Remember the Root Goal
There might be a better picture to describe the intentions of this post. I should start this blog post with a catchy anecdote; I’d better go find a story that matches what I’m looking for. I’m going to go ask Twitter what they think. Once I get that all done, I’m going to stumble, digg, mixx, sphinn, delicious, and reddit the post. After all that, I’m going to add it to LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, and everywhere else. Then, I’m going to go comment on 10 blogs that have similar posts, and try to subtly convince people to come back over and visit my site, because hey, there’s a new blog post over here. Hey! Come look at this incredible blog post!
The goal is rarely that. The goal is conversation. Or if you’re someone else, the goal is sales. Or if you’re someone else, the goal is thought leadership. Or the goal is capturing business practices.
It doesn’t require the right picture. It doesn’t require a blog post. It doesn’t require anything very specifically, as much as it requires realizing that you’re doing what matters most to the goal. If my goal is to make money blogging, then I do a really poor job of it. If my goal isn’t about this blog at all, but for something larger, then getting tied up in my stats and things like that means I’m not focusing on the goal.
The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. Right?
Photo credit, Michael Morel
