Dry Canyon (mountain bikin' on the lunch hour - May 6, 2003)

Why do I blog?

Just participated in a UEN Tech Summit discussion on blogging. The non-bloggers asked questions that I asked myself when I started blogging back in February. Here are some of the concerns that came up:

• What if no one reads it?
• What if everyone reads it?
• How much time does it take?
• What if I don't have a clear purpose in mind when I start?
• What criteria would I use to measure the success of my blogging efforts?

Here are a few of the ideas we considered.

Blogging can strengthen your communication skills. It's perhaps a bit like exercising. I attend a spinning class (indoor bicycling) a couple times a week. One of my motivations is to improve my strength and endurance so when I go mountain biking, I've got the lungs and legs climb the hill. If your job requires "excellent communication skills," blogging may help keep those skills in top condition.

Blogging is a worthwhile endeavor in self-expression even if the only reader is the blog writer. Thinking through topics, research, writing, editing, proofing, publishing -- the process may be as important or more imporant than what you actually write.

Will blogging increase your immunity levels, lower anxiety, and increase your sense of well-being? I don't know of any studies that have been done of the health benefits of blogging, per se. But studies of journal writers do suggest the above health benefits occur with some journal writers. Why wouldn't this tend to be true of blog writers -- especially blogs which are essentially online journals?

What role could blogging play in your portfolio of communication investments? Where does blogging fit on your list of effective communication techiques?

• one-on-one, face-to-face, in person dialogue
• small group discusion
• wowing an engaged audience
• boring a captive audience
• telephone conversation
• handwritten personal note
• point-to-point e-mail
• point-to-multipoint e-mail
• cogent voicemail under 15 seconds
• rambling voicemail over 60 seconds

"The inner speech, your thoughts, can cause you to be rich or poor, loved or unloved, happy or unhappy, attractive or unattractive, powerful or weak." --Ralph Charell

Found while looking for something else: Tchaikovsky's birthday

Comment?