SMB4: Bloggers – Credibility VS Popularity
“Social Media Breakfast (Singapore) co-founded by Derrick Kwa and Daryl Tay with the aim to build up the social media community in Singapore, regardless of individual usages, be it personal, work, school or play.”
This is the 4th time that Social Media Breakfast (SMB) has been held and my 2nd time attending after breaking my SMB cherry at SMB2. Truth to be told, I was quite confused on what SMB is all about during my 1st attendance but SMB4 has certainly shaped to be of a more structured event with the presence of topics and a panel to guide the discussions. Being the 1st time this has been done, there were definitely downsides to this structure as the audience had minimal participation in the discussions and despite it being very interesting with the witty and experienced panel, it felt a little one-sided.
One other point is that even though some of the panelists were bloggers themselves, they spoke more for the PR agencies and the corporate companies that are engaging in social media and I hope to see a blogger without such affiliation or experience in such companies to be a voice in the panel.
A point that is raised by the panellists briefly about engaging bloggers is ‘Credibility VS Popularity’ and the importance of not engaging in bloggers that are popular but not credible. Apart from morals, credible bloggers are deemed by most people as those who blog about niche stuffs. Bloggers who concentrate their blogs on certain topics such as technology, photography, food, social media and if you think about it, sex as well. Popular bloggers in the local scene are usually not the niche bloggers. Just look at the reigning blogging queen, Xiaxue and you will know what I mean. These bloggers treat their blogs as avenues to talk about anything that is in their lives. I am one such blogger and one of my posts can be about an amazing new website that gets you from point A to point B or about making fun of perverts on mIRC and the next can be about how much I love to fart in my hand and smell my fingers. I am not saying I really do but my point is that bloggers of my genre just blog about almost anything that happens in our lives.
We are Life Bloggers.
Many make fun and frown upon such bloggers such as myself but I like to see that we deserve recognition. Niche blogs may be relevant to companies and products but Life Bloggers are relevant as well! We may not all be able to tell a bit from a byte or may not be able to take a picture that will wow your panties off and won’t be able to tell you that the Char Kway Teow at KuKuBird Street is 0.26 marks better than the Char Kway Teow at Cheesepie Avenue. We may not have the grammar and finesse of a drunk Oxford English Professor but we still draw in readers that come back and read the content that we spew from our lives and perspective.
I know it’s hard to draw relevance to products and services for us Life Bloggers but if PR/Ad agencies do a little more homework and engage the right popular Life Bloggers that adore your products, I can ensure you that we do great jobs in convincing our readers that the KuKuBird Street’s Char Kway Teow is much nicer.
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October 7th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
[...] on making the next SMB more delicious Daniel – SMB4 – A New Hope for New Media In Singapore Kris – SMB4 – Bloggers Credibility vs Popularity On Plurk… ssumin – The blogger voice was missing from SMB4… ssumin – Did size of group [...]
October 7th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
hooray, Kris.
It’s time for them to notice bloggers like you and not bring you down.
Bloggers like you make life happier.
BTW is it just me or your comment space has super little font?
sylvs last blog post..I can haz Innov8?
October 7th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
I will be sure to include Kris the Meepok Blogger in any of my future engagements.
Seriously though, spot on about the research and value that Meepok Bloggers provide. The niche bloggers are very relevant in certain verticals (say, tech and photography), but outside of that, I feel a good bet is to get the Meepok ones because a) they are more likely to provide a wider base (not that that’s of ultimate importance) and b) their readers are primed to receive such “Meepok” posts like fashion and stuff from them anyway, hence making them ideal target audiences.
My 2 cents.
Daryl Tays last blog post..One Way To Avoid Being The Salesman At The Party
October 8th, 2008 at 1:09 am
hello!
Totally agree with you about the relevance of life bloggers..If companies would like you to talk about a product aimed at the masses , I don’t see Life bloggers as less credible than niche bloggers. Everyone is entitled to their opinions and a good product should be intuitive not just to “experts” but really, anyone off the streets.
On an SMB4 note, I guess it was inevitable with a title like “Corporate Adoption of Social Media”, for the discussion to be skewed towards the more er..corporate side of things, and for people to draw on their relevant industry experience. But yeah, maybe that’s something to think about.. to have a topic that addresses the other side of things, e.g. non-corporate, etc in future!
Dorothys last blog post..The World is full of Two kinds of Men…
October 8th, 2008 at 3:42 am
Interesting perspective on “life bloggers” vs. “niche bloggers” and whether one or the other is more credible. Think the defining factor on whether bloggers are approached by vendors/ agencies is whether their interest areas are apparent, rather than the theme/ focus of their blogs.
I’ve seen a number of bloggers that don’t use tags, who don’t include brief profiles of themselves and their interests. While this doesn’t really matter for bloggers who write for themselves, I think those who are interested in boosting readership, creating an online brand, etc need to seriously consider really putting themselves out there, and telling readers who they are and what they like.
October 8th, 2008 at 7:39 am
Life blogging itself is also a niche albeit a separate independent one.
JayWalks last blog post..FAIL Restaurant Menu
October 8th, 2008 at 9:53 am
sylv> Thost are kind words! Thank you! And the fonts look fine on my end. Either tt or my face is too near the monitor.
Daryl Tay> MEEPOK BLOGGERS FTW!
Dorothy> Thanks for bringing up the topic in which I have completely forgotten about! On that note, I guess the emphasis on the corporate side of things is forgivable but I still would want to hear the blogger voice on the same topic.
ssumin> Great points. I was thinking about the same thing and being that Life Bloggers interest areas are not as obvious as the other niche ones, it is important to profile themselves like you said. I think I need to expand on my ‘about’ page.
JayWalk> You make us sound so lonely!
October 19th, 2008 at 3:43 am
Hear hear! I agree with you on the point that not all credible bloggers need be niche bloggers. Mr Brown can be categorized as a life blogger and he is no way less credible than say, people who cut and paste content or pseudo niche blogs.
I also covered in my post here that the blogger’s blog angle and readers are equally important.
To pigeonhole bloggers would be a mistake.
Rachels last blog post..Social Media from the social media dinosaur’s POV
October 19th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
Rachel> I am glad you agree! And I do have you on my RSS reader and I have read that article. =D
October 23rd, 2008 at 2:52 am
[...] be attributed to how narrow the focus of the blog the post topics are, as suggested by the entry “SMB4: Bloggers – Credibility VS Popularity”. A blogger who posts about a certain niche topic, depending on the content of the posts, comes [...]
March 27th, 2009 at 11:53 am
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