A New Way of Writing

What exactly is blogging?  

With the evolution and innovation of technology and Internet, blogs had been evolved as a new genre of writing in about 10 years ago and is still fast growing.  The word blog derived from ‘web logs’ and they are exactly like online diaries and journals with photos, audios, videos, commentaries, and links to articles on other Web sites.  According to the Blogs in Plain English Youtube video, a blog can be both personal and professional that is shared to the media for commendation.  “A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web.  Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog.  Postings on a blog are almost arranged in chronological order with the most recent additions featured most prominently.” (Rowse)  Typically, this interactive nature allows bloggers to refer to each other’s blogs, creating groups of blogs centered around specific themes, topics or interests.  “Blogs can range from the personal to the political and can focus on one narrow subject or a whole range of subjects.”  (Wordpress)  When you blog, you don't just publish a column on a newspaper or a magazine page, you actually join in on the conversation and let people talk back to you on your comment threads and on other blogs.  You can react to other blog posts of your interest and you can link and get link back.  Bloggers create web pages full of conversations and discussions within the same community. 

Blogging has transformed our world.  Blogging has become part of the social media as a source where we are likely to go for information, ideas, and advice in every situation from how to find the best hotel to stay in and to find what activities to do when we reached the destination.  Tripadvisor is a perfect example.  Information and ideas have become interactive.  We can all be part of the conversation with ease by using software and services that are free and available to us.  Blogger, Wordpress, Typepad, and Twitter, to name a few.  

Most importantly, blogs function as an interactive communication between the bloggers and the many audiences that are fall under the same community or even to everyone, whereas traditional essay writing is only target on one specific audient.  The same like a student writing for a teacher.  “Most blogs allow readers to comment on a story contained in the blog, thus blogs have become vastly popular with visitors.  Instead of traditional websites, which provided plenty of information but no way for users to interact or provide their own opinion, the commenting feature in a blog makes it interactive. (Duermyer)  In other word, blogging is not just about writing.  it's about learning how to get that voice out by interaction, how to make recommendations, positive or negative, and be reactive and proactive. 

Blogs Vs. Traditional writing

In What isthe Difference Between Blogging and Content Writing, it talks about the difference between blogs and traditional writing that with a traditional paper, the essays must go though comprehensive editorial process, whereas a blog, anyone can create an article or post entry and publish immediately.  It could have poor grammar, misspellings and content issues as no editors are required.  Anyone can make a blog and start publishing content online almost immediately.  Blog users do not need the experience like professional writers or journalists that they must obtain a degree in journalism and have some kind of work related experience.  Lastly and most importantly, the voice of the writer is what makes the big different between a blog post and a traditional essay.  With a blog, blogger can use any voice he wants in creating his content meaning that he could be completely biased and include his opinions in the content.

What Can Blogging do for Business?

According to Zahorsky, blogging can improve business communication by making it simple for businesses to create new web content allowing customers to comment on the content that businesses post and enabling subscription to blog posts.  The essence feature of blogging is the commenting function that allows readers or customers to comment on the content being posted.  Commenting create interaction and encourages conversation, since bloggers can respond to comments and commenters can also respond to each other’s comments.  Opening the lines of communication through blog comments open up an opportunity for businesses to receive immediate feedback on products and services or even the company’s expertise. Nowadays many businesses have their own blogs about their services and products as a way to build additional web traffic and to draw and connect to more potential customers.