Categories: Articles

Are Links To Other Sites Really A Compelling Blog Post?

I’ve avoided adding the functionality to the Six Pixels of Separation Blog where you get a Blog posting called, Links, with the date after it. I see this on so many Blogs, and I just don’t get it. With the ability to subscribe to any-one’s del.icio.us page or shared links via Google Reader, and the capability to add both of those as a widget in your Facebook profile, why do we still allow Bloggers to get away with a random list of links as a Blog posting? It might be OK once in a while, but some of my favourite Blogs pump out a Links Blog Posting every day. My understanding is that, for some Bloggers, this process is even automated. It just grabs their most recent links and posts it to the Blog on a daily basis.

In this era of the Attention Economy, shouldn’t we hold Bloggers to higher standards? I’m known to drop a link or two in my Blog postings, but the links are always the motivation for me to add my thoughts and feelings about what is happening and how it affect Marketers. It’s an ongoing trend where Bloggers are Blogging less, using twitter more and letting their Blogs lapse as Links Postings fill the feeds.

I think Bloggers need to come clean. If you’re suffering from writer’s block, too busy to Blog, or have fallen in love with another channel, why not let your readers know that you will be phasing out the Blog, and that if they still like your insights, they can find you on twitter, subscribe to your del.icio.us feed or find you in Second Life?

Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of times when I do come across interesting links, and they inspire my own Blog postings, but I’d much prefer to find those links via an online social bookmarking feed than in a Blog posting. To me a Blog is all about sharing your thoughts, ideas and emotions in words on any given subject. Links play a vital role in keeping the conversation alive in the community by providing some kind of path to follow. Seeing daily, automated Blog postings generated from a del.icio.us feed is starting to impact how I feel about certain Bloggers that I used to hold in high regard (negative Personal Brand effect). I’m starting to see this tactic as laziness and, worse, a cop out for not taking the time to Blog. On top of that, it’s sucking my attention to a Blog posting whose sole purpose is to keep the Blog highly ranked by generating links.

That’s not much of a two-way conversation, if you ask me.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.