It is that time of the week again where all of the members from the LinkedIn Bloggers Yahoo! group are encouraged to link to a particular weblog as a way to help boost some further activity and also as a way to help further build on the community building aspects of such strong group. In fact, ever since I got started participating much more actively in the group, apart from being just another lurker, I am finding out that I am learning a whole lot more from the different community members not just by getting to read from them in the corresponding e-mails but also by this very same blog boost. The fact that I can go into community members’ blogs and check out what they are up to, what their thoughts, expertise, interests are and so forth it allows me to start to know them a bit better and, why not?, perhaps build up some more trust in the way we collaborate with one another. Certainly, an interesting exercise for those communities out there that may want to get things started in their own community space but may not know how to get things rolling. A weekly blog boost would certainly provide the perfect icebreaker to get things going.
So with all that said this week’s weblog boost goes to Jeremiah Owyang‘s Web Strategy by Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s weblog is all about discussing how “web tools enable companies to delight customers” but instead of just talking about the weblog in general I am just going to comment further on a particular weblog post that he shared yesterday and which I think is worth while commenting on. It is about metablogging, I know, but I think it would also put into perspective how important it is for any weblogger to be able to find their own weblog style and stick to it if they would want to become a successful weblogger (And I am just not talking about having thousands of daily reads or anything like that).
The weblog post is titled Don’t forget there are “Professional” or “Career” style blogs and you can find it over here and in it you will see how Jeremiah talks about the different types of weblogs out there that could be classified in four different groups:
- Pro-employee blogs
- Anti-employee blogs
- Corporate blogs
- Employee blogs
And then in the commentary he links to Wikipedia’s Types of Blogs. But from the whole bunch of weblog types he gets to discuss and mention I found it interesting that he has also introduced another type of weblog. A new weblog type that I wholeheartedly agree with and which is a Professional or Career weblog. Main reason being that I feel quite identified with his definition of what it would be:
“The Professional or Career blog is focused on an individual’s craft or passion with little ‘personal’ information, but does not represent a company or employer they work for. It’s likely this blog will retain it’s life when the blogger changes employer“
Yes, indeed, although I am actually sharing quite a bit of personal information I still feel that both of my Internet weblogs, elsua and elsua @ ITtoolbox, would be Professional / Career blogs that will continue their way despite whichever employer I may have. That is actually the purpose of the disclaimer present in my weblog templates. What is important to note down from this is that weblog type is all about the individual’s craft and passion on whatever the particular subject and stick to it through thick and thin. Yes, indeed, finding your own weblogging style in whatever the subject you are passionate about and commit to it. That would be the key to me as to why I keep on doing it and what will make a successful weblogger.
I guess I could well stick around with the Corporate / Employee weblog I maintain inside of IBM but then again at some point in time I felt I needed to go out. I needed to have a space out there that would allow me to expand further my horizons, to explore further possibilities, to be able to share what I want to talk about with a wider and more diverse audience. In short, I wanted to find my own weblogging style out there in the Internet and find out if it was much more different than the one I have got in my Intranet weblog and certainly it looks like my Professional / Career weblogs do fit that profile. But how about you ? Have you finally discovered your weblogging style ? Are you sticking to it ?
Technorati Tags: Metablogging, Professional Blog, Career Blog, Blogging Style
