7 reasons why I blog

Posted by Justin Goldsborough | 2 comments

The impending end of the world has caused me to reflect a bit today on my hopes and dreams. Actually, it’s caused me  to have It’s the end of the world as we know it by R.E.M. in my head all morning. But the first explanation sounded better.

Still, Vanilla Ice was in town last night, which might explain why I began thinking this morning about my efforts to be a “lyrical poet” and why blogging has become such a staple in my life and career. It’s kind of like e-mail, the Internet and cell phones — I don’t remember life before it that well and I can’t really imagine life without it.

So here are seven reasons blogging is important to me. And what I’m hoping you’ll share at the end of this post is if you have any of the same reasons for blogging. Or other reasons blogging is important to you. It’s a conversation I’d like to have, you know, before the world ends and all.

1. Goosebumps. Giving people goosebumps was my dream growing up. I wrote my college essay about it. I see you rolling your eyes a bit, so let me explain. My passion for writing came, not surprisingly, from reading great writers. Sports writers — Joe Posnanski, in particular. Many times when I read his columns, I got so into the story that by the end, I had goosebumps because I felt like I was a part of it. I was bought in. That’s why giving people goosebumps was always a hope of mine. And blogging helps keep that hope alive.
2. Storytelling. If you are in communications today and you can’t tell a story, you’re in trouble. Big trouble. As communicators, we have to be able to tell our clients’ stories. We have to be able to tell the customers’ story to our clients. PR and marketing could now be called storytelling. Generating content and telling a story people want to share. Blogging forces you to practice your storytelling and see what people respond to. Because blog posts with a story always resonate better with readers.
3. Learning. When I was a kid, my mom used to pick me up from school. As soon as we’d get in the car, she’d start the engine, turn to me and ask “What did you learn today?” I had a standard response for this question — “Nothing much.” It was a good response, I thought. But as I got older, learning something new every day actually became important to me. Damn parents are always right. It’s impossible to blog and not learn something. Whether it’s how to be a better writer grammatically, how to end a story or something a reader shares in the comments, the opportunities to learn are always there.
4. Being a part of something. Pop quiz: How many clients have you said the following to in the past year — “People are talking about your brand, whether you’re listening and participating or not?” The same holds true for us as communicators. People are having conversations all the time about how to be more strategic or how our role in the business world is changing. Blogging allows me to be a part of those conversations, and in some cases to start them. Without it, I’ve got much less influence on the conversation. And less understanding of what people are talking about. IMO, that keeps me from doing my job as well as I should be doing it.
5. Reputation. So many people hate the term personal brand. But I don’t really have a problem with it. As long as you are using that reputation to help your company and your clients. Anyone who says that ego and “the love” we get from comments, content shares and compliments isn’t a small part of the reason they blog is lying. That’s all. And it doesn’t hurt that it can lead to new business, opportunities.
6. People. I don’t think the majority of people see it this way, but blogging is one of the best networking tools around. I have met a ton of people through blog posts I’ve written or by reading their posts. More than meeting people, blogging has helped take relationships that were at acquaintance level to friend and respected peer level because of the in-depth conversations about simple and complex topics for which it allows. We can tweet back and forth about social media analytics a few times here and there. Then we can have more of a deep dive conversation on a blog. When it comes to networking, it’s not Twitter or blogging or offline events. It’s all of the above, and blogging is a key tool in the toolbox.
7. The “hurry up and read so I can comment” feeling. This is the goosebumps of blogging. When you put an idea out there that really gets someone charged up, gets their wheels churning and they can’t wait to hurry up and finish reading the post so they can add to the conversation. That feeling. Isn’t that what we’re trying to do when we blog — spark conversation and drive people to think creatively and problem solve? For me, it is. And without it, life would be boring. They can have their sit in an office every day from 8 to 5, clock-in, clock-out job. I’ll take a more rewarding work and life experience every time — and blogging is one of the ways to make that type of experience a reality.

So did I hit on any reasons that made you want to hurry up and comment? Why do you blog? And does anyone actually believe the world is going to end today? Not me…I can’t imagine God would want several people’s last night out on earth to be spent at a Vanilla Ice concert.