Blogging vs. Social Status You will lose you forever

Blogging vs. Social Status You will lose you forever Yesterday someone asked me how to find all of the status updates from one person over a period of time.  I did a quick search and found there was really no hope (link 1, link 2). Let me put this into perspective a little.  I remember when Twitter was becoming very popular, and people were calling it micro-blogging.  The idea is that you dont have to write a long blog post, you could just write approximately one sentence and you would be good!  Writing concisely even meant that you got right to the point, and you became a better communicator, some (like me) would argue. The bigger problem I saw, though, was how hard it was to refer back to a past tweet (or post).  If you asked me a question, and I had already blogged about it, I shoot you the link to my blog post.  Finding a past tweet was really quite difficult.  They were actually simply gone, after a period of time. History.  Unreferenceable. As a blogger and business owner (who deals with customer service), it was clear that there was value in being able to reference a past post.  And going to the trouble to post something, and then have it lost, would be horrible. This is exactly what is happening on LinkedIn.  Finding something on Facebook isnt that much easier.  Yesterday my wife asked me to look through the history to see a really cool quote that a friend put up last Fall.  We looked and looked, and gave up.  It was too hard.  The quote was there, Im sure, but finding it was a pain. As you communicate your brand, knowledge, passion, epiphanies, etc., I encourage you to consider how youll reference those things in the future.  How will others find what you have said? Having a blog gives you more control over what you get on the social networks.  I can go back to my very first blog post, or find all the posts about depression, or JibberJobber How-Tos, etc. pretty easily.  I can even use Google to help me go through blog posts. My blog posts are not fleeting, like my tweets and status updates are.  Maybe thats a good thing (that those are fleeting) but you should consider THE TOOL, and the purpose of the tool, before you invest time. Blogging vs. Social Status You will lose you forever Yesterday someone asked me how to find all of the status updates from one person over a period of time.  I did a quick search and found there was really no hope (link 1, link 2). Let me put this into perspective a little.  I remember when Twitter was becoming very popular, and people were calling it micro-blogging.  The idea is that you dont have to write a long blog post, you could just write approximately one sentence and you would be good!  Writing concisely even meant that you got right to the point, and you became a better communicator, some (like me) would argue. The bigger problem I saw, though, was how hard it was to refer back to a past tweet (or post).  If you asked me a question, and I had already blogged about it, I shoot you the link to my blog post.  Finding a past tweet was really quite difficult.  They were actually simply gone, after a period of time. History.  Unreferenceable. As a blogger and business owner (who deals with customer service), it was clear that there was value in being able to reference a past post.  And going to the trouble to post something, and then have it lost, would be horrible. This is exactly what is happening on LinkedIn.  Finding something on Facebook isnt that much easier.  Yesterday my wife asked me to look through the history to see a really cool quote that a friend put up last Fall.  We looked and looked, and gave up.  It was too hard.  The quote was there, Im sure, but finding it was a pain. As you communicate your brand, knowledge, passion, epiphanies, etc., I encourage you to consider how youll reference those things in the future.  How will others find what you have said? Having a blog gives you more control over what you get on the social networks.  I can go back to my very first blog post, or find all the posts about depression, or JibberJobber How-Tos, etc. pretty easily.  I can even use Google to help me go through blog posts. My blog posts are not fleeting, like my tweets and status updates are.  Maybe thats a good thing (that those are fleeting) but you should consider THE TOOL, and the purpose of the tool, before you invest time. Blogging vs. Social Status You will lose you forever Yesterday someone asked me how to find all of the status updates from one person over a period of time.  I did a quick search and found there was really no hope (link 1, link 2). Let me put this into perspective a little.  I remember when Twitter was becoming very popular, and people were calling it micro-blogging.  The idea is that you dont have to write a long blog post, you could just write approximately one sentence and you would be good!  Writing concisely even meant that you got right to the point, and you became a better communicator, some (like me) would argue. The bigger problem I saw, though, was how hard it was to refer back to a past tweet (or post).  If you asked me a question, and I had already blogged about it, I shoot you the link to my blog post.  Finding a past tweet was really quite difficult.  They were actually simply gone, after a period of time. History.  Unreferenceable. As a blogger and business owner (who deals with customer service), it was clear that there was value in being able to reference a past post.  And going to the trouble to post something, and then have it lost, would be horrible. This is exactly what is happening on LinkedIn.  Finding something on Facebook isnt that much easier.  Yesterday my wife asked me to look through the history to see a really cool quote that a friend put up last Fall.  We looked and looked, and gave up.  It was too hard.  The quote was there, Im sure, but finding it was a pain. As you communicate your brand, knowledge, passion, epiphanies, etc., I encourage you to consider how youll reference those things in the future.  How will others find what you have said? Having a blog gives you more control over what you get on the social networks.  I can go back to my very first blog post, or find all the posts about depression, or JibberJobber How-Tos, etc. pretty easily.  I can even use Google to help me go through blog posts. My blog posts are not fleeting, like my tweets and status updates are.  Maybe thats a good thing (that those are fleeting) but you should consider THE TOOL, and the purpose of the tool, before you invest time.