Social Networking Vs Blogging & Email Vs SMS – Struggle For Existence

Our world today has greatly changed with the coming of the Internet and mobile communication devices.

Interestingly, these changes are very similar to the popular theory of ‘Succession in Ecosystems’.

Let us consider ‘Succession’ in ‘Internet Evolution’.

The Internet is dynamic just like the environment we live in. The steady changes of a vegetational community over a period of time are the same as the gradual changes in web platforms, affecting the whole web space.

Now, the population in a given habitat (just like each evolving components of the Internet – Social Media, Search Engines, Mail Services etc) is normally influenced by,

• Predation
• Competition
• Parasitism
• Coevolution

Consequently, it is normal for ecosystem to reach a point where changes would continue at a very slow pace, and the vegetational site (the evolving components of the Internet) would be dominated by long-lived, highly competitive species.

This point is called climax.

So far, on the Internet, you would have noticed a sudden rise in the use of a particular service, and then the enthusiasm declines and later stabilizes.

Can Email Go Away?

We must be factual and realistic in order not to get off the train just before a breakthrough.

Charles Darwin theory of evolution mentioned ‘Natural Selection’ whereby only creatures with the natural aptness for a particular habit or strength survived certain climates that wiped out the rest of the world.

The Internet is evolving. Some services have come to stay while others are still evolving.

Note!

Though, a few reports have mentioned a dwindling interest of young people in the use of e-mail (who instead prefer to use SMS), it is obvious that at this stage of their lives, they have little or no need for a formal messaging service.

However, executives and employees in organizations still make use of email services to a large extent to handle formal communications which form the hub of organizational communication.

An article on PR Newswire, on the Rules of Effective Email Marketing reveals that email marketing still stands as one of the most effective tools for effective digital marketing.

You should note that, the buzz around social networks (Twitter, Facebook. YouTube) will continue for a while, and then something else will come and create normalcy.

Now,

The point of this article is, when everything finally gets to normalcy, the people that have retained their blogs plus email contacts and have developed their marketing capacity in these areas would be the ‘King of the Forest’- the long-lived, highly competitive species.

As you change with the rapid changes on the Internet, do not throw away the baby with the bath.

Can blogging really die?

Today, there is so much talk about a likely dearth of bloggers as other Social Media begin to attract the younger generation, especially teenagers.

The fact is, a content-driven blog with a strong control of its audience has no marketing competitor as of today.

The difference is, while social networks have control over you, your audience and your activities, with a blog, you in charge. And what is safer than being in charge? It’s like the difference between an employee and a business owner. The employee may be earning as much as the business owner is making, and the business owner may be working twice as hard as the employee but time will separate the men from the boys if the business owner stays long enough and do the right things.

Statistics that support the dearth of bloggers forgot to put one thing into consideration – the primary occupation of teenagers and the reason for a slight increase in corporate blogs. An article by The Globe and Mail supports this fact. They state that the report on blogs’ death is greatly exaggerated.

Blogs provide avenue for leading individuals and organizations to reveal their expertise and leadership and thus gain competitive advantage in such a way that can never be realized through Twitter or Facebook. Moreover, blogs serve as powerful content stations while Social Networks aid easy circulation of contents.

A plausible cause of this statistics is the competition on the Internet today which has created barriers to entering the blogosphere – time, energy and creativity. Thus, only individuals or organizations with a natural aptness for blogging will remain as the long-lived, highly competitive bloggers.

Talking about individual bloggers, many of them still make enormous amount of money online.

Darren Rowse who owns ProBlogger Blog Tips recently posted an article, Why My Accountant Thinks I Robbed a Bank. In this post, he describes how he still makes money from his personal blog. Two particular tips he emphasized are:

• Creating & Selling His Own Products and,
• Investment in Personal Learning.

Also, Brian Clark has continued to earn huge income through his blog, Copyblogger.

One thing that scares many people away from blogging is the marketing of their blog. In an article by Pamela Wilson on Copyblogger, 6 Questions to Ask Before You Spend a Dime on Graphic Design, Pamela gave a general advice on marketing;

• Think
• Plan and
• Create

The truth is, ‘blogging’ may change name but not its essence. We may stop referring to these content-driven sites as blogs but they have a crucial space to fill in the World Wide Web.

This is becoming more obvious. Consider people like Andrew Sullivan who recently moved to ‘Newsweek' and ‘Daily Beast' to continue blogging in another way. Andrew Sullivan himself said that, “though we will continue to evolve, there will be no substantive change in content as we move”.

Can I suggest a likely pattern for both email and blogging evolution?

Check out the curve below:

We have already experienced a steady rise followed by a steep increase in bloggers. What we should expect now is a steady decline at first, and then a stable system (climax).

Please, leave your opinion in the comments box below.