Spanish blogging

The international blogosphere, and in particular the Spanish blogosphere, is doing fine. Despite the gloom-mongering of some analysts and cyber-prophets and a growth rate somewhat slower than five years ago, the blogging sector is not dying out, but rather undergoing a process of transformation.

Blogs develop best in a context in which users can take time to reflect and get thoroughly to grips with a particular topic. Micro-postings and links, on the other hand, are more suited to social networking.

Keeping a blog alive by continuously updating it demands more time than most Internet users are prepared to spend. Social networks like Twitter, on the other hand, offer users a more direct and dynamic way of sharing micro-content and links. Facebook and its Spanish equivalent Tuenti are also in a good position to share content among users who would not otherwise read a blog.

Perhaps this is the key to the current developments: the creation of a public domain that is far more collaborative than the individualistic environment of the majority of blogs.

Trend towards specialization

Spanish bloggers are well aware that these new forms of social networking enrich rather than threaten their medium. The most progressive amongst them are already using the new platforms to find new readers and to expand, link and share their blog content.

Another important factor in the changing Spanish blogosphere is its increasing maturity and the tendency towards specialization. Blog formats are increasingly professional and tailored to fit their content.

The classic dairy blog has been joined by high quality specialist blogs in a diverse range of fields: tourism, education, literature, business, politics and advertising to name but a few.

Admittedly, it takes far more time to update and improve a blog than to add a micro-posting to a social networking site. Perhaps here, it would be useful to turn to the “State of the Blogosphere” report published by the Spanish blog portal bitacoras.com.

According to the report, only 6.98 percent of Spanish blogs are updated on a regular basis and only 3.91 percent of bloggers can be classed as truly active. This, however, is not bad when compared to the rest of the international blogosphere. According to Technocrati, globally only 1.1 percent of blogs are updated on a weekly basis. That puts Spanish bloggers up there with the most active bloggers of them all!

Communication and working together

Spanish blogs have a lot of potential left in them. Internet access is growing every day, especially in Latin America. There's been a shape increase in blog communities - from commercial blogs to social networks - specializing in a particular topic. All this is leading to a marked increase in both diversity and quality.

It is important that bloggers should harness the limitless possibilities of social networking to develop their blog and their own expert potential. Blogs will maintain their innovation, influence and credibility only in so far as they adapt to the changes around them whilst preserving their own particular strengths: distribution, cooperation, participation.

Vanina Berghella is a journalist and blogger in Argentina. Her blog, La Propaladora, is one of the best known in the Argentinean blogosphere. Vanina writes about the media, journalism, Internet and blogging. She is the founder and director of Clarin Blogs, the biggest blogging community in Argentina.

Editor: Sean Sinico