Brian Alvey: Blogging balance

I often worry that I'm not blogging enough about the markets I work in, that I'm talking about what my kids did or about some celebrity fluff just to publish my favorite new pun. I used to hold back on details of what I was working on because I figured there was no point in telling my competition that I was adding some hot new feature to our blogging platform or ad system or about an upcoming blog launch.

Nowadays I'm not sure why I avoid the work topics. I think it's easier to relay something my son said or comment on the news SNL-style than to spend more time fleshing out an opinion on some technology or business issue.

Obviously there's a ton of news here at the Web 2.0 Summit, but at the same time there's a giant bubble expanding and I get a headache when I hear about some half-baked product getting a million dollars in funding so I'm not in the mood to add to all of that.

This was really on display in the Launch Pad session, where hundreds companies had been narrowed down to 13 winners that got to give 5-minute overviews on stage. I was in the Launch Pad session for a couple of presentations, but I quickly bolted to sit in on Amazon's Web Services overview. I needed air and reality.

Forbes did nice recaps of that Launch Pad session plus AOL's instant messaging news and they singled out a couple of companies that didn't suck. One of them is called Sharpcast and although I can't say I'm rushing to use their service, but I liked their CEO's blog. It included some advice on how all CEOs need to have at least some sales experience and a really touching post reflecting on the 12th anniversary of his father's death.

Maybe I just like people who use their industry blogs to share personal stories.

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John Blunden 1209 days ago

I don't know about holding back but more personal touch works for me. I find that learning about people's experiences, thoughts, and feelings is something I would spend some time on. I doubt I'll spend more than 5 minutes reading a blog on technical stuff. Although mentioning a few things about work, what's new, recent updates wouldn't be so bad. As for the CEO's opinion on sales experience, he's right. I agree with him a hundred percent...having experience in sales will give any CEO the upperhand.

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