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Saturday, June 17, 2017

The Future of Blogging in a Social Media World

I've said it before. When I started writing this blog six years ago, I had no idea where it would lead. Every year about this time, I like to consider where I've been and where I think I'm going. Is this still a worthwhile project or is it time to call it a day?

The beer world has changed dramatically since 2011. Here at home, Portland's brewery count had started to rise during the great recession, but it was less than 50 in 2011. By the end of 2016, there were 70 breweries here, 105 in the metro area, 261 in the state.

That general theme repeated itself, more or less, around the country. There were roughly 2,400 breweries in the United States at the end of 2012. By the end of 2016, the count passed 5,200. That's an historic explosion. We've never had more breweries in this country.

I had no inkling of what was coming when I started, I launched this blog largely because I had nothing better to do. Laid off in the crash of 2008-2009 and with nothing going on two years later, I figured beer was something I could spend some time with while keeping my writing and research skills (such as they are) reasonably sharp.

I honestly expected to return to corporate work. That didn't happen. Instead, writing the blog drew me deeper into the beer culture here. That would eventually lead to Portland Beer, published in 2013, and to a variety of articles for local and national publications in more recent times.

A lot of what I wrote here the first couple of years is fairly embarrassing to read now. That's because, in my effort to build a wad of content, I wrote previews and reviews of stuff that wasn't worthy of the time or effort. When you've got nothing going on, that's the rabbit hole you fall into.

Although the total number of posts here is about to pass 500, the great bulk of that content was written during the early years. In recent times, my output has slowed down considerably. If I post more than once a week these days, it's a miracle.

That isn't necessarily because I'm bored or lazy. Fact is, the beer media landscape has morphed. I don't know how many beer-centric blogs are out there today, but most of them are less relevant now than they were a few years ago.

Part of the reason is craft beer grew up. It's big business that attracts the attention of mainstream media outlets, including TV and radio. While those outlets may not carry significant weight with serious beer fans, they have a reach with the general public that very few blogs can match.

The more important development of recent years is the emerging power and reach of social media, primarily in the form of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Because of the way social media feeds mingle with user interests, it has become the preeminent marketing tool of craft beer.

That's a bit of an oversimplification, actually. Because social media alone probably wouldn't have become the phenom it has had it not been such a perfect complement to the smartphone and event marketing, which together form the promotional backbone of today's craft beer industry.

It's almost unfathomable in our present circumstance, but people once visited breweries and pubs randomly and drank whatever was available. New beers were released without fanfare. Tap takeovers were unknown. And there were only a few significant festivals. How quaint.

Today, fans are herded to countless tap takeovers, release parties and makeshift festivals. Ever wonder how that works? It's simple. Events are hyped on social media. All a beer-chasing millennial has to do is pull out her phone to find out when and where things are happening. Viola!

That's a far cry from the days when breweries and promoters depended on blogs to preview events and beers. They weren't getting coverage from mainstream media and social media hadn't evolved to the point where it could be relied on. Blogs were an inefficient way to get the word out, but they filled the void. No more.

This blog has never been particularly heavy on promotional content. There are events and breweries I've supported, but that hasn't been a priority. That's fortuitous because blogs as a promotional vehicle are dead. Yep. The action has shifted almost completely to social media, a virtually clearing house for event marketing.

Returning to the original question regarding the future of this (actually any) blog, the key is clearly going to be original, objective content. That's certainly been the focus here for the last couple of years and will continue to be going forward. There is no other viable path.

Having (finally) returned to marginally lucrative corporate work, I can write whatever I want here and not be concerned about it ever making a cent. I'm not sure how often I'll be posting. As anyone who does this knows, worthwhile content does not write itself. It takes time and effort.

For those who have stopped by regularly or occasionally during the past six years, accept my thanks. I don't know how long I'll continue to do this. For now, it remains challenging and reasonably fun. 🍻

1 comment:

  1. We all blog for our own reasons, and eventually (I assume), we say all we needed to say. So, godspeed in whichever direction life takes. (Nnd congrats on the work--I wasn't aware of that; time to grab a beer.)

    I will say that blogs have a purpose. Social media is great for some of the things blogs used to do--sharing information and quick opinion, chatter. It is absolutely abysmal at certain other things. Social media is entirely evanescent. Words last minutes and float away into the netherworld of purring servers in The Dalles. Want reactions on a hot take? Social media is your beast.

    But, if what you want to do is write longer pieces with lasting appeal, blogs are still a great bet. I've learned the hard way that a major difficulty in switching URLs is my archives. My old blog still gets about 2x the traffic of my new blog--all eyeballs going into the archives to read old, and still-relevant content (which means my new blog gets 1/3rd the traffic of my active old blog). In fact, I think good blogs are more valuable now than they have ever been. Social media is entirely disposable; much of the media world, trying to attract clicks, has become all about hot takes. Real, interesting blogs are the toothsome content people can actually chew on--for years.

    Blogs will save us, now more than ever.

    ReplyDelete

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