Someone once gave me a tip for overcoming writer’s block: when you’re feeling particularly uninspired, write a piece that is unashamedly self-referencing. At the risk of doing exactly that, I’d like to discuss blogs and how they compare and contrast with social networks such as Facebook.
The first blogs (a portmanteau of the phrase “web logs”) emerged in the late 1990s and the phenomenon soon took the Internet by storm. In 2004, Merriam-Webster declared “blog” the word of the year. Recently, though, the rise of social networks has caused some to declare blogs obsolete and redundant. Advocates of blogging, on the other hand, decry what they see as a premature death knell for the medium. I argue that both have their place in today’s online world.
Blogs have their advantages. They’re stable, easy to update, and allow a greater degree of creative liberty than social networks: one can post richer content, such as MP3s, videos, and files, and control the theme, organization, commenting rules, and even ads on a blog. Free hosting services such as WordPress are available. Alternatively, for those who want a unique URL (domain name), self-hosting is a convenient (albeit not free) option that enables complete ownership of one’s content. If the lack of data ownership on Facebook is worrisome, one can rest assured that a company is not profiting by giving advertisers access to one’s personal information.
From an entrepreneurial perspective, it is more natural to market oneself using blogs than social networks. Anyone on the Internet can see one’s posts and commentary, and SEO (search engine optimization) ensures that one’s blog appears on Google searches. With more views comes a higher search ranking, which leads to greater visibility and, in turn, more views — an example of a positive feedback cycle. Thus, blogs let one broadcast content to a much wider audience than possible from within social networks’ gated communities. If one can create a blog with a clear focus, and fill a small niche in the process, it is possible to build a base of dedicated readers for whom the blog is a source of hard-to-find information. Perhaps having an army of a hundred loyal blog readers is more significant than managing a Facebook page that has thousands of likes. Likes are trivial, but a reader base represents commitment.
Yet, as Sue Rosenstock, a spokeswoman for the blog service LiveJournal, says, “Blogging can be a very lonely occupation; you write out into the abyss.” Facebook, on the other hand, allows users to take advantage of a wide set of established personal connections, while still having one-click access to the 845 million active users in the form of a simple friend request. Instant and effective self-promotion is possible, and posts are guaranteed to be read. In fact, studies show that Facebook posts obtain 50% of their total eventual reach in their first half-hour on the News Feed. This is a mixed blessing, though: while bite-sized Facebook posts are ravenously digested by many in a short time span, they soon disappear into the depths of one’s profile. People read past blog posts, but not past Facebook posts — blogs have a lasting power that seems to elude posted Facebook content.
It is important to recognize that both blogs and Facebook create communities — but drastically different types. Of course, a blog can only form a community if people read and comment on posts. Blogs with reader bases that actively comment and discuss can compose a tight-knit, if narrow-minded, community. The downside of this is that blog communities are largely homogenous — they attract people of similar interests and tend to exclude differing viewpoints. The very word “blogosphere” is deceptive; blogs are naturally detached from each other. While Facebook can similarly delineate homogenous social circles and cliques, the social network is by nature a more diverse community than that represented by a blog. A wide range of interests and opinions are often seen within a user’s friends, and therefore a post may engender more constructive conversation among those in the post’s audience.
In conclusion, while social networks like Facebook are the natural evolution of blogs, the two are complementary and can comfortably coexist in today’s online world. They serve different functions, and project into different audiences.
Besides, if you’re extra savvy, you can use Facebook to promote your blog posts!
(credit to HubSpot)