The key lessons I've learnt from your feedback
Last week I wrote a quick questionnaire and asked my followers if they would give me some feedback. And in true form, you came to the party - to help point me in the right direction. This is what I’ve learnt.
playing darts in the dark
Running a small business can sometimes feel a bit like trying to play darts in the dark. You have a general idea of where the target is, but hitting it precisely and consistently seems nigh on impossible - sometimes you score a bullseye and other times you find you’ve lodged a dart in the door frame. (Like, how did that happen?! I’m pretty sure I was aiming correctly?!) If only someone would turn the lights on and show you what you’re aiming for! Hence the questionnaire.
you say data, I say data
I have found over the years that a questionnaire is a good way to speak to my audience and find out what they want. Of course, all businesses, small or otherwise, have data at their fingertips but the data can be misleading and if you rely and trust it implicitly, it can lead you off course. I’m not entirely sure why. On the face of it, if I want to know what you like I can send out a newsletter and see how many subscribers opened it, how many clicked through and which articles within the newsletter were clicked on most. I can see who unsubscribed and who didn’t open it at all. Similarly, when I write a blog post, I can see how many people read the blog post, which region or city they come from, where they navigated from and if they read it on a desktop, phone or tablet. And that’s before we get into social media which provides up to date analysis of what is working - which days of the week you get most engagement, how many people saved or shared your content - and on it goes. Lots of data points to illuminate your path forward. So why is it so tricky to know what your audience wants?
I think it’s because a lot of factors influence the data. If I write a really engaging caption to an Instagram post, I might get lots of comments and likes but it doesn’t necessarily mean the category of content that I shared was popular, it just means, in that one instance you wanted to engage with me. The same with a blog post. If I write a ‘click bait’ title, you’re more likely to click through. Are you genuinely interested in the underlying topic of the blog post? or did I just do a good job of hooking you in to click. For me it makes a difference because I want to write things that actually interest you, especially because I’m not getting paid for clicks. If I was, then I probably wouldn’t care too much whether you genuinely liked or valued my content, I’d just want your clicks. This is how the vast majority of content platforms / blogs work. It’s all about eyeballs and clicks.
lets be honest for a moment
Which leads me to a really interesting outcome from the questionnaire. Because I am trying to figure out how to monetise what I do, I asked the question “Would you rather read a blog, magazine, instagram review with recommendations for services and products that are not paid for by an advertiser? (i.e. that the content is unbiased and not advertorial?)”. Your overwhelming answer was “Yes. I wish more blogs / publications / Instagram influencers were unbiased and presented honest reviews”. OK. Me too. I love recommendations but I often find it frustrating when they are paid for, because it can lead to disappointment. That restaurant that you read about which received a glowing recommendation? (which the restaurant itself paid for and possibly wrote) - you book it only to find it’s not that great. Which is annoying. So, we’re on the same page - in an ideal world we’d all like honest reviews and recommendations and unbiased content not influenced by an advertiser. So my follow up question was this “Would you be willing to pay for content that was free from any form of sponsorship or advertising in order to get honest recommendations and reviews?” because that’s the only alternative, right?
Given your first response, I’m thinking you guys are going to say “yes, I’d think about it / or even better “yes, I would!” But instead, the second most popular response was “No. I think content should be free for the consumer, and advertisers should pay the content creator to write blog posts / Instagram reviews”. Hang on, what? I’m so confused. It’s almost impossible to have these two things. Honest reviews where a blogger / instagram influencer gets to say exactly what they think about a service or product and only recommend what they really believe in, is really hard if someone is sponsoring you to write it. You can’t ask a business to pay you money to write a blog post and then write a review that doesn’t encourage people to use or buy from that business. And even though a lot of people say “just get sponsorship from the businesses that already align with your recommendations”. I would say, show me a blog or instagram influencer who has managed to keep this up and not fall down the path of recommending something that you think “umm, really?” while said blogger is shoe-horning a random product into their content in a not-so-convincing way. I have no judgement here. Blogging / instagramming is a business. And it’s really just a new form of the traditional TV ads that we used to watch as kids. And we understood then that we had to watch the ads in order to get the TV show. It’s kind of the same now.
you saw it here first, 5 best places to buy rugs
Almost all the content that we consume for ‘free’ is paid for. If we’re not paying, someone else is. Articles like “The 5 best places to buy rugs in Singapore”..? It’s basically a list of businesses that have paid to have their name in the article - either directly as a dollar amount for a mention or because they spend a certain amount on advertising so they get to appear on these lists. Which is why you see the same names being recommended over and over. Some of the underlying businesses might actually fall into the category of “best place” but in my experience, the best places are either (a) already doing well and are genuinely known for being the ‘best place’ so they’re not paying to be in a sponsored article or (b) a small business that, even though it deserves to be on that list, can’t afford the thousands of dollars for a mention.
When I first moved to Singapore and was looking for recommendations for where to go to buy things, I was often dismayed. I would head to a business that had been recommended by a website and think “surely not! This can’t be the best Singapore has! there’s got to be somewhere else”. And sure enough there would be. But it would take lots of asking around and doing my own digging to unearth the actual ‘best place’. Which leads me to another snippet from the questionnaire.
besties
Your number one source of recommendations…? Your friends. Me too. All of us have friends who just seem to always have good recommendations. These are the people you turn to when you don’t want to waste your time and you want to get a great recommendation that you trust. Which is, I guess, what I try and do with this blog. I see you, my audience, like a big gaggle of friends who I am recommending to, and because I have no sponsorship or advertorial overlay, I only make recommendations that I actually believe in. Given your response on the questionnaire, I will keep it this way and instead of monetising the blog, I will look to create income in other areas of my business.
show me the interiors
What else? It turns out you want me to write more about interior styling. Which is interesting. Because generally this has been my least performing content. I’d noted the data trend and pulled back on this content, and yet in the questionnaire, most of you asked for it (about 90% of you who filled out the questionnaire put this as your number one topic and lots of the general feedback was “I’d love to see more styling tips / French house interiors / more interiors recommendations). So it seems my data doesn’t support your actual interests (see above ‘darts in the dark’ analogy).
On this, here is what I would say - if you like something you see from a business, let them know. In real time. We are all guilty of reading blog posts and never leaving a comment. Or scrolling through instagram really liking a post or story but just never showing it. It’s like we’ve all become a bit numb to the whole ‘socialising’ aspect of social media. We just want to get on, be entertained or informed and get off without ever having to interact with anyone. I get it. I do this too. But I am trying to be better because I know what it is like on the other side as a content creator - and it’s impossible to know what to spend your time on and how to delight your audience if they are just hiding in the shadows, never revealing their preferences to you. You can’t imagine the influence you have over us. Your likes and comments or lack thereof, are shaping what we do.
on behalf of my fellow friends
And this is my last take away from the questionnaire - just a small proportion of my overall following completed the questionnaire (which is exactly right - I was not expecting 11,000 people to sit around giving me their answers! can you imagine?) For those that did fill it out, thank you. You spoke on behalf of all the followers and your responses have made a difference and helped inform me. They told me a little of who I am speaking to and what you are looking for. And it felt really nice to connect with you in this way. Even if it was anonymous.
Want to know what else I learnt about you from the questionnaire..? Here you go.
You are Australian, British, Indian, German, Malaysian, Indonesian, French, Dutch, Singaporean, American, South African, Swiss, Brazilian, Belgian, Canadian, Spanish and Dutch. This list makes me smile and feel so happy. What a wonderful city we live in!
You are 30-60 years old. Me too :)
Your favourite part of Instagram is Stories (and none of you seem to like the Explore Page). Reels is also second to last.
Half of you subscribe and the other half don’t
The content platform you read most in Singapore is Honeycombers
The social media platform you are most active on is Instagram. And only one of you is on Tik Tok. Refer to earlier age demographic :)
Two thirds of you belong to a Facebook group in Singapore
The most frequent comment in the “do you have anything else you’d like to share?” was that you value my honesty and authenticity and you don’t want that to change. Thank you for this. These comments = happiness for me.
You are all 100% lovely.
Thanks for all the guidance.
