Last year, when the buzz about blogs started to to take off, I remember picking up Hugh Hewitt’s book “Blogs” in the Dallas airport and was compelled by his argument that blogging is an information reformation.
Hewitt compares the blogging phenomenon with the reformation of the church and in many ways he’s right. He sets the tone with the ‘RatherGate’ blog scandal that brought CBS and Dan Rather to an apology and he offers other proof that blogs continue to disrupt Big Media by spreading ideas and news faster than traditional organizations and opening conversations that lead to greater discoveries and insight.
Naked Conversation is one of the latest blog books on the shelf written by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel to evangelize blogging and there are some convincing testimonies about blogs are disrupting business communications. The authors explore some 180 business scenarios and share how these companies are using blogs to culture loyal customers and spread a viral buzz that in many ways is more effective than traditional mediums.
Scoble works for Microsoft and leads one of the most popular blogs on the Net at Channel 9 and suggests this resource has helped soften Microsoft’s ‘borg’ image and he may be right. By opening a transparent window into the biggest software company on the planet, Microsoft is suggests an honest and open mind that other organizations are either ignore because it’s “not part of corporate DNA.”
David Sifry with Technorati (one of the blog world’s search engines) recently reported there are over 36 million blogs world-wide and the size of this collection of personal, professional and conversational platforms are doubling in size every six months. Almost 1/4 of all web users have their own blogs now!
My own blog started some several months ago as a result of my own apathy of trying to redesign my own website. After a while the graphics became less important and the ideas and conversations started to take center stage.
After subscribing to hundreds of blogs, I’ve discovered what many have seen as teen diaries, egoic political editorials and more importantly I’ve discovered a valuable connection with several companies and clever individuals whose ideas and conversations continue to strengthen my life both personally and professionally. Blogs have quickly become my preferred method of gathering information and along with RSS feeds offered by most every serious news organization, I rarely find myself visiting websites to surf or search unless a feed entices me to click on a headline.
Many editors consider blogs a fad, but I’m not ready to join that train of thought because there are several things about blogs that need to be noticed. It is truly given every individual the power to publish to the world and there is plenty of evidence now that information travels faster through a blog.
This book is littered with great quotes and one of the first is from Arthur Schopenhauer –
“All truth passes through three stages: First – the truth is ridiculed. Second – the truth is violently opposed and third – the truth is accepted as self-evident”
This is intriguing too as many journalists criticize blogs from elitist positions, but blogs are home to lots of information (you have to weed through a lot of drivel), especially with some of the false reports and hyperbole we receive via traditional news channels, the only thing that separates them from the guild of writers is their credibility, but I believe something else is in play.
Naked Conversations has an excellent definition of a blog;
Nothing more than a personal web site with content displayed in reverse-chronological order.
From this statement, the authors build compelling chapters featuring many businesses and how they are using blogs to establish two-way conversations with their customers. Their departure from the general definition of a blog describes six pillars which are enhanced by testimonials throughout the book. Those include;
Blogging’s Six Pillars
1. Blogs must publishable (lots of free software on the Net)
2. Findable (blogs should be easy to locate – name, etc)
3. Social (blogs should culture conversations)
4. Viral (blogs should be in a place to spread out into the web)
5. Syndicatible (blogs should have RSS feeds so users can subscribe)
6. Linkable (blogs should include and provide lots of links)
One of the most important considerations the authors describe about blogs is the notion that blogs should be conversational. Now this is easy for some and not for others. For myself, I’ve been working with an online community for several years now and the best thing that ever happened to me was grow tough skin (that’s easy now that I’m 40 plus!).
The Buzz Music Forum is not really a ‘blog’, but it’s still a conversation. The anonymity on this resource provides some people an opportunity to vent and attack other individuals. As a moderator, you’ve got to develop tough rules, but the authors point out something unique too – when you communicate with people, they seem to become more respectful and that’s true, but starting a forum or a blog is still stepping out on a limb.
One of the most important things about blogs that all businesses should take note of is the statement in this book that,
Blogging turns out to be the best way to secure a high Google ranking
Google spiders the web in search for change.
They’re right too! Blogging is ‘word of mouth on steroids.’ If you’re really want to attract visitors don’t corner yourself into the market with a website that never changes. Instead, consider a blog and how you might use it regularly. This one nugget made this book worth its hard-cover price and I’ve found in my own efforts, the words on my blog are much easier to find on the web and the fact I don’t have to redesign my website every time I get the notion and focus instead on content makes me an even bigger believer in the new medium.
Naked Conversations takes some stabs at traditional mediums and PR companies and although these professionals have created much of the advertising world as we know it, there continues to be less trust in the hyperbole of ad agencies and PR firms, particularly because these firms typically distort the original message. They argue that blogs on the other hand return the power back to the consumer and they might be right.
Dave Winer is often called, the Father of the Blog (interesting name for someone criticizing mass media), and his reason for developing the reverse-chronological order of conversations was his own disdain for traditional media.
I like the idea of the Participation Age. As a 20-year plus employee in the newspaper business, it’s great to see these new voices come up out of the grass roots world, funneled to the top via the use of open-source software. It’s even more interesting to watch traditionalists wrestle with the future of blogging.
I agree with the authors that journalists are important and provide fresh insight into the topics of the day. Like the rest of us, yes, they do get the facts wrong from time to time, but sometimes their stories can be both self-serving to their employers or sometimes jump off the rail more than corporate salespeople do.
If you’re a Public Relations expert – this book also takes a big stab at your profession too –
PR people are accused of speaking in an oxymoronic mix of risk-avoidance and hyperbole language that most people don’t trust.
Blogs truly have the potential to become the truly unedited voice of the people. Mind you – like me- their quality and their research may be lacking, but the immediacy and the transparency that supports this idea are revolutionary.
Little companies have excellent potential with blogs too. It gives small businesses an opportunity to expand into a global reach at an extremely low cost. There are several scenarios in ‘Conversations’ that explore how passion and ingenuity can turn a product into a phenomenon with the use of a blog.
Here’s a little reality check though. Although blogs are not expensive (free in some cases), but what it saves in dollars it burns in time. I know that more than anyone now and wish I had more time to blog, but for some reason, we only have 24 hours in a day.
The book also offers five important tips to blogging success;
Five Success Tips
1. Talk. Don’t Sell.
2. Post often and be interesting
3. Write on issues you know and care about – a good blog is passionate and shows authority
4. Blogging saves money but costs time
5. You get smarter by listening to what people tell you
– my readers are collectively smarter than me.
There are several individuals and consultants who get blogs too. My own media world is saturated by authors and people who I barely knew less than a year ago. But I feel like I know them from their blogs. I especially enjoy personal blogs mixed with business and that’s what my own blog takes on. There are also some other blogs who give me a chance to be a voyeur too – I have a couple of girlfriends in this arena, but they don’t know anything about me 🙂
Blogging is two-way marketing where customers can carry on feedback with the company. Sounds great too, but most often people are prone to either moderate or eliminate conversations or statements they don’t agree with. This was a funny post too a few weeks ago as Scoble (the author and evangelist of transparency), switched his own blogging ethics to moderate his comments.
As mentioned before, people can be downright mean on comment forms and that’s going to be the dark element to blogging. Sure, no-one likes negative comments, but sometimes this type of feedback will culture others who defend the topics and the conversations continue and if a business is willing to be open and honest – even with the heckling – they still can add to their credibility and respect among the audience, but if you’re afraid of negative comments or afraid to share ideas, the authors do offer this advice – don’t blog.
When blogs are successful they have a contagious way of spreading too and topics that start off in little gardens can weed their way around the world in a matter of days, because blogs are the best connectors ever invented with its ‘many to many’ voice, so this medium is truly powerful.
Blogs are democratizing the media, driving corporate transparency and challenging traditional PR practices and I don’t know if I agree with the out-of-place statement ‘Blog or Die’ but it’s something to consider if you want to sharpen all of your skills.
Blogs are different among cultures too. Not everyone in the world share the ‘chest-beating’ persona of the typical American and the authors do a good job of taking a look at the bigger picture with describing blogging around the world. Some countries are conducive to blogging while others simply aren’t.
Blogging is thinking in front of others. It is accepting that you are open to their comments, their suggestions and criticism. Even ignoring a comment is a insult to some readers so if you’re gonna blog, you need to do it right and keep the channels open.
I like the authors reference to the ‘Echo Chamber.’ Sometimes it’s easy to succumb to the elusion that the comments of a blogger are true for the world and that’s just not the case. That’s reassuring too and should certainly help with any anxiety for those who are afraid to blog. The biggest mistake we make is thinking everyone is reading our blog and most often – that’s not the case.
Naked Conversations offers great advice to corporations who will eventually step into the water and offer a ‘blog smart’ strategy and encourages management to clearly define what employees can or cannot blog about. They encourage prudence and even offer suggestions and examples on how not to get yourself into trouble.
Specifically, Naked Conversations suggest (besides the ‘do nothing stupid rule’);
– Not matching up with the PR image
– Looking financial or other confidential information
– Disrupting the workplace by pissing off coworkers and bosses
– Breaking news in advance and generating unexpected work for the PR team
– Exposing dirty laundry
– Creating legal liabilities
– Damaging a company’s relationships with partners, competitors, or other entities that affect its standing.
“The trouble with doing something right for the first time is that nobody appreciates how difficult it was – Walt West
‘Conversations’ has some great suggestions for how to start and maintain a credible blog. The advice is illuminating and will save you lots of time in tests and trails. One important rule that I’ve adopted recently with regard to social journalism is “Living Room Rule” and the authors suggest: Post it Once – Enforce It Forever.
If you are a guest in my home and you are rude to me or my guests, I will ask you to be more polite. If you do not comply I will make you leave and you will not be allowed back in.
Naked Conversations and the fascination of blogs wouldn’t be possible without RSS. RSS or (Really Simple Syndication) is an important conduit for making blogs popular and the authors have a very important observation that holds true for the short generation of the Internet.
If you have the appropriate RSS support in your web browser, you can simply click a Subscribe button when visiting a RSS-enabled web page that interest you, and that page is added to your subscription list. You then start receiving all updates to that page as they occur.
RSS is a data distribution protocol that lets you subscribe to almost any blog and Naked Conversations states that
Anyone who develops a web page today that is not RSS enabled should be fired…
This book also describes quite nicely the past ten years or so on the Net. I started working in the medium around 1995 and this short paragraph gives an appropriate observation about how things have moved from the Age of Surf, The Age of Search and Now The Age of Subscriptions using RSS feeds and blogs.
In the late 1994, the Age of Surf began. Graphical web browsers
The Internet had promised interactivity, but it turned out that it was difficult and expensive to keep updating the site.Once built, most sites were updated infrequently or not at all. Some served as nothing more than static online brochures and were as remarkable to read as an outdated train schedule.
Then, in 1998, a couple of Stanford kids came up with Google, which dramatically improved search results by employing intelligent algorithms rather than simple keywords, the Age of Search had arrived.
Blogs and Social Media are now fueling a new Age of Subscription.
Naked Conversations is an excellent manifesto for The Conversational Era. More than a fad, the blogsphere is growing every day – every second a new blog starts – and the power of information is shifting once again from the elite to the individual and this book is one of the best primers for the do’s and don’ts about this new landscape.
I like how the authors continually suggest that blogs are more than a technical phenomenon (even though open-source Web2.0 code would probably slow the evolution) it’s a shift in our culture. Humans love conversations and they love to tell stories – it’s the essence of human culture.
One of my friends who is a English professor always notes when a blogger is in the class because they have no problem spewing out lines of words and sentences and maybe that’s a good thing. Language is a lasting and a powerful expression and my only hope is that the stage encourages me to work on being better at the craft.
Although there are moments where the book is a little too optimistic – thinking that our culture will shift their attention to sustained blogging, I do believe the medium is disrupting traditional channels and those who learn how to integrate the craft into their own businesses will reap great rewards and lasting impressions from their customers, especially if they approach their blog with honesty, consistency and a genuine ear to the comments and conversations from their visitors.
If you’re interested in how blogging can help your business, or you are a marketing rep, journalist or PR professional – this book should have a mandatory placement on your bookshelf. It’s helpful, enlightening and a empowering from cover to cover that will surely return rich rewards.
I myself plan to integrate blogging and some of the fundamentals in my clients work over the next several weeks and will continue to work toward improving my published works on this (my personal blog) and others coming very shortly at Times-News Online.