Finding Focus And Purpose: Simplify. Explain. Repeat.

The last tweet I looked at last night before going to bed was from Chris Brogan.

Chris is on a private Twitter list called “influencers.” I keep that list private because I don’t want anyone asking me, “why aren’t I on that list.” It’s always the last thing I look at before I head off to bed. His tweet, which I can’t find in his stream now, was: “What Is the Focus and Purpose of Your Blog http://bit.ly/cswlic.” I didn’t make the time to go read it before heading upstairs, but the headline made me immediately say, “Forget that. What is the focus and purpose of my life.” Yeah. I take things too far sometimes.

And then I went to bed.

But all night long that headline haunted me.  I tossed and turned most of the night and went in and out of coherent thought. And I woke up with a moment of clarity. I rolled over and hugged my wife and said, “We need to change Mothers Fighting For Others.” She bit. “How?”

I had already told her about my day in San Francisco at New Marketing Experience. I had also shared my mid-event takeaway from the event in a tweet. “We need a better, more consistent content strategy at http://mffo.org.” As I read it now, I realize how much I still didn’t get it at the time. I’m way better at giving great advice than I am at taking it. But after my sleepless night, I told Rocky that I finally “got it.”

“We need to do three things,” I said, still in bed. “We need to simplify our message, we need to answer just one question, and we need to do it more often.”

When I got out of bed, I took a look at Twitter and there was a mention waiting for me from Susie Blackmon. “RT @chrisbrogan What Is the Focus and Purpose of Your Blog http://bit.ly/cswlic [Ironic post for me and @respres gets photo credit.]” Since I hadn’t read the post, I had no idea Chris used one of my photos. Thanks, Chris, but you should know that I still haven’t read the post. I immediately took Susie’s tweet as a sign that I needed to write.

Simplify The Message

When I read the tweet, “What is the focus and purpose of your blog?” I found I couldn’t answer it quickly enough. And it forced me to ask a different question. What does MFFO do?  So, I asked Rocky, as she lay there half asleep, to answer that question. She did, but with long paraphrase of the paragraph that appears on the home page at MFFO.org.

“Mothers Fighting For Others is dedicated to providing orphaned girls with opportunities their parents would have provided, if they only could; a loving and nurturing environment and a quality education, so they can learn, thrive and achieve their highest potential.”

That’s accurate, but it’s not simple. Since  it’s not simple, it’s also not memorable. For anyone… including us.

What is the simplest way to describe what MFFO does? My feeling is that if we find the simplest way, we’ll also find the most powerful way. Let me try.

MFFO helps orphaned girls become powerful women.

That may not stick, but it’s simple. It’s memorable.  It’s accurate. As a result, it’s also powerful.

Answer Just One Question

One of the tweets I sent from NME10 seemed to resonate with people. It was retweeted a great deal. It was something Natanya Anderson said on one of the panels. She said, “Good content starts with ‘What do they want to know? Not what do I want to say?’” So, I asked Rocky, “What do people want to know when they come to MFFO.org?” She said, “Who? What? When? Where? and Why?” I said, “No. They want to know this: ‘Why should I give you my money?‘”

What do they want to know? That’s the one question we all need to answer for ourselves. In the case of MFFO, people who come to the site want to know what we do, where we do it and why. Sure, absolutely. But what they’re really asking when they land on the site is,  “why should I give my money to you and not to the thousands of other charities they have to choose from?”

And every blog needs to answer that one question… first and foremost. Without doing that there is no possible way to know what the focus and purpose of your blog is or should be. No possible way to harness that power.

Answer The Question More Often

Saying, “I need to write more,” is not a motivating statement. It’s a fact, but it’s not motivating. What I should be saying is this, “I need to figure out more ways to explain why people should support MFFO.org.” And I need to do it with sounds and images… not just words. If I concentrate on that, the ideas will come.

If I focus on answering that one question, that IS motivating. Why? Because I want to explain how we help give young Kenyan girls a voice, how we help them get an education, how we help them grow into productive members of their community, how we provide a home that nurtures and cares for them.

I WANT to do that! The ideas will come. The writing will flow. And then more people who care will be able to answer the question, “why should I give my money to you?” That’s motivating.

Simplify. Explain. Repeat.

And I need to go through this exercise for Zeek Interactive as well. And for Real Estate Shows. And for Stop Child Slavery. And probably for my life.

Do you know the focus and purpose of your blog? How will you find it?

photo credit: me

Tags: blogging, brogan, focus, marketing, mffo, purpose, Twitter