Yesterday in a discussion about social media, one of my clients asked; what do you feel is the future of the blogosphere?

The question specifically referred to advertising models and how I felt that brands would be able to leverage the blogosphere to get their messages’ across to consumers. A subsequent question was; do you feel that long tail will continue to grow, or do you feel most prominent bloggers will join some sort of media/ad network?

Interestingly, one of the first pieces of news that I read this morning was about the formation of the Technorati Media network. This got me thinking about yesterday’s questions. Here are some of the thing I have been thinking about;

• The Need For Personal Expression Will Never Cease
  • As long as people are compelled to express themselves they will take advantage of platforms that make it easiest for them to do so; blogging is such a platform
• There Will Always Be A New Tail To Tell
  • Today’s long tail may consolidate into something that we may refer to as the “fat body”, but all the while a new long tail will grow and wag with great fervor
• Humans Are Greedy By Nature
  • Okay, that is a bold statement but I was trying to be provocative. I do feel that all of us are subject to greed from time to time. No matter how hard people try to portray bloggers as honest, sentient beings, bloggers are humans and can be enticed by economic gain as easily as anyone else.
• The Lines Between Pro, Consumer and Prosumer Will become More Clear
  • Advertising in blogs that are authored by full time professionals will mean something much different than advertising in blogs written by hobbyist’s or part-timers like myself. I will not speculate which will be more effective, but I will say that the two need to be treated very different
• The word “blog” will mean something entirely different in five years than what it means today
  • Again, I cannot really speculate here, but I know that the common perception about what a blog is will be very different in five years than what it is today.
    • One one hand, the concept of the blog may be relegated back to the place it was 6-7 years ago when blogging looked upon by many as a lesser form of journalism.
    • On the other hand, blogging may continue to invade the mainstream and become much more similar to what mainstream media is today.
    • • Either way, it will be very different!

Anyhow, these are just some early morning thoughts. I have not thought all these through thoroughly, but I figured I would put them out there while they were still fresh in my mind. I would love to hear what all of you think!