Recently, a close friend asked me, “Ken, what if a tree falls in the forest and nobody reads your blog?” His pithy use of the age old question was to remind me that the GIF blog audience is rather small. It struck a chord.
I already know our readership is small, paltry compared with blogging universe standards. So using another age old phrase I pithily responded, “Quality trumps quantity.” Another age old saying, one clearly pertinent during this U.S. election year. Yes, our blog audience is small, but pandering aside, it is a very high quality audience.
We use Constant Contact and other social media to get the story out about our mission and the social impact enterprises we support. As a result, we also receive unrequested missives from those entities about how we could boost our readership by spending more money to draw a bigger audience. I guess if we had an e-commerce site or sold advertising at rates determined by our readership that might be wise. Yet, again, while more readers would be wonderful, the quality of that readership remains a priority.
Certainly, we would love to have a larger audience, not because it would soothe my ego, but because it would mean that readers are focusing on more meaningful subject matter, something truly relevant to improving the quality of life, while at the same time shining a light on the worthy organizations that are focused on that effort. That is a good thing.
We try to provide stories from a slightly different perspective, one which captures a little more of what goes on as we seek out the best organizations to support. We try to connect the business due diligence with the human stories because we believe it helps to contextualize what a non-profit like GIF experiences as it endeavors to fulfill its mission to engage for-profit sustainable social enterprises that can demonstrate their capabilities to empower the poor.
It is understandable that cute dog videos and the like draw big audiences. It is understandable that social media mavens see the web as a digital soapbox to climb atop to share their passion, vent their spleens and just have fun. Would we love for more people to share the good news about what some very talented and committed entrepreneurs are trying to do to improve the quality of life for those in need? Sure, but we do not mind doing it one person at a time because sooner or later more people than less will learn that amidst the chaos that is commonplace around the world there are some really good things going on and spreading the good news is important for everyone’s sanity. So, unabashedly I encourage our readers to check out Eco-Fuels Africa or Sistema Biobolsa on You Tube. Take a look at what Food for the Poor is doing with the American Nicaragua Foundation. Read about the fantastic work of Raising the Village in Uganda. It is uplifting. These sites may never get the readership that dog videos receive, but their compelling stories make up for it.