The Art of Changemaking

I first found out about the Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs for 2010 Writing Project* through my friend Vince Golangco, who not is only a prolific blogger but is also a credible lifestyle journalist, DJ, host, and social media maven. The project made me think, once again, about what influence means today and what its impact is on ordinary people and ordinary lives. In the age of mass media, influence was greatly a function of who or what captured media’s attention, who made it to the headlines, and who penetrated public consciousness through the social loudspeakers. If you weren’t bold, loud, or brazen in those days, then you hardly stood a chance of getting your messages out.

Thankfully, social media revolutionized the social strata and gave ordinary people–people like you and me– a venue to make our voices and opinions heard, a place to gather and discuss, a means to reach out and cut through the clutter. Oh, the blogosphere is cluttered, too, to be sure–but at least we now have ways to take our picks, be selective in following, and be more discerning about what’s being put out there.

That having been said, I’d like to share with you my own picks for Top Emerging Influential blogs and why I think they should be on the list. These are blogs that I personally read and follow for their engaging and informative content, their breakthrough concept, their sincere intent to inform (and not just to be a venue for shameless plugging and oh-look-at-my-photos-with-so-and-so-celebrity), and the way they make me feel more hopeful about my country and its people as a whole. Of course, it helps that some of them are really good friends too.

Ready? Here we go! (Note: the entries appear in random order. And right now I only have five, but I’m hoping to discover more changemaking blogs and complete the Top 10 list by August 31.)

1. Sex and Sensibilities. I love SAS not only because SAS founder Ana Santos is a dear friend of mine and because the website screams GIRL POWER all around; I love it because it’s not afraid to be bold, controversial, or provocative in a very intellectual and engaging way.  SAS talks about sex in ways many women (and especially the Catholic Church) refuse to talk about it. It provides information that empowers us with Choice (with a capital C!) and emboldens us to take more active control over our own bodies and our own lives. Here, Ana talks about contraception, HIV prevention, maternal health, and so many other things that school (or even our own parents or friends) can’t teach us. And it features such great promos from cutting-edge brands that it will make you come back for more SAS in your life.

Blog plus: It features a quiz that lets you know your “SAS quotient”. Try it now!

SexandSensibilities.com

2. When in Manila. When Vince first told me about WheninManila.com, I was excited because: (1) I sincerely wanted to know more about my city and was looking for a fresh perspective on the place I had been born and raised in; (2) Vince is incredibly witty and funny–and his Amboy perspective on all things Filipino just makes things a little bit more interesting; and (3) I haven’t seen a video blog with features and segments as engaging and as hilarious as the ones WIM produces. WheninManila.com is a great idea whose time has come because Filipinos are such visual people who love their own brand of humor, and the site manages to fuse all of those with topics that we love to talk about: travel, celebrities, chismis, and, of course, politics.

Blog plus: It’s got a lot of cool contests and promos for people to check out. Oh, and Vince is also known as DJ Vince in Mellow 94.7 so you can experience WIM’s brand of humor on the airwaves as well.

When in Manila.com

3. Hungry People. Hungry People is great food for the hungry brain, but it’s made even more special by blogger Jay Jaboneta’s audacity to approach and interview people we can admire only from afar. I started reading it shortly after Jay put up the blog, but I got HOOKED when I saw interviews with global gurus such as bestselling author and marketing guru Seth Godin, Fast Company founder Alan Webber, enterprise builder and business guru Guy Kawasaki, and many more great minds from here and around the world. Jay is someone with real gumption for life and success stories, he goes in hot pursuit of a goal when he sets his mind to it, and he has inspired me personally to set audacious goals and never take no for an answer.

Hungry People

4. CocoyChronicles. I have to admit (and, Cocoy, you’ll have to pardon me for saying this): I love Cocoy Dayao’s posts on Blogwatch.ph more than the ones on his blog, so my No. 4 entry is actually a nomination for Top Emerging Influential BlogGER, and not just for the blog. Cocoy is a brilliant and incisive writer–each piece is thoroughly researched and analyzed, each opinion well-thought-out before making it to the finished product. There are bloggers whom I admire for the concepts of their blogs, the way they present information, or their innate wit and humor… but I deeply respect Cocoy as a writer, an intellectual, and a thought leader. If I seem biased because he was a fellow Yellow Blogger during the campaign, I encourage the readers of this blog to read Cocoy’s work to see how a writer can approach his work with such integrity. (And, take note: I haven’t even met the guy; I’m just a REAL FAN of his writing!)

Blogger plus: Cocoy’s Tumblr blog is pretty straightforward, but you’ll find more great stuff from him as editor of Lintech, the technology section of the Philippine Online Chronicles, as a contributor of Blogwatch, and as an opinion leader on Twitter.

CocoyChronicles.com

5. The Blogging Advertiser. Didi Paterno’s The Blogging Advertiser is a must-read for bloggers and advertisers alike because it shares insights and information about the two industries that intersect and interact very often but sometimes don’t fully understand each other yet. Bloggers will learn from the advertising mindset presented here and will hopefully use the information to churn out better blog posts, be better thought leaders and community engagers, be more responsible and ethical, and–hopefully–also turn a profit out of their online activities. Advertisers, on the other hand, will learn enough about these prolific new creatures called bloggers to teach their clients to treat us better. Every emerging industry needs a guidebook, and, with a little more push, The Blogging Advertiser could be a very credible source of information.

The Blogging Advertiser

So there. I should be posting Top 10 blogs, but since I haven’t chosen the other five yet I hope this set will be a good start. I also hope to discover more emerging influential blogs soon in order to make it to the contest’s August 31 deadline.

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P.S. If you want to JOIN THE CONTEST and place your own entries, read the mechanics HERE: http://www.influentialblogger.net/2010/05/join-top-10-emerging-influential-blogs.html

*This writing project will not be possible without the support of sponsors such as Events and Corporate Video, Budget hotel in Makati, Pinoy Party Food, Copyediting Services, PR Agency Philippines, Budget Travel Philippines, Send Gifts to the Philippines, Roomrent – units for rent, Search Profile Index, and Corporate Events Organizer.