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Fewer Bloggers And So What

According to analysts in Gartner the number of bloggers worldwide will peak next year and then decrease.

At the end of 2007 there will be one hundred million bloggers in the world, reports the firm. Gartner states that 200 million people have already stopped writing their blogs.

To me it is pretty clear that the number of bloggers will eventually decrease as the novelty of the phenomenon vanishes. But what is far more unpredictable (and important) is the actual impact that blogs of the future will have on economy and culture as a whole. In other words the actual number of blogs doesn't say much about the importance of blogs in society.

Blog Policies State The Obvious

There is a sense that more and more American bloggers get in trouble with their employer for what they write on their blogs. Although there are no statistics on how many people have actually been fired for something they wrote, the stories keep coming, writes Star-Telegram:

- A reporter in Delaware was fired in February for offensive postings on his personal blog.
- Washingtonienne, - an intern on Capitol Hill - was canned when she described her sexcapades with fellow staffers.
- QueenofSky - a Delta flight attendant - was fired after she posed provocatively (she meant for it to be funny) in her uniform.
- A Microsoft employee was sacked after he posted a picture that included Macs the company had purchased.
- Heather Armstrong was fired from her web design job for writing about work and colleagues.

This once again raises an important question. Should more companies have policies that state what their employees can and cannot say on the web? This is very much the opinion of David Weinberger who writes:

»A blogging policy can make clear what employees already understand: Give away company secrets and you'll be fired. Be a whiny, complaining jerk who continually slags off your boss in public and don't count on that big Christmas bonus.«

Like Weinberger I think most blog policies are merely stating the obvious. It ought to be pretty clear to the average employee what is and isn't acceptable to post. But if companies are holding back on letting their employees blog because they fear loosing communicative control, then by all means: employ a policy!

Only problem is that if a company is that regulative about communication it probably wont be able to really harvest the fruits of employee blogging anyway.

Technorati: Blog|Business

Not All Corporations Need A Blog

I attended a talk on corporate blogs by Rebecca Blood at the IT University of Copenhagen yesterday and found it quite informative. In my opinion the most interesting thing she said was that not all organizations need a blog!

"Only implement a blog if it is exactly what is needed to do the job!," she said.

Good point Rebecca! I applaud it because this is one of the main problems with many corporate blogs today. Blogs have become so hot that most corporations want one. Thus they implement it without the necessary strategic frame work. This results in blogs that are little more than press releases in chronological order. Rebeccas point is that not only will this not do the job for your organization, it will also work against your goals by tiring or angering readers who expect a real blog.

Check out Rebecca's blog

Technorati: Corporate blogs |Rebecca Blood |Weblogs

Wake-Up Call To Mainstream Media

They create, they publish and they rule the web! Who, you might ask. The newspapers? The network stations? The ad agencies? Nope, I'm talking about American teenagers half of which today create and share their own media creations online.

According to a survey from Pew Internet Studies a mind-boggling 57 percent of US-teens who use the Internet have a blog or web page or have posted original artwork, photography, stories or video online.

»Teens are often much more enthusiastic authors and readers of blogs than their adult counterparts. Teen bloggers, led by older girls, are a major part of this tech-savvy cohort,« writes Pew on its web site.

Wake-up call to Mainstream Media: Hello, you're looking at your audience of the not to distant future! They wont be satisfied by web pages that read like a book. And forget about trying to tell them what to think. They want to form and communicate their own opinion. In short: They're not taking any non-interactive cr..

So get your act together and communicate in a fashion that appeals to this web savvy audience!

...End of wake-up call :-)

Technorati: Blogs |Media

Remix: Blogs And Journalism

A journalistic article accompanied by links to blogs about the very same article! It had to happen at some point and now Washingtonpost.com has introduced the thing on its pages.

The little sidebar box is entitled "Who's Blogging" and offers links to relevant blogs about the article at hand.

A cool feature powered by Technorati. Now I'm looking forward to seeing bloggers being able to offer links to relevant journalistic articles about their postings ;-)

Technorati: Blogs |Journalism

A Bite Of The Apple

Apple has been forced by upset customers to admit that there is a problem with the screen of the new sales success from the company, the Ipod Nano.

A website set up by Nano owner Matthew Peterson showing pictures of his cracked Nano screen received 30 e-mails an hour from Nano owners with similar problems.

Peterson closed down the site after Apple acknowledged that there was a problem with some Nano screens, stating that he was satisfied with the swift response from the Nano maker.

Powerful blogging, huh!?

'Via bbc

Technorati: Media |Weblogs

Stop The Blog Buzz

I've been receiving quite a few comments on my previous postings about corporate blogs. It seems there is some bewilderment as to what I mean when I say that corporate blogs don't work. Many point out that major companies like Microsoft and Novell run blogs that are quite successful (i.e. have massive readership).

Let me clarify: I don't question the success of these web pages. What I do question however is whether they are really blogs!

Take the Novell Open PR blog for instance. The blog is quite new (launched a week ago) and from where I'm sitting it simply looks like the company discovered another channel for communicating to the press. Here Novell just shoves out on web whatever it doesn't wanna put in a paper press release (it's cheaper and it's okay to misspell ;-)) This is not blogging. It's pure web marketing.

Another example is this so called blog from the company Campaign Monitor. Yup, they call it a blog and even made a nice header in Photoshop - but let's be honest here - isn't it basically a newsletter?

So what's wrong with corporate blogs you ask. Well, the term »blog« apparently has such a buzz to it that it seems every company just gotta have one. Thus they dress up their press releases, FAQ's, newsletters, support-pages and what not to look like blogs. It reminds me of the ipod design phenomenon: When the ipod first became tres cool a lot of other products suddenly acquired the same white surface, the same rounded edges and so forth... But ipods they were not!

Technorati: Media |Advertising |Weblogs

It's Personal...

»Don't write like a technician. Write like a person!« As a blogger you gotta love the advice from Kathy Sierra who explains why the conversational writing style of bloggers works so well in most communicative settings.

I applaud her for saying it, but to be perfectly honest there's nothing new in Kathy's conclusions. Most people with a background in communication know that writing conversationally beats the heck out of writing formally when you want to leave a lasting impression with your readers (most writers do, I guesss ;-)

But I would like to add this to Kathy's advice: Good writing/blogging needs to be more than conversational. If communicators really want their point to come across they have to invest themselves in the communication. Readers should be able to see that there's something at stake for the blogger and that there's a real person of flesh and blood behind the words.

I'm not implying that you have to reveal every detail from your private life online -- the Blogosphere is too full of private diaries as it is -- but I am saying that establishing a connection with your readers by way of both ethos and pathos is a great way to communicate.

Technorati: Media |Weblogs

Bulls Eye For Corporate Blogging?

For some time now I've been monitoring a site called Slave To Target.

It's a blog written by two anonymous women who say they love Target so much they want to marry it. The primary goal of the site is to keep track of all things Target. And here's the interesting bit: The blog claims that it is in no way associated with Target Corp!

If this claim is legit I'm wondering whether this type of site is not actually the closest anyone can ever come to a successful corporate blog. Having two customers blog about your offerings in a positive and praising manner must be every marketing departments dream. In fact there's a whole genre of commercials depicting real people in everyday situations enjoying a product. Well, here are two real women who spend their spare time blogging for free in favor of a store. Testimonials go home!

The key factor for this type of communication to be successful is that the corporation has no control what so ever over the blog. This way the site acquires credibility from the start.

Saying that I have to admit that this site is not a very good example of balanced blogging. In fact I find the blog much too praising of the shopping chain. The two bloggers must have some areas where they would like to see their favorite shop improve. It would make the site more credible if they included such thoughts in the blog.

But putting that aside they got me writing the name »Target« five times in this entry. Now, in my opinion that's a pretty effective and costless branding.

Technorati: Media |Advertising |Weblogs

More On Corporate Blogging

I've been discussing corporate blogs galore with Robert Basic over on his blog: Basic Thinking. Basically I think we ended up agreeing that large corporations will always have a problem creating interesting blogs beyond mere marketing.

Hope I'm not jumping to conclusions here Robert ;-)

Technorati: Media |Advertising |Weblogs