Kath here. Please welcome Dan Blank to WU today. Many of you may already know Dan as the founder of WeGrowMedia.com, providing writers and publishers the strategy and tactics they need to impact their communities and build their legacies. He has worked with more than 500 writers, a wide range of publishers, and regularly speaks at conferences about branding, content strategy, social media, and marketing — necessary tools for writers as we work toward finding our audience and making connections with readers. Follow him on Twitter at @DanBlank or his blog.
Take it away, Dan!
Don’t Be A Tourist In Your Community Of Readers
We speed through our community on our way somewhere else, both online and offline. In my town, I see the parents driving 40mph in a 25mph residential zone with “Dodger Pride” bumper stickers, showing their support for our community sports teams. They may or may not be on their cell phones; they may or may not actually stop at stop signs. They will talk endlessly about the value of this community, while endangering others as they drive through it.
And I see writers speed through their writing career, through social media, through the reader community, so focused on their personal goals, it comes at the expense of those around them. They are so desperate to get the word out about their book, that they cut corners, miss stop signs, and do more talking than listening.
We idealize what it means to be a part of an online community, even though we haven’t yet perfected our involvement in our real-world communities. I know, I’m not supposed to talk about these things:
We make token efforts to give back. We attend a parade as our sole “community activity” for the year; we place bumper stickers on our cars supporting a cause, but devoting no time or money to the real work of it.
Our community involvement tends to focus on things that directly benefits us: volunteering at our kids’ school play production; chaperoning a boy scouts trip because our kid is in it; putting up signs to stop some political initiative because it will affect our property value. We donate money to charities when our friends are involved, so we get the social capital that comes with it.
We rush to beat others to a line at the foodstore, nudging them out, but then smiling cordially when they are a few feet away. We cut people off while driving, and pretend we didn’t.
A lot of what we do is under the guise of “community” online is similar to this. It is self-centered. It is squeezed in when convenient. We overlook the ways we take from the community so that we feel better about ourselves.
We justify this saying that there are only so many hours in the day. That no one could do it all. And yet, we are confronted with those writers who do find the time to not just engage with their community, but truly care about them. Every day.
Folks who are “big names,” obviously very busy, and producing lots of writing too. Check out the Twitter feeds of Susan Orlean, Neil Gaiman, and John Green for interesting […]
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