Storm troopers do more than look for droids (courtesy mikie daniel)Some influential online communicators either don’t have a blog or it’s pretty dormant. Their channels are elsewhere.

They might be big on Facebook, or very active on Twitter, or photo powerhouses on Flickr and Instagram, or busy with LinkedIn, but a blog is not the primary place where you’ll find them.

For example, Steve Rubel, Chief Content Strategist for Edelman, quit blogging on his own Micro Persuasion site in 2009, but he’s very active on Twitter and does a lot on LinkedIn. If you look for his old blog, you’ll be redirected to a Tumblr blog on a  .me domain that hasn’t been updated since October 2012.

He’s a prolific content creator, but I’m not sure I’d call him a blogger anymore.

I’m starting to use the term “online publisher” instead of “blogger.” I can’t think of any other word or phrase that encompasses all of the ways that people create and share digital content, but nobody ever knows what I’m talking about when I use it.

People have finally gotten their heads (mostly) around what a “blogger” does, and even though it’s not always accurate anymore, that’s the word we seem to be stuck with.

The takeaway for those who want to connect with influential people online is to look beyond blogs, and think beyond bloggers.

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