Blogging is communication first monetization second
social media May 20th. 2008, 5:58amOver the past few days I’ve been tracking some conversations about the potential shift in blogging which has led some people to coin the phrase Blogging 2.0.
Steven Hodson of Winextra links to a number of these conversations at his blog. Without going into too many details, a number of bloggers think that blogging is starting to undergo a fundamental shift whereby more and more things are pulling people away from blogs towards other sites which carry the conversations about the blogs . This activity could pose a big problem for probloggers who are dependent upon site visits and ad-clicks for revenue.
Steven also posted a great rant post which pointed out that there are much bigger problems in the world than trying to track what people are saying about you or keeping up with every hip conversation.
“Blogging 2.0″ Misses The Point has a great point that shouldn’t be lost in all of this chatter, however and it’s a point that I believe in. Put simply, blogging, like other social media, has the potential to be a great equalizer and advocate of democracy.
Social media gives anyone a relatively cheap and powerful means to communicate to the entire world, as long as they have access to the Web.
Per the post:
What makes blogging and podcasting interesting is that you can do it. You can make the “long tail” longer. And when you make the long tail longer, that means there’s more tail for everybody. (Or something like that!)
Definitely.
That’s where the real value is, in letting more people broadcast to the world and get feedback, because you never know where the next good idea will come from.
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May 21st, 2008 at 12:03 pm
One of the biggest misconceptions I see/hear from people who are trying to enter the social media fray is that they start @monetization rather than starting with communication and engagement. forcing virality and social interaction just never works (see all the companies who have tried to mimic viral videos on youtube = failure).
May 21st, 2008 at 1:56 pm
@Jen - fair point. Nobody wants to buy anything from you (or read you, for that matter) unless you are completely remarkable from the start or unless they know something about you.
May 22nd, 2008 at 7:07 am
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