I’m honored to have my leaf on The Blog Tree created by Eloqua with JESS3. And I especially like my lofty view from the top. But, what inspires me most about the Blog tree is that I’m reaping the benefit of all the other leaves as they send their insights and expertise up the tree to feed my thinking and let me play with their ideas.
One day, as the tree grows, there will be leaves above me that will hopefully find value from what I send up the tree.
In their post about The Blog Tree, Eloqua refers to the new book Content Rules as their inspiration for re-imagining a list. They’ve taken a simple—but boring and overused—idea of creating a resource and added context and creativity. They’ve presented something all of us are familiar with in a different way.
But, even better, they’ve tied us all together by showcasing relationships. I read most of the blogs on the tree. The blogs and bloggers featured here tirelessly share and spread ideas. I learn something from each of them. Sometimes an idea they share takes me down a path for an entirely different perspective than I’ve previously had. Sometimes I feel a rant coming on. And at other times I think, “sheesh – I wish I’d thought of that first!“
The point is that ideas are not created in a vacuum. They grow legs (or leaves) when you share them.
But the true takeaway is to go evaluate your content and the way you’ve always done it. Now, re-imagine how you can change it to surprise, delight, educate and inspire your target audiences.