Online Presence Vs Online Portfolio

Are Social Websites and Blogs becoming more important for a creative to have and maintain than a Dedicated Online Portfolio.

For years it has been essential for a creative practitioners to have a dedicated online portfolio to showcase their skills and talents. But now, with the incredible growth of social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, many people seem to be turning away from the technical platform of a dedicated portfolio and are starting to embrace the freedom of the tangible Blog.

Blogs provide a platform for immediate and continuous updates on any aspects of a persons life and they help build the relationship with communities of practice. Large companies are also starting to turn to the blog as a way of keeping their readers in the loop which makes them feel involved.

Thinking about it, a peer of mine has said that they think web designers are having to go backwards in terms of design and technical features within their websites. As more and more handheld platforms are being used to view the Internet, there has been an increase of blog style sites being used for readers to easily access the information using hand held devices. Accessibility is being challenged way beyond the old conflict of browsers as mobile technology advances. 

My research so far into this personal research project has made me think that I could integrate a blog RSS feed as the 'News' section of the website. This would make it easier for my client to update this section, which will probably be the section they update the most. It would also give them another form of online presence which would greater enhance their image and accessibility for their customers.

The only downside to this would be that it is another site for them to have to 'log in' to and edit which might not be appealing to them as they confess they are not very tech savvy. They might prefer to have everything in one place for them to maintain.