03/21/2006
Great blogging advice from Stowe Boyd
You don't need to be following the Dave Winer-Rogers Cadenhead RSS scrap to get tremendous value from Stowe Boyd's advice about Personality, Persona, and the Personal and Private in this post.
His advice is spot-on for new and A-Z list bloggers alike, especially the part about personal and private information. If it is personal and private, don't blog it. Once you blog it, it is public information, and the public can use it any way they please. Even if you don't like it.
In fact, that's one of the reasons why I didn't start a blog years ago. I messed around with Blogger a bit when it first came out, but I had absolutely no interest in blogging about my personal life, which is what most blogs seemed to be in the early days. We already had a Web site where we posted family pictures (pre Flickr and other photo sharing sites, folks). Going into detail about my life had ZERO interest for me.
It wasn't until I started my consulting business in 2004, and was looking for an outlet for my thoughts on sales, marketing and PR, that I turned back to blogging and started the Roadmap. Now, I occasionally share personal nuggets here about my son, my dogs, my interests and my family, but these bits of info are just atmosphere. They perhaps give you a better sense of who I am, but the blog is still about marketing, PR and blogging. Not about me.
So think before you post: am I revealing something here that goes beyond my comfort zone? Will I regret it in the morning? This is particularly important (as reported in this week's BusinessWeek You Are What You Post) when you are writing something that doesn't put you in the best possible light. You, your friends, potential employers or clients, possible dates and mates, and your Mum and Dad will be seeing that post for years to come.
Tags: personal and private, blogging, you are what you post
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Posted @ 10:03AM in Blogging
