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Is blogging just not that cool anymore?
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It seems that blogging across the younger online generation is steadily decreasing, while for those aged 30+ it’s becoming a more popular activity, according to research from Pew. They found that in 2007 24% of internet users aged 18-29 maintained a blog, while in 2009 this had decreased to 15%. Conversely, blogging for those aged 30 and older increased from 7% in 2007 to 11% in 2009. If the ‘Net generation’ are those that are the first to embrace new technologies, we have to wonder if blogging just isn’t that cool anymore.
Now clearly blogging is not dead – 15% is still an impressive figure but it is a steady decrease nonetheless and suggests that blogging in itself may, in the not too distant future, become an archaic medium. The proliferation of microblogging and status updates has clearly set a new path for blogging – what we get now are small snippets of information, responding to people’s updates through Twitter or Facebook rather than by leaving a comment on a blog. The future of blogging has been a question that I’m hearing more and more – it’s certainly a trend that often when a blogger hits particularly high status, they’re snapped up by ‘traditional’ press and the job role becomes more of a journalist. Occasionally, some go the other way.
What is a blog?
If this declining trend in blogging is to continue, then marketers need to ask themselves the question – does it really matter? What is a blogger anyway? With practically everyone connecting through social media, does it matter to you, at the end of the day, if the person you’re trying to reach even has a blog? Is it not the same thing if they’re extremely active through other channels and have a thriving community around them? What’s the difference, really, between someone embedding a brand’s youtube channel on their own site, or linking to it through Facebook, favouriting it on youtube and feeding this back through their Twitter account? I think it’s time to stop looking at blog coverage as the ultimate goal and looking at the person that you’re trying to reach. Whether or not they have a blog will soon be irrelevant and companies risk getting left behind if the extent of your online activity is restricted to ‘those that blog’.
Blogging is clearly forging a new path for itself. Like I said earlier, by no means dead, but we need to think about it differently. It’s understandable why someone’s blog is seen as the holy grail. It is a permanent mention of your brand online and there is clearly a higher level of engagement with a person/brand/product if the ‘blogger’ is taking the time to write a full, considered piece. The only problem is that you’re restricting itself and not pushing forward if you’re focusing on this. Blogging may not be where your audience is and if you’re aiming for the younger crowd, then evidently it’s almost certainly not where they’re hanging out online. The challenge for those that are hoping to reach people through social media is evidently harder. You need to spend more time in the space to find out where your audience is hanging out and how you can reach them.
The way in which people are accessing the internet now is clearly affecting the trend in blogging. The same research piece by Pew found that more people are going online through ebook readers, gaming devices or mobiles. Think about the medium – how likely is someone to maintain a blog through a mobile? They’re not, at least, not in the traditional sense of blogging. Herein lies the other challenge : the need to be fluid and adaptable to different technology, not just devising a campaign or product that suits a full computer screen. This is an area that is going to require more and more attention by brands, not just where their customers are going online, but how they’re getting there. The solution is simple – shape up, be adaptable or get left behind.
The need to constantly innovate is a challenge for any of us that work in the online industry. Keeping up with your consumers is tough and staying relevant is even tougher. That something as new as blogging is already on the decline (thinking ‘new’ in terms of the age of newspapers here) is a reminder that online, nothing is a constant. What I might have done 6 months ago for a client will rarely be applicable anymore. Social media is an entirely new kind of beast, it ignores all the rules that went before it and as much as this may be a challenge for brands, it’s an incredibly exciting one.
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From your first sentence I get the impression that over 30 = not cool. That’s harsh, Lauren. *shuffles off on zimmer frame*
Well, you read into it what you will
Suppose a blog is a way of having a presence on the web. For some a Facebook Page (+Twitter) is good enough tool to create that presence for them. Since most cannot define a blog, could it be that a Facebook page is a blog? OK most would say it isn’t but there are probably more similarities than differences.
It does seem that as the social networking tools improve, people are increasing their time spent in conversation and decreasing reading/writing longer content. While both are made of words they are different species of content. One is about (near) real-time engagement and the other is about more enduring expression of opinion. There is no “better” or “worse” – since they fulfil different functions. (Note, I’m not saying that you were saying anything about “better” or “worse” – I’m just sticking a few of my rambling thoughts down on, eh, paper
…and your comment box was handiest, thanks. ).
Hi Roger, emphasis is definitely moving on to the conversation around content and it is often the case that this may have originated on a blog, but the comments move to Facebook, or Twitter for example.
The point about what is the definition of a blog is definitely interesting. If you think of it as online journal, then no, it doesn’t really matter where the writing is happening. With this survey though, I think we can take it that it refers to a dedicated website that is the blog, and this is where we’re seeing a decrease in activity.
I don’t necessarily think that this is a good/bad thing, more a reflection of changing user habits and adopting more of the social tools that are increasingly available to us.
Like Roger said, “people are increasing their time spent in conversation and decreasing reading/writing longer content,” though this doesn’t take away from the importance the blog still has today. There is still a need for the ‘longer content’ for so many reasons.
Yes I can utter my thoughts in 140 characters on twitter, but I can express well thought out opinion on my blog, organise events, get the opinions of others – and keep them in the one place, when I do this on twitter, I often forget to “favourite” the replies and transfer them elsewhere. Twitter needs to improve on that aspect – somewhere to store the answers for the questions I ask.
The uptake of blogs may have decreased, the use of twitter, facebook and a host of other networks/mediums has increased. As well as those creating video and images – and sharing those.
I have my place on the internet. It belongs to me.
Someday I will touch the server it’s on
Hi Phil. It’s interesting that you see your blog as serving a very different (though not entirely separate) purpose to your other social media activity, particularly due to the length of content. As someone that interacts through social media channels as well as regularly maintaining a blog, I personally see the blog as almost like a haven – somewhere where I have time to gather my thoughts into a longer piece and develop a clear train of thought.
I certainly don’t feel a need to stop blogging anytime soon but, like you, I might like more of a cohesive presence on the SZ blog, whereby I can clearly view all the interactions around a post, whether this happened on Twitter, Facebook or in the comments themselves. As it is, it’s fairly fragmented and doesn’t give a full enough view as I’d like.
“Coolness” aside, I still find blogs useful for certain types of information, and like the format of blogs to share some information of my own. It probably won’t become obsolete but just modified with the other social media that are coming along. When Twitter appeared, I already figured that something would come along later that would replace it or at least build on the idea in a different way. As if to prove my point, Tweet Deck appeared, and I find it more convenient to use Tweet Deck to post tweets because it’s more versatile than Twitter and combines the features of Twitter and Facebook.
Absolutely agree with you that blogs won’t become obsolete, but will become more adaptable than our current understanding of them. The platform will start to matter less – i.e. whether it sits as a ‘dedicated’ blog won’t be so important, as we look more to the person behind the content and the different channels where they’re active.
Very interesting stuff (as usual). However, what if the people you are expecting to reach is over 30? Is blogging still the way to get across to an increasing (in numbers) number of over 30’s that are (maybe) in catch-up mode? I’m thinking of trying this out and I’m way too old to expect to talk directly to folk whose world veiw is partly formed by short bursts of Twittering.
graham
You definitely need to take a considered look at where your target audience is active and which sites/platforms are the more appropriate. This blog is certainly only looking at trends among the other 30 and (as I’ve written myself) there is a thriving older online generation that will be a core market for many brands.
Hi Lauren, some counter weight
http://blog.postrank.com/2009/11/measuring-engagement-of-the-social-web-2007-2009/
I agree that blogging is changing but it’s demise I do not see yet? Interesting discussion not the less. thanks for sharing!
Nice post. It’ll be interesting to see how a viable larger portable device(ipad) will affect these numbers as people receiving there text media via subscription get used to the idea of reading on the tablet.