Is blogging dying? So, why worry about ‘blogger relations’?
18 July, 2007 — Michael TangemanIs blogging dying? Or just crowded out by all the newest Web 2.0 (aka “live web”) platforms out there? Here are a couple of recent posts I’ve seen while out and around the ’sphere that speak to those points:
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If you like charts, you’ll love this one …
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Shel Holtz says ‘no,’ the conversation is as strong as it ever was, if not stronger.
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But, taking an angle from Steve Rubel, maybe there are just way many more Web 2.0 channels these days.
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John Biggs at CrunchGear talks with former Gizmodo wunderkind Travis Hudson on the whys and wherefores.
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Kate Trgovac bemoans the unsophistication (still) of PR blogger relations outreach.
So, if the jury’s still out on blogging’s future — should we buy, sell or hold? Some in PR are still buying and new media and blogger relations is still a topic d’jour … as in how and why to do it, and how NOT to do it!
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20 July, 2007 at 12:48 am
[...] one day mark the decline of the long form blog as we know and love it today. BL Ochman and Michael Tangeman are two that are pondering the same trend. The demands on our time, be they work, family, shiny [...]
20 July, 2007 at 4:35 am
The various social media channels are consolidating into specialized and stacked boxes of content and groups. Take Ning for example: there social friends are forming into specific groups. Their attention is focused on building a targeted audience. Those individuals will cross over into other social boxes, and they will bring friends with them. Twitter allows bloggers to cross-post and promote their blog posts in small chunks, while Pownce expands messages into mini-blog entries, which also can point to full blogs.
The adage that for every blog there is one reader - the blogger - may no longer be true as blogging communities allow voices to be heard and shared. The individual blog is morphing into a community model and more people will create, share and build messages that more people will hear.
20 July, 2007 at 5:20 am
If all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
Blogs are being joined by other tools in the social media toolkit. Nothing more.
20 July, 2007 at 1:59 pm
And, from Joel Postman via e-mail backchannel, there’s … “Not sure about the answer to that question. Everybody is Facebooking this month, but I think that’s because the interface is livelier than a blog and it’s easier to “connect” with people.”
I like Michael’s metaphor of “stacked boxes,” as clearly that’s what I’m seeing. Distinct universes that intersect and overlap and clearly, some of the newer social media platforms are being used to point people back to individual blogs.
And, thanks, Ike … but whenever the “hammer” is not the answer, and even before you’ve put together your entire social media toolkit, you’ve still got to know what the question is!
Clearly, this is being defined on the fly. Why? Because form and function of social media are interactive — as fast as new technologies and platforms arise, new and sometimes unforeseen functions for their use are being evolved.
The ‘toolkit’ being assembled is not a solution to a problem, or an answer to a question yet — because the communities that are being enabled don’t yet consciously know what the question is. They have not yet discovered what they are trying to do within their new connected media.
20 July, 2007 at 2:48 pm
…ergo, they fumble with the new toys available until they figure out a use or their uselessness.
I’m speaking of individuals, and you’re looking at the aspect of community. I posit that communities are assembled around those people for whom the style appeals and the substance performs. I personally like Pownce, but it’s blocked by the firewall at work, so I have less incentive to turn that toy into a tool.
Fundamentally, we agree - I was looking micro and you were looking macro. Nothing to see here, carry on…
20 July, 2007 at 8:46 pm
[...] I have made some ‘connections’ through my blog, my comments, my del.icio.us links, Twitter, Facebook and recently Pownce. But do I believe that because [...]