The Perfect Friend?

As a communications professional (one of my many hats) I have become fascinated with the world of blogging as a viable marketing/pr strategy - personally and professionally. It's not necessarily the "pay per post" game (which very closely mirrors the online porn industry) that many bloggers play that impresses me but rather the ebb and flow of product/service/company/personality popularity that is completely controlled by the online community. Tho my site has no PR at all - I still like to think that sometimes my links or entries can matter and that somewhere, someone might actually be reading my blog; taking an interest in what I might find amusing that day. In order to increase the popularity of this blog...I have been reading up on it.

All very interesting.
Using blogs for personal marketing
Making your blog popular through content
A Blogger's Big-Fish Fantasy
Making your blog popular

I am also truly in awe of how anyone with a computer and brain and a bit of perserverace can not only become a known entity online but become part of an entirely new peer group in a short amount of time. I have always been a very social person, however, my social circle has generally been limited to the size of the area in which I live. I am currently living in Maine, therefore, my circle can only be so large - but now, with the Internet being an extension of my personality - my peer circle can be as large as I want it - and as deep. I can have an entirely new peer group for as many interests as I like - not that I have the time to actually do this...but it could happen.

Blogging, online forums etc, in theory, could not only allow me to fill the void rural Maine might not be able to fill but I can actively monitor how involved I would like to be in a particularly chosen peer group. It can be the perfect friendship in a sense - as deep or shallow as you choose it to be. Unless, of course, all you want is to go have a beer...

Blogging as Social Action: A Genre Analysis of the Weblog

The abstract goes on to say..."Many bloggers see blogging as a way of developing relationships, via linking back, with an online community: “the linking that happens through blogging creates the connections that bind us”(Hourihan, 2002). They also manage those relationships through both linking and commentary, which become forms of social control, signs of approval, acceptance, value. For example, LiveJournal’s “friends” feature allows bloggers to link to other blogs and allow differential access to their own blog. Blood notes that bloggers “position themselves” in the community of bloggers, indicating through their links “the tribe to which they wish to belong” (2000). Both linking and commentary create the hierarchy that structures the social world of blogs, leading to the A-list celebrities and the thousands of others, as well as to multiple complexly linked micro-communities. Clark calls the blogosphere a “culture of upward mobility” based in the desire for recognition and approval (2002). "

I really am enjoying the blog the above article came from...makes for great conversation.