Blog or Die-The literate version

It's been a day, and I apologize to those of you who suffered through my garbled and unedited versions of this essay. I've cleaned it up and hope that it makes sense this time.

"Tom Murphy over at Natterjack PR is one of several people taking me to task on comments I've made regarding blogging, journalism and the PR profession. I've also been assailed for my use of the phrase "Blog or Die." Over at Fresh Takes, Znet Lady accused me of, "shouting and fear-instilling hyperbole." She has since apologized, and I guess comments such as hers will thicken my skin for book reviewers to come. Even Robert says "blog or die" may be pushing the point too far.

I respect the blogging community for its sharp antennae focused on filtering hyperbole. But I think that “blog or die,” is an accurate depiction of the situation as it is evolving. I say this without glee, and having looked and thought about it for a long time prior to the decision to write this book. I am accused of using it try to sell books and I must confess, I would like to sell a very large number of books. But I am not willing to use hubris to achieve that goal.

I am not contending that blogging will directly kill any company or industry through a competitive assault. It's more complicated than that.

I believe, blogging will fundamentally change communications from what it is today to something less controlled and more credible. It has already begun to do so, at a phenomenal rate, and at a time when many industries are dealing with broken business models. For example, traditional publishing--newspapers, magazines and books are all dealing with issues of reduced profitability. Blogging didn't break their models--the Internet contributed by fragmenting news distribution and by siphoning off ad revenues. Am I happy about this? Don't be silly. I'd love to publish a book and I'd love to be a newspaper columnist.

Blogging will not cure all publishing's problems, but it does create a more efficient distribution system. Some smart company, probably a start up, will find a way to monetize some sort of a "blogazine" without offending constituencies. Some incumbent publisher will copy the idea and the two will battle. Other publishers will just keep doing what they have always done, until it is too late and they will die. Some of these incumbents have a great deal of cash reserves, and later they may even reinvent themselves, but many will not even realize they are in a death spiral until just seconds before they smash into the ground.
I'm neither happy nor sad that this will happen, but I am certain that it will.

I’ve been using the declaration that businesses who ignore blogging will go the way of the blacksmith who ignored the automobile. A century ago, some blacksmiths reinvent themselves to become auto dealers. Others started promoting horseback riding as recreation sports, founded boarding stables or pioneered early race tracks. Others just kept on doing what they were doing and slowly, steadily, and in the end, silently died.

I bristle at comments that imply I'm competitive with reporters. In fact, for those of you who read my other blogsite, I have been a lonely voice on the Blogosphere against activist judges threatening our Bill of Rights by coercing reporters to reveal sources. I have strongly argued that reporters are professionals who go out and dig up information, while most bloggers remain content to sit at keyboards and opine. I was among the few who pointed out that last year, over 100 reporters died in service to their profession, some by beheading. Last year, at least one blogger was tortured in an Iranian prison and another raised funds to cover the Iraqi war. But for the most part, bloggers seemed to prefer the ambience of Geek dinners. Bloggers, in my opinion, have not hurt or tarnished reporters in any way, nor do they really compete. But reporters work for media companies that bleed money as if their artieries had been severed. Blogging won’t kill them. An antiquated business model will. The cost of paper will. Tough union contracts will. The reporters will be unfortunate ballast tossed off the sinking ships.

All well and good, but what about mainstream business, global or local? What’s broken here is the way they communicate with constituencies. Advertising, PR, websites, direct mail, direct email, Yellow Pages are all becoming less effective at the same time that their costs continue to rise. Most everyone is turned off by the official words that come from official spokespeople. Blogging is a better way. People who care can look inside the thick walls of an organization and see real people doing real jobs with passion. They can see mistakes being made by humans who care enough to admit them and improve. They can make the company itself smarter and more responsive. Companies who do not understand will just keep doing what it is they have been doing and they will eventually fail—not tomorrow morning or even the day after, but slowly over time, and they will never even realize that blogging was a contributing issue.

In TRC, we'll discuss many examples. Here's one: Electronic Arts (EA), a bellwether among the leading games software companies chose to ignore the spouse of a blogger who complained about poor working conditions for rank-and-file employees. The matter ended up being well-publicized. Did this kill the company? No, not yet? But let's take a longer view. The best games developers are aware of this unanswered reputation taint and they will have a choice where they go. I maintain the talent will go to competitors. Investors will be wary of EA's future because of their damaged relationship in employee relations, and will be shy of buying their stock. Could this kill them in the long run? I think it's possible and if EA does not change its way--if keeps doing what it has been doing. The company will go down--and it will not even realize that blogging was part of the smoking gun.

“Blog or Die,” someone has charged, represented the same bubble-headedness of the dotcom era, when businesses were told that if they didn't have a website they would go out of business. Personally, that was sound advice, but too limited. Companies who didn't have an internet strategy, they were likely to succumb. Companies who could not adapt were doomed. Travel agencies, computer stores, mail order houses, gift catalogs, independent book stores, even phone smut merchants could not adapt and slowly disappeared without notice from the landscape, just like the Western Union delivery guy who faded out on his bicycle as the telephone gained popularity. Companies that wait too long to adapt to fundamental change die. Or, at a minimum they get boxed in. Look at what Amazon.com did online to Barnes & Noble. Look at eBay vs. every 2nd-hand store and local auction tent.

Businesses today need to rethink how they communicate with people who make a difference to them, particularly customers and prospects. How do you feel when you have an important question, and go to the Web site and have to scroll ad nauseam through FAQs, without find an email link or phone number? If you do call, how do you feel listening to the 659 options you need to navigate before you get an actual human who speaks in a language you do not understand? Which do you believe more--an official press release, composed by a committee of mid-level tacticians, or a blog posted by a team of mid-level technicians building products that interest you? Which management team do you trust more. Companies who ignore blogging will die. Blogging will not kill them directly, but companies that ignore blogging will die from linked factors like lost customers and credibility.

Or so it seems to me.

Comments

[/pd]

My 2 cents.. once again :)-

As you blog, the very nature of the "Redcouch" becomes visable. some thoughts to ponder .. on the ethics of blogging and this blog itself, the orginal posting and the revised posting ..yes I do mean to be critical for the good of the cause - Peace be with you !! :)-

=========
I will preserve the original post, using notations to show where I have made changes so as to maintain the integrity of my publishing.
I will never delete a post.
I will not delete comments unless they are spam or off-topic.
I will reply to emails and comments when appropriate, and do so promptly.
I will strive for high quality with every post – including basic spellchecking.
I will disagree with other opinions respectfully.
==================

Via :
http://forrester.typepad.com/charleneli/2004/11/blogging_policy.html
Code of Ethics being adopted by many with Blogsphere.. including GMblog etc etc..

[Arjun Singh]

You make a good point Shel that its pretty hard for a lot of us to minimize how impactful blogging is and is going to be. How about "(Why)Smart marketers blog" or "Blog: the smart marketer's secret weapon (but not for long)." I always like to put more as an opportunity.

[Roland]

Maybe it's because I didn't sleep too well or that it was the second time I read this information, but editing seems to have sucked all life out of the original post. Sure there werea lot of spelling mistakes and it went all crazy somewhere in the middle, but if you ignored all that it seemed to have been written with more passion and honesty.

[Tom Murphy]

Shel, I think this post is, in my opinion, closer to reality. There is no question that blogs are a significant development. There is a clear and growing need for corporations to understand how to communicate one-to-one with their customers, partners etc. without hiding behind automated customer service systems or corporate speak.

However these changes will be incremental and will occur over time. Blogs will take their rightful place in a rich variety of communications channels and tools. However, I don't think blogs will kill everything that went before. Life is never that simple or dramatic.

I expect that the use of blogs from personal diaries to media aggregators, internal communications tools, corporate soapboxes and collaborative workspaces will grow and mature. It will become something the majority of people will use and touch every day. But it will be alongside the tools we already use today.

That's my thesis. I'm tired of the unsubstantiated claims that "great idea" will change the world forever. I think the Internet entrepreneurs used up all my patience on that one!

Keep up the interesting posts!

[shel israel]

Ah, but Tom, that is where we disagree. I believe that great ideas can and do change the world forever. They don't change everything--just something--but then everything else has to adjust.

[/pd]

I agree with Shel !! great ideas willchange the world. We are living in the WorldLiveWeb now... Web2.0 is alive and ticking.. and those who don't get will be left behind. As humanityV2.0 moves forward those who don't adopt will evenutally die.. think of not having a cellphone to scan your own grococies out of the supermarket ??

[Tim]

I read both posts and admire your passion and ideas but still think your posts ignore millions of mom and pop businesses that barely need the internet, if at all. The internet can help them improve their businesses certainly but the fact their customers and clients walk into their offices and shops every day or week reduces the internet as a "blog or die" proposition. For millions of these businesses the internet is a nice to have, not a must have.

Put another way, there are 1000 companies in the Fortune 1000 in the US and six million plus businesses (as of 2000) with annual revenues from near zero to over a billion USD. Your blog or die proposition works great for the Fortune 1000 and maybe 10000 but falls apart somewhere above that number.

Here's why this matters. Many of my clients (SMBs) have been ripped off by internet hype over the years. They're looking for people who get the internet AND their business who won't charge them a dime more on internet projects than is useful and measurable. They make (and will continue to make indefinitely) money through face to face business and traditional marketing. My hope is that your book will avoid hype and a star struck focus on the big business elephants (e.g. Disney) at the expense of the significantly more numerous mom and pops.

It's more fun and sexy to write about Mickey's weblog, but there is a real unmet need for practical cost-effective non-hyped advice rooted in business realities. My hope is that you guys will meet that need with your book.

[Steven Streight]

I agree entirely with the idea that all corporations must consider having a corporate blog.

The blog is the next big thing after conventional web sites. They tend to be what web sites were supposed to be, but often were not: highly interactive, intimate, frequently updated, casual, warm, and fast at getting contact info, credentials, etc. to curious users.

It is silly to not operate a corporate blog until all the questions about purpose and profitability are answered.

The pioneers who take the plunge and make the attempt to have an interesting blog are the ones who will be respected and admired, not the Johnny Come Latelys who wait until everything is all pat and settled.

CEOs are supposed to be innovative, setting an example for their underlings.

CEOs: take some risks and jump in. The water's fine.

[Robert Scoble]

In our book you'll meet small businesses that are doing quite well thanks to their blogs.

Plus, I've met guys who are making some pretty nice bank off of eBay. Who knew?

[David Parmet]

It's not the blogs.. the blogs are just part of the bigger picture. It's the whole world of transparency we are living in today - companies big and small can either adjust or die.

My wife is one of those small business owners Tim refers to. She doesn't need a web site or an inkernet strategy but on-line bidding for contracts and the ability to look up her competitors' information on the interweb has radically changed the way she's been doing business.

Look how the net has changed car buying... Does anyone remember the car dealer going into the back room to have that 'talk' with their manager? Now even if the dealer doesn't have a web site or blog or strategy, you know before you even walk in the door what the car you want cost them and what it will cost you.

It's bigger than blogs folks. It's the whole shebang that's changing the whole megillah.

[shel israel]

Thank you, David. I think you put the point better than I did and in fewer words.

[David Parmet]

Shel - there has to be some positive thing I can take away from a lifetime working in PR..... ;-)

[shel israel]

David,
I'm sorry to be a perceived messenger of such doom and gloom.
You know, I've had two careers--journalism and PR. I take away a lifetime of experiences and achievements for which I feel enriched. But times keep changing, and we all need to adapt. PR practitioners who see there roles as helping companies get closer with their customers, of facilitating an interactive interchange with people that make a difference will survive and even prevail.

[Curt]

Blogging is like driving a car. Any kind of person can do it. Especially as it catches on, fewer pimply, anxious geeks and more handsome, slim, dashing and photogenic adventurers like myself will be doing it. Yes, the hyperbole of many bloggers is irritating. But the mark of a good ‘journalist’ (having been arguably both a blogger and a journalist) is how well they bring in the info, not if they get killed or not. And, as I told you elsewhere, there has been a blogger killed, Bob Zangas, last March in Iraq. One blogger tortured? Try at least seven imprisoned and you can probably roll the dice than most of them get smacked up pretty miserably. That’s just in Iran. We’re trying to find out about China.

As far as “Blog or Die” goes: it is an excellent title, and very much in keeping with the blogging spirit. You know what I say, Shel? PARTY ON, PUNKER!

[Steven Streight aka Vaspers the Grate]

Sadly, in some anti-democratic, religiously intolerant, mind control countries, it is "Blog AND Die."

Yes, now there are bloggers who are dying that others might be free.

Yet even in free countries, blogging is cheesing its own milk. As Seth Godin has said recently, the blogosphere is being rapidly contaminated by garbage blogs, thus reducing the reliability and usefulness of the blog realm.

Years ago, when the phone rang, the content and credibility were on a high level. Now, when the phone rings, chances are, it's junk (i.e., telemarketing).

Blogs are just about dead now, before the mainstream even got a chance to timidly experiment.

The Post-Blog Realm, with the New Big Things Beyond Blogs, is on the horizon. It looks really nice.

[David St Lawrence]

"Blog or Die" is right on the money.

Industries don't go down like the Titanic, with screaming passengers and the sounds of tortured metal. They melt away slowly, like sand castles in a rising tide.

The rising tide is the power of distributed intelligence harnessed together in new ways. Blogging is citizen publishing, where every one with an opinion can be heard.

It is folly to ignore those who disagree with with current realities. If bloggers espouse ideas that make sense to enough people, the ideas will bind people into a group capable of action. It can happen overnight, as CBS has demonstrated, or it can happen slowly as EA will soon demonstrate.

Corporate death from ignorance is a wasting disease, not a bloodbath, unless the corporation tries to attack the bloggers whose warnings would have saved it.

Those business which ignore blogging will not be around to participate in the distributed organizations and markets of the future.

The post-blog world awaited by Steven Streight may be more than he can stand. It could be a gradual mutation of the blogosphere into a universal Wiki. Be careful what you wish for... :)

[shel israel]

David,

You're a Helluva writer yourself. That's a great metaphor. I wish I'd written it.

[Steven Streight aka Vaspers the Grate]

It's weird to read a totally revised post, but the comments are the same.

Then, right above this comment is (until you delete it) the first comment spam crap I ever saw on this blog.

I've deleted a few posts, and even a few entire blogs, due to changing my mind about something.

I've also greatly revised two or three (out of 67) posts, but the ideas and opinions were not changed, just improved the writing, added more links, reworded certain statements that were too harsh, or too extreme (imagine that, from a grrrrrate.)

I prefer to use a "UPDATE EDIT" paragraph, at top or bottom of original post, to reflect any changes, or, more often, to add text to a post, to clarify.

About flaming, wow, I get a lot of it. I usually use humor and triumphalism to retaliate in a sweet, gentle, and domineering manner.

:^)

Shel and Robert, don't worry about flaming. I see flamers as involuntary, unpaid goads, reviewers, benefactors who speak their mind (such as it may be), and rattle your cage to wake you up.

Dismissing ignorant rants, the legit flamers, who really do know a little more that I do about a topic, and are eager to point out my errors, I value these folks and love them with all my broken and battered heart.

I don't care what title you put on your book. I'll buy it. But consider buying mine too, when it comes out.