For years, we\u2019ve shared\u00a0reasons you should blog\u00a0and that you\u2019d basically have to be crazy to yield your presence to the stream. The path we advocate is simple:\u00a0focus opt in at the source\u00a0and approach the web as if\u00a0you are a media company.<\/p>\n
Yet we continue to see businesses, people and publications make the same mistake: overvaluing or relying totally on other people\u2019s platforms. Then, either complaining the web doesn\u2019t work (it does) or realizing (correctly) they are doing it wrong and return to focus on an\u00a0independent\u00a0presence.<\/p>\n
This part of digital marketing is not complex. Produce content and accrue digital equity in a way that is platform agnostic so\u00a0inevitable<\/em>\u00a0(yes, inevitable) changing user preference isn\u2019t disruptive to your art, business or blog. You should not approach the web the way\u00a0users<\/em>\u00a0do and flirt from platform to platform if you actually seek to\u00a0build a community\u00a0that thrives long term. You\u2019re not just another user after all if you\u2019re someone actively interested in seeing your ideas get shared.<\/p>\n Remember,\u00a0it\u2019s the creativity\u00a0that matters, not the tools. Setting up the right workflow of content on the web that let\u2019s you focus on your creativity is not just imperative, it\u2019s actually the easy part.<\/p>\n So it was good to see famed cartoonist \/ author (and all around nice guy) Hugh MacLeod\u00a0recently declare that he\u2019s\u00a0reclaiming blogging\u00a0and giving up on Facebook and Twitter:<\/p>\n Earlier today I told everybody on Twitter and Facebook, that I\u2019m leaving Twitter and Facebook.<\/p>\n Why?<\/p>\n Because Facebook and Twitter are too easy. Keeping up a decent blog that people actually want to take the time to read, that\u2019s much harder. And it\u2019s the hard stuff that pays off in the end.<\/p>\n Besides, even if they\u2019re very good at hiding the fact, over on Twitter and Facebook, it\u2019s not your content, it\u2019s their content.<\/p>\n The content on your blog, however, belongs to you, and you alone. People come to your online home, to hear what you have to say, not to hear what everybody else has to say. This sense of personal sovereignty is important.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Which is smart because when you have a holistical web strategy that works, it\u2019s crystal clear social media marketing is far\u00a0more than<\/em>\u00a0Facebook and Twitter. While I\u2019m not advising you to\u00a0completely<\/em>\u00a0give up on Facebook and Twitter (at the very least, syndicate) Hugh is making the right choice by putting his self-hosted publishing first.<\/p>\n Hugh\u2019s post was reminiscent of when we wrote about Leo Laporte and\u00a0his hard lesson learned:<\/p>\n It makes me feel like everything I\u2019ve posted over the past four years on Twitter, Jaiku, Friendfeed, Plurk, Pownce, and, yes, Google Buzz, has been an immense waste of time. I was shouting into a vast echo chamber where no one could hear me because they were too busy shouting themselves.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Of course, readers here are already well aware of the need to\u00a0self publish pretty much forever. Ask yourself: would TechCrunch give up TechCrunch.com for Facebook or Twitter? Would The New York Times give up their site? Of course not. They would have to be insane to do that, as they would be basically handing over their own equity and communities to someone else\u2019s business. That\u2019s what you do when you make a social\u00a0outpost<\/em>\u00a0your hub. Your business is not any different than the NYT or TechCrunch: they\u00a0just happen to sell ads, and you happen to sell products or services (or even just share ideas).<\/p>\n Our industry is obsessed with platforms: what\u2019s your Google+ strategy? What are Facebook marketing best practices? These are the wrong questions to ask and in fact most companies fail miserably at the\u00a0real<\/em>\u00a0opportunity digital publishing enables: the ability to go direct to consumer with content in such a way that can be shared across all platforms efficiently. Get the independent web presence part right first: before that you actually have no business in someone else\u2019s platform.<\/p>\n On the flip of the spectrum, you see savvy companies like Floor64 focusing on\u00a0their blog,\u00a0Techdirt\u00a0(now over 800,000 subscribers) which is basically promotion for their\u00a0insight community. You see 37 Signals continue to focus on their\u00a0Signal to Noise blog\u00a0(a key marketing tactic helping them grow to\u00a0millions<\/em>\u00a0of customers). You see Chris Brogan continuing to launch products and become more well known\u00a0via his personal blog. If you asked any of these people to start using Twitter or Facebook\u00a0more<\/em>\u00a0than publishing original, useful and compelling ideas they\u2019d laugh.<\/p>\n But watching the way other brands and people approach the web, even smart people like Hugh and Leo I have to ask: is this stuff really so difficult to grasp? Why?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For years, we\u2019ve shared\u00a0reasons you should blog\u00a0and that you\u2019d basically have to be crazy to yield your presence to the … <\/p>\n