The Conundrum of Bloggingcon

So I’ve been thinking…

What is the purpose of blogging? Now that I am blogging again, I have to ask myself the question. Is it an exercise in self-expression? Narcissism? Generosity–sharing the wealth of one’s wisdom? Okay, definitely not that last one. But I hope it is more than screaming into the desert or flashing passersby in Central Park. I hope my blog is a seed that germinates thought. Perhaps a post will encourage someone to look at something differently. Perhaps it will inspire someone to rekindle his or her passion for writing.

Oh who am I kidding? A blog is the grown up version of shouting “look at me!’

When my nephew Ryan was little, whenever I would ask him how he was doing at some new hobby, he’d always reply with the same answer: “I’m AWESOME at it!” Maybe that’s what all of us bloggers are doing. We’re out here in the web-o-verse declaring, “I’m AWESOME at writing.” But I’ve read enough blogs to know that we all are not.

However knowing this, I still find it worth doing. Would I still do it if I thought no one would ever read what I wrote? Wouldn’t that just be a regular old journal or diary? If no one was ever going to read this, would I be more honest? Perhaps not more honest, but more, shall we say, comprehensive. There is a line you can’t cross in blogging. Okay, a line you shouldn’t cross. Because someday you’ll need a new job. Or you’ll need to keep the job you have. Or you’ll be nominated for an academy award and True Hollywood Stories will want to do a special on you.

What? It could happen.

Expert?

So I was thinking…

What makes someone an expert?

As part of my job in PR, I’ve been leading my firm’s online strategies efforts for about five years.  My job used to be called “director of new media” but then we rethought the term “new media.”  Let’s face it, “new media” implies that there is also “old media” –which of course there is.  But now that every old media outlet also has new media components (if you don’t believe me, just ask any print journalist if they are getting pressure to blog) do the terms still work?  So we decided to go with “online strategies,” which works just fine.  But I digress…

Back to the question at hand… what makes someone an expert?  The reason I ask is because I keep receiving emails inviting me to seminars led by “social media experts.”  Given that social media has only been around a few years and, more importantly, is evolving daily, can anyone REALLY be an expert?

If I invented a new musical instrument today called the filloobious, I would be the world’s leading expert on filloobiouses.  But that doesn’t mean you’d necessarily want to listen to me play it.

Perhaps all of us “social media experts” should instead position ourselves as “folks who pay more attention to this stuff than you do and have figured some stuff out.”  Just thinking…