Scott Hanselman had a great piece of the weekend about controlling your content destiny by blogging more and “tweeting” less. ? I use “tweeting” as the generic term for putting content on social networks like Twitter, Facebook and Google+.
In the past year or so I admit to blogging less and “tweeting” more. ?I spend a fair amount of time on Twitter and an increasing amount on Google+, but the truth is, Scott is right and those places don’t care about me at all.?
You are not blogging enough.?You are pouring your words into increasingly closed and often walled gardens. You are giving control – and sometimes ownership – of your content to social media companies that will SURELY fail. These companies are?profoundly overvalued,?don’t care about permalinks,?don’t make your content portable, and have?terms of service that are so complex and obtuse that there are entire websites dedicate to explaining them.
I think the reason blogging is in decline is because sharing a thought is so much easier on Twitter. ?In 140 characters you can get a thought out and be done. ?Blogging is a craft which takes some to evolve the thought into something someone else might want to read.?
Twitter cares only about Twitter which is shown by their recent announcement of upcoming API changes which mainly stick it to developers. ?Pay-for social networks like App.net are popping up which claim to allow users to keep their content. ?I’m sorry, but no way I am forking out $50 for a Twitter clone. ?
Also remember, blog for yourself, not for the audience. ?Say what you want to say because it’s your soapbox to do so. ?Blog on.
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