Although “Back-to-School” means nothing to my schedule and budget now, I still think of the end of summer as a new beginning. Creating new schedules when vacation has disrupted the old one is a good time to re-examine what I do. A book I read this summer, Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger, encouraged me to ask why I am doing what I think I should do.
The book examines why ideas and products become popular, and the mistakes people make getting their message to the public. This quote has me looking at my own marketing efforts: “When trying to generate word of mouth, many people forget one important detail. They focus so much on getting people to talk that they ignore the part that really matters: what people are talking about.”
Like many novice marketers, I joined LinkedIn, opened a Twitter account, put myself on Facebook, and started a blog. Then I asked myself what I was going to put on those blank pages. For most of those outlets, the answer was the same—nothing. At least, nothing about my writing. I couldn’t think of a way to present the story I wanted to tell.
My new to-do list includes asking questions until I find the core of my message. First on the list is answering why I am writing. Then I’ll have a better chance of describing my work to my target audience and generating a message that people will notice, and share.
The answers won’t come easy, alas, but since it is still summer, who’s to say a revelation won’t reveal itself to me at the beach as readily as at my computer?