#003: You can’t be everyone’s Stan
I used to work for a CEO who lovvvveeeedddd a particular sports star.
I won’t tell you the star’s name, lest this story were to somehow land in his inbox (the world is smaller than you think).
BUT! I’ll give you some info as to who (whom?) I’m talking about. He’s a big football star. He played for a big team. And for the purposes of this email, I’ll call him Stan Bobby (not his name).
Anywayz.
The CEO, let’s call them Jerry, lovvveddd Stan Bobby.
I mean, really loved Stan Bobby.
Jerry’s office was covered in Lightning Bolts (not the actual team name) decor, including a signed Stan Bobby cereal box.
Jerry talked about their extreme love for Stan allll the time.
It was well, well established love, okay? That’s my point.
So my boss at the time, Shearly (now one of my best friends to this day), sauntered into the office one Friday morning (if you know her, you know she saunters, not walks).
“Good morninnnnggg, how you doing?” – Me.
“Morning, good. Just a little tired after last night. Remember I told you I went to that event in Miami?” – Shearly
“Oh, yeah, I do. What was it again?”
“It was some sports thing for Mike’s job. It was pretty cool.” (Mike is her husband and works in radio).
“Nice!”
“Yeah, I was sitting with a bunch of giant football players.” Shearly is tiny, so imagining her next to a bunch of giant football players was pretty comical.
“Oh, really?! Do you know who they were?”
“Ummmn, I don’t know. Someone name Stan. He used to play for the Lightning Bolts.”
(beat)
“What?” – Me.
“Yeah, Stan something.” – Shearly
“Stan Bobby?”
“That’s it!”
“Shearly, are you telling me you sat next to Stan Bobby last night?”
“Yes! You know who that is?!”
A bit disbelieving, I stood up and motioned for her to follow me down the hall. We walked to our CEO’s office, where I pointed to the cereal box display of Stan Bobby.
“Shearly, is that who you sat next to last night?!” – Me.
“Yes, that’s him!” – Shearly.
“SHEARLY, THAT IS STAN BOBBY.”
“Oh my gosh, that’s so funny!”
Funny?! Poor Jerry, when they find out…
“Please tell me you got a picture?!”
“No, that would be so weird, Crystal. We were just having dinner together. I’m not going to take a bite of chicken then just be like, hey let’s take a picture. That’s WEIRD!”
Only Shearly. And I mean only Shearly. Could have sat next to one of the biggest football stars ever and not had a clue who he was. Even after years of looking at his face on the cereal box in our CEO’s office.
It just goes to show that no matter how famous you are, or how important, there is just no way that you’re going to be for everyone.
Shearly was NOT Stan’s fan (not not a fan, but not a FAN🎉). She literally sat next to him at dinner like he was Bill from accounting. Polite chatter, oh nice to meet you, all that jazz.
And even if she had known who he was, it wouldn’t have changed anything for her. She doesn’t watch football. He’s not really in the spotlight anymore (I mean I guess?? I’m also not Stan’s demo). She’s the wrongggg demographic as far as fandom.
It’s easy to forget that our super fans are out there, but they’re not everyone. Easy to get offended when people don’t like our content, don’t buy from us, or don’t really care about anything we have to say.
They’re simply NOT in our target demographic. Here’s my takeaway à la Shearly meeting Stan Bobby.
As you develop your SEO content strategy, you want to write for someone, not everyone. That’s key.
“10 Ways to Be More Like Stan Bobby”
is a very different article compared to:
“Who Is Stan Bobby?”
One of those articles is for Jerry, the other is for Shearly.
You also want to publish content that has actual search volume around it.
In other words, there’s a percentage of the population out there that is going online and typing in whatever you’re writing about.
Stan Bobby is searched for 90.5K times every single month (guess that answers my question if he’s still popular).
How to contact Stan Bobby gets searched 20 times per month (by some very hopeful people, but most definitely not by Shearly).
And finally, you want to publish content that is attainable for you.
There’s no point in publishing content that’s well-written, has search volume, but bigger sites are already dominating the search result.
Is Stan Bobby still alive? (Yes) is going to be way easier to rank for than How tall was Stan Bobby (6ft. something)?
Again, you want to focus on content that’s:
- Targeted
- Popular
- Attainable
Stick with these rules and before you know it, you’ll be Stan at dinner, completely unfazed when Shearly has no idea who you are.
And now, this week’s action invitation:
You can’t show up as your best self if you never rest. And, actually your best brain power comes from being in a relaxed state.
So, for this week. Relax! Rest.
Read a book.
Start back fresh next week. It’s okay. 🤗
P.S. If you’re in a moment of hyper-action, my action invitation is to catch up on the last two weeks of action invitations.
I’d love to help you with your SEO content strategy and page title optimization. I offer 1:1 SEO Consulting, Strategy Power Hours, VIP Sprint-style strategies, and monthly support.
