Since I started this blog back in December, I’ve read quite a few posts from bloggers explaining why they chose to remain anonymous. From what I’ve read it seems like most of them chose to be anonymous in order to talk about personal or work related issues on their blog without being found out, hurting someone’s feelings, or being fired. Hey, those seem like pretty good reasons to me!
Those were actually the same reasons I chose to be anonymous when I first started writing this blog. Unfortunately I couldn’t resist telling my co-workers, friends, and family all about it, plus I’m terrible at keeping secrets (do not tell me if you’re throwing someone a surprise party, I will ruin it), so that lasted about 2 weeks. I also felt that having my blog’s logo as the sole image representing my blog was a bit too corporate looking and impersonal. I consider the tone in my writing to be quite colloquial and I wanted the image I put out there to reflect that.
That’s also how my whole idea of personal branding came in. Sure, maybe I’ve watched too many episodes of America’s Next Top Model, but I’ve realized that personal branding is something everyone needs to think about in this digital age. Although I don’t go into that much detail about my personal life in my blog posts, I am fully aware of the power of Google. If you really want to find out more about me, it only takes a few seconds to find some dirt via the interwebs. And you better believe that I’ve found every inch of dirt before you have. Fine, there’s not any real dirt, just a few unflattering photos and a politically incorrect twitter handle by some other chick named Jessica Moorhouse (stay classy Moorhouse, come on!).
With my decision to put my real name and face out there, I’ve had to fully embrace my public image (whatever that may be; a sassy, savvy lady I hope!), and take ownership of everything I say, write, comment, and tweet. I can’t hide behind anything and I am forced to just be me. This of course also means that I’ve blog-blocked myself from writing on a number of more personal topics such as my friends’ spending habits or work politics. Although I don’t like that there are certain things I can’t really explore here, my friends and co-workers were my first readers and supporters of this blog so I wouldn’t dare say a bad word about any of them :)
If you’re a blogger, why did you choose to be anonymous or not? If you’re not a blogger, what are your thoughts on anonymous vs. public bloggers?
-Mo’ Houses out!
