About a 2weeks ago I was perusing the Sony Style Blog and they announced a contest to be one of their guest bloggers. So me being me, I freaked out because I have bought, used and abused Sony products since my first paycheck. Now here is an opportunity to be a guest blogger for a company that no one I know actually likes anymore…thanks Apple.
Naturally, I went for it.
Part one of this blog is the final submission. The basic rules of the contest were simple, in 200 words tell Sony why you should be their next guest blogger. I started with basic brainstorming, scribbling down a bunch of things that in the end didn’t make it in the final submission but helps just flex the brain muscles.
It was a grueling couple of weeks because I learned 2 major things about my writing-self:
1) I love to drag out a topic when I’m writing about something. Especially if I have some personal connection to it, there is always a story and I have to tell it. That part of my writing-self I have to work on.
2) Summing up why I want to be a Sony blogger was next to impossible in 200 words.
Final Submission:
I have been glued to the Sony Style blog page for years and when the “Are you the next Sony Blogger?” post came out I read it and calmly thought to myself, “Well now, that sounds like a swell idea. I’ll give it a go.”
Not even close. I read the post, then fainted.
Dream opportunity meet mind…explosion!
Now I can justify my girlfriends tireless efforts to shut me up!
Objectivity: My reviews will compare like products. We owe it to the potential tech buying consumer to show our product next to the competition.
Point of view: You don’t need a guest blogger to regurgitate snippets from the press release. You need someone that going to say, “Now that you have read what the folks in PR wrote, let me tell you what it’s like to really use this thing.”
Experience: People want to read about your personal experiences with the products you own, will own or are testing for the future. Right now this is missing from your Blog and I want to bring that in a way that entertains the reader and makes them say, “holy crap, that’s the same thing that happened to me!”
Part 2 of this post is the raw notes for my contest entry. A bit of a warning, its unedited and there are a lot of unfinished sentences and if I am not mistaken, the whole things just stops. How I got the final submission from this glob of goo, I will never know.
Raw Notes:
I would love to write about how I have been glued to the Sony Style blog page for years and when the “Are you the next Sony Blogger?” post came out I read it and calmly thought to myself, “Well now, that sounds like a swell idea, I will give that a shot.”
Not even close. Here is what actually happened.
Most mornings I get to work before eveyrone else in my firm and I proceeded to ease into my work day the same way I have for about a year now. I fired up Google Chrome and hit my tabs in order, Fixed Gear Gallery, Gmail, Engadget, iGoogle, Twitter and then SONY. Yes, you were last, but don’t take it personally. I read the post about the contest and I am pretty sure I blacked out for about a minute. When I came to I couldn’t believe you were offering me chance to work for you. Yes, at this point I felt the post was directed just to me. I had no choice but to contain my excitment as people started to come into work so I immediately started scribbling notes, rambles mostly of all the reasons Sony needs to hire someone like me to blog for them.
So on the way home I filled my girlfriends ear about this contest now I am not going to say she didn’t care, but she has already had to live with years of me drooling over the next hot Sony product I wanted to buy. If I won this contest I’m sure she would be the happiest for me because then I could direct all that Sony attention towards people who really wants to hear it.
To pull one piece from the post that I continue to come back to is the line about “…chances are there’s been that moment when you thought you could do something better than how’s it done.” Well, in all my brainstorming, note writing and outlining I came to realize that the one thing I can’t find on other tech sites is descriptions of gadgets in way what was easy for the average tech loving person to understand and be able to make a educated decision as to whether they actually buy the gadget. Sites like Gizmodo, Engadget, etc. are great sites and very thorough but they lose me when they break gadgets down to the inner workings and go really deep into the “tech” language. On top of that they review so many different types of gadgets it gets really hard to find the focus on their site for one product.
This is why I keep going back to the Sony site. With all the new gadgets out there, I still believe Sony makes a superior product in just about every category. If I’m being honest, the Sony Reader is still lagging somewhat behind the Kindle in its appeal for me. Thats what i am going to bring, a lot of common honestly about the Sony products. No, I will not rag on a Sony gadget for the sake of not appearing to be a fanboy just because I work for you. But yes, if I’m asked to review a product I will take time to compare it to like products and write that comparison in the review. The average tech buying consumer will not run down the specs of gadget and make their decision to purchase because the X10 has a 1GHz Snapdragon core and the iPhone uses a Samsung ARM. Walk into your favorite electronics store and ask anyone looking at the cell phone wall if they know what a Snapdragon processor is and they will probably call security on you. Majority of the folks who are going to buy your products want to know if it is bigger, better and faster than some other product they know well because they already own it or they know someone that owns it. Not giving them that comparison is not only unfair to the customer it also doesn’t paint Sony in the best light.
Lets face it, as a Sony employee I will be required to always place Sony on top of other companies in my post. Given the product Sony produces, that particular part of the task will not be the hardest. The challenge will be balance. The tech world is on fire right now and everyone has 3 of everything. And with some confidence, I can say that Sony has either already done it or has done it better. You don’t need a new guest blogger to regurgitate snippets from a well written press release. You need someone that going to say, “well, now that you have read what the people in PR wrote, now let me tell you what its like to really use this thing.”
And what about the SONY products you own? I can write for days about how many pairs of Sony headphones I have owned and worn out (mostly because I am a DJ by hobby I will kill a pair of headphones) but no matter what I always come back to the MDR Series. People want to read about your personal experiences with the products you own, will own or are testing for the future. I believe that is missing from your Blog and I want to bring that in a way that people really engages the reader and makes them say, “holy crap, thats the same thing that happened to me!”
Quick note: Dont use phrases like “I think” “In my opinion”. Everything is my opinion, I dont need to actually write that out.”
being honest doesnt waste peoples time with all the things they can find on a press release.
Think of breaking the essay in the 3 major things I am going to bring to the position. About 66.6 words per point
So there you have it, I have no idea whats going to happen with the contest. I fully expect to not make it anywhere near winning the contest but what the hell, it cost me nothing and I learned that I really like this blogging thing.
DjD
DjD. 