flickr photo By futurowoman
If you heard me speak at a conference or panel before a common line I will often say about why people should blog is that if you don’t tell your story then who will? Then I usually follow up with some ways to create blog topics and justify blogging and the whole social media building relationships, you can’t rely on news media etc. You get the picture.
But what is Blogging? Blogging is telling a story, blogging is sharing your opinion, blogging is reporting news and more. But at the core, blogging is writing! While being one of the speakers at BrandCamp Detroit last year, I got a chance to hear my friend Peter Shankman talk as well. He said, writing is one of the most important things you can do online or something like that. Then Peter went on to tell a few stories about some bad written letters he received. Since then I’ve been thinking more and more about how to improve my writing skills and constantly telling others to start or continue to write. Regardless let’s take a look at a few examples of how just being a good writer, blogger, journalist or just being able to tell good stories have paid off for a few people.
Recently it was announced that MG Siegler who is a tech journalist/blogger for TechCrunch will now become a partner at CrunchFund with Michael Arrington. This is a special case because of the nature of the deal being in Silicon Valley, TechCrunch, AOL, Arrington, etc but at the end of the day MG did a few things well and mainly he was a good writer and he used his writing skills to build relationships and the rest is history. The same can be said for Pete Cashmore. I remember when Pete started Mashable and now Mashable is not only one of the top tech blogs but it’s one of the top websites in the world. Those are rare cases but I have friends who have received book deals just from their blog that’s not even a three years old. Also look at Groupon, it was reported that Groupon has 70 writers on staff to help with marketing which has lead Groupon to be the fastest growing business ever. It was also reported recently that Cnet was trying to hire Nick Bilton, the NY Times lead technology writer and offered him a significant pay increase, which became news itself especially since he turned it down. Even myself, some of the opportunities I’ve had and clients I’ve been able to work with has come from me blogging, writing telling stories, my experiences online, mainly here on SoicalWayne.com.
As more digital content is being created today from videos, podcast, photo sharing apps, infographics, status updates, tweets, and more at the core of everything is writing. So, why is why writing and blogging are important? Writing can build relationships, tell stories, create opportunities and help educated others. Make time to write, get better at writing and just do it.
