Happiness CXLI

Mar 17, 2008 | happiness

Good conversation that brings important viewpoints to the surface, discussing them and finding common ground.

Why your blog is your social network

Sep 20, 2007 | blog

personal-brand There are many good social networks to be a part of, but as I delve deeper into social media and personal branding I’m coming to the conclusion that your blog is becoming more important.

On your blog, you have a direct feed to your readers.  Those readers can be friends as much as it can be potential employers or business contacts.  Your blog can take on more of your characteristics, from the way you write to the theme that presents the information to your readers.

A blog can interact with other social networks, augmented with whatever tools you choose to bring into your branding strategy.  Adding additional communications, video, audio and so on adds more value to your ability to network and share with your community.

The one big thing about viewing your blog as a social network is to remember the social aspect, which infers the interaction in a community.  A blog’s comment system is there to enable the conversation, you are there to help drive the conversation.  If you’re disabling comments because you don’t like some criticism, you may want to take another look.  That feedback could help you grow in ways that aren’t readily apparent.

Also, your blog is your online hub.  Use it to send information to other social networks that you frequent.  It’s also the one place on the Internet that you can make sure people find out about YOU.  You can make sure to let them know how to find you, to find your profiles and networks that you have left profiles, feedback, and articles on throughout the Internet.  From your blog people can download a copy of your resume, talk about your latest work, and so on.  Don’t forget that you can have an easier to remember URL to get to your blog than your profile on any service or social network.

Overall, the advantages of having a blog that you can interact with others is a statement about you.  You took the initiative, you are reaching out, you are placing your ideas in a public forum, you are inviting feedback.  Don’t get me wrong; in phrasing it that way it sounds like The Great You Show – but it doesn’t have to be.  It’s up to you to be able to show it’s really about conversations.

On your blog, and through your interests and reading habits, you will find other bloggers in the same genre and begin to share links and comments with.  This is one of the best ways to grow your network.  No, it’s not like getting 250 ‘friends’ on Facebook in a weekend, but that’s because it’s more valuable.  Having two or three blogging friends is more valuable and powerful than large numbers elsewhere.  Your interaction in the blogosphere with others is what builds that value.  It’s more than any number can represent because it’s real exchange of ideas, real interaction.  And that my friend is social networking.

So what else am I missing?  What else helps make your blog your entry point to social networking?

Is blogging normalizing?

Jul 17, 2007 | blog

Shel Israel makes the point that blogging is normalizing, and I think he’s right on the mark here.  The discussion among several bloggers is that blogging is “cooling off”, or becoming less popular.  It may be true, but Shell posits the idea that there are additional social media tools and services that people are migrating to.

The social media webscape has changed in the last two years, not so much because people are becoming less enamored of blogging, but because of additional outlets.  Micro-blogging services like Twitter (and Jaiku, Pownce, and Hictu) are making huge changes in the conversation.  Social networking sites like the now-booming Facebook, or LinkedIn are bringing new ways to connect, network, and share in the conversation.

He points out that we all enjoy talking about the latest thing, whether its blogging, Facebook, iPhone or Harry Potter.  Its what’s new that takes up a large part of the popular conversation and media attention.  Many of us still use landline telephones even though we also have mobile phones.  The analog clock is still popular even though digital clocks are abundant and easier to read at a glance.  We still read newspapers despite radio, television, and the Internet.

Blogging is another medium that, at this point, is maturing.  It’s entering that next stage, past fad, where it grows up a bit.  Starts getting more respected, more widespread.  The determined professional bloggers are what will emerge in the next months and years – many have been with it since the beginning, a decade ago.

As new technologies and ideas of new ways to communicate are developed, the conversation is naturally going to jump onto these platforms.  Some will thrive, others will bust, but one thing is for sure.  The conversation will continue.

Via: Global Neighbourhoods – Blogging. Not passe, just normalizing

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