DISQUS

Chris Brogan: What Friends and Seinfeld Teaches You About Growing Your Audience

  • Michael Ramm · 2 years ago
    Amazing article, Chris. I am going to start taking good hard looks at my two blogs and try to get them from Sunday night 9pm to Thursday night after Friends.

    Michael
  • Eric · 2 years ago
    Chris,I try to read your blog pretty regularly and this is one of your better posts. As a professional I have to say that you've taken another wise tough idea and broken it down very nicely. Keep up the good work.
  • Elizabeth Grattan · 2 years ago
    Kind of off topic, but it makes me wonder why writers (prior or after the strike) haven't created blogs for the characters on shows like these?

    Does "Earl" keep a blog?

    Would "George" have?

    Would the characters all be connected through social media through these mock pages?

    Or perhaps the industry has done this and I've missed them?
  • IAAdmin · 2 years ago
    Great post. I always try to put myself in my reader's position. Their time is valuable, and I want to give them something worth their time.

    BTW, I looked at your twitter experiment. I wasn't your twitter friend at the time you posted this, so I'd like to add my blog choice is ning. It offers an innovative platform of being able to blog in a social network. I didn't see any other ning bloggers.
  • Jen Zingsheim-White · 2 years ago
    First, very interesting post Chris. I've been toying with the idea of starting a personal blog myself (already write for the CustomScoop/Media Bullseye products) and this is great advice to keep in mind to produce what I hope will be interesting content.

    Elizabeth..."Earl" doesn't have a blog, but his brother Randy does: http://blog.nbc.com/randy/

    I love that show and they always mention Randy's blog at the end. If only Sheldon from "Big Bang Theory" had one! They do have a "community whiteboard," though.
  • steve Garfield · 2 years ago
    This is exactly what Nina Simonds is doing with Spices of Life...

    Look for her to pop up, with unique video content, on other food blogs in 2008...

    http://spicesoflife.com

    --Steve ( Now off to see what that side blog is all about )
  • eve · 2 years ago
    Elizabeth - George doesn't have a blog - he does have a myspace page though... http://www.myspace.com/georgecostanza
    (via http://myspace.com/seinfeld) and seinfeld does have a facebook group, so it's a start at least. Many tv shows have had blogs in the past - starting out with Dawson Leery from Dawson's Creek (via dawson's desktop) back in the day before there were "blogs" and they were just diaries online.

    Great article Chris!!
  • eve-park · 2 years ago
    This article made me think, like everything you write. And although I concede with most of your points, I have to disagree strongly in the area of crossovers.

    I'm a huge sucker for crossovers. I loved it when NBC had Pheobe's sister Ursula also be the flaky waitress in Mad About You, and one of the Mad About You peeps was subletting an old apartment to a character on Seinfeld. I ate it up, and thought that they should have done more, and created a whole alternate universe NBC New York that could of propelled their brand into today. They could've even broken down the old-media constraints of 'shows and time slots' and just told me I was watching three hours of my favorite character's each Thursday in NBC's 'Must Watch TV' mega show. And by making it all one mega-brand, if Seinfield was poopy and decided not to re-sign, his minor cast could have been integrated into other storylines, without having to carry brands of their own (because spinoffs don't work; I know that no one but me ever watched "Joey").

    To bring it into new media, I've also seen it work with success. I call it collaboration. Me and Charlie's (CinemaPsychic.com) 'episode 50' crossover has been hailed to me as some of my best stuff. Or when I run a short segment submitted by someone else, it entertains my viewers while introducing them to the other person's blog or vlog. You don't think this would work well in blogging? What if You and a similar blogger were to do a writing exchange and 'guest post' to one another's blog. You don't think that would be a win-win situation?
  • Kristen · 2 years ago
    I'm new here. Came over from Scott Monty's blog. I am so glad I did. This was a very good post and it got me thinking, along with everyone else, about the fact that I often try to get right in front of the big guys with content and loose site of what my strengths really are when it comes to blogging.

    Thank you so much for the excellent advice and input.
  • courtney benson · 2 years ago
    Chris -

    I've been a visitor to your site for about two weeks and found it most informative. Today's blog was outstanding! I look forward to coming back. Thanks!
  • communicatrix · 2 years ago
    You're always good and, since you've made it a priority, more and more on point.

    But as others have already said, this is a rockstar/best-of post. Hie thee to the sidebar, little post!