Problogger responds to the “Is blogging dead” meme that Steve Rubel and others have been posting about.
I get the sense from a lot of bloggers that they feel that they’re being left behind – that all this new stuff that is emerging is beyond them – that it’s hopeless to keep on blogging. My message to you if you’re feeling this way is to keep at it. Even as a full time blogger/web entrepreneur I don’t have time to fully engage with all of the new technologies that are currently emerging. I too feel some of those ‘overwhelming’ feelings.
No one is saying blogging is dead, except maybe metaphorically. But social networking and lifestreams are indeed encroaching fast on the turf blogs thought was theirs alone – quick, immediate response from citizen journalists, unfiltered by mainstream media.
Whenever there is fast-breaking, important news, you can almost always get the latest, most current updates from Twitter, Friendfeed, or Facebook. Why? Because it’s being posted via cell phones from people who are there. There’s no time lag. This is absolutely blindsiding some bloggers and traditional websites.
But it doesn’t need to be ‘overwhelming.’ Any reasonably tech savvy person can figure out the basics of using, say, their blog as a home base, auto re-posting their content to social networking sites, then using those sites to build more readership by genuinely getting involved with them. That’s the key. Don’t just repost. Participate actively in the social networking sites too. It’s fun, you’ll make new friends, find new ideas, and get your thoughts out to a wider audience.
Build a Brand – the mediums are tools. They’ll come and go in time – the key is to build something that lasts beyond them.
True. But what platforms you use are important. The Internet waits for no one. Not even bloggers.