I'M BACK!!
Why I'm Back
I'm putting up a post for an Advanced Web Technologies class that I'm taking. After being waist deep in Facebook (and following Twitter though still not loving it), my initial thought was, "Blogs? Weren't these from last century?" Then I realized that they are still relatively a new technology for many but I that have taken blogs for granted! I feel like they've always been around so what's the big deal?
Why Blogs Became Important
The big deal was how "easy" the software as a service made content creation and how, this paired with powerful search and subscription tools made it "easy" for people to get niche, long-tail information.
Why Blogging (and Twitter) Never Took Off for Me
I opened my Blogger account in November 2006 and only made three posts. Why didn't I embrace this revolutionary new technology? It came down to Audience (who) and Content (when/how).
I have a lot of potential audiences that I'd like to communicate with and I found that with generic blogging, I was never really sure who to speak to and about what. On the content side of things, I was concerned about keeping the pipeline filled and the quality and "professionalism" of my posts high. These challenges still hold true for me with Blogs and Twitter. The newer, incredibly powerful publishing capabilities? Irrelevant.
Blogging: Too long form and I never felt comfortable hitting "publish".
Twitter: Way too short form (Hello? bit.ly? RT? @? Read code for fun?)
Both: Audience Tareting Issues
Why Facebook was Different and Oh So Much Better
On the otherhand, Updates on Facebook was instantly easy and ridiculously addicting...once my friends finally came on board. Though I signed up in 2004, it wasn't until 2008 that it took off for me. That came after a high school reunion where I brought a wave of people on-board.
On Facebook, the audience was already filtered and at less than 100 people*, I could be funny and entertaining. Even as I got over 400-plus friends, the experience was still okay -- less fun but still okay. And since 400M+ people agree it seemed like a good time to quit my job and start-up a company focused on building utilities on the social graph with Facebook the obvious first platform to start with. Maybe more on that if this blogging sticks the 2nd time around.
In Summary
So here I am, closing my first blog after a 3.5 year hiatus. How did I find the experience? The real question to me is how did YOU find the experience. :)
*Ugh! Did I really have to lose all my witty content because of a less than sign?
