Sometimes when I hear questions from newer bloggers who are looking for advice on how to navigate WordPress or handle a social media issue or get more comments/followers, I kind of feel bad for people who are only just now jumping into this world. I get nostalgic about the old days of blogging. When I started this adventure in 2004, Facebook was but a twinkle in some geek’s eye. Twitter didn’t exist. Social media was a term that was yet to be bandied about by every. One.
It was simply about writing. Sharing. Connecting. Airing your secrets to the world. Asking for help. Making friends with the words you shared on your blog, and the comments you gave and received.
At its heart, social media is still about that simple idea: connecting using the words you share. Twitter and Facebook and YouTube and StumbleUpon and all the others are additional tools to help you share your words (or photos or video, which of course are worth 1,000 and 1,000,000 words each). But now that all of those tools are instantly available to you when you start a blog in 2011, “starting a blog” doesn’t just mean getting yourself a Blogger account and writing that first post. It can still mean that, and it should, but new bloggers seem to want to bite off the whole damn cake all at once instead of tackling it one slice at a time.
(Or something. Me is a good writer.)
New bloggers ask about all the tools and how to get more followers. They wonder about how to negotiate tricky relationships with marketers and publicists who offer too much or too little. They agonize over event invitations and how they would possibly attend parties and premieres while also holding down a job or parenting their children.
None of this existed when I started. I remember the pure joy of just logging into Blogger and writing a post and hitting publish and then being done with it. It was fun to get comments. The end. When Twitter and the rest came along, I was there, so I got to learn them all one at a time. Someone recently asked me how I got my whopping 3,000+ followers on Twitter. I said “I’ve been on it for over three years.” (I don’t even know if that’s true, it seems like longer, but whatever.)
Here is my advice to you, New Blogger. Those things will happen. You might not be the next Crock Pot Girls (WTF is going on there anyway?) – it took a long, long time for most people who have a lot of followers and daily hits to get where they are. Instant success is rare in any media. If it happens to you, good for you. I don’t resent other people’s success, as much as it seems like I do. I am happy for those people. It’s great that social media can offer such a wonderful opportunity to more people than ever.
But it doesn’t happen to everyone, and it’s okay if it doesn’t happen to you. There are only so many hours in a day and you have a LIFE to lead that will help make your blog better. Take the other stuff one at a time. People will come.
[photo by sweetnapa.com]
As I read this, I couldn’t help but think that this post may have been inspired in part by some of the questions that I’ve asked you, or have asked within a group we share. I think this post is a little confusing. If the questions bother you – set up parameters or tell me directly (or others) that you are on your own. Remove yourself from forums where these questions are asked.
I’m happy to be surrounded by people who answer questions willingly. I hope that I can provide an equal amount of support in return. If you provide support to others, don’t we all rise above together? When I ask questions, it’s about doing something to the best of my ability. It’s not about being better than someone else.
Well and nobly said, Kim. I didn’t read your post in the same way Debbie Goldberg did; perhaps you hit a nerve with her because she’s a relatively new blogger. What I read was the most crucial advice any of us who have been doing it since what seems like the beginning of time can tell the newbies. It’s not a world that can be conquered with will and good intentions. It’s not a “job” for most people either. It IS a way to communicate, to share, to open your world. You better enjoy the act of blogging because there are very few of us who get anything more than personal pleasure for our efforts. xxooJane
There is absolutely no post that I could read that would be more applicable to how I’m feeling. I JUST blogged about this actually. What frustrates me (and it shouldn’t) is that I’m NOT a new blogger. I’ve been blogging and tweeting for YEARS. I was just doing it within a very small circle of all people I actually knew in real life and suddenly this year I discovered that all this time there were 1000s of people doing it, a whole community and marketing focus about it. Its hard not to get caught up in it all.