Tread Softly in the Blogosphere

One of the greatest things about blogging is the fact that there is so much networking to be done. You can build relationships with other bloggers simply by referring to a post or comment they made. In the same respect, however, you can tear down those relationships by disagreeing with something they said or did.

Blogging is personal. When you have people writing as individuals instead of as some corporate front, the words become human and the criticism much more harsh. With a typical website the only thing you really have to worry about is traffic, but when it comes to a blog your reputation is by far the most important concern. Your reputation earns you respect in the blogosphere which in turn leads to backlinks and referrals. What does all this mean? It means that when you make a statement that may have a detrimental affect on another blogger’s reputation (whether justified or not) be prepared for things to get personal.

I’m sure most of you have heard about the little “JZ vs. Andy Beal” drama that went in the last day or two. To sum it up, Shoemoney and Andy Beal made a little bet or something to see who could get the most new members in their MyBlogLog communities. Shoemoney decided to use an icon of some woman with a nice rack, and Andy Beal took the “Win a Zune” approach. Jeremy’s take on the “Win a Zune” icon was that it was spam, and wrote about it here.

Jeremy’s argument was pretty much that using an icon displaying the text “Win a Zune” was not “creative marketing” but was in fact spam. He was accused of stirring the pot for linkbait which sparked a nasty response from Andy Beal, Shoemoney, Graywolf, and the only guy I know who likes Snap previews. After all of the negative publicity, Jeremy changed the title of his blog from “Andy Beal Spamming MyBlogLog?” to “I overreact sometimes…” Judging from Jeremy’s comments on his blog and others, I think he changed the title more from the pressure rather than actually changing his mind about Andy Beal’s actions.

So what can we get from all this? The bottom line is if you bring into question the motives or actions of any other blogger be prepared to get a swift and personal response. Reputation is all that matters to a blogger. Was Jeremy right in calling Andy Beal a spammer? Maybe. Is posting a “Win a Zune” icon going to destroy MyBlogLog? Doubtful (although it may be a step in the wrong direction).

At the end of the day Jeremy decided it was better to to 180 and save his reputation (even though he probably didn’t do anything wrong) rather than continuing with the drama. Keep that in mind, and instead of waiting until the negative publicity hits, make sure you’re willing to handle the consequences of what you’re posting before you hit “Publish”.