Quickthink

Key Words: Targeting People. What the hell does that mean?

Regular readers of QT know that I follow Fred Wilson’s blog, A VC. Fred’s comments are interesting in their own right. But perhaps more important to me, Fred’s blogging style offers a nice case study in using blogging as a tool to build an online community with real world value.

Fred explains his approach in a video that he posted the other day. Anyone who is interested in how building interactivity on the web can enhance traditional or real world activities should take a look. Here is the link.

FOLLOW -  One of the things I took from the video is how clearly Fred articulates what he is trying to do and why he is doing it (Of course, we all know by now from Simon Sinek that the why is more important than the how or the what). With strong answers to these questions,  Fred understands who is in his target group and why, and this gives him a lot of confidence that the group can be cohesive. Put more simply and directly, Fred targets people in his writing. Adopting that approach, Fred puts himself in a leadership position to strengthen the group that he is targeting. He makes a commitment to the group. Simply by taking that leadership position, Fred offers a huge value added for people who aspire to be in his group. And he creates opportunities for himself and the group. Suddenly there is a flow of creativity where there was none before. We might contrast this with the crappy writing coming out of content production factories going for high SEO ratings. Scott Rosenberg at Slate tells this rather pathetic story. Here is the link.

BTW, Apple also targets people in its product development (making a strong commitment to the group). Matt Asay over at Giga explains. Here is a link to his interesting post.

So, errr …. Mr. or Ms Blogger, who are you targeting and why?

2d FOLLOW -  Hmmm … so you are not a blogger? Well, you might ask who are you targeting when you speak and why are you doing it? Indeed, the above is an example of a skill set that applies rather broadly. In negotiation, for example.

This great image of Audrey Hepburn is from AllPosters.com (and anchors the story below)

“So what do you like to … do?” The attractive young lady asked me with a smile. Dinner was winding down, and the wine was having its effect.

“Errrr …. I’m into — blogging!”

These days, this would be a sure way to not make an great impression. Why? The sad truth is that too many blogs are either rants, advertisements for the author or “how to” guides. These get boring. Before bloggers will be ranked up there with brain surgeons, rock stars, secret agents, and so on, we will have to better define what we do. So when she asks,

“Oh really! What’s that?”

We can give an answer that really excites the imagination. Such as ….. (to be continued)