Is Your Blogging Working? The Answer Is Simple (and might involve the Kansas Speedway)

July 14, 2015 / in Blogging / by Jason Terry

Post author: Jason Terry

Hello friends! I had a conversation recently with a business friend of mine. He wanted to know if his blogging efforts were working. I will start with what I think is the answer, and then do a test to try and prove my point.

The Answer

The answer to whether or not your blogging efforts are working is simple:

Are your peers, clients, friends and family talking about your stories?

Are they talking about the blog post you wrote about how to sell a business? About your recent trip to Honduras? About the company picnic? When they see you at meetings or networking events, do they say things like, “I really liked your blog post about Google not liking you if your website isn’t mobile friendly.”

Woah.  Wait a minute. That’s too simple.

Yes, there are a bunch of people that would respond to this with discussions about specific metrics, sentiment measurement, click tracking and even more technical tracking methods.

I stand by the idea that your goal is to be top of mind with your audience.  The simple proof that this is happening is when they mention what you are writing about in various situations. When you are top of mind, referrals and introductions happen.

Two things have to happen for you to be top of mind with your audience:

1. You have to build your audience.  Connect with friends, clients, vendors and peers through social networks and by collecting their email addresses.

2. You have to tell them authentic stories through blogging and share these stories with your social networks and with email newsletters.

The Test

So here’s the test…

The images and video in this blog post are about my wife Trista and I getting to do a couple of laps around the Kansas Speedway last Friday. It was a really fun experience. (Thanks to Trista’s father Mark for giving us the pass!)

We were lucky enough to get the pole position in our group, so we were right behind the emergency vehicles leading the line of about 20 cars.

I was surprised to feel how much of a slope the track has, especially in the curves. Transitioning from the pit area to the track was a little like trying to flip your car. Ok, maybe not that extreme, but I really felt like I was leaning a bit too far left for normal driving!

I wonder how many of you are going to mention this blog post to me? Will you tell me the next time you see me? Will you follow up with your story about loving NASCAR? Will you remind me that you did the extreme driving experience at the Kansas Speedway? Will you comment on the post on our website or “LIKE” or retweet it on our social sites?

I’m going to give it a couple of weeks and will report back with the results.

I Know This for a Fact:

People love you and care about you. Clients appreciate how you help them. Peers associate with you because they want to have a trusted relationship with you.

These people want to support you and encourage you. As a result, they will take an interest in what you’re blogging about, as long as they actually see your blogs. And it doesn’t really matter what you’re talking about as long as it’s your story and something you’re excited to share.

If you aren’t blogging in your organization, it’s time to really think about starting. The results may shock you!

https://youtu.be/VfMcGYiRimA