I went to the launch of the Grafton Media Blog Awards Ireland last night. It was also the 2nd birthday party of the #klck (Kilkenny, Laois, Carlow, Kildare) Bloggers Network. It was a great night. Met a few I’d met before and met some Twitter buds face to face for the first time.

The grape was flowing and there was some very nice food. We’d a few short presentations and some quick, fun blogging games. It was great craic!

BUT… 2 things happened that weren’t so great…

First… as me & himself were leaving, I tripped over a cobble stoney thing and went flying. And I mean flying! I remember saying out loud in some bizarre alien voice… “ohhhh nooooo!” as the path sped towards me. My phone in my hand, I had to fling it to try save myself & the thought flashed through my mind…. “I hope that new iphone cover is as good they said it would be…” CRASH!!!!!

Before I knew it, a man who I knew wasn’t the one I’d arrived with, was making sure I hadn’t broken my leg (while I was hoping someone was making sure I hadn’t broken my phone). With effort in greater proportion to the man, he managed to pick me up, and I was half way home when I realised he’d been at the awards and he’d been in the LIFT as we were leaving. I found him on Twitter & suitably mortified, thanked him – for all my 735 followers to see!

Second… I thought the awards had made me forget how to blog! I had been working all day and pondering on a blog post for this evening but… nada! Nothing, not a thing to say. Didn’t even think that the ‘falling over’ story was worth telling. Although reading it back, why I thought you lot wouldn’t LOVE IT, I don’t know! 🙂

So on Facebook, I asked for a subject to help me get writing and my mate Matt from Kent sent me this one… “why so many people are now feeling the need to blog. Blogs everywhere.”

Why so many blogs? I don’t really know Matt. Sorry. bye…. 🙂

It’s a good question though and I actually don’t know the answer. There are 28 different categories in this year’s awards. So does that mean there are at least 28 reasons?  At the launch we had a representative from the Irish Internet Association. Her main connection to blogging is within the buisiness community – which seems to be a huge area of blogging! It’s said to be a great way of connecting a buisness to its customers in a more personal, regular and direct way.

In a few of the million articles I’ve read on blogging lately (sorry I can’t ref them…) it said that authors use blogs to stay connected with their fans in between books. They often put teasers and snippets on their blog to have their readers eager to buy their books once published.  Other categories in the awards include, personal, lifestyle, music, journalist, popculture, food/drink, eco/green, arts/culture, photography, sports/recreation, humour, craft….

I think for professionals, it’s a marketing tool and a great way of more regularly connecting with customers. It’s also a great way of having a section of your business website that is always changing. But for the rest of us, it’s a way of sharing thoughts & interests. building a reputation for humour & story telling and also for sharing & gaining expertise.

For me personally… ? Well mine is a combination of things. I love writing and I want to be better at it, so it’s good practice. I enjoy writing humour – usually about myself (not cos I think I’m funnier than anyone else – I just seem to fall over more often!) Combined with that is my desire to work out my salvation in fear and trembling (as the Bible says in Philippians 2v12) You won’t find deep Christian theology on this blog. It’s more about the stuff I believe and how I work that out on this bizarre journey that is my life. I use mine to say out loud some of the stuff rolling around my head. Some people appreciate it, many don’t. But saying it out loud certainly helps me think through things.

Not sure If I’ve really answered your question Matt. What I do know is that you are right! “Blogs everywhere.” There were 2000 nominations in the awards. Click here if you’d like to see the Long List.  If that’s too many to skim through, take a quick look here. @limmster who has also been nominted in the awards, has put a number of Irish blogs on her #pinterest page. You’ll find mine there if you look carefully.  (Look for a pic of Katie Taylor 😀 ) It’s a great quick look at the range of different blogs in Ireland. I’m not a lover of Pinterest but that page is quite striking. Thanks to Belle for letting me mention her here 🙂

And thanks to you Matt! You got me writing this evening which I needed to do.

Oh and one of the games that we played last night got a few bloggers to come up to the front, grab words out of a hat and using those words, we have to write a blog post within the next week! So I won’t need help with the next blog post! It’ll have at least one of my favourite words in it…