This guest post is by Barb Sawyers of Sticky Communication.
Changing the world, one person at a time. I first heard this expression back in the eighties as the tagline for Apple Computers. Since then, it's been borrowed my thousands of causes and brands. It's that good.
But still, people are appealing to market segments, stakeholders and other big-box groups. Bloggers are often advised to know their niches. Though smaller, a niche is still an impersonal group.
Flip your model
If you're not getting the results you deserve, try flipping your relationship model from many to one. After all, that's how you make friends.
This individual should be the person you most want to connect with. Not your happy fans, customers or followers, nor the people whose minds are firmly shut to you. Pick the people who are sitting on the fence, just waiting for a gentle push to your side.
Just one
Actually, I should say person, not people, because I want you to think about one person who represents those fence sitters. Maybe this person resembles someone you know fairly well, from personal experience, market research or whatever. Probably you to have to use some imagination to fill in the gaps.
Now ask yourself: What gets this person up in the morning? What keeps him awake at night? Answer those two questions and you can tap into these deep passions and fears that nudge the fence sitter to your side.
For example
Let me use a cause blogger as an example. You blog because you are passionate about helping starving children. That gets you up in the morning. But you wake up in the middle of the night worried that you aren't conveying the passion or knowledge that will persuade people to donate.
Normally you write for your niche, well-educated, well-off people in urban centres and a list of other stakeholders. Today talk to one person who you have invented, based partly on the woman you...
