The future of blogging...
Taking inspiration from my blogging 
session with François Laurent, I’ve been exploring the web and one or two of my favourite blogs to try and understand if we really are heading towards a society where blogging is a recognized profession…(basically I’m waiting for the day a job offer reads ‘X company is currently recruiting for its new CBO (Chief Blogging Officer)…’
Copyblogger posted a couple of interesting articles on the subject (well, what else would you expect?www.copyblogger.com/whats-a-blog/). The conclusion was often that most ‘professional’ blogging gurus are still way back (?!) in 2004 as Brian Clark puts it :
“You ’ve heard the old saws before:
- Blog posts should never be over 350 words
- If you want to post articles, you should move to another format
- You must post every day…”
But as he so rightly says, what happened to ‘it depends”…Blogging is a conversation …markets are conversations and I sincerely believe (not that my experience in blogging can really count for very much), that a successful blogger or blog is one that knows who it’s talking to (target audience), and with what aim (‘sales’ target), with what means (media /marketing plan), and what works (benchmarking and market analysis).
Whatsmore, a successful blog is far more functional than a ‘silent’ website…with proper referencing, trackbacks and links it goes a whole lot further than one would initially think. Yes, the possibilities are boundless but only if well planned out and followed up. And essentially “You ’re either writing something compelling that resonates with readers, or you ’re not”.
Essentially what matters in a blog is not you but your reader…focus on your client / reader / community and what they want to hear. Answer questions they want answers to. Unless your name is Britney Spears or possibly Seth Godin there is little point in talking about yourself unless you know that your readers (who may well be your colleagues) are genuinely interested in you and not necessarily your subject…or product.
In Brice Auckenthaler ’s latest book Imagination 3.0 which explores collective imagination, CGC and the Concept of Consumer / Coworker Assisted Co creation..(CACO ) the subject of blogging is discussed.He takes a two pronged approach to blogs :
1. The intimate diary blogosphere where people talk about their own lives [‘ego’ blogs ]. No need to be an expert to use mavie.com, nor to know how to write. Exhibitionism or ego-trip if you ’re feeling critical. There is a need to share, to belong, to feel acknowledged, if you prefer the positive socially useful side to these blogs . Little openness and very little real creativity. Simple accounts of an event/happening/ life. These blogs , could, at a stretch, be used to study individual usages and behaviour in view to an innovation but no more than that.
2. The expert’s blogosphere, that of opinion leaders, journalists, “amateur professionals”, cybercitizens and cyber politicians… who produce content and think together about a variety of subjects. Here the ‘ego trip’ is not necessarily absent but the collective dynamics are far more obvious. This blogosphere contributes to collective imagination [hence the name blog i, as in innovation or imagination] because it is a totally separate space where knowledge is shared through exchange and comment. One of the best of these blogs is the MIT, We are Smarter Than me, blog which, as its name would suggest generates collective innovation …(www.wearesmarter.org )
As nano-marketing is about The Future of marketing today, I’m not concerned with analysis N° 1 but more with the expert’s Blogosphere. In the same book, Gil Reveillon discusses the use of professional blogs in the automobile industry and gives an anecdote on his encounter with GM and Toyota
And what of the giant GM ? In January 2005 GM started a blog http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/ that has become a world reference, often compared to Michel Edouard Leclerc’s (the CEO of Leclerc, French hypermarket chain) blog where the big bosses speak out on a different level…For GM this blog provides an opportunity to collect “customer insights” on which models to launch, or changes to make to existing models. It is also a way to stay in touch with GM shareholders. From this period on, industry leaders have taken the cue and now speak directly to their public in order to gather user reactions.
What about 2talkabout… This also illustrates the use of a blog as an instant publication tool and a communication channel that bypasses other traditional media .
A blog is so multifaceted that it can be used as a tool for companies to gather consumer insights, reply to customer enquiries (PR and customer relations), stay in touch with shareholders, benchmark , carry out market surveys…and publish information for clients, and potential clients. It is, in essence, the ultimate ‘low cost ’ communication tool for any company , large, small, starting up or winding down.
To go back to an excellent article I found on Copyblogger ‘Zen and the art of remarkable blogging ' : www.copyblogger.com/zen-and-the-art-of-remarkable-blogging/: “ Blogging that gets noticed and linked to is all about seeing existing information from a unique perspective and writing with a fresh angle.” In marketing terms, new packaging can impact sales of an existing product. Taking a fresh look at an old problem might give you reader something to think about.
“Zen encourages practitioners to learn from teachers and other students to better understand how to attain truth through direct experience. The blogging community offers a similar environment, but the final breakthrough will always occur in your own mind and be the result of your own actions. You ’ve got to accept responsibility for your own success.”
· I’m not sure I’ve necessarily shed any light on a subject most people know more about than I do…but my initial question remains…We talk about professional bloggers and most of them are probably sole traders, consultants etc…Not many people make a living blogging , and I imagine that if you calculate the time spent blogging by the millions of ‘professional’ bloggers there are worldwide, and put a price to it, we are talking serious money. So what of the profession ? Is there one ? Are we likely to see CBOs in the future ?
(special thanks to Brian Clark and François Laurent...)
Mots-clés : blogging
, blogs , Imagination 3.0 , marketing , community , communication , blogosphere
