The Future Buzz

Yesterday I wrote on how the only way to build a sustainable web brand was not to play only to networks and try to get big spikes in traffic, but to build your brand slowly, methodically and organically. I stick by this.

Well, what if you don’t care about building a web brand or sustainable traffic. What if you really do want a one-hit wonder, or want to get a large amount of fleeting attention to just one thing or one idea. Today I thought I’d give you a quick strategy to do just that.

Please keep in mind this is the antithesis of yesterday’s advice for building a sustainable brand and sustainable traffic. This is a strategy to create a big hit for one specific idea, video, image, article – you name it. If you’re going to use technique on your blog, I highly suggest using it sparingly.

Yes, Digg is awesome. I know, I’ve had my content reach page 1 several times and send me 10,000+ absolutely unique visitors in one day.

But, unfortunately here’s the truth: Digg and other social media sites are not overnight king-makers of your brand on the web.

Sure, social media is fantastic for bringing your brand to the attention of a huge community of people and spreading your ideas. But, if your goal is to build a sustainable web brand for influence or monetization purposes you cannot rely on social media alone to build your traffic and hits.

Are you a leader or a follower?

A huge trend across the spectrum of professional industries is personal branding.

Thanks mostly in part to blogs and social media, there exists an exciting new landscape to easily see who the all-stars are in every field.

Simply handing someone a resume is already dated. If you’re a professional and think a strong resume and great references will win you a high level position in the future, think again.

My regular readers know that I’m a big fan of Seth Godin. Have a look at the amount of times I’ve mentioned him on this site - he’s a great source of inspiration for me, no denying it.

Seth’s post yestarday got me thinking. It’s one of his classic, pithy posts that he has mastered the art of. Here’s the whole thing, minus the last sentence which didn’t have to do with this discussion:

A lesson in corporate blogging
I wrestled with whether I should blog about this – but I think it is worthwhile to write this up to show you a great example of what not to do on a corporate blog.

This is of course, my personal blog, and I have a clear disclaimer right at the top. I make zero claim to tie anything on this site to the firm I work with – these are entirely my own thoughts.

A corporate blog is a far different animal. Depending on what your corporation is, you may be able to venture into some debate, but at least do your research first, and be open to fixing something if you post the wrong facts.

As I’ve written previously, your small business website is the most powerful tool in your arsenal to sell your company’s services.

While I did give a brief mention in that post that your small business website should have a blog, I wanted to go through some of the reasons why this is so vital.

Here’s 10 basic reasons your small business should have a blog:

Prove you’re ahead of the curve
Do your competitors have blogs? Guaranteed at least some of them do, and you can bet that potential clients are reading them. If a client was looking for a cutting-edge company to employ, having a well-written, professional blog would definitely be a nod in that direction.

Show your passion
Having a blog allows you to really draw out the conversation and show your passion as a small business. Your static webpages can open the dialog, but the blog is what differentiates you as a passionate business owner and someone who really provides the best product. It’s a good way to stand out from the pack.

No doubt, if you’re a serious blogger, you’re an expert (or aspiring expert) at the subjects you’re writing on. While blogging is definitely a learning experience for both writer and reader, the best blogs are written by leaders with strong minds in their fields.
It’s easy to write thinking that your readers already know everything […]

The title got yours, didn’t it? Did you expect to find a silver bullet here? Sorry to disappoint you, but hopefully it made a point.
An attention-grabbing headline is everything. Whether it is something completely original and novel, ultra-specific and geared towards a niche, or just incredibly compelling, good headlines on the Web […]

Music and spreading ideas are both democratized
Just as the web has democratized the tools necessary to spread ideas, software has democratized the ability to write, remix and produce your own music. Programs like Ableton Live have turned the creative process of composing music into something relatively straightforward for anyone with a decently powered […]

There are virtually millions of pieces of content someone can choose to view at any given time. They can flip through the 500+ channels of TV, meander through the seemingly infinite pages on the blogosphere, or even sit down with a book (yes, people still do that).
So it’s amazing that many personal […]