Performance and Your Audience- Blogging Tips

January 30, 2008 · Comments

stage Performance. When you blog or podcast or record a video, it is an opportunity for a performance, a presentation, a distilled and distinct package of information. It is your chance to connect with your audience and deliver something of value. It is an obligation and a pact.

It’s fine to use these tools for conversation, but consider your audience. Think about how little time they have in a day. Think about the places where they will be spending their time.

Be Brief

Can you say it faster? Do so.

Appeal to Their Sense of Self

Can you tell a story? Will the story help your audience think of themselves? Will your words bring THEIR minds awake?

Be Prepared

It’s not pressure to write good posts. It’s not hell to come up with topics for your podcast. It’s your choice as a producer of good content. Think ahead on that. Keep a notepad file somewhere for ideas when you’re stuck. Record a few extra “evergreen” bits to dispense when you’re not ready.

Be Respectful

Your audience is brilliant. You sometimes know something they don’t. But treat them like they are masterful and brilliant, and as if you’re just sharing this information, in case they want to brush up. You’re not a god. You’re a communicator.

Be Conversational (and yet Concise)

You can talk as if you’re addressing humans. I write as if you and I are having a conversation. And yet, I try to keep things tight. I don’t fret over it. I practice by posting once or twice a day. You can do the same.

Performance

You’re on a stage. You are creating stories. No matter how you view your blogging and podcasting, that’s what you’re doing. When you cook up that next PowerPoint deck for a meeting, think about that, too. It’s the same thing, sliced differently. There’s no reason to treat it differently.

What are some of your tips and advice? How do you treat your audience? When has it worked best for you?

The Social Media 100 is a project by Chris Brogan dedicated to writing 100 useful blog posts in a row about the tools, techniques, and strategies behind using social media for your business, your organization, or your own personal interests. Swing by [chrisbrogan.com] for more posts in the series, and if you have topic ideas, feel free to share them, as this is a group project, and your opinion matters.

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Photo credit, Kevin Dooley

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  • Agree with each of these and the only one I would expand on is the "telling a story". I have found that my best performances, whether it is on my blog, twitter, video or audio is when I tie it in to something happening to me personally. Putting my heart into my performance not only give my audience a better product, but it makes me feel more satisfied.

    I learned this through trial & error, but also by looking at how much more engaged my audience was when I dug a little deeper to tell a tale and not just recite some thoughts.

    /kff
  • This is spot-on, Chris, and I'd love to see you write more in this vein. (E.g. more on the "sense of self" / storytelling front and why this is so important in getting your message across.)

    I see a lot of presentations in both business and academia. Plenty of them are skilled at a low level, by which I mean the presenter has prepared the material, has some sort of agenda to fulfill, and so on. But *many* of these presentations also essentially assume that the audience is primed to absorb the information passively, by which I mean that the speaker seems to assume that all of his audience are great listeners who are deeply interested in the topic already.

    Better presenters (executives, techies doing demos, professors giving lectures, whatever) go much, MUCH further to engage the audience. Movement, an adequate amount of visual stimulation, interesting design / format, a balance of simple and complex, good "resting points" where the audience can collect its thoughts, et cetera. All of the good things that you could pick up e.g. from reading Garr Reynolds.

    Yet the vast, mediocre bulk of presenters - in person, in print, whatever - just ignore all these good practices entirely.
  • Great points Chris!

    I would also add that it is crucial to not let the technology and/or manner of the presentation control the message (i.e. PowerPoint can easily impose its own structure on a presentation, as many have noted). Be clear on your message first, before technical and presentation mode considerations come into the picture.
  • I try to quote Michael Pusateri of Disney from an interview he did with Shel Holtz in Webpronews from back in 2006 as often as possible -- "the key to using social media' is in having something to say and a plan to say it. The tools are secondary. Too often the tools come first, "Look, we have a company weblog." instead of "Look, we have something interesting to say."

    Chris, your post really nails the simplicity of how to communicate successfully -- regardless of the vehicle be it a PPT, blog, podcast or even verbally.
  • I'm kind of torn on this, since I've found a lot of value lately in posting about ideas in development, to get my community's input. It seems to me that if everything you post is "too perfect" or "too finished," there's not enough room for conversation.

    - Amy Gahran
  • I find blog writing is making me a better writer (in that the more you do it, the better you get vein.) But I have to keep things in mind like "Don't bury the lead" to make sure I don't fall into the vanity trap of using my blog just as a journal, and instead, try to make it about something more meaningful- the performance, as you stated so well.
  • Even on Twitter, this is true. If I tweet "I was just frightened" it goes nowhere, because it's only about ME. Some friends hug me & pat me on the head & life moves on.

    But instead if I tweet "What do YOU do with fear?" a whole conversation begins. It's about EVERYONE.

    A very slight twist that makes ALL the difference across any kind of media or communication you make...
  • I think you already know my take on this. I’m all about the storytelling although I’ll spare everybody this morning.

    One of my editors told me if I could boil all my how-to stuff down into real stories told by real people, ala Chicken Soup, readers would be comforted in knowing that they weren’t alone.

    Folding in a story often makes “short” communication more challenging, but attention to impeccable quality, no matter what your media of choice, shows respect for your readership’s time even though their intelligence may frequently be suspect.
  • Ah yes, storytelling. I'm a big fan of the personal story as it relates. I even enjoy telling other people's stories (ask my wife. I accidentally appropriate her stories and then don't even realize I've done it). My love before getting into nonfiction in 2001 was writing stories.

    So I'm with you there.
  • I recently picked up "Now is Gone" (on your recommendation, and thanks!) and was struck by his assertion that we need to replace "audience" with "community."

    I think of it more as having a couple of people at a party listening to your really good Bill Clinton story. Tell it in an interesting way to keep people's attention. Shape it to the folks who are listening. Get the laugh out of it, yes, but also open it up to let other people in on the conversation. So I don't think "audience" and "community" are mutually exclusive, if you remember that the audience has a voice as well.
  • "Yes" on stories. I find more and more that the blogs/resources that stay on my list are the ones that tell stories, rather than telling me what to do. (I didn't listen to my mother when she told me what to do; do you really think I'm gonna listen to you?)

    In the same way you (and others) have a few words or a simple phrase to wrap your plans for the year around, I have a motivating principal: give little presents. "Little" b/c really, who the eff am I to think I'm so great--I just do what I can. And "presents" b/c it keeps me focused on what I'm really trying to do here.

    Besides, who doesn't like a nice present, little or otherwise?
  • Meg
    Stories + heart... the passion behind it. Care enough to write it well. It doesn't have to be a huge story with a life altering moral... but I'm less likely to stick with it when it reads like a term paper. Infuse it with you. You do it perfectly in the way that it's just what I'd hear sitting across the dinner table from you. (Of course it's been so long I've forgotten.)

    I've jumped back into writing in a different way- It feels really good.

    -Meg

    GNMParents
    today.
  • It is important to keep ethical in podcast production, none of this hiding in the bushes stuff. Even if a picture of your favorite star doing something in their backyard could be entertaining, do not use technology for voyeur broadcasts.
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