Blogs, social networks, and what this means for tymshft
On Sunday, February 19, I started a blog. You’re reading it right now.
At the same time, I established a Google+ page (https://plus.google.com/b/110538760339914860505/#) for the blog, as well as a Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Tymshft/390937200923679?sk=wall). My idea at the time was that the Google+ and Facebook pages could be “outliers” for my blog, which would be the center of the tymshft universe (such as it is).
On Monday, February 20, Jesse Stay wrote something (My Official (and Obligatory) “Traditional Blogging is Dead” Post) that presented a different perspective. Excerpts:
As sad as I am to see it, I think blogging really is dying. It’s a really tough way to make a living, and will become even more difficult in the future, in favor of more traditional news sites and people able to share and post personal opinion on social networks such as Google+, Facebook, and Twitter….
Does this mean I’ll kill my blog? Of course not – it just means I have to adapt its focus….
It means my blog is now becoming an extension of the social networks, and not vice versa.
For the record, I saw Stay’s thoughts on Facebook before I saw the blog post in Google Reader. Sign of the…um…times?
As is often true in technology, this represents a swinging of the pendulum. Back in the 1990s, it was important to have a presence on America OnLine. Then, by the time I finally got around to blogging in late 2003, it became more important to have your own presence – your own webpage, your own blog, what have you. Now the pendulum is swinging back in the other direction, and both individuals and corporations are finding that it’s more important to have a Facebook/Twitter/Google+ presence than it is to have your own thing.
When I read Stay’s comments I had not yet formally announced the existence of this blog – actually, I STILL haven’t made a formal announcement – so I’ve been posting cryptic statements saying that this was an interesting time (heh) to read things such as Stay’s article.
As any good Lutheran would, I am now asking myself the question: WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? In this case, it means that I need to pay attention to the Facebook and Google+ “outliers” more. (I’ve established similar pages for some of my other Empoprises blogs, but have neglected them.) After all, the “outliers” may actually be “inliers.”
So, I encourage you to join the tymshft pages on Facebook and Google+.
https://plus.google.com/b/110538760339914860505/#
https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Tymshft/390937200923679?sk=wall
And, more importantly, PARTICIPATE! Somehow we’ll all figure out how the blog and the Facebook page and the Google+ page can all work together as part of one happy family. Because I read something else last night – something from Kyle Lacy – that reminded me that the whole “comment fragmentation” issue hasn’t gone away.
tymshft 