Comments on: Social Media is Giving Static Websites New Life

By: Laurent Blondeau (Evidencesx)

Laurent Blondeau (Evidencesx) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:42:22 +0000

Good paper for a today’s stuff. If I had kind of remarks about this topic, I would separate the two things : website on one hand, and Blogs on the other hand. Why ?
Websites traditionnaly talked about business (.com) and information (.org) for example. And Blogs were no longer out of some people who at start, loved writing, considering the fact that they needed write, but no succeed to be published (or wanted to). Goals were totally differents. Even in nowadays, frontier is no longer huge, I guess there’s a major use in these two kinds of sites. And as a revenge, Blogs brought lots of evolutions to the classical web ; see for example, lots of API, only developped for social networking…and become what FB’s done with Beacon…
Yes, Blogs woke up old sites. But yes, I think there’s still a place for two shapes of online communication…
Best wishes.
L.

By: Shana Albert

Shana Albert — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 02:55:52 +0000

@Elizabeth Able – Thank you so much for stopping by Elizabeth.

Forums are one of the first Social Media activities that arrived on the Web years ago. This post is talking about adding Social Media activities to give static websites new life…. Forums included.

But, to answer your question I think a lot of how conversations via blog comments will play out will be determined by how involved the Blogger is with his comments.

I run my blogs in a similar way that I run my household. When I have guests in my house I do not make them feel that they are not my equals. I treat my guests with the utmost respect as I do my blog visitors. They can ask me anything or state anything they like as long as they do this respectfully and I will treat them the same. That’s how I run my blogs and my blog’s comments.

I understand that all Blogs are run differently, but this is the way that I hope the majority of Blog Owner run their blogs. I just can’t see Blog comments being run proactively without running them in this fashion.

Thank you so much for the comment, Elizabeth

By: Elizabeth Able

Elizabeth Able — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 22:21:50 +0000

I waited a few days to comment on this because I have mixed feelings and wanted to give myself time to cook.

One down side I see is that, unlike in a well-run forum, there are no equals in blog comment conversations. We are guests in the author’s house. Do you have any thoughts on if or how forum-style think-tank conversations can thrive along side an increasingly active blogging movement?

Excellent article.

By: Blogs vs Static Websites | Sui Generis

Blogs vs Static Websites | Sui Generis — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:23:55 +0000

[...] If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting! And if there’s anything else I can do for you, feel free to drop me a line.Problogger recently asked the question of whether blogs have killed conventional websites. Shana Albert (among many others, I’m sure) added her thoughts to the question. [...]

By: 6 Basic Social Media Activities that can Give a Static Website New Life |

6 Basic Social Media Activities that can Give a Static Website New Life | — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 03:44:17 +0000

[...] just came across this excellent post titled, Social Media is Giving Static Websites New Life, written by Shana Albert over at Collective [...]

By: Shana Albert

Shana Albert — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:20:23 +0000

@Rob D – Absolutely, I totally agree. Wordpress and the other blogging platforms have made creating websites a ton easier. Thank you so much for the excellent comment.

By: Rob D

Rob D — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 16:43:15 +0000

I think the biggest thing with static websites was that going “dynamic” meant lots of code and some sort of application. Simple blog platforms like WordPress and the integration of social media, let static sites become more dynamic without a lot of the development headaches. WordPress (and others) are now bigger than the original blogs as well. They are getting to be full content management systems, so that you can start a website using them, just like MikeonTV said.

By: Shana Albert

Shana Albert — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:46:37 +0000

@Scott Clark – Excellent points. Those are two I have actually never tried. Thank you so much for the Sphinn, Scott.

@Matt Keegan – That is exactly the point I’m trying to make, Matt. I have no reason to believe that static websites are going anywhere anytime soon. Thanks for the comment, Matt.

@Jeremiah Owyang – I am thrilled you enjoyed the post. It’s all about evolving. Websites aren’t going anywhere…. they are just changing. The success of business has always been to change with the times. I believe the rule still applies. Thanks for leaving a comment and the link to your post.

@MikeonTV – There you go. Thanks for stopping by.

@TzuVelli – Indeed. Thank you so much for the comment.

By: TzuVelli

TzuVelli — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:51:55 +0000

Hi Shana,

I definitely agree. Social Media has been great for static websites. However, “old school” webmasters that do not embrace social media will hurt their sites. An older site has advantages but by ignoring social media the relevancy of those advantages will decline. Anyway, nice points.

Beau hooks

By: MikeonTV

MikeonTV — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:36:42 +0000

Whats funny is that I just installed Wordpress to run a ‘website’ (not a blog) recently. It’s actually quite easy if you get a minimalist theme to start a little bit above “from the ground up”.

By: Jeremiah Owyang

Jeremiah Owyang — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:08:11 +0000

Excellent theory, I too have suggested that irrelevant corporate websites need to evolve.

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2007/05/29/web-strategy-how-to-evolve-your-irrelevant-corporate-website/

By: Matt Keegan

Matt Keegan — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 11:38:32 +0000

Shana, excellent points you have made. I, too, have static pages on my flagship site as well as two blogs. Both arrangements help bring in traffic, in different ways at that.

Google seems to love some of my static pages as they’ve been around for several years, have achieved PageRank, and are doing well in the SERPs.

By: Scott Clark

Scott Clark — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 05:34:13 +0000

One of the things that really improved some static sites I worked on was the integration of two technologies: Yahoo! Pipes and Grouper/Carp. These allow a live, social media connection real-time in a static site. When people make good decisions about the injection of that content into the correct context, it can really help brush away the cobwebs.

By: Jason Rakowski

Jason Rakowski — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 04:38:55 +0000

I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you.

Jason Rakowski