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.
