What Holds You Back From Blogging?
Yesterday, we had a Web 2.0 conference internally at work and it was went quite well. I had the opportunity to network with several others and discuss blogging, online trends, and monetization of the Web.
This woman and I were talking about blogging and she was new to it — she asked the rhetorical question, “Why on earth would anyone talk about their life online?” Well, I’d like to extrapolate on that today.
First, I want to preface and smooth over the Web 2.0 buzz-word that everyone loves to drop. The main difference between Web 1.0 is that large conglomerate sites like CNN and Yahoo used to control the circulation, creation, and control of content online. After the “Dot Com Bomb,” a lot of innovative individuals saw there was a void to fill in the Internet — participation of Web users. Then, came what we call “Web 2.0,” where users make their own content (user-generated content). The more users participate in an online service, the better it is. Simple as that.
Why do people blog? Well, in this transformation, users have learned that the Internet is a level playing field. Everyone has a voice, everyone can listen, and there are no limits. Nothing stops them from talking about their night at the club, their dislike for their in-laws, or their love life. One of the best tricks in sales is to enable someone to let people talk about themselves. If you make the tools easy to use, coupled with the need that people want to share their life online, and now you have a surge.
Now, for the people who don’t blog, my understanding they have these internal conclusions about blogging:
- It’s a young thing to do.
- It’s time consuming or they don’t have time.
- They live a private life. (Or wish to preserve anonymity)
- Not sure what to blog about if they had a blog.
- Not sure of the capabilities of blogging.
- Assume all blogs must pertain to personal life.
- Don’t fully understand the definition of a “blog.” This is apparent when surfers label a general website a “blog”
- They are generally unsure what is needed to make a blog.
So, how do we (as Web 2.0 Evangelists) open up these barriers? Perhaps, traditional communication methods are needed to set some facts straight about social media in general such as Blogs, Networks, Mobile tools, etc.
I’m sure many of you will agree that the TV media sensationalizes the Internet and how it affects people. In almost every story I watch that pertains to the Internet, they rehash the fear, the predators, the crime, the hackers, the spam, the pop-ups. No one wants that, so they tune it out and conclude the Internet and Web 2.0 doesn’t involve them.
Yesterday we had TV. Now we have the Internet. Yesterday, we had pen pals, now we have MySpace. Yesterday, we had FM Radio, now we have Podcasts. I believe this sums up the social media in a nutshell.
We can’t run from it, we must embrace both worlds and attract new users from the traditional mediums, and simplify it.
I want to get some honest answers on what you think. If you don’t blog, why don’t you blog? It’s okay, you can leave anonymous comments. Share some ideas on how to attract new people to blogging!
[tags]Blogging, Internet, Web, Blog, Blogosphere, Web, Web 2.0, Media, Television, Newspaper, Print, News, People, ProBlogger, YOU[/tags]
Stumble it!