And Why Are We Doing This?

I've taken a week and a half off from posting, which in the blogosphere (I hate that amalgamation of a word) is an eternity. 

But I'm back.  Why?  Because I figured out why I really do this.

If you care, read on ...

There are real business-related purposes behind this blog and, hopefully, behind most business blogs.  The reasons for this blog are:

• To be a marketing and business development resource for individual professionals
• To potentially generate referrals to my firm, Mercer Capital, from some of the professionals who visit this blog
• To create marketing and business development training material for the professionals of Mercer Capital
• And, lastly and personally, to share my years of knowledge and expertise with a larger audience

I'm one of those folks with a personal mission statement and here it is:

To help people reach their goals while living for and glorifying Christ

So, I love to help people see the possibilities within themselves and I'm a Christian.  [Nowadays if you say you are a Christian, you have to, unfortunately, explain what that means.  Lest you think I'm a member of the religious right or a fan of Pat Robertson, let me say that I think Pat Robertson is a nut and I don't mix my faith with politics. (See this post from Cal Thomas, who I don't usually agree with but here he is right on: http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/thomas1.asp)  I subscribe to the model of humility and servant leadership.  In other words, the example of Christ.]   

I am back to blogging because I've figured out that I really blog to help other people.  It's not about me.  I confess to blog-fatigue when reading my daily news aggregator.  Many bloggers constantly link to the same bloggers so it all begins to be circular.  Then there is the lack of focused content.  And then there is the information overload that can easily swamp you.  And, the bloom is off the rose so to say.  Blogging is no longer new or cutting-edge.  It's pretty much business as usual.

Just as I was losing steam, I read a post from Jane Genova on blog glut.  Make sure you read it and add her blog to your aggregator.  She has excellent insights into our world.  Her post was the first I saw on the topic.  Then I saw a post from Debbie Weil titled "Corporate Blogging's in the Trough of Disillusionment According to Gartner's Hype Cycle."  I began to see several other posts on the subject.  It seems as if I wasn't alone.

But, the bottom line is that blogging has to have a point and has to be part of your marketing strategy.  It's just a means to an end.  It's not the end itself.  So, you have to be crystal clear why you are blogging and what you want to deliver to the marketplace.

I'm blogging to help those professionals that want to help themselves be better at what they do and, while I'm at it, to raise the profile of Mercer Capital.  That's it.  That's all.  And I am passionate about that.  So, I plan to better organize the content on this blog and add features to further assist readers use the information. 

So I guess that's my blogging mission: To help.  After all, that's what life is all about.