What is blogging?
What is a blog?
Meaning of blog
A blog is a type of website that allows you to publish diaries in a time series. Abbreviation for Weblog, which means to leave a log on the Web. The main features are comments that readers can post their opinions and impressions, and trackbacks that allow articles to be viewed in reverse links from other blogs.
Purpose of writing a blog
I think the question that beginners may have before starting to blog is "what is the purpose of blogging?" By the developing of Internet communication i.e personal computers, smartphones, Wi-Fi and LTE, blogging is now an era where not only a hobby but also a blogger occupation is established.
Hobby blog
The most common reason for writing a blog is for hobbies, such as sending a diary or personal opinions. Most of the themes of hobby blogs are "write about hobbies such as games, sports, music, etc." "Keep records of children's growth" "Publish photos of pets such as dogs and cats" "Publish muscle training and diet diary" And so on. However, for the purpose of online communication, it seems that the number of people who use SNS such as Twitter and Facebook and social media has been increasing in recent years.
Earn money with a blog
The second most common reason for writing a blog is to earn advertising income as a side business or to connect to the main business. The most common pattern is to post advertisements on blog articles and earn affiliate income from Google Adsense etc.It is said that entertainers and celebrities who have official blogs in Amebro etc. are getting millions of yen a month. Is a famous story. In addition, it seems that some people sell handmade clothes, miscellaneous goods, and accessories using the blog as a tool for attracting customers. Some famous bloggers are Nomads who travel around the country and publish articles to earn their living expenses.
Difference between blog and SNS
To understand the difference between blogs and SNS, first of all, it is necessary to know the background of the times when both appeared and became popular. Blogs have been popular since around 2005, but SNS represented by Twitter and Facebook have become popular since around 2010 in conjunction with the spread of smartphones such as iPhone. When the web service called blog appeared, there was no smartphone yet, and the environment at that time was "PC + keyboard". That is,
・Blogs are "writing/viewing on a computer"
・SNS is what you write and watch on your smartphone
Please take a look at the following four differences after knowing the rough differences.
Difference 1) Long sentence or short sentence
The first thing that comes to mind when we think of the difference between SNS and blogs is the difference in the number of characters. The blog is a service that was born in the era of "writing with a keyboard and viewing on a large screen of a computer", so it is suitable for handling long sentences. On the other hand, SNS is a service in the mobile era represented by smartphones, so it is made assuming that you can work with a small device on the go or on the train. This can be understood from the fact that Twitter is described as "mini blog" and "short sentence posting service".
Difference 2) Storage or latest
The second difference is how to handle information. Since blogs follow the flow of homepages (websites), they are good at organizing and classifying huge amounts of information, and can be said to be a medium suitable for storage. On the other hand, SNS is a medium that is suitable for handling the latest (real-time) information because the functions such as followers (connections) and retweets (reprints) play a role in spreading information.
Difference 3) People or topics
The third difference is the element that people really pay attention to, so to speak, the essence of information. Whenever news about a blog is broadcast on TV, people's names are always premised, such as "whose blog is it?". Whereas SNS is the theme, the topic itself is picked up, such as "talking about on SNS", and the source of that information and who is the person who is the person who is talking about it? That part is not touched much. In this way, the difference between blogs is that while the person who is the writer is considered important, in SNS there is a strong tendency for only the topic to walk alone.
Difference 4) Advertising or profit
The fourth difference can be said to be a summary of the above three differences, but it is the purpose of using the business. Since SNS is suitable for rapidly spreading the latest topics along with short sentences such as catchphrases, it is often used for advertising purposes. On the other hand, blogging is suitable for people and services to be fully exposed and read a solid sentence and to take the next action (in technical terms, it is called conversion), so monetization There are many cases where it is operated for the purpose. In this case, there are various forms of income, such as "application for services" and "recruitment of seminar participants" as well as "advertising income from affiliates".
Cooperation between blog and SNS
As mentioned above, there are clear differences between SNS and blogs, but the important thing is to "know the difference between both media and use them properly." Therefore, in recent years, it has become mainstream to use the features of blogs, homepages (websites), and SNS (social media) properly, and to link each one.