Martha Stewart’s controversial interview with Bloomberg Television. Her comments on bloggers begin at 1:38
Earlier this month, design maven Martha Stewart shocked a significant portion of the amateur blogging world with comments that criticized online bloggers for being unprofessional.
“Who are these bloggers?” Stewart remarked to Bloomberg Television’s Stephanie Ruhle in an interview. “They’re not trained editors and writers at Vogue magazine. I mean, there are bloggers writing recipes that aren’t tested, that aren’t necessarily very good or are copies of everything that really good editors have created and done. Bloggers create kind of a popularity. But they are not the experts and we have to understand that.”
Stewart called this complaint a “minor gripe” with the social media explosion, but some people took it as big slap in the face to their passionate efforts to share design insights and other domestic tips and tricks with others.
Now that the furor has died down, there are several writers who addressed Stewart’s comments and pointed out what bloggers should take away from Stewart’s critique to improve their own contributions and efforts.
Martha Stewart with members of the Cupcakes Take the Cake blog. Photo courtesy of Rachel Kramer Bussel of Cupcakes Take the Cake blog via Flickr.
Who Are The Experts? You Can Be.
Julie Ross Godar at BlogHer pointed out that Martha has her own blog network, and was highly supportive of bloggers in general, including delivering a keynote address at last year’s BlogHer conference. In fact, in her keynote, Stewart sent a seemingly different message:
“You also become reporters. You become a journalist,” Stewart told her audience of bloggers. “You might find you are a good writer, good communicator. The more you do it, the more people that will tweet you and communicate with you.”
In this light, Stewart’s comments were inconsistent, and led to a lot of angry, upset, and hurt feelings. Godar takes umbrage mostly with Stewart’s remark that bloggers “are not the experts.”
“Some bloggers may not meet your (reputedly high) standards for one thing or another, whether it’s AP style or studio photography or test kitchen layout,” says Godar, in her open letter to Stewart. “But there’s no doubt about one thing: They’re experts.”
Godar’s point is that the people who are passionately writing about their own experience, documenting trends and style, tirelessly producing content make themselves experts at their craft. True, they work without gatekeepers – editors or others with experience that choose what of their work is worthy of publishing – but none the less many of the domestic bloggers out there are experts in their own right.
Action Plan: Experience is the best teacher. Keep writing, keep producing content, and you will learn. Design school and communication degrees cannot teach passion, after all. Channel your passion into a resolve to keep writing.
The Internet Needs Good Content
In an article for Entrepreneur.com, Linda Lacina points out that despite the bruised egos, Stewart made some good points about content in her brief remark.
“At issue is quality. Bloggers think they are fighting traditional media for respect,” writes Lacina. “That’s not the case. The battle they should be waging is against bad content. Legacy media charges up this hill, too, and there are few victors.”
Photo by P4BLoX on Flicker.
Lacina’s point is that untested or plagiarized recipes are not good content, whether it is on a blog or on a website for a famous brand or designer. Instead of getting angry that someone – anyone – made a comment that there was bad content in a communications medium, people should be careful to produce only the best content they can. Lacina notes that many of the biggest and best lifestyle blogs didn’t even mention Martha Stewart’s remarks, much less post reactions about it.
“They likely had their heads down working,” speculates Lacina. “For content creators of any stripe, I personally believe they’re setting the right example.”
Action Plan: Resolve to write only the best content you can with the time you have. Avoid the temptation to take shortcuts. Create original articles that meet needs that you see.
Who Are These Bloggers? Tell The World Who You Are!
Holly Becker, a journalist and best-selling author, addressed the very beginning of Stewart’s critique – “Who are these bloggers?” – with a post on her blog, Decor8blog.com.
“So many bloggers are way too shy in their bios,” says Becker. “Maybe it’s worth considering for your own blog to have a stronger bio on your site, a better About Me page, that says who you really are. No need to be vague.”
Becker, who conduct e-courses, challenges her readers to be more personal, and tell the world who they are, “writing better bios on our sites, speaking more openly with others about our backgrounds, having more courage.”
”When people KNOW you then respect is the next natural step if you’re good at what you’re doing,” adds Becker. “So take time to tell your readers today, or this week, just SOON — who you are and what you do and a little bit about how you got to where you are and you can do that by writing a better blog bio.”
There is a lot of great work out there across thousands of blogs. We at Goedeker’s realized that this in particular is an area in which we can take part. We will begin conducting interviews with some of the best and most amazing bloggers and online designers, including them among our news and interviews with major manufacturers and industry players in the appliance, furniture, and home design world.
Do you have a favorite blogger who writes about interior or landscape design, food, home life, or other domestic topics? Let us know and we will include them in our efforts to profile and interview the top Internet writers. Or, if you are a content producer yourself, shoot me an interview request at [email protected].
Also, don’t forget to subscribe to the blog or follow Goedeker’s on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ to get notified when these great interviews take place.
Action Plan: Be bold, tell people who you are! Introduce yourself on your own blog, and get interviewed for Goedeker’s Home Life blog!
