Who Am I and Why Are You Reading My Blog?
This is a common question I ask myself a lot. Not just when I’m writing up a blog but when I ‘put it out there’ and actually get comments {doesn’t happen too often}. I always ask the same question when I’m reading other blogs and have to ask, “why am I reading this blog…who is this person, really?”
Image from Kengo
We read blogs to feel some sort of connection. Sports minded people read ESPN analysist blogs so they don’t have to read the mundane “sports write-up”. They want that ‘closeness’ to the actual sports and want to be feel ‘apart’ of it. That blogger is their filter.
I really like the writings of such bloggers like Jeremy Schoemaker, John Chow, Darren Rowse, Joe aka LiveCrunch and more. Why? Well, first off they come across as human. The society is changing and the internet is a huge cause of this {if not the biggest}. We want information quicker and in write-up WE like. The days of JUST reading LA Times, ESPN, NY Times, AP – are over.
Stop right now and ask yourself when the 3G iPhone was released how many blogs did you read about it for that particular week? I know for me I found the answer anywhere between 4-8 blogs. Some were about sales, marketing techniques to various hacks already being worked on Then the second part of the question is why did you go to those particular blogs?
Filters. Plain and simple. These bloggers are our own personal filters. We identify with them and while we could get our information from just a few select places {as we did prior to the blow-up of the net} we look for information everywhere possible. Once we find one we like subscribe to their RSS feed or their email newsletter. We follow them on Twitter and Plurk or friend them in Digg. While it could be considered cyber stalking, and trust me I’ve had this conversation numerous times, it allows us to be able to identify with these bloggers. From time-to-time we actually make them our connections which only opens up gates professionally.
If I’m wrong please do tell. I’m always interested to get new perspectives.
I think about that sometimes when I have friends online who are actual people with their own lives but we are connected through blogging, its interesting.
[...] in August I wrote a post entitled “Who Am I and Why Are You Reading My Blog?” Where I went into why people actually read blogs – follow certain people on twitter or [...]
[...] in August I wrote a post entitled “Who Am I and Why Are You Reading My Blog?” Where I went into why people actually read blogs – follow certain people on twitter [...]