Blog Trends, According to Dino Duggan & Robert Scoble [Part 1]

The future of blogging is shifting to adapt to new consumption habits, and as small business owners, entrepreneurs and social creatures, we all know it.  It’s like someone saying, “The way we communicate will be forever changed by the cell phone.” Our habits change as technology improves and it’s important to always have an eye on how your small business can be found online and how you can create an audience for your brand.  I enjoyed a lively NMX 14 panel discussion featuring Dino Duggan of Triber and Robert Scoble of Rackspace, on the future of blogging and blog trends.  Below are their thoughts and commentary on the direction blogging is going.

Build your own empire

In the early portion of the session, Robert was quick to point out that blogs have become a less effective platform to communicate than social media platforms, unless you want to build a business.

Dino added that if you exclusively use Facebook, you’re just helping to build Mark Zuckerberg’s empire, not your own.  You need to find a way to build your own empire brick by brick.  However, according to Robert, you can get a lot deeper relationships and friends from Facebook because you can have those shorter, yet more meaningful dialogues.

Dino believes Facebook has a deep intimacy model, i.e. “I friend request you and you friend request me” and Google+ and Twitter are less intimate because you don’t necessarily have to follow back and the space is so large that it’s a less personal conversation and it isn’t two-way.

A great anecdote came from Robert where he said he looks at his media like building a mea; you don’t just want salt or spices, you want to adding a variety of elements and foods to have a full, comprehensive meal. However, he also admits to checking Facebook first in the morning, thus making it his appetizer for the day.

Blogging is a unique skillset

Robert mentioned that if you’re blogging for your small business, you need to have that desire to write, to communicate, but also a very specific skill set. Blogging requires different skills than creating a video or making an awesome Instagram post because you have to have a more thorough knowledge of things like SEO, marketing and promotion.  However, if you’re only trying to build a thought leadership brand, you can do that on social media.

Dino added that everywhere you see a search box, SEO is around.   WordPress, for example, is built as a publishing platform, not a social platform, unlike G+, Facebook and Twitter.  “No wonder we struggle to get more engagement on our blogs. How do we make publishing platforms super social?  How do we make them so social that they displace other social platforms?”

How to build your empire

Dino got a really interesting start to his career, and yet, it’s so simple: He commented on other people’s blogs.  In 2009, he had a blog about dogs and one for motorcyclists.  At the time, he was learning what online social media was about and Social Media Examiner was a great resource for him, so he commented on those blogs a lot, he eventually got to publish on the site and then Dan Krisno took notice and they linked up for some podcasts and eventually founded Triber.

Tips for staying engaged included keeping a lot of blogs in your RSS feed so that you can comment on timely material.  Eventually when he started his business, Dino’s first users were the people who had the blogs that he commented on.

Robert says that if he can elicit a comment or engagement on social media, you get exposure and you see this exploited a lot in paid social advertising.  Exhibit A: Ever seen a random ad in your newsfeed on Facebook and feel a little creeped out? It’s the engagement that you have with other people, companies and brands that helps those paid advertisers work their way into your newsfeed.

Tune in tomorrow for part 2 of our 2-part series on blog trends, according to Dino Duggan and Robert Scoble, but not without checking out our own thoughts on sales and marketing trends on the Infusionsoft Blogs.

This post Blog Trends, According to Dino Duggan & Robert Scoble [Part 1] was first published on the Big Ideas Blog.