I’ve been thinking hard about how I could relate my blog to Blog Action Day 2008.
A fellow Twitter user had linked to it and I’d been convinced that it was a good idea. Hey, anything that draws attention to world poverty can only be a good thing. So, I’m all signed up, got my promotional banner up and got a nice little image for the bottom of this post. Thing is, I can’t think of a single tenuous link between my blog and Blog Action Day 2008 that doesn’t sound trite and patronising.
What is Blog Action Day 2008? Read What It’s All About here.
So, I’ve opted for a personal little story related to my adventures in the world of online TV. I don’t own a TV. This is not due to miserliness, avoidance of the license fee, destruction of family conversation, gratuituous violence/voyeurism, lowering of broadcasting standards or any pious nonsense about it being harmful to the soul, though I’ll heartily propound any or all of the above truths at any given moment. We simply never bought one of our own when my husband and I bought a new house and thus it has stayed. We do not miss it.
However, as with all things, I began to wonder if I was missing something. I am now hooked on The World’s Strictest Parents. Not being a parent and being somewhat enthralled and afraid to look/listen at any given moment, I’ve been glued to the screen watching with a view to seeing what modern education/careless parenting/amoral society/liberal government policy has done to our young people. Not much positive it seems.
The basic premise of the show is that young people, whose natural parents/guardians have all but given up trying to turn them into responsible/capable/respectful/useful citizens turn them over to a family somewhere far from home.
Is it the (quite often Christian) strict values/standards, intolerant attitudes towards typical Western notions of teenage-hood, maintenance of the innocence of childhood pursuits, mutual love/respect/praise/encouragement or is it the close proximity to extreme poverty? I’m undecided, though it is clear that those teenagers who come face to face with poverty are – without fail – changed for the better. Their petulant demands to be able to wear feather earrings and tight/revealing clothing seem to disappear. Pettiness dissolves in hard work at soup-kitchens. Prima-donna types are broken down by the everyday reality that belongs to someone else.
In these foreign temporary families, Britain’s teenagers learn respect for elders, respect for each other and respect for blessings. They learn politeness in the home, politeness in school and politeness to hungry strangers. They see that our Western, privileged socitety where healthcare is freely available and education is the right of all and mutual understanding has been hijacked by political correctness is not the only reality.
Blogs are all about connecting. Support Blog Action Day 2008 by getting your blog registered and connecting with the reality of others.
Pat
I can only re-iterate Allen’s comments and mention that we’ve not yet had a negative reaction to the blog. Most readers and customers like the blog format.
In addition, you may find this article useful: http://www.netrodesign.com/blog/2008/09/28/what-is-the-advantage-of-using-a-blog-in-your-website/. I’m afraid it’s in a blog format though!
Hello Pat, thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. You raise some interesting points. I would respond by asking you to question a few of the assumptions that seem to underlie your perception of blogging.
1. First, we don’t see a difference between promoting ourselves and promoting our organization – they are one and the same. In fact, the organization is secondary to us; it is the structure which gives us the space to do our thing. And it us – our experience, methods and insights – that people want. Remember the first rule of selling: people buy from people.
2. Second, when you see what the average corporate business website is like, then you will appreciate that it is exactly to differentiate us from the other ’trees’ out there that we chose a blog format. We had a standard business website for a while, but it was not more than an on-line brochure than anything else. There was no personality, interactivity, connection with it.
But if you’re still not persuaded, let me ask this question. If we didn’t have a blog format as our business site, how else could you tell us what you thought of it? And how else could we respond? In a word, how could we be having this very conversation now?
Blogging is not just a phase, or for nerds. Read books like ’Groundwswell’ or ’Wikinomics’ to find out why. Or if you can’t be bothered, read my partner’s forthcoming blog reviews of them. She’s the expert…
Thanks again, Pat, and please, continue to provide an alternative opinion. That’s how a good blog thrives!
Dawn, have you ever considered that in promoting your business organisation through this blog, you’re not promoting it but more promoting yourself – and that people like me who wanty to know more about your organisation are left wondering what this whole blog thing is all about and why you didn’t chose to set up a proper business website with a blog section that could more readily be navigated through and avoided by those who things blogs are boring and a waste of time?
As it is, it seems to me that you’ve reduced your business promotions to that of a leaf on a branch of a tree in a huge forest, instead of being one of those big trees in that forest.
Just a thought …
keep the blogs coming, this is one of my favourite websites if only to come and check out the latest blogs on it!
Hey, thanks Matthew! Your comment goes to number 1!
If you’d like to see anything in particular blogged about here, please email it to us. We’re happy to blog about things people want to read/comment about, as long as we can relate it to business somehow.