Now that we are all fat and happy from the holiday season, it is time to look forward to 2010 and our blogs. As RobbSutton.com continues to poor high octane content into the cranium of bloggers, lets take a look at where 2009 brought blogging. 2009 was a huge success from both a social media perspective and for blogging as a whole. While the HUGE paydays of Google Adsense are gone for big bloggers (really left earlier than 2009), those unrealistic expectations were replaced with solid business models that will bring the blogosphere into a legitimate money making and business growing strategy. So what happened in 2009?
Twitter and Facebook
Twitter is now a household name. Even if you are not using – or understand – Twitter, you know what it is at the end of 2009. From a social media perspective, Twitter saw a massive amount of growth in 2009 that was unmatched by any other social media outlet. More people are throwing out 140 character blasts than ever before, but that growth will not be sustainable over the long haul…2010 is going to continue the decrease in growth as nothing can keep that kind of rapid growth over time. During 2009, Twitter gave smaller bloggers a wider spread and another outlet to get their voice heard. This meant faster growth outside of search engines for bloggers looking for traffic and connections within their niche. This was a HUGE win for the beginning and small niche blogger as you no longer have to rely on unreliable search engine results to find readers.
Facebook started off as a college student social media site and has grown into the most reliable way to connect with friends, family and other like minded individuals on the net. I know that Facebook is now widespread because even my dad (who said he never would) created an account during 2009. With spam riddling MySpace and LinkedIn keeping its professional atmosphere, Facebook as filled a niche all to its own as the place to hit up to keep your friends, relatives and whoever else in tune with what you have going on in your own life.
Both Twitter and Facebook began this massive growth before 2009, but during this calendar year, they saw numbers that are unheard of globally. As we enter in to 2010, I see individuals, firms and online entrepreneurs finding more inventive and lucrative ways to convert these massive communities.
Blogging In 2009
Blogging is inching its way forward as a mainstream form of communication. What used to be online diaries are continue to grow into full fledged businesses accepted by the general public. Often times, visitors of many blogs might not even know they are reading a blog as the line between full CMS and blogging platform continues to get blurred. As businesses and individuals continue to use blogging as a source of communication and income, we are going to see the line between website and blog continue to merge.
With Julia and Julia, 2009 brought the first mainstream, successful Hollywood movie centered around the theme of blogging. Regardless of your feelings on how blogging was portrayed in the movie, it brought legitimacy to bloggers in the eyes of many individuals who believed that blogging was just a place to rant on the internet.
In 2010, I expect to see more large firms implement blogging and other social media into their business strategy. As of this point, they are still not really sure how to tackle this large consumer base, so there is a lot of testing going on behind the scenes. As Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets continue to grow, we are going to see companies use these as a way to increase their spread on the net. With bloggers attacking the top results on search engine rankings and news media, companies are going to have to rethink there web strategy to stay in tune with the times.
What do you think?
What do you think was the best accomplishment or setback in 2009 for blogging? Where do you think things are headed for 2010? As blogging and social media continue to take shape, your guess is as good as any…so let’s hear what you have to say…
4 comments
Been a crazy year. Will be exciting to see if the “social media” buzz word stays so popular.
Great time to have a blog, good luck in 2010 man,
I see the “social media” tagline staying around for awhile. What do you think the next Twitter will be? Someone will come up with something new…
You too John!
I think we’re going to see Twitter decreasing for some people, moving on to the next thing that’s hot. I’ve never seen better results, but I hear more and more complaints from people about it. I tell them that they just need to clean up who they follow.
I think we are too. There are a lot of people that just signed up to follow Oprah (or some other celebrity) and that has to level out and decrease leaving the regular users and Spammers. I am hoping that Twitter gets a better handle on the spammers for ’10.