If you spent a large amount of your time online a few years ago it was pretty much a given that you would have a blog. It was one of the main ways of being social and talking to people within your interest group or niche. Recently with the advent of social technologies like Facebook and Twitter personal blogging seems to be taking a back seat for many but one area that is seeing massive growth is the business blog. So why is personal blogging suffering just when business blogging seems to be exploding? On the flip side there is no doubt that there are plenty of new bloggers coming on to the scene and the good news is that if used correctly bloggers can harness these new technologies to grow an audience for their blog quicker than you could ever imagine

Short Attention Spans

Our attention spans online these days are minuscule. In a world of tab browsing we jump from one piece of content to another in a matter of seconds. With so much rich content so nicely categorized and streaming past us in real time our attention spans have waned. We want new new new. It’s all about Retweets, sharing on Facebook and liking Youtube videos and the speed at which content spreads. The content is getting filtered much faster so we are seeing more of the good stuff and with only so much time in our day to dedicate to content I think the personal blog has suffered. There are undoubtedly lots of amazing posts still being produced but I think they are getting lost in the oceans of content.

New Platforms

Habits change over time and 3 or 4 years ago for people looking to have their voice heard online would have immediately looked to start a blog. Now people can set up a photo blog on Tumblr in a couple of minutes or stream video to the world live at the click of a button on Ustream. It’s probably easier to build a following via Twitter these days than on a blog. Facebook has countless options for building your community and having your voice heard. The technology on blogs has certainly improved and it is incredibly easy to publish content but you still need to do things like setting up domains and organizing hosting and I’m not sure everybody wants to do that with the huge range of quicker publishing tools out there now.

Instant Gratification Of Social Media

I’ve seen some stunning blogs out there by people writing really insightful stuff that takes hours to write and even though the author writes every single day it never gets a comment. Do you know how hard that is to take? Not getting recognition for your work? I know some people write for themselves but most people would be lying if they said they didn’t like the occasional pat on the back. Fast forward to social media and an update about your cat could well get 10 responses within a couple of minutes. The discussion about the value of those comments about the cat is for another day but I can easily understand the logic somebody would have for abandoning their personal blog for social media channels. People are social by their very nature. Blogs can be social but there is also a lot more work involved with getting them to that social level.

Blogs For Business

Business blogs have exploded in the last couple of years and I am not surprised. They offer a great way to communicate with your customers, have fantastic SEO benefits and offer constantly updating content to dull static websites. I think the technology getting easier has helped because we are now at the stage where if a web developer sets you up a blog and you have a couple of hours training you are set for creating amazing content to your heart is content. You don’t need any knowledge of HTML and adding rich media content is quick and simple. Blogging is now well and truly in the mainstream and with more businesses moving their operations online the pick up in business blogs was inevitable. The other big benefits for businesses is that while communities come and go (look atMyspace and Bebo) a blog is within your own control and can be around for as long as you want.

Where Is Blogging Headed?

Lots more business blogs. Lots more professional blogs where individuals make money and receive payments for blog posts. A more commercial angle to blogging. Shorter faster content like photos and instant publishing platforms. All great things but the one area that I really feel will suffer is the individual blogger doing it for the love and the passion. I really hope I am wrong because there are so many great bloggers out there keeping politicians honest, writing great non biased reviews and many creating content as good as you find in professional news organizations. I love the culture of blogging and what it brings to the online ecosystem but I think the distractions online are stacking up while our attention spans shrink. The only good bit of news is that with over 200 million blogs i the world today I don’t think we are going to be short of content to read.

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