This post may not make some people very happy, so I’ll try to be as gentle as possible. First, let me get a few things out of the way.
1. Not every blog post is a masterpiece. I have written more than my fair share of duds.
2. Just because a post may not be great doesn’t mean you are a bad writer or should give up.
3. You are judged by the content you share almost as much (if not moreso) as by the content you create yourself.
Over the past few days, I have gone to links that people I respect have shared via Twitter or Facebook or even their blogs. In some cases, I have been happy and impressed, as per usual. But lately, seemingly more and more often, I click on a link and I think, “Really?”Maybe the build-up in promoting the link sets me up for what could only be disappointment. Maybe the person’s reputation for sharing great information has set me up with the idea that everything that person shares will be excellent. Whatever the case may be, I have read the post per a recommendation and have left with a feeling best described as “Hmm.”
This begs the question, and I don’t have any particular answer in mind, “When should your promotion of content have more to do with the content than your relationship with the content creator?”
I know that sometimes I want to help someone out who has been helping me out, but that particular day’s post for that person just doesn’t ring my chimes. I may comment on it, but I only share content that I really and truly believe is top notch. If you have tons of spelling or grammatical errors, I don’t feel like I can pass that on to my community. If your blog post is mostly ranting and raving, I’m probably not going to share that post.
I know that there’s a lot of pressure to promote other people. I know that tweeting out a person’s blog post is a great way to build a relationship or get on their radar. Does that mean you should randomly tweet out posts that you normally wouldn’t give any thought to?
What do you think?
It’s a sticky situation. If you’ve built an amount of credibility within your online community, you do have significant pressure to continue to promote one’s work. With that, you recognize that not every post is a home run… do you still promote the turned-double-into-triple-because-you-ran-hard-from-the-get-go, because of the effort? Because a runt in a litter of gems still needs attention? Because the author deserves the consistent support?
This onion has many layers.
Thanks for sharing, Margie.
(In no way does me NOT promoting this post indicate I think this is a dud. Does me commenting on it, rather than promoting it, still convey the value of the post to me? What if I only promote it, but don’t comment on it?)
(I continue to peel the layers…)
Exactly right – those are the questions beating up my brain, too. Do people appreciate comments or RTs more? I love comments because I love conversing, but I feel like how many RTs a post gets is kind of becoming a way to measure how “successful” the post was. Do people look at that too? Does that mean we should give each other comments and RTs even if we don’t really want to?
Don’t know! 🙂
Hey, Margie! I am not yet a blogger, and have only been an active Twitterpater for the last 6 months or so.
I agree with your argument, and make sure I read articles before I pass them along.
Question: how do you feel about links to silly stuff? I do some of that and after reading your article, am wondering whether people are disappointed when they find, well, silliness. Here’s an example:
Beautiful day…gonna peregrinate! http://bit.ly/hNYDSo
I think links to silly things are perfectly awesome in moderation. If that’s all you link to, people might not see that as a valuable addition to their stream. If you pepper things in like that once in awhile, I would bet most people would find that happy and even uplifting if they are having bad days.
I never, ever ask anyone to retweet any of my posts. I feel that if I am deserving of them, then that person will feel good about retweeting something I wrote.
I also only retweet things that I find interesting, or thought provoking or sometimes random and cool. Every single item that I tweet I have read, and liked for one reason or another.
I may want likes/comments/retweets, but I also feel that if I am not deserving of them, then I should not have them. I hope that made sense. 🙂
Yep, you and I are on the same page yet again 🙂
I try very, very, hard not to promote mediocre stuff. If I don’t feel it, then it doesn’t get shared. I see the act of promotion, either via review, like, or re-tweet as an implicit endorsement.
For my own work…I try to kill the runts of the litter, but I know they sometimes escape out into the wild.
*shrug* They can’t all be good.
I like that usage of the word endorsement. That’s how I view promotion as well. “You’re saying that this is good enough that I should trust you and read it.”
If you lead people astray enough, they will begin to doubt either your credibility or your sense of what is valuable material 🙂
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