Blogging can be bad for you if you let your Technorati profile go to your head. But, it can also be good for you as well – if you really listen to what the feedback is telling you and apply what you learn.
Jeff Sandquist calls this “listening to learn.”
Right now, a few people are clearly saying my blego (short for blogging ego) is showing. I think they’re right. I am seeing the early signs of swelled head syndrome or “geeaintIimportantism.”
Iggy says of my interview with Chris Pirillo…
I don’t get what was so ground breaking and spectacular about what this person was saying. Straining to try and understand him didn’t help. But it sounded more like a this is me – aren’t I wonderful speech. More than how to get ahead in the marketing game 101.
Aussie PR blogger Trevor Cook commented on yesterday’s traffic post…
I find this trend to open-throated bragging in the name of transparency is pretty sad in one sense. I think it marks the trend away from blogging as somehow different to old media.
In both these cases, my intent was never to say “World, hear me now. I am great.” Still, maybe that is how it’s coming across.
Thankfully, the blogosphere helps me read the writing on the wall and I am seeing maybe it’s time to change my style a bit. I am not blogging to boost my ego, but rather to engage in conversation and evangelize social media.
Is it nice that my profile is growing? Sure. But if I still can’t learn by listening, then I am toast. So thanks all. I will take this all in.
Steve Rubel is a PR strategist with nearly 16 years of public relations, marketing, journalism and communications experience. He currently serves as a Senior Vice President with Edelman, the largest independent global PR firm.
He authors the Micro Persuasion weblog, which tracks how blogs and participatory journalism are changing the public relations practice.
