Wednesday, October 13, 2010

I'm a mouse...

...among giraffes.

I'm honored to have been chosen to work with Kellogg's for the Love Your Cereal campaign/giveaway and for this trip...but I'm not sure how it happened! I've applied to do other campaigns with BlogHer (who runs the ads on either side of my page), but have never been accepted. Usually the "special stuff" goes to bloggers who have a lot more readers than I do, and understandably so. There must just have not been a lot of applicants this time, I thought.

But I arrived here and realized...I'm a mouse among giraffes. Many, if not all, of the other bloggers here--the giraffes--have blogs a lot bigger than mine. And with their high giraffe viewpoint, they have such a wide view of the blogging world. I've never even been on a blog-related trip before; many of them have been on several. It's natural for them to network with other bloggers and companies.

Just like I find myself--the mouse--getting holed up in my house, enjoying the comfort of my familiar surroundings, I also get holed up in my own little Internet sphere of influence, having fantastic conversations with a relatively small number of friends through Twitter, blogs, and Facebook, but fairly unaware of the majority of the hugely successful mommy bloggers out there, and of the marketing opportunities that exist.

Here's the thing--there's nothing wrong with being a mouse. I am really, really fond of the friends I've made as a mouse! But being around bloggers who have been doing this longer than I have, and have made more connections than I have...it makes me wonder. What do I want to be? A mouse or a giraffe?

I'm not sure. I think what I want is just to be more aware of what's out there. To be inspired by the bloggers around me, and to "up my game" by thinking more about what my blogs are, and what they say, and what direction I want them to go. And then to let the chips fall as they may, whether I end up as a (slightly-more-connected) mouse, or as a giraffe, or as something in between.

What about you? If you're a blogger, are you a mouse or a giraffe? What do you want to be?

7 comments:

~Abbey~ said...

I am definitely a mouse. My friends and family read my blog. basically it is just my own outlet of thought. it lets those that read in on me, my heart. adn my family happenings. other than family and friends-i adon't think anyone would care about my life enough-and thats cool with me. Mouse, i am and mouse i will stay.
http://justapeekbyabbey.blogspot.com/

Tia said...

Total mouse. I like it that way. There are a few "big" bloggers I would love to meet though....

Unknown said...

I am a mouse...or maybe more like a mouse dropping. My reach through my blog/Twitter is very small. If I didn't work full time and could keep up with more, then maybe I would like to try to grow into a giraffe. For now, being a mouse turd is all I have time for. I am ok with that because I have some awesome internet friends and I wouldn't trade that for anything.

Tiffany said...

I'm def a mouse...sure I'd like a few more people to read my blog...because I like the comments but I'm okay with being a mouse :)

Call Me Cate said...

I might be a kinda loud mouse. I haven't really given it much thought lately, except that my blog has been mousier than usual due to other commitments.

Sometimes, I think it would be nice to be a giraffe. It's not so much about reach or influence or numbers or the potential to make a living off my blog. It's more about the personality traits I think go along with that. Outgoing, confident, personable.

What I do know is that I definitely DON'T want to be a donklet. No way. ;)

Unknown said...

wanna know a secret? I'm a mouse in giraffe clothing. :D (Erica here) It was so nice to meet you on the trip. :D

Eternal Lizdom said...

I'm somewhere in between, I think. Not a mouse, not a giraffe. No intention of becoming something I'm not. Just putting it out there and seeing what happens. I look at analytics simply because I like to see the states and cities and countries where there is a person who has read what I've written. Some opportunities land in my lap and I am grateful. I seem to have a longer neck in my state and am grateful for that, too.