The Blog Is Dead, Long Live The Blog!
I responded to a blog post by Jeremy Baka, on one of ex-employers, Cohn & Wolfe's Project Mayhem blog today after Jeremy posted an entry that was, in his own words " what this has to do with PR, creativity or anything remotely related to communications … absolutely nothing", unrelated to communication.
I enjoyed the post, it was irrelevant and slightly obscure, but irrespective of what Jeremy actually said (and I am sure he knows this) it had everything to do with communication.
Recently, I have read numerous articles on the foreseen death of the blog and equally as many disputing this, I'm going to add to the already burgeoning support of the blog.
Blogging, if we haven't already guessed is a fantastic piece of boundary less communincation, whatever is posted. It engages with it's readers on a very social level. While I am in agreement that blogging and micro blogging will evolve, the format of the blog I suspect, will be with us for a very long time.
I've written a few times in previous posts about the evolving life of media and advertising , with a particular focus on digital media, due to it being my chosen line of work. If there is anything I have established in my work it's that there is a requirement for all of us, as individuals and as promoters of clients and brands, to engage more directly with our fellow consumers and commentators. Digital media demands it of us.
Another subject I've "engaged" with in past posts has been collaboration. Blogging and micro-blogging encourages collaboration. Since I've started taking my blog a little more seriously it has involved me in several other individuals engaging blogs or micro-blogs. With each blog I become acquainted with, my knowledge and insight into this industry grows and hopefully with my evolving knowledge, my own unique vision of where we are can further assist more seasoned bloggers.
While I am still getting up to speed on a number of other insightful micro-blogs tools such as FriendFeed, good old fashioned blogs have a greater content and at this moment, for me, provide greater engagement than any other of the more traditional forms of media. The likes of Steve Rubel's use of FriendFeed has been revolutionary for me in this engagement process.
On my commute home tonight, I was chatting to one of my other regular commutee's, who works for an on-line research company, about their use of Twitter as a corporate communication channel with their clients. Something I know many brands are spending much time pursuing now, getting better engagement with their consumers.
Social engagement and the tools we use to encourage that are the future of advertising. Increasing brands ROI by ensuring the ads placed are reaching their intended audiences much more accurately but also opening a two way communication channel from which both brand and consumer can benefit.
Returning back to Jeremy's post, while it may not have been PR directly, it was almost certainly about communication. Jeremy has engaged me with a thought, that however frivolous, was on his mind. I now, in a not too creepy way, believe I know a little bit more about Jeremy than before I had read his post. With this, comes a small degree of respect and certainly some engagement, something that were I a client, Jeremy could count as a positive to take from a days work and certainly from the work invested in the writing of the blog entry.
So, in summary, as a many have said before, I believe the blog to be far from dead and while it will inevitably evolve further, there will be plenty of space for short succinct micro-blogs and more comprehensive traditional blogs to exist alongside each other in this ever busier digital world.
I enjoyed the post, it was irrelevant and slightly obscure, but irrespective of what Jeremy actually said (and I am sure he knows this) it had everything to do with communication.
Recently, I have read numerous articles on the foreseen death of the blog and equally as many disputing this, I'm going to add to the already burgeoning support of the blog.
Blogging, if we haven't already guessed is a fantastic piece of boundary less communincation, whatever is posted. It engages with it's readers on a very social level. While I am in agreement that blogging and micro blogging will evolve, the format of the blog I suspect, will be with us for a very long time.
I've written a few times in previous posts about the evolving life of media and advertising , with a particular focus on digital media, due to it being my chosen line of work. If there is anything I have established in my work it's that there is a requirement for all of us, as individuals and as promoters of clients and brands, to engage more directly with our fellow consumers and commentators. Digital media demands it of us.
Another subject I've "engaged" with in past posts has been collaboration. Blogging and micro-blogging encourages collaboration. Since I've started taking my blog a little more seriously it has involved me in several other individuals engaging blogs or micro-blogs. With each blog I become acquainted with, my knowledge and insight into this industry grows and hopefully with my evolving knowledge, my own unique vision of where we are can further assist more seasoned bloggers.
While I am still getting up to speed on a number of other insightful micro-blogs tools such as FriendFeed, good old fashioned blogs have a greater content and at this moment, for me, provide greater engagement than any other of the more traditional forms of media. The likes of Steve Rubel's use of FriendFeed has been revolutionary for me in this engagement process.
On my commute home tonight, I was chatting to one of my other regular commutee's, who works for an on-line research company, about their use of Twitter as a corporate communication channel with their clients. Something I know many brands are spending much time pursuing now, getting better engagement with their consumers.
Social engagement and the tools we use to encourage that are the future of advertising. Increasing brands ROI by ensuring the ads placed are reaching their intended audiences much more accurately but also opening a two way communication channel from which both brand and consumer can benefit.
Returning back to Jeremy's post, while it may not have been PR directly, it was almost certainly about communication. Jeremy has engaged me with a thought, that however frivolous, was on his mind. I now, in a not too creepy way, believe I know a little bit more about Jeremy than before I had read his post. With this, comes a small degree of respect and certainly some engagement, something that were I a client, Jeremy could count as a positive to take from a days work and certainly from the work invested in the writing of the blog entry.
So, in summary, as a many have said before, I believe the blog to be far from dead and while it will inevitably evolve further, there will be plenty of space for short succinct micro-blogs and more comprehensive traditional blogs to exist alongside each other in this ever busier digital world.
Labels: blogging, blogs, digital advertising, digital engagement
blog comments powered by Disqus
posted by Ed Richardson at
21:13
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home