Being more selective | Pinnacle Newsletter #5
#5 Being more selective
This week I'd like to talk about content, social sharing, respect, and why you need to be more selective online.
Publishing these days isn't just about formal publication, or even self-publishing in the traditional sense of the word. It also includes the content we write, shoot, edit, and share online. Almost all writers do this now, from blogging to Instagram – outdoor writers perhaps most of all. A snowy wild camp might not be notable enough to make a full print feature, but it's juicy material for your blog.
So far so good, but there's a snag: the cost of this form of publishing is almost zero, and the platforms we use are set up to make sharing effortless.
Surely that's a good thing? To an extent yes, but when something is really easy lots of people will do it all the time. This decreases its value.
Also, the attention of your audience is a finite resource. It can be tempting to compete for this attention by sharing more frequently, but can you also maintain quality while ramping up your output? Unless you hire some staff, probably not.
Respect your audience. People have chosen to follow you on Twitter, read your blog or sign up to your newsletter for a reason. Instead of bombarding them with more low-quality stuff they'll just scroll on by, it's time to be more selective. Focus on quality rather than quantity. In an era of feed fatigue, internet anxiety and people rapidly becoming jaded by the commercialism of the web, readers will trust influencers who respect their audience's attention, share high-quality content that actually adds value, and who act like a human being online.
Authenticity and careful curation are of greater long-term value in the attention economy than immediacy and quantity of content. Put another way: you are a person, not a computer.
Recently published
It's been another quiet week on the publishing front. I've been putting the finishing touches to two major book projects before returning to my regular duties. Next week I'll be back in the saddle at The Great Outdoors, so expect more from me in Newsletter #6.
Three winter glens in the Cairngorms. This feature was first published on UKHillwalking in January 2017, but I've now republished it on my website with a few additional photos.
An image I captured on Wednesday, at the start of the snow event variously known as 'Snowmageddon', 'The Beast from the East', or, alternatively, 'winter'.
Links of interest (and quality!)
Snow (1963)
How Mediocrity Can Quietly Destroy Us All
The Billionaire's Typewriter
The Hiking in Finland Week in Review №281
From my Commonplace Book
As technology normalises the production of an abundance of images and books, the value of our work increasingly becomes connected to curation or selection.
– Craig Mod, Conjuring creative permission from our tools
Until next time,
Alex
www.alexroddie.com