As someone who's been pretty well exposed to social media for a good portion of my life, it's important to point out that I haven't had that much interaction with "blogs" as such. It's an idea I've rolled around in my head - especially over the last holidays - but never gotten up off my seat and done anything about it. My exposure to Social Media has mainly been on Facebook and YouTube, where I published a few videos - all gaming related, the highest of which gained 10,000 views but I consider it a one-hit-wonder.
But now that I've got the friendly push of university assessment, I plan on giving my attempt at blogging a good shot. Ideally, with this blog I would like for it to be used as a place to store my thoughts, and to be used as a platform of reflection of the content that we cover in class. As someone with a lot of "inner talk", I've always regarded blogging as a sound way to sort out the many channels of thought that I might have going all at once - even though I have never "blogged", the concept at least seemed appealing.
It was suggested during the lecture that we could also feature a vlog component. As someone who's been interested in video production, and works in the industry, it seems like a logical connection. While no extra marks are given, I believe it ties in with my attempt to give blogging my all. Considering the written posts are the assessed items, I definitely think I will make the videos *after* I've written the posts, which should give my videos some structure.
As for my written content, I'm entirely happy to "write on the run", meaning I research as I write as the thoughts come to mind. It's a somewhat time consuming process, but I find that the ideas and content flows better that way for me.
While I may not read many blogs, when you take a step back to think about it, blogs do influence our lives to some degree. I personally view many YouTube videos, news sources and social media hubs which have either been heavily influence, or created, by a blog or blogger. My parents are influenced by them too, my Dad reads political and economic news from bloggers who have insider information; usually raising alternative views or opinions, while my mum spends sometime each week viewing other peoples sewing work on their blogs.
One trend that all these blogs have in common is that they are pertaining to a specific area of interest. As stated in our lecture, the most effective blogs are ones pointed towards a certain topic, and it's no secret. Browse through any type of specific blog or online journal and you'll see the difference between successful ones. It's a view backed up by lots of different guides too.
During my research on blogging and effective strategies to cultivate your presence, many of the sources seemed to follow a few golden rules, which are mirrored in real-life:
- Be genuine
- Have *backed up* opinions
- Have a niche and be original
- Be Humble
It's also important to point out that while you might be writing your blog for your own personal reasons, people may be reading it. I feel that this is a critical factor because it forces you to view things from more than just the one angle. As Alex McNeill touches on in his blog, it's easy to get caught up in thinking that everything we say is golden.
For this blog to become successful over the coming weeks, I aim to follow much of the rules and advice that I've learned about in my research this week. In life, Quality is emergent. In due time, with an appropriate amount of effort, work speaks for itself. My aim is to make this blog successful not through any fabricated strategies, self-advertising or sharing, but rather through the quality of content that I post.
Thanks for your time, and I appreciate any and all feedback!
