Strive Notes

Image by marketingfacts via Flickr

A blog is traditionally written by someone who knows what they’re talking about. However this blog post on blogging isn’t. I didn’t even know what blogging stood for until I recently read a book on the subject, Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel.

It  has opened my eyes up to the whole world of blogging, and its growing massive impact on several levels – commercial, social, economic, journalistic …

The book developed the realisation that blogging could lead to no less than a new world order, where openness, transparency and direct honest communication suddenly stamp forcefully on the world of spin in which information – and misinformation – is fed to us by others.

This is an interesting statement when made by someone whose career in journalism has recently detoured to also embrace PR. Both professions are often cruelly lambasted for being misleading.

Does blogging turn news reporting upside down and shift the balance of power to the public? Does it rattle the foundations of the edifice in which journalists smugly sit as the untouchable professionals who filter out the news because they think they’re so clever? Is it a revolution that will sweep aside vast media organisations?

Is blogging the ultimate democratic tool in which even the tiniest voice can be heard?  Or is it a ’sad little ego trip’ that, in the hands of the greater public with little ‘establishment’ control will lead to anarchal stabs that will ultimately signify nothing? Is it just a mass of ‘worthless white noise?’

As far as I can see, blogging changes everything and it changes nothing.  The basic problem with blogging is there’s so much of it out there – we’re in blog jam – and so much of it is lengthy (because it’s ego driven) and frankly, boring.

In terms of its impact on journalism, the thing that will keep news organisations ticking is the editorial process that is quite rightly in place partly to keep reporters’ egos in check and write copy the reader wants to read.  There is a team of professionals sifting through copy – editors, sub editors, legal advisers, other reporters – it is read and re-read before it hits the page to ensure it is interesting and correct.

Being interesting and correct are two critical elements that are missing in the blogosphere, meaning how do you trust what you’re reading? You can’t.

As for PR, the profession still has a very valuable place in news delivery, I see it as the flip side of the coin to journalism.  Business people are often so busy making business that they do not see the story they’re sitting on – nor can they necessarily communicate it effectively – and this is where the PR comes in. There is a sea of PR professionals out there who are delivering stories to busy reporters. Again, accuracy and interest are two critical elements of message delivery.

But this doesn’t mean blogging has no place, on the contrary.  Businesses realise this and are harnessing its power. Big corporations have teams of people whose sole employ is to seek out and responding to blogs about their company.

A whisper of something going wrong with a gadget on your new mountain bike could develop a momentum of blogging that could wipe out any benefits of an expensive advertising campaign.  Be honest and apologetic about the misbehaving gadget and be seen to make amends and it will do wonders for the loyalty of the customer base.

The clever PR will advise their client to get a blogging area of their website to attract comment – both positive and negative – and help companies to see that not having a blog on their website is seen as evasive and therefore damning in itself.  The reporter might sniff out some interesting stories via blogs.
Blogging must be taken seriously by everyone – organisations, professions, journalists and PRs – anyone that’s in the business of communication, which is just about everyone.

It may be a refreshing and a truly democratic tool, but blogging will by no means lead to the demise professions such as journalism and PR, not least because everyone, just everyone, is time poor and the last thing they need is more to do.

Apparently worldwide there are 120,000 new blog posts created every day, that’s 1.4 every second, and guess who’s just added to that?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Am I Too Naked
• Robert and Shel: Making New Media Less Hippie; More Naked

Filed under: public relations