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My good friend the Divine Miss M, aka Heidi Miller, recently pointed out that there is a potential hierarchy of communication skills required in social media.
Referencing an article by the big bad bald man in black Mitch Joel, Heidi agreed with Mitch’s argument that blogging as an entity will not be killed off by Twitter-like micro-blogging.
I agree, and for additional reasons to the ones that Heidi & Mitch give.
For me (here and here Heidi is spot on, albeit that the latter is from a later post), the ‘passion’ is the key to whatever vehicle you choose to use. Those of us who feel natural behind a keyboard and ‘at home’ with long-form text will continue to compose to suit the blogging format. Especially those who love including “offbeat 50s images” in their posts [ a loving tip of the Akubra to you, Miss Heidi 
].
Those, like Heidi, whose preferred communication style is to talk, will continue to excel at podcasting and vidcasting.
Those, like @JJProjects, who prefer the rapid machine-gun rapport of micro-blogging will continue to Twitter and show their mastery of their weapon of choice.
The important point for us is that we use the tool that most suits us and our style.
Just as there’s no point trying to get a non-communicative CEO to start blogging, there’s no point trying to use a tool and channel that uses skills not ordinarily part of your personal repertoire.
Naturally, there is nothing wrong with stretching, growing, developing, and adopting new skills. But be honest with yourself — if you don’t have the time and the self-esteem to vidblog (bearing in mind that video blogging can take ages to get right, far longer than text blogging or audio podcasting) then don’t commit yourself to it and your audience to expect it.
As one of the signs I have hanging on the walls here at BetterComms Towers says, “You don’t know what you can’t do until you try”, but be honest with yourself about your strengths and weaknesses when you first attempt to enter this brave new communication landscape.
Once you feel comfortable with one tool/channel, then branch out and try something new. Okay? And let me know how you get on…
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