I find plenty of reasons to be proud of my hometown of Minneapolis, but I feel like we’ve recently gotten a new bragging right. On August 30th, the Walker Art Center, one of the premier contemporary art museums in the world and home to our landmark “Spoonbridge and Cherry” sculpture, is hosting the first-ever Internet Cat Video Film Festival.
Yes, that’s right, the highest of high-brow museums in town is hosting a festival devoted to cat videos, a medium more generally associated with mindless amusement and filling up a 15-minute break from work. But, to my mind, it says a lot about where our culture is at the moment. We’re more than willing to attend to the serious matters in life – and we might even enjoy doing so – but after all that, we really need a laugh.
There are a lot of companies out there that want to develop their online presence through blogging. While that’s a great idea, and custom blog content can be a great help for building your brand and strengthening SEO initiatives, many feel the need to stick to their company line and never stray from it. But for readers, all business all the time isn’t a compelling reason to follow a blog. To put it bluntly, a technical article is never going to go viral in the way that a video of a cat trying to squeeze into a tiny box will.
But does that mean you should put cat videos on your blog? Not at all. It’s important to keep in mind that balance is important for your blog. A few lighthearted posts now and again will give your business personality, and offer something that readers can connect with. Those connections, if you make them and keep them up, can encourage customer loyalty. When your blog feels less like a sales pitch and more like a friendly spot where people can get information and a bit of entertainment, you’re speaking the language that Web users understand – and love.
Case in point: I’m planning on attending the Internet Cat Video Film Festival, in hopes that my favorite Internet cat, Maru, will appear on the big screen (for an introduction to Maru’s subtle stylings, check out this YouTube video). But I might also use it as an opportunity to pop into the museum itself, pay the entrance fee and find out more about other upcoming events. All because the museum decided to have a sense of humor about itself.
For more ideas about building a well-rounded blog, check out our post on coming up with blog topics and stay tuned to the Brandpoint blog for more content creation tips – and, of course, a report on the film festival – in the future.
