There's a great debate raging in the blogosphere right now. Actually, it originated up north in Canada (I guess they need the heat up there this time of year) between a couple of great bloggers.What do you think?Mark: great points here. Mitch certainly raised some valid points & counterpoints on his own blog and here, but I have to side with you. I actually put this question to my readers a couple of months ago, and opinions were split (of those who chose to comment).
Bottom line: social media, if nothing else, is about choices. Never before has it been so easy to give your audience a variety of ways to consume content. Mitch or you are I are not so omniscient that we can presume how every reader prefers to consume content. So why not give them everything and let them choose?
Blog posts, del.icio.us links, Google Reader shared item, Twitter streams - it’s all fair game!
Labels: blogging, del.icio.us, Mark Goren, Mitch Joel, trends
Posted by Scott Monty at 10:40 PM
At Ford, Scott heads up the social media function and holds the title Global Digital & Multimedia Communications Manager. He is a strategic advisor on all social media activities across the company, from blogger relations to marketing support, customer service to internal communications and more, as social media is being integrated into many facets of Ford business.

Prior to joining Ford, Scott served as Consigliere for crayon and spent a number of years with PJA Advertising + Marketing, a boutique BtoB agency specializing in health sciences & high tech.
In addition to his professional responsibilities, Scott is an active blogger and podcaster. He writes about the intersection of advertising, marketing and PR at The Social Media Marketing Blog and also writes The Baker Street Blog and cohosts I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere, two literary undertakings. Scott has been featured in hundreds of news and business publications in print and on the web, in nearly dozens of books, and on a variety of mainstream media, including NBC, NPR, CNN and The Wall Street Journal. Scott is a recognized thought leader in the social media industry and frequently speaks at industry events.
Scott received his Master's in Medical Science from Boston University's School of Medicine concurrently with his MBA from BU's Graduate School of Management. He lives in the greater Detroit area with his wife and two young sons, golfs all too infrequently, and has a hidden talent for voice over work.
Oh, and one last little-known fact: Scott coined the Oxford Dictionary of English-accepted term "tweetup."
You may download a headshot here, courtesy of Rosh Sillars; a PDF version of Scott's bio is here .
Scott speaks on social media at events, seminars and conferences around the world. His topic generally focuses on corporate use of social media, becoming an online spokesperson, and specifically on the progress that Ford has made in the recent past. If you're interested in booking Scott to speak at your event, please click here to submit a speaking request for Ford-related purposes or email me at speaking [AT] this site's URL (if you know what I mean) to send a general email request.. Scott's bio and headshot can be found in the "About Scott" tab above.
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As I said in response to your comment at my blog: I think this is the perfect response, a debate-closer, really.
I'll also add this. Your readers are guests in your home. If you're making them feel uncomfortable, then maybe it's time to change the way you're treating them at your place. However, if they like your hospitality, enjoy your company and genuinely enjoy handing with you at your place, then there's no action to take.
In other words: ultimately, it's your visitors who will decide. And you'll know their decision by whether they keep visiting or not.
Thanks for your great insight into this debate, Scott and for pushing it further.
I think there needs to be two opposing sides for their to be a "debate" ;) I'll say it again, Mark and I are in violent agreement ;)
I also think that in this age of conversation, there isn't a "closer" - let's keep it open for others to discuss as well.
My issue with the automated link Blog posting was that I'm noticing, more and more, that some of my favorite Bloggers are not using it to supplement their Blog postings (adding value)... they're using it instead of Blogging.
If Readers find that valuable, it's as I said: "your mileage may vary." Everyone does whatever it is they do to make their Blogs the most accessible.
I like reading what people are thinking and why. I think there is a hybrid here - like why not take two or three things you've read on the Web and dissect them as a Blog posting? Here's why: because then you would be Blogging... and that's what I miss.
This is a very interesting discussion. In fact, as a recent addition to the conversation it's one that I've been thinking about quite a bit.
I'm still trying to sort my thoughts out around this. Hopefully I'll be putting them all into a coherent, thoughtful blog post soon.
Keeping the debate alive (even before seeing these new comments) by tweeting links to all three of our posts.
And I do agree (peacefully?) that a hybrid post would be nice. If delicious could do something to push that along, maybe we would see more detailed and thought out posts.
The simple solution is to provide choices like you said Scott.
It quite easy to build 2-3 feeds:
1 for posts, 1 for links, and 1 for both.
Scott, you know where I stand on this, we have talked about it before:
pfaghh, phooey, bleck.
I look at my feed, I see "de.licio.us links" and nothing else in the header, I don't click. I blogged about this back in March, and it still holds.
Oh-- and demerits for naming your post after one of the worst songs in poop music history. :)
oops, subliminal typo