Reusing Blog Content

This morning I blogged about Reusing Blog Content on my QA Blog. I'm actually going to reuse my own content (which references a lot of other blog content) and copy it here. It is perfectly acceptable to promote your own content and something I do regularly! Though people not in social media may think this seems a bit self-centered, those of us that do a lot of social media "stuff" realize that it, in fact, is self-centered, but that's what must be done to get attention.


But what's really great is that it's even easier to promote others' content and means you don't even have to think very hard to come up with something witty of your own! Retweeting in Twitter (done with a RT) is very popular. What it means is that you're passing along content that you like to your network. You give credit to the user who's content you're passing along (using @username) and then those who see the "retweet" may start following the user who originally posted the material. This is looked at as a good thing. The original tweeter feels grateful that you are passing along his or her content.

I haven't seen quite the same kind of nomenclature in the blogging world, though it's very popular to promote someone else's content. Usually you do so by including a link in your blog to the original content.

For example, this morning I read this post on the PractiTest QA Blog by Joel Montvelisky:

Learning Testing from Horse Trainers? (thanks to Adam Goucher)

Joel summarizes that in order to become a professional you will need:

- Talent
- Sacrifice / Selflessness
- Blood, Sweat & Tears
- Determination
- People Skills
- Bravery or Courage
- Character & Intelligence
- Develop a Plan

Adam Goucher's original post was referenced which in turn, referenced bullets and relevant quotes from Jessica Jo Tate, the horse-trainer, from which this whole discussion begins.

Now in the PractiTest QA blog, Joel says:

I don’t usually write blogs about other blogs but this morning I read one in Adam Goucher’s blog that really made it for me, and it was actually based on another article he read on a how to become a professional horse trainer… talk about recycling information

I say... Recycle (ReTweet, ReBlog) away! It's a good thing! It's not like you're stealing someone's content claiming it as your own. You're passing along content that you think is informative and valuable, giving the original owner credit! This leads to readership and additional publicity for the original owner.

Now, I do think if the ONLY thing a blogger does is recycle others' content, THAT can be a little annoying. It's good to add your own commentary and have some original content as well. But, passing along good content to your own network is a very acceptable and welcomed practice in the world of social media.

So if anyone wants to reference this post, which references my QA post which references Joel's post, which references Adam's post, which references Jessica Jo Tate's site... please do!