Posted by Lisa Hochgraf
As I jumped into the lap pool both Friday and this morning, I jumped back into my thinking about how blogging and traditional publishing compare. I'm grateful to Tony Mannor and Tim McAlpine for commenting on my post, "Is Blogging Really So Different?" which focused on how the two media are very much the same.
While I still think many elements are the same, including some very key ones, both Tony and Tim pointed to what I think is the most important difference between traditional publishing and blogging: Blogging can bring you much closer to other bloggers.
"I love the ... conversational nature of blogging," Tim commented. "I think one very important difference and benefit of blogging is the continual dialog," Tony commented.
When I first started blogging, it was a real treat for this journalist to write the first person--to use the pronoun "I" rather than always quoting another person, with the attribution "he said" or "she said." (For a fun article about CUES Editor Theresa (Sweeney) Witham exploring writing in the first person, read "Be More Creative." ) In all, blog writing is much more personal.
As a result, the exchange on blogs feels more personal. Some time ago when I blogged that I was looking for new writers for articles for cues.org, several of the "usual suspects" responded. And it felt like I was hearing from friends. Friends I'd met only on the blogoshpere, mind you, but friends nonetheless.
Here's the hitch.
I love blogging and I love the usual suspects. But I suspect Mary, Christopher and I won't really have started to leverage our blogs fully until CUES, CUES Director and CUES Supplier members start blogging with us--that is, until we're blogging with our customers. As far as I can tell (and I looked at Verity CU's blog this morning, thinking they might be an exception), few if any CU land blogs are actually getting very many comments from customers.
Blogging brings you closer to other bloggers--but when will our members and customers become bloggers?
I'm optimistic that the time will come. When CUES launched CUES Net, a members-only listserve, in the early 90s, there were lots of days with no posts. Now the listserve is an active and helpful community of CUES members, and has been for years.
Of course, it may still take a while. Our last Credit Union Management magazine readership survey found that some respondents thought CUES Net was their most useful industry blog! Our 2008 survey will be in development soon. I'll let you know if we find the tides are shifting.
