Never think that everyone is like you
Thursday, April 16th, 2009
If you spend enough time in your own head, like creative people do, it’s very easy to start thinking that everyone is just like you. It’s something that I constantly have to remind myself. Take this blog for example. I write entries that are relevant to my life at the moment and hopefully what I’ve written resonates with someone and affects them positively, but I have absolutely no way of knowing what will click.
I think a lot about what I write here, and how to stay visible with my musical endeavors. It’s important to me that I share what I’m up to, because making records and performing original music requires someone to actually listen to what you do. Because I use blogging to spread my message, I subscribe to a number of blogs that interest me too. They pertain to music, marketing and self-improvement, among other things. It’s a daily thing for me to peruse my subscriptions to see what’s happening.
As many times as I ask my friends if they saw that blog post I wrote about a certain subject, some of them just never catch on to the idea of subscribing to a blog. They don’t know about feeds or aggregators. They go to sites they read regularly, but never think of collecting all of the information they want in one place. (At present, I use iGoogle. I’m looking for something that I like better though.) I couldn’t manage all of this information without some sort of aggregator. But some people just aren’t like me.
The same goes for what they call “social media” like Facebook and Twitter. They are useful for staying visible too, though I really enjoy blogging the best. I enjoy developing an idea a bit more. This guy Gary Vaynerchuk, who is sort of a social media marketing guru posted this the other day: http://garyvaynerchuk.com/post/94654638/how-do-you-cut-through-the-noise-everyone-is
The title set off an alarm for me because it seemed to make that assumption I’m talking about. Everyone is using social media? Everyone? His message in the video is valid for people like me and others who are interested in staying visible, but my immediate reaction showed that my wiring was already in place. “Hold on a minute! Not everyone uses social media.” Granted, his blog and videos are for a specific audience, about which he wasn’t wrong, but I was glad to know that I’ve programmed myself to be on the lookout.
It’s great when people are like you, but many times, they aren’t. It’s important to be sensitive to both conditions.
