In case you haven’t noticed, it’ been a little quiet around here. Yes, I’ve been pretty busy, but that had never stopped me before.

I think somewhere in the last few months blogging has become “something I really should do” as opposed to “something I really want to do” and that’s a problem. When I started this blog 3 years (!!!) ago, the social media blogging scene was really taking off. It was an exciting time to get into the field because it felt like we were continually breaking new ground and building on the foundation of the ideas that hold up “social media” as a business element.

For those of you that printed out your first weblog posts on dot-matrix printers, that might seem like bright-eyed idealism or rosy retrospection, but it’s honestly how it felt to me. I’m sure the echo chamber was going back then, but, at least to me, it seems like it’s become much worse. So often it feels like the same content and ideas are being rehashed, linked and retweeted so much, that it’s hard to find anything new.

To me, this is where we’re missing the point. The beauty/power of social media lies in what it means and what it does, not what it is. There are much broader issues than how to get a million twitter followers and the right stuff to put on your facebook fan page. Those things are important insofar as they are tactics that support a strategy, but still, they don’t really push my thinking like they used to. Lucky for you there are many, many bloggers out there who do that type of thing better than I ever did.

Which brings us to the point (finally). If you’re skipping down, you can start reading here.

Essentially, A New Marketing as it has existed these past 3 years will no longer be. Don’t be alarmed though, this doesn’t mean I’ll stop writing. In fact, I’ll probably be doing it more.

MattJMcD.com will now become my true home on the web. A new site will go up (relatively) shortly where I’ll be able to explore more of my interests in depth, which definitely still include marketing, tech, etc. but also pop culture, gaming, sports, and anything else that gets me jazzed up. I like to think of it as a more well-rounded MattJMcD experience. (ha!)

However, I do realize that some of you may only be interested in the marketing end of things, so don’t worry, I’ll make sure it’s easy to separate that content out.

Either way, I’m excited for this transition and am looking forward to the new opportunities and challenges that come with launching a new blog. Stay tuned and be on the lookout for MattJMcD via The Internet via MattJMcD.

As always, thanks for reading.

But that’s just me. How do you feel about this stuff? What’s your take on the shifting focus of a blog? How have you grown changed as an author or a reader?

Fire away.

• If you don’t love it. Don’t do it. Or quit now and save yourself the trouble.
• Go outside your comfort zone once in a while. Put up some visuals or a video post. Go way off topic.
• Just because you think someone else has “said it better” doesn’t mean you can’t add your take on things.
• There is absolutely nothing wrong with a link-baitey post every once in a while.
• Someone will always say it better. But someone will also always say it worse.
• It takes a long, long time to get a decent sized audience. Those people who have 10k readers in a week are like people that lose 100lbs on diet pills.
• Decide why you want to blog before you start, but keep in mind that it’s a fluid concept.
• Don’t be afraid to talk about whatever the hell you want sometimes.
• Put a picture of yourself on your front page.
• Use bold, headlines, bullets, etc. to make your stuff more scannable.
• Don’t get caught trying to perfect an idea before you start writing. The inertia will kill you.
• Do your best not to take yourself to seriously, get self-righteous or self-important.
• If you want people to give you their time and attention, they have to get something back in return.

Be informative from an ideological standpoint.
This is where you let people know the basic gist of social media. The part where you advocate community building, engagement, interaction, and transparency. The “big picture”, if you will.

Be informative from a practical standpoint.
You can’t just leave it at ideological. No one wants to read posts that just say, “Get out there and be part of the community!” all the time. Great. Now tell us how. Be as specific as possible. Outline steps, metrics for success, ideas to take it a step further. Anything that’s specifically actionable.

Facilitate further learning.
There are no dead ends on the internet. Link out to some other people who have written great content on the subject.

Don’t get all social media is the omg greatest super ever crazy.
Trust me, I get the excitement. But you need to temper your enthusiasm with realistic expectations and understanding. If people are new to the whole idea of social media you don’t want to come off as a street-preacher.

And some good examples (and great posts)
-Finding and embracing your online evangelists in 5 minutes – Mack Collier
-Organic vs. Inorganic Communities – Beth Harte
-Humanizing Your Brand – One Customer at a Time – David Finch
-Will Facebook Be The Death of Twitter? – Alan Wolk

But wait. It might not be all sunshine and roses right away. There’s a few simple mistakes that a lot of us make in the very beginning that tend to decrease the effectiveness of our new-born blog. But the good news is that they’re almost always easily corrected. Let’s take a look.

Not letting us know who is writing it.

Letting us know who is behind your blog is extremely important, but for some reason it gets overlooked in a lot of new blogs. If your blog is a personal one, then this part is easy. Just let your readers know, often and early, who is responsible for the content (something like that dashing picture of me in the upper-right helps).

The same thing goes if your blog is for your organization or company. Make sure you highlight the fact that the blog has multiple authors (you can include small pics or bylines) and let each of their personalities show. Companies don’t blog – people do.

Not having a clear purpose.

The big question. The cosmic “Why?” of your blog. Make sure you spend some time thinking about this one before you sit down to write anything, because if you don’t you’ll soon find yourself wandering off track. A clear purpose helps keep you focused on the mission you had when starting.

Not having any content.

It seems simple, but you’d be surprised how many blogs I see with only one or two posts. Before you announce the launch of your new blog, make sure there’s some content there for people to go through. Nothing is more disheartening than hearing about a great blog launch and only finding one post to read.

In these cases, a soft-launch is usually a good idea. Start building your content and slowly invite people to check out your site. Start with a small group of people your trust, and go from there.

Not having “pillar” content.

Every blog should have a few home-run posts. These posts, often called “pillar” posts, are your best stuff, the stuff your blog stands on. It’s okay if you haven’t worked out your best writing yet, but presumably you had some good ideas when you decided to start a blog. Write out your best ideas into clear, well thought out posts and feature them prominently on your site.

You can check out my best stuff in my Must Reads section.

Monetizing right away.

I can’t speak for the interwebs at large, but I find it extremely silly when I visit a new blog and it’s covered in ads. You just started, you have no traffic or following yet, is that $0.09/month from AdSense really enough to justify cheapening the look and feel of your site?

I’m not an expert on when the “right time” is to monetize your blog, but a quick Google search will give you all the answers you need.

Not linking out.

Just like with Twitter, the beauty of a blog is the interaction. Unless you’re going for the really, really long tail, my guess is that there’s already some other blogs on the topic you’re going to be writing on. So when those bloggers come up with a great post, don’t be hesitate to mention it on your blog.

Also, you can’t worry about people navigating away from your site. If you have good content and a clear purpose, they’ll be back. When you link out and point to other relevant content you don’t lose readers, you gain trust. No blog is an island.

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So there’s a few ideas from me. What do you think?

Also, if you’re still having trouble with your new blog or want to talk about getting started, feel free to email me at MattJMcD [at] gmail dot com.