Recently I’ve had the pleasure of working with a number of established bloggers in the blogosphere and had the opportunity to fine-tune their blogging strategy, as well as clarify their motives and methods.
It’s been a wonderul experience, and many of them don’t need much help at all.
Something that I always land back on, or at least touch upon at some point, is the this new idea of “Permission Marketing,” which was really coined by Seth Godin.
If you’re interested in engaging successfully into the digital landscape you probably want to familiarize yourself with this concept:
Permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them.
It recognizes the new power of the best consumers to ignore marketing. It realizes that treating people with respect is the best way to earn their attention.
You see, there’s something extremely close about Godin’s thoughts and how we, as evangelicals, have (and should) engage the lost and dying world.
We ask permission.
We ask for permission to join their lives, to walk with them, and to join them where they are. It takes time, and as Godin would say, you must “earn this right, over time, bit by bit.”
It’s application in the blogging space is crucial. There’s even much more to unpack here and it’ll be different for each particular person as they engage different parts of the sphere.
Let’s get to it. But ask permission.
That books was in my reading list – and it's now going to be moved to the top! Such a valid, and critical point made here!
sweet! it's a great book. a must read, perhaps.
Permission, the anti-spam.
good stuff.
you're good.
hahahaha. genius.
What a great point and something we must remind ourselves about over and over and over. We carry the offer of God's grace and truth to the world. We aren't responsible for what people do with it. We ARE responsible for making the offer in a way that would make them pay attention or at least not harm their perspective on it. Thinking about it from the perspective of permission means that we are respecting others' free will and recognizing that we need to be invited to speak truth into people's lives for that truth to be truly effective. Otherwise, we're just being pushy, rude, preumptuous … and it doesn't matter that we think we hold the key to life if the person on the receiving end thinks we're just trying to "scalp" another convert to our cause.
dude. right on here dude. i've found far too many “rude” tech people… it's disheartening…!
word up.
Have approached Seth personally about faith, and even asked permission to share our discussions. We can't be afraid to push a few buttons and get turned down, that's for sure. But we must respect people's lives and opinions and not just blog whatever we want to. Good thoughts!
cool. so what do you think of the guy in person?
Was through maybe 5-6 emails……no comment on the thoughts, sorry.
all good. ;0
"earn this right, over time, bit by bit" very true. Some might think that you can get instant acceptance on the inter-web. We still have to build trust. And we still want to be building relationships,not just networking. I worked out in the world to build relationships and waited for evangelistic opportunities. It didn't happen overnight and sometimes not at all. A lot of this online movement is like being a missionary. And I communicate with everyone.
Good stuff John.
thanks jim. how was hte first week at work?