1/ I’ve been trying to convince teammates to create more content externally. Blogs, Tweets, MySpace ramblings, Homing Pigeon messages.
Here are my arguments for why they should.
Here are my arguments for why they should.
2/ Reason 1: Putting out content publicly clarifies your thinking. Particularly when there is an engaged audience that will tear the content apart if it isn’t on point. I find that beautifully efficient feedback loop so helpful for pushing thinking forward on a topic.
3/ This is particularly true on a restricted medium like @Twitter . It forces you to focus on what matters. I’ve often found that in my head I think I understand a topic- but writing it down exposes fault logic I need to think through further.
4/ Reason 2: If done right, I think demands an 80/20 rule. Like a thesis paper, content can be debated endlessly. A 600 word blog can be done in an hour see the (avc.com blogs) or can take 3 months and suck up PR/marketing/legal resources. I prefer the former.
5/ By being ok with imperfection in your content, it allows you to move more quickly. Listen to the public feedback (which will be 100x more valuable than just internal feedback) and iterate accordingly. Or decide not to. But now you have data.
6/ Reason 3: Content will attract others to you that think a) similarly or b) explicitly disagree. Both are helpful.
7/ 3a: Think similarly – by creating content that exposes your thinking, others who think similarly will find it and more likely to proactively engage w/ you. In our case that is entrepreneurs hungry for data, LPs to invest, and engineers/data scientists who love hard problems.
8/ 3b: Explicitly disagree- some of the most important content we’ve put out, we released knowing there would be strong arguments against it. We wanted to flesh those out and be able to understand the disagreements. It made us grow.
9/ I personally find it extremely helpful to know why people disagree. When I started CircleUp I loved hearing thoughtful pushback. It made me better. I remember even calling a Tiger analyst that shorted companies for a living. Who better to poke holes.
10/ Reason 4: Content increases serendipity. I know this sounds fluffy. I’ve just found it to be true. Last week we had an amazing data scientist apply after reading some of our content. I can give 50 examples like that.
12/ Reason 5: It builds your brand and your companies. I love when we have team members that we can quote in the press, put on panels or create content around them. It helps build their personal brands -and I think often furthers their careers.
13/ By having a collection of people with stronger personal brands, I do think it helps the parent co. But there are also costs. They are more likely to be poached away. That is a risk. But it’s a risk I am ok taking because I think it is great for each team member individually.
14/ And I think longer-term people like working on a team that wants them to grow personally, not just see the company grow.
15/ Reason 6: It may help others. Advice content sometimes helps. Content that talks about your feelings or vulnerabilities I think helps build connections- helps others not feel as alone.
16/ This is particularly true in areas where there is less content. Want to create unique content for a tech entrepreneur to hire engineers? Good luck. There are 4k pieces out there. But on topics where there is less content, it can add tremendous value.
17/ I’m sure there are other great reasons to put out content. But those are the ones I shared with the team.
18/ Btw- I discovered they are called Homing Pigeons and not carrier pigeons. I only discovered that by googling how to spell carrier pigeons for this Tweetstorm. Creating the content helped me learn.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homing_pi…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homing_pi…
