Showing all posts tagged blogging

In Business & Blogging, General

Blogging Pressure

Author Nicki CawoodPosted on 19 Comments

Do you feel pressured when it comes to blogging? Over the last few weeks and months my timelines have been littered with tweets and status messages about people feeling they “have” to blog.

“Really need to blog today, didn’t do one yesterday”

“I need to do some posts but I just can’t think of anything to write?!”

Seeing messages like these sadden me. For the most part, people blog for themselves, for fun, for their families and for an outlet. It seems that when they start they thoroughly enjoy it but it can become a chore, why is that?

I love blogging, it’s an outlet for me, it’s fun. I can use Curly&Candid for whatever I like, to share recipes, family news, debates, to discuss world events or to campaign. It’s a tool, a thing… it’s not “me“. If I don’t blog one day, two days or a week I don’t worry that the blog might cease to be or that I will implode. The day that I wake up and feel I have to blog is the day that I stop blogging. I don’t think anyone needs that pressure.

I hear lots about link-ups, again how people MUST make sure they do it. I’m pretty sure no-one who runs a linky would want people to feel this pressure to perform as it were. Britmums now have a weekly blog prompt, and although this isn’t something I would use myself, for some I expect it can  be fun /useful; will it however become another of these things that people feel they have to do? I hope not.

At what stage do you feel like you have to blog, when did it become a job, do you feel the pressure to keep up with everyone else?

Social media is the greatest tool and sometimes the worst de motivator. The recent surge of “experts” popping up from nowhere ready to tell you how to blog better and how to be the best blogger don’t help. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with wanting to improve your bloggy technical expertise or  work on your writing style and sites such as Blogger.ed (which I highly recommend!) are a fantastic resource of info and advice.  I just think that overall bloggers can be bombarded with info on what they should rather than being offered hints, tips and advice.

So where does it come from, is the pressure forced upon us as a blogger by social media and the blogosphere or do we pile it upon ourselves? This is an issue I’m genuinely curious about. What do you think?

In General, Guest Posts

Claire Dunford Speaks… Social Media and Bloggers… ROCK!

Author Nicki CawoodPosted on 1 Comment

The lovely Claire Dunford is a Social Media Consultant for BOTTLE, and blogs professionally at BOTTLE Uncorked and personally at Scratching That Creative Itch.  When she’s not working on social media campaigns or performing in local theatre productions, she’s often to be found nattering away on Twitter at @rainbowclaire and @BOTTLE_PR. Personally I think she is a little crazy, but in the best kind of way! Enjoy her post! Nicki x

When I was first asked to guest blog for Curly&Candid I had planned to pull together  a piece on the “Day In the Life of a PR.”   But when I was chatting with my friends after a hard week in the office I realized that listening to other people natter about their working day was actually just really dull.

You know the feeling.  Try as you might your interest slips, your mind wanders and slowly you start tuning out…

When I tell people that I’m a Social Media Consultant, their eyes light up.  Within seconds I’m bombarded with “Wow, you mean you actually get paid to be on Facebook,” or “So you can help me understand Twitter,” often followed by “I wish I had your job.”  But I know that if I went into the details of the competitions that I get to create or the profiles that I manage their shining eyes would start to glaze over.  No matter how interesting your job may seem to others, if you live and breathe a role 9 to 5, five days a week when you start talking about it, it won’t be long before you get bogged down in the details.

I’m so lucky I’m part of a really energetic and vibrant team at BOTTLE, but the very best thing about my job are the relationships that I get to build outside of the office.  I’m encouraged to read blogs, chat on Twitter and build relationships throughout the social web and to me that’s fantastic.  No matter how stressful my day has been , through blogging, I can always plunge head first into someone else’s life – laugh at their adventures, extend my sympathy during troubled times, or get involved in an active debate.

And to me that’s what really social media is all about.  It’s not about Klout scores or Wikio rankings (although those shiny badges are lovely), relationships are not something that can simply be boiled down into a statistic – although with my professional hat on they are fantastic for reporting back to clients.

Ultimately ‘interaction’ and ‘engagement’ are just the tip of tip of the iceberg.  The reason blogging is so great is that it allows everyday people a voice, you don’t need to be a trained journalist to write with passion and I’d no sooner instruct someone on how to fill in their diary than dictate what a blogger should write, or how they write it.

So I’d like to say thank you to all the bloggers that brighten my days.  Everyone is an individual, with a diverse range of blogs and styles – which is something to whole-heartedly celebrate.

 

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