Every bloggers is unique

As said in the previous post that the number of bloggers is increasing, these bloggers have come out with very unique blogs and inspirations which is hard to be classified as they may fit into two or more categories at the same time. This lead to more types of classifications being created and sometimes they contradict with each other.

Classification of blogs

This post will analyse two very different ways of blog classification, one by Margaret Simons while another one by Barefoot and Szabo. 

Margaret Simons's taxonomy of blogs

Margaret Simons

Margaret Simons is “an award-winning freelance journalist and the author of numerous books and essays” (Margaret Simons 2012). An interview through ABC Radio National by Antony Funnell on 25 September 2008, Margaret came out with 9 types of blogs as follows:

1. Pamphleteering blogs: blogs covering multiple topics which are written by more than one authors who express their own views towards the topic of discussion.
2. Digest blogs: blogs which collect, compile and publish information from various sources regarding various topics. These types of blogs also serve as a connector between the search engine and the real data source.
3. Advocacy blogs: blogs which discuses and emphasizes on a particular point of view towards an area of a topic by a group of people with the same interest.
4. The Popular Mechanics blogs: blogs which serves as a learning site which shows a step-by-step process to make certain products or to solve problems.
5. The Exhibition blogs: blogs which publishes artworks by people in the creative field such as photographers, artist, poetry and writers.
6. Gatewatcher blogs: blogs which served to critique the media’s reporting by bloggers who are expert in their own field of commenting on the issue. 
7.  The Diary: blogs which talks about the blogger’s own personal life such as happenings in their daily life. 
8.  The Advertisement: blogs which talks about the functions and benefits of a product which is meant to attract readers of the blog to the product advertised.
9.  News Blogs: blogs which served to provide news to the readers just like how newspaper served as a news provider.

The classification by Margaret distinguishes on the content of the blogs in details. 

Barefoot & Szabo's views on different types of blog 

Friends with Benefits by Barefoot & Szabo

On the other hand, Barefoot & Szabo (2010, p.48) classified blogs into “personal, topical and corporate blogs”. This is a more general type of classification compared to Margaret’s.  


Personal Blogs

Personal blogs are written based on blogger's own personal stories and happenings in their life. These blogs cover a variety of topics or chapters which intertwined with blogger’s daily life.  For instance, the blog posts in a personal blog may be divided further into topics such as fashion, food, travel, and shopping. This type of blog is often being seen as an online diary and the content of the blog consist of an informal style of writing with blogger’s personal jargon and emotion icon.  

Interesting personal blog:

ShinyShampoo's blog

ShinyShampoo features interesting stories happening in her life. I have been following her blog since my secondary school days as her determination with a positive attitude towards every happenings in life is a good example to be learned. The stories in the blog also teaches a quote which is 'No Ugly people, only LAZY people' which was experienced by the blogger herself. Her strong determination and belief to this quote had changed herself to who she is today.

Other interesting personal blogs:

• Fourfeetnine
• Xiaxue

Topical Blogs

Topical blogs “covers a particular topic [such as cars and health] which is more journalistic in nature” (Barefoot & Szabo 2010, p.48). This content of these blogs falls on a particular subject of discussion and it can be expressed in a formal and informal way. The bloggers who falls in this category are usually very passionate on the subject of discussion. Readers who search for certain information online or views on certain subject matter is very likely to visit these types of blog to obtain information.

Food Recipes blog:

Elinluv's Tidbits Corner blog

Elinluv's Tidbits Corner contains reliable recipes where the result of the cooking will be achieved as shown on the blog when the steps given is followed precisely. This is because I had try most of the recipes from the blog for my cooking.

Other reliable food recipes blogs:

• My Kitchen Snippets
  
• Table For 2

Tourism Blog:

Vkeong's blog

Vkeong's blog features a mixture reviews of food, hotels and interesting places to travel to. Readers will be able to find some good place to dine around them but unknown to many. 

Other tourism/travel blogs:

• Tommy Ooi

• J-Travel

Corporate Blog

Corporate blog “are sponsored by a company or one of its brands and maintained by one or more of the company’s employees” (Lamb, Hair & McDaniel 2010, p.481). The content of a corporate blog use a formal language its writing and the design of the blog often followed the company’s publication in other forms. This is done by using the same logo, colour and layout in other publication forms such as from printed pamphlets in the blog design to enable readers identify the organization or brand which readers are searching for. This consistency in the organization’s publication will ensure readers remember an organization’s promotion and publication activities which will not confuse them.

Samples of corporate blogs:

Disney Park's Blog

Disney Park's blog features events and happenings on Disney's owned parks all around the world. Readers can get updates on things happen in the parks by accessing one website. 


Other Malaysian corporate blogs

• Resort World Genting

• Quiksilver & Roxy Malaysia

 

Blogs in reality...

Both views on classification of blogs are right where they both have their own way of seeing things. However, both author’s view in classifying can be combined together to be more realistic and applicable. From my point of view, a majority of the blogs are a combination of personal and topical blogs. This can be seen where topical blogs which blogs deeply about a particular topic does include the blogger’s own personal lives in some postings. For instance, a blogs on travel does include their personal post sometimes. This is to make the blog more engaging to the readers and such blogs can gain high blog followers. Readers are curious about the personal lives of the blog owner and it attracts them to keep following their blog when there are personal posting on it. Therefore, I suggest to classify blogs based on the content and the overall outlook of the blog.

The definition of personal blog should not only deal with personal things but also include some content of topical blog where the blogger may be interested in beauty and fashion and half of the post goes into that field. That blog could also include field of 'the mechanics blog' where it could teach a step-by-step tutorial on makeup. Consistently, it also served as an advertisement blog and news blog where the posting on product reviews and launches is made. In reality, these bloggers managed to attract readers to follow them who made them a celebrity such as the famous 'Cheeserland' and 'XiaXue'.

References:

ABC Radio National 2008, 'A taxonomy of blogs', viewed 17 September 2012, < http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/mediareport-1999/a-taxonomy-of-blogs/3186686>.

Barefoot, D & Szabo, J 2010, Friends with benefits: A social media marketing handbook, No Starch Press Inc, San Francisco.

Lamb, CW, Hair, JF & McDaniel, C 2010, Marketing, 10^th edn, South-Western Cengage Learning, United States of America.

Margaret Simons 2012, “About Margaret”, viewed17 September 2012, <http://margaretsimons.com.au/?page_id=2>.





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