Blogs and Social Media - We've Come Sort of a Long Way, Baby

Was that Mr. 98's way of begrudgingly giving bloggers a two percentage-point victory?

Ummm, pardon me, but aren't PR and advertising two of the tools that come under the marketing umbrella? That's how I was taught.

Ike - other than the point on his head, he didn't seem to have any.

Martha - that's the point. why are they still asking the same questions? and why oh why oh why would we still be discussing whether or not bloggers are journalists? that question was beaten to death in 2004.

PR and advertising work together all the time. This sounds like a forum manufactured to try to be controversial, which is why I chose to ignore the invitation I received.

Re 98% of of what's on blogs is BS, I'm sure there's a fair amount. But many blogs that are business-oriented, like those a lot of us are reading including yours, have good info and ideas and provoke discussion, which is good.

Too bad you couldn't get the name of the BizBash person who said that stupid thing. She deserves to be outed.

AS I said last week in a comment, the marketing/agency funbags don't get it, and will remain clueless in the dark... after all they think there's a conflict b/t advertising and pr, just like there's a conflict b/t "old" and "new" media... it's all just tools.
And budget allocation.

It's more fun with a full toolbelt. And sparky gray matter. But when did they ever light up their gray matter?

Have a great holiday, BLO

Re: "people who read blogs aren't very educated."

Huh? Sounds like someone is a little insecure to me.

The thing about the Web is this - if the content (published in a blog or otherwise) is good, Google will find it, social networkers will find it, other bloggers will find it, Web surfers will find it, and they will SHARE it.

Great content will ALWAYS attract intelligent people, and it naturally leads to the best free word-of-mouth advertising on the planet.

Good writers and bloggers scare the crap out of people like the one quoted above - as they should.

Bottom line in the future (which is now) - if your writing is seen as superficial corporate speak and/or otherwise - it isn't getting read - or it is getting read and immediately discarded as garbage by the masses.

If it doesn't generate traffic, new customers, positive brand awareness, free word-of-mouth advertising or business for a company - it's not good enough.

But, people who have to be accountable to a business already know that.

They've been educated.

Great post BL. Keep up the excellent work!

Wow- I am the CEO of Bizbash Media (http:www.bizbash.com). I totally don't agree with the person that works for me who says that "people who read blogs aren't very educated."

I actually think that it is quite the opposite. Thank god for blogs and the new media. Just wanted to go on the record supporting the blog community. Both the readers and the writers of blogs are changing the world.

It is just a matter of time before more people will get it. We need to be somewhat patient with the older thinkers.

What's the latest percentage...is it still less than 10% of Fortune 500 companies using blogs in any meaningful way?

I've said it for years and my opinion has never wavered. I think small businesses are the ones best able to make use of blogs and there is no better example of that than JD Iles over at SignsNeverSleep.com.

Corporations be damned!

I love the way the CEO of Bizbash Media CHAWC (covered his ass with comments). Oh, to be a fly on the wall in that office today.

Paul - I think 10% is still the number. But who wants to read another blah blah blog by another corporate CEO. We've moved so far beyond that kind of approach.

Yeah, the comments from Bizbash CEO are pretty ingenuous, but amusing. Especially "Thank god for blogs and the new media." But at least he made a comment and acknowledged that Ms. "I'm Not Tell You My Name" was lame.

I've always believed that the only people in business who won't tell you their names are the ones who don't want to be held accountable for what they said.