When is a Website not a Website?

Posted by mike on Jun 30, 2011 in All, Featured Articles | Comments Off

The answer, of course, is…   when it’s a blog.

OK. Now at this point I should back up and talk a little bit about what I mean by the term “blog”.

What is a Blog?

The word blog is short for weblog. Weblogs or blogs started out a few years ago as simple web pages that users could easily edit to add information. They were usually simple in design and the content management behind them was very simple to use. The reader had the option of adding comments to articles that were posted.

A number of blogging systems sprang up to allow people to create and maintain their blogs. Blogger is an example which was initially provided by a private company and subsequently bought by Google who continue to provide the Blogger service to date. WordPress is another example that started small and has grown into a fairly sophisticated system.

How are they used?

People started using blogs, initially as online diaries, recording their thoughts. The result, over the years, has been some pretty awful stuff most of which has now, thankfully, disappeared. The key factor, however, that distinguished blogs from website was the fact that they tended to me informal with content that was unexpurgated. Added to that the fact that readers could add their own comments also lent an air of informality. The result was that many people would regard the content of blogs as the real truth as opposed to websites which tended to show canned information and trot out the party line on issues.

But some bloggers did write interesting snippets and articles, and some have even found fame through their blogs. The blog “Girl with a One Track Mind” is a good example. Here, a thirty something woman writing under the pseudonym of Abby Lee, blogged about here personal life in a fairly explicit fashion. The blog became extremely popular and led to her writing a book. Eventually Abby Lee was outed as Zoe Margolis who has since found a measure of fame on the chat show circuit.

We’ve now reached a situation where blogging has become a mainstream activity. For example, go to a news website such as the BBC news site and you will find blogs from most of the BBC correspondents. The idea here is trading on the image of blogs as containing inside information. However, in the case of mainstream news agencies or even large corporations, I would imagine that there is a strong flavour of “the party line” in all these blogs.

How are they created?

I mentioned WordPress earlier in this article. WordPress is Open Source (in other words free) software that anyone can install on a server and generate blogs. There are thousands of free templates available and lots of free add-ons that will allow users to create highly sophisticated blogs. So sophisticated, in fact, that they can now generate blogs that rival websites in size, functionality and design.  In fact many web developers now use WordPress as a content management system to develop websites as well as blogs.

Blogs have now grown from single pages to multiple pages, some containing multiple blog pages covering different topics, same contain what you would regard as static web pages – e.g. About Us, Our Services, Contact Us etc. –

Blogs and Websites?

All this now brings me back to the point of the title of this article because there is now very little difference between blogs and websites in terms of structure and tools available to build either. The main difference lies in the application.

Websites tend to be fairly static with well thought out content that only gets changed infrequently. Blogs tend to change frequently, daily in some cases.

Readers can usually post comments against articles on a blog. This is not usually the case with a website.

The content of blogs tends to be much less formal than that on websites. Added to that there is still the perception that blogs contain inside information rather than the party line.

Taking an analogy from the real, as opposed to online, world I would argue that websites are the online equivalent of company brochures or catalogues. Well designed, glossy, well thought through content designed to make the company stand out. Blogs, on the other hand, are the real world equivalent of networking meetings. A person turns up, talks informally to others. Not necessarily about his or her company but essentially meeting people and making contact. In other words blogs offer a way of interacting with potential customers as opposed to website that simply advertise to them.

The impact of Social Networking

The other phenomenon that has arisen over the past few years is social networking with sites such as FaceBook, Twitter, Digg etc. offering even more ways for people to interact. Sites such as FaceBook and MySpace were initially embraced by the younger generation (Generation Y – i.e. those born between 1982 and 2001) and they still continue to be the dominant users. However, over the more recent past, more and more companies have started to realize the power of these sites for reaching potential customers. Twitter, in particular, has recently seen a dramatic rise in the number of business users.

A blog, coupled with strategic use of social networking sites, now offers an extremely powerful route for a business and individuals to reach their customers. For example, I can post an article on my blog and then post a tweet on Twitter informing people about the article. People can post replies to the article on the blog or reply directly through Twitter. Where else can you reach customers and hold a dialogue with them so quickly?

The Present and the Future

So where is all this leading? I believe that, for many kinds of business, a traditional website no longer makes sense. A blog with some web pages attached (e.g. About Us, Contact Us) is much more useful and cost effective. Coupled with judicious use of social networking, this offers a powerful marketing medium.

What kind of businesses do I think would benefit from this approach? Coaches, consultants, IFA’s, solicitors, in fact anyone who offers a service at a personal level. Particularly people providing services on a B2B basis. All these tend to be people that currently use networking to market their businesses.

I believe that it is now essential for any of these kinds of business to start embracing the techniques I’ve just described. I go back to the comment I made earlier about Generation Y. Many of these people are now approaching their 30’s. They are the business owners of tomorrow – your customers in fact.

These people will not suddenly stop using social networking sites. They’ve grown up with them. And they will rapidly embrace new technologies as they arise. If you, want to survive in the future you will have to adapt to this changing world.