This is Chris Garrett (@ChrisGarrett). We aren’t buddies, but here’s the funny thing: I’ve known him for about seven years. And here’s the rub, we originally “met” online, on some pro blogging forum or other, and while he was still living in the UK.
He’s since relocated to Calgary, and today, at the 29th installment of the Social Media Breakfast, here in Cowtown, he presented on the topic of authority in the bogging world.
I’ll have a bit more to say about what Chris had to say (real soon now… times, they are a BUSY!), but in the meantime I want to talk about two take-aways arising from today’s event.
The first has to do with relationships. Or, more specifically, how they form, how they are authenticated, and how they are maintained. Because yes, Virginia, online relationships – business professional, personal, friendship, and even romantic – are real, and electronic connections are tangible, useful, and engaging. I learned a lot about blogging from Chris, for example, back in the day I was working on my first commercial blog.
I’ve met Chris twice, but I feel like I’ve known him forever.
The second take-away is larger in scope, and deserves mention in a longer posting, and it has to do with the direction that blogs are taking. particularly business-based blogs. This messages was largely the theme of Chris’ talk this day, an in short, it mimics what I’ve said elsewhere on this site: content is king, tell your story, show your authority, and engage meaningfully with your audience.
For just a hint about how this new paradigm – content-based, crowd-sourced, and immediate – is playing out, consider this view down one of many table rows: six participants of this SMB, all getting the word out.
It’s adapt or die folks.
