We need more bloggers in Floyd and I have a suggestion…

This is the opportunity…

Twice last week I saw what happens when multiple bloggers attend and write about events. The results were quite unexpected and most interesting. I think that  needs to happen more often!

The reader is given multiple viewpoints and a much richer experience than is possible with even the best of local newspapers.

First of all, readers saw a detailed report on a Meet the Author event involving author Lee Smith the next morning as opposed to waiting for the next issue of the local paper. Secondly, there were three accounts of the event and all were different, but they complemented each other.

I wrote about Lee Smith, the person and the impression she created. Fred First wrote about her life and how her work inspired him. Leslie Shelor wrote about Lee’s books and how they affected her.  Once we realized that all of us had written about Lee Smith, we referenced each other’s posts so readers could go from one to the other and get all sides of this remarkable woman.

Later in the week, I live-blogged a performance of BrotherWind at Cafe Del Sol. Doug Thompson was there also and wrote his own version of the evening which provided much more information about the performers and some excellent close ups of them performing.

I started thinking what would happen if there were twenty bloggers in Floyd and they wrote at least one article a week about things that they found interesting or were concerned about in this county.

First of all, there would be much greater coverage of the musicians who perform five nights a week in this tiny community. What if bloggers were writing about the many artists and craftspeople who turn out beautiful work every week in this county? They would become visible, and visibility is life to an artist as it is to any business person.

Take good note here, that making an artist visible on a blog is not thrusting their promotional material at people or sending spam to everyone with email. People discover things on a blog when they are looking for them.

Here is are some examples:

You want to find out what’s happening with BrotherWind or John Winnicki? Just Google them and you will find that the top items on almost every list consist of weblog posts about their most recent appearance. The same is true for artisans like Phoenix Hardwoods. You Google them and the first item that appears was written by Fred First, our premier local blogger.

More bloggers would mean more exposure for deserving local talent and businesses. It would also mean more exposure for situations that require attention. I could go on for pages in this vein, but I think you have the idea by now.

Here is my offer to get the ball rolling

I’m planning to host an "Open Forum on Blogging" session at Cafe Del Sol every Thursday morning from 11:00am to 1:00pm. The first session will be this Thursday, March 30th.

It will be open to all bloggers and would-be bloggers and will be relatively unstructured – and free! The purpose is to answer questions and promote the spread of blogging.

I will be doing some live-blogging, but other bloggers will be joining me to share their experiences and answer questions.

Some topics that have already been suggested are:

Why should artists blog?
Why blog when I have email?
How blogging affects your emotional health
How can blogging help the local economy?
What would happen if more people blogged?
How to find time to blog
How to avoid burnout
What about blogging obsessively?
Who shouldn’t blog?
What is a trackback and why would anyone want to use them?
What affects traffic on a blog?

You are encouraged to bring up your
own topics for discussion. Non-bloggers will be given priority whenever possible, but there will probably be several parallel discussions, if past experience is any guide.

If you get a moment, come on by and join in the discussion. It could open doors for you that you never considered possible.

This will repeat every Thursday from 11:00am to 1:00pm until blogging becomes pandemic in Floyd.

After all, blogging is contagious, you know…. 

You catch it from your friends. πŸ™‚

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