Understanding Your Guests

Hi Chris,

It kind of reminds me of a concept in a book I’m reading about writing a non-fiction book. It talks about writing a book that is “backlisted”, meaning essentially a book that will be evergreen in nature, a book that over the years can be referred to over and over, yet still be true and helpful. I think that’s a great concept to apply to blog posts, and a great way to engage an audience.

Cheers,

George

Chris

The theme park analogy is very apt and since I am in the process of revamping my blog, very timely too.

I think it is essential to understand one’s audience but your own aims are primarily important. Do you want to build a community? Or build a showcase for your ‘services’ or problem solving abilities for clients and prospects? Or create collateral for activities not directly related to your sources of revenue or to create new revenue sources?

As those aims evolve,, so should the theme park. Which is why I like the living, breathing nature of web 2.0 much more than the brochureware that some of us (Gen X) experienced first when we made acquaintance of the web.

Thanks. Interesting post.

Chris

The theme park analogy is very apt and since I am in the process of revamping my blog, very timely too.

I think it is essential to understand one’s audience but your own aims are primarily important. Do you want to build a community? Or build a showcase for your ‘services’ or problem solving abilities for clients and prospects? Or create collateral for activities not directly related to your sources of revenue or to create new revenue sources?

As those aims evolve,, so should the theme park. Which is why I like the living, breathing nature of web 2.0 much more than the brochureware that some of us (Gen X) experienced first when we made acquaintance of the web.

Thanks. Interesting post.

Interesting, my experiences are similar. My blog’s fairly new, but I have noticed:

- List articles = most bookmarks and comments
- Posts about software/online tools = most traffic
- Insightful posts = most comments

But I hadn’t really analyzed my stats vs. comments vs. diggs before now, so thanks for pointing out these trends!

Aloha, Chris!

Great post, and I love the Disney comparison as they truly do have a clear overview of their guests experience at any given time. I’ve been doing content development since 1994 when I worked for Prodigy Services and have continuously, since then, sought to have a “theme park” environment via multi-media branding. The one thing that trips me up is technology platforms; incorporating them, learning to use them, trying to make good choices and tying them all together. Thankfully, since getting more involved with Twitter, I’ve run across folks like you and others who are the Disney’s and Eisner’s of social media. : ) Mahalo nui loa (thank you!)

Aloha, Chris!

Great post, and I love the Disney comparison as they truly do have a clear overview of their guests experience at any given time. I’ve been doing content development since 1994 when I worked for Prodigy Services and have continuously, since then, sought to have a “theme park” environment via multi-media branding. The one thing that trips me up is technology platforms; incorporating them, learning to use them, trying to make good choices and tying them all together. Thankfully, since getting more involved with Twitter, I’ve run across folks like you and others who are the Disney’s and Eisner’s of social media. : ) Mahalo nui loa (thank you!)

Chris, What you talk about in this post is very similar to the “personality moments” that Rohit Bhargava shares in his Personality Not Included book. I love that what you do everyday is share with us, show your caring personality, and let it shine. Looking forward to more “personality moments” from you in 2009. :)

Hi Chris, another great post. Excelent thoughts. It will help me a lot to understand my guests..

Best Regards,
Monthiel. I invite you to know my blog.

Chris,

I love how you started off this post. Right to the point and you painted a picture. Just like you said. Knowing your customers and or audience is probably one of the most important things to always keep in mind as you continually produce content and engage your audience. Great stuff!

It an interesting experiment to consider what the “typical” profile of blog visitor would or could be, or to generate five types, much as they do in consumer testing. Then while generating content, have those types in mind. Of course, you can identify actual readers and engage them in a way where they fill that role.

It an interesting experiment to consider what the “typical” profile of blog visitor would or could be, or to generate five types, much as they do in consumer testing. Then while generating content, have those types in mind. Of course, you can identify actual readers and engage them in a way where they fill that role.

Here’s an example of /not/ understanding your guests you might get a kick out of. I use facebook to communicate with friends, family, the usual. However I use twitter to listen and talk about the mechanics/measurement of social networking. Within minutes of setting twitter to update my facebook status, I received some good feedback.

Erich, nobody understands a word you’re saying.

and

who…whaa? me speak simple.

My guests were right to vote my twitter status off the fb island.

@Erich – boy, I know that feeling from time to time. : )

@Julia – I think “blogger” is a strange term anyhow. It’s a medium, not a career. We’ve just overlaid (or lazied) the “job” of blogger over the tech. I think bloggers are writers of a different kind.

@Monthiel – I’ve visited from time to time. Great to see your progression. :)

@Mark – Rohit who? Just kidding. He’s a really great guy. I’ve bought his book three times.

@Diana – sometimes, we’re just having fun and enjoying the moment, and don’t get into the stats part. But then sometimes, we think more on that, and it’s helpful too. I like to dabble in each.

@George – I might have to think about that a bit more. I should do that.

Good Morning Chris,

After the opening paragraph I was half expecting an article on understanding your blog readers by segments, where they come from, what they want and then catering to each one of them.

Rather it turned out to be an article on the types of “products” you “sell,” which is great and useful. However, I’m left a little wanting for insights into how you measure and segment your blog readers. Have you written such a post?

-KyNam

As (almost) always you are right on. Sometimes it is hard to practice some self discipline and stick to your roots (I’ve certainly been guilty of that). But at the end none of us is competing with the editorial part of the New York Times.
I enjoy your blog for what its worth: I can relate to what you write. If you start posting about growing bananas in the Carribean I might get lost in transition ;-)

Chris – Thanks for the insight. I work for an agency. We have a difficult time figuring out how to write content that will attract potential clients rather than others in the industry. While generating industry traffic is no doubt a positive, the goal of the blog is to increase awareness within our potential client base. We feel like we know our audience and understand them quite well. Now, we need to produce the content they will actually be interested in. A challenge for 09!

Billy

Chris, this is an excellent post – that is obvious. However, it is excellent because you are not only being transparent, but showing that you care for your community.

I have so much left to learn, but that is what makes life, and blogging fun. I often ask questions of whether I have a “right” to do a particular post. Have I earned my readers’ trust – did I build relationship?

It is good to see that I made progress this year, and so long as there are great advice-giving guys (and gals) like you – I will continue to learn, improve, and hopefully return the love to the community.

Thanks, and have a wonderful new year.

This is something I definitely will think about. Thanks for sharing.

Not just understanding guests but treating them with respect and/or respectful of their time.

Hey! I was going to comment about how good this post was, but I guess you already knew that ;)

Happy 2009 people!

I do believe that list posts (not yours actually) but in general are a bit gimmicky and not necessarily the things that cause people to subscribe. They can be a part of your post structure but I think encouraging people to post lists isn’t the recipe for success as much as carving out a unique voice.

I agree and have seen similar traffic spikes when I post lists, but actually gain more subscribers on days I post deeper thinking and not merely 20 awesome blanks to help you blank. Just hope your readers don’t think that is all it takes (post a bunch of lists) because it isn’t. Some of your shorter posts I actually find more useful than the lists =)

Thanks for sharing, Chris. It does seem that lists are very popular with readers. It is also a strong or unique headline that seems to pull readers in. If it doesnn’t catch their initial attention then they’ll often pass.

HI Chris–I like it. Lists do indeed get review….again and again. One of my favorite “Listers” is Chris Elliott (www.elliott.org) in the travel category. He’s a master at it. TOp 50 Travel blogs you should follow. Follow these top 50 people on twitter. Six things to know before you go, etc.
And while I think it’s important for you to know your guests, I also think it’s crucial that your guests know you. These online media are much different than traditional print/broadcast formats. As writers/producers, we have the chance to break on through to new levels of engagements with our guests–I think you’re doing a great job.

@ Chris:

I think “blogger” is a strange term anyhow. It’s a medium, not a career. We’ve just overlaid (or lazied) the “job” of blogger over the tech

I haven’t read your blog since its beginning, so per chance you’d had something about it in the past, but if you could consider expanding on ‘medium’ vs. ‘career’ in relation to blogging, it would certainly be good. I think it also feeds into what you said about questioning yourself and what you do, and with blogging one can easy lose the sight of what they are there for.

Thanks :-)

Chris -

Great post (as always!). Made me think of two things:

1. The importance of metrics. Disney knows everything about their visitors because they’re a highly data-driven organization who measure every detail of your visit and feed it into an analysis machine that continuously improves the park experience. Gardening a community is the same: your garden is only as rich as your data. Go beyond the numbers built-into WordPress (or your blogging platform of choice) and spend some time getting to know Google Analytics. I’d be curious, for example, to see if the low comment posts have a high enough time-on-page and low enough bounce rate to show that people are reading rather than leaving.

2. I’m commenting from my phone so can’t really look it up, but I’m reminded of a story Daniel Burka told during a presentation at meshconference last year. I’m pretty it was about a new building at MIT, and specifically about the paths leading to it across the surrounding lawns. Rather than laying them out in arbitrary or aesthetic lines, they put down no paths and simply surrounded the building in grass. We’ve all encountered ad hoc paths: a deep, dirt groove through the greenery where the wisdom of crowds says it wants to walk. They waited for some time to pass and then used those ad-hoc paths as their guide for where to put the real ones. The first lesson here is simple: your community will find their own way through your site and will usually blaze the same trails over and over whether you want them to or not. Do you have grass in place to measure it? The second is equally simple but a little more bitter: students at MIT have to go into that building so their need overcomes the “path of most resistence” to create the “path of least resistence”. No one has to read your writing and so their determination to undertake grassroots trail blazing will be considerably reduced. That means you, as Community Gardner, have to step up your observation and measurement from pasively watching grass get trampled to actively monitoring and responding.

Thanks for being thought provoking Chris! That’s got to be the longest comment I’ve ever tapped out on my iPhone but hopefully of value to other people.