Editor’s note: If this looks familiar it is because it appeared here. But this message still applies. It still works because there is so much crap and clutter floating around out there it makes me want to scream. And now on to our primary message:
I’ll give you five reasons why I HATE YOUR EPIC CONTENT:
- It is not epic. It is not original, insightful, educational, recyclable or enjoyable. Not to mention that I am irked that people have overused epic and made it meaningless.
- You didn’t write your post with a person in mind. It sounds like SEO gobbledy gook and I want to tear my hair out and gouge my eyeball with a fork.
- Your call to action is to sign up for a newsletter that is going to try to sell me more useless nonsense. I don’t have time for this.
- There is no single way to do this right. Stop telling me that you have the sole key to social media success because you don’t and in six months you’ll be gone.
- You sell fear. You prey upon insecurity and worry. You are an emotional vampire and not the sort I want sucking on me.
Social Media Is About People
Technically I could have shortened that rant. It didn’t have to be a list of five line items. It would have been just as easy to make it a paragraph and to qualify that I am typing slow for some people but that is not how I roll.
The blogosphere has gotten to be exceptionally noisy and that has made people fight even harder to find ways to be heard. The thing is that many aren’t thinking about what they are doing or why. They are just out there pounding on their keyboards and screaming into cyberspace silly little slogans that might as well be “LOOK AT ME!â€
You don’t have to do that. You don’t have to try to make every post a clone of those that are successful or work hard to try to be different. It is a big world and there is room for multiple voices and it is ok to say the same thing as everyone else as long as you say it in your voice and use your words.
Honda Versus Toyota
There is a reason why there are multiple brands successfully occupying the same space. Look at the auto companies and try to tell me what the material differences are between Honda Accords and Toyota Camrys. If you are comparing equivalent models the cars are quite similar.
If you write like a person and for people you will find your tribe. You will find people that prefer your voice and your way of talking/speaking/explaining and they will hang with you. If you treat them like people you will build a community and gain trust/loyalty.
What Are Your Goals?
What are your goals? Why are you here? What are you doing and what do you hope to achieve?
It is clear to me that some of you don’t have a clue and are just fumbling around. That is not necessarily a bad thing, especially if you run a personal blog and don’t care what people think. But if you are business blogger, well some of you are hurting your business.
But hey, what do I know I am just a dad blogger with a pen.
Cleopatra, Ten Commandments, Greatest Show On Earth, any live Springsteen show = epic.
The blog post or “manifesto” it took you a couple of hours to write – not epic.
Hopefully, they will all get over themselves.
Exactly. I wonder sometimes if they really believe it is epic or if they use it because they think it is effective.
I can’t help saying that I agree with you for some extent. There is no limitation for opportunities, you should know when to grab them but some people just don’t see the limitation of marketing. They misguide and ruin the users on the internet.
Rant, rant, rant… Here I was, rushing through the door! And you sucked it all back in for another day. sigh.
Tell me something cool, Jack.
I find, as time is flying by at warp speed, that two things are happening. Yes, the shit is noisy!! Quiet down, people!
ahem. As I was saying… Well, you got through and over my third year hump… Well I am not done! I want to learn more! Not the same lessons (I do try not to make the SAME mistakes over and over…), but the next level! Yes, yes, got it, that too, doin’ that, check that every day…yes, writing, yes, every day… DUDE. Enough already. I know what SEO and all the other mind boggling letters mean now. GOT. IT.
Now what?
It seems like, you are either shiny new and learning up a storm, you are an egomaniac who everyone loves to complain about (those folks some refer to as ABC Listers) or you quit and “have you seen so and so?” poofed. But what about us? What about me? I love what I am doing, all I am learning and the meeting great gobs of humans from places I have never even imagined having the opportunity to understand, let alone make friends there!
So…What now?
Hi Amber-Lee,
Well I see it as being similar to being out on a trail. Some things are always going to be routine. You are going to take of your basic needs and necessities and do what you have to do along the way.
But as you go along you keep your eyes open just in case something special comes about and you look and listen because there is joy in the journey.
After a while you have hiked or ridden your horse up and down that trail so many times you have developed a reputation for being reliable, dependable and knowledgeable.
So people come to you because they want to see what you see and do what you do and much of that comes from sustaining your effort.
Thanks, Jack.
I will.
I missed the first posting of this so thanks for sharing the rant again. I agree about the noise and the constant selling. Just when I think someone has something important to say, they ruin it by trying to sell me something.
And my 9 year-old son says epic all the time. Everything is epic – it was an epic battle, an epic football play or an epic movie. I asked him what he thought the word epic meant and he said it was something amazing.
Hi Penney,
Those people who are trying to blog “professionally” are caught between a rock and a hard place. So few of them are making real money.
It is tough not to try to and recoup your investment and hope that you make enough to have a couple of extra bucks. But if you aren’t providing value your readers will go elsewhere.
Your stories about your son always makes me smile.
What I’ve been asking myself lately is how personal is too personal? It seems that what we’re writing on our blogs and what we’re publishing on social media is sometimes just entertainment, but at other times, I find content that are very personal. And, I like personal, but when people are telling stories that I normally would hear, even if I was their best friend, I am thinking about what is happening. If this is how it should be, or if there are no rules, and we should just play along.
Hi Jens,
I think there are boundaries in blogging but the question of where to draw those lines is subjective. It is something that is between both the reader and writer.
As writers we have to decide what we are willing to share and if we are concerned about how our readers will react.
A-to-the-men! Stop clogging the internet with junk, people, the real voices need to get through!
Sometimes it is scary to just write, but it is refreshing and makes people feel…free.