Let’s get one thing clear from the off. This post is not about politics!
As some of you may be aware, Obama recently visited the United Kingdom and Ireland. As I am based in England, various stories about different aspects of his and Michelle’s visit were all over the news.
There were a number of notable events, but one in particular stood out to me.
When he visited Ireland, he made a speech in front of thousands of “fans” in Dublin. Big deal, right?
Well actually it was a big deal!
As part of his speech he addressed the people of Ireland in their native tongue, the Irish language – being half Irish I can tell you that this is not an easy language to speak!
If a guy as busy as Obama can go out of his way to accommodate the people that he wants to influence, then why can’t we? Yeah sure, he has a huge team behind him and it wouldn’t be hard to pick up a few words of the Irish language; but the point is, he did it! He made a conscious effort to speak to them IN THEIR TERMS.
Every single person in this world speaks their own language. Sure, hundreds of millions of people speak the English language as their first language, but the way each person looks at, responds to, perceives and interprets a given situation is COMPLETELY UNIQUE.
This is something that we must understand in our everyday lives.
If we want to connect with, empathise with or influence another person, we need to understand and accommodate their point of view, we need to speak to them in their terms and in their language.
How can we apply this to Blogging?
If you know me at all, you know that I’m all about community and forming connections with other people in the blogosphere. So to form a connection with someone we must look at things from their perspective as much as possible and understand their point of view. If you can find some common ground, it will be much easier to connect. Socrates spoke about this a little while back – don’t start a conversation with someone you don’t know by talking about the things upon which you don’t agree (or words to that effect).
Guest Posting – I did my first guest post this week 
. Some people are very worried about guest posting, but in reality all you have to do is speak the language of the person whose blog you want to comment on. Study their blog, look at their posts, look at their readers. How can you maintain your uniqueness, talk about a topic that hasn’t been talked about before, whilst also appealing to the owner of the blog and their readers. If you can do this, you are 9/10 of the way to having a guest post accepted, in most cases!
. Some people are very worried about guest posting, but in reality all you have to do is speak the language of the person whose blog you want to comment on. Study their blog, look at their posts, look at their readers. How can you maintain your uniqueness, talk about a topic that hasn’t been talked about before, whilst also appealing to the owner of the blog and their readers. If you can do this, you are 9/10 of the way to having a guest post accepted, in most cases!In Summary
Connecting with others and influencing people means that you need to be willing to go the extra mile for them. This doesn’t mean you have to kiss ass, it just means you have to look at things from their perspective. What makes them click? What common ground do we share? Your personal opinion is vital, and it’s what blogging is all about and what makes this community so interesting. Don’t change it for anyone – “Keep it real”. However, people are rarely influenced by you pushing your opinion on them, especially when they don’t know you!
If you want people to understand and appreciate you, start understanding and appreciating others.
Thanks guys, hope you enjoyed this post. Would much appreciate your comments and thoughts as usual
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