The Death of Blogging

Blogging. Like all things, it will eventually die. Not totally, but we are witnessing the beginning of it right now. Why? People are growing tired of reading articles from so called “experts” who really have no credentials.

We are beginning to see way too many people attempt to write when they have absolutely no business writing. There ARE great bloggers out there. They DO know what they are talking about. Unfortunately, those authors are far and in between. The great ones will survive, the others will fade.

Blogging isn’t for everybody. Too many people are in blogging for all the wrong reasons. Reading many blogs, I am drawn to certain authors because of their authenticity, genuine nature and because they offer real life examples and advice that will help others learn.

Blogging to promote your company is one of the main reasons people grow sick of reading blogs. Blogs are beginning to be seen as spam. Industry experts are suggesting people write to help show their knowledge and expertise in the industry. My advice? If you can write and add value, then please do. If you can’t, then PLEASE don’t.

Let’s talk briefly about personal brand. I agree and disagree that it is important. I DO NOT believe it is essential for you to succeed in your field. Show up, do your job, do everything that is asked and more. If you do that, then you will be successful. Your BRAND is your SUCCESS.

Some of the best recruiters I know DO NOT blog, DO NOT tweet. They have their heads down and are busy doing their jobs. They aren’t busy trying to build their “personal brand”, but more interested in doing the job at hand.

Blogging does give you credentials. You do become more recognizable in the workplace. People will trust you can and will gain more customers and you build up more credibility. It may help you take you to the next level in your career. IF you are bad at it though, it could KILL your career. Speak up if you know what you are talking about. I encourage you. If not, stay away.

Information overload is where we are right now. If we continue down the path we are on, we will see the death of blogging and the idea of a personal brand. Stay tuned, but we are all witnessing the end. Want to help prevent it? Do the right thing- write if you have something to add and don't if you can't.

Comment by Chris Brablc on September 20, 2013 at 11:07am: Will - I think there are a lot of great points here and I agree with many.

The important aspect here is that if you not providing value or starting interesting conversations (like this one) with your blog posts or in the end people will tune you out and not read your content.

The key is adding value to the conversation, whether that's responding to others ideas or going out on the limb by proposing others all with the goal of pushing the conversation forward.

Being a business blogger, you really need to concentrate in becoming part of the community and focus on the concepts that can help people think differently about how they do what they do. Product has little to no place there and the more value you provide in helping readers do their jobs better and think differently, the value of the blog from a business sense will greatly improve.

I can't tell you how irritated I get when I see a call to action for a product at the end of a blog. I think that violates trust from your readers and if they are truly interested in what you have to say they will find a way to get in touch. That's my two cents.

Comment by Malaika Dutt on September 23, 2013 at 12:18pm: Very insightful, short and sweet !

- Malaika Dutt | Promoter - FormalContacts | Fast track your Career ! "

Comment by Will Thomson on September 23, 2013 at 4:17pm: Great responses by all. I apologize for the delay. The purpose of this post was to stir up conversation. If you agree or disagree, that was why I wrote it. I have learned a lot from great bloggers from this post.

@Paul- You are right by saying freedom of expression is here to stay and that there are filters to read what you want to read. That being said, do you believe the average person knows about those filters? I don't know statistics, but I believe most don't and would give up before trying to figure it out. Time will tell. The magnitude of content is unreal. Huffington Post blogs will make it, but Joeaveragerecruits will be gone. No one will read their stuff, and they will quit.

@Valentino- There will be some that make it. The idea of anyone blogging to help self promote themselves with bad content will die. Vultures will circle. Great content will rise to the top while others will get fed up with blogging all together. They will move on to the next best thing.

@Kelly- Thank you for your response. Over-saturation is what is frustrating. There is awful advice. It is frustrating just in recruitment blogs, because people take blogs as the TRUTH when they aren't.

Okay- I'm going to page 2 to read the rest. :)

Comment by Will Thomson on September 23, 2013 at 4:21pm: @Chris- Thought provoking is the key. Right or wrong. Something controversial. I am in complete agreement about call to action for a product. That will die.

@Malaika- I'm glad you enjoyed. Thanks for taking the time to read.

Thanks Again everyone.

Comment by Sylvia Dahlby on September 23, 2013 at 7:13pm: Twitter IS my blog. A lot of people encouraged me to write a blog, and while I even had what I thought might be an original idea, I was reluctant to jump on the blog-wagon because I thought the last thing the world needs is another pundit. As you pointed out, too many "experts" and not enough credibility. The number of blogs I read regularly has decreased dramatically in the last 2 yrs.

Comment by Will Thomson on September 23, 2013 at 9:25pm: Sylvia, that is interesting. I never thought of twitter as a "blog". I guess twitter really is whatever you want it to be. You are following people you want to follow and expressing yourself in the manner that you want to express. I am well behind the curb on blogging. I talked to someone who said they did it a lot from 2002-2008 and it was much different than it is today.

Comment by Jeanne Heydecker on September 24, 2013 at 3:00am: I would encourage everyone to blog, tweet, post status updates, etc. This is a new shift in the recruiting paradigm. Why should recruiters call 50 people when one tweet can immediately draw the same? It's a change from a 1:1 distribution method to a 1:many. Far more productive. The key to blogging, tweeting and all social media networking is 1) consistency, 2) frequency, 3) quality targeted connections, and 4) memorable/useful content of value to your connections. If you aren't good at it, how will you improve if you don't keep trying?

Comment by Sylvia Dahlby on September 24, 2013 at 1:27pm: THANK YOU Courtney - people have been declaring the death of job boards since the advent of social media, and yet they are still with us. New media never replaces old media. (ie TV did not kill radio) Only the balance & media mix changes as the market evolves.

Comment by Will Thomson on September 24, 2013 at 1:44pm: Thank you again for all of your responses.

@Jeanne- All of your points about blogging, tweeting, and social media are correct. In fact, dead on. I disagree about the tweeting to hire people. If you have been successful with it, I'd love to hear some stories. I use it to share information, but tweeting to get people hired by sending out blank job descriptions hasn't worked very well for me. Love to know your secret. Also- writing does get better with time. I guess where I get frustrated is the self-promotion of products and services. Write because you like to write, not expecting anything.. When you do that, you will be far more successful. People will come to you.

@Courtney- I respect you and your writing. Always have. Interesting point on the death of the abysmal signal-noise ratio. Thanks for responding.

@Sylvia- Linkedin is a job board. Or social media :)

Comment by Jeanne Heydecker on September 24, 2013 at 2:45pm: "Write because you like to write, not expecting anything.. When you do that, you will be far more successful."

That is the best piece of advice from the entire article to me! :-)

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