I had intended today, when I had decided what I was going to post today, that I would discuss the reason why I blog. While I still plan on focusing on this topic, there have been events this morning in the online world that have touched a nerve with me and I feel that I must, at least, touch on the subject.

Over the last week or so, there has been a fair amount of talk (at least in some of the Diabetes online circles) about the Roche Diabetes Care Social Media Summit that I was fortunate enough to attend. while the majority of the buzz has been positive and informational, there have been some that have not followed this trend. I love to see people voicing their opinions about topics and events because it opens peoples eyes to different views on things. I am also all for people putting their opinions out on display. I feel that this is when many of us blog: To voice our opinion. This is all well and good until individuals begin to take things to a different level. When things are taken out of context or misrepresented, I feel like it is an attack. We are not here to attack, we are here to inform and to use blogging and social media as an outlet.

While on twitter this morning, talks and blog posts were popping up about the Roche Social Media Summit. I am always interested in hearing other views on things, especially when I am apart of them. Well, I came across this blog post which I felt was somewhat of a personal attack upon me, even if it was not voiced directly at me. After reading the post, I really wasn’t sure what to think but I knew that this individual had crossed a line, in my opinion. While I do not want to make this a bashing post because this is nbot the type of person I am, there are a few comments that I must address:

Statement 1:

I have a lot more than 38 subscribers on Google News, folks. My latest Google Analytics report says that over the past month some 65,000 people visited my pages of whom almost 10,000 are returning visitors.

I found this statement very insulting merely for the fact that this individual blogger, from what I take from her words, bases influence on numbers. I know that I do not have a large following on my blog, but does that make me any less influencial that someone who has 10,000 followers. No it does not. The measure of ones influences is based, at least in my world, on the people you touch. Honestly, I have no idea how many people in a month come to visit my blog and frankly, I really don’t care. The reason I blog is because I want to . I enjoy it. It is a release for me. Yes, if I had a large number of followers, that would be great, but would would make me even happier is if I had only a handful of followers, but that what I wrote touched or helped them in some way, shape or form. To me, that is a true sign of an influential blog.they came away from reading my blog.

This is something that, while I was at Roche, a few of my fellow bloggers and I stated. We write for us, not for anyone else. We write what we know, what we feel and what we live. If someone can take something away from that and learn from it, that makes us feel good. If we write something that no one can relate to or that no one gets anything from, that is ok too because we did it for ourselves.

Statement 2:

Roche will finance the production of materials that doctors will give to the newly diagnosed pointing them to blogs full of feel-good posts about living with diabetes, enthusiastic endorsements of products the blogger has gotten for free, and no pointers to the vital information that could keep them from developing diabetic complications.

This statement is making assumptions of me and my colleagues that this individual has no evidence of. First of all, Roche has not asked any of us (to my knowledge) to promote their products in any way. They even stated this during our visit that there would not be a single plug to try and sell their products to us. This was all about Social Media… not marketing. I have not been given any money, I have not been asked to blog about their product. I was only asked to come in with an open mind and give them feedback. I would be willing to bet that you will not see a single individual who attended this Social Media Summit,  change their view of any products that are made by Roche. Every person who attended is a much more genuine and passionate about Diabetes and their own self worth than to compromise their morals because we were given a free trip. This is definitely not the type of person I am and from meeting in person (finally) my fellow colleagues and friends who attended, I who be hard pressed to point out a single person from the group who is.

Statement 3

Because it’s a simple fact, known to everyone in marketing, that if you give people free air fare, free premium hotel rooms, and expensive meals, they will think twice about attacking your products. That is why drug companies wine and and dine doctors. Because it works. It is why Roche flew in all these influential diabetes bloggers and laid out the high price spread for them.

This statement may be true in some respects (and I emphasize the word may) if people are Wined and Dined, there are a little more lenient, but there is normally a monetary ends to this. We did not receive any money for this trip. We did not receive any publicity for this other than our own blogging which is what we do on a regular basis anyway. The only thing that we received from this was the opportunity to get together with our friends and voice our opinion. Considering this is something we do all the time on our blogs, the only change is the venue and we had a captive audience. I find it insulting that I would be grouped into a stereotype especially when I do not fit that stereotype. I write what I write because it is my views and no one elses.

Statement 4:

Keep an eye on these “influential bloggers” over the next month and track how many mention the FDA’s attempt to demand accountability from meter manufacturers. Track how many report research about the dangers of the drugs being forced on people with diabetes. Compare the ratio of feel good/cat blogging on their pages to information that might prevent one person from coming down with an unnecessary diabetic complication.

Unfortunately, this person is completely missing what this was all about. I am not a blogger who writes about topics about Diabetes in the news (or at least rarely) My blog is about my life and my views on Diabetes and how it effects me. Sometimes I add humor to my posts, sometimes they are very serious, sometimes they are thought provoking but they are always about me and what I believe in. I really think that this individual needs to take a closer look at the blogs that are written by the people who attended this conference. They are all very different and take different approaches on the same topic… DIABETES! There is no right or wrong way to learn about diabetes and that is why each of us have our own spin on our Diabetes. Each of us have taught someone or effected someone out there in a way that may have helped them in some way. To me that is being influential and making a difference.

For those who were not invited to this Social Media Summit, I wish that you were because it was not only a great way to be able to show Big Pharma our passion for this disease it was also an event that allowed us to get together and share a common bond with each other and establish those friendships beyond the computer screen.

I am sorry if you are upset for being left out of this small group of people. I don’t think that any blogger or individual in the Social Media genre should have been left out because they are all influential in some facet, but please, do not belittle the individuals who where fortunate enough for petty reason. Just continue trying to make a difference to anyone who will listen, even if it is just yourself because making a difference in your own life is the most influential thing that you can do.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 at 1:23 pm and is filed under Blogging / Site News, Diabetes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.