Does Blogging Count As Social Media?

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that the phrase ‘social media’ can confuse a lot of people. We know sites like MySpace and Facebook comply, as do others like Twitter, but they are a very specific type of website.

But does blogging qualify as well?

A lot of people have at least one blog nowadays – no matter how frequently (or not) they update it. And in my view these are just as much a part of social media as other websites are.

Think about it for a moment. What are you doing every time you put a fresh blog post together? You are connecting with people in just the same way as you would on any other social media site. You’re just doing it in a different way.

And there can still be some two way interaction if you allow responses and comments to be a part of your blog. Not everyone decides to do this but the opportunity is there. It all depends on how many you get, where you are in the scheme of building your blog, and how much attention you want to get.

The main thing to remember about social media is that you are connecting with people. No matter what type of site it is – whether it is a bookmarking site, a site where you get together online with your friends or a site that enables you to share videos – you are sharing content with other people.

Now you could argue that all websites are connecting with other people, and you’d be right. But perhaps we should be talking about degrees here. With a blog post you tend to talk directly to a person and you can invite replies. If we’re talking about any old website trying to sell something to you, we’re talking about purely promotional spiel. This would be very different from the content you would find anywhere else.

Some people might think that blogging is more professional and can be a step up from social media sites like Twitter and MySpace. I think it all depends on the user. You can use your blog to connect with other people who like the same things as you, and if you do it properly and you approach it with regularity, then you can get good results from it.

In short then, there are different types of social media. The ones you use will depend on what you enjoy and what you want to achieve. So long as you know the answers to that, you will certainly be able to get the best out of it – blogging included.