wither the blog

Published on 4/12/2005 in State of the Art. Comments

I’m doing some work with a (very smart and very savvy) local PR agency to get one of their clients some coverage in Blogistan. And I was asked by the VP in charge of this account (who really does ‘get it’) what she should tell the client. This client is very hot for print and electronic media but is only vaguely aware of online media at all, let alone blogs.

It’s something that did give me pause – when we all stop drinking the Kool-Aid every now and then we do need to think about that question. What makes blogs so special that we should be burning billable hours of our client’s time to pitch them?

So I’ve come up with a list, and I invite anyone to add to it.

1. Fanaticism – Bloggers are fanatics and evangelists. If they like your product, they aren’t shy about saying so and will continue to talk about your product beyond the bounds of their blog. Many bloggers have out outlets they participate in and will likely mention your product if relevant.

2. Readers – A blog’s readership might be small compared to print or electronic media but the readers tend to be a much more focused and targeted group. If you want to reach the 2,000 people in the whole world who are obsessive about one particular subject or product, you are much more likely to reach them through a targeted blog than through general print or electronic media.

3. Google juice – The permalink structure of most blogs means the entry will stay put and still be around and available for a long time. Unlike the online versions of most print media, who move their content to paid archives after a month or two, blog entries are permanent. And the longer they stay, the higher they rank on Google. Which means that in six or seven months, when someone is Googling your product, they aren’t going to find the review in the New York Times or Wall Street Journal, they are going to find the entry in Gizmodo.

4. RSS – Content syndication through RSS means that the content of a blog has a reach far beyond the web site. Content is distributed and redistributed through different formats and seen by more people than whomever goes to the original web site.

OK folks… feel free to add more in the comments section.

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  • 1. I'm engaging in an example of "What makes blogs so special" right this minute by commenting in reply to your question: instant feedback from your target audience is a big plus for blogs. But wait! There's more!

    2. As people find older entries via search, comments continue over time, giving you an idea as to whether your message (or perception of your message) is changing with time.

    (Unless comment spam forces you to close the comments after a time, and presuming that you do read them)

    3. Regular readers often engage each other in the comment space, which will often teach you things about your target audience that you might not learn when engaging them directly.

    3b. They may also collaborate to solve problems for you, or around your product/idea/focus (hereafter thingie).

    4. The social aspect of readers engaging each other can provide a feeling of community centered around your thingie. A feeling of belonging has never hurt a product, to my knowledge.

    5. The comments are also a space where you can personally greet, thank or engage each reader who is invested enough to provide feedback in the first place (hint hint). You see this often at gapingvoid, for instance. Providing that feeling of immediacy and accessibility is really key to humanizing your thingie.

    6. Having a quasi-permanent, open, social, public record of your thoughts and actions and interactions with others provides people a lot more reason to trust you than a simple mission statement and a paragraph or two on the "history" of your thingie. I say quasi-permanent because obviously you can remove comments or entries, even edit them, but the bulk of your content will either read as authentic or not. The fact remains that a long, open track record is likely to generate trust quicker than boilerplate.
  • How about "Increased Sales: by staying in contact with you customer base, you a) can let them know when new products/services come available, b) maintain top of mind awareness, c) build a relationship that will weather the inevitable slip ups.
  • Great list... I'd like to add "addictive". Because they keep changing (ideally every day), readers want their daily "fix". The frequency (and ease) of updates is unique, powerful, and compelling.
  • Blogs can be 'viral'. Say I link to your article about blogs and link to it, first it rank goes up in google, but it means the article has to links on the web. Now someone links to my article about blogs, it spreads. You can't create an ad page on web and get people to link to it for free, but they will do exactly that with a blog.
  • Media: More and more journalists are subscribing to RSS feeds.

    Cutting edge-ness: The blog-savvy clients are still few and far between. Demonstrating that this particular client (through your good services) gets it, is worth its weight in gold. That is, if you/he doesn't f*** it up :)

    MS
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