chrisbrogan.com - Latest Comments in Understanding Your Guests

Re: Understanding Your Guests

Linda Forrest — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:16:45 -0000

This post provides an excellent bridge between my personal affection for Disney and my professional life as a PR consultant and nascent blogger. My affection for the Disney experience, its stellar customer service and attention to minute detail to ensure the best possible experience for its guests was a subject that came up over the holidays as my sister in law and her family are about to embark on a Disney cruise for the first time. Having enjoyed a Disney cruise on our honeymoon, we joked that the entire staff on the ship are in fact Terminators, programmed with every minute detail about the guests, so uncannily perfect is the experience, with staff and ship alike anticipating your needs even before you yourself may realize them. As we grow our blog, where we have written more than once about our own experiences with customer service, we shall keep the items you mentioned in mind in the hopes that our readers will have the best experience possible.

Re: Understanding Your Guests

Wedge — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 02:53:33 -0000

I don't know a lot about my visitors' habits yet. I have developed personal relationships with them though, because I recieve fewer comments than larger sites. Yes, I want Disney levels of visitors, but I'm happy meeting individuals right now :)

Re: Understanding Your Guests

MurphGuide — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 22:49:56 -0000

Good stuff, Chris.

One of my new year's resolutions is to read your blog regularly and apply what I learn.

Re: Understanding Your Guests

Amanda Jephtha — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:38:19 -0000

Thank you, Chris. There aren't too many blogs/posts which make me stop and think terribly hard, but this one had me gazing out the window for an age.

Re: Understanding Your Guests

Johanna Baker-Dowdell — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:27:04 -0000

Very thought-provoking post. I don't analyse my stats too much, but this has given me a reason to put more thought into it.

Thanks

Re: Understanding Your Guests

Steven Woods — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:47:32 -0000

@Adam, thanks for the Skelliewag link, I definitely enjoyed that and hadn't seen it before. Great point on bands too @Chris, it all comes down to what you want to be as a writer. The Smiths may have been one of the most influential bands of the last few decades, but they did a lot of very novel things, and did not just try to create music for popularity's sake. Influential, but not as commercially successful as Madonna. Similar choices to what we each make (although at a much more micro level), I suppose.

Re: Understanding Your Guests

Chris Loft — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:20:34 -0000

I enjoyed this post very much. You have a good, commonsense style of communicating. We need to embrace new ways of connecting and interacting with people - and not just as 'punters'. You use some interesting analogies: disney theme parks, visibility, promotion, eyeballs - our guests will soon just be "bums on seats" - mere punters, waiting in line to purchase or download something reduced to mass consumerism. Sorry, getting carried away somewhere that this article has led me.
I have to disagree about one thing though: you have to listen to more new music - that 'old stuff' is far too boring, and haven't you heard it all before?

Re: Understanding Your Guests

Sus @pinkolivefamily — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 18:30:17 -0000

What I liked about this post was the fact that it seemed to follow the "flow" from your past post with more detailed content. Also, as I have been thinking more about generating valuable contents for future blog sites, your post generated additional insight for me which I am happy to share with other others in social media world. As always your content on the site is directed toward your audience which u seem to know ur own demographics of readers which helps to come back on a daily basis for me. It makes sense for me and your traffic experience overview was just superrrr so thx! p.s. ur fan site on Facebook - is "about" time LOL ~ honestly was happy to see that just now.. best wishes! ~ Sus @pinkolivefamily

Re: Understanding Your Guests

Site-Seeker | b2b internet mar — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 18:03:05 -0000

Thanks for your insight! We are new to blogging, and have found it to be fun but challenging. I appreciated your point about video blog posts and how they allow you to display your human side.

Thank again!
Brian

Re: Understanding Your Guests

Nicky Jameson — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 17:37:52 -0000

These are interesting analogies. The one thing that underlines them all is experience over time.And a certain amount of expertise in knowing what to look for. Both Disney and other companies assess their customers over time and then gear their offerings to those customers. With a blog you can do this too, however I think it's also important to note this happens over time.

I had been blogging for nearly a year on a range of subjects on my Blog 1. I was always curious about what my stats were telling me - which was that certain posts were getting more attention than others - why?. In this case I looked at time on site and traffic to content rather than comments. I also found that even the way in which I wrote a post could alter the response to it. I discovered a lot of things through reviewing stats.
and I'm a great believer in using them as well as what's happening on your site. But again: time, experimentation and patience. On a fairly new blog you're not going to get those insights until much later on... if you are looking for them
I've always tended to mix it up in terms of styles of post. I've not categorised them in quite the way you have (response expected) so that's something to explore.

It will be interesting to look at the expected responses to the different types of posts i do, although.. it may vary depending on the audience, what they want and topic.

One big thing for me is that if a reader says "I read your post and remembered it when was doing X and it helped me" I will tend to ensure more of that type of post if they've not been common.
Thought provoking post. I shall bookmark.

Re: Understanding Your Guests

Adam Singer — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 17:09:55 -0000

@Steven - Read this, as I think it touches on what you said

How not to sell out:
http://www.skelliewag.org/h...

Re: Understanding Your Guests

Chris Brogan... — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:30:56 -0000

Another analogy that comes to mind often involves bands. If I play my "old favorite" song that made #1 on the charts, then you're happy. If I experiment with new stuff, a small percentage of you are happy. It's a mix game, doing a bit of both, that keeps things growing. Right?

Look at Sting's LATEST effort, with the lute guy, etc.

Re: Understanding Your Guests

Toma Bonciu - SEO Services — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:23:05 -0000

Hi Chris,

Knowing the people that visit your blog and what they expect to find and read is one of the things you can do in order to get them to come back. When you experience something that impresses you in a good way you'll most likely want to experience it again. Especially if the person creating the experience is trying to bring something new for you but in the same boundaries.

In time every blogger develops a certain relation with his readers - but in time. That is why every post you write receives dozens of comments and in my case my personal best is 10 comments. Trust is something that takes time to be earned but once you got it if you play your cards right you'll get only benefits.

Thank you for your article.
WebOptimization on Twitter

Re: Understanding Your Guests

Karl Staib — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:21:48 -0000

I'm working on building my online presence in the "work happiness" industry. It's a small niche now, but I expect it to explode soon. I'm going into my second year of blogging and I feel like I'm just learning to grasp what my readers want. It's hard in the beginning because there isn't much feedback.

I think the most important part is watching for the subtle signs that a lot of bloggers miss. A link or a small comment can open a whole area of research and writing you never considered.

Re: Understanding Your Guests

Christian Hollingsworth — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 15:36:20 -0000

Chris, I thoroughly enjoyed this post. Your analogy regarding blogging and Disney was superb. I have always agreed that it's important to learn from big business - and garner lessons from their success.

Walt Disney created an empire. Isn't that what we're trying to accomplish in each of our niches?

Re: Understanding Your Guests

Gary McElwain — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 15:32:57 -0000

Hi Chris

Vey interesting concept and analogy. Using a theme park as a mind map for your blog makes great sense from a marketing stand point. I was reading a nother post where the writer used the analogy of a rose garden.

The great thing about the theme park scheme is there are no long lines to wait in. Either pick the thrill ride or the carousel, evena the ferris wheel will give you a different view. But I just came off the water ride, so which way to the rest room

Gary McElwain

Re: Understanding Your Guests

Steven Woods — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 15:21:05 -0000

Chris,
It's interesting because it is a very similar debate to what I see a lot of in analyzing all sorts of marketing (especially longer sales cycle). If you don't establish thought leadership and expertise, your sales will not do well, BUT, the marketing initiatives that generate thought leaderships and establish expertise are almost always terrible at generating direct leads. So, intuitively, we all know we must do them, but the analytics points us away from them as tactics. Thanks for the perspective though from your position in social media, it's interesting to see that a similar model holds...

Re: Understanding Your Guests

Chris Brogan... — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 15:16:10 -0000

@Steven - That's a great point. Thought leadership is in the same category as "thinking" piece. Here's the thing: traffic-wise, those pieces usually blow. Not sure why, but my posts where I think I've said something really meaningful are always the worst "performers" from any kind of audience point of view. People might like them, but if they do, they tell no one, say nothing, and run away.

That said, if you don't do things to maintain thought leadership, why should people bother going to your blog?

Thanks for that perspective.

Re: Understanding Your Guests

Steven Woods — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 15:03:06 -0000

Chris,
I don't disagree with your comments on what drives bookmarking, traffic, eyeballs, etc, but I feel you might be missing a category... For any blog to be successful, the author has to establish an amount of credibility, thought leadership, etc, and does so by writing those posts that truly cause people to think about the world in a different way.

I'm not convinced that raw volume of comments is a good indicator of this effect, as people comment on blogs for many reasons, and sometimes the more profound articles (or more profound blogs) may not have the most comment volume.

Does that type of post fit in? How do you measure how effective it was at causing the readers to truly stop and think?

Re: Understanding Your Guests

juliemarg — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 13:43:03 -0000

Thank you Chris,

I love the Disney Park analogy and it makes it easy to explain my site's main problem.

I can't come up with a good navigation plan. I've got some great content, but my visitors don't know how to find the things that might interest them most. It's like walking in the park entrance and having no directions to Pirates of the Caribbean.

I'll keep plugging away and I appreciate a way to explain it.

Julie

Re: Understanding Your Guests

Wiktor — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 13:38:44 -0000

Chris, add one more experience: "And when I write posts like this, I get some traffic/I redirect my readers to my older posts that may have been overlooked. I do it because I know that the majority of my readers don't read each and every post on my blog".

And besides, it's a pitty that WordPress cant show You how many people started their own blogs RIGHT AFTER they finished reading one of Your posts (has anyone thought of some kind of an WP affiliate link, just to measure it? :). I guess the number would be amongst the highest around the web.

Re: Understanding Your Guests

heatherrast — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 13:31:22 -0000

I'm really glad I saw your tweet today and was driven to read this particular post (whew, you're smokin with the '09 content already!). It strikes me for a couple of reasons.

One, yesterday I discovered a critique tweet via Twit(urly) someone (whom I hadn't been following) made about a post I'd written several months ago. Their critique was hurtful, but moreover their thoughts weren't directed to me personally and they offered no specifics. So I didn't have an opportunity to engage them in discussion, nor learn really what they felt the piece lacked (for them). Their comment stung, but thankfully I was able to talk myself into accepting that I'd put myself in this space and in doing so, am subject to the good, the bad, and the ugly.

But I really wish I'd had the chance to learn more about this persons' thoughts. Maybe it would be valuable, maybe it wouldn't be; I could weigh and measure that through discovery process. But I didn't have the opportunity, so their opinion sits there--and I'm unable to potentially improve my content.

Your observations above are astute and no doubt developed over your years of blogging (and engaging) experience. What I'm learning here is:
1) being in tune with your audience and their information needs is critical
2) remember goal is to engage, not talk 'to,' so solicit opinions and even controversy
3) variety keeps things interesting, and draws new eyeballs
4) be multi-dimensional and humanize your writing; helps people relate
5) be sure of your focus, and stand true

My (late) second reason is this--the humility and earnestness of your writing and content never ceases to amaze me, reinforcing my conviction about community as a brand-builder and marketing mindset. It's my hope that more companies seeking to evolve their strategies pay attention. Thank you.

Re: Understanding Your Guests

MizFit — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 13:25:08 -0000

as always so interesting and, as always, the blogword can seem SO unpredictable.

I love your notion of the readers as guests and say, at MizFit, that my blog blossomed commentwise when my readers took it on as their own and no longer thought of themselves as guests but part owners....as members (the began to refer to themselves as the bumbling band).

I really enjoy your videoposts AND doing my own. the feedback Ive received is that my readers like knowing that, every monday no matter the TOPIC, they see my face.

Carla

Re: Understanding Your Guests

Mike Wilton — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 12:38:38 -0000

Great post Chris. It's definitely important to understand your guests and use the power of analytical data and traffic data to help give the best reader experience. I've been able to taylor make a number of blog posts related to my content based on keyword traffic and analytics data alone and those posts are almost always a hit. It can always help you develop content you know that many of your readers or people looking for information on your topics are looking for.

I was amused that you brought up the trash receptacle reference when you talked about Disney. I worked at the house of mouse for five years and one of the things I learned while working for them was how they came up with the spacing. Apparently one day while Disneyland was being built Walt handed a friend of his a piece of candy and then counted the number of steps it took for his friend to open the candy and pop it in his mouth. That number of steps is what is used to space trash cans to help prevent litter. Just thought I'd share that one, because I always found the concept behind it amusing.

Re: Understanding Your Guests

rachael — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 12:14:17 -0000

What if I am still trying to understand my OWN self, now I have to be responsible for my guests too? ;)

Great post!