Kevin Hillstrom: MineThatData

Exploring How Customers Interact With Advertising, Products, Brands, and Channels, using Multichannel Forensics.

May 12, 2009

Blog Direction

You go to a conference, and people start talking about "what are you trying to accomplish with your blog and online presence?"

So why not offer your two-cents worth of advice? If you're reading via e-mail or RSS, click here to go to the homepage and answer my poll question about the content you read on this blog ... page down and look on the right side of the blog for the poll.

Also, there's been a decent number of unsubscribes in the past few months because of "too many updates". Do you feel this way, and if the answer is yes, how many posts a week do you believe represent the "right" number?

8 Comments:

At 2:02 PM , Blogger Matt said...

Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure I stopped receiving my email subscription without unsubscribing. It's been a few months too.

 
At 2:32 PM , Blogger Kevin said...

Well that's no good.

 
At 4:45 PM , Anonymous derek.newman said...

Hi Kevin,

>> "too many updates"

I recall reading the preface to one of Marshall Mcluhan's books where there was an anecdote about the dismayed publisher of the book exclaiming that there was too much new material in the manuscript.

You are obviously a passionate and intelligent guy who thinks deeply about things. You introduce me to so many new thoughts I end up refusing to consider new posts at the risk of bogging myself down with so much new information.

It is like getting daily missives from a hyper-enthusiastic rocket scientist - mostly way over my head but highly fascinating and in many respects obviously relevant to my business circumstances (if only I had the time to consider them properly).

I'm certainly not going to recommend that you be anyone but yourself. So I don't really have any good advice for you. Hopefully you'll find some small value in my comment.

Cheers

PS And I do like your sense of humour. E.g. Heated padded leather floors and hologram marketing.

 
At 5:51 PM , Anonymous Ted Grigg said...

I love your posts Kevin and find them highly informative.

Your circulation is better than mine, so I hesitate to comment. But your great thoughts need to spread through the cloud, so I will stick my neck out anyway and make a few comments.

I think that shorter and more benefit oriented first lines would help you a lot. Also, reduce the number of ideas to one main theme in each blog.

You remind me of many analyst I work with who handle detail with more ease than many of your readers.

As a direct marketing strategist, I often get lost in the detail of your posts struggling to uncover how I can apply your thinking to the big picture.

You are a strategist. But you get there mainly with the numbers sometimes leaving out the clear line of thought you followed to arrive at your conclusions.

You assume the numbers say it all to the rest of us the way you do for you. But they don't. Not without more explanation.

Do more of the work for me.

I list your blog as one my favorites on my blog.

But as with most intellectual things like poetry and scientific journals, most of us as bloggers really need to "dumb it down" for wider readership.

Just look at what has happened in the news and best sellers. They rarely represent the intellectual works.

My English teachers always pounded into me the idea of KISS. Some used to say that I needed to apply more "economy" in my style. I’m still working on that.:)

What they really meant was to make it practical, applicable and easy to read. Write to a single theme and offer the evidence building one block at a time.

This in no small task in your field.

Thank you Kevin for your tremendous posts and the learning you bring to our discipline.

Ted

 
At 6:35 PM , Blogger Kevin said...

Ok, good feedback, folks!!

 
At 9:17 AM , Blogger Brent said...

I have to disagree with some of what Ted said.

I think your posts are great just the way they are. It's hard to find information that isn't dumbed-down, i.e. provides actual value to people in the profession. I think you do so to your benefit.

If I were shopping for a consultant in your area, you clearly show mastery of subject matter.

For the rest of us (in database marketing), you're providing leadership and a clear example of the thinking we need to be undertaking to maximize our campaigns.

Keep up the great work!

 
At 9:20 AM , Blogger Brent said...

Oh, and thanks for mentioning your blog, Ted. I'm now a subscriber!

 
At 9:51 AM , Blogger Kevin said...

Thank you, Brent. Both you and Ted have valid points.

Follow Ted, and you appeal to one set of a few thousand folks. Follow Brent, and you appeal to a different set of a few thousand folks, with overlap.

It's why I'm glad I don't have to answer to an editor!

 

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