As reported here in Southern Voice, photographer Caroline Smith went down to the Krog Tunnel last week during the Atlanta flood and snapped a photo of a man and a woman in a canoe.
As you can see in the photo itself, it’s a striking image. It has great subject matter, some striking lighting conditions, and it embodies the weirdness of a flooded city. Add to that a little dash of the human propensity for making the best of a bad situation, and you’ve got yourself an incredible photo.
In the Southern Voice article, Ms. Smith talks about uploading the image to Flickr and talking about it on twitter with the #atlflood hashtag. She didn’t make any posters. She didn’t send a newsletter. She didn’t promote the image. It just took off on its own.
What I take away from this is that great content will take off given half a chance. It might not even need half a chance.
Having been a professional musician in a former life, I can tell you that there are a lot of bands and songwriters out there promoting themselves with all the gusto they can manage. They are carpet bombing every available outlet. They relentlessly text message everyone in their phones about every gig they play. And yet, they don’t take off.
I was guilty of this behavior myself. Why doesn’t it work? No good content! Those artists should spend that effort on one good song rather than trying to push twelve okay ones.
Contrast this with my friend Sonia Leigh, who has never gone looking for a gig in her life. She’s only ever played gigs other people asked her to play. When I heard that I told her I was going to play in her band. I did, for over a year.
Her songs are so good that people are dying to get her to come play her music at their venue.. she doesn’t have to sell herself because she has good content. Of course, the best combination is good marketing and good content, but good content and no marketing is a lot better than any kind of marketing and no good content.
So if things aren’t taking off, marketing might not be your problem. You might need to refine your product until it helps market itself!
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