Michael Hyatt and growing your platform

benlreed —  October 6, 2010 — 5 Comments

Michael Hyatt, at Catalyst 2010, offers three ways you can grow your platform:

How do you grow your platform?

1. Establish a command center. This is a homebase, that you own and control, whether a website or a blog.  The most important thing you can do is write compelling content on a consistent basis.

2. Set up embassies. These are places you don’t own or control, but have a regular presence.  The trouble with making these places (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) a command center is that they could go away.  Case in point…Myspace.

3. Develop an intelligence agency. Monitor what’s being said about you or your company, because stuff is being said!

What’s your platform?

 

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benlreed

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Christ follower, husband, father, writer, pastor of small groups at Long Hollow Baptist Church. Communications director for the Small Group Network.
  • http://willfjohnston.com Will Johnston

    It’s my blog, although I think my Twitter presence is at least as significant if not more so. That’s not necessarily by design. It’s just easier to grow Twitter than a blog.

    • http://www.benreed.net Ben Reed

      It may be easier to get more followers on Twitter than on your blog, but I think I’d argue that it would be easier to develop a healthy tribe on your blog than on Twitter.

      • http://willfjohnston.com Will Johnston

        I think a blog is more likely to be a healthy tribe, as it doesn’t lend itself as easily to an unhealthy tribe as Twitter does. However, I think it’s easy enough to develop a healthy tribe on Twitter. I think by going where people are (Twitter) rather than asking them to come to you (blog), more people are likely to engage (and probably more often). The trick is you have to target the right people.

        • http://www.benreed.net Ben Reed

          Good thoughts, Will. What do you do to “target the right people” on your blog?

          • http://willfjohnston.com Will Johnston

            As you can see, sometimes I’m very slow to respond…

            This is one where I’m not very good or experienced. I’ve never really built up a significant blog following. However, I think two things would be important.

            One, figure out your audience. You need to be able to figure out who would actually read your blog. I image your blog’s primary audience is young small group pastors. I would guess secondary audiences include other young pastors/church leaders, not-so-young small group pastors, and folks in your church (that last one might actually be your primary audience). If you suddenly gained an interest in celebrities and started blogging about them here, you’d probably have a harder time getting new readers and even lose a few current ones. I would bet that for the most part, the people who read your blog now aren’t interested in that. For a while I was blogging on politics, religion, and technology. Any two of those is a good combination for a blog. With that third one in there, I’m not sure there are too many folks who have a significant interest in each of those. I can pinpoint a group for combination of them but not for all of them.

            Second, from a marketing standpoint, linking to and commenting on other blogs would be a good way to build readership. It gives you exposure to other bloggers in your niche as well as their readers. At some point reaching out to them via e-mail, twitter, etc. can be beneficial.