Article: Understanding Blogging; Benefits Of Social Media - Badero Olusola

Badero Olusola

"The origins of Facebook have been in dispute since the very week a 19-year-old Mark Zuckerberg launched the site as a Harvard sophomore on February 4, 2004."

"Then called "thefacebook.com," the site was an instant hit. Now, six years later, the site has become one of the biggest web sites in the world, visited by 400 million people a month."

"The controversy surrounding Facebook began quickly. A week after he launched the site in 2004, Mark was accused by three Harvard seniors of having stolen the idea from them"

"This allegation soon bloomed into a full-fledged lawsuit, as a competing company founded by the Harvard seniors sued Mark and Facebook for theft and fraud, starting a legal odyssey that continues to this day." - The Insider ("The Full Story Of How Facebook Was Founded", Nicholas Carlson Mar. 5, 2010)

Facebook ended up being the springboard for other visual media handles we have today; like "blogspot".

"While the term "blog" was not coined until the late 1990s, the history of blogging starts with several digital precursors to it. Before "blogging" became popular, digital communities took many forms, including Usenet, commercial online services such as GEnie, BiX and the early CompuServe, e-mail lists and Bulletin Board Systems (BBS). In the 1990s, Internet forum software, such as WebEx, created running conversations with "threads". Threads are topical connections between messages on a metaphorical "corkboard". Some have likened blogging to the Mass-Observation project of the mid-20th century." - Wikipedia.

Like other social media handles, blogspot is also a medium to share information that is available to you at a particular time. In fact blogging was of no difference or better put, not much of any significance until it got commercialised by businesses who saw its usefulness to launch their businesses into the World Wide Web (www) and still own the control of their blog - independence.

To make blogs more independent, like owning your own website, it is linked with virtually all other social media handles you can think of; Facebook, Twitter, Tinder, Reddit and so on. This additions make bloggers get more readers across other networks with ease.

Here is one of the recorded future projections for social media by experts in the field;

"Incorporation of multimedia content."

"One of the most highly shared pieces of content on mediums such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are pictures. These serve not only as great sources of enjoyment, but are the easiest ways to inform someone about a topic.

Businesses such as Fresco News are examples of what crowdsourcing news from people on the scene can look like. Voice tidbits and video are also great opportunities for sharing content, and businesses like Meerkat and Periscope are proof of it.

Features that are lacking currently in live-video-based businesses but will soon evolve include real-time commenting, viewing "strong" content, and being mobile first in a world where video is mainly watched on a desktop."

If you are a user of one or all of the existing social media handles, with active followers, but still have no blog of your own, you are still a step away from tapping in the multi-billion dollars empire - except you don't have the dream of going out of your current circle.

Blogging is a matter of choice because it is more tasking and time consuming than other handles - surfing the net, updating the blog, editing, publication and sharing are what makes blogging different. But getting paid for doing what you love is what makes it interesting.

Blogspot is like your Facebook profile; what you share tells a bit about yourself too. Blogging sexual explicit contents may attract traffic to your page; but it may not attract real people you need to grow economically. Blogging more on politics or medical reports and war will give your readers an opportunity to know you and your personality more; which will invariably attract people of like minds to your blog.

Originality in blogging is also very crucial. If your style is to write in your native language, do it with all you've got; the originality in your contents will make your blog a blog of choice whenever such materials is needed by other bloggers too. People who write in Hindi, Swahili, Galic, Hausa and even Yoruba languages on their blogs still attract hundreds of thousands of followers who want to learn the languages and cultures of these authors.

Writing about food, parties and kids on Facebook can make you a blogger with a great influence in those areas too - and you still get paid for it.

I've seen a young man earn £1m a month for just playing mortal kombat video game for his over 8million followers on YouTube. It is not the huge pay-out that really interest me; it is the feeling you get for getting rewarded on your hobby. It makes me feel like I am a retired young man getting his pension for doing what he loves - writing and socialising. How amazing that is? Very!.

One thing you have to know is our world today revolves around the Internet - social media. Businesses, governments and foundations are all out there to pay for one service or another and they will need someone to help them do the searching. There is no point in sitting over the fence and thinking of what your friends would say.

Finally, if your goal is to turn to Linda Ikeji overnight, don't join in blogging. You don't blog for money cuz it may never come and your frustration will know no bound if after 2 years you are yet to make a penny.

Try to be what you love first - a blogger; and every other things shall be added unto you.

For the fact that you can make friends from the places you may never get to before you die makes a blogger, A Legend. Everything you shared and your friends too are your works that will never die, even years after you are long gone.

That should be the goal; Not the gold.

Maiyegun General
Glasgow, United Kingdom
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