Anatomy of a Google+ post - a viable blogging platform?

Blogs come in all forms - for better or for worse, depending on the artistic common-sense of the blogger. *Traditional* blogs on platforms such as Wordpress and Blogger allow plenty of customization options. You can opt for a simple, minimalist approach, or a psychedelic overload. Depends on what audience you are trying to reach out to.

With the advent of social networking these days, the look and functionality (more on this later) may differ, but essence of blogging still remains. After all, you are still reaching out to some audience (general public or limited audience, depending on the privacy and content control capabilities of the social network in question).

As I mentioned in my previous post, blogging without pictures, a blog is merely a platform to express oneself and communicate with an online audience. No need to adhere to a fixed template or appearance.

Let's look at Google+, as it is today, and how it compares to an "open / highly customizable" blogging platform such as Blogger.

The screen shot above is what you will see as a user of Google+. In the place of "Share what's new" you can type away, limited only by practicality. It's quite easy to guess what the icons to the right symbolize - options to upload photos, a video, a calendar event (the least obvious) and lastly a web link.

One thing about Google+, there are no text formatting options. Very much like Twitter, only you're not restricted to just 140 characters.

Although there are those 4 icons above, you'll find that you can only select one when making a post. Thus, it's not possible to make a "multi-media" post as you could in, say, Blogger.

If you've keyed in a URL, Google+ will automatically pick up the first one and display a small preview at the bottom of your text. You can delete the picture, description, or the whole thing.

The way I see it, using Google+ requires a more focused approach when posting. You can't really make a list of say, top 10 movies of the year, with individual links for each movie, all in a single post. What you CAN do is make 10 different posts, and sum them all up in the 11th post. Or, post it elsewhere on a more conducive blogging platform and link to that post in Google+.... :)

Photos uploaded in Google+ are not compressed (though add up towards a limited quota if they are too large), so quite an attractive option for photo bloggers.

A Google+ post is also devoid of labels or tags, which means you can't group or categorize posts. So, there's not going to be any tag cloud. This may or may not be a great loss, though, as when was the last time you read a blog by category?

Absent too is the blog archive, where posts are grouped by posting date by year and month. Again, this is one feature that readers don't really use (unless your posts are seasonal AND timely).

Lastly, there's no way to add a dedicate title to your posts on Google+. You can't even type it into the body of the text and underline it, due to lack of formatting features. On the plus side, no need to crack your head to think up a title for your post - just start typing! However, since only a preview of the text is visible in Google+, to draw attention to your post, you'll need to make use of an interesting photo (which may be more tedious and difficult to find that a good title) or make the first few lines of your post as an "executive summary" to hook the reader to expand the post.

As the look and feel of Google+ is fixed, you'll have to consider how to fit in your photos and other media to support your written content. This does put the emphasis on writing and content.

For those of you who have been blogging on traditional platforms and have tried out Google+, what are your opinions? Which platform best fits your style and which one enables you to better interact with your readers?

Blogging without pictures

These days, practically everyone has a some way of taking a photo and posting it on the Internet. I still remember the days when a 2 megapixel compact camera was a rarity, when it was really exciting to have a digital photo of yourself, and blogging was practically a logical extension on an online journal with the world as an audience.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words - does this mean that each and every blog post should include at least 1 picture or illustration? I must admit that having something to look at does captivate someone's attention compared to a sea of text. Strategic use of graphics to augment your words can serve to amplify the effectiveness of your blog, more effectively than can be done with words or pictures alone.

While it's nice to do so, it's not always easy to find an appropriate or convenient photo to go with the rest of the post. In some cases, finding the right photo seems to be the hardest part of writing a blog post, and can actual stop your blog dead in its tracks if you simply will not click on "Publish" until you find that very perfect photo for the job.

In general, using a picture that is not yours or "stock" lacks that personal touch, and in some cases will land you in hot soup (just as if you're using someone's photo without a model release, or using someone's pictures without permission).

There's no hard or fast rule for this. It's largely a matter of what kind of audience you're reaching out too, as well as your personal style. Besides a photo blog (which would be rather pointless without any photos), it's generally OK to use a photo or an illustration once in awhile to break up the monotony of text. OR, you may opt for a high photo-to-text ratio (especially popular with some asian female bloggers like Wendy Cheng a.k.a. Xia Xue), which is quite OK these days since internet connections are much faster than they were back in "those old days".

Just because you're a photographer doesn't mean you can't have a text-concentric website / blog. Just take a look at Thom Hogan's website - he's a serious writer as well as a photographer, and it does require some focus and thought to go through his articles, which as often picture-free.

In my humble opinion, a blog is a form of expression, which allows anyone to reach out to the masses. More importantly, it's a form of communication, so it shouldn't be a case of "I speak, you listen". Every blogger should be prepared and looking forward to getting feedback and responding to inputs from readers - after all, if nothing comes back, then what's the point of publishing online?

I like photography, though these days my forefinger spends less time over the shutter button compared to before. I like writing too, though working in a multi-national semiconductor manufacturer, there's not a lot of time spend outside of work (detailed writing about work is a surefire career-limiting activity). Yes, someday, when I'm no longer working in this industry, I may look back and make a career out of my life's experiences (like Scott Adams does with Dilbert). So, if there's something to write about (or at least I find an interesting way to write about something mundane), it'll find its way into my blog, either illustrated or sans-photo.

[UPDATE: 23 Mar 2017] There's always an option of using royalty-free stock photography as part of your blog post. Perhaps it's better than having no photo at all, but it might give an impression of being disconnected / generic. Searching in the Internet, there are more than enough free resources to keep your post illustrated.


How about you readers out there? I'd like to hear what you look forward to in a blog. As for fellow bloggers too, do share your thoughts on how you choose to connect to your audience.