Look around at the bloggers who influence you. I’m going to bet they post frequently, lead with news you’ve yet to learn, educate you about some tech thing, and generally fuel oodles of comments and engagement.
There’s something else you should take note of, too:
What new collaborative project are these bloggers announcing of late?
Let me illustrate what I’m talking about:
Gini Dietrich
A favorite blogger, author, speaker and friend extraordinaire Gini Dietrich, of Spin Sucks fame, recently announced her collaboration called The Three Things with Howie Goldfarb and Michael Schechter to run one post each Sunday about something that’s new and is meaningful.
Danny Brown
Danny Brown spins more creativity than anyone I’ve ever seen. Back in the day, 12for12K was his pet project; it’s how I was introduced to him. Since that time, I’ve been privy to his blog changing focus, changing design, and announcing new collaborations.
His latest is For Bloggers By Bloggers, and peeps can jump in there and ask questions of leading bloggers and gain access to just about any topic. Danny has other blogs, too, with a band of writers. Don’t forget the recent event in Toronto on social media he just put on. Here’s a post from one of my favorite search marketing experts, Brankica Underwood.
Mark W. Schaefer
Mark Schaefer has two books under his belt, a smashing success with Social Slam (third year upcoming), and a new collaboration with some big names in Jay Baer, Tom Edison, and Jason Falls called The Social Habit. His Sunday post shows how Mark gets out of his box to interview the founder of Storify…a channel I need to look into.
The SMB Collective (shameless plug)
I’d be remiss not sharing my pet project that began with Neicole Crepeau two years ago and engaged a community of small business owners to contribute posts to The SMB Collective. I’m trying desperately to resurrect this wonderful blog (gosh, where is my time), because it’s an outlet for each of us to focus on business issues and share tips. Let me make this my call to action for you to join me. Submit a post from the archives with links and an image if you choose, and you can earn some link love.
Continuous Creativity
These are just 3.5 examples of leaders on the ‘sphere who are continually innovating to keep things interesting for themselves, their brand and their community. I could interview them for this piece, but I’m going to do something I rarely like to do, and that’s assume.
Here’s what I think these three blogger leaders are doing:
1. Innovation is a requirement of growth to keep fresh ideas and content in front of an audience and community.
2. With new concepts comes more attention from a wider array of audiences.
3. Without change, the blogging journey would be boring and a community would also get bored.
4. Collaborations help everyone be on top of their game and engage with the smartest minds and close the six degrees of separation forever.
What does that say about your blog:
- If you’ve been blogging 12 months, it’s time to change it up.
- Ensure you tweak your design every six months or else the landscaping gets stale.
- Invite more guest bloggers to write and expand your network beyond just your own writing.
- Do more video or try podcasting. (When you upgrade your technology, you can do podcasting much easier.)
- Do Q&A with someone you admire or who has a high level of influence.
- Add calls to action to the blog to encourage people to subscribe and/or download a study, e-book or something.
- Always have something in the works. There must be a top-secret project you’re working on to drive your creativity?
- Start on a small scale and grow from there; people are in your tribes, in your stream, in your network…ask them to collaborate!
Think first.
Please do emulate the leaders, but engage on a scale that works for you. With more creative juice flowing, you can also boost mojo that leads to long-term success.
