I started writing this blog post on the above topic earlier in the year and had almost finished it, but I was never happy with the result. Now my original reasons don't apply anymore so I thought I'd post about what's changed in a few short months.
The original reasons I started my blog were as follows:
1) putting down my thoughts in writing helps me solidify them.
2) to get feedback from others in the community.
3) to let me review my previous thoughts and see how I have changed over time.
4) to improve my writing skills.
Overall it's been a positive experience and I don't really have to self promote it anymore, but one thing has been bothering me and that's the amount of feedback I've received from the community.
If you go back through my archive you'll see a number of comments but compared with the site traffic it's a small drop in the ocean. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly appreciate everyone who has taken time to comment but I'm craving more discussion so that I can learn.
Moving on to the present. Though my original intents for blogging are still valid, these no longer apply to the blog itself. Since July, Google+ (G+) has been my substitute for my blog. When I post there, I am closing the feedback loop considerably and am getting more feedback than I have here. I'd love to be proven wrong about this but I feel my time is best spent posting on G+.
Now onto my current reason to blog. Basically I'm still using it as a place for my thoughts, but the content I'm creating is replicated from G+. I'm not doing it for every post, only the ones I want to highlight to others. This highlighting is one thing that G+ doesn't do well.
I'm interested in what others are doing with their blogs. Do you still blog? What are your reasons for doing so?
Hi James,
ReplyDeleteI use my blog to share my knowledge and experiences with others. As a general rule of thumb, I will only post an article if something can be learnt from it by others.
So for me this means my blog becomes a resource collection of knowledge and experiences that can help others.
I could do this on Google+, but my blog is so much more accessible to others that I have personally not taken the time to connect with or vice versa on social media channels.
So I sacrifice feedback over availability of content.
I also have complete control over my content; something which I can't say for Google+ posts, which may drop off the side of the earth, or be subject to their policies. Google could also kick my account at any point in time, for any number of reasons out with my control.
All of these aspects are important to me. Feedback is also important, but to a lesser extent than making my content easily available to anyone. Which by the nature of a blog, also indicates to users that content will be of a consistent nature, unlike for example, public content posted on my Google+ account.
So really, it's down to what you look to get out of it. If feedback is the main driver for you, then social media makes perfect sense.
Having a feed subscription to your blog, I'll be sad to see that content shift to Google+.
Thanks,
Darren.