Me, me, me, me, me, me, me.
Is that what blogging is supposed to be about?
Being loaned a couple of rather excellent books on the power
of blogging (admittedly from the standpoint of a business rather than an
individual) has given the editorial team of HR Case Studies the opportunity to
reflect on the content of many of the HR-related blogs that grace the internet
with their presence on a daily basis.
Sadly, many of today’s HR blogs appear to resemble the
juvenile musings of the 21st century equivalent of the Secret Diary of Adrian
Mole; the blogosphere being treated to daily updates on the writer’s mundane
activities or (if you are lucky) their views on recent developments within
social media (frequently chastising those organisations which do not entirely
and unequivocally embrace its use within the workplace).
For example, the six short paragraphs of one HR blog
analysed as part of the in-depth research for this article contained the
pronoun “I” 14 times (and that’s ignoring all the occurrences of “me”, “mine”,
“my”.)
To be honest, the contents of many HR-related blogs are,
quite frankly, rather embarrassing, especially where they attempt to offer a
glimpse into the soul of the writer.
One of the problems with contemporary blogging is the ease
with which anybody and everybody can not only unleash their views on their
readers, but also fool themselves into thinking that, just because the number
of page hits is high, therefore their daily updates of “What I learned at the
employee engagement conference” are actually of any real significance.
With information, opinion and trivia being thrown at us from
every corner of the internet globe in which we live, the ability to filter out
the dross from the profound is an increasingly essential one. But many of us
within the HR blogging community seem to be making our collective task all the
more difficult by serving up a daily diet of McWaffle.
Come on HR bloggers! We're all entitled to our 15 minutes of
fame. But that doesn’t mean you need to foist your introspective musings on the
world every day of the week. If you're really writing for yourself, buy a diary
and unburden yourself within its pages. Then hide it under the bed. But leave
the blogosphere for those who have something significant and challenging to
say.
