I was just chatting with a friend about businesses and was joking about how we should get all our cool friends together and start our own business, even if we all do a wide variety of things that don’t really seem to fit together.
But in this day and age, that just might work. And there’s a lesson for those of us who are involved in using social media and blogging.
I remember back in college in Beaver Falls, PA in the early eighties there were a few rather…unique businesses in town. What made them unique was the odd variety of things they offered. I don’t remember the exact name, but one of them was the “Record and Wig Shop.” That’s right, a shop run by two little old ladies who sold a combination of vinyl record albums and 45s…and wigs. Bins of records (if you have to ask…I don’t want to hear it) and shelves with be-wigged Styrofoam heads. And if I’m not mistaken, they also had a glass cabinet featuring various martial arts weapons.
Just up the main drag was another unique business. It was, I believe, the Beaver Falls News and China shop. A newsstand that also sold…china. As in dishes. Dinnerware. The place was primarily a newsstand with the typical offerings of snacks, lottery tickets, and cigarettes. But, yeah…china.
Now those businesses were real, and I’m certainly not advocating such a brick and mortar business model. But if we are using social media, and particularly blogging, don’t get bogged down by what you do and sell. Don’t just blog about your own business and products. Variety, as they say, is the spice of life. Blog about a wide variety of things that interests people who might also be interested in what you are selling.
People aren’t one-dimensional. We all have a variety of interests. Tap into that and provide relevant content that draws them in. It will benefit you and your business in the long run.
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In the late 1970s, there was a store in Yellow Springs, Ohio named “Records and Fresh Vegetables.”
Actually, the two gibed fairly well together, because they tried to serve the vegetarian/vegan Foxfire/MotherEarthNews reader that Antioch College was noted for. They carried locally-grown and organic vegetables and June Appal label records, featuring folk music from Appalachia using hammer dulcimers and other traditional instruments.
It was an hour drive from Dayton, where I lived, and I couldn’t afford to buy many LPs, but I still treasure that vinyl.