I recently ran into a writer who was frustrated because he kept seeing advice for authors to have blogs when his writing professor had confidently told his class that blogging was dead. You know, sometimes even professors get it wrong. But the professor isn’t the only one to predict that social networking sites will completely replace blogging. I can’t say they won’t, but I can say that if you’re living in the present, there are reasons you don’t want to give up your blog and reasons to even be sure you’re not using a free blogging service.
First, the social media take over. While I agree that social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, are popular ways to communicate with friends and build networking lists, they just aren’t blogging. Take Facebook. Sure you can put up a page, but then you have to go invite friends and try to convince people to “like” that page. And some Facebook users are feeling a little inundated by the “like” requests. But then there’s another issue – you’ve essentially surrendered ownership and moderation of your content over to Facebook. I know authors who’ve had material removed by Facebook because someone complained it was inappropriate. Do you really want to try to build a blog presence with Facebook looking over your shoulder?
And then there’s Twitter. I love twitter and I’m active on it on and off during the day. But 140 characters are really too short to convey a full message if you want to do something more than wave to friends. So, to make the most of twitter, you really do need a blog to hold longer and more informative posts.
Now, the issue of free blog sites. While free blogs are great for a casual user and certainly a way to explore the idea of blogging, they don’t necessarily send a professional message. Also, it can be difficult to find support for those free blogs when something goes wrong. If you’re a professional, let your blog say so with a real domain name.