Good Luck Blogger!

"It doesn't seem like blogs have as much "power" as they used to, especially with the ease and speed of sources like Twitter and Facebook. Most important, however, I don't have the passion for the blog that I once did. While I will surely miss hearing from the authors I've learned so much from, I think I will find other ways to interact." http://www.jessicaschley.com/2012/04/are-blogs-thing-of-past.html

 

I posted a caption from this source because I agree with what is being said by this author. I believe that blogs can be a great tool to share some of your greatest thoughts and ideas, but there are many other tools that seem to have the "trump card" on blogs. To me, blogs are long-winded and tend to share too much information with the public. With the rise of all the social media resources, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., there are more efficient and better directed avenues that one can take to connect with peers or coworkers over the internet and/or take a creative wander through your thoughts. With so much information being thrown at us electronically these days, there is hardly time to read 150 characters (as per Twitter). If the goal of your blog is to have an audience read it and comment on it, why would you write anything more than just a concise thought? conversation starter? pressing issue?

 

A blog takes consistent maintenance, fluency, and creativity to gain any sort of following. If these aspects are non-existent in your blog, it is near worthless to read. This also depends on whether you decide to make your blog private or public. I also feel that most blogs have no direction or thesis and are just an accumulation of gallivanting thoughts or emotions typed by an author that wants the public to read and agree or disagree upon. We are Americans. We lose interest easy and move on quickly. If our attention is lost, a blog is just something that is taking up storage space.

 

With all that said, I do not believe that blogs are worthless. I see the advantages of them, but I do not believe that people are using them correctly. I have a friend that started a website related to cooking modern recipes and began a blog to get people reading about it. She definitely had her mother, her sisters, and her closest friends read it; but maybe nobody else outside of her inner circle. Blogs are a great way to connect people to you and your thoughts, but I see them as an ancillary tool to a person’s social media endeavors.  If you chose to go public with your blog, you should self-advertise via other social media tools, such as Twitter and Facebook, to gain more publicity.  If one obtains the desired amount of online traffic, then the pressure is on!  Maintain your blog, be creative, and write about things that are worth reading or lose your flowing to a blogger who grabs the attention of their followers. 

 

As for applying blogs to the business or office setting, I see danger.  I used to be a high school teacher and I have seen people fired for information made public on their Facebook accounts.  Obviously, an administrator does not want to see pictures of their favorite teacher doing inappropriate things, especially when their students or parents are their Facebook friends.  I see the same problem with blogs.  If the goal is to share some important thoughts or information, we should filter what gets submitted into the cyber world because you never know who is going to read your blog.  This again reinforces my notion that there are other sources out there that serve the same function as a blog and are a better alternative.  It is our nature to gossip and share too much information because we get excited, but sharing should be caring.  Caring as you should filter what is said on your blog because you never know who is reading each post, whose stealing your ideas, and whose desk a print out of your blog can end up on.

 

So I say that blogs on a grand scale are 80% worthless because people do not direct their thoughts in a manner that creates any value to the reader, therefore losing their attention.  As for the 20% that have potential value; these authors stay concise in their words, consistent in their thoughts and direction, and have a purpose that they are passionate about.  The two key things that a blogger must be concerned with is grabbing the attention of their audience and maintaining their attention.  This may be considered a part-time job!