In an interesting article about ‘inside out social networks’, Chris Messina wrote:

“…as reputation becomes portable and discoverable, who you choose to be your identity provider will matter. This is a significant change from the kind of temporariness ascribed by some social network users to their accounts today.”

It made sense to something tangential I’ve been thinking about - blogging for influence.

In the short term, it would be quicker, probably simpler, to gain influence through having a power-account on Facebook or MySpace or one of the bigger social networks.

However, all the while you are building your reputation resources over there, it is wise to keep in mind the entity/service that owns the foundation on which your reputation and influence will be built.

I got an early taste of this in 1997, when Geocities.com was bought out by Yahoo and changed its TOS to claim ‘copyright ownership’ of all content hosted on it!

In a flash, I realized the content resource I had spent 2 years building and growing could, at the whim and fancy of a new owner, be brought crashing down instantly.

It was just a content website. What if it was my ‘influence asset’ or my ‘reputation resource’ that was at another’s mercy?

Since then, I haven’t ever risked leaving a large component of my online presence or ‘authority’ with any single service, corporation or technology. (No, not even Google )

But that meant diversification was key. And while that’s possible for ‘authority assets’, it isn’t quite the same for ‘reputation resources’ because those need a semi-permanent place you can call ‘home’.

That home is better your blog than anything else.

A blog is yours. It’s under your control. You host it. You have the final say over what goes on it. You direct policy and direction.

What better place to make the epicenter of your ‘influence’?

If you’re building a global microbrand, your blog is like Superman’s stick of Kryptonite.

That’s why I think you should blog for influence.

Do you agree?