To have Blogs or Not to Have Blogs

Communication and technology have grown by leaps and bounds. Gone are the days when diaries were written on paper and commenting on news was restricted to the readers of newspapers. Welcome to the world of blogs.

Blogging definition has become an old subject. Now the phrase which reflects one of the hottest fields of web 2.0 technology is ‘Exploring Blogs’, which, is an all way communication. One can definitely consider blogs as a unique tool which suffices the marketing needs of web 2.0 trends through a user interaction feature with virtual communication and comment sharing.

Many times a budding artist may use the blog to showcase his creativity. Thus a creative writer gets a platform to write stories and articles without fear of rejection. Furthermore, the work is published to the world instantly. A painter need not wait for the approval of the gallery owner but exhibit them in the blogs with commentaries. There are even people who have written books in their blogs.

Politicians use blogging as a means of propaganda to reach the people. Companies may have blogs for their employees. Here, it is mostly used as an internal communication device and an outsider will not be able to access it. In addition, businesses also use blogs as a vehicle of public relations for marketing, advertising and branding purposes.

Mainstream journalists too have their own blogs. Websites for major newspapers like ‘Guardian’ and ‘The New York Times’ support blogs. Blogs also form part of citizen journalism where anyone can comment on the news or be the first to break news stories. Some of the popular blogs fall under this category as news attracts people. The blogger is always on his toes looking for breaking news and news stories. However, people still rely on the popular mass media for credible news.

Specialists resort to blogging in their area of specialism. Thus, there are blogs on different genres of music, art (painting, sketch, sculpture) and dance. There are blogs on specific subjects like politics, history, travel, education, fashion, nature etc. On the types of blogs, Vlog is a blog with videos. Vlogs become popular in a very short time as it is more appealing. Blogs containing sketches are called sketchblog. Blogs written with the help of mobile phones or PDA’s are called moblog. Blogs which answers questions are called Qlogs. Emails, telephones or forms are used to submit the question. Across the board, whatever be the type, blogs become famous only if they are interesting with fresh and valuable information.

How do we search for these blogs? They can be searched using search engines like bloglines, technorati and blogscope. There are also communities like blogcatalog and mybloglog which connects the blogger with other bloggers.

On the flipside, a blogger may promote his biased views in his blogs. The advertisement posted by people on their blog may not be genuine. Companies may use fake blogs to promote their products and show wrong Quarterly Results. Bloggers can be fired if they are found exposing company secrets.

The advantages far outweigh the disadvantages and hence it is better to have blogs for promotion.