The most effective delivery of information is done creatively. I for one would always rather learn something while feeling engaged then read a list of bullet points.
Earlier this week Stoney wrote a fairly critical blog post towards another prominent member of the SEO community, Rand Fishkin from SEOmoz. While making some valid points, Stoney, in hindsight, felt he was too harsh in his tone towards Rand, and blurred the focus of his post. To express his concern, Stoney wrote a follow-up blog criticizing his earlier post from a third person point of view.
Here at Pole Position Marketing we try hard to keep a creative atmosphere in which the sharing of ideas is encouraged. When Stoney wanted to address aspects of his initial post he brought his concerns to the staff along with an initial draft for his blog. Ideas were thrown around the office. Ultimately, we all thought it would be clever for Stoney to re-write his draft to make himself the focus of his criticism to further illustrate the point that it is OK to give and take criticism, but constructive criticism is more effective.
Not a groundbreaking concept, but a fun way to get two valid points across without further diluting the purpose of the original blog response. Those points being:
1) Criticism delivered constructively is far more effective.
2) Everyone should be open to such criticism, even from themselves.
After Stoney issued this second post, there seemed to be a bit of confusion amongst some of the readers. We received a few emails and calls from these individuals and explained the original intent.
I have always seen the purpose of a Blog in general is to create a dialog with others relating to the topic. If you read a blog and don’t understand something, post a comment and say so. This allows the author to respond themselves, and may allow another reader to have a deeper understanding of the topic. The greater the level of participation by the community, the greater the value of the blog is.
I look forward to giving and receiving criticism on this and all the blogs I take the time to read. I hope you do the same.