Here in the Baltic States, blogging is experiencing a ripple effect. It’s multiplying, extending, reaching out to the wider world around us. This affects the region in manifold ways. Think about it this way: if our physical universe has as many dimensions as thought (and how long have we been thinking just that?), then the blogosphere’s capacity to increase as a multi-layered, patulous realm is, realistically, infinite. It’s good for tourism, good for business, good for developing an online presence that was previously unheard of here. So what are people reading about in this area and why? And who are the Baltic States’ bloggers, spreading their words?
Pille Petersoo, located in Estonia, writes a food blog called Nami-Nami. She gets about a thousand unique visitors a day, which she thinks “is quite good considering the enormous number of excellent food blogs out there.”
“I had started an Estonian-language recipe site back in 2000, but there wasn’t much interaction at the time. When studying for my Sociology PhD in Edinburgh in the mid-naughties, I heard that my fellow student housing resident had started a food blog - Melissa Kronenthal at The Traveler’s Lunchbox. I checked out her blog, found a link to Clotilde’s Chocolate & Zucchini, and was captivated. I began blogging right away.”
Pille said, roughly speaking, half of her readers are from North America, a quarter from the United Kingdom and a quarter from elsewhere, including Estonia. This shows just how accessible blogging can make a location, a person, a topic of interest or an organization.
“I mostly post recipes, though there’s also an occasional restaurant review here and there. The majority of recipes have an Estonian or Baltic or Nordic or East European background (though not only), and there aren’t many food blogs focusing on this part of the world. I always get more comments when writing about, say, foraging for wild mushrooms or picking cloudberries, than writing about a delicious Italian pasta dish.”
Then there’s Arjan Tupan, based in Latvia, who has four blogs. The most active is A Poem Each Day, on which he’s published a piece of poetry daily since 1 January this year. That’s 166 to date (as of 14 June).
“I started publishing the poems this year on my personal blog first, but decided to make a dedicated one. My personal blog contains all sorts of posts, mainly related to the place I live in, which is currently Riga, but also some other thoughts. It is called A Clear Blue Sky. I run the blog of my company, which mainly has social media-related posts. Other than that I have sort of a notepad blog, on which I share content from others and occasional scraps of texts. It’s called Arjan Says,” says Tupan.
He first started blogging in the mid-1990s. “I think it was ‘95, I started toying around with Web sites and html code. I did not know what blogging was, but liked the idea of regular changing and publishing articles. It started with a literary e-zine I ran with some friends. Later it evolved into blogging. I think I’m doing that now for about 8-10 years, and since 5 years on A Clear Blue Sky… I always liked writing in some sort of way.
"And I like to understand technology. Other than that, I’m very curious about how technology impacts our lives, and with the Internet it was really something I felt I should do to understand best. Blogging grew from that.”
According to the social media Web site State of the Blogosphere, there are five types of bloggers. The highest percentage is the hobbyist, at 61 percent, those who simply write for fun. The next two places are taken by professional part- and full-time bloggers at a combined 18 percent. They generate a supplementary income through their writing. Then there’s the corporate bloggers who scribe full-time for a business or organization, talking about technology and sharing expertise, with the aim of attracting clients. They represent eight percent. The final type is the entrepreneur, blogging about their specific area of interest, making up the final 13 percent.
However, even with surveys, you can’t put all bloggers in a box.
Tupan said: “I wrote about social media and technology on the corporate blog of a previous employer. It was a global technology services company, and the blog even won prizes. From the responses there, I figured there was some interest in my opinion. So I continued that on my company blog now. As for my personal blog, that was initially just about sharing opinions and passions (reading, food, travel), but later, when I moved out of my home country, it was about sharing the discovery of my ‘new’ country and city (first Paris, France; now Riga, Latvia). That is of interest to my friends and family, and occasionally also to others. And then there is my poetry blog. That started as a very personal project, but there is a growing interest in that.
“I think blogging is an excellent form of expressing opinions. And so far as I can understand it, I think it really adds to the public debate. What I see in Latvia is that bloggers have real independent voices, and I think that is important. However, even though I think there is a very active blogosphere in Latvia, it’s not always taken seriously enough. I have spoken with some PR and advertising agencies, and I believe blogs are perfect channels to increase awareness about products and services. For example for NGOs and charities. I believe that the ‘press and PR’ industry still has some catching up to do to reach a Web maturity you’d typically find in Western Europe, for example.”
Pille said: “I believe people, especially young people, are quite Internet-savvy over here, so they’re keen to use the Internet to look for up-to-date information and, in my case, for good recipes.”
Bloggers use various means to generate interest in their writings and make them more well-known.
Tupan said: “Mostly I use Twitter and Facebook to tell people about my posts. I tell people about them, and I put the links in profiles, etc. But, in a way, it’s a bit of an egocentric exercise. I keep my blogs up, because I like it. And if there are some people who enjoy that, that’s great. If not, also good. It’s my personal passion, in a way, and that’s what counts for me.”
Pille promotes Nami-Nami by trying to take part in various Web-based food blogging events, although admits struggling to find time since having children.
“Leaving comments on other food blogs, having a presence on Facebook, writing good food posts and taking at least reasonably attractive photos – it all helps.”
Tupan agrees and adds a technology-based point of view. “I don’t use any SEO [Search Engine Optimization] type of nonsense. I don’t believe in the value of that for users. I don’t like it myself when I have top search results that are not adding value to my search, but pop-up because someone has optimised their page for that search. I consider SEO as sort of spam. The best way to get people to your blog/Web site and stay there is to provide content they like or value. Then you will get sustainable long term results.”
Blogging gives access to information and increases knowledge. It answers questions, provides data, stimulates response through visual mediums and promotes discussion or debate through the ability to comment on a post.
“My personal blog is really about me sharing my thoughts on all sorts of things in my life,” Tupan said. “Things I’m passionate about, such as food and travel, but also on things that make me very happy, or very sad/angry. It is my space for venting. Something that I like to talk about as well is social media, and for that I now use the blog of my company's Web site as a channel. Because I want my views to be linked to the services of my company... As for the poems, after a month of publishing (and writing) one each day, I decided they deserved their own place on the Web.”
According to statistics for his blogs, most readers come from the US (44 percent), the UK (18 percent), Latvia (20 percent) and the Netherlands (18 percent). “But... that also is because some people are routed through the US.”
Take a Web surf. You’ll find Baltic Bloggers drawing readers with their musings about Lithuania’s fashion industry, Estonia’s post-communist political situation, Riga’s bizarre rooftops, Baltic herbal remedies, Tallinn’s Old Town Tours, amber collecting along Latvia’s coastline… and of course, a poem a day and a recipe for “Hork rabarbrikook hapukoorega” – that’s rhubarb tart with a sour cream topping.
