If there’s one principle about blogging that you should take to heart is: What’s so obvious to you isn’t so obvious to others.
On the web it’s pretty easy to hear the same stuff repeated over and over again. Some people catch up faster than others, and the ones who just caught up are behind whatever comes next. It’s a never ending cycle that doesn’t stop.
A good way to illustrate this is by looking at the technology adoption life cycle:
There are the innovators who starts things out, the early adopters soon follow the new shiny things. The mainstream users are in the late majority and laggard stages of adoption.
As I pointed out before, social media is now mainstream but most organizations still can’t figure it out. This is means that we’re in the middle part of the adoption life cycle, whilst the world keeps moving on.
What’s the point?
The point is that when content that’s already mainstream becomes repetitive (by late majority and laggards) you can connect the old with the new. This makes for a compelling read and it’s the type of stuff people like to read because it’s synthesized.
That’s what my friend Jorge Barba did with a recent post: Why you need to break out of your network to innovate.
While the idea of hanging out with people who are different than you is not new, what makes his post compelling to others is how he connects it to how social networks are making us more ignorant.
You see, while social networks have enabled us to connect with more people, they also play into our need to for familiarity. Social networks such as Facebook personalize our experience to fit us, and this personalization inhibits our need to explore views that are different than our own.
While people who are at the beginning of the life cycle may have already noticed this, the people who just recently discovered social media (late majority and laggards) most likely have not. You’ve just informed them of something useful, something that’s going to stick in their head. You’ve made them see further into the future.
And that’s the point.
When everyone is repeating the same stuff, you have to find a way to stand out. And posting something that might seem obvious to you might be not so obvious to others.
So while I don’t like repeating the same stuff that’s already out there, there are times when I will write about it just because people will ask me for my opinion or because I see a gap where I can connect the dots for the less informed.
The bottom line is if you spend time on social networks or have a blog, express your thoughts. Put them out there and don’t be afraid to present your own point of view.
