Is Facebook the death of blogging?
I’ve run blogs and social networks – Facebook, Linkedin, Fuelmyblog, and my own sites for getting on for two years now. Indeed, I went through Web1.0 and lost a lot of money at the time with Venturedome.com, so I am intrigued what will happen with the whole social media gig – including blogs and social networks.
However, the current interest in social networks (we have a lot of client asking us about it) is similar to the hype back in 2000 and let’s face it some will work and some will not. Facebook is in the ascendant at the moment and I love it and MySpace seems to be full of porn and teenage testerone and oestrogen and I hate it. An age thing perhaps?
The reality is that blogs will continue to grow (86 million according to Technorati today). But Facebook and similar sites have changed things.
Personal publishing – ie blogs - is more than just text, it spans all media. Videos, music and photos allowing people to share ideas whatever platform they use. Blogs were all about starting a conversation – if you were interested you would join in, engage, maybe blog yourself. That’s how I started.
Through my blog I have met lots of interesting people in the
People like to be informed about what is going on in their group and do this by subscribing to RSS feeds which can be a nightmare. We’ve tried to address this at fuelmyblog by just bringing them all together although this is very much a work in progress and the community will decide what does and doesn’t work for them.
And that’s the point. People like to commune – we are social animals. Whether it is in the jungle or through the web we like to connect with other people. That’s why Facebook is growing so quickly – and I don’t think it was their intention! RSS feeds are all very well but if you can actually talk (is there a Skype plugin on Facebook?) directly with people who share your interests it's a much more compelling proposition.
That’s why Twitter has really caught on. That’s what makes Facebook such a killer platform – people love people.
But, they are still interested in your deepest, heart-held views, especially when they are well written, and that is why blogging has a future. Twitter is a mini-cast, Facebook (and its ilk) is a community-cast, blogging is broadcast – it may not be perfect but it gets you out there.
2 comments:
Don't forget the time investment differential across those platforms either. Blogging undoubtedly takes longer than hitting 'share' on Fcebbook, but ultimately the thoughts are better put together as a result. 99% of my social network are on Facebook now, but maybe 5% blog, if that.
That is a good Question. I personally think it won't. I have joined Facebook fairly recently. As much it is fun to update your profile and let your friends know what you are doing, it lacks this one thing which Blogs have and that is a conversation at a intellectual level and as you said, people "are still interested in your deepest, heart-held views."
Further on the whole Social Media bubble, this video on TechCrunch makes some sense. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/06/15/the-rise-of-the-prosumer/)
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