How Your Writing Can Have More Signal And Less Noise
Posted: Tuesday, May 06, 2008
by Rob Trahan
SearchWarp.com
Marketing Guru Seth Godin posted on his blog last week about signal vs noise on the internet. If you don't know Seth Godin, I'd encourage you to check out his blog, his books, any of his speaking engagements, conferences he presents at, and on and on. He's like Forrest Gump in the marketing world, he's a household name!
The meat of his post on signal vs noise was about how the internet used to be almost all signal (information) and very little noise (spam, junk, misinformation), but lately has become more noise than signal. More spam than substance. Too much information but not enough information (if you follow me).
Here are a couple of ideas. Feel free to use them, ignore them, blow right past them because you've heard it all before.
1. Give people more than a sales pitch. One of the reasons the signal-to-noise ratio is out of whack is because everyone seems to be selling something these days. There's nothing wrong with wanting to make money. Who wouldn't? But not everyone online is buying. Everyone online is looking for information, though. They are willing to stop for a story. They are willing to learn. Provide them that and you're providing them with signal.
2. Proofread. Edit. Then have someone else proofread. If it's not well written and clear, it's not signal. A reader's attention span online is short and if he has to read something more than once to understand it, it's just noise to him.
3. Provide something no one else can. OK, this one's hard at first glance. After all, you are not the only person who knows something about _______. But you ARE the only person who knows what YOU know about it, with YOUR experiences and YOUR opinions. That's what you can provide. It's more than rehashing what someone else knows or says. It's providing what YOU know. That's signal.
This is by no means the answer to the whole problem of too much noise, not enough signal on the internet that Godin sees. But hopefully together we can do our part to provide a little more signal and a little less noise.
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)Rob, How true! Opinions and stories are nice but if it's just (pardon the expressions) mental masturbation, then it's you and your friends who are interested. In that case, best to delete your account and just email friends and families. As a part-time college instructor, I am amazed at the number of typos, text-messaging like writing, and just poor editing I see. In the article word, there are many articles that I've read that are just poorly written and edited. And even if they are edited well, they are difficult to read. First of all, people don't have the time or need to read about your little life stories, unless you're famous or well known. Even then there are a lot of people who just don't care. I've learned that in marketing people are three things: lazy, selfish, and they're right. Meaning, that what they want you better give them or else you're going no where--as in no one's going to read your stuff. I may put my opinion in my articles but if there's not a lot of information that MOST (as in the many not the few) can use, then I ain't writing it. I tell my students that they may connect to a particular story or idea but if what they have to say about that story or idea doesn't connect to the many then they need to rethink their writing. I totally agree with your points here (I sound like my students . . . dude). I hope everyone writing and thinking of writing to and for the masses will read your article. Thanks again and welcome aboard.Jeff, thanks for the comment. One thing I'll say about having information for most instead of the few: I've seen people, even here on SearchWarp, who only reach a few. But what they have to give the few is valuable enough that the author in turn has value. Does that make sense? You can have a small following if what you're feeding them really fills them up. Plus, if people didn't care about minutiae, twitter wouldn't be nearly as popular as it is now!Good points. My mind set now is to reach the many, to think big, to get catch as many as I can, to make the extra, concerted effort. I've been reaching the few for a long time. Time to think BIG! But I appreciate what you have to say and agree with the goodness within one reaching the few. Glad to have you aboard and I'm looking forward to additional insightful articles. Peace out.Mr. Anonymous was me, Jeff.
Hi Rob. I just have to comment on one of Jeff's statements: "First of all, people don't have the time or need to read about your little life stories..." There is a lot to be learned from even the most silly of life stories if you just give them a chance. Sometimes, I could care less whether anyone reads what I have written. Sometimes, it just has to be written and shared. I do, however, think that the points you made in your article are valid, valuable and should be considered by everyone who writes. Thanks. DianneDianne, I couldn't agree with you more. Like Paul McCartney says "Some people wanna fill the world with silly love songs And what's wrong with that I'd like to know." Nothing at all. But the reality is that few read, period, even fewer read things that don't specifically speak to them, like other's "little life stories." A sad yet true state of affairs. Keep writing! Peace out.Dianne, I understand where you're coming from. And some of the most valuable writing is written because it "just has to be written and shared." Thanks for the comment!Rob, I think that when someone writes something that just has to be written and shared, that they do it for themselves. I know that I do. If it has value to others...well that's what we all hope for. Hopefully, the readers are at least entertained along the way. Dianne
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