The Future of Blogging

The Future of Blogging

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A contentious topic if there ever was one!

Let's be upfront; not every organization is going to blog. Not every organization should blog. I know many of my fellow blog evangelists disagree vehemently but let's be honest; if a company doesn't start blogging it doesn't mean they'll be extinct soon!

But EVERY organization needs to pay attention, to monitor the blogosphere. Just like every organization needs to pays attention to what the media and their customers are saying. Bloggers are both part of "the media" and "customers" for sure. Simple tools like Technorati.com, BlogDigger.com, IceRocket.com and many others make this easy.

Many organizations, both big and small, will opt for a blog instead of a traditional Web site. Some do already and many more will in the near future. For example, Mike McLaughlin, co-author of Guerrilla Marketing For Consultants says that in retrospect he would have just started a blog to promote his book instead of a blog and Website, and he knows more than a little about marketing and promotion.

Traditional Web sites are also becoming and will continue to become more "blog like," e.g. less formal and more interactive. For example CNET.com allows user comments on some of its pages. Even my own Web site demop.com has an added reverse chronological list of "What's New," semi-blog style, on the first page. Many corporate Web sites are becoming, well, less corporate and more human. And many blogs are becoming more Web site like. Several blogging platforms allow you to create Web site style "static" pages.

Eventually the word blog will fade away. Interactivity, honesty, and a conversational tone will rule the Internet. Yes, the pendulum may swing too far and some people will overdo it, but the days of reading corporate-speak and marketese on the Web are growing short for one simple reason: we the people (or maybe I should say we the consumers?) simply don't have to. Corporate-speak and marketese are simply not much fun to read and we have choices. Why read some organizations Web site drivel when we can read the real story on blogs?

What about podcasts and video? Will they overtake text-based blogs? Audio and video are much different mediums than text. You can't scan audio or video like you can text. Researchers say we can read three times faster than we listen or watch. It's also near impossible to follow links in audio and video, and audio and video search is immature. Different people also have different preferences. I love to read, I love to listen, but I rarely watch video. My brother-in-law on the other hand, greatly prefers watching over listening or reading. Text based blogs cannot be compared to audio and video; the formats are simply very different. Like comparing apples and monkeys. They are not even both fruit!

Blogs are changing the Internet. Where we will end up no one knows. I was first on the Internet over 25 years ago and "it's changed a lot" is an understatement. I'm looking forward experiencing the Internet's evolution over the next 25 years!

The Future of Blogging - Easton Ellsworth

Easton Ellsworth of the very well regarded BusinessBlogWire says:

The question will change from "Do you / does your company have a blog?" to "How do you / does your company use technology to share helpful information with others?"

Thanks Easton, and thanks also for the interview on blog metrics for What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting too!

Commercial Future of Podcasting - Jack Hodson

I spoke with Jack Hodson of the No Name General Aviation Podcast at PodCamp about the future of PodCasting.

Jack believes too many people try to measure the reach and effectiveness of podcasts and other new media by comparison to mainstream media -- and we both agree this comparison just doesn't work. I'll go further and say it's simply braindead, although understandable.

What we don't understand we compare to the closest thing we do understand.

Future - of PodCasting

Rob Safuto of PodcastNYC believes revolutionary change is in store for podcasting:

"Someone will come out of nowhere with something no one has ever thought of and take the world by storm. It'll really reach into the public consciousness. There is no formula and no amount of money will help."

It'll just be someone with an amazing new idea.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Rob on "The New Rules of Podcasting" for my new book on blogging&podcasting (hint:there really are no rules).

The Future - it's got a long way to go - Michael Bailey

"In the midwest you say blog, and they hand you a tissue. It's got a long way to go."
    -Michael Bailey, MobaTalk Comment System (review coming later)

I had the pleasure of a few beers with Michael at PodCamp last weekend. Hanging out with like minded people, it's easy to lose track that blogs & podcasts are still WAY OUT THERE. Most people have no clue and don't care what they are!

Michael and I agree though - a bright future, just a ways off.

The Future: It's a Non Mainstream Fad with Value

"It's a fad," says Dave Bill Kesel, a surfer and deep thinker, talking about blogging and podcasting. "But that doesn't mean there isn't any long term value," he adds.

"Blogging is simply not mainstream yet," says Dave, and "Podcasting is even further out."

Dave is very technologically savvy, very successful by most people's measures, and he doesn't blog or podcast -- he surfs. He surfs with such passion that he has arranged his life so he can drop everything when the "surf's up" and he thinks everyone should surf. Similarly, he believes most bloggers and podcasters are so passionate they can't see how far off widespread adoption is.

Blogs will be the default Web site, by Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad

Very happy to have Patsi Krakoff of The Blog Squad comments on the future:

In the future, we will no longer speak of "blogs," because they will be the default platform upon which most websites are built. It will be expected that readers can comment on any web page they want, because the technology permits this. Delivery of blog/website content by email to inboxes will be further refined and used by everyone, without reference to the RSS mechanisms that are behind the scenes. It will be assumed that every professional has a blog, and they will be referred to as commonly as a business card.

The Near Future by Ian Griffin

Ian Griffin, a blogger who've I've been enjoying reading lately, writes:
Three things will happen in the near future:

1. Use of RSS Readers becomes commonplace. They become the default way people follow blogs. People share their favorite feeds with colleagues. Pre-loaded RSS readers are provided to new employees, freshmen students, enrollees in training programs and similar groups. People subscribe to premium RSS packages.

Shel Israel on The Future of Blogging

Shel Israel writes that blogging is growing up. although acting like a "great big bubble."  Several markets of early adopters have been saturated, and

"The question is can blogging and other social media leap the chasm from these significant but niche communities and land into the big oceanic repository created by the mainstream. I see lots of evidence that that is the case"

Content Networks are The New Blogs - Aggregations of Content Rule

"The average Internet user visits about seven sites regularly," explains Chris Brogan, Chief Content Officer of Grasshopper Factory, a place to create content networks by sharing projects with each other.

They may surf hundreds of sites a week, but the number people regularly visit is very few. The chances of your blog being in many Internet users' short list are fairly small, even if you have great content and thought-provoking ideas. There is simply a lot of content.