Reading Reflections #1: The Power of Blogs!

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Throughout the past few years, I have slowly immersed myself into the ever expanding world of social media. From my general knowledge, I mainly understand the more popular types of social media such as blogs (Blogger), social networking sites (Facebook and MySpace), microblogging (Twitter), video sharing (YouTube), photo sharing (Flickr), and professional networks (LinkedIn). However, there is so much more out there that I am currently becoming familiar with. Within the first few chapters of Groundswell, Digg.com was mentioned a few times. Even though I have heard of it before, I have never utilized this category of social news. After reading about it, Digg.com and similar websites amaze me by illustrating how much power users can have by simply commenting and voting on news stories.

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Essentially, it is imperative to define the term groundswell which is “A social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations” (Groundswell, 9). Blogs are a great example of groundswell technology and is a way of bringing people together. A blog is “a personal (or group) journal of entries (‘posts’) containing written thoughts, links, and often pictures” (Groundswell, 19). Moreover, bloggers have the option of publishing videos and articles. This type of social media can vastly threaten institutional power since they are not regulated, in which bloggers chime in with their own opinions, create/spread rumors, and ultimately have the power to do much more.

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It is evident that blogging has drastically grown in popularity. In a study titled, “I’m Blogging This: A Closer Look at Why People Blog,” the researchers write that there are five major motivations for blogging:

1.) Documenting one’s life

2.) Providing commentary and opinions

3.) Expressing deeply felt emotions

4.) Articulating ideas through writing

5.) Forming and maintaining community forums

I further found it interesting in the reading that blogging can help companies solve the issue with having multiple sets of customers and complex products/services. “Not only can blogs help with this consideration, but they can also reassure people before, during, and after the sale. And as an added bonus, blog posts often get featured in mainstream media and Web searches, improving awareness for complex products” (Groundswell, 125).

After reading the first few chapters of Groundswell, it is evident that using new types of media can be extraordinarily beneficial to the user. Of course, when first learning how to utilize the various platforms, it may be overwhelming to the inexperienced user, but I have learned that the quickest way to use these new fields of social media is to just sign up for the account and play around with it!