Amy wrote a long and really good post about authority blogging, and I promised to dot down a few thoughts of mine on her post. Go and read it, it worth it. And now, to the point where I enter the storyline:
I am helping others to connect not only to their environment and to my environment, but also to each other and to themselves.
For me, this is the essence of ‘authority’ blogging: the ability to create connections.
Amy writes so, and yes, that is true in my opinion. Blogging with ‘authority’ and creating connections are related. However, for me it seems a bit more complex than that. To create connections you have to blog with ‘authority’ but it’s a feedback process at the same time, as creating connections will improve or reinforce your authority. The more connections you make, the more authority you will have.
Amy quotes Chris Garrett who says
to blog with ‘authority’ means to blog with a ‘friendly and open’ personality, to demonstrate ‘expertise, experience, knowledge or talent’ and to display an understanding of how to ‘develop visibility’.
and that is quite true to a level, to create connections you have to be friendly and open, and being an authority is important too – especially since we talk about authority blogging, right? -, but I think there is one important thing that is necessary more than the rest.
Being authentic and genuine.
You can argue that a ’friendly and open’ personality includes that, but not necessarily. Blogging with a ’friendly and open’ personality does not mean you are an authentic and genuine person.
I know a few people both in real life and online who are ’blogging’ with (showing us) a friendly and open personality, and they are far from that personality in fact.
And I would argue that a friendly personality is not necessary to have authority – as Chris points it out too.
All in all, in the long run you need to be authentic, genuine and honest, because if you lack any of those, all the expertise and friendliness and connectedness won’t be enough to be an ’authority’ blogger.
And these days, when people are connecting on dozens of places, it is harder to pull out any pretensions.
On the other hand, if you are genuine and authentic, making connections will be easy and almost automatic, and then authority will grow out of it. Well, provided you have some knowledge, experience, talent to share.
That’s my two cents in addition to Amy’s post, and I hope she gets to SOBCon, ’cause she deserves it.
- Basis of authority: be authentic
- How you define authority and what it means to you?
I think you’re spot on with this, Roland! Authenticity is absolutely key to all good connections, and it is the only basis upon which to build authority, whether offline or on. And yes, you are also right, that portraying yourself as open and genuine is fundamentally not the same as actually embodying those principles. What I hope I show through my blogging is my total commitment to authenticity, and through that commitment, my ability to form strong connections.
Thank you so much for responding to my post in such a thoughtful way, and thank you also for your support with the competition. I’m certainly glad that I’ve connected to you :-)
You are most welcome, that post was a really nice piece, and I like how you see this whole “interwebz” thing.
It’s all about people, and not animated gifs. And that’s connection.
And I am glad we connected, like your blog a lot.
[...] writing the post Basis of authority: be authentic I went over to Confident writing, where Joanna wrote about the same topic – it’s the SOBCon [...]