My wife and I moved into our first house last September. The process we went through to find the house lasted about 4 months, caused many marital disputes, 3 abandonments of looking at houses all and hundreds of miles put on my car. It was one of the most enjoyably terrible experiences of my life, but one thing that came out of it was an unfounded appreciation for the show House Hunters on HGTV. (Alright, alright, I freaking love that show now...Man Card revoked.)
If you've never seen it, House Hunters follows a couple and their Realtor as they look at three houses in the price range and then choose which one to buy. It sounds super exciting, doesn't it?
One Of These Things Is Not Like The Others
House Hunters works because so many people have been in the position of buying a house and know the frustrations that go into it. It also works because if you've looked at houses, you know what your preferences are and you superimpose your desires onto the couple in the show and decide which house they should buy. The simple truth is that the show is 3 people spending 30 minutes on TV looking at 4-bedroom, 2-bath houses. How many different ways are there to look at the same house?
If you have looked at houses in your life, you know the answer is, "About a million different ways." As I mentioned, my wife and I spent 4 months looking at 6-8 houses every weekend before we found the one that worked. Sometimes you have to look at the same type of house over and over again with subtle differences in layout or surroundings before you find the one that fits your needs.
Why wouldn't it be any different for the information and content your audience takes in?
Different Strokes For Different Folks
Not everyone learns the same way. It is regularly accepted that people learn in 3 main ways: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Why is it then, that so many communicators and marketers simply say their piece and move on?
Blogs are great (I have one obviously), but they are not the only way to get information across. I also speak and do personal consulting when asked. I also am writing an ebook and have plans to have a video portion on my upcoming website. Why wouldn't you take advantage of the multiple ways you can approach your audience?
"Well, I've said what I needed to say. I wouldn't want to sound repetitive."
That's a good point, but what if 1/3 of your audience isn't as savvy in the blogosphere as you are? What if they spend their time on SlideShare or Youtube? Shouldn't you be there too?
Content Amortization
How should you roll out your content so that different sects of your market can take it in? So you've written a great blog post, it gets more traffic and unique readers than ever before. Could you expand that idea into an ebook or presentation? You've got a speaking gig next week on "The Power of Twitter As An SEO Tool." Why not film it and either put it on your website, on Youtube, or make it part of a video training series? You could even put your powerpoint from the speech on SlideShare.
Your content should be part of your marketing strategy and you'd never make a great commercial and say, "I spent a lot of time and energy making this great and persuasive, I'd like it to run on one radio station only the one time for maximum effect."
Too Many Ostriches
The danger in getting your content to as many people as you can is the risk of spreading yourself too thin.
I am on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Brazen Careerist, and Yelp. While that may seem like a lot, there are hundreds of social networks I am not a part of because I would not be able to use them effectively. When we were house hunting we would look at 5-6 houses in a day because we wanted to look at each one thoroughly. Theoretically we could have seen 20 houses each day, but we would have had to simply drive up to the front, say "yes" or "no" and drive away. Not a very effective plan if you ask me.
Find out where your audience is hanging out and be there. Be active and engaging and start to build real relationships with the people that you say you care about.
But I'm no guru, no saint. What do you think? Is there benefit in being in multiple places or do you think your time is better spent creating one fantastic medium? Do you think you have to choose presence over quality? (Personally, I think you can be great at many things, but that's just one man's opinion.)
Leave your comments and let me know how you feel. Where all are you located, maybe we can hang out and watch House Hunters together.