Bloggers Debate Anonymity vs Branding
The Black entertainment blogging game may seem like low-hanging fruit for people new to the game, but as any successful blogger will tell you, it was no cake walk to get where they are today. Most entertainment bloggers do so anonymously through a catchy pseudonym and a faceless presence, but with these blogs getting more prominence through the media and getting shouts from Black celebrities, some eventually show a face and supply a name to solidify their brand.
Case in point: the popular entertainment blogger Necole Bitchie. The Atlanta-based blogger recently revealed a new professional image at the head of her blog courtesy of photographer Derek Blanks for the site’s one year anniversary after Christmas 2008. Other popular entertainment sites have also added a similar layer of transparency, such as Sandra Rose or Natasha Eubanks at YBF.
Stepping out of the entertainment game, many political and social justice bloggers stepped out of the shadow of anonymity thanks in large part to the recent Presidential campaign. Cheryl Contee, L.N. Rock, and Baratunde Thurston are just a few who became known fixtures once their respective blogs garnered an audience and suitable mainstream recognition.
I think for a lot of bloggers, starting off anonymously is a safe bet. If you don’t gather a following or you just tired of the routine of updating, you can get rid of it with no trace. But when you get the hang of updates and start to realize the social, professional, and possible monetary benefits of blogging, most anonymous bloggers start to shed their anonymous image (or at least craft their image to have two separate personas), And there’s the tipping point from anonymity to “branding”. Branding comes into place more when there’s an audience or either money or mainstream recognition to benefit from your blog. Anything else is pretty much anonymity. It really depends on the individual.
What do you think? Anonymity or branding — what side of the fence are you on?
Category: Blogging, Digital Media, web 2.0 | Tags: anonymity, Blogging
About the Author Maurice Cherry is a web, graphic and print designer in Atlanta, GA. A graduate of Morehouse College, Maurice also works as a freelance web designer and electronic media consultant, working with entrepreneurs and small businesses on leveraging blogs, podcasts and other online technologies for their marketing and public relations needs. Maurice Cherry is also the creator behind the Black Weblog Awards.
See all posts by Maurice Cherry.
Side note: That’s why I don’t publicly support sites like eVIPlist, which is a good site with great potential, but when I’ve contacted them to try to find out who’s behind it, silence.
When Jasmine Crowe and I soft launched Hip Hop PR Wire, they were on my list of possible launch/media/publicity partners for when we push for a wider look (next month, I guess, my how time flies!).
That may not be a problem for them at all. But in the midst of a recession in a world in which people are launching new projects left and right, transparency remains an important tool for the true professional who’s in it for the long haul.
I think so much depends on the blogger’s long range goals.
I’ve had bloggers contact me who wanted to “collaborate” or whatever but they had a pseudonym online and were using it in their communication with me and that’s where it ended.
And at least one of these bloggers was later griping about not getting support from other bloggers, though I was one of many who had written something about the blog, but we didn’t know who he was. And he hadn’t done anything substantial yet.
And now that blog’s mostly dead.
It’s one thing to be a gossip blogger and to live off snark. A pseudonym makes sense in that position. It might even be a good protective device and if you get really big, then unveiling one’s identity can become part of the show.
It’s another to be reaching out and attempting to form business relationships beyond link exchanges and tips o’ the hat when your fake name is something like JoJo Dinero and you make big claims about what you do in your real life.
Ooh, yeah, let’s partner up! Not.
Great post. As an author and entrepreneur, I have use my blog and other social media tools for branding in my marketing strategy since 2005. It has helped me tremendously.
excellent write-up. i am ever grappling with this question. i have 2 blogs — one to support my copywriting biz, the other to express my politics & cultural interests… guess i’ll reveal my lovely face whenever Time magazine gets in touch with me. ;-D
I was blogging under a jokey pseudonym just for the hell of it, mostly to separate my online identity from my print journalist ID. However, the two started to merge because of external forces. I don’t blog regularly enough on my personal blog for it to really matter though, and I don’t generally bother with the things we read are necessary to have a “profitable” blog. I suppose that could be because I was already a pro writer before blogging, or it could be that I just blog because I like to write rather than blogging to get a few seconds of fame.
The choice is on the blogger. However, without personal branding there’s no Oprah, Tyra, Martha nor Ellen. If your are in it be in it to win it.
When I started my new job in NYC after living in the South for two years…and someone said “Hey You’re DJ Diva” and I had only been working here 2 days in a managerial capacity…I knew it was time to out myself. I had to shut down my personal blog and come clean to my bosses. They took it well and even paid for me to DJ the dept xmas party…They like to brag about having a DJ in the office…
This is something we’ve been slowly doing on our personal blog (me and my wife). I figure you’ll never make it to Oprah’s couch with a pen name.
The anonymous thing was cool at first but now as we start to get more media attention it’s time to step out.
Good article. Hopefully it starts a trend and more bloggers start to do the same. In this day and age too many people get away with murder by casting stones behind their computer screens. Bloggers should start standing up and holding responsibility for their actions and words or they will just be looked at as cowards.
Just curious: What if your blogger persona/content (or personal life) don’t mesh well with your professional life? For example: a corporate exec who blogs about her religion. Its her personal life and has no bearing on how she performs as an employee, but the popular opinion of her religion could effect work relationshipsprevent her from getting hired. If she a coward for protecting her professional best interests? What about gay bloggers?
That’s a very good point. You would hope that someone’s personal blog wouldn’t impede on their job status (unless they were blogging instead of working), but I am sure it’s happened. At the same time your blog could get you respect on the job, and showcase talents that your coworkers wouldn’t have even known existed like the case of DJ Diva. I think you have to gauge how conservative your job is, and if your passion is worth the risk, then go for it.
I think overall using your real name helps you build a personal relationship with your audience, something people have come to expect from blogs.
I think “coming out” is a credibility booster as long as your professional credibility matches up. I contemplated the subject myself for a while.
Anonymity is good for starting out, but then when it does get popular, you might as well try to show the people behind it… that’s if they have not already look you up!
Funny, I am in the middle of moving from being anonymous to
writing under my legal name.
There are three reasons for this. A, I think I may self publish a book about the Crack Epidemic and distribute it via the blog, so branding helps.
B, in December, it was annoying explaining to people at blog related events that “I am M.dot” as opposed to just being able to be myself.
I also realize that in being visible, I am showing others how to do so as well.
Anonymity provided space for me to cultivate my voice. Now the voice is clear, and I can make myself known.
I think both, but the brand has to always be bigger than any individual blogger. Otherwise, the blog has no real longevity. If something ever happens to the blogger the the whole business goes kaput.
It’s the same problem I have with moguls like Diddy. While he is a great self promoter and knows how to run a business, what happens when he can’t work anymore or if he passes away tomorrow? The Bad Boy empire might as well die with him, because he has might it little more than an extension of himself.
It depends on the genre of blog. It’s one thing to have a photo of yourself in the blog’s sidebar or staff page, but I take exception to creating this entire culture of one’s self, especially if you are a gossip blogger profitting from the exploits of public figures. So many Black bloggers are using the Perez Hilton model in order to get paid, rather than doing something fresh and unique that would warrant such branding.