Blogger identity crisis!?
January 31, 2009I’ve got myself into a bit of a predicament. So, this blog started out with a simple purpose: to document my travels around Europe and the world, as I embarked to study abroad for an entire year in London. I wanted this blog to have a beginning and an end, and to by the end of the school year, serve as a collection of all the exciting things I’d done and seen throughout the year. I thought it would be a great way for me to remember this year forever. And, it seemed like the perfect way to keep in touch with my friends from back home, by allowing them to experience my adventures as I posted them, one by one.
But this plan unraveled as I began to have the urge to write about other things, more diverse things, and not to confine myself to simply writing about my travels. I wanted to write about things that excited me – my education, international law, human rights, entrepreneurship, social media. And then I read about personal branding, and wanted desperately to ‘brand’ myself as a budding international/human rights lawyer. So I started to write about the ICC, Guantanamo, my arguments and beliefs. You see, personal branding is important to me because I want to meet like minded individuals and students who care about the same things I do. I want to educate myself more, and get more young people involved and interested in human rights. I see a lot of young people write enthusiastically about politics – but little about human rights and international law. By creating a personal brand, I’d also be able to show potential employers how interested I am, really, in legal issues.
But now, I’ve come to a crossroads.
I can either continue this blog, a random amalgamation and assortion of posts, haphazardly displayed with no particular theme. However, I doubt this blog will allow me to have a ‘personal brand.’ I really wanted this blog to be first and foremost, about my travels. It was never meant for intellectual discourse and political theory, or a post about how awesome Web 2.0 technology is. It was solely meant for my travels, and that’s where I’d like it to end. Second, I don’t really want to ‘reveal’ myself and my name in relation to this blog since it was mostly meant for my friends.
The better solution, I suppose, would be to create another blog, where I can actually write about things a bit more professionally, as well as create my ‘personal brand.’ But, I think I’ve identified the root of the problem: I’m still deathly afraid of the idea of revealing myself on the internet. I’m terrified of the idea that anyone can search my name and find all my opinions, thoughts, and interests. It’s like being split open for everyone to see and criticize. I’m afraid of this.
So how to overcome that? And do I really need to?
I guess this question will be the next part of this blogger’s identity crisis!
xoxo,
A.
Great post. Haha I am going to write a novel-length comment because I wrestled with this same thing.
When I started blogging it was definitely for similar reasons to why you started. Then I read all the personal branding stuff and realized how useful blogs could be to your career and your goals, and I started changing my blog a lot. Here’s what I think:
1) You can blog about your travels and the legal/international issues you’re interested in, in the same blog. This shows your depth as a person and your evolution over time. There’s no reasons to have two separate blogs. If you look at some of the first posts in my blog, they’re crap. Because I wasn’t writing for anyone other than myself and I wasn’t thinking I would ever build a brand or have more readers. But I haven’t tried to hide those because I think my blog as evolved along with me, and I don’t think it’s necessary to hide that. Here’s a post that supports that: http://www.brazencareerist.com/2008/10/13/don039t-start-a-new-blog-stick-with-the-one-you-have
2) You are right that lots of us blog about politics
but not about international law and human rights. This means you have a chance to create a really unique brand for yourself — you should definitely take that opportunity!
3) I know what you mean about the last point. For a long time I hid my blog from, like, everyone. I didn’t have my name associated with it, none of my college friends knew about it. And I was totally afraid of scrutiny, of criticism, of people making fun of me because there’s still such a stigma around blogging and putting your thoughts out on the internet. But I think the benefits far outweigh the risks. Don’t let fear stop you- you can totally overcome it. I’ve stopped trying to hide my blog from anyone now, and it’s way more fun than constantly worrying about what people will say. Here’s a couple posts you might like that support this one too… http://nishachittal.wordpress.com/2008/12/12/forget-careers-blogging-changes-lives/ , http://tiffanymonhollon.com/blog/2007/11/10/the-name-game-transparency-authenticity-and-being-your-true-self/
Anyways, my thoughts are, you should keep writing in this blog and just revamp it a little bit to reflect the way you want to brand yourself. You can do it!
Let me know if you ever want to chat about this…
Thanks for linking up my site!
My blog was originally a place to talk about marketing and branding, then entrepreneurship, then my personal experiences as the founder of a startup, and now it might transition towards something else.
I realized that my personal blog is just about ANYTHING that I want to talk about. My goal is not to get a lot of subscribers, not to get a lot of readers, not to generate comments, nor to make money. My goal is to put my ideas out there because that’s what I like doing. Creating conversations and meeting people is a super plus.
I have other blogs that are specific to a topic or are meant to make money. My personal blog is just about what’s going on in my head.
woohoo!
- Jun
Nisha, thank you so so much for that long and helpful comment! I really appreciate everything you’ve said, and I’ve been thinking about it since yesterday!
I’ve decided to definitely continue writing, and also stop being so afraid to reveal myself. I’ve read so many posts on the benefits of just being yourself on your blog, and I can’t help but be swayed by the arguments. At the same time, I think everyone has boundaries regarding what they want to reveal about their personal life to the entire world. Personally, I don’t think I would be comfortable continuing to write in this blog if everyone knew who I was. I wouldn’t be comfortable with the idea of a lot of strangers reading about where I’ve been. I also don’t think I really want employers to read about my trip to Barcelona and so on.. It sounds like great fun for my friends, but I’m not so sure about people I might work with. I guess it’s a personal privacy issue, and some people are much more comfortable sharing all these details than others might be. I think keeping this blog is unmotivating to me, because I don’t want to write about law necessarily in my travel journal. I think I’d be much more motivated if I started a new blog for that reason. I know – it might not be the best reason, but I think it would make me a lot more comfortable in writing about issues, and letting people know who I am at the same time.
Jun, thanks so much for your comment as well! Again, I’m very impressed with your blog because it’s both personal and yet professional. I am impressed also that you feel comfortable to write about your personal life, knowing that anyone can read it. I just don’t think I’m at that point yet, and knowing that the intimate details of my trip to ___ might show up in a google search of my name is still a bit unnerving. I admire you for that and hopefully someday I can combine personal & professional! I think everyone’s goal for blogging differs as well. I agree in that I want to write just to put my ideas out there, but at the same time I want to meet people and start conversations, and for that your ‘personal branding’ strategy would be so valuable.
Thanks again for your help!