Your Blog is your Brand
Posted on 12 April 2007
Yep, your blog is a part of you. Heck, it IS you. Personal branding. My two cents:
Writing a blog is like running a business.
How? Here are some analogies:
- Quality. If I write something offensive or boring today, you might stop coming back. Or you might discard my feed from your RSS reader.
- Word of mouth. If you dig my blog, you just might tell your friends to come check it out. Case in point: After Robert Scoble recommended my blog, my RSS readership doubled immediately.
- Maintenance. I have to make sure my blog is looking sharp at all times. Who knows what important person might drop in by chance?
- Customers = #1. The reader is most important. Uninteresting content = dead blog = waste of time.
- Reputation. Number of readers statistics = your reputation / credibility / popularity.
Any serious blogger should keep these things in mind. Of course if you reach John Chow or Darren Rowse status, then your blog is literally your business. ;)
Agree or disagree?
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April 13th, 2007 at 6:42 am
I would agree with that. If you understand that, it may prevent you from Tarnishing your brand. And since everything may be archived somewhere it is hard to erase your past drunken college days which make interesting conversation with a web savvy prospective employer or father inlaw.
April 13th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
This is an excellent way of looking at it. And even though most casual interneters might not realize it, every time they take a glance at someone’s blog, they’re building (or destroying!) their “brand loyalty” for that person. The shortest browse might affect 1, 2, or 4, all of which will have an effect on 5… thus making 3 even more important. This branding idea might end up affecting a blogger’s actions on any other blog or message board (s)he comments or posts on… at least if a website URL is given along with the comment.
Maintenance is the one I have the most trouble with, since I don’t have the skills to make my site look pretty, and I’m too LAZY to learn them. Bad Eug! Writing for the readers is something I also have trouble with, since I like to write about whatever random things are going through my life or my mind at the moment. I tell myself I’m writing it for myself, and that’s good enough, but in reality that just means my personal diary, that happens to be stored on the webernet, has no readers.
April 14th, 2007 at 11:16 am
James, ditto on the prospective employer point. They say that before you go on a date / interview / meet a new friend, whatever, always google their name first. These days, everything’s public. Might as well make yourself a decent rep.
Eug, what do you mean by 1,2, or 4, 5, 3..? people?
April 14th, 2007 at 11:41 am
he means the #’s you refer to in your post
1. quality
2. etc..
April 15th, 2007 at 9:34 am
Whoops! Gotcha, thanks Floria.
Agreed Eug. :)
April 15th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
Tony - you make some great points. Regarding quality… some have said it is a good idea to live by the old saying, “If you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all.”
“Good” broadly defined as “intelligient, entertaining, compelling or insightful.” Hmmm, that’s a lot of pressure for us bloggers.
April 15th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
[…] Maintenance. […]