Saturday, April 17, 2004 — 10:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
David Weinberger, discussion leader
the mid-90s: “Create your own homepage” software was all the rage. It
didn’t take off, but blogs — a variation on that theme — did
Discussion on internal blogs
(i.e. blogs accessible only by those within the company
can be a useful way to get the message across within a company where
email fails. Email is often perceived as “permanent and negative”,
while the same thing said in an internal blog will not be seen in the
same light.
Discussion on external blogs
(i.e. blogs accessible to the public)
marketing/PR department of a company would probably resist blogs: it
encroaches on their turf and surrenders their control of “the message”
dilemma: What if you’re a lawyer, you argue one side of a case in your
blog and then find yourself arguing the opposite in court? Can your
blog entry be used against you?
blog? Don’t they still print out their email? [ Our CEO, Elliot Noss,
has probably forgotten more about email than I will ever learn. And
yes, he has a blog. — Joey ]
fear of putting out the wrong message with a blog — We’ll all
eventually be able to embarrass each other via Google. Is that going to
happen in business?
Zuckerman: Once worked with a Hollywood studio on a system that allowed
fans to create their own fan sites. The studio insisted that all sites
had to be vetted.
Blogs and perception of the company
A cute phrase that came up during the discussion: “Blog-curious”
Weinberger: It doesn’t make sense for companies to just jump into blogging. They’re going to read them first.
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I have yet to see an argument for corporate blogging which actually illustrates corporate benefits as opposed to making complaints about corporate life and how blogging differs fro it and is superior. Q: why is a corporate initiative to introduce blogs different from a corportate initiative to have better landscaping?
Oops again. That was Alan at Genx40.com
In life --and in marketing!-- Perception is everything.
It was not my perception that the room was of a unanimous conclusion that fauxblog Raging Cow was a bad idea. Just the opposite is my own personal take on it.
Raging Cow was aimed at the 16-24 age group, with some spill up and down in demos. It served the purpose of crating buzz and discussion about the new brand. It also gave the marketers of the product a keen insight into teh language and initial take of "early brand samplers," --at this target age, a very difficult group on which to conduct market research.
Surely most of the people at BCII might turn their nose up at the idea of using a blog for so purely commercial a play. But again, the room was packed with high-minded ivory tower intellectuals, people engaged in professions, not a group of manufacturers, or even a particualrly marketing-savvy bunch of bloggers.
I thought Dr. David did a great job of leading the session, keeping it as focused and on topic as one could ever want.
But the room, in my view, was lacking in diversity. When I spoke about blogs for Acme Widget (sic) and the use of internal blogs for project development and internal communications, it was summarily dissed by a good many people in the room. The impression I got, later confirmed by a few others, was that these points were too mundane. Sad to say, amoing the intelligentsia, it seemed that they would discuss their high-brow view, and no other insights were of note.
Again, I stress that this is not reflective of David, nor of ALL of the attendees at that session.
One last observation: as the session ended I spoke with one of the very same high-minded ivory tower types, and remarked at how impressed I was with this person's prime gig and client list. What I got in response (to what I meant in a most complimentary manner) was an icy explanation of how winning loads of scholarly awards and having been published in major scholarly journals was this person's ticket to these hallowed halls. "Well, fuck me!" I thought, and left the room to go have lunch with some friends.