By friend Glen Woods asked this question over in the Kidology forums recently. And I think its a great question.
Here was my answer:
I think facebook has hurt blogs as I think people have gotten Internet-lazy. They just stay on facebook and don’t move around the web as much, however, I think a blog can still get traffic if done well. I read blogs, but focus on ones that are consistent (like yours, Glen) and solid content (also like yours).
If you want to get FB readers, you MUST install a Facebook “like” button and ‘like’ your own posts so they will appear on your wall so people who follow you on Facebook will see you blogged and hop over and read your blog.
RSS Readers (Like Bloglines/Google Reader) are less used today (I think) by the general public, as they were once how blogs were read.
Tablet readers are now stronger, like Flipboard, and I read a lot of blogs that way, and through Twitter feeds, so be sure to Tweet your blog posts through hashtags like #kidmin #leadership etc. as that will drive traffic.
Bottom line: Do people visit blogs directly today? No. Do they read them? Yes, but mostly because they are driven there by other means, so you need to drive people to your blog, and then try to get them to like it enough to create a way to get your content more regularly.
If you want to be read, you need to work at it. You can no longer just post and assume it will be read.
What do you think?
(Hey, prove to me you read MY blog by commenting!) LOL
