It used to be that publishing was an option only for the rich and connected. Not any more. Any wretch now has a soap box on steroids. And that can only be a good thing. In preparing for a recent pepper pitch I learnt that Internet penetration in St Lucia is 88% compared to 40% in T&T. So we still have a ways to go in the land of the hummingbird though I believe we’ll catch up with our neighbours in quick time.
But having a voice does not mean you have an audience. You build an audience gradually by winning their confidence just like the traditional media had to do. My mother-in-law seeks out the Guardian because she trusts it. Sometimes there are other reasons, like Modesty Blaize (I think that is what it is called), a comic strip feature in the daily paper that a hard back grown man and a top advertising executive Winfield Aleong, my boss at McCann’s, could not start his day without. Trust, entertainment, Keith Smith, Spalk, Rennie B, Phil the Thrill, Tony and Dale- people constantly go back to a medium for a whole range of reasons.
And it’s the same with the Internet. You’ll get an audience when your tribe finds you. And find you they will. Especially if you are making them think, or smile or teaching them something. And the Internet has something that the traditional guys don’t have. It has a talk back option. That’s why talk radio and talk TV have grown in popularity. So tell your story regularly and if it’s funny or provocative or political or whatever, and you make sure that people know where and when to find you, then you will not be talking only to yourself. (Thank you Aisha.)
