‘Responsible blogging’ the irony
Recently, I was at this event on Child Care Rights conducted by PDPU, Gandhinagar and UNICEF India where a bunch of food bloggers gathered together. One subject of this workshop was ‘Responsible Blogging’ and I was only wondering why. Isn’t it obvious that blogging is supposed to be responsible? There are bloggers and Instagram influencers who have this power on the Social Media platforms to drive the direction of any campaign.
Brands want to approach these influencers with PR packages for them to review, collaborations and events because they have a large number of followers. It is not wrong to run your blog like a business especially if it is your profession to talk and share knowledge about your expertise. But how far do any of these bloggers ensure the concepts of responsible blogging?
Why did I start blogging?
Writing for me came naturally. I was already writing poems on Blogspot and I never realized when I almost wrote close to 200 poems. Meanwhile, I was also working for different clients across industry domains and my hands were always full. In 2016 just around my birthday, my boyfriend then husband now suggested that I should start blogging. I was at first apprehensive of the whole idea because I never knew what to blog about with so less time left every day and of course, I was in college too. I loved to travel, but I knew I didn’t just want to write about travel. So, eventually, I decided I will do lifestyle blogging. For me, writing anything came with a lot of research and background check. There have been things I believe and things I don’t and I am never shy about sharing my opinion.
Read more: The Life of a Freelancer
I used to look up to certain bloggers for their colourful Instagram accounts that make you wonder why is our life not looking any closer to that? The era of the millennials has seen the face of social media change. While these pictures that the influential bloggers’ post are inspirational, all these pictures are no more about being spontaneous. A good amount of time goes behind the shooting, editing and creating concepts for Instagram posts. How is that related to responsible blogging? It is because it is about responsibly sharing content that needs to make a difference for the society.
Notes to responsible blogging
Some basics of responsible blogging need to be kept in mind:
- You have an audience and it is your responsibility to not share any content that could be misleading.
- Research anything that you write about well.
- Never recommend anything strongly if you feel something might not work for everyone.
- Think consciously. Promote subjects that need to be thought upon because you have a credibility and your followers trust you.
- Talk about public issues such as women rights, healthcare, etc that need awareness and outreach.
- Keep your biases at the bay. As a blogger, you must always be neutral.
- Running your blog like a business is a good thing, but that doesn’t mean you are impartial to brands that give you monetary benefits better than the rest.
- Be honest with your audience, that’s the gateway to building trust.
I am not saying what you might be doing as a blogger is wrong, but what I think is we need to consciously remind ourselves to blog responsibly. I am learning every day about new things and striving to bring is closer to my readers and if I didn’t do any of these things myself, I don’t think I’d even talk about any of this.
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