Blog

Bloggers develop a following through the quality, frequency and relevance of their content. They help us learn something new, debate an issue, find related content and form a relationship with the writer.

There’s more to a blog than a compelling viewpoint, however. Blogs are also defined in a technical sense. They have links, tagging and comment capabilities, to mention only a few.

In recent months, I’ve noticed a few instances of “blogs” that are simply long pages of text. (A favorite sports talk show host is one example.) There’s no way to comment, no way to receive posts by RSS or e-mail, no categorization, and no way to link directly to a post.  The content likely gets read, but it requires more reader effort and lacks the conversation and community-building.

At the Marketing Profs Daily Fix, Mack Collier recently outlined ten elements every blog should have. Among them:

• A strategy
• A comment policy
• An “About Us” section
• Photos and bios
• RSS delivery options

So when a blog lacks the technical infrastructure, can (or should) you still call it a blog? I suppose so, but much of the blog’s richness and potential is lost. It’s unfortunate those so-called blogs lack the technology to match the quality of the content.