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Quite the negative thing for business indeeed.
your blog definitely gets the prize for the most smiley faces in the comments! So cheery!
Thanks for your thoughts...I think that if you actually read the 30+ comments on the Auburn MarcomBlog that you'd see that the students appreciated hearing an opinion that differed from all of the blog evangelism. I was invited (still am) to post there as a guest author and will continue to. Feel free to read them anytime.
I did read what the students said on your blog post, and perhaps you meant it as an anecdote to the blog evangelism they get from other instructors -- in which case, I hope they consider mine an antidote to yours.
But you didn't really respond to any of the points I raised about the value of blogs. If you do, I promise to give you your very own smiley face.
PS- Always nice to see another Torontonian. :)
And I would agree that things seem to be getting awfully commercialized. It's a shame.
Thanks for the comment.
I think we, in our little pocket, only see one side of it. Go over to wordpress.com and search around and look at some of those 600k blogs. There's a lot of "real" blogs out there.
My friend's blog www.kevincharnas.com is a great example.
http://www.adventuresinbusinesscommunications.c...
Matt, you mention Jet Blue and YouTube. That's not blogging. That's social media, which I still use regularly and believe in. I use RSS, podcasts, YouTube, CMS, comments (obviously), DIGG, etc. religiously. When I see something or hear something authentic, I share it. There is just too much noise and bullshit. Jim mentions in his comment that we should go over to wordpress and read some of the 600,000 thousand blogs that are there alone. Why? Who has the time? Give me a sharp stick in the eye instead. It's insane...reminds me of an old Harry Nilsson song...(I know I'm really fucking old) that goes something like "everybody's talking at me...I can't hear a word they're saying..."
That's the beauty of Google Alerts, RSS alerts, etc...you can filter for only what you want to read/hear/see.
I don't dispute the value of blogs to some. I only have my own experience to bear. And since it was my blog, it was my right to draw sweeping generalizations in order to make my rant count!
People will agree or disagree...I'd say I'm about 70/30 on the positive side right now.
Stay safe up there in the great north...I'll try not to let the door hit me...but before I go I want my fucking smiley face.
Later.
For clarity, I thought I'd address something you shared. You wrote, "Rambeau is apparently one of a number of PR professionals who contribute to the blog and teach PR at Auburn University in Alabama, in the school of communications and journalism."
Marcomblog is my blog. I started it for my students at Auburn University. The purpose of the blog is clearly stated in both the tagline - Marcom - Marketing Communications :: PR/Marcom Pros Mentoring Students - and the About page. Both are clearly visible on the site.
So, it is not "a number of PR professionals who contribute to the blog and teach PR at Auburn University." It is people involved in the discipline/profession - as practitioners and from industries serving those practitioners - and they are mentoring students through the blog.
Or, as it says on the blog, "MarcomBlog is a collaborative effort between sixteen terrific public relations and marketing professionals from around the world and students in Auburn University's Department of Communication and Journalism."
Dee has not quit blogging altogether, as it is clear that he will continue to contribute to Marcomblog. I'm glad he will continue to contribute. We discussed his reasons and I understand. He wishes to devote his time to what he perceives as more valuable pursuits. Mathew, I'm a strong believer in exposing students to points of view from all directions. That is the purpose of Marcomblog - and education.
You suggest that the comments from the students stemmed from "the blog evangelism they get from other instructors" at Auburn. I can assure you that there are no blog evangelists teaching these students at Auburn. What I do is try to expose them to the new space - social media - and determine when, and if, it may be a viable path to follow for one of their future clients. Other reasons for them to explore blogs? The practical experience of writing, reasoning, and interacting with professionals they'd never have met (without social media) are right up there at the top of the list.
The student response to Dee's post, based upon my conversations with them, stem mostly from these three points of view. (1) Blogging and social media is very new to them. (2) Being exposed to it in this class - in such an intense manner - makes it seem like there is "great import" placed upon blogging and social media - overall - in publc relations and marketing communications. That isn't true, yet. (3) Since they are new, and a bit frustrated by all the writing and reading in this new space (they are 6 weeks into the 15 week class), they were happy to read a sincerely contrary point of view. I wasn't the least bit surprised by their responses.
Finally, Mathew, what we don't have at Marcomblog, among other things, are a journalist and someone from Canada mentoring the students. Certainly a journalist's insights will be valuable to my students - about to embark on a career involving media relations. And, we love Canada.
So, would you like to become number 17 in the list of contributors, please?
Thank you.
- Robert
If you're a spin doctoring control freak, that's a bad thing.
But if you're an investor entrusting your savings to a company, it's actually good to know who and what you're really investing in. Blogs, especially when deployed widely in a company, help you do that better than anything we've had before.
How that kind of transparency is bad, I'm not sure.
As for your offer, I'm flattered, but I'm afraid I'm pretty swamped at the moment. If any of your students have any questions or want some input though, please tell them to drop me a note or post a comment.
First, check out these corporate blogs.
Yahoo!. flickr. Google
How is this bad (or pointless)? All I see are companies getting their word out the people. This builds a sense of connection between the corporations and the users / consumers / customers.
Second when reading DeeR's post on the Marcom blog, I noticed companies, the PR folks, the shareholders and personal reasons are covered but the customer was totally forgotten.
If a company doesn't want to be reasonably up front with me through their website or blog, I get the feeling they don't care about my opinions as a customer. They just want to take my money and run. So why should I care about them?
why do we get so bogged down in semantics. Why is a blog so much better than an effective website? I totally agree with Jason that the customer should be able to be well-informed and their needs serviced via the web. If the company had the s*%t together, they'd use their website...why another platform? You're talking about strategy improvement...not a new tool.
I think Dell is a good example -- admittedly, they started one in part because they were getting beaten up for service failings and so on, but I think the blog provides a sense of openness and a more personal approach that just a regular website wouldn't.
The issue I had with your original post was somehow implying that this conversation is useless, because of risk to the corporation.
The key aspect of this communication that I value as a consumer is that my opinions are being respected as a consumer (even if that is somewhat an illusion). To me, it's about building community around a brand or a company.
I'm starting to feel like companies that don't have any way for customers to communicate back with them in a public forum on the internet are providing bad customer service.
Not trying to be snarky, but - can we all agree that a blog, or weblog, is a Web site, or website?
Comments and conversations were actually possible on Web sites before they were ever called blogs or weblogs.
Semantic, I know, but still important.
It is possible to do both in one site. Drupal, CivicSpace, and many other platforms - like Dee's - offer more than just a portal and/or blog, for instance. Heck, even WordPress has progressed to the point of being a traditional Web site presence (with pages and plugins) - and a blog site. Movable Type has been used for that purpose for years, too.
So, is it really all about the conversations and whether or not some should, and some should not, engage in them online?
Don't be misguided in thinking I've run out of things to say because I stopped blogging. I'm just tired of the sound of my own voice in the blogosphere. There's lots of loud ones out there like yourself and I've chosen not to contribute to the noise for awhile. Those people/friends/students/customers whose opinions I care about will still get plenty from me and have plenty of ways to give it back.
Like Robert has said, blog enthusiasts seem to be tied up in the "power" of the blog, whereas in reality good web strategy can accomplish the same thing.
I'd be happy to give you a demo of our award-winning content management system anytime you'd like. To read more, go to www.thefuelteam.com
I'll check out your system... but, forgive me for being noisy again... they're losing out by not supporting comments. I understand what Robert Scoble means - and I actually understand your decision - to each his own. But, there is no power in a blog. The power is with the people. Thanks for engaging in this conversation. I'm enjoying it - and learning something from a different point of view.
Yes, you're right. It's splitting hairs. I'm not very familiar, other than having 'heard' of them, of all the CMS systems you mention. And, we could say, a website is a website is a website. In my limited experience - more than 10 years on the web writing for and working with clients - I've been so frustrated by websites that purport to be "user-friendly" for updating (using a separate CMS) that I delight in blogging tools. Even Wordpress, although... it does require a certain knowledge of web tools, which Typepad does not.
Which all boils down to your point: who should engage in the conversation and who shouldn't? That's a question we answer with clients - before ever beginning a project. And, sometimes the answer is - not you, mr client. But, maybe someone else in your organization.
Here's the rub - I don't think blogging is for the noise-makers. I think it's for the readers. As a reader, and a consumer, I am inherently distrustful of companies that won't engage in conversation with me. And, trying to engage in conversation on a website - hasn't been very effective... whereas, conversations on a blog (different kind of website) have.
So, we're now up to the question of effectiveness. Which is more effective?