Today’s Marketing Monday is inspired by a comment US Agility Trainer & Competitor Daisy Peel put out on social media during the week. The essence of her comment was…. can someone be a coach and a competitor at the same time.
Daisy put this out there while she was watching the Sochi Winter Olympics. In most cases the coaches had never competed in the sport they were coaching and were definitely not coaching and competing at the same time. Yet in most dog sports, definitely agility, the coaches are regularly the top competitors.
So it’s Marketing Monday so let’s talk the business of blogging. Mum has been looking into a blogging e-course. The course is run by a successful blogger and part of mum’s decision making on whether to do the course was to go check out this person’s blog and check out their style, content and also if and what advertising or sponsorship they have (that is have they managed to commercialise their blog?). She also checked out their presence in other social media to see what sort of following they have. Tick. They seem to be successful. So yeah this person probably knows what they are talking about and hence it is probably a safe investment of time and money to read what this blogger has to say.
Mum, when she has to pull herself away from giving me pats, also runs a research and marketing business (High Definition Insights if you want to see what mum does to pay for my bones). Again in this situation she thinks her point of difference is having actual experience. A lot of researcher are, well great researchers, but with commercial clients it is important to be able to put the theory into practice. She thinks that having negotiated with the Factory Manager as to what machines can do and debated with the Finance Director over adequate margins to launch with, that it gives her a different perspective when analysing.
So when you are learning where do you go to for help? Is it the academic that has spent the time in the theories and may have deep levels of knowledge on a topic or is it the experienced practitioner who has learnt on the job (and there is obviously people who have a combo of both)?
And now for our dog blog this week. From what we have seen so far dog blogs, especially here in Australia, are in the camp of learn as we go. The blogging side of it is really just a chance to share stories, experiences and helpful hints. One of the helpful hints we really like is from a Vet who blogs when she has time. Creature Clinic is where Dr Joanna Paul shares her professional experiences. Most of us are still pretty new to blogging but whether a vet, a marketer or coming from some other background we are all learning this fun world of blogging.
Love to hear your thoughts on where you learn about blogging and good sources of ‘how to’ information.
Thanks for checking out Dog Blog & Marketing Monday
1st World Dog 
I was just reading your wonderful blog post as I was intrigued to hear your take on dog blogs and marketing, since I know you have the unique perspective of experience in both, and stumbled across your very kind shout out to yours truly 🙂 thank you so much, you’ve made my day!
In answer to your question, I think it varies depending on the situation, and in most cases a combo of the two is best (thinking of vets – sort of want someone who’s seen a bit in practice, but formal qualifications tend to be relevant too!) a third factor I think is attitude. You might have someone who is a walking textbook or has been there done that a thousand times, or you might have someone with a little less of those things but will go to the ends of the earth to help you 🙂
Oh by the way, my fave resource is http://Blogpaws.com – a great community of pet bloggers with heaps of excellent info and advice 🙂
Pleasure for shout out. Love Creature Clinic.
Yeah absolutely. Should have mentioned attitude as good attitude is gold.
I thought that is rather interesting comparing sports coaches to dog sport coaches 🙂 The human thinks it’s hard to balance the time between creating content, marketing the blog to readers and marketing the blog to marketers, but then again guess we are only at the beginning of the journey and learning as you say.
It is definitely a juggling act. At this stage for us it is enjoying the content creation side. Unless you have your own ‘product’ right than the marketing (regardless of who) is irreverent. Our dog equivalent is we could go entering the nationals or other big trials (so travel as you would expect to be there multiple days getting through the rounds to the finals) but unless you actually have your training right than you will be out day 1.
Lots of learning on the content side from our perspective still.
Agree 😉 Most of my blog time is spent on content which is something I love doing anyway. But I run the risk of publishing to the same group of readers, rather than reaching anyone new is what I am saying 🙂
As for the product, I don’t think there will ever be the “right” product so to speak. We will keep learning and changing over time, it’s just who finds the content relevant/appealing to them at that point in their lives.