If you need a reason to start a blog or continue blogging, check out this post on the half life of a link on various social networks.
Mobile Phone Development » Blog Archive » Shared Link Half Life
Sure, Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus are easier. Short format is easy and fits nicely into the current climate of fast-paced news and rumor spreading to as many eyes as possible. Blogging is a marathon, but as long as search engines are out there crawling, people will find you. Plus, you’ll have a personal reference point that you own.
Case in point, old posts about how to take screenshots on Android and the Oracle People iPhone app drive a lot of traffic here. That information, albeit years old, is relevant to people today. Try finding your old posts to Twitter or Facebook.
So yeah, push stuff to Twitter, Facebook and G+ but keep a personal record.
Heartily agree. One of the most popular posts on my business blog is the first post that I wrote (of several) discussing mayorships in Foursquare. The post was written years ago, but it still gets traffic.
One point I should have added is that social link sharing isn’t much more than broadcasting, i.e. you send a link and maybe people reply. Blogs are much more conversational. Twitter and Facebook don’t foster long form debate or conversation due to terse format on Twitter and the social pressure of News Feed pollution on FB. G+ may be an exception, but it’s a bit early to tell.