Yesterday, I came up with an idea for a holiday photo project. There are great submissions in the comments.

Above is my submission. Below is my niece, Cindy, who would make a close second:

And here’s a quick video capturing the frenzy. Because we have to do that.

There are a few other Christmas photos here.

So, why do this? Because making media and then sharing it is one big, easy essential fundamental to understanding how the social web works. It’s what we do. It’s how we do it. It’s a way to get to know and understand others. And this was just a simple project. You can do this for your business with just a little bit of thinking. For your community, for your family, for whatever needs the effort. It’s not just marketing. It’s a way to capture the world around you and share it. (The “share” part is the big difference. We’ve had ways to take pictures for a century. It wasn’t until sharing that it really mattered.)

To Go With Your New Cameras

If someone you know (or you) got a new digital camera or video camera for Christmas, consider getting them set up at the following places:

• Flickr – for photo sharing.
• YouTube and Blip.tv – for video sharing.
• Picnik for online photo editing.

And there are probably a few other services you should consider trying out, but maybe you’ll leave your favorites in the comments.

What did you think of the project, those of you who did it?

Hey! Let’s do a holiday photo project! Some of you will get new cameras and videocameras for the holidays. Let’s use them!

For those of you celebrating the holidays over the next few days, let’s do this: take a snap that represents what REALLY is going on. You know what I mean. Don’t take the posed, pretty, everyone-wearing-the-same-sweater photo. Take the photo of your daughter crying because you didn’t buy her the Littlest Pet Shop Euthenasia Set, or that picture of Aunt Bernaise with her teeth out, snoring in the corner.

Post them on your blog, on Flickr, wherever it makes sense, and throw a link in the comments, or link back to this post. Whatever works.

Extra points for video.

And, if something really sparks my fancy, I’ve got four STUFFED boxes of over 25 pounds of books, comics, and other things that I’ll mail to you (US and Canada only for those). It’s not a contest, but if you wow me, I’ll be moved to share something with you.

What do you think? You in?

If you can’t see the video, click here.

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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When your media feels too complete, people don’t feel like they’re participating. More than anything, this is a note to myself.

Photo credits, Cake- Kanko, Egg – Gabe Photos