Blogging To have Your Voice Heard

Have been off from LinkedIn for a while now. have been working on a book. I recently published a few blogs on a free cheap unexciting personal blog site that would be primary content for the book. One of the blogs was published as recent as today early morning at 4.00 am. Wasn't getting sleep so decided to complete the writing.?It's something I was working on for some time now but seem to have be stalled by a writers block

I had written several P.o.Vs in the past but never had many readers. Very specific cohorts read my writing. Probably because it's mostly incoherent. ?Interestingly for one of the 3 blogs that I published recently, has recorded 4501 readers (as of now & it keeps growing by a few numbers everyday) and I have been approached by at least 1 media and publication house for an interview, a request to host a 1 hour webinar on a global online platform that deals with history, culture and politics and a even a certain political party has asked me for a PDF copy of 2 of the blogs on fire. I realized that I may have done something right. Writing and publishing these blogs taught me several things about content management and amplification (however it may not work for highly technical content)

1) My biggest mistake - Despite warnings from the masters of the game, I ended up writing a very long and heavy blog. I realized that the typical audience may not want to consume so much of data driven heavy historical and political content in one shot. In such cases, books are more eye friendly. I should have broken it up thematically. My adrenalin was high and I just wanted to finish and redeem myself. That Pulitzer moment!

Don't do it. Release your content in short pieces in not more than 800-1000 words. Most folks don't like to read a lot. We are living in the age of the micro and instant gratification.

2) I thought that I had so much of explosive primary content that I will set the internet on fire. The Hubris was crushed in no time. Never target everyone on the internet. It doesn't work. May work for Simon Sinek, Stephen King, Dan Brown or Yuval Noah Harari. You have to pick your target audience carefully so that they open up a dialogue with you. Today a world famous historian started pining me on Twitter

3) Choice of channel is important. If your content is political there is no better channel than @Twitter and @koo but if it's technical and business LinkedIn is a better platform. Although, an established thought leader may find solace on Twitter too. WhatsApp is a dark horse that can be used as an organic launch pad but do not depend on it. Trashy jokes, memes and philosophical posters, short videos work better there just like Meta. If your stuff is serious, it's not for Facebook. Insta has a different clientele altogether and content and you will have to curate accordingly just as a promotion channel

4) Timing is important. Micro blogs (less that 500 words) fly well on weekdays while larger pieces are consumed over weekends. The platform algorithms might behave erratic sometimes and if you publish something big on a Monday may not show up as a queue for your targeted readers

4) It's important to tag the right influencers who work as your advocates on the internet. However it could be tricky in cases if the person you are tagging has a contrarian view of what you are writing. Getting trolled in not a happy state if you are not someone who practices detachment

6) There will always be trollers who undermine your effort. Never bother unless you are running for President

7) Be very open to feedback and constructive criticism

8) Use a multi channel strategy using hashtags. Hashtags are very powerful. Find similar topics and themes across channels, comment to start a dialogue. Post your content/link to content with a context. If its a link provide a short summary. Drive traffic for the same content but in a different channels using different conversation threads. Scope vs scale

Did I miss anything? If you are interested in Indian history that dates back to 13th Century, politics and freedom struggle (all first hand accounts from letters, memoirs, official East India Company Gazette etc, nothing available on public domain) do read and share your thoughts of these 3 Blogs of a 4 Part Series. I plan to write the last one of the series in the next 60 days

Blog 1: https://kpax72.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-untold-truth-what-liberals-dont.html

Blog 2: https://kpax72.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-genesis-mukherjees-of-uttarpara.html

Blog 3 Published today & politically very contentious: https://kpax72.blogspot.com/2022/03/how-self-serving-politics-killed.html