How To Write Valuable Content and Other Boring Tricks

One of the 1,938,432 social media mavens sent me an email today suggesting I hire him to write really valuable content for my blog.

It was an obnoxious sort of letter in which he complimented and insulted me at the same time. Got to tell you that it warmed the cockles of my heart to meet the online version of Don Rickles.

I wrote him back and asked him to go to dinner at the Bone Daddy’s in Grapevine tonight but he said he was out of state and asked me to set up a telephone call. I told him the best way to develop a relationship was to meet in person and told him I didn’t believe in online communications or dating.

Surprisingly he wrote me back and said that he believed a telephone call was the way to go. I told him I never go that far on a first date and he didn’t write me back.

Go figure.

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”― Albert Einstein

One of the talk shows I listen to here was supposed to at the restaurant which is the main reason I planned on going. I wanted to see how they set things up and ran the show from the field but when I walked outside I decided not to go.

That is because the crazy weather in Texas made it too freaking cold. We went from it being around 80 to somewhere in the forties with some wind and drizzle.

If it was February this would be fine, but it is not and I am not interested in spending May in the frigid Southwest so I did a little dance and pointed at the sky.

Apparently G-d doesn’t like my dancing enough to change the weather nor was he irritated enough to try to nail me with lightning, so I got that going for me.

Valuable Content Is Subjective

Some of you have heard me complain about the echo chamber in social media and the repetition of themes. That is because the field is cluttered and noisy. It is so damn easy to write about social media people get stuck chasing the low hanging fruit.

But they forget that valuable content is subjective and that part of the game is to not be afraid to mix things up and experiment. Sometimes you have to be like the Apple Fan boys and “Think Different.”

Sometimes valuable content comes not because you teach but because you entertain. Sometimes you can entertain by telling funny stories and sometimes you can do it by sharing something that people relate to.

For example in time the girl in the picture will be old enough to start dating. However the rule for dating her will be to defeat me in single combat. If you can do that you are allowed to ask her hand.

If not, well you better check to make sure your health coverage includes physical therapy and try not to forget to learn to love eating soft foods.

Funny Stuff

Once upon a time the little girl’s grandfather asked her if she would share some of her hair with him since he is missing his. She decided she was going to and tried to find some glue and a stapler.

It is a good thing that grandpa was paying attention or he might have ended up with the wrong kind of staples in his head. To be honest grandpa has a really hard head so I am not convinced that he wouldn’t have broken the stapler.

Speaking of funny stuff did I mention that thanks to deregulation people in Texas can choose from 98,000 different electric companies. It is a joyous experience that is only improved by knowing that each utility company provides multiple plans to choose from.

Hell that doesn’t make it joyous, it makes it exponentially better.

But What Ab0ut the Social Media Tricks

Yeah, I know I mentioned social media tricks in the headline yet I haven’t spoken about them at all. Allow me to rectify that.

Social media is about people. Build relationships with your readers. Treat them like people. Ask for their input. Answer their questions and engage with them and good things  will come from that.

See, the trick to remember is to treat people well.

How do I know this works?

The number of readers and pageviews of this blog is continuing to increase. I believe it is because I figured out how to write content that the readers who frequent here find valuable.

Or maybe it is just because I pay them really well. Hmm…got to think about that one.

What is new in your world? Let me know in the comments.