Business Blogging Ain't Business As Usual
Jimmy Guterman, writing in Business 2.0 (you'll need a subscription to read the whole article), says "blogging is more marginal than critics contend" in response to claims that blogging is sweeping the business world, which is sure to set off a small firestorm here in the blogosphere.
Ross Mayfield replies, saying, in a nutshell, that blogging is a tool for a particular type of communication that can happen inside, inside and outside, and only outside a company. This is the essence of a flexible technology that can be applied to many problems (another example: the PC, or the Net), but not the foundation of a specific business practice. David Weinberger, whom, along with several other bloggers, Guterman singles out as "endlessly self-referential," says that blogging is conversational. True, but it can be declamatory, expository and any number of types of communication, as well. The point is largely to be self-referential, since for the most part, blogs are a form of marketing and have been since they were birthed. People talk about their work and, through that sharing of knowledge and perspective attract more work. It works for me.
Guterman says the recession has been good for blogging, because it freed up a lot of time among early bloggers, who threw unused time into their blogs. As with many avocational phenomena that catch fire and spread through the economy, this is certainly true, but it does not follow that economic recovery will lower the energies put into blogs since they have proved effective tools for instigating action and attracting business. Sure, it is hard to imagine people skipping paying work to blog, but the fact is that companies dedicate productive labor to marketing and smart bloggers will do the same, allocating some of their time to keeping their audience and building new business opportunities. Doc Searl's suggestion yesterday about a Mydentity system for WISPs, for example, is a catalyst for a lot of value, some of which Doc will find a way to bring to himself.
Guterman makes some interesting observations, but leaps to the eulogy prematurely.
Posted by Mitch Ratcliffe at August 28, 2003 11:24 AM | TrackBack