As a writer, blogger and ‘influencer’ who has been in the game for over a decade, I am here to tell you something. Blogging has changed.
What is a blog?
In the history of tech, blogging is merely a blip. Blogging powered into the online space in the late 90s, a decade after the dawn of the internet. Initially, a blog was coined as a “weblog” or a “personal home page” and was used as a space to share casual musings, much like an online diary.
Early adopters used this space to share their thoughts with a public audience. The term blog soon became synonymous as a tool for self-expression. Many did so anonymously, choosing to share their thoughts about life, love and everything in-between, all whilst tucked safely away behind their screens.
The business of blogging
Blogging became big business in the early 2000s. Around this time “mummy bloggers” arrived on the scene, sharing their parenting woes and triumphs with the world. By the mid 00s, the surge in blog readership and “followers” presented the opportunity for well-known bloggers to monetise their websites. Google introduced AdSense as a way for content writers to earn an income by allowing rotating advertisements on their blogs.
Big brands started to recognise that blogs had influencing power and began partnering with bloggers by way of sponsored content. You could say that this was the birth of the “influencer” although this term was not adopted until much later.
YouTube arrived on the scene in 2005, which turned bloggers into vloggers. YouTube users would, and still do, share their content in video form. Well known vloggers or YouTubers as we call them today, are some of the highest paid content creators in the world.
Big and small businesses started incorporating blog content into their marketing strategies. Why? Because publishing good quality content and incorporating the right keywords is an important SEO (search engine optimization) strategy. SEO practices were soon adopted by bloggers too, who would use the right keywords to achieve a higher ranking for their blogs in search engines.
The rise of the Influencer and content creator
Blogging still exists, but the way one “blogs” has changed dramatically. Bloggers have been superseded by microbloggers or the term you are probably familiar with by now is the “influencer” or “content creator.” The blog’s popular little sister social media, grew up very quickly and soon left her blog sibling in the shadows.
Social media and her many digital faces allow users to share their musings with the world in short and sharp posts. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram took over our lives and our smartphones in the 2010s, and this changed the whole blogging caper altogether. An attractive image or a captivating video coupled with a compelling caption is the winning formula for today’s blogger.
Times changed. It became apparent that if one wanted to succeed as a blogger, one would need to add a social media string to one’s bow. Gone are the days when a blogger would pump out long-form blog posts filled with a handful of images each week. To be seen in the expansive sea of social posts we see thrown out into the world every millisecond, one must spread oneself across many different social platforms.
The blogger has been replaced by the content creator, which on the surface may not look like much because, how hard is it to take a pretty picture and post it on the ‘Gram’? But to be a successful digital leader in a key niche take an incredible amount of time, effort and work.
Internet users are spending an insane amount of time online, much more than a decade ago. Their time however, is not spent reading articles. Instead, users consume quick content by scrolling through a multitude of social apps. We live in an attention-span poor world where instant gratification has become the expectation. People want to be entertained, to be satisfied and to some extent influenced.
How to start a blog in 2020 and remain relevant
A successful blogger in 2020 will match their curated imagery and video content with compelling captions. Depending on their demographic, a blogger will utilise the full suite of social media platforms available to them and post their content on Facebook, Instagram, IGTV, Twitter, Pinterest, and TikTok. Savvy bloggers will understand that different social media platforms tend to skew towards different demographics and will therefore optimise their content to appeal to the respective audience of each platform. Let’s not forget that one must use the right hashtags and engage with other users to grow one’s following. A blogger starting their journey in 2020 may decide not to publish website content at all. Those who have been in the game for a while must post social content as well as maintain their site if they want to succeed. Either way, a blogger in today’s digital space must pump out compelling, authentic content to maintain and grow their following.
Blogging has evolved dramatically and because the industry is rather saturated, it’s a tough gig to get seen in amongst the world’s big players. Despite this, being a content creator in 2020 presents wonderful opportunities for people to nurture and hone in on their creative talents while connecting with a community of like minded souls.
Long live the blogger and remember if writing posts, blogs and content are out of your comfort zone and skill set, get in touch with the team at Creative Little Soul and we can whip up posts for you on your behalf and create a calendar and content strategy for your business or brand!