How A Buzz Marketing Blog Post Made Me a Prototyping Expert
Hello, kiddies. A while back I posted on the benefits of prototyping - creating a model product, process, procedure or solution based on the best information at hand, put it to work, and tweak it after you observe how it performs. I decided to put it to the test on this blog. This is what happened:
A month or so ago I read this excellent article by Dean Hunt on creating ‘buzzworthy’ articles. The author took a mundane post from another blog, reworded it to convey the same info more effectively, and got it on the front page of Digg in no time flat. This amazed me. By making a few simple changes he kept the essence of the article intact, yet made it far more accessible to the reader. I decided this would be the basis of my prototyping experiment. I took his advice to heart and crafted a prototype article - 7 Step Guide To Crushing Innovation In It’s Tracks. In doing so I tried to use every one of the nine ’Tricks’ he recommended. I published it and observed the results - OK, but not too stellar.
Puzzled, I emailed the author to see what I was missing. He looked at the article and made three profound observations:
- The subject (innovation) violated Trick 1 - it lacked global appeal, which is one of the main criteria for generating a ‘buzz.’ Innovation is just not a widely discussed topic. In that it was doomed from the start.
- It was ‘too clever’ - the seven steps weren’t concrete enough to connect with most readers.
- The lead-in questions were not ‘relatable.’
He advised me to reword the post to make it easier to relate to - instead of crushing innovation, focus on the person who would doing the crushing. He suggested a ‘crappy boss’ might create the needed connection.
So I made a second prototype. I revised the original post into Top 7 Ways To Become A Better Crappy Boss. Compare with the first prototype directly and the changes jump right out. I redirected the focus of the top 7 list from ’crushing innovation’ to ‘being a better crappy boss.’ Since a crappy boss can crush innovation, I retained the essence of my original list while focusing on a subject that’s more relatable. I created a snazzy graphic at a ‘For Dummies Generator’ website - thus making another familiar connection. I crafted a new lead-in suggested by the author. And I reworded each of the seven ways to make them shorter, more concrete, yet conveying the essence of the seven steps from the original post. I published the second prototype a month after the first, and again sat back observe the results.
In less than a week, the views for ‘Top 7 Ways To Be A Better Crappy Boss’ have exceeded the views for ‘7 Steps To Crushing Innovation In Its Tracks’ by a FACTOR OF FIVE. The subject still doesn’t have much universal appeal but by carefully rewording the original to better connect to and related with the reader, the appeal has increased markedly.
So what did I learn?
- I didn’t know enough about what makes articles ‘buzzworthy’ before I wrote the original article.
- Concreteness, Recognition, Accessibility, Relatability.
- Even after the second prototype, it was clear the subject matter doesn’t have enough widespread appeal to get picked up on the major social bookmarking sites.
- My blog doesn’t have enough consistent readership to generate a ‘buzz’ without a far more accessible subject.
- Innovation, no matter how it’s worded, might not have enough general recognition to create the buzz effect.
So, nice experiment, learned alot. The next prototype will start from scratch, and explore some other areas the results of this exercise have suggested to me.
Comments
3 Responses to “How A Buzz Marketing Blog Post Made Me a Prototyping Expert”
Leave a Reply
Hey Well if your a crappy boss you should refer your workers/clients
to http://blogmpr.wordpress.com so they can learn how to be self-reliant. A crappy boss only leads to a crappy workday for everybody.
It is nice article! Thanks, good info!
[...] has created all kinds of new opportunities for viral marketing? Did you know that by simply wording your marketing the correct way it could draw the attention of tens of thousands of social bookmarkers in mere [...]