More on Blogs and Social Media
31 March 2013 at 7:05 am Peter G. Klein 4 comments
| Peter Klein |
Nicolai was kind enough to mention my Facebook page but neglected to add that he has one too, and that O&M itself is on Facebook and Twitter. You can read, like, share, and comment on O&M posts at those sites as well as the main site. Which raises the interesting issue, is the blog format obsolete? We started O&M in 2006, an eon ago in Internet time. Since then, Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms have appeared, and they duplicate most functions of the old-fashioned blog. They usually allow cross-posting and let you compose on one and push to the others. So, are blogging platforms like WordPress (which we use) on the way out? Google’s unfortunate decision to kill Google Reader has some people suggesting that RSS itself is dead. What should we do, to stay on the cutting edge? What’s the future of structured online group discussion? Should we create the first MOOOB (Massively Open Online Organizations Blog)?
Organizations and Markets 
1.
David Hoopes | 31 March 2013 at 4:02 pm
Is it any extra work to keep the blog? I get weary of FB sometimes. I still view the blog sans FB. Though FB is great for steering traffic here.
2.
Rick Weber (@Rick_Weber) | 1 April 2013 at 12:03 pm
RSS is the best format for blogs with substance (like all the econ blogs) because it allows readers to collect unread posts rather than losing them in a cluttered news feed. Besides, Greader isn’t the only game in town; I will continue to use the RSS reader on my tablet and I’m sure WordPress will help to fill in the void left open by Google.
I like G+’s interface, but like Twitter and FB any given post is transitory.
3.
Marcus Linder | 2 April 2013 at 8:12 am
A difficult question to be sure. I can only speak of my personal preferences as a PhD student. I strictly prefer the blog format over the various social networks and miniblogs I have tried thus far. Posts of 100 to 400 words are for me the perfect bite sized chunks of opinions, article/book reviews and theoretical musings for me to learn from. But a few hundred words per post is to long to fit comfortably into most social network interfaces and formats. If I had the (unfortunate) option to choose between keeping only my rss feed collection or only my facebook feed, I would definitely choose to keep the rss feeds. Without a doubt.
Please don’t abandon the blog for facebook or twitter! :-)
4.
ken nielsen | 21 April 2013 at 2:34 am
I’m with Rick. RSS will survive.