Why you should pay attention to a broadcasting brain
blog February 3rd. 2008, 2:27pmAn audience is a group of people who are paying attention to someone or something. Experienced bloggers say that you need to focus your content and messages to specific topics, whether it’s politics, making money online, sports, technology, and celebrity gossip. Other experienced bloggers contend that it’s not enough to define your topics, but that it’s more important to define the group of people that you want to talk to.
Although I’d love to have virtually anyone read and contribute to the brainwaves that I present here at Broadcasting Brain, the people that I’m trying to reach will understand the context and relevance of at least a few of the following statements:
- You use Digg, regardless of how you feel about it
- You use other social news, social bookmarking, or social media sites while understanding what Digg is all about
- You look at your Digg stats and you can appreciate why a .300 batting average is respected in baseball
- You’ve seen Ron Paul’s name a lot and you think the Ron Paul phenomenon could have happened to Howard Dean if Digg had been in its current form in 2003-2004.
- You know that much of Digg’s value doesn’t come directly from getting stories to its front page (here’s a hint: it has to do with people)
- You know that Stumbling has nothing to do with tripping and falling
- You know that Mixxing isn’t about cooking or bartending
- You know that the site’s name is really del.icio.us, but sometimes you can’t be bothered to add the two periods
- You know of Darren Rowse by his more familiar blog name
- You know that Skelliewag is really written by a woman in Australia (and that it’s value-packed)
- You know that Dosh Dosh is really written by a man in Canada, or at least that the blog is a font of wisdom
- You understand that John Chow benefits every time someone tries to parody him (which seems to happen a lot)
- You’re followed by Chris Brogan on Twitter and occasionally you’ll send a reply to one of his frequent thought-provoking questions (OK, maybe more than occasionally)
- Twitter’s reliability in early 2008 might just drive you to drink
- You get a lot of your news from the Web and you can’t imagine how you ever got news before
- You read ReadWriteWeb at least once per week
- You think you might like to write an article for ReadWriteWeb
- You’ve got some things to say to a large audience, but you might not be sure how to broadcast your message effectively (or, alternately you might know something about one-to-many communication)
- The recent discussion prompted by the Fast Company article about Duncan Watts caught your attention and you followed the discussions
- You understand the significance of the phrases tipping point, long tail, and the world is flat, regardless of whether you agree with these ideas
- You believe that social media and traditional mass media have evolved into a symbiotic relationship, although one partner might not realize it yet
- You’re extremely aware of the use of media to influence our thoughts and actions
- You’re interested in creating ideaviruses, you know who coined the term, and you know the relevance of the phrase purple cow
- You understand what life cycles are, particularly product life cycles
- You’re interested in DRM (digital rights management) and you’re wondering if there’s a better way out there to meet the needs of the consumer, the producer, the distributor, and the advertiser
- You think that “free” is a powerful way to communicate
- You believe that good ideas can come from anywhere
- You love ideas, but you might not have the same love for ideology
- You believe that pop culture can be used as a reference point to understand reality
- You believe that “location, location, location” doesn’t have quite the same meaning as it did in the 20th century
- You believe in the power of words
You don’t have to agree with or believe in all of these statements, unless you’re me. 
If you can identify with at least a few of these points, then welcome! I’ve been waiting for you. Let’s talk.
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February 3rd, 2008 at 3:08 pm
I agree with a lot of those points as well as being already involved with some of those points. I’d love to talk!
February 3rd, 2008 at 3:39 pm
@Kristen - cool! Let’s start with one point: good ideas can come from anywhere. Don’t you think that’s one of the beauties of Web 2.0: the interconnectivity and idea sharing?
February 3rd, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Fantastic new theme. It’s crisp, clean and refreshing … like a Diet Pepsi. Seriously … I dig it.
Great post, too. You have defined your audience and we’ve paid attention. I am in your wheelhouse which is why I have your blog in my RSS subscriptions. Nice work!
February 3rd, 2008 at 3:44 pm
@Jason - cool… plus I’m a big Diet Pepsi fan.
Interesting point about defining my audience: on the surface, it seemed to me that I was putting out a lot of different fish lines, trying to catch readers. On the other hand, the different points do come together into a few common points.
Now let me ask you this, Jason: blog commenting. Do you use the number of comments you get at Social Media Explorer as a measurement of the success of your blog?
February 3rd, 2008 at 5:15 pm
those are some familiar territories
and it makes life (blogging life) so much easier when you are talking to someone who’s atleast heard of the above! Great new design Mark..
February 3rd, 2008 at 7:23 pm
@Pearl - I like the design too. I’m certainly hoping that trying to identify my target audience like this will help attract more people who are interested in these topics.
February 4th, 2008 at 7:48 am
One thing that shows why you have such loyal fans is that you reply to all the comments. Sometimes, I don’t get back to a post to add back to people’s comments until a day or so later, and then, I just feel like I’m catching up, not contributing. So seeing your comments threaded throughout shows that you’re right on top of things here. Great work.
February 4th, 2008 at 8:18 am
@chris - thanks for stopping by! It’s hard to stay on top of comments like that during the work week and I suspect it’s even harder for you with the travelling that you must do.
February 5th, 2008 at 2:17 am
[...] Why you should pay attention to a broadcasting brain ? Broadcasting Brain has laid out his target audience for you. Maybe you should see if your one of them. [...]
February 5th, 2008 at 2:24 am
Although you provide some basic points in regards to blog promotion, there is too much of the same stuff out there. Too many ads for this and that. Adsense has permeated the internet and now looks like ad pollution. While I like your article, it is with sites like StumbleUpon that make browsing the internet feasible, that with a click of a button a viewer can go on to the next page, same, click, same, click, same . . .
February 5th, 2008 at 7:50 am
@Vincent - you may have read a little too much into this post. The purpose of the post was to define my intended audience. You have some valid points in your comment, but this blog isn’t devoted to blog promotion and, to be honest, I’m not certain that you are commenting on the content of the post as much as you are trying to make some different points.
I actually think that Adsense is far less annoying than, say, banner ads.
No doubt there are a lot of people who all attempt to cover a niche while monetizing. StumbleUpon can be a useful way to navigate through the Web, but it’s not the only way.
February 6th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Amen to all points here. Not only did you pack this with helpful links for the uninitiated … there are few here that salty social media veterans might be unaware of, as well. Superb post!
February 6th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
@J.C. - thank you very much. I thought that “veterans” were probably aware of all of these, but it never hurts to repeat them.
March 20th, 2008 at 9:37 am
[...] I may write about Twitter here at Broadcasting Brain (among other things), but I try to limit the subject material to communications (broadly defined) and social media. [...]