What Really Happened, the Big Picture

Disclaimer: The thoughts I am about express are based on what these people said THEY wanted to accomplish as goals. Not what “I” want or hoped for them. Just needed to make that real clear…

I often say that I am not blinded by money and that people who are blinded by money usually end up missing their goals because the money takes them down the wrong path. Winning $100K would have been nice but what would the title WCG’s Ultimate Gamer, based on a TV show, really mean to people like Rob, Jamal and Swoozie? They are favorites in the community, and is that what they really wanted?

No…at least not according to them.

When I hear them talk (particularly Rob and Jamal), this is what it seems like they want. They want the cred, the wins and more important the respect that TriForce has earned over the years. Could they achieve that having the title of WCG Ultimate Gamer from a TV show geared more for entertainment than gaming? No…it is not the same because the gaming community does not respect the title. But they do respect WCG’s competitions, and that is where cross-genre props will come from. Filling up walls with wins in multiple genres consistently over a long period of time. As far as the money, if they handle the business side of their career with the same care they place in the gaming side, they have the potential to make a nice income being professional gamers (even if that means focusing on one genre or game).

In the end it boils down to what I talked about in my last article…wanting something and wanting something bad enough to put in the work and sacrifice to achieve it are two different things.

The Benefit of Mark Winning

I am a strong believer in taking gaming to the next level. I had a large gaming community. I have my battle scars trying to make gaming more mainstream. One of the drawbacks to the gaming community is that egos run rampant, the focus on games and gaming communities prevail and although the knowledge is there that gaming needs to become more mainstream to support professional gaming, nothing is really done on a consistent level to promote and educate gaming outside of the community.

Mark’s win made it clear that the underdog can win and that is great for the genre. Put the work in, you can even beat the favorites. Again, I applaud Mark’s win but honestly, that leaves Jamal, Swoozie and Rob free to do their thing without the confines of WCG’s hosting commitments or whatever else they have in store for Mark. I haven’t been to a gaming event in a while but to me it is similar to hosting a party. To be a good hostess I have to make sure everything is flowing good, people are enjoying themselves, the food and drinks are top notch, etc. Rarely can I be the hostess and the person chilling at the party. A get together with friends, sure – that’s chill mode. A party with 100+ people, that’s work. To me that is what Mark would be faced with. If he wants to be a pro gamer he’ll have to wear two hats at these events. The pro gamer winning competitions and the host that ensures everyone has a good time.

Mark has a tough road ahead of him. He’s going to have to work on being accepted in the position he now holds and learn how to get people pumped and excited. He has a title from a TV show that no one takes seriously. Mark will have to work hard to be that person people say “Ohh…wow, I want to meet him!” at upcoming events.

Ultimate Gamer, Taking Gaming to the Next Level….Really?

I hear that a lot. “I want to take gaming to the next level!” but really, what does that mean? What are they really doing to help achieve that goal? For pro gaming to sustain itself there has to be a profit. To consistently achieve profits the business side of gaming needs to be taken care of, from all angles. The companies holding the events need to ensure the funds to pay prizes, host events, etc. The gamers need to ensure funds so they can take the time necessary to compete, sustain and promote themselves. The companies investing in the gaming community (sponsors) need to recoup their funds so they will invest again. Gamers have classically dropped the ball on handling the business side of their careers. Let’s look at an example:

Rob is a favorite, well known gamer. He has a MySpace page with less than 2800 friends (at the time I’m writing this). I have no idea how many friends he had prior to the show but that is an extremely low number considering he was a favorite on a show that hundreds of thousands (who knows, maybe millions?) of people were watching each week. The cast are mostly on MySpace, the network that is in trouble and realizes they’ve lost to Facebook as the top social networking site (that’s not news – who doesn’t know that?):

Jon did not bring in Owen because he wants MySpace to be Facebook. “Big web brands can coexist and that’s going to happen,” says one source. Another says Jon knows “the social network game is over” and that “Facebook has won.”

To my knowledge, Rob doesn’t have a web site. I know my audience understands the importance of managing a brand but gamers don’t think like that. They’ll hype up a third party site instead of their own. It’s time to open their eyes and really see the opportunities ahead of them and realize they might take different paths to achieve their goals. What if MySpace decides to close their account for some reason? What if MySpace goes out of business? Pro gamers need followers other than gamers to sustain. They need the non-gaming people to take interest in them as people, support what they do, support their sponsors so that the circle is complete. For pro gaming to succeed everyone has to benefit: the gamers, the companies holding the competitions/promoting gaming and the sponsors.

Things Happened the Way They Should

And that is why it is good Mark won last night. He can host events and be the underdog that won. He is an inspiration to some gamers. It keeps the dream alive that they too can have opportunities like that. His story will hopefully open up gaming and draw more people to it.

That leaves the guys free to, if they dare, take things to next level. Show the kids that will eventually take their place how it is done. Lock their brands down, give the sponsors a reason to back them other than “I can play games”. Give their audience a reason to take interest in them and tell their friends about this cool gamer they found.

There is no excuse for these gamers not to have a basic site with general information like their upcoming competitions, what they specialize in, their press, and if they really want to slam dunk it – interact with their audience. Take the followers they have on third party social sites like MySpace or even XBL and convert them to fans that are excited to hear and interact with them on their own sites. If MySpace dies, their site will still be standing. Understand how social networking and marketing work so that they don’t say and do things that places them in a negative light, without the knowledge on how to spin it into a positive. When I search for Swoozie I should get the one, the only sWooZie, not a store. If someone doesn’t know Jamal’s gamer tag they’ll never find him. Rob…he’s a fun one to find if you don’t know exactly how. Do a search for his name and you’ll get this. I dare you to do a search for prodigy. I know, you’re thinking who would be searching, right? Sponsors when they try to gauge how much reach these gamers have. What are the odds of them making any money back? Fans that want to follow them because they saw them on a TV show but can’t…because they have no individual presence on the net. These gamers seem like good people that don’t “get” the opportunities they are missing. As with everything, we all learn our lessons in our own time.

Let me be clear, having a site isn’t the golden key to success. It takes work to have a “good” web site just like it takes work to be a good gamer. It’s a start. They will begin to be in control of their brand. Their career. Their destiny.

Congrats to Mark for winning and to all the cast for participating in the show. Each one played their part to make the show a success. The first season is done.

It’s time to move on.

Why are comments closed? Because what happened on that show really isn’t important and these are points we haven’t discussed before. We have more important things to talk about moving forward.

I am writing about Wayne Sutton.

The Problem

From my previous article:

From a viewer standpoint, Wayne’s show was painful to watch because Wayne and his co-host were unprepared but most importantly, they had no control over the show. Wayne and his co-host are supposed to steer the audience in the direction they want their show to go.

Wayne (literally) is on almost every social network. It was almost impossible to follow what he was doing and saying online because he literally was everywhere. Just as a host has to guide his guest through a video or podcast, a “leader” in a niche or community has to guide their readers/followers. If the leader is all over the place, that leads to chaos.

I understand why people do this. With so many social media sites coming out it is very easy to get caught up in them, especially since they have the potential to be the next “big” thing. Being an early adopter on “the next big thing” has its advantages. Lack a focus is one of the main reasons why companies fail unfortunately.

The Change: Sutton vs. Scoble

To understand the change, I am going to compare Wayne Sutton and Robert Scoble’s presence at SXSW this year. I also wrote a critical piece about Scoble. Scoble recently announced he would not be making videos for Fast Company anymore.

Websites

Scoble: He made an announcement about his new venture, Building43.com, at SXSW during Gillmor Gang. People listening to the live stream or reading about the new venture went to the site, which is live but has no content. One does not need to be a rocket scientist to understand that a more effective approach would have been to make the announcement after the new site had content on it.

Sutton: Wayne started working on his sites before he left. When he reached SXSW his sites were in order and he was ready to go. He launched a new community portal prior to leaving.

Winner: Sutton

Content

Scoble: Robert and his cameraman Rocky are at SXSW. Perhaps they shot a lot of video and they will upload it later. There is nothing available now, while SXSW is going on. Nothing is on their new site.

Sutton: Wayne has been broadcasting panels and he archived the videos for later viewing. He has been taking fun pictures, and making new friends. Wayne seems to understand and grasp the idea of balance between performing and partying. He seems focused on achieving his goals. Wayne is loading his site with content yet still taking time to enjoy himself while interacting with people who reach out to him.

Winner: Sutton

Partners

Scoble: Robert and Rocky do not seem to be accomplishing anything productive to their new venture. Again, perhaps there are videos coming later but does anyone really care what happened at SXSW after it is over? It is hard enough to get people who opted not to go to care while it is going on.

Sutton: Wayne and Kipp seem to make a strong partnership because they have balanced friendship, work and “fun”. They can leave SXSW proud they had fun and accomplished something that will bring them closer to their goals.

Winner: Sutton

Reflection….

Wayne wrote about a conversation he and I had over a year ago. He said that conversation stuck with him along with other conversations he had with others. He took those suggestions and put his spin.

Let me be clear: my article is not about Wayne doing what “I” said. He is making moves that will strengthen his position to reach his goals. I spoke about the Suggested List on Twitter and how the list Twitter implemented skews the “Followers” numbers. The people or companies on the list were not added because of their accomplishments on Twitter. They are on the list due to their accomplishments off Twitter.

Social sites are great compliments to a blog/site. When a person places social media sites over their own, they are making a mistake that will catch up with them later.

In the End…

Let me be clear: I do not buy into Social Media Experts or even strategists because quality content (product or service) has always and will always dominate on the internet. People want to block the noise on the internet and focus on the content (whether it is fun, educational or business) that interests them. Which one you decide to be, the noise or quality, depends on what the decisions you make and your specific goals.

What I do recommend is positioning yourself so, if these third party sites die out, you are not dependent on them. I am looking forward to what Wayne does next. It is truly refreshing to watch the changes he is making. I wish him the best of luck and I hope he continues to have success.

Know Your Audience

Readers enjoy learning but they also enjoy laughing, relating to past events in their lives, and believe it or not…they like to goof off. I know, hard to believe but everyone needs to step back and have fun or smile, even if it is only for two minutes. A two minute “smile break” before a meeting can make all the difference in the upcoming two hour meeting one dreads going to.

To inject “fun” into your site, you need to have a feel for your audience. Hopefully you’ve been paying attention to the comments left on your site and you paid attention to repeat visitors. Go back through the comments left on your site and get a feel for what your audience likes and dislikes, then see if their opinions match your own thoughts on those topics. If they do, you are “syncing” with your audience and that’s good (usually the people who don’t agree do not come back…sort of like a self-maintaining filter). Odds are good your audience will enjoy the humorous, entertaining or “fun” article every once in a while.

How Do I Add “Fun” to My Site?

One of the beautiful traits of blogging is the uniqueness of each blog directly dependent on the writer(s). How “I” inject humor or fun into my site will most likely be different than how you’d do it but I’ll throw some ideas out to get the brain processes flowing for you.

IGN decided to share a quick article, with a picture, of one of their oldest Xbox 360 consoles dying. They interviewed the employee who used the console and had fun with the article. If you’re a 360 gamer you’re familiar with The Red Rings. If you have a 360, reading the article you either remembered when your console red ringed or said a silent prayer your 360 isn’t next. For gamers that might have a PS3 or Wii instead, you laugh to yourself because red rings aren’t something you have to deal with. Either way, a gamer can get a kick out of the article.

In a second example from IGN, if you’re a gamer you know all about talking trash. You have to defend your cred! IGN played on this well know gamer trait and published Wednesday 10: Smug Hardcore Gamer Quotes. Yes, it is a list but the article does not have the negative traits I talked about yesterday (I have one suggestion to improve the IGN list article which I’ll talk about in a minute). If you’re a gamer you’ll laugh at the quotes because you’ve heard them before and you’ll “get” the article (the comebacks are weak).

Knock Out Two Birds with One Stone

You’re having fun with your site by making a fun and entertaining article but that doesn’t mean you can’t tackle another goal at the same time. In the IGN examples, both articles are a wonderful opportunity to link to older content. In the Xbox 360 article if IGN wrote about red ringed boxes previously, the fun article would be an excellent way to gain new eyes to older content. In the trash talking article, wouldn’t it have been nice if the author linked to the games in question? Don’t go crazy with the links but guide your users. If a reader never heard of Galaga Legions before providing them a link to easily find more information can make the difference between them finding out on your site or another site. If they have to search for it the person might opt to search on Google instead.

That was my pet peeve with the list article. They linked to a couple of games but why did those two games get dibs over the other games? Laziness? Advertising opportunity? Bias? What’s the deal?

Break a Leg Kid…

Don’t forget to enjoy your blog and don’t be afraid to share your enjoyment with your audience. One of the reasons why many bloggers experience blogging burn out is because they aren’t enjoying their blog/site anymore. As with all things we enjoy, if you enjoy and have fun with your blog/site, you’ll want to write and express yourself more.

Swoozie finished a set of videos based on his experience with Sims Online. In Part 1 he explains how he got into the game and how he met a “friend”, the girl was popular, and to make a long story short, she moved in with him (in game), leaving her “husband” in a very cold manner (a Dr. John letter). In Part 2 Swoozie explains how things got old as they settled into a married couple type life style and how having “fun” again in the game backfired royally. I highly recommend looking at the videos. They are awesome and Part 2 will definitely make you laugh. If you want to subscribe to the RSS feed for YouTube here is the feed.

With social media (Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, Twitter, etc.) it is very easy to meet new people online. Games (computer and consoles) makes it even easier. I’ve said many times the internet is like a shield for a person to act like a fool do something they wouldn’t do face to face. I keep it real – I’m the same way online and off. I don’t say anything behind a person’s back I haven’t said to them personally (unless I don’t talk to them of course) but if I do communicate I’m not going to smile in their face and stab them in the back talk about them behind their back.

It is very easy to fall into the trap of taking for granted the people we interact with online because the consequence of them reacting to it face to face isn’t there. Let’s step back a minute and talk about this.

In Swoozie’s video the lady he encountered was married to the mayor in the game. Swoozie spent a considerable amount of time with the girl before she asked to move in with him and Swoozie had no idea she was married. Where was the mayor? Why wasn’t he spending time with his “wife”? If he was handling his business in game she wouldn’t have been able to spend as much time with Swoozie as she did. When she “divorced” the mayor she had no problem writing him a Dr. John letter and moving in with a guy she’d know a week or so. When Swoozie “cheated” on the girl he kept saying, “It’s just a game” but instinctively he knew what he was doing was “wrong” because he took measures to mask his actions. That said, I don’t believe if Swoozie had “real” interactions with her he would have made the same choices….and that’s the crux of this article.

It’s so easy….

Online we create friendships easily and learn a lot about people. In Facebook every day I get the opportunity to share in the lives of complete strangers. When they get new partners, break up, get married, have kids, get fired I see their updates, almost as they unfold. It is very easy to feel as if you know someone, without ever talking to them or meeting them, because you know so much about them. And because of this, people enter into partnerships, friendships, relationships, etc. with people online because, let’s be honest, the internet is a wonderful networking tool.

How often do those different type of relationships actually work out? How long before one someone starts taking the other for granted? In a relationship presenting oneself different than he/she really is? In business not doing their share of the work? In friendships not acting like a friend? The trust and mutual respect become broken and the “relationship” falls apart. You’ll no longer be Facebook friends, talk on instant messenger, email each other – it dissolves into nothingness. So easy to move on to the next person….

Lessons learned…

One thing I’d bet Swoozie learned from his Sims Online experience is the fragility of online interactions. If you watch his videos you’ll see he seems to truly appreciate his audience. He doesn’t do the glib “I love you guys!” alone…his actions back up his words. He responds to comments. He lives the life he talks about in his videos. But most important, he makes an effort to release his videos on time. He doesn’t throw a video together, you can see the editing and thought that goes into his videos. The words and the actions match. When you interact with people online, that is what you want to look for. Consistent words = actions behavior.

Ok Tyme, what’s your point girl?

People treat you with exactly how they feel, regardless of what they say. Most times there are cues that show their “real” side that we often ignore. The fact that the girl was willing to leave her “husband” for a stranger (and write him a Dr. John letter) was a sign “flighty”. Asking to move in points to her being clingy. Putting 200K in the tip jar and redoing Swoozie’s house showed she was too attached (playing the wife role). Swoozie was suffering from…

“What you believe determines how you behave…” ~ Swoozie 8/21/07

It is very easy to make oneself appear to be one way when he/she is really the opposite. How do you know what to believe? It is equally as easy to ignore the signs knocking you upside your head. Don’t allow yourself to get caught up in how “cool” someone appears to be. Take a good look at their actions instead. Here is another example: Swoozie talks about this in this video:

Make sure you watch the first one (the lies start 4 minutes in) so you know the three lies he tells. Can you tell which one is the lie and which two are the truth? I guessed right but I don’t want to spoil it. I’ll share why reasoning in comments. If you believe a person is cool, regardless of how the person behaves, you’ll treat the person like he/she is cool, ignoring the “bad” behavior (not that the person is getting away with anything because the bad behavior will catch up with them eventually).

Always remember…there is a consequence for every action we take. Don’t assume someone will always be there and take them for granted. Don’t always believe what you are told. Be cautious when the actions don’t match the words.

Look at things realistically…how things are…not how you’d like them to be when you interact with strangers online.

One last thing…

Below is a picture taken from a video response I was going to send to Swoozie to one of his videos. I opted not to send it because I kept looking bugged out. Say goodbye to the light hair. Next week I’m darkening it up. When I went outside the other day, the sun shined on my hair, bounced off the snow, and I lit up the block.

People are jumping into social media consulting (what is that?) advising businesses without any prior business consulting experience.

No degree.
No experience maintaining or growing a large online community.
No business planning experience.

See what I mean? Maintaining a large online community does not magically give someone business skills. Social skills, yes, but not business skills unless they’ve monetized it but even then the experience is in one niche. Can those experiences necessarily be applied across the board to more traditional businesses? People, with the best intentions, are giving advice but are they qualified to give the advice? Making the distinction between authoritative advice and inexperienced opinion is hard because rarely do people disclaim and say, “I’ve never done this but, I think…”. Assessing both is fine for decision making but to make the best decision one needs to know the difference between someone inexperienced and someone with experience.

On Bill’s site I took part in a discussion about whether a performer’s reputation and past failures (stigma or negativity) would follow the performer. Here is a quote that sums up Bill’s position:

***Disclaimer: Bill is NOT a social media “expert”. We were having a conversation on his site and it makes for a good example. He’s a good friend of mine and ya’ll know the social media experts I’m talking about because I discussed this before.***

The PERSON is going to be “judged” on their own merit. The SHOW is, as well. IF the show was bad because the “on-air talent” isn’t talented, then BOTH the show and the figurehead get blamed and THAT goes along with them to the next show they host. If the PERSON was good in the show, but it failed for other reasons, I don’t believe any stigma’s going to be attached to that performer.

I disagree. If I am trying to integrate video into my company’s offerings (an online show for example) and I need to hire a host for the show, their previous experience is going to come into play the first step.

You see, when people write business resumes their experience is listed chronologically starting with the current position going back to the first position. The entertainment field is different. Their “resume” requires the performer’s best work to be put first. The order is not chronological; the projects are listed in the order of the best project to the worst project. The industry itself dictates a hierarchy on good vs. bad, giving very little wiggle room to be judged by any other merit but success.

Now add on to that I am a business owner looking to make money. At least double or triple my investment. This is business baby, not “let me hold your hand and make excuses for your failed projects” time. I need successes because that proves the performer is “better” than the others. Just like a high-level position “proves” one employee is more experienced than the other. Is this an exact science? Absolutely not but if the resume itself is created to provide the reader with successes first, judgment on merit doesn’t apply. Unless the performer has a look I’m interested in their resume would end up in the “no” stack.

But let’s be nice and say I like someone and their resume is under par but something about them touches me. I call them into an interview and they proceed to tell me why the projects failed. Bad management. Not enough advertising. The reason for the failure wasn’t their fault.

Am I supposed to believe that?
Am I supposed to take the time to research that?
Am I supposed to care?

As one who has booked entertainers for different projects (both personal and for clients) I have been privy to the discussions on whether to pick an unknown over a popular person or picking someone with failures (for whatever reason) over someone with a more established history. If a company picks a person with negative baggage, that past baggage can become the company’s current baggage. That potentially means additional funds might be needed for the project. Why not pick an unknown instead?

You think picking a popular person would be best right? Not necessarily because you see, they have baggage too. If the project fails the failure is “worse” because more people know about the project. Or worse, the performer’s audience might be against them doing other things, especially if the new project takes time from their original gig. This is the age of social media where one person can Twitter, “This sucks! X used to be good until the new show started!”, starting a domino effect of negativity that needs to be dealt with.

We all have to own our actions and we don’t always have the chance to justify our actions. Most times we don’t – decisions are made about us that we have no idea are being made. Judgments about us are being made and we’ll never have the chance to defend ourselves.

And the truth is, the irresponsibility of making unwise business decisions is what put our economy in this horrible position. For example, hiring people who are unqualified or worse, people assuming they are qualified because they “think” what they are saying makes sense. How many failed projects – real failures no half-ass explanations and spins – do these social media “experts” have? Let me be blunt – how many times did their advice equal a return on investment (profit)? Are these things being measured?

I strongly suggest, especially in this tough economic time, that you make your decisions wisely. The choices we make now are more important than ever because the competition, in just about every industry, is reaching record numbers. More people are vying for a lesser pool of jobs.

If you notice I still disagree with Bill but I didn’t comment again over there. Next week I’ll explain why….

1) Many of the active people in comments weren’t around so comments would be light.
2) From what I can tell most the people that comment on my site don’t use Twitter.

Writing the article, I knew, would be an unpopular move (in terms of interaction) but I felt the need to express myself on the topic so I did it anyway. My core audience is the average, normal everyday non-geek person (mainstream-ish audience). Twitter has almost no appeal, Facebook is for friends only (people they know), they have no desire to try every new application that comes on the web. Matter of fact, their internet time is limited because they spend more time living their lives offline that interacting online. I’m lucky, I have the opportunity to find out things about my audience one on one.

Most people with sites aren’t that lucky. They are writing in the dark hoping to find people who connect with their content. That is where I think they fall into the pitfall of over-caring about traffic. People start blogs in hopes someone reads them, they check their stats to see if anyone is reading, then get trapped in being focused on the stats.

And unfortunately begin to care very little about the readers themselves.

You see this all the time. “I’ll do what I want, how I want, when I want but oh yeah, let me check those stats!”. When I see this I wonder how they expect to get traffic without understanding their audience? But tell me this: if you go to a restaurant and they don’t have what you want, do you stay? If the dealership doesn’t have the car you want do you look elsewhere? If the boy/girl you like doesn’t have the traits you’re interested in, do you make him/her your boy/girlfriend?

No.

Then why, while you’re doing what you want, when you want, how you want (with no knowledge about what YOUR readers want) should any reader stay on your site? What have you done for them lately?

And there you have, in a nutshell, why social sites are popular. Easy to gain followers with little to no effort.

Earlier this year I had a conversation with Tyme White about twitter and personal branding that had stuck in my head ever since I got off the phone with her. She brought up the fact that I had a lot of twitter followers but where or how would I stay connected with those followers if twitter goes down (fail whale) , twitter gets purchased by google & closed like Pownce or their business model just doesn’t work and everyone leaves the community. We talked about how some people who I admire like Robert Scoble and Gary Vaynerchuck have huge online followers despite twitter. Robert has a large following and readership on his blog before twitter and the same for @GaryVee but we do know they both have used twitter to extend their brand.

Towards the end of his article he disclosed his plan on how to extend his blog. Everyone will take a different approach and should do what makes them feel comfortable. However some thought should be given about how what you do today impacts you tomorrow.

It is easy to build a Twitter audience (Facebook, MySpace…you get the idea). It is much easier than a blog because the tools are there to quickly send friend requests – which most people accept. Send out enough you’ll have people subscribed to your content. However, how many of those people are actually reading or are interested in what you are saying? It is common for people to only read what Twitter displays the moment they log on…they don’t scroll back to see what they missed. Same thing goes for a blog. Just because your FeedBurner stats state you have X subscribers doesn’t mean all of them actually read your content. Just because you have X amount of subscribers to your blog doesn’t mean everyone subscribed actually reads your articles.

That doesn’t mean people shouldn’t use third party services. They can be a great compliment to your site. However, if you have more subscribers to a third party site than you do your own site that might work against you in the long run. If those sites ever went out of business, blocked access to your profile (who often does that happen on Facebook?) or even worse had technical difficulties and lost your friends list what would you do? How screwed would you be?

Another problem is overextending yourself. If you are spread out amongst too many services it makes it very hard for people to follow you – to catch all of your content. Imagine telling your readers go to Facebook for this, MySpace for this, my blog for his, Twitter for that. I had a profile on Pownce but it is gone, update your records. My work record is on LinkedIn, I have Yahoo, AIM, MSN, ICQ and Skype – add me! See what I mean? It’s information overload on one person. Add more people and the odds are they aren’t tuning in as you’d like them to.

With my own audience I don’t put anything in between us. It’s me and them. That’s how we roll. For me, it works out. Sure, we drive each other crazy sometimes but I know they are reading what I say. Not necessarily expressing their honest opinion (we’re working on that) but they are reading and interacting with me. Not via Twitter or anywhere else but my site, my email, my IM…me.

I answered Wayne’s question in the comments section of his article. Head on over if you want to take a peek. Remember – social media sites are tools. Use them wisely.

There is a girl who does music videos. Her name is Tina and she wants to be a singer. You can view one of her videos here. She has 7100 subscribers on YouTube and a large following on MySpace. There is a concerted effort to encourage her to continue making videos. I’ll leave it to you to decide whether or not she can sing or but it has been commented many times on her videos the door to being a serious singer was an option.

Jack likes Jill and Jill likes Jack back and would like to try something with Jack. Although Jack desires Jill, Jack never attempts to take the relationship to another level because he doesn’t want to mess up the friendship (insert any reason here). One could say the door to be with Jack was never open to Jill because Jack closed the door and refused to open it.

You want to do a daily blog about technology. You work full-time, have three kids and a spouse. By the time you are able to sit down and write it is late and you have to prepare for the next day. Writing on weekends to get ahead is out because weekends are family time. One could say that as much as you’d like to do a daily blog about technology it isn’t a realistic option with everything going on in your life.

Shel Israel wrote a long article about his video debacle. Shel said:

When GNTV launched, I was not quite ready for prime time. If I was an actor, I would say I was prepared for a summer stock script reading. When the curtain went up, I found myself instead at center stage of an opening night on Broadway with some determined hecklers in the audience who managed for a while to distract me. Most people seem to agree that I got better.

What people agree on is that the video quality (the way it was shot) improved. Again, I’ll let you determine if his videos are good (the videos have been removed so if you saw them the decision is yours) but, as commented many times, his strength is writing not video. Some have said that the door to Shel being successful in video was never a real option in the first place.

In each of these cases it is technically possible these unrealistic options to become realistic but it would take an extreme effort to accomplish this. Tina could possibly sing with the right coaching. Jack could be with Jill if Jack overcame his insecurities. You could possibly do a daily blog with the support of your family and friends helping to free your time or write articles. Shel could possibly be better at videos if he worked hard at it (which would mean doing it for the love of doing videos not for money which is what he is doing now). Even if they worked hard would they be successful? Would Tina’s voice change so much that she’d be able to recognized as a singer by her peers as she desires? Would Jack and Jill’s relationship work if Jack’s insecurities overrode what Jill wanted? Would your spouse be happy sacrificing his/her time with you so you can blog? Can Shel change enough that not only would his videos be interesting but he’d understand the medium he is trying to become successful in?

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.” – Helen Keller

Instead of focusing on the “closed door” (being a singer) Tina would be happy being an entertainer. Instead of focusing on losing a friendship Jack could focus on gaining a partner in life. Instead of doing a daily blog maybe a weekly blog or a topic that is less time consuming would be more realistic. Instead of being in the videos perhaps Shel would be a better producer or editor.

Unfortunately many people spend too much time looking at the closed door that was never going to open (in the way they wanted) in the first place.

That would have never have happened listening to his music.
That probably wouldn’t have happened looking at an interview.
It happened because he was chilling, talking to his audience and his crew (Banks was there along with another guy I can’t remember what his name is).

Unfortunately for the other two (Banks and what’s his name) I walked away with a negative impression. So bad of a negative impression I don’t see how they could turn it around. See, it goes both ways. If you have an opportunity to interact with your audience by all means do so but all people aren’t meant to do that.

Back to 50 Cent, he made some very good points which is why he “won” some of my respect. He talked about business, handling business, not wanting to carry people to their success, how people change when they get money, talked about some of the business decisions he made, how current trends impact the music industry, etc. He talked about life, how people are supposed to transition and grow up (and how Banks wasn’t doing that), how there is much to experience and the different cultures he experienced.

I’m still tripping I watched 50 Cent. Not only watched it once, I went back a day or two later and watched it again. Actually I listened to it the majority of the time (while working) because they were just sitting there talking. When someone sent me the link I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. He has a social site and I suppose the streams and videos will be apart of that site. I don’t like the site and I’ll probably write an article ripping it apart later but he was honest why he was doing it: so he wouldn’t need other social network sites.

But, I had to be open to the idea of watching 50 Cent in the first place. The notion of trying and not letting the perceptions I had get in the way. I’m glad I did.

Be open to trying new things. You might discover you like things you never thought you would.

there’s no other love
there’s nobody else I’m thinking of
only a baby as special
how could I ever forget you
and let the moment slip away
we’ve been here for a while
and I just wanna take you away
you got me doing things I never do
I can’t stop feenin and dreaming about you
and about your love it feels so real to me
you know what to say
and you know just what to do
come get me
whatcha got for me
I wanna see
I’ve been waiting way too long
got me losing my cool
don’t know what I’m gonna do
you got me going

The song is about a man’s love for a woman but it can be applied to love in general. One person loves another person very much and wants to take it to another level. Further in the song they say “just let me be, be all that you need” because after waiting, the struggles, etc. it’s time to move forward – together. Passion, excitement, endurance, commitment, loyalty – the song has it all. Now that we have an understanding about love and passion, I’m about to apply this to writing online…because I’m smooth like that.

Passion shows…

It is somewhat easy to tell when someone is passionate about their writing and those that are doing it because it’s “the thing”. Those blogging because it’s the hot new thing are experiencing a crush with blogging. Bloggers that are expressing and sharing their passions are like the excerpted lyrics above.

When a person loves or is passionate about their blogging it shows. The person does not have to say, “I love to blog!” for it to show just like a person doesn’t have to say “I love you” for the person he or she loves to know it or know when someone loves you in return. Actions speak louder than words. Actions speak when there is silence.

The person that is passionate about their writing will embrace all aspects of it. The blogger will pick a decent host (to the best of their ability) and, if he or she encounters hosting problems, will rectify the situation. The person who is passionate about their content (meaning their content is important) will take steps to back it up in case something goes wrong. The person who is passionate about their blog will tweak it in an attempt to improve it. This does not mean the person will morph into a designer but the blog will look like a well-cared lawn – some look better than others but one can tell when a lawn is being maintained and when it is not.

When a person is passionate about their writing and cares about their users the blog will have the features a user would look for: about page, easy to subscribe to the blog, perhaps options to subscribe depending on the target audience, contact page, easy navigation, tags and or categories, interact with readers, etc. The content will be published when promised and the presentation of the content matters to ensure the user is able to easily read their content.

Round 6: May 7th, 2008

9rules has a new round coming up. When I look at blogs I look for the passion and love to show on the blog. When I load a blog in my browser and I’m puzzled about the direction of the blog, confused while reading an article what the author is trying to say or look at a site and my corneas are damaged because the site has colors that should be a sin to put together, I remember when I felt a lack of desire to blog and was blogging for reasons other than passion – and it showed. One of the reasons why we do not accept new blogs into 9rules is because so many people are excited about blogging and dive in, only to bow out a couple of months later.

It’s hard to think of original content and that is where passion gives an edge. The person that is passionate about their blog will come up with original content, will track down that interview, will confirm whether a lead is accurate, will take extra care creating a tutorial, writing a review, explaining design or programming elements, etc. The extra effort isn’t a chore, it can be a joy, something exciting and fun. It’s an essential part of the process.

If you don’t feel the passion or the love for blogging, why are you doing it?