Is your job title confusing people?

  No One Cares About Your Blog 
  Originally uploaded by Kimblahg.

Back to the topic of mis-labeling creative visionaries (do I dare broach this subject again??? ;-))...

Lots of us who are very active within the blogosphere or work online run up against a lot of blank stares and mis-labeling when we try to explain to our offline family and friends what in the world we do for a living or why our blogs are so important to us.

To people who aren't online much, the internet seems like a sketchy place where folks look at porn and gamble at online casinos :-)--sort of a boulevard of broken dreams and sketchy get rich quick schemes.

When you tell your family you have an internet business, they'll often look at you in a concerned way, and it's like you can see a little think bubble pop up over their head that says,

"I didn't know you were that desperate for money. I have a friend in HR who could probably get you an interview at the Fortune 500 company I work at."

Especially if you're an online entrepreneur, chances are you're a trailblazing pioneer, and you don't have the convenience of having a job title that everyone understands.

I certainly have that challenge--I sometimes use the title of "virtual assistant", because it's more recongnizable than something that's just made up out of the blue, but I don't think it's an accurate title that sums up what I do. I'm leaning more toward calling myself an "online business manager", because I think that's a more accurate description. It's too bad that no one knows what that means either! :-)

I saw this interview that Duncan Riley had with professional blogger Arieanna Schweber, and she talked about the challenges with her job title:

I use to call myself a professional blogger, but not only does that cause confusion (what’s a blog, how do you make money?), the continued misunderstanding of a blog as a ‘journal written by teenagers’ can devalue the work that one does ‘professionally’. The activities of ‘blogging’ are also unclear in the title, since as a hobbyist I might simply write a journal, but professionally, my aim has more purpose. Meaning, working with business clients to design and manage blogs, working on SEO, developing strong cohesive communities, and of course passing on my knowledge to other bloggers in b5[media]. I am part blogger, part consultant, part manager.

Right now, I try re-angle my job description to be about community. I’d say “community evangelist” but then people would think about Scoble and that doesn’t work out so well. There is no single phrase that wraps it all up nicely. Professional blogger? Yes, it’s a loaded title.

The big amorphous "Huh" that many of us encounter when talking about our blogs or online businesses doesn't seem like it would be that big a deal, but it can be.

Even extremely successful online entrpreneurs usually don't get to soak up the glory with their friends and family because victories in the online world don't translate into offline life (Be patient though--Sooner or later everyone will know what a blog is!)

I know this "confusing job title" phenomenon isn't restricted to internet folks.

So, I was wondering, do you any of you have jobs that are kind of hard to explain?

How do you deal with it? Or, how do you explain it in such a way that people understand?

Also, do your offline friends and family read your blog?

Comments

[Matt Grant]

My job title, "Minister of Enlightenment," has always been confusing to people, though it did get me press when I first adopted it way back when. Since my original responsibilities involved corporate training, I originally emphasized, the "educational" aspect of enlightenment. As I moved into a role that emphasized public speaking on the company's behalf, I emphasized the "getting the word out"/PR side of enlightenment. Now that I'm officially in a marketing function, and maintain a blog focused on marketing careers, I sort of combine the two aspects. Nevertheless, since I still get a lot of questions about blogs - what are they, who writes them, etc. - and the meaning of my title, I fear the my explanations have not been as enlightening as I would have wished.

[Sharon Sarmiento]

Matt--I love your title!

"Minister of Enlightenment" is one of the best I've heard! But yes, it also sounds like a lot of pressure too. :-)

For sure, when you're at a cocktail party, when someone asks you what you do and you say "I'm a Minister of Enlightenment", I'm sure you have everyone's undivided attention!

Thanks for chiming in :-)

Cheers,
Sharon

[KG]

Most of my family will not read my blog. Strange. I've emailed it to them, told them about it, tried to entice them by describing what I'm writing about.

It's a block about what blogging is. They don't understand it, and there seems to be a lot of fear about it. I wonder what kind of horrible things they think I'm involved in through blogging! ;)

I've let it go trying to get them involved with it. They know where to find me — and my blog — if they're ready to take the plunge.

[Sharon Sarmiento]

KG, thanks for chiming in on this.

I totally relate to this. When I started my blog, I was all excited about it. I thought it was so cool. I sent everyone the URL and expected offline folks I know to start showing up, reading and leaving comments and stuff.

To this day, no one that I know offline reads my blog. I think they just think it's a frivolous endeavor or that it's like MySpace or something. I don't know. But it's fine with me that they don't read it--blogging is not their thing, and it's not the sort of thing you can push on folks. Either you're into it or you're not.

I also kind of like that I have a "secret" life (even though it's not a real secret). When you know that no one you know in "real life" is reading your blog, you can write about things in a much freer way, I think.