Steve Rubel and Brian Solis (CC) Brian Solis. www.briansolis.com

Brian Solis and Steve Rubel represent two very different approaches to blogging.  Most bloggers in social media know them. According to eCairn, they along with Jeremiah Owyang, Chris Brogan, and Dave Darmano have a 3 percent share of the social marketing community voice.

In many ways they are quite similar. Both are early adapters, both are innovators, and both understand promotion. But where Brian is master of  the long form, Steve recently dropped his top rated  Micro Persuasion blog for the Steve Rubel Lifestream, “with more bits and fewer posts.” Steve now posts a few times a day. Brian generally posts a few times a week. Brian’s recent post in response to Claire Cain Miller’s New York Times article Spinning the Web: P.R. in Silicon Valley reflects his style.

In announcing last month to “direct all of my online publishing energies to one hub, The Steve Rubel Lifestream,” Steve took a gamble.  Now Steve is essentially his own online news feed of daily links, insights, photos, videos and more on emerging technology. (I should add that Brian is now using Posterous, the same platform driving Steve’s Lifestream.)

So where does that leave us social media bloggers? Steve’s success was one reason I started blogging. At the time, I had misgivings about blogging and was reluctant to abandon time tested opeds and articles. But now I am comfortable with the traditional blog format and am reluctant to abandon it.  Of course calling blogging traditional is kind of funny given that it is still a relatively new phenomenon.

In my opinion, in the age of Twitter with its 140 character limits, the best way to blog comes down to how you process information. Do you like in-depth analysis or bursts of information?  Do you want a soundbite or a speech? Do you want to have the details to draw your own conclusions or do you want conclusions drawn for you?  

In truth, a lifestream is very bloglike, but it does challenge the orthodoxy that governs many traditional blogs. Rubel believes “the approach is different…People don’t have time to read as much as they used to. There’s too much competing for our attention…Blogging began to feel too slow and methodical.”

Brian may beg to differ.  And BTW, the changing role that blogs are playing is not lost on Brian. In a March Techcrunch piece, Are Blogs Losing Their Authority To The Statusphere? that has generated 215 comments, he wrote: “While blogs are increasing in quantity, their authority–as currently measured by Technorati–is collectively losing influence.” 

The answer is bloggers have many ways to deliver information.  

In the end, the two forms will mutate into something entirely different, but for the time being, they provide very different models to manage information and opinions. Perhaps the model is Jeremiah who when I posted had 48,089 followers, a rather incredible 16,073 updates as well as several lengthy posts several times a week.

But make no mistake about it, whatever form blogging takes, it will remain incredibly labor intensive.

Let me get back to you.

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Comments ( 4 )

Very interesting post. Well done! Truth is that it’s all a matter of consumption behavior and the associated intent in which publishers vie for attention and how they wish to be perceived within target communities. I opt for multiple approaches. For a few years, I’ve run a lifestream at http://briansolis.tumblr.com which essentially grabs updates from multiple sources and condenses them into a easy to follow stream for those to stay connected with bites instead of meals.

Brian Solis added these pithy words on Jul 15 09 at 12:48 pm

Thanks for the excellent post.

It seems a little early in the game to assert authoritatively that one approach is better than another. There seems to be no silver bullet in social media, although it’s important to engage in conversation on a continuing basis. It will be interesting to see a few months from now how Steve’s decision has worked for him. In the meantime, like Brian, I plan to continue using multiple approaches, which includes maintaining a regular schedule for my blog.

Lawrence Greenberg added these pithy words on Jul 15 09 at 1:51 pm

I think it comes down to what works for individuals. I use my blog as my hub, my main information centre. I have Posterous for soundbites (”more than Twitter, less than blogging”) and my Friendfeed and other sources as feeds. Twitter I use as a connection and conversation tool. But my blog is my base camp, if you like.

If short and multi-feeds work for you, cool. If single point blogging works for you, just as cool. It’s wherever you feel comfortable, and where your community prefers to interact with you that will help decide where that is.

Danny Brown added these pithy words on Jul 15 09 at 3:49 pm

It really does come down to comfort level and finding the platform that works best for you as your basecamp. I don’t want the tool to dictate the message, but at the same time I have to be open minded. These days you really do need a communications arsenal to reach your different audiences. I suspect I will be more life streaming. In the end, I am not sure if Steve’s decision was the best one, but he accomplished his goal of challenging our assumptions.

Dan Greenfield added these pithy words on Jul 15 09 at 5:52 pm