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The blog is dead, long live the blog!

Every now and then print media sources (generally) produce articles about the blog era having come to an end. A recent (7 Dec 2008) Sunday Business post “post’ if you will excuse the pun reiterated this and went on to explain there was however applause for the merits of social networking as the new forum for web information broadcasting. Paradoxically, I didn’t read about this first in the Sunday business post but on an Irish blog post.

The latter of the Sunday business post comments is correct. Social networking is huge and growing. The blog however is arguably the backbone of social media. Look at social media sites. Well presented social media identities in the main may link to each other but this is by no means a rule. One thing which is pervasive throughout nearly all social media profiles is the placement of blog urls (for those who have one) within each different social media networking site a specific person or company retains. For example, a person with facebook, bebo and twitter accounts may place links for one or more of his social network profiles connecting them to each other. You can be sure, that if this same person has a blog he will link to it from all social media sites. OK, there are exceptions (such as where this is not allowed which is another limiting factor of social networking) but they are few and far between.

The reason people do this is because they consider the ownership level of a blog to be far stronger than their profile on a social media site. Their blog contains all of their content and likely links to a static business web site or even an e-commerce portal.

The SBP analysis gives the impression that blogs have been dropped by business. Brendan Hughes explains however that this is incorrect. Brendan also discusses the “Pat the baker” example. Damien Mulley wrote a post specifically on Pat the Baker which at the time demonstrated the return on social media investment was less than could be achieved by mixed web media uses or more specifically including blog usage. Subsequently, the Pat the baker example has gone on to achieve great success. It would be all to easy to say Damien was wrong but honest analysis shows us that Damien’s post was the source of much discussion and growing exposure for the Pat the baker social networking campaign. It is surely understandable that a post of any type by Ireands’ best known professional blogger will increase exposure and that is demonstrated by the presence of PTB posts throughout Irish blogs since Damien’s article. Most companies with blogs are generally pleased to have a dynamic site area and many of those without can be expected to enter the blog arena.

Blog information is often considered more reliable as a personal or company blog has their name stamped on it and therefore their credibility is tied to it.

Looking at this objectively it could be argued that the reason for the growth in social networking is the blog. Those without a blog may at some time allow their social networking profiles to expire or simply become archive information through lack of updates as their life changes. Those with a blog (with or without a business behind it) are likely however to respect their social networking profiles as they see them at some level adding value to their blog which is an asset they own and control.

The number of blogs is increasing. More importantly, the significance of them as an end source of information to social medial site visitors makes blog ownership a more attractive option then ever before.

In short, social networking is complimentary to the blog. Any analysis which sees social networking as a replacement for the blog is fundamentally flawed as they both benefit from the presence of each other. If social networking is to rise at the levels stated by the Sunday business post (which I think is plausible) then blog ownership, content and activity will move in a similar direction. Which moves faster is not important (I think it is reasonable to believe that social networking is moving much faster) as they share the same direction.
This doesn’t just relate to Irish blogs, it relates to blogs everywhere. This doesn’t just pertain to wordpress it pertains to all blog formats.

In summary.
A blog is an end source of information for social networking.
A blog allows a social networker to take ownership and control of content.
A blog is the obvious solution to the static state of tradition websites.
A blog allows web site owners to provide and share information from a broad range of topics without diluting their main static website or social networking profiles.
Blogs don’t just provide information, they encourage discussion and allow the owner to control third party content.

There is no traditional static website technology or indeed social networking solution which currently allow for all of the above.

As long as print media continues to tell us that the blog is dead, we will know that print media is still alive, albeit getting it wrong on occasion. These articles will not however tell us much more. Many of us may decide which paper to buy based on what we read in blogs: Example  Sunday business post blurred keys post. Not that we want our news online only or because the TFT will replace paper but because we are online for increasing and extending sessions while we buy papers in the main no more than a couple of times a week.

In writing this article, I visited four blogs (all mentioned) and no social networking sites. While some of my information (not content) came from other blogs, my attention was drawn to this point not by the Sunday business post but by a Sunday twitter post! Another example of blogs being fed visitors by social networks which conversely depend on blogs for source and end content. This is not complicated. It’s blog standard stuff.

You may recall the facebook data breach (not the most recent one) in March. This involved users photos becoming visible to logged on user. face book resolved this issue resulting in a “now you see me, now you don’t” scenario. The global coverage of the issue seems to have been taken with a pinch of salt by users who may en masse have decided that the coverage of the breach related more to the size of facebook than it did the severity of the breach.

This may have therefore passed as a “data outage blip” had not a more recent and arguably more serious breach occurred towards the end of July. This involved the data of birth of users being visible to anyone on line until the problem was resolved.

Given that many people use a number of social networking sites, partial data breaches on an individual membership basis are very serious. Lets say for example if your facebook membership provides fraudsters with a picture of you and your date of birth (coupled with any information you willingly provide) and this relates to facebook breaches to date so remember more may come. That information may or may not be enough to make you a victim of fraud. If it is not, it will surely make you an attractive option to fraudsters as they have some personal information pertaining to you in their possible victim database.

Add to this any other breaches at other social networking sites of which you are a member and you can see the cumulative effect of “data protection blips” can be very serious indeed. As a consequence of all of this, many users are providing false personal information (partially at least) when they join social networking sites. One knock on effect of this is the inaccuracies in social networking site data bases as to the advertising focus of membership. This reduces the validity of the advertising base and therefore the value to the social networking site.

In effect, data breaches always hurt the site responsible but often innocent parties suffer with them. In this case, facebook suffer credibility problems, potential sanction, the possibility of being sued and reduced future membership data accuracy resulting in reduced advertising value.

Other social networking sites however are tarred with the same brush and despite lesser consequences will suffer because of the concern another facebook breach brings to the industry.

The end users suffer from having to amend details, provide inaccurate details, remember the inaccurate details and potential being the victim of fraud or actual identity theft.

So, facebook suffer a loss of face, your face has been unwillingly found and everyone in the industry faces the consequences.