What a Political Donald Trump Can Teach Bloggers

It’s going to be great. It’s going to be huge. As we march closer and closer to the 2016 Presidential elections in the United States, we take a look at some of the candidates who are vying for the nomination for their respective parties. As of this writing, it looks like Hillary Clinton has the Democratic nod practically in the bag, but there are still over a dozen people shootin for the Republican nomination.

And the person who has surprised many by leading the pack is none other than Donald Trump. This isn’t the first time that Trump has run for President, but this is the first time that he has emerged as the leading candidate. You may not like him as a person. You may not like his politics. But just as we did with Kanye West, we can learn a lot from Donald Trump about how to be successful.

Forget About Political Correctness

Perhaps it is with a not-so-subtle hint of irony that Donald Trump has effectively cast political correctness aside from his entry into the very political arena. Many of the other candidates work with their teams to put together specific talking points, trying their best not to offend even those who may disagree with them. Donald Trump doesn’t care. If he thinks it, he says it.

That kind of approach might not be the best idea in all situations, but it’s clearly working for him and it’s clearly working for John Chow too. Anyone who has known John for any length of time will know that he has no problem speaking his mind, even if other people may get upset. Be true to yourself and people will notice, for better or for worse.

Be the Topic of Conversation

Speaking of getting noticed, it’s obvious enough that both in politics and in blogging that you want to attract the largest audience possible. The more people are listening to what you have to say and reading what you have to write, the better shot you have at achieving your goals.

Donald Trump

Image credit: Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 3.0)

This is an area where Donald Trump has truly excelled. The way that the Republican race is going, news outlets are either covering what Donald Trump has said or they’re asking the other candidates for their opinions or reactions to what Donald Trump has said. He has very much become the center of attention and this has worked wonders in pushing his name way into the forefront.

Is he leveraging his celebrity status? Absolutely. What this means is that even if someone isn’t particularly interested in politics, they’ll know about Donald Trump… even if they can’t even name another Republican nominee.

Know Your Target Demographic

Has Donald Trump offended all sorts of different people with his off-the-cuff comments about Megyn Kelly bleeding “out of her wherever” and how Mexican immigrants are drug dealers and rapists? Without a doubt, but this goes back to the first two points. He’s getting noticed. People are talking about him. And the thing is that the people who would vote for Donald Trump just might agree with some of these sentiments anyway.

The people who he may be offending the most harshly are unlikely to be the same people who would vote for him in any case. When you know your audience and know what they’re really thinking, you can really play that up to your advantage.

Protect Your Brand

As in the political arena, protecting your brand when it comes to your blogging persona is just as important. With how quickly information can spread around the Internet — thanks in no small part to flame wars, trolls and haters — you want to keep everything under wraps with your online reputation. That’s why it’s important to monitor social mentions and keep up with those Google Alerts.

Donald Trump and his team fully recognize this and have taken the initiative to register thousands of domains for exactly this reason. Some of these include TrumpIsFired.com, NoMoreTrump.com, and TrumpCorporationSucks.com. You might not have to go quite that far, but you will want to squat on your social media profile names at the very least.

Leave No Option Unexplored

It’s easy to get really stubborn, throw on the blinkers, and develop tunnel vision with your blogging. You see your goal and you see only one path to get there. The truth is you need to learn to be versatile, adapting quickly to the situation to minimize harm and maximize benefit. Even if Donald Trump doesn’t win the Republican nomination, he hasn’t ruled out the possibility of running as an independent or with a third party. None of the other candidates have openly admitted to considering this option.

Now, the way that my blog posts work here on John Chow dot Com is such that I’m never entirely sure when any of them are going to be published. That’s part of the reason why I try to keep the content as reasonably evergreen as possible. In this age of the 24 hour news cycle, it can be difficult to stay completely current and up to date, particularly in the fast-moving world of politics. And so, while some of the particulars in the above post might be a little a little dated, their overall insights and lessons transcend time. Just like The Donald’s epic hair.

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