As a “business guy” who’s worked in a variety of industries, I’ve had the opportunity to read a lot off-topic content. I think this tendency has actually been one of the best things for my mind, as well as my career, because it makes me think about things in new ways. Today, I’m gonna ask you to do a little mind-stretching as well, while I use a Venture Capitalist as a model for Athlete bloggers.

For those of you who aren’t into the tech business, Fred Wilson is one of the best known technology Venture Capitalists in the world. He is a pretty successful VC, so as his investments become well known, so does he. But I think a larger part of his fame is due to his early acceptance of, and long-time devotion to, blogging. Fred began writing as a way to wrap his head around this new technology. He credits a part of his success to his willingness to dig in with new technologies and play with them before he invests in them. But something happened along the way, a plugged in, interesting, and active community grew up around his blog.

What This VC “gets”

Again, if you’re the money guy, a damn large number of entrepreneurs are naturally going to want to hang around you. But Fred’s community isn’t just that, it’s people from all walks of life attracted to his out-loud-thinking style of writing on a variety of topics. Most of it tech, a lot related to investing, and though he’s moved it to a different service now, for a while music. To me, there’s a few take-aways from his blog.

1. Be open and honest. Fred regularly says “This is what I think, and this is what it’s based on. I could be missing critical information.”
2. Provide something of value. If his readers are willing to open their minds, there are few posts where they won’t walk away without a new, useful tidbit for their life, job, whatever.
3. Engage the community. More and more, Fred engages his community either by directly asking for feedback (what’s your opinion? What’s your experience? Can you provide me with XYZ missing info?) or by positing an opinion that he knows people are going to disagree with, and then participating in the discussion in the comments.

The end result is that Fred has built a vibrant community that is valuable in a few different ways. He learns from them, he can promote his companies’ products to them (and his readers in turn spread the word), and he can monetize them (he donates ad revenue to charity). But how can this be a model for a pro athlete?

The Athlete’s Model

Well, if you think about it, you’re not so different from Fred. You have a built-in audience based on your status as an athlete. This audience wants to interact with you, and wants to interact with other fans of yours. You have insights and opinions based on information that the general public doesn’t have. You have the leeway to write about topics in and out of your sport, and your audience will still play along. So using Fred’s model, you would:

1. Be yourself. Write about the things that interest you. Maybe it’s music, photography, travel, shoes, whatever! There are fans who are interested in what your hobbies.
2. Say something useful. You don’t have to fill your blog (or Twitter account, for that matter) with uninteresting info about your corndog lunch at O’Hare… unless you write about food a lot. Provide an insight into your life, your sport, or your topic of interest that will cause your readers to think.
3. Talk with your fans. This is the biggest way to build a community fast, outside of winning 7 Tours de France. (And I might argue that just because he has a ton of followers doesn’t mean he has a community) People want to engage with you! Blog comments, Twitter, Facebook, etc. all make it dead easy to respond to fans without it taking over your whole day.

And just like Fred, this community can be of value to you. There’s nothing your sponsors (or potential sponsors) want more than trusted access to an interested, engaged, and active community, and you can bring that. As long as you continue to be yourself, say something of value, and interact with your fans, they’ll not begrudge you posting about your nutrition sponsor’s newest energy bar – they’ll thank you for it! Give value, get value.