I am not a Blogger; I'm a Customer Engagement Engineer

For some reason, the word Blogger is not only disrespected out of the online world, but inside, as well.

Outside the blogging world, a Blogger is someone who sits and writes dumb articles about his or her cat, partisan politics without research, flames, or celebrity pictures. Bloggers are not journalists. They do no research. They aren't worth reading. Etc.

I could sort of understand that from outside the Web 2.0 world. What I find harder to swallow is that the attitude inside the Web 2.0 world isn't much better.

In this world, Bloggers are millions of faceless and nameless commoditized text and picture generating machines. Frankly, it really doesn't matter what they say or write, it only matters how many links they write and the traffic they bring.

For this reason, Blogging as a profession gets paid nothing but performance. Bloggers have to write posts of certain length. 300 words, 500 words. They have to include certain links. If they're lucky, they'll get $5 and some of the advertising revenue. Most of the time, it's only the advertising revenue.

Good lord, man. That's not what I do. I don't write endless strings of garbage to bring in traffic or increase your links. I am not a Blogger.

I have spent three years honing the art of building client relationships. I measure the conversation about the brand. I seek out and engage you wherever and whenever you are talking about the company's space. I put a good face on the company, not by spamming, but by positioning myself as an expert and a nice guy.

I produce content that is truly useful to you. I create a client community. I straddle the line between you and company; I'm not happy unless you're happy. My job isn't to swallow up the story, but to make it heard. I want you to know that you haven't simply paid your money and bought a doodad; I want you to know that you have bought a responsive relationship with someone who will guarantee that the money you spent has brought you satisfaction.

I will educate you. I will entertain you. I will highlight your complaints, not bury them, to let you know that the company has heard them and that we take them seriously. I will highlight your happy stories, to let you know that we're happy when you're happy, and that others can have that too.

I will work hard, rest little, keep the lines of communication open, give you more than you asked for, keep you going, and give you something to look forward to.

I am a Customer Engagement Engineer. Calling me a Blogger is like calling someone in Customer Support a "Telephoner" because part of his or her job is to answer telephones.

No, I don't just sit around writing stupid posts.

Yehuda