We all agree. Well mostly. At least in the places where I roam online. Occasionally there are some disagreements — sometimes gentle argument, but all-in-all there is little dissent. Mack Collier has been pondering the nature of this general affability in the marketing end of the blogosphere, contrasting the inclusive debates engendered by the crowd at The Daily Fix with the scrummage that occurs over at Robert Scoble’s house of rambunctious squattors.
A la Scoble, Mack succeeds in generating quite an interesting discussion (well worth checking out) — and one of the questions he asks is, how does Scoble do it? Fundamentally, I think that Scoble challenges our curiosity. He asks the questions of himself that we find we are answering. He mocks and goads his readers. He dares them and sometimes berates them. MarketingProfs is a whole different kettle of fish.
But the debate is not really about different communities and their style, it is a question of lifeblood. I don’t know about you, but at certain points in time I like to venture far and wide across the blogosphere. I like to run across those weak links. I like to mine the unexpected. It is one of the reasons that I like memes … to me they serve a special purpose in the blogosphere — they introduce new blood into the thinking systems of our social networks. These new sites, in fact, help to keep us all healthy.
This randomness is what appealed to me about the Entrecard widget that you can see at the top of my blog. I don’t have it there for advertising … I have it there for connection. For chance. And while I know that Marcus doesn’t agree, I must admit to finding it slightly useful — and have happened upon a couple of sites that I like.
MarketingFM covers a lot of topics that are obviously of interest to me.
Overall, though, I find my uncontrolled meanderings through Entrecard to be an eye-opener. This is social media in the raw. It is local and it is expansive. It is poetic and well designed. It is real people telling their own stories, making some money and finding new friends, communities and even enemies. It is the space where we live.
It all serves to remind us that our blog is just another drop in an ocean of influence.
Hey, thanks for the mention and the link