Everyone likes being recognized for their hard work. In fact (this is a note to all you bosses out there) the two most effective ways to recognize the hard work of one of your employees are 1) public recognition, praise them in front of a lot of people at once, and/or 2) give them money. I don’t know why this is true, but it is.
I find it interesting that bloggers have been utilizing these two forms of peer recognition for some time now, linking being the most obvious form. Everyone loves to get linked; especially when you’re linked on a well known blog. Linking has been accurately called the “currency of the web” specifically because it’s such an effective means of giving recognition to hard and good work.
You may be thinking that advertising is the monetary recognition part, but you’d be wrong. Advertising has nothing to do with recognition, just money. “Tip jars” or “Buy me a beer” buttons represent the means by which peers recognize a blogger’s hard work through monetary means. They’re at least marginally effective too.
The problem
The problem with garnering recognition for your hard work in blogging is that it’s tempting to find quick solutions in order to get more peer recognition faster. People are constantly trying to work the system to get more links, better links and bigger links (do those even exist?). Or, maybe they’re not really after the links, maybe it’s just the recognition they want.
One of the ways people try to garner recognition is by getting accepted into “elite” blogging communities. The problem with this is if you’re only in the community to be recognized as “elite” then you’ll quickly learn, as I have in the past, that the joy of being recognized by an “elite” blogging community is very short-lived. You soon realize that people don’t really look at you any differently just because you have a nifty, “elite”, badge or logo on your blog.
The solution
The solution to the problem lies not in trying to deny that we as bloggers want recognition for our work. Instead, we need to understand what real recognition is and how it’s gained.
“Quick fixes” of recognition, like a mind altering drug (i.e. caffeine or nicotine), give only momentarily intense feelings of joy. These include, but are not limited to, getting on the front page of Digg, getting Slashdotted, Boing Boing-ed, or Scobled. Sure, it’s fun to get that recognition but it’s fleeting.
Real recognition is not getting linked by someone famous. It’s being famous to the point where people crave links from you. That kind of recognition can’t be manufactured, it’s earned.
A lot of it is earned through due diligence. The fact of the matter is that peers will usually only recognize bloggers who have been at it for a while. In fact, I argue that having a blogging record that is long (i.e. your blog has been around for a long time) is worth more toward recognition than the personal authority you bring to the blog.
By personal authority I mean that some people bring certain knowledge or expertise to their blog that produces instant recognition, and that’s what gives their blog weight. Scobleizer is a good example of this. Most of us, however, don’t bring this kind of authority to our blogs. We have to build that authority and a large part of that is due diligence.
The other part of building recognition, besides due diligence, is building authority. This means that you have to be a credible blogger. When you write about something controversial, or breaking, you need to back up your claims. Going around flippantly declaring that the sky is falling will do nothing for your credibility. If, however, you link to Google Earth which shows via satellite imaging that the sky is indeed falling . . . well then you’ve got something.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we bloggers need to keep in mind that recognition is not given, it’s earned. It’s earned through due diligence and credibility in blogging.
