Raising my profile. An old friend expressed his surprise at finding me on Twitter, and I responded that I was trying to raise my profile. I accidentally responded in such a way that everyone could see it. That was good, because it made me think.

To be honest, a number of things that I do on the Internet are intended to do just that: raise my profile. I don’t think I’m unusual in that; I’ve noticed that people that write a blog put their blog address when they leave a comment on my blog. We want people to see us, to be aware of us.

Having recently finished writing a book with Steve Ridgell, who also works with me at Herald of Truth, I’ve been aware of what they call “your platform.” Writers need a platform, that is, a group of people that would be interested in reading what you’ve written. Publishers want writers that have platforms. Writers do certain things to create an awareness of them and their writings so that their books can be sold.

This puts me between two things that pull me in opposite directions. One is the need to create an awareness of our ministry, which personally means trying to find a way to promote myself. I’m not good at self-promotion. The other thing, however, is the “monster within” that I wrote about the other day. I want to be noticed and admired, lauded and applauded.

For now, I’ll press on, in some ways: trying to attract more readers for this blog, for example. But I won’t actively seek more friends on Facebook nor get into one of those schemes to get 1000 followers on Twitter.

What do you think? Is it too crass to think in terms of “raising your profile,” of making people aware of who you are? Do you find yourself doing that in any way on the Internet? What are appropriate ways and inappropriate ways?

{Photo by Barun Patro, www.sxc.hu}