For those who have been saying it would or even thinking 140 characters are the big kahuna fuel behind branding and business – please stop. Will social network sites kill blogging? This is almost like the time I heard someone spout that social networking was killing newspapers.
So, my answer to the question is:
NO.
I am being nice enough to at least make that ‘no’ in capital letters and bold instead of making it 800 pixels tall. Why in the world would anyone think so. Using Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and other sites are tools to bring in people to your sites. I could care less if WebProNews shared the New York Times post Blogs Wane as the Young Drift to Sites Like Twitter. I really think whomever is editing titles in the RSS and newsletters at WebProNews needs to put the actual title instead of misleading people to think that the article is mainly about the possible death of blogging.
I do agree with Matt Mullenweg’s post Blogging Drift that these are mediums to convey what we want to say. And this can be done on a personal or business level.
I see it firsthand. As also a Twitter user and Facebook user, I am likely to see more chat or linkage flying around, than nitty gritty conversations. A lot of those filter into the blogs- thus goes in hand with my thoughts about social networking as a tool.
I have heard people say that they solely use Facebook and Twitter, but is it bringing in the big dollars for their own individual business? For those in web design, it might be possible to showcase your work on social networks, but what about having a central hub that is dedicated to solely honing in on the individual company or business where the bulk of the information given out on the Internet can be found.
When I look on the search engines, I am not seeing my articles I share on Facebook being put in the results – at least not yet. Twitter results- well, occasionally I see something, but more for user profiles. The problem is that it is sheer laziness to rely solely on social networking.
For example, say I never had this website or had a portfolio for designing – how could I go on any social network, give my followers a link to flickr of my work examples, link access to a fan page with hundreds of followers (who may have been obtained by buying them through some of the services available out there), and honestly attract more business.
People are more likely to raise a brow, wonder why you have not invested in your business to put your best foot forward, and just telling them about your services. It is hard to because that is not what it is about. There are a lot of people who forget what it actually means to engage in conversation with others to drive in interest. It means, stepping back from talking about yourself and showing interest in the other person.
People like it when you want to know about them or contribute to a conversation they find interesting and worthwhile to participate in.
Blogging has been around for some time, and whomever said it was dying- well… that is just bogus. After 5 years alone here at Blondish.net (since 2006), I believe I have enough information on the topic “blogging” to even write a novel! On top of that, I blogged for years before that on other sites. Blogging will be around for quite some time. The reflection in the growing community of WordPress (both .COM and self-hosted blogs) as well as the continued advancement of the CMS alone is an idea of this amazing growth.
So, do you think social network sites are killing blogs?
Nile,
I completely agree with you. I believe that social networking sties are tools and should be used as part of an overall networking strategy to promote you blog.
Having said that . . . see you on Facebook and Twitter! 🙂
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I here about "the dead of blogging" but i don't think they take it so serious. Personal i think blogging is just on beggining. Social media help us to bring visitors to our blogs!
In my opinion Blog and Social network users are different in nature. From what I see anyone can join a social network, add friends, post updates chit chat etc. Even if you feel lazy you can just post something that makes no sense at all.
On the other hand if you operate a blog you're somewhat obliged to provide quality content or at least something interesting for your readers.
So the two can't really kill each other.
I don't think that social media is the death of blogging. You can not post a link to another tweet in your tweet, this wouldn't make much sense. All links in tweets usually always lead to websites and blog posts.
Although social media is taking over the internet communication side, I don't think blogging will ever die out. It might get less people to blog, but I always think it's always gonna be there.
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Hi, Nile.
You are right. Blogging will never die. Social networks are there to complement blogging, not kill it. If people will just understand this, they will not spout untruths about the death of blogging which, did I mention will never happen? 😉
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I don’t believe. There is difference in the use. Mostly use social network sites just for entertainment purpose and it has very small class of business users. While blogging looks official service and include meaningful approach. Many of us still love blogging and i can see increment day per day.
I absolutely agree with those that say social networking is NOT the death of blogging. Wait until you are using one of the social networks as the source of your online income and then they suddenly change the rules. It can have a devastating effect on your life.Your blog is your very own piece of the internet real estate and you are in control – that\’s priceless.Cheers,Gordon
On one hand, I can certainly see why your hypothesis is pretty true. Let’s face it, the public isn’t getting any smarter. We seem to live in a bit of a soundbite oriented world these days, so I can see how social media can be a little bit of the killer.
But, amongst a lot of people, probably pretty much the older generation, ( and by that I mean people over 30), I think that longform blogging still has a really good purpose and effectiveness.
Not all of us are allergic to reading something more than five words long!
Even if affiliate marketers are suffering from information overload, you unique perspective and ideas of online marketing in general is useful to any serious marketer out there! I have never heard concrete proof of how social media will kill blogging. I still find useful information (all kind for that matter) on blogs. Blogging for ever! Thank for your share.