Blogs VS Social Networks
My friend Kent just wrote a very interesting post on Blogs VS Social Networks. He discusses Jay Neely’s belief that the difference between social networks and blogs is that one is for your friends and the other is for your audience. Jay also writes:
“The key difference is that one group already knows you (it’s easy to replace “friends” with “coworkers”, “family”, “neighbors”, etc).”
In his post, Kent disagrees with Jay, saying:
“Jay says bloggers write for their audience. Clearly some do, like Guy Kawasaki, the folks at Mashable and other bloggers with one foot remaining in the old media pool. But lots of other bloggers are writing not merely to have a soapbox, but for the multi-way conversations that are a central part of the blogging experience. Robert Scoble is the best example of a popular blogger who, it seems to me, approaches blogging from this perspective. Doc Searls is another.”
He adds:
“…the community that develops via cross-blogging is so much more meaningful than merely adding a few hundred “friends” to the botton of your butt ugly MySpace page. When I visit MySpace I see very little that looks like a real community. Mostly, I see a gallery of bad web design.”
Kent, I agree. Partly.
I agree with you that when I write on my blog, I don’t feel like I am writing for an “audience”. I feel like I am writing for my readers. It’s a personal thing for me and I enjoy talking to and interacting my readers.
Regarding blogging vs social networks, I have made as many good friends from blogging (you, for example) as I have from being on the different social networks. I don’t think my friends on the social networks know me better than those I met through my blog. If anything, those who read my writings probably have a better sense of my beliefs and values. My readers are making much more of an effort to get to know me than simply clicking on a button that says “add as friend”. However some people on the various social networks have made a real effort to get to know me and those are the people that I have made strong connections with. I believe that through both tools I have made close, personal relationships with very interesting people. I think making those connections is more dependent on the individuals themselves than the tool presented.
Thanks to babybluebbw for the pic.
Technorati tags: kent newsome, blog, social network, jay neely, community, guy kawaski, mashable, robert scoble, doc searls, myspace, friends
May 30th, 2007 at 10:05 am
amazing timing Ayelet - I was just writing about this in prepr for speech - the connections we make online and the weaving we do between them. As well as the lack of proper syntax for these “friends”, communities etc. Awesome- gonna use the flickr photo in the preso.
p.s. had drinks with our mutual friend klieger he other night
May 30th, 2007 at 11:22 am
Hi Debs:
I am glad you enjoyed my post.
I do find the whole topic of online connections a fascinating one and would love to hear your take on it.
You may also find this post interesting if you haven’t read it yet:
“What Does Community Mean to You?”
http://blonde2dot0.blogspot.com/2007/04/what-does-community-mean-to-you.html
Please send my warmest regards to Klieger. We miss him over here
May 30th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
I agree with Kent:
http://dotmad.blogspot.com/2007/05/blogs-vs-social-networks.html
May 31st, 2007 at 12:03 am
Adi:
As I write in my post:
“I don’t think my friends on the social networks know me better than those I met through my blog. If anything, those who read my writings probably have a better sense of my beliefs and values. My readers are making much more of an effort to get to know me than simply clicking on a button that says “add as friend”. However some people on the various social networks have made a real effort to get to know me and those are the people that I have made strong connections with.”
I agree that through blogging I have made many good friends. However, I don’t agree that you cannot make an equal amount of friends on social networks. You simply need to invest more in it. Read people’s profiles, learn about them, get to know them by contacting them, commenting on their posts, etc. I think that perhaps people are just not used to making the same kind of effort on the social networks as they make when reading blogs.
May 31st, 2007 at 6:37 pm
Readers vs. audience; a good distinction, and one I should have made.
Thanks for the link!