Todaymade.com has got me dancing again. They’ve equated blogging with a making a mix tape. Suddenly I feel all those years holed up in my suburban bedroom, trying to “Shhhhs” out the noise and hope my mother didn’t yell “Supper!” in the middle of one of my tracks had some meaning after all. I was preparing to become a big-time blogger when I grew up.
Since blogs didn’t exist yet, and wouldn’t for the first half of my working life, the mix tape metaphor came in handy while I worked as an editor. As the cassette gave way to the CD and ultimately the playlist, the song essentially remained the same. Set the mood, introduce something new or unexpected, but bring it all together into a comfort zone that lets your listener get into the groove and become one with your content.
As Todaymade breaks it down,
Making a mix tape is basically a way to help introduce another person to music she might not otherwise hear but would likely enjoy if she did. There are thousands and thousands of songs and bands out there, some better than others. By putting together a mix tape, the task of finding good music and new bands is made much simpler.
It’s the same way with our blog. The internet is flooded with content. Just like a curator at a museum, we find the best content and present it to our readers in a way that saves them the trouble of finding it for themselves. It also tells them that we’re willing to do the work of sifting through a massive amount of information to bring them what they want to read.
By taking it on ourselves to find outside content for our blog, we build trust with our readers by showing them that we’re not just about forcing our own message on them, yet we still maintain editorial control over what they read. Curators and editors and makers of mix tapes don’t create the content, but they control the mix and by doing so, control the message.
Deejay, curator, editor-in-chief. A good blogger gets to wear all these hats. Get up and boogie or bring it down, we control the volume and subsequently the mood.
Source: Todaymade.com, “Why Your Blog Is Like a Mix Tape”.
Kathy Drasky regularly writes about online culture. Her marketing and communications work with the ANZA Technology Network, Advance Global Australians and with various Australians and Australian enterprises has led to at least a dozen trips Down Under.
An accomplished digital photographer, her photos have appeared in 7×7 Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle and Google Schmap.
