Blogging for beginners: Why blog at all

You may well think, as you look around, that blogging is irrelevant, the pursuit of individuals without a real life or who want to rant and rave even if no one is listening. That is somewhat naive, for there are many very useful sites out there and not a few of them belong to very significant people, people who use blogging as a real part of their Public Relations and Marketing efforts. As such, there are many very rich and meaningful sites out there that are really making a difference. 

So why should you blog?

There are a number of good reasons:

- Publicity

- Self-evaluation

- Accessibility

- Networking
- Economic 

Publicity

Your own blog is a vital part of publicly declaring who you are and what you stand for. It is a vital window on your craft, revealing your writing style, ethos and world view. It is a simple reality that without publicity you will never have an audience or customers. How can you expect others to even find you, let alone follow you, unless you are visible? In the past that may have involved putting up a billboard next to a busy road or, as some wise guy recently did in the Tour de France, waving your advert in front of a popular lens. Well, today the busiest of all highways, and it is growing exponentially, is the Internet highway. I am amazed at how many leaders of churches and other organisations have failed to grasp just how big the opportunity is, but what is even more saddening is that audiences have drifted onto that highway away from traditional channels, so by ignoring the opportunity we effectively ignore our publics. Publicity also implies credibility, namely the process of gaining respect as a subject matter authority, which is so vital to your marketability.

Self evaluation

There can be nothing more irrelevant than self-delusion. I hate to be crude, and forgive me please for using this analogy, but it just is so pertinent. Where I once worked, consultants often referred to a process of "intellectual masturbation", by which they referred to activities that look grand and make you feel good, but do squat for others or the wider needs of the organisation. The best safeguard against that is the honest, often brutally so, feedback and commentary of those who read your blogs. It has pained me much to not even get comments from friends, but I have had to see that as passive criticism and a cue to keep looking for what will work, including the need to look for new audiences. That is the power of feedback and its ability to give us a self-evaluative mirror on our efforts.

Accessibility

It amazes me to see significant people using a blend of blogging and social networking to make themselves more accessible to their publics. I even connected with the Prime Minister of a country, leading political figures, global authorities on leadership, CEO's, market leaders in publishing and world class authors. I don't care much for the canned, mechanistic and dehumanising communications that have evolved through automated telephone or email response systems, because competitive advantage in this highly cmpetitive age, is always going to be about differentiation (a big word used in marketing to describe the act of doing something different). One of the most compelling ways to be different is through good old human touch, the lost art of engagement, recognition and dialogue. It is a very powerful marketing glue.

Networking

The term "hooker" derived from a practice in New Orleans, whereby ladies of the night, forbidden from walking the pavements, would literally hook a man's hat from his head. When he stepped inside to retrieve his hat, he was all but "hooked". Well, networking is about developing hooks within the restrains and norms of the Internet pavement. Many internet marketers are as exploitative as hookers, using spam and other nefarious means to hook audiences, but for those with a soul, genuine networking and relationship building is by far the better hook. Its about showing an interest in others and doing a lot more listening. Its also about engaging and helping each other, which involves a lot of mutual support across websites. Women have always networked readily, not so men, but in this age it is the ability to network effectively that will define the movers and shakers from the also rans.
Economic

There be money in them thar hills. I don't currently pursue a direct economic motive, because my ultimate goal is to get published and to take that further in terms of ministry. To me fulfilment of God's calling is my currency, but I still use the Internet just as true money makers would, to generate traffic and a market base.

That'll do piggy

Okay, enough said. I hope you have some reasons to explore this channel. This is the start of a bigger series, so I hope I can motivate you further as we go on with the subject.

(c) Peter Eleazar @ www.4u2live.net
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