Today I’m launching my redesigned website. Like the proverbial cobbler’s children, my website sat neglected for, well, years (yes, I’ll admit it) while I focused on clients’ brands and marketing.
Naturally, I needed a new piece of content, but what to write about? It’s fairly straightforward to write for clients, but admittedly that’s not the case for my own blog (which I have to laugh at given that my mantra to get clients to blog is “just write about what you know, it’s easy!”). Then this morning I read a terrific blog by Alex D’Amore at Social Media Explorer that applies lessons learned from immersive travel to social media marketing. Since I’m currently working remotely from central Mexico, his blog couldn’t have been more timely and on target.
The reason I adore travel is similar to how Alex explains it — it changes one’s perspective, reframes objectives, and opens up new possibilities. Immersive travel challenges us to shift routines, clarify our communications, and really listen to others. My Spanish is marginal at best. Meaningless chitchat gets me nowhere. If I need to communicate, I have to be clear, concise, and relate to my listener’s current context. It’s the same with marketing.
This approach seems so obvious and yet we often forget that our audience doesn’t necessarily speak the same language as us (figuratively), lives in a different space with different rules and tolerances, and most importantly, consists of real people — not just personae, “eyeballs” or “followers.” If I need to get an idea across, I need to relate on their terms, not mine. That’s true if I’m in the mercado trying to buy flowers, or creating messaging for an ad.
On the home page of my old website, I highlighted this great quote from Ray Bradbury, which I keep on this site as well:
“Stuff your eyes with wonder. Live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made up or paid for in factories.”
You don’t have to get on a plane though to open your eyes to wonder and see the world. Switch up your routine, take different route to work, study a new language. Explore, rethink, and reframe how you look at a situation. It will open up new opportunities. It will be worth it.