"Are You Someone’s User-Generated Content?" Following up on the previous post.

Sites like Freelance Switch and Zen Habits have grown big fast because readers tend to value the independent publication approach, and at the same time more value is created for the owners. I believe this is the route that business and corporate blogs must take to succeed, too.

In other words, every smart company is a digital media company.

Valuable content on a site you own is a classic win-win for readers and the site owner, while publishing original material on Facebook is a lopsided relationship that favors Zuckerberg and his data-hoarding cronies.

Social networking is highly useful for driving traffic back to your own web asset (and we use various platforms to do just that). But I have no interest in becoming someone’s user-generated content, especially at the expense of my privacy … or my business.

via copyblogger.com