People born from 1982 to 2002 have been birthed into Generation Me. Unfortunately, my 1984 birthday puts me in the midst of a selfish group.
Lisa Belkin, the Motherlode writer for the NY Times, made this quote: “This generation has ‘been depicted … by employers, professors and earnestly concerned mental-health experts as entitled whiners who have been spoiled by parents who overstoked their self-esteem, teachers who granted undeserved A’s and sports coaches who bestowed trophies on any player who showed up.’”
My husband can attest to this behavior. If I haven’t mentioned him before, let me give you this brief introduction: He is the professional violinist trapped in a schoolteacher’s body. His students firmly believe just showing up to class with a violin in its case (no, it doesn’t have to be out or even in good repair) will merit an A. To make a long story short, he’s not like the teachers Belkin mentioned.
Generation Me in blogging?
My age puts me in this generation, but I certainly don’t intend for it to define my character. How often have we seen a blogger only blog about herself. That’s not necessarily bad. We expect for bloggers to tell about personal experiences. But what if she never acknowledges the world around her? What if she doesn’t reach out to fellow bloggers?
That would be a problem. She would be denying her readers of additional resources. She might appear to be a blogger lacking in knowledge because she doesn’t ever include outside information. Most importantly, she would not be affording herself the opportunity to build relationships with other bloggers, relationships that could profit her business.
How to blog with others in mind
Great bloggers read great bloggers. It isn’t necessary that a great blogger is well-known, has a high Page Rank or hundreds of Twitter followers. A great blogger shares helpful facts and opinions with her audience. That’s what a great blogger is according to me.
After you read posts from great bloggers, don’t just turn off your machine and forget about this knowledge they’re so generously sharing. Do this:
- Make meaningful comments to posts. Bloggers write to help people. Support their conversation with your comments.
- Respond to a post in on your blog. If you catch writer’s block, this is a sure way to zap it. Take a look at your favorite bloggers’ archives and respond to what you read. Include a link back to that writer’s block-curing post.
- Retweet. The first two points I brought out take a bit of time. Retweeting an awesome post is quick and shows a blogger you appreciated the time, effort and ingenuity put into a post. This thought includes all forms of social media, Digg it, Stumble it, stick on Facebook.
- Recommend a blogger. This is a more unseen approach. Most people won’t tell you that Terez told them to check out Successful Blog and all the wonderful professionals writing there. However, a recommendation can go a long way. It gets other bloggers more traffic and possibly more work.
It’s like a boomerang
If you do these things to others, they will do them for you. Other bloggers might not see every Tweet you make about them or realize how many times you’ve recommended them to your friends. But they will recognize you are not focused on yourself.
Whether you’re part of Generation Me or not, I like to think of blogging as the We Generation, not bound by any ages.
How do you promote other bloggers and why?
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Terez Howard operates TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility. She has written informative pieces for newspapers, online magazines and blogs, both big and small. She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas . You’ll find her on Twitter @thewriteblogger
Thanks, Terez!
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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