The blog is not dead

By | November 12, 2010

Maybe it’s not really the best option to write about the future of blogs on a blog, but from other point of view it is the best place for this post as they are not dead, wright?

Many have discussed the state of the blogosphere and the future of blogs lately, even here on this blog/site aggregating the thoughts of the active participants of WBF10.

The blog become a medium that we noone longer asks what it is and how can i recognize one, that is good. At the same time, the blog was/is under strong attack from SNS and micro-blogging platforms that are fostering change to its role. Nowadays you can’t see a personal blog without a clear goal or niche topic. Nowadays you can’t see so many “empty” posts doing nothing else but promoting/sharing few links. Nowadays you see blog posts that are more analytic and detailed, and all that because of the more dynamic channels that are becoming more popular.

So within this scenario, what is the future of blogs? Well, i’ll quote some of the findings of the already mentioned State of the blogosphere by Technorati:

As Richard Jalichandra, president and CEO of Technorati explained in his opening gambit, the state of the blogosphere is strong. “I dare say that the blogosphere has grown into a mature media channel,” he said.

Though are many reasons for this, one of the key takeaways from 2010’s report is the importance of professional bloggers. Why is this? Jalichandra pointed to the experience of these bloggers (which means that they have the knowledge to produce good content), their massive reach, ability to influence other bloggers – and their place as a valuable channel for PRs to pitch.

The scope of the professional has grown this year, as Wendy Hutter – senior VP of Penn Schoen Berland (who conducted the research) – added. Part-timers, corporate bloggers and those who are self-employed are all considered part of this category. Two thirds of the 7,200 interviewed were male, 65% were aged 18-44 and 11% say blogging is their primary income. (via Reputation Online)

One can expect a CEO of a company that heavily relies on blogs to say that the blogosphere is strong but we need to try to be objective, flip the coin and try to realize that this is exactly because the number of hobbyist bloggers drop down. I don’t see that as bad thing, i see it as evolution. Every medium has to evolve and find it’s new role within the new media ecosystem.

Another research concluded earlier that the Corporate Blogging Goes Mainstream.

The focus on Twitter and Facebook is understandable: they’re nearly universal, they’re easily accessible via mobile devices, and there’s the ability to instantly connect users’ thoughts, actions, and comings and goings via those platforms. But blogging is more than that – or at least has the ability to be more than that.

The first thing is, it’s long form content. It gives companies the ability to have a greater narrative and develop more nuance around the message. Stories can be told in serial format so that a  predictable cadence is established, with regular posts on known topics. Over time, this builds a relationship and perhaps even loyalty from readers. And fundamentally, marketing is about storytelling.

There’s no reason your marketing efforts have to be an either/or mentality. If done well, blogging can incorporate the benefits of traditional marketing as well as the new. For example, integrating blog content or headlines into the corporate website in order to keep it fresh.

The above quoted text is from Scott Monty’s post We’ll always have blogging and the data is from eMarketer’s research.

So what is the future of blogs? I would say they are evolving towards the mainstream, and that is not so bad because they are still blogs. What do you think, are blogs changing their essence and role or it is already changed?

6 thoughts on “The blog is not dead

  1. michaela

    unfortunately technorati and emarketer research are very US focused. I’ve been missing equivalent data around countries in the EMEA region, so any information where to find these would be great.

    Reply
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  3. darko buldioski

    You are completely wright Michaela, but i decided to use those stats because i saw that trend in my county too, and i come from Macedonia, a small developing market that is at least year or two behind the global trends 😉

    But again what i see is only a personal perception, i don’t have too much relevant data also… 🙁

    Reply
  4. Alexandra-K. Mayer

    I think blogging is very important. For example Yoani Sanchez, a Cuban blogger who has achieved international fame and many international awards for her critical blog describing the difficulties in living in Cuba, has brought important kept-secret-information, to the world. I hope blogging will increase, because it is a great opportunity for everyone to break, shape or spin new stories nearly everywhere in the world. ❗

    Reply
  5. darko buldioski

    Alexandra, in fact that was exactly what Onnik talked in the second session on Saturday. He was talking about the power of blogs in the societies with not so free media and his personal experience working for Global Voices.

    In this post i touched only one aspect of the whole picture 😉 thanks for your input.

    Reply

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