Is Your Blog Web 2.0 Compliant?
Written on September 16th, 2008 by rahsheen
There was recently a rift in the space-time continuum. This rift was caused by blog readers who were commenting in places besides the blogs about things they read on afformentioned blogs. Ok, it wasn’t really a rift in the space-time continuum, but you couldn’t tell by all the uproar in the blogosphere.What, exactly, is the problem here? It appears that the need for Social Media addicts to be able to access and digest huge amounts of information has given rise to tools where they can do just that. If I can read your blog without going to your blog, you are not going to get paid. I’m not going to click your ads. I’m not going to be part of your community. Unless, of course, I feel the need to leave a comment. Your Standard RSS reader is just the tip of the iceberg.
They Took Our Traffic!
What could be worse than that? Well, what if I don’t even have to go to your blog at all and still comment on and discuss the content that you wrote? Would that bother you at all? How would that affect your bottom line?
Introducing the blogger’s worst nightmare. Well, at least, that’s how some bloggers see such tools as FriendFeed, Shyftr, and even Twitter in some instances. These tools allow the conversation to be moved away from the blog, taking your potential traffic with it.
There is only one thing you can do to try and regain some of those pageviews…ADAPT.
If You’re Not With Us, You’re Against Us
There are a few things you can do to make sure your blog is Web 2.0 compliant. You will also want to change the way you do things a little. Monitor these other services to see who is talking about you. Make sure you try and participate on at least a few of these services. Most of us are already on Twitter, so that’s a start.
FriendFeed
If you have not done so already, go get yourself an account on FriendFeed. You can even follow me at http://friendfeed.com/rahsheen. This service has pretty much been the poster child for “stealing” comments.
Now that you have an account (you did sign up, right?), go ahead and set up all your services. You especially want to set up your blog services. Do a search for topics related to your blog and follow those people. This means you can monitor what’s going on in the FriendFeed world. Those that follow you will be alerted whenever you make a new blog post or cause any updates on whatever services you set up.
You will notice that you can add a comment to any item you see in FriendFeed. This is where the conversation has gone for the most part. What we need to do now is bring these comments back to your blog. There is a WordPress plugin that handles this called FriendFeed Comments. Google It. Everyone else…sorry. I haven’t heard of anything for you yet. I am working on a generic solution, though.
Conclusion
Times are changing. You can no longer follow the walled-garden approach to your blog. Your content is everywhere. People are talking about your content everywhere. They may never actually make it back to your site to even see the content they are discussing. SEO, Ad Placement, and Content are no longer the only things you need to think about. Blogging is a social medium and the time has come where you will actually have to be social to succeed.
September 16th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
If you can’t beat them, join them!
September 16th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Good article.
This can def be happening more in the future.
However, I have never subscribed via RRS or email (ok,once for a blog contest) because I like reading stuff out there on the blogs. To get the “feel” of the blog while I’m reading it.
I bookmark blogs instead…
September 16th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Some blogs I definitely like to visit directly, but FriendFeed has actually taken over a lot of how I interact with blogs. I’m a geek, though
September 16th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
Adaptation is the key as you say. There are so many more outlets to bring viewer/readership than ever before. All is NOT lost dear blogger
September 17th, 2008 at 6:29 am
ek…
another brain spasm ..
i fully disagree and can’t be bothered stating why because it’s so obvious.
.t
September 17th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Dude I’m so tired of Drive By Comments! Techsta! Anyway there is alot of Hype around this new medium, but look at the Pro’s they have embraced it, and so should we.
September 18th, 2008 at 9:15 am
I do follow shaxx said, If you can’t beat them, join them! hehehe.
September 19th, 2008 at 6:15 am
Great post as always, Rahsheen.
September 21st, 2008 at 3:51 pm
I agree with this Statement, or post. Times are changing and you almost have to work harder. God Bless the iphone. you can take your readers with you . People may not be with you all the time, but you never know when they are going to want know what you are doing in the back of their minds whenever they are on a particular online service, and what your writing about. Tie them all together, in my book. If your can rss one to another—Just Do It! This is what I am learning to do. Mix ‘n Match or Mashup!
Respectfully, Matt Thompson | Mattheosis
http://www.twitter.com/mattheosis