Are you nervous about friends or co-workers reading your blog? May I ask why? I have to be honest. I’ve been there, and I know how awkward it can be. Now, I give my website out freely to people, when it comes up in conversation. Slowly but surely a lot of offline friends and family are finding out my blog. Which is great!
That doesn’t mean that I’m comfortable giving my blog out to every single one of my friends and co-workers. My website is not even listed on my Facebook page. Some people are just better off not knowing. It’s just now I’m less nervous giving it out. Make sense?
I started blogging for realz back in 2002-ish (archives only go back to 2004!), and I told a handful of friends. I wasn’t very smart when blogging back then, because I told personal stories, complained and I swore, which I think is so ugly on blogs. Basically, I used it as a public diary.
Slowly but surely I turned around my blog and I’m careful of what I put out there now.
Tips for blogging:
1. Don’t blog when you’re angry. You’ll regret it and probably hurt people’s feelings. I’d suggest writing it out, saving your draft and if you really want to publish it, wait a couple of weeks. Tweak the blog post and make sure there isn’t anything in there to harm someone. That doesn’t meant to say you shouldn’t vent on your blog. Because, we’ve all done it. So have I! Just do it tastefully.
2. I’d suggest not blogging about work too much. The photos I’ve published on my blog from work include the girls who already know and enjoy my blog. I love it when they get excited that they’ve been “featured”. haha! Makes me feel famous. The last time I blogged about work was showing how much fun we had with the Breast Cancer Awareness Day.
3. Don’t ever blog at work. It’ll just get you fired. At least, I would think so! If you must, do it during a lunch break. I usually blog in the evenings, and don’t publish the blog post until morning. My posts go live between 7-9am EST. My “fast” (it’s from ’05) desktop PC is currently on its way to the grave… but I’m slowly saving up money to get a ton of brand new parts to make it shiny and new again. For now, I’m blogging on my 2005 laptop, which likes to overheat. It can get pretty frustrating ;)
6 of the 35 people I work with, know about my blog. Most of them found out through me giving them the URL. However, some have found it on their own. It can be awkward for them to come up to you when you haven’t seen them in a while and already know a ton about your last week, or what you’ve been up to lately. But you know what? I don’t mind people reading my blog, and what I’ve been posting online at all, because that’s who I am. It also creates conversation when you haven’t seen that person in a while. I like it.
I’ve always been brought up to the phrase: If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Which applies to my blog. My parents reads my blog. It’s why I cleaned up my act with blogging the past 5 years. It’s not that I’m not ‘real’. I just don’t air my dirty laundry online or for anyone public to see.
My site is a place for people to come and see what I’ve been up to lately. Or find out about new products, or even just scroll through the photos if you’re not in the reading mood that day.
How many offline friends/family/co-workers know about your blog?
5 Comments
Love this. I work in social media, so my blog is part of the reason I got hired, and why I’ve always worked so hard on it–I consider it an extension of my professional life. With that said, all of my coworkers know about my blog, so I don’t post anything I wouldn’t want our CEO to see. Common sense that not everyone realizes :)
A few people I work with found me on my blog. It is awkward. It’s a completely other side of me they didn’t know about (and tons of pics of where & how I live). I don’t care anymore, but it’s still kind of weird when someone asks.
Interesting subject (though I’d be afraid to write about it because of this…lol). Anyway, yeah, I think about it a lot because I know that my employees all know about my blog because they are all on Twitter (including my boss) and I tweet out my links at various times throughout the day. I work in an online comms shop for a big organization so being online is our job! It’s kind of unnerving but I can’t try to grow my traffic and keep it secret at the same time. Good tips though!
I don’t mind my co-workers or anyone finding my blog, with that being said I try not to post too much about work because I am a nurse and there are confidentiality laws plus I try not to gripe about work because they may see it. I do write honestly on my blog but when it comes to my job I try not to say too much publicly.
None…the only people who knows is my brother, my sister-in-law and my hubby. I rather keep it that way.
http://happychinadoll.blogspot.com/