Kristen posted a comment on Brand Autopsy.
and need Kirsten say more about why blogs are a poor choice for connecting with consumers and customers? blogs are not fact-checked. blogs are opinion. blogs are skewed with personal perspective. my words keep falling on deaf ears but media should be listening since I understand media and can draw meaningful comparisons. And are blogs profitable? Pocket change at most. We’ve represented bloggers and we know their spending limitations at best.
Them’s strong words. I’m currently reading Israel and Scoble’s Naked Conversations, which focuses on how blogs positively impact businesses. Right now, while we’re still in the business blog adoption phase, business that get into blogging are more likely to get noticed than in a few years where start a blog won’t be news just like starting a site is now. 10 years ago, people asked what could they do with a site.
Whether or not a company should start a blog depends on the business itself not a blanket declaration. Per Kirsten’s comment that blogs aren’t fact checked — that’s probably true most of the time. However, most blog entries are opinions or information. When there are facts, they’re often supported with a link to wherever the fact originated.
Blogs are like conversations. We can say something in an in-person conversation that’s wrong. Does that mean we shouldn’t have conversations? It’s easier to check facts for a blog entry than a conversation because you’re online and can verify the facts right away as opposed to a conversation where you most likely can’t immediately verify — unless someone has a laptop or handheld device connected to the Internet.
I love Kirsten – she was one of my first blog buddies. I find it interesting that altho she’s stopped her (wonderful) blog, she’s still reading blogs. So I assume she must be finding value in the blogs she’s following…as do many others.
As for checking facts, although blogs are conversations and personal opinions, it’s just plain stupid for a business blogger to post information that’s not accurate. Blogs are one way to build trust and credibility between customers/stakeholders and ‘people’ who work in companies – why would you risk your reputation with a post that is wrong -or on another subject – write cruelly to harm people? Would you want to do business with such a person? Not me!