I follow several blogs, some of them are interest related, some of them are work related and some a combination of both. And every once in a while you come across a blog post that simply sticks with you in a way. A blog post of which you do not simply digest the information but that somehow makes you wonder. Jim Davis’s (Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for SAS) blog post “Is blogging a waste of my time” is one of such posts.
Although my blog is not as affiliated with the company I work for as his blog, I have the same feeling as he has to several of his statements and his questions. The (lack of) comments I can relate to, although I also believe (being a blog reader myself) that blog posts are mostly consumed and that, unless specifically asked, people tend not to comment. I can certainly relate to his questions: “Am I off base? Am I boring?”
With regard to the being off base question, I certainly felt like this when I started blogging about my work and that has also resulted in my blog post “Blogging on BI? I pass … for now“. In the world of professional bloggers on this topic I certainly felt out of place.
Then the question “Am I boring?”, this also is something that prevents me often from writing a blog post. Somehow I feel that what I write has been written before and in much better ways than I will ever be able to. Regardless of useful guides on blogging, I always have this feeling that what I write is far below standards that people are accustomed to.
In his blog post Jim Davis refers to a blog post by David Thomas (Social Media Manager at SAS) “Developing your social media muscle“. A part of me likes to believe that this indeed is the case, that by just doing it regularly and more often the easier it becomes. For now, and maybe this is simply because I have only been blogging for just over 6 months now, I still find that I hardly have grown any muscle. Also with twitter I hardly ever post a tweet “of my own”, I feel more safe when retweeting others or reply to questions asked.
Maybe the bottom line simply is that I still struggle with the question “Social Networks … a blessing or a burden?“. Rationally I understand the concept of social (media) networks and emotionally I do, partially, want to participate. Hence my participation in networks like facebook, LinkedIn and twitter, my participation in (Linux) forums and my (attempt to) blog. On the other hand it does feel as if I have the obligation to also give back to the networks I participate in.
On the other hand I also realize that in basis this is not much different than any social network in “real life”, like the community where you live in.
I think that the question that is keeping me busy at the moment is: “Will I ever grow any social media muscle?”. I guess only time will tell.
That “Am I boring?” question slows me down too. You almost have to get past it & decide it’s okay to be boring sometimes, so it doesn’t become crippling.
Hi Alison,
Thank you for your comment and I fully agree.
But I still often encounter a large threshold to overcome to accept that it is okay to be “boring” from time to time.
Hopefully it will indeed become easier over time.