My client list is full of geniuses. When I sit down with you, I am rewarded with glimpses of your brilliance on how to build social justice movements, how to end the vast injustices of the criminal justice system, and the need for truly equitable public education (to name just a few). You can brilliantly handle a media call or get a story on your website after a big event… but most of you don’t blog.
And it’s not because you’re too busy. Your opponents who manage to blog are busy. You follow bloggers who are also busy.
Let’s face it: one big reason you don’t blog is that you don’t see the point. Good for you for asking.
“What’s the point of spending time blogging?”
That’s a question that deserves a good answer. Blogging is specific to the web, and the point of blogging is to:
- Influence your allies.
- Recruit new allies.
- Replace all the talk about things that don’t matter with discussion of things that do matter.
That’s where strategy comes in. With a strategy you get to:
- Identify who you need to influence.
- Identify how often you have to write for that audience to notice.
- Pick websites that you want to notice you to help you reach a wider audience.
Then suddenly, instead of writing a random post for someone who-you’re-not-sure-anyone’s-gonna-read-it (and who has time for that?) your blogging is part of a strategy. It also then can be measured, so that if you’re making progress towards a goal, you can tell.
The reality is: you have knowledge and perspective that more people should hear. If more people understood your perspective and focused on what really mattered about your issue, things would improve.
And yes, blogging is risky
An important part of blogging is to take the risk of putting your thinking out there, not knowing how people are going to respond. Or, knowing that they’re going to say mean and thoughtless things, or not say much of anything at all. But luckily, blogging on tough social justice issues isn’t a popularity contest.
With some strategic planning in place, it’s about helping your organization reach its goals. Even if you only get halfway there, at least you know it’s halfway in the right direction. And maybe those negative comments you get are worth it, so that you can reach the people you do care about.