Open Invitations To Bloggers: I’m Your Billboard
March 30, 2008
While there are some notable exceptions to this rule, I’ve found that two camps of RSS-powered brethren — dedicated bloggers and dedicated podcasters — rarely intermingle. I don’t know if bloggers perceive podcasters as RSS’s red-headed, loud-mouthed stepchildren … or if podcasters are so content to hear each other chatter that they can’t be bothered to interact with bloggers. Perhaps it’s both. Perhaps neither. But as I’ve watched the social media space more and more, the divide has become more and more clear to me.
I don’t like it. It doesn’t make sense.
Here’s my brass tacks reckoning about entertainment, and new media entertainment specifically: If you’re dumping your heart, soul and precious time (and money) into a project that is designed to be consumed by an engaged audience, then you’re damned-near obligated to evangelize your work. What good is a story or song (or blog or podcast) if there’s no audience to experience it?
There’s no shame in craving an audience, or growing one … which brings me to promotion, and the aforementioned RSS divide. I perceive this to be a picket line of sorts: Will a podcaster betray his mic-friendly roots by connecting with a blogger? Will a high-profile blogger be perceived as “slumming it” if they promote their work to a podcaster?
If you’re in one of these camps I’m discussing, honestly consider this: Have you ever considered reaching across that divide and promoting yourself to your RSS opposite?
There was a time when I didn’t. I look back at the past two years of communicating (and promoting) with podcasters exclusively, and see two years’ worth of wasted opportunity. The cross-pollination possibilities were — and are — endless.
It’s boneheaded to stick with your respective RSS cult. It is wise to look to your RSS opposite and see them as a new media ally.
Podcasters: Reach out to bloggers for promotion. New media marketing cannot begin and end with a podcaster networking solely with fellow podcasters (or worse, networking only with podcasters who produce shows in similar genres). Podcasting, despite its growth, remains a niche within the social media entertainment space — and when ‘casters only communicate with ‘casters of similar genres, they relegate themselves to something worse: ultra-niche obscurity.
Similarly, I encourage bloggers to connect with podcasters to promote their work. This is a currently-untapped marketing opportunity for bloggers. Podcast listeners are a captivated audience. Just like blog readers, they form relationships with show hosts, and look to them for more cool content. Podcasters play one-minute audio “promos” (gratis commercials) of other podcasts on their shows. These promos generate interest and new listeners. A great many successful podcasts — including mine — hinge on this marketing method.
I can shake my fist at podcasters and insist that they reach out to bloggers, and either they will, or they won’t. But I can bridge this gap in my own content, and I’m doing just that.
Bloggers, this is your open invitation: Consider my show a billboard for your work.
If you want to promote your blog to thousands of engaged listeners, for free, here’s your chance. Create a one-minute audio promo for your blog, and send it to me. I’ll play it in an upcoming episode of my podcast. Boom, done-deal, no reciprocation required.
Don’t wig. Creating an audio promo is easy: Write up the quick “elevator pitch” about what your blog covers, include your URL … and that’s it. Record it with a computer mic and email it to me: 7thSonNovel@gmail.com. If you don’t have a computer mic, call this number and leave a voice mail: 206-984-0918. I guarantee I’ll play your promo in a future episode of my show.
Aside from a few minutes of time investment, it’s is a risk-free chance for you to promote your blog — you know, that thing you believe in and want to grow — to thousands of listeners. It doesn’t get much simpler than that.
Are you in? It’s doesn’t make sense to say no. Remember what to do:
- Write your pitch and include your URL.
- Record it to MP3 an email it to me — 7thSonNovel@gmail.com — or call this number and record it: 206-984-0918.
- That’s it.
Bloggers, I hope to hear your promo soon — and podcasters, I hope you’ll reach out to bloggers to promote your show. To not market your work to new audiences is foolish. Be brave, look outside your comfort zone, and evangelize your content. I bet you’ll grow your audience more quickly than you expect … and sharing your work with new consumers is what, in my brass-tacks view of things, it’s all about.
–J.C.
“Drawbridge” photo by william.ward, used under a Creative Commons license.
Comments
16 Responses to “Open Invitations To Bloggers: I’m Your Billboard”
Got something to say?
-
Sept. 9: Get the "Ask A Ninja" Ninja Handbook!
-
7th Son MOBILE
-
Listen to 7th Son Now
-
Subscribe to the 7th Son Podcasts in iTunes
You’ll get mine, god willing, in a week. In the meantime, anything you want to advertise on Time Well Wasted, let me know, I’m more than willing to promote podcasters. I can’t host a promo, yet, but I can link to one.
–Gem
Nice post, Hutch. I completely agree with everything you said, and I’d also be more than happy to play promo’s for bloggers in my shows. It’s a natural fit.
Are these divides still happening? Remember at the end of the Matrix, where Neo realizes he doesn’t have to dodge the bullets any longer? That’s what all the little distinction fights feel like to me. That’s why I say I’m a media maker. Because I use audio video and text whenever the hell I want.
Is there such a thing as a podcaster? Yes. Is there such a thing as a videoblogger? Yes. Text-only bloggers? Tons.
But really, I’m in the business of reaching people. I can do that with a napkin and a Sharpie, right?
Promos. Hmm. I haven’t recorded those in a while. I should do a few.
Um? J.C? This is an interesting idea.
I’m both. Or maybe not, since the only “podcasts” I put out are my books. But I dont see my blogging as intersecting with podcasting, and I’m not sure how to convince bloggers to plug an mp3 promo into their text stream. I suppose it’s like running an ad for your radio show in the newspaper … but …
The point is my audiences for my podcasts are different than the audiences for my various blogs. And the BIGGEST problem I have with the cross pollination is that the two media don’t intersect very well.
It could be that I’m in the minority because what I’m doing out here is so odd.
My ‘book blog’ is really just a way for me to keep fans of the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper up to date with what I’m doing to create new content. There’s no “content” per se there. My distribution channel is Podiobooks. I don’t release my work on my own feed at all. It *is* true that I do a dreadful job of driving traffic to my books at Podiobooks.com (ding) relying instead on word of mouth, interviews, and the occasional ’sorry so far’ and ‘bumper’ to keep my name in the ears of people who need pod-fodder.
I *have* posted promo’s on the Trader’s Diary blog and tried to help the podio-brethren and sisters as best I can while trying to respect my audience’s sensibilities. But since that blog doesn’t have an audio-component, it’s basically just a blog post with the promo in it — a shout out to my fans to let them know some content they might be interested in is out there.
My ‘education blogs’ are geared for specific educational goals. I have one I use to ‘teach in’ with my various online grad school courses. I have one I rant in about the state of education, and the condition of the profession. I have a couple anonymous ones that I use when I’m *really* feeling snarky. These blogs are not the right place for book promos, and I can’t really see doing an audio promo to run on 7th Son or any other podcast to promote them because the audiences, while perhaps anecdotally intersected, aren’t really that congruent. It feels like running Vodka ads on the Temperance Channel. Not that there’s anything wrong with either — just it’s not likely that I’d find people who want to play with me using that connection.
Likewise, working in text? I really don’t want to promote my education blog in a podcast. I suppose I *could* lean on some of the EduPodcasters to point traffic at my rantage, but it’s not really why I write that stuff. It’s much more about writing so I can learn what I think about it. I certainly don’t want to promote the blog that I use to teach my classes in. Not that outsiders aren’t welcome - even encouraged - but my course blogs are basically intended for an audience of about 25 students.
I guess it comes back to why do I do it, and the answer isn’t “to get as big an audience as possible.” My books, sure, I want as many listeners as possible. But I don’t promote my books on my education blogs and I don’t talk about my courses in my book blog. It’s why I have two sets of blogs to begin with.
it occurs to me that I may well be missing an opportunity by keeping the Traders Diary blog simply to support people who are already listening to the books. My feeling is that the best thing I can do for those people is finish the 5th book (and 6th and 7th and .. ) and every effort I put into adding stuff to the blog, takes away from my ability to deal with the next volume.
This is something to think about, tho, and I suspect that you’ll convince me that I need to be doing something more/else/different before you’re done.
@Chris: Thanks for the comment. That “Matrix” reference is pitch-perfect: we’re all having fun in the same playground, and it’s silly to separate ourselves simply by the type of media we produce.
@Nathan: Your blogs are just that — yours — and no one knows better than you if they deserve exposure. Same goes for your audio fiction. But I remain firm on my position that bloggers and podcasters shouldn’t ignore the other as viable, sustainable ways to promote.
Further, both parties must look beyond the conventions of their respective spaces when marketing to another media, and get creative in their promotion.
That’s why I solicited audio promos from bloggers, and why — should a podcaster choose to market to bloggers — he/she should think twice about sending an audio promo. Play to the strengths of the medium, shake your ass if you choose to, and see what develops.
As a podcaster, I think the brilliance of what you have said here is suggesting that it is possible to publicise blogs with Audio. Of course it is - why didn’t I think of iut before? I am more than happy to promote other podcasts on our show that I think our listeners might like so why not blogs?
Well done, Hutch - damn good thinking!
Having slept on it — the wisdom which should have been obvious last night becomes clearer.
I must reconsider my position on this.
Thanks, JC.
There are only a few people who do see both sides, and usually it is only the “get podcasters to do blogging” side, but you are right,the other way round is relevant as well.
But just because I may not like something does not mean I should not go for what is working. Hence, doing both sides is relevant. Not that it will really convince that many people though.
I never really thought about a distinction between podcasters and bloggers, but I’m a novice. I thought people just picked the medium with which they are comfortable, for example, I could never talk in an informative and entertaining way (well, maybe entertainingly, foolishly) for 30 minutes straight while driving and filling work orders and/or keeping up with chats, phone calls and tweets from listeners, but @shaine is brilliant at it. And, no, that background is not unprofessional because it makes him fun, interesting, and personal (as does sharing Flickr photos).
It also depends on a listener’s learning style (visual, auditory, etc.). You can feed me an auditory promo, but I’m not going to remember it unless I see it and can instantly tag, bookmark it, and put in on my Google calendar, so I need a blog also. Your idea to cross pollinate is a good one. Best wishes with the project!
As someone who eagerly listens to podcasts, but is more comfortable working in text, I can see why some bloggers are reluctant to embrace a different medium.
That said, if they want to do more than simply swap the same group of readers/listeners backwards and forwards, then both groups would benefit from the cross-pollination.
I would suggest that for the podcasters, the best form of blog advertising might be a combination of text and audio. Some well crafted text linking to an audio sample would avoid the horror of web pages that randomly start talking at you.
Or, you could do something that Scott Siegler did when he began podcasting Earthcore. Request reviews from bloggers and then respond to those reviews on the blogs.
This is totally a great idea! I know I’ve promted you and Sigler and a number of other podcasts on my blog (drop in the bucket, but hey) and it’s nice that you would open the gates to return the favor. We all need to scratch one another’s back in the Brave New World.
I’ve been podcasting off and on through BlogTalk Radio and am just getting ready to try my hand at podcasting a novel. If that works well I am thinking of setting up a podcast publishing thing a la Escape Pod seeking new content from writers and podcasting for them. My first love will always be the written word though.
Cheers!
Great idea. We love to get guests on our podcast who aren’t ‘just other podcasters’ because that gets a little stale. There definitely needs to be more crossing of the blog/podcast people!
Someone pointed me at this from twitter. Neat idea! I like the thought of people keeping an eye on divides to keep them from engulfing groups. Three cheers!
I guess I was not immediately aware of the division. Thank you for pointing it out. I would be happy to carry the torch and your wonderful idea to my podcast.
J.C. - great idea. anyone know of any bloggers who talk about audio drama? I think that cross promotion is a great concept and mutual cooperation can only build your audience. How many people ONLY listen to podcasts? How many people ONLY read blogs? Not many in my estimation. Getting your content across in a different medium can lead to some great opportunities.