Why do you blog?
It’s a question regular bloggers field from time to time, from folks with a preconceived notion that bloggers spend most of their days cranking away on a Comodore in their mother’s musty basement. (I’m an Altair guy myself.)
The way I look at it, everyone has a story to tell … even us nerdy mamma’s boys on our Comodores. Blogging, at least for individuals, gives you the ability to tell that story without any gatekeepers – such as a boss or editor who may want to water down your message or twist your words.
Blogging gives you a voice … and the web allows that voice to be heard by hundreds, thousands, even millions of people from all over the world.
Blogging for business
For companies, blogging can be a different beast completely.
While individuals may use a blog in a journal-like fashion, or treat it as a hub where they can showcase themselves (portfolio sites, for example), or write about a hobby, businesses often turn to communications, marketing, public relations or advertising departments to run their blogs.
Media companies use blogs as a way to cover news stories, issue press releases, and get the news out to the public in a timely, efficient manner.
Evolution of blogs
Today, blogs can take on many forms, and don’t necessarily have to be your traditional, journal-style setup. Take a spin through the repository of WordPress themes and plugins, and you find blogs that revolve around photos, videos, podcasts, music, live blogging, microblogging, you name it.
Newspapers have gone from opposing blogs to using blog publishing platforms like WordPress as the content management system for their site — so every reporter at that paper is literally a blogger. They just go about blogging in a different way. Some write opinionated posts, other use their blogs to break objective news or notes.
With evolving technology comes an evolving blogosphere.
But what shouldn’t ever change is the passion that drives bloggers to contribute content to the blogosphere, and the interaction and conversation that results from that content generation.
That versatility is what makes blogs unique, and that’s why blogs have gone from a fad to a mainstream medium that’s changed the way we get our news and communicate with one another.
Here to stay
Without blogs you could argue there would be no Twitter, Facebook or MySpace.
Without blogs, newspapers would probably be a lot more relevant, and mainstream media outlets would still be your first source of news.
Depending on where you stand, blogs have been a good thing … and a bad thing, particularly for traditional media.
But there’s no debating traditional media, and the rest of the web, for that matter, need to embrace blogging and micro-blogging technology moving forward if they want to continue telling their story.
On that note, gulp, it’s time to stop reading this and put those writing skills to good use.
Good luck, and we’ll see you ’round the blogosphere.
Interested in learning more? Contact us today or call (805) 703-3372 for a free consultation.
