web counter

January 6, 2008

Performancing Awards 2007: How Do You Choose the Most Influential Blogger?

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 11:31 am

Performancing Awards 2007 Reader’s Choice Poll

Performancing

I’ve received several emails pointing out that I’ve been selected as a candidate for the Performancing 2007 “The Most Influential Blogger” award. I didn’t know how to respond, except to think . . .

Wow! It’s stunning to be on a list with people I so admire.

Thank you, for noticing the incredible people who come here.
Thank you, for noticing the conversations and relationships we share.
Thank you, too, for handing me a question to ponder.

How Do You Recognize an Influential Blogger?

I”m struck to realize that a person cannot achieve influence. At best, someone might grow it like a garden –with passion, talent, hard work, and a climate that bestows it.

Musicians are influenced by those who went before them, those they follow, and those they perform with. Writers, actors, and bloggers are influenced in similar ways. How do we choose who has influential power?

We’re all so interconnected. It can’t be only links or traffic. It can’t be the numbers that Google sends our way.

Most Influential Blogger aerial view

Made via Touchgraph

So many people have touched and changed the way I relate and write. So many have been models when I wondered how to respond or when I needed information. I couldn’t list the people. I had to list the qualities they share.

The people who influence my thinking have these traits in common . . .

  • Character and Talent . . . They can be trusted and are leaders because they have matched their talent to their life.
  • Expertise and Curiosity . . . They did the work and still look with wonder.
  • Rebels with Rules . . . They have deep sense of tradition and still reach to improvise.
  • Depth and Drive . . . They go for it and reflect on where they’ve gone.
  • Wisdom and Street Cred . . . They’ve been around the block and taken value from it.
  • Sameness and Uniqueness . . . They understand that we’re all the same in that we all must write our own version.
  • Passion and Detachment . . . They invest their hearts, but evaluate with their minds.
  • Humility and Pride . . . They know they stand on the shoulders of those who went before them and still value what they have accomplished on their own.
  • Introverts in extroverts clothes . . . They share themselves in amazing ways and still are private.

I suspect that if you asked them they would say, they know they have influence, but they often wonder why.

I’ve been thinking about my time as a blogger and wondering how I could possibly choose just one person who was Most Influential. The idea seems overwhelming, even when presented with a short from which to choose. We all so influence each other.

How do you choose the Most Influential Blogger?

Performancing is offering you that choice.

Go on, place a vote!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Share This


Filed under Community, Successful Blog |



C'mon. Let's talk!

21 Comments to “Performancing Awards 2007: How Do You Choose the Most Influential Blogger?”

  1. January 6th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
    jeff Brown said

    First off — way to go!

    I know what influence generally means in everyday life.

    What does it mean in the context of blogging?

    I’ve never been able to get a handle on it.

  2. January 6th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
    William Tully said

    “the people who give us vision” - couldn’t have put it better myself.

    Congratulations Liz!

  3. January 6th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Jeff!
    It’s ironic that you don’t know. From my view, you sure have some. :)

  4. January 6th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Yeah, Tully,
    They light the way, don’t they?

  5. January 6th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
    Mother Earth said

    well i just think this is the coolest thing on the planet,Liz

    How proud I feel and honored to know and have befriended you

    influence for all that it’s worth is always in my mind most acknowledged when it comes from a giving place

    that’s who you is darlin, that’s who you is

    Mother Earth aka Karen Hanrahan
    http://www.bestwellnessconsultant.com

  6. January 6th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Mother Earth,
    Well go on over and cast your vote. :)

    I agree that influence is not self-centered or self-focused. Some of the most influential people I have known were first graders. :)

  7. January 6th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
    Rose said

    Congratulations on the nomination. (I’ve been lurking here for a few weeks and decided to speak up.) I’m not sure if influence can be fully measured. It’s not just a matter of who gets linked to the most or who gets the most traffic. It’s a matter of who sticks in the back of your brain and affects how you write and behave. It’s the thoughts that become a ghost of a conscious in the back of your head and make you a stronger better person. That then trickle out in your own blog posts. The most influential blogger doesn’t just get linked to… their thoughts get trickled on with other peoples thoughts with out them even necessarily realizing it. In a ripple effect like a stone in a pond.. but I have no idea how to measure that.

  8. January 6th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Rose!
    Welcome and thank you!
    I agree. It’s hard to measure influence and sometimes we don’t even recognize it until months or even years later.

    I think back to comments people made years ago and how I’ve kept them close to my mind . . .

    I so like your metaphor of the ripple.

    You’re not a stranger anymore! :)

  9. January 6th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
    Erica Ross-Krieger said

    Congratulations Liz!

    You had me at Hello when I chanced upon your blog and you’ve got me sticking like glue:)

    How do I choose? I take the word apart - I see that it’s about IN(fluence) — Someone who’s writing goes IN, does some magic and shifts my thinking.

    I am not the same blogger that I was when I showed up here in September. And I thank you.

  10. January 6th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hey Erica!
    What a great way to think on it! Someone who moves my thinking is so refreshing. The people who come here do that!

    Gives me pause to think about INdifference.

  11. January 6th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
    Ritu said

    Congraulations Liz! It shouldn’t have come as a surprise to you :-). you have helped a lot of bloggers and constantly provide thought provoking articles to tickle our brains.

    You certainly deserve this recognition. I think to be influential, the first thing is how you interact and engage with your audience and ofcourse talent.

  12. January 6th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Ritu!
    Generosity is a great influencer. Being a friend is one as well. Never really thought of it that way.

    Who’s influencing who now? :)

  13. January 6th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
    Dar said

    Liz, Congratulations! I enjoyed reading the traits in common that you put together. I’m so with you there. I saw ‘you’ amidst all those traits, Liz. You are my Most Influential Blogger (aka MIB, lol) and have influenced me in ways you’ll never know. And I thank you.

    (P.S. everyone ~ don’t forget to vote! They made it really easy…)

  14. January 6th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Dar,
    Once again, you come around and I’m smiling! Thank you. I see lots of you in those traits too. Go look again! You’re there. :)

  15. January 6th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
    Aruni said

    Congrats Liz! I also nominated you in the comments of their “call for” post a while back. You are very influential in so many ways and in often so different ways than the others on the list…which I think is a great thing.

  16. January 6th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
    Matthew said

    congrats, I already voted for you :)

  17. January 6th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Aruni!
    Thank you! Different for sure. I apperciatel that you find me useful. :)

  18. January 6th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
    Martin Neumann said

    Congrats Liz - and what an impressive list of influential bloggers you’re hanging with. :-)

    I simple love your common traits outline - you must have really put some thought in that, because going over them a few times and reflecting I agree 100% wholeheartedly with them all.

    Influence is an intangible. It’s unpredictable and can come from “name” bloggers to those plugging away with little fanfare.

    For me, being influenced, is being taken down different roads, led down paths and let loose to your own devices into places you’ve never contemplated - out of your comfort zone. It makes you think. Look at things in different shades.

    An influential blogger is one that initially holds your hand but gives you the confidence to go out there and do your thing - and doing it over and over.

    I think that just about sums you up, Liz.

    Happy New Year, Liz.

    Hugs,
    Martin

  19. January 7th, 2008 at 3:44 am
    Joanna Young said

    Hi Liz, I went over to the voting site at Brian Clark’s prompt. He’s also an influential candidate and let’s face it, he is most influential blogger but I cast my vote for him in the writing category. I think part of the challenge of this particular competition is that so many bloggers (your good self included) would fit in a number of different categories.

    Back to the influence question though, like many of your commenters here I broke the word down from the abstract “influential” to the personal question of who most influences me. Who changes the way that I look at problems, the way that I write, who makes me smile in the morning, who teaches me about how to be engaging with my readers, whose shared reflections linger on in my brain… well when I thought about those questions it wasn’t hard to work out how to vote.

    Good luck!

    Joanna

  20. January 7th, 2008 at 6:19 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Martin!
    I’m so sorry I missed this the minute you put it up. What do I say . . . Do you want to go back and check again? [grin} 100% wow!

    That’s something. Free beer and nachos all year!! I don’t think I’ve ever made 100% before. [just kidding]

    Seriously, I did spend time on that list. I spent as much time taking things off as I did putting them on it. The question was one that really piqued my curiosity . . . what I realized and didn’t was that for me influence and respect are something I attribute to the same person. Can’t have one without the other.

    Thank you, Martin! For all that you and I know each other, on the blog and off, what you say here means a great deal to me.

    Liz

  21. January 7th, 2008 at 7:11 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Joanna!
    Influence is a very personal “effect,” isn’t it. After all, people we’ve never come in contact with can’t influence us at all, and if their thinking grossly crosses our own, they’ll have no influence if we do. So it starts with our own universe.

    Influence is about those we let in. :)

    Thank you. You have the same influence in my world.

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

C'mon Let's Talk!