Determining the advantages and disadvantages of particular activities for people and organizations is an important task. Why else would education, books, think tanks, and presidential debates exist. I thought fleshing out my personal experience with the advantages and disadvantages might be instructive in determining “the truth” about social media, web 2.0, and blogging technologies.
Advantages of Social Media
• Democratization of media.
• Relationships and conversation.
• Creativity and re-mix culture.
• Embrace your passion and identity.
• Community, sharing, and connecting.
• Increase transparency in government and organizations.
Criticisms of Social Media
• Lots of great content still gets overlooked. Current lack of filters creates problems finding the best content
• Writers have problems delivering content.
• Anonymity can engender polarization and hate
• Information overload and social networking overload
• Work/Life balance is hard to achieve
As society and technology moves forward we stand at a watershed moment and history, so it is vitally necessary to stop and think about our societal trajectory. Thoughts? Did I miss an advantage or disadvantage?
How you can learn more or learn how to make your corporate blogging efforts more strategic and productive:
If you liked this post you might be interested in a more comprehensive criticism of web 2.0 which suggests that its a little early to drink the social media and web 2.0. Alternatively, if you want to strategically blog or productively use web 2.0 which addresses many of these concerns, you should check here.
(image credit: pikkus)
4 responses so far ↓
Jon Henshaw // February 1, 2008 at 11:51 am
Your last point, “Work/Life balance is hard to achieve,” is really true. I barely have enough time to do my work and spend time with my family, let alone participate in the blogosphere and social networking world. To really make an impact and to participate well, you either have to have a lot of time on your hands and/or be a full-time social media participant.
compassioninpolitics // February 2, 2008 at 6:00 am
I agree work/life is huge. Its certainly a question that I’ve had since I’ve begun blogging. I think long term that it leads to better participation too, because I find that when I go beyond my boundaries, I tend to end up in burn and burst cycles.
I think in a case where people come together and collaborate, they can generate more collective traffic. For instance, while maintain separate blogs that feed into one main aggregator of 5-10 nonprofits or real estate agents in different locations or with the same company can create bigger buzz.
Second, i think interviews, guest posts on industry standard blogs, and blogger relations are huge.
Thats why I think podcasters and videobloggers are at a slight advantage in the sense that they can deliver one great poduct once a week and still generate decent traction.
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