This one is for all my fellow pop culture bloggers out there (assuming there are still pop culture bloggers out there!).
I’ve been doing a lot of ponderous pondering lately about the state of the internet, and am frankly a little uncomfortable with the way of things. Here’s my problem — Facebook and Instagram are running (or is that ruining) the show. What’s the problem? Well, I’ve been around long enough to observe social media from its inception and have seen its effect, good and bad, on bloggers and business owners like myself.
In the past few years, a lot of once prolific bloggers, and good friends, have packed up their sites and devoted their efforts to posting images on Instagram or quick stories on Facebook (which owns Instagram). They have handed the keys to their kingdom to these mega-companies in exchange for a platform that allows them to more easily interact with their audience. This all sounds like a fair trade-off, and for some it might be the best solution, but there are some big tradeoffs.
With a blog, all of the articles you write are contained on your site forever. The more you write, the bigger your site becomes, and the more valuable it can be for your readers. You can maybe earn a few bucks through ads or partnerships, and your reputation grows over time. Your archive of articles can be searched, and people might find your site through a post you wrote years ago — I consistently receive comments on articles that I put up over five years ago.
You will not get this kind of depth with a Facebook or Twitter post. I would say the shelf life of a social media post is probably no more than an hour or two — those funny cat GIFs just keep coming! It’s a shame, because I have seen some really insightful, well-researched posts on Facebook, but if I ever wanted to go back and reference those posts, they are nearly impossible to recover.
Digital Sharecropping is a term that means anyone can create content, but if it’s posted on a social media platform, that content basically belongs to that platform. Who is making money from all that content? It’s not the people who are creating it, that’s for sure! The more content that is posted just makes Facebook more interesting, addictive, and richer. But what if Facebook goes away, or changes their way of doing business? What happens to all of that useful user-generated information? Poof.
What if you have a created a thousand YouTube videos and one day, YouTube decides it’s going to charge you a dollar for each video you host on their service? How many YouTubers will be able to afford to keep their videos running? What about iTunes Podcasts? What if Facebook thinks you violated their terms of service, and decides to remove your account, or changes the way you are allowed to communicate through their platform? There are all kinds of potential pitfalls to consider when you are hosting your content on someone else’s turf.
Who remembers a little site called MySpace? Or how about Digg, or Flickr, or Tumblr — okay, those may still be around but how many people are using them compared to a few years ago? The truth is that businesses change and evolve at breakneck speed online. Social media is amazing, but I don’t ever want one of these companies to be the holder of my content. I will use social media sites to funnel people to my site, but would much rather have a say in whether or not my articles will be around next week.
I don’t know, maybe I’m just the old guy who doesn’t want to accept this “everything is free” economy where nobody owns anything and everything is ephemeral, but what do you think? Is blogging dead? What are you doing these days with all the content that’s bouncing around in your head looking for an escape valve? Have you decided that social media is the best way for you to get your message out there, or are you clinging to this sinking ship we know as blogging?
Totally great points. I need to do more on my real blogs and not as much on IG (I don’t use FB). That said, I think it’s the time involved to write a great blog post. Totally worth it, but for example, my wife started a blog, I’m helping her with it, but it’s hard to find time to make a whole post, well written and researched– which yours are and why I love your blog. Keep up the good fight, I will too. Even writing this comment! Whew! Haha. Seriously though, we should limit social media and spend time on REAL writing and art. Social media should just be for quick documenting (collecting info for a good big blog post later?)
Absolutely. Blog posts do take time, but they don’t have to be long-winded essays. Take my last blog post for example — it’s a typical “haul” post, the kind of thing you see on tons of FB collecting group or Instagram accounts. A picture says a thousand words, and an IG post would suffice, but just having it as a blog post here on the site ensures that it lasts. People can look back to my previous articles about my excursions to the DC Big Flea — something that would be very difficult to do with my social media postings.
Ideally, I would have made a IG,FB, and Twitter posts that linked to that post, but for me, that takes a lot of time. I need to be more consistent in that regard. 😉
I dont have a facebook account and I dont have a cellphone so I cant use Instagram. I have zero interest in sitting and watching a half hour video on youtube about how the red paint used on the boots doesnt match the comic book and it doesn’t help that Youtube hardly works at all for me in the first place. The people who have dumped their blogs in favor of one of these other things have lost me as a follower / friend because I simple have no interest in jumping from one “next big thing” to the next.I might end up being alone in the blog world but its what I enjoy doing and just because its a blog doesn’t mean you have to wright some amazing long winded articular because you can just a easily do nothing but post pictures on your blog as you would on Instagram. I mainly just post pictures and wright very little and it works well for me.
I’m with you, brother!
I’m still going at least once a week with blogging and am getting ready for the Halloween countdown all October.
I agree with a lot of your “old man” musings. I prefer having the blog as an ongoing history. Do I like the ease of IG or FB? Sure but those are supplemental to the blog for me, not replacing it.
And I still visit your blog all the time, Dex! I especially love your monthly movie recaps — something that works very well in the blog format.
I think I have rewritten this comment 6 times now, I feel like I need to write my own post just to elaborate correctly. I can’t find the correct words!
I hear you 100% Brian and yeah I have thought about burying my own site (Crooked Ninja is the only one out of the 4 with longevity). Each time I do though I remember all the positive things to come of it, the challenges, and the interesting people I have come to know because of it. Social media continues the conversation but it wasn’t how it started.
I am a Twitter user and enjoy the hell out of it but not for the same reasons I enjoy blogs. Blogs take me out of the mayhem for a moment and tell a story and really is the only place I truly get that experience. You have to actually stop and read and stopping to read is hard for people these days. This is something I appreciate.
The ranks of pop culture bloggers may not be what they used to but I think there is a lot of incredibly well done stuff out there. Comments may dwindle but I think most of us are writing because we love it, not for the fame and fortune.
Keep blogging!
Thanks, Cody. If we were in this for fame and fortune, we would all be sorely disappointed, but I do appreciate knowing that what I create might become a helpful resource for others. The relationships I have built through this site is invaluable to me.
I wish you would write your own blog post about this topic and then add a link to it here. Let’s get some of that cross-posting back in action!
This, and I’ve also thought about shuttering Branded from time to time, but I literally wouldn’t be where I am today without it. I wouldn’t have met my wife, tabled at cons, traveled all over the country, met a boatload of amazing people and been able to connect with so many folks who are responsible for all the stuff I loved growing up. This isn’t a brag, just a truth, but for cripes sakes I had one of the actors in my favorite movie seek me out, travel across the country with a film crew to film my story for a documentary on the flick. That’s all because of the junk I write and take pictures of. It’s amazing.
Yes! And I am dying to know more about that whole experience. You should write a blog post about it! 🙂
I prefer a blog every time. I use Feedly and Flipboard constantly. Things get lost too easily in the noise on social media.
Music to my ears! 🙂
Right now IG, FB and Twitter give me the speed and flexibility to get something out there so that I feel like I’m engaging. Family and work in 2016/2017 have really kicked me in the nuts and it’s kept me from having the time to do my site and podcasts the way that I want to do them, and I’m not one for compromising when it comes to those outlets.
I also see IG, FB and Twitter as investments so that when I do get time to get back to my main outlets the an audience will be there to get pointed to Branded.
That being said, I started the site with no expectation of readers/listeners and I try my damnedest to still have that outlook, so I’ll still write and podcast even if it’s in an empty room :p
Good points Shawn. You write some of the deepest, well-researched articles out there, so I can appreciate how you approach this topic. It’s clear that you articles take a great deal of time to put together. You know I stalk you in all your social media outlets and podcast appearances, so I can tell you that your approach is working like you describe. The blog posts may be less frequent, but I know you’re still out there from your social media posts. I need to do a better job with that myself (and just where is shezcrafti these days, anyway???).
I agree with ya Brian. Posts on FB or IG just don’t hang around that long as compared to posts on your own blog. I am guilty too of (always) neglecting my blogging duties in favor of getting countless (sometimes pointless) interactions on those other social media platform. Oh the evils of social media!
I am slowly coming back to updating my blog lately because I still want to have complete control over my materials i.e. content/layout/frequency of postings even if it means having pre-expectations that no one’s gonna read my rants.
I love to write and I hope to return back to the glory days of writing just for the sake of writing!
Keep up the good work Brian. Your writings continue to give hope to those (blog owners) who have none!
Thanks man. I don’t think social media is evil — in fact, I think it is amazing and serves an incredible purpose — I just don’t think we should be putting all our good stuff on someone else’s platform. Save it for your blog.
It’s been a while since we’ve talked, so I just hopped over to your site and read a few of your most recent posts — glad those articles were still there for me to read!
Keep writing, even if it’s only a few words here and there!
(I feel like we need a slogan like “Goonies Never Say Die.”)
This echoes a lot of the thoughts in my head over the past year that I haven’t quite been able to express. I think, for me specifically, a lot of what I used to love about blogging somehow got lost once pop culture nostalgia shifted from being “nostalgia” to “news.” With everything from soft drinks to tv shows getting a “reboot” these days, and every blog/site with “nerd” and “geek” in their name reporting on them, it’s become increasingly harder to 1) find that sense of excitement while being inundated by posts, tweets and snaps & 2) capture people’s attention…the span of which has decreased as the rate of new technology has increased.
Perhaps it’s all a matter of perspective. Perhaps instead of building an audience, we (I) should focus on fostering a community. I think that’s what excited me most when I started Strange Kids Club – that sense of discovery and camaraderie amongst other bloggers. I’m totally guilty of forgetting that, in fact…lost in the hype of reporting rather than reminiscing.
Okay, now I’m rambling, but in any case thanks for writing this Brian!
Thanks Rondal. You have certainly done an amazing job in fostering a community — a strange, weird community. I’ll always cherish being an early inductee into the Strange Kids Club. 😉
What you say about nostalgia becoming “news” is so true! I purposefully try not to focus on anything new because everyone else is doing that, but finding a unique perspective on things has been a challenge. You have done such a great job in taking your ideas into other arenas with your magazine, sticker packs, and other products and podcast appearances. I’ve been trying to emulate your model for years, but still have a ways to go. 😉
Brian, I am with you 100%. I don’t believe anything is 100% free. You give up something by using these “free” social media platforms and you nailed exactly what it is. They won’t be around forever. I love my blog. I just wish I had more time to write. There are so many things to talk about. I even want to go back and write on some of the LoEB topics that I missed. I will tell you this, I come here at least twice a week to see what’s going on. Don’t go away.
I’m not going anywhere! 😉 I’m just a little slower with the posts than I used to be. I’ve also thought about going back and redoing the League topics, just to see how my thoughts have changed in the last few years (has it been that long???).
I do both social media and blogging. I love a sinking ship.
Truth be told, I think websites still have a purpose and if you offer great content on your blog and share it via social media, then you have the best of both worlds.
Agreed. 100%.
Please, I am the Master at this blogging thing. I put in my hours and built the site I would find interesting and kept it going all this time. It’s not a chore. It’s a passion.
I bow down to your blogging prowess, Cal. Keep up the good fight!
You make a lot of good points here, Brian! Any chance of the league making a return? I feel like that was a great tool to encourage blogging.
It’s doubtful that the League will return. I brought it back a year or so ago, but the participation was pretty lackluster. It would only succeed if a good number of blogs participate, otherwise it just devolves into a small group talking amongst itself.
I have Instagram, Pinterest, and twitter BUT they are used as companions to my blog (in fact only Instagram has original content, the other 2 mostly just advertise my blog!. I have no intentions of leaving blogger anytime in the near future!
I’ll pretty much continue to use Blogger until the day I quit all together. The convenience of writing posts ahead of time at my own convenience, setting and forgetting them to publish, and as you said – The ease of archiving posts. Not only that, but I have no interest in social media or paying for a dot com.