J. Michael BrowningWhen the worlds of information and instant gratification collide, it can be a wonderful thing. Especially when you’re someone like me, that’s always searching for perspective. Perspective in media, perspectives in my personal and professional lives. And the crazy part? It seems that regardless of the information I ingest, I never seem sated.
As unfulfilled as I may be, here’s another chance for me to dig into the perspectives of blogging and its business based uses. I’ll compare and contrast three blogs:
- Full Sail University
- Dollar Shave Club
- Science World
Describe how the three blogs are alike.
Information. The main factor for a business or organization to launch a blog is to provide a platform to engage with its audience. While the three blogs provide entirely different types of information, each one fulfills its purpose of providing informative content.
Social Interaction. While it’s great to provide informative content to your audience, it’s even better when you give them the ability to interact socially with the content. Each of the above blogs allows for social sharing, extending its reach to the visitor’s social following.
Describe how the Science World and Dollar Shave Club blogs are similar to each other but different than the Full Sail Blog.
Humor. Not to say that Full Sail’s blog doesn’t hit a funny bone here or there, but Dollar Shave Club and Science World both tend to lean towards the humorous side. (One more than the other!)
Describe how the Dollar Shave Club and Full Sail blogs are similar to each other but different than the Science World blog.
For-Profit. While Dollar Shave Club is a business and Full Sail University is an educational institution, both have blogs that either subliminally or blatantly entice its audience to engage actively. Both blogs promote its product, whether it’s education or a razor, and both products provide for a monetary profit. Science World, on the other hand, is a not-for-profit.
Describe how the Science World and Full Sail blogs are similar to each other but different than the Dollar Shave Club blog.
Variety. Science World and Full Sail both cover a wide range of topics. While the issues coincide with its organization, the postings usually provide for a varied spectrum of postings. Dollar Shave Club, on the other hand, centers around one main focus.
Describe what makes the Science World blog unique.
Funness. Yes, I know that funness isn’t a word, but Science World is a science blog, and science is built around an idea of discovery … and maybe we just haven’t discovered enough uses of the word funness for it to become an official word. Besides, that’s what sets Science World apart from other science blogs – it provides informative content in a light and fun format.
Describe what makes the Full Sail blog unique.
Current. Full Sail’s blog is centered around an educational institution that focuses on creating creative professionals. It only makes sense that it would follow current blogging trends and provide its content visually appealing to incorporate current Web 2.0 technologies.
Describe what makes the Dollar Shave Club unique.
Humor. Come on; I know you didn’t check out Dollar Shave Club and not notice it’s Butt Wipe Manifesto infographic. Although I rock a beard, this humor drove me to become a member of the Dollar Shave Club. Yes, the site could be cleaned up a bit, and yes, it could offer even more visitor interaction by allowing comments, Dollar Shave Club’s humor certainly sets it apart from its competition.
There you have it, a quick compare and contrast of three blogs. So, what perspective did I gain from this activity regarding my blog? While not in its proper form and derived from many, is this quote:
Good artists copy; great artists steal.
Now I’m not saying to go out and copy verbatim and replicate what these other blogs are doing in its entirety, but I do liken the above quote to outstanding leadership. I once had someone tell me that to be a great leader, you have to look back at all those you’ve had interactions with in your life and reflect upon their leadership qualities. Then, you take the good qualities and implement them into your leadership style and negate the inferior qualities.
Creative design and implementation is a lot like the leadership example above. You need to explore and find the great techniques and styles that are out there and then refine and implement them to match your style and vision.