A hot topic of discussion among the faculty at one of the Universities for which I teach Online, and also in one of the classes I'm teaching now, an MBA Marketing Capstone session, has been the use of Blogs in marketing. Are they are a PR function? If so,should they be in the arsenal of large companies, particularly public ones. In general the fear of release of proprietary information in public companies is has been the foundation of the concerns among those who think blogs are blase'.
Blogs are a positive force. Last April, Richard Edelman addressed
the use of blogs in PR in a blog post blog (controversial from a PR perspective) or
BuzzMachine.com from Jeff Jarvis (http://www.buzzmachine.com/) or
David Weinberger you'll see the potential that's emerging from several perspectives.
The BuzzMachine entry for today linked above, (and others that appear today in BuzzMachine) is perhaps telling in and of itself. While calling for restraint in rushing to commercialize blogs, it also shared some news that prove the value of the tactic.
One entry notes that CNN has an opening for a blogging producer in the "situation room" and another desribes a new venture from Seth Godin (Yoyodyne, Purple Cow, Permission Marketing) and Heath Row (Fast Company), both well known business experts. Seth actually creates blogs that are specific to his books. You can read his original "main" blog by clicking on his head when you get to the link above.
The new platform, called
Squidoo launched in its
first beta version today, and has (of course) its own blog:
SquidBlog. Squidoo will help bloggers find meaning by creating "lenses" though which content authors can provide insights into subjects they know well, without limiting the posters to one perspective. The intent is to create a special relevance that will help cut through all the clutter out there on the Web, some of it in blogs. Seth has created
another free PDF eBook for this launch, as he has done for others in the past.
Seth's quote in the Jarvis blog today was great: "He also says that big companies have been shocked that, “It doesn’t matter who you are when you start blogging,” he says. “It matters what you say.” "
RSS feeds and Podcasting technology will only hasten the time when even big companies will have to deal with a virtually limitless access to comments on their brands or service. Blogs are also hugely effective when used in Search Engine Optimization strategies. It seems like adding another level of perspective to our resources for searching out the gems of content will be empowering, as well as (of course) remarkable.
If we as marketers are able to reach our target audiences effectively with relevant content that ties into the product or service we sell and our customers and prospects want to receive it, who are we as bloggers to tell them that selling product is beneath the purpose of the blog?
