Blogging for a Purpose

I just read an article in eMarketer Daily that discusses a study around which platform draws the most repeat visitors. Here are the results:

I don't want to discount this study as it is very helpful. Although, I believe that the entire idea of "loyal visitors" as a measurment of success or the notion that loyal visitors are better than new visitors is silly.

Chris Baggott, our co-founder and CEO, recently held a webinar where he discussed the different generations of social media and blogging in particular. In a nutshell, when blogging just started to become mainstream and the focus was on citizen journalism and attracting loyal readers... this was 1st generation blogging. Then we moved into 2nd generation blogging where people focused on "thought leadership" and again building a following of repeat visitors. However, the problem with this is that there are no metrics or tangible ROI that can be applied to 1st or 2nd generation blogging. 3rd generation blogging is Compendium or using blogs and that human content as a way to attract new visitors in addition to giving your loyal visitors more resources. At the end of the day, your loyal visitors can keep coming back, sign up for your newsletter, join your club, but this doesn't grow your business. Attracting new visitors and providing then with relevant, fresh information that solves there problem will grow your business.