So I’m sitting at SOBCon and I’m amazed at the interesting content and discussions online and in the room. The side discussions at the table and on Twitter are just as engaging, if not more so than the formal presentations – definitely lively as you can see from the above Tweet from @amandachapel. For most of us there are a huge number opportunities to change the path forward based on the things learned during the sessions.
The biggest thing so far at the conference is understanding what a persona is in context of blogging. Not a buyer persona, but the persona you put forth on a blog and I realized that Brian Clark hit a chord with the concept that you need to a develop a persona, one that’s authentic and one that you as a person are willing to invest in.
Clark’s recommendation of finding your persona is definitely something that I’ve been working on over the last year. If you look back to when I first started here it was all over the place from a content perspective and at points of laziness the content may still be a little meandering . That being said, I’ve continued to refine the topics and narrow the focus over the last year and the readership has grown multiples. Subscribers and comments have grown mainly because the content consistently addresses a market need for product management and marketing/brand folks.
This narrow focus has helped me become a better marketer and product manager in general. Most recently I’ve apparently become an archetype for a product management buyer persona for Pragmatic Marketing, which you can see in the screenshot below. This essentially represents the coolest thing I’ve had happen with this whole blog thing to date. To that end, my personal experience is very consistent with the Sobcon discussions throughout the last couple of days around focusing your content and developing/evolving your persona.
Be a Persona!
Lorelle’s presentation from last year was the key nugget I took away – have a purpose or mission on your blog which can be explained in under 10 words.
Persona’s Have Problems
Persona’s are pervasive! Bloggers, social media types and marketers in general ya need to know your personas. The other thing which occurred to me is that — where personas and their problems intersect are more or less how markets are defined/emerge. Blogging is more than just creating content (features) and setting it free in the ether – it’s essentially a market plan.
So I’ve not only come to this by way of Brian’s content, but if I look at the lesson’s learned by some good folks who have shared their marketing ideas with me here previously, they can easily be abstracted to blogging:
- Steve Johnson – Know your Market/Problem
- Chris Brogan – Change the way you approach the market to be successful/find your crossroads
- Mukund Mohan – Research your competition and market to build good products
- David Daniels – Know your buyers
- Ben Cody – Create products that matter and innovate
- John Mecke – Differentiate your positioning
Find a way to be your blog’s product manager – know the problem and the persona’s – not just buyers persona’s, but your own.
Persona’s as it relates to social media and products is not an easy thing in social markets, which is why it is one of the 4P’s of Social Media being examined at the 2009 Mountain Social Media Summit.
