hi Chris,

    Thought I would add a few comments based on my experience. I've become quite enamored of the tool and it's been a lot of fun for me to use to get the word out about the Big 4 audit firms and about my experience with them. A boring subject, you say? Well not to the thousands of people who are reading me now, two years later, all over the world, every day. I've found that focus, focus, focus, is what makes people show up. And what gets you to the top of Google Search without having to sleep with the Google guy. Eeeewwwww Focus and a gradual dose of attitude and personality mixed in with scissor sharp writing. (An aspiration every day...) I almost forgot why I started - to build a marketing platform for a book I'm writing, but my friends never let me forget. So, along with trying to get back to the book, I now have to spend more time on something that has to get more professional and more service oriented to keep meeting readers needs. I'm going to move off the Blogger platform soon and add few bells and whistles, while still staying close to the content orientation that I started with.
    Here's a post about how I've spread the word. Wish me luck.
    http://www.retheauditors.com/2008/07/blogging-m...

    fm
  • Francine, it can't be said better:

    "Focus, focus, focus, is what makes people show up".

    All new bloggers should read this line a few hundred times before starting to write first post.

    It's so easy, it's so hard. But this what makes people show up.
  • Chris,

    1. Found you on BackType.com
    2. I should have written this post
    3. I have nothing to add to it because you nailed it
    4. I have no criticism because you left out the B.S. term of the century: "Content is King" and I thank you for that.

    Actually I do have one criticism: I don't believe Scoble is human. Will have to submit that one to FactCheck.org to be sure. :)
  • I just re-launched my site (& consolidated all my content) with this intent in mind.

    But one thing I'm struggling with is being both a media site (with tons of content, monetized off advertising/sponsorship) and a business website (driving people to my list, monetized off selling products).

    With a media site, it's all about high quality content. But with the business site I want to leave them wanting more & not give away the cow without at least an opt-in.

    ~ Elizabeth
  • The picture you used is hilarious! Caught my eye right away!
  • @Francine - I think that you're an auditor in your space and a social media type makes it such that, to me, you are THE auditor. I don't know any others. When others come along, I'll compare them to you. See how that works? Sometimes, I just can't figure why others in niche spots don't do the same. No value? ALL the value.

    @Jack - let me know what they say about Scoblebot...er, Robert. : )

    @Blogging Millionaire - a picture's worth a million bucks?
  • @chrisbrogan Thanks, Chris. That's the idea. There are others writing about related topics, but no one writing about them in as focused and consistent a way and not in quite the same way. So far, so good.
  • Hey Chris,

    Thanks a lot por visit my blog. I was so happy lol.

    Your portuguese is very good.

    A few days ago i wrote one post of Social Media. Actually, i had translated your post to portuguese.

    http://monthiel.blogspot.com/2008/08/como-escut...

    I'd like to know, if i can translate more...

    Sorry about my english, i study english only about 8 months and alone (no english school, no teacher )

    Congragulations for your work.

    Monthiel
  • Chris,

    I made other comment, but i think that it was classified SPAM.

    Please, check..

    Monthiel
  • @Chris: I agree that there's a problem in scaling and when you've grown to a certain extent, it's certainly harder to manage. But notice how some people (yourself included) are at least marginally present; I think that makes a world of difference. Notice how some companies don't put in that effort even initially.
  • Chris,
    I admit, I am a daily follower of your blog but do not comment much. I've been a sideliner for a while. This post was exactly what I needed! I have been blogging for my freelance business for about 3 months now and am not getting much response. I need to work on your tips for the "media property" type blog. Thanks for the great info.

    Rebekah
  • Chris,

    Great information for new bloggers and a reminder for those of us who have been blogging for awhile and have forgotten the basics.

    Especially for writers, it's important to build a relationship with our readers (of our published works as well as our blogs).

    Following your advice will go a long way toward building that relationship.
  • Very inspiring post that can get you into thinking about the future of your blog and where do you want to lead your business. I believe delivering great value is very important if you want to turn it into a media property. If the readers can't get what they want in a consistent basis from you they would soon abandon you.
  • wow great information u have . i ke it so coll carry on.
  • Media blog is very necessary for sharing your progress. This is very good relation between reader and publisher.
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