Is blogging just about seeking approval?

by Jen Drexler
Published June 30, 2009 in Tech

Rambling Warning: Not sure there is a cohesive point to this blog but I needed to get the thoughts out of my head. It gets crowded in there.

So now that we are done writing our new book (coming out in the Fall) I can’t stop thinking about some of the content. In the book we talk about the lengths women go to when it comes to protecting their egos and seeking approval. In the book we dissect this to understand the marketing implications but right now I just keep thinking about it as it applies to the blogosphere.

The blogosphere sort of reminds me of high school because:

It’s about finding people just like you: Bloggers need to feel loved or their blogs die a slow death (hear that readers? we want some comments to keep us motivated). So bloggers work very hard to become part of their own tightly knit e-community. So decorating bloggers find other decorating bloggers who “get them” and so on and so on. Basically we cling to other bloggers who think like we do ultimately surrounding ourselves with people who think we are swell so that our ego feels supported.
It’s all about your scores: Feeling loved in the blogosphere can often be quantified by the number of link backs from other blogs, the number of followers on Twitter or friends on Facebook or just the sheer number of comments to a post. Show me the love by showing me the masses!
There is a head cheerleader: I read a lot of blogs every day (marketing, products, moms) and I’m starting to see a trend among commenters and links. The same faces and names come up time and time again. And there is definitely a popular crowd in each of these communities. For mommy blogs (I hate that name but I don’t know what else to use) there are invisible heirarchies ruled by queen bee influencer. Each sect has their own – the queen of natural baby, the queen of slacker moms, the queen of SAHMs… You can watch other bloggers go out of their way to earn her good graces and get her approval by commenting on her posts even if it is just to say a supportive “me too.”
There are most definitely proms: BlogHer, WOMMA, CES, ANA …