There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all blogging platform.  Different scenarios call for different solutions; consequently, it is important for the aspiring blogger to carefully consider his or her options.  To illustrate, let’s look at three different potential bloggers and which solution(s) would be a good fit for them:

1. A giant coffee retailer looking to connect with customers.

A large corporation values and is willing to pay for a more customized and professional looking blogging platform as well as enhanced technical support.  If there are money, resource, and/or time contraints, I would recommend that they choose a commercial blogging hosting site such as Expression Engine or Compendium Blogware.  Both platforms offer standard and custom blogging features beyond what WordPress, Blogger, or Tumblr  offer. 

Alternatively, as a large corporation with presumably vast resources and fewer money, resource, or time constraints than an individual blogger, they could purchase their own blogging software (most likely as part of a larger “Social Software” package) and host it themselves.  This would give them complete control over the hosting platform as well as the blogging site. 

Here are some highlighted features which might lead you to chose one platform/package over another:

• Expression Engine comes with a “Simple Commerce Module” which allows you to set up an on-line store and accept paypal for payments. 
• Compendium offers some content management functionality, allowing content which has been created for one purpose (say blogging) to be broadcast via facebook and twitter as well. 
• IBM, Microsoft, Jive, and others offer blogging software as part of their “Social Software” packages which contain document sharing, discussion forums, and wiki capabilities, among others. 

  

2. A photographer interested in making their work go viral.

A photographer should look first to Tumblr to see if it meets their needs.  Tumblr caters to “creative types”, and is easy to use.  It also uses its homepage to broadcast the latest works created by its members and offers some categorization of content by category type.

If the photographer specializes in video, he/she would probably want to post the video to YouTube and link to it from his/her blog in order to increase its visibility and maximize the chance that it will go viral.

3. A Syracuse Crunch hockey blogger looking to write daily updates.

A minor league hockey player wishing to write daily updates would probably be best served by selecting WorkPress or Blogger as their blogging platform.  The cost and technical skills required to create and post to the blog are minimal.  Search engine optimization is done automatically by the hosting platforms and mobile applications are available to make it easy to post while “on the road”.   WordPress would be my first choice due to its greater popularity in the blog world.  However, if integration with other Google services (e.g. Google docs) was an important concern, Blogger would be the better choice.