Altyrian View

There have been rumblings all over the blogger communities: Blog entries are producing fewer and fewer comments. Are blogs dying?

This blog, as an example, has never been heavily commented. Most posts go without comment, but as time has gone on, more and more people are reading this blog and listening to the podcast. Some podcast episodes have been downloaded 5,000 or more times. About 1,000 people read these posts each month. Sure, there are blogs that have many, many more readers, but I’m pretty pleased to share my thoughts with as many followers. And amazingly, my readership is increasing.

I think that people are using blogs differently than they were a short year ago. Instead of using blogs as a place to start conversations, most are following far too many blogs to comment on each one. They are using blogs to keep up with news in their industry or their areas of interest. The posts that generate the most comments are those that are highly controversial or lend themselves to comments (virtual polls for example).

What worries me about the future of blogging is not the lack of comments, but impact that the lack of comments will have on bloggers. Many blog for that feedback and community. Although the community still exists, it is not providing the feedback. Will some bloggers choose not to blog because they aren’t getting the feedback that they desire?

During my presentations about social media, I’ve had many people ask me, “What is RSS (Really Simple Syndication)?” That’s a hard question to answer. Fortunately, Ed Lee has come up with a great analogy:

Your Web content is like water in a lake. Lots of people want it, and you want them to have it. They want to drink it, swim in it and play water polo in it.

But to get it, they need to visit the lake, fill their buckets and then go back to their homes to use it.

RSS enables your audience to create a stream from your lake(where the content is) to their home (where they need the content).

Follow this link to read Ed’s full article about RSS.

For eleven glorious days, I didn’t keep up with my blogs. I have all of my blog subscriptions on my work computer which kept vigil at the office while I was enjoying some R&R. Today, I pay the price: A little more than 100 entries to read.

It’s days like these that I would like to remind myself and my fellow bloggers, “Hey, headlines are damned important.” Obviously, I won’t be reading every single blog posting from the last 11 days so I’ll be skimming lots of headlines.

Unfortunately, some people can’t write headlines. Some people don’t take the time to write them. Let’s all make a New Year’s resolution to change that…

Thanks to Neville Hobson, I’ve added a Wordpress plugin that reformats this blog for iPhones and iPod Touch users. I’ve got an iPhone and the new format makes surfing to Altyrian View much faster. Great find, Neville!

If you don’t have an iPhone, you should think about asking Santa for one. It has changed the way that I communicate.

With all the hype around the iPhone, I figured that the Harry Potter buzz might run a close second. Wrong! I found a great post on ConsumerGeneratedMedia.com. Seems that Harry totally whipped the iPhone relative to blog buzz.

For me, however, the cool part of the story was the discovery that I made when I went to investigate the graph on the CGM blog. I had never been to BlogPulse before, and with a few short clicks, you can compare buzz on any topics. I addition to the Harry Potter / iPhone graph, I thought it would be fun to see if any political candidate was doing as well buzz-wise as Harry Potter or the iPhone. Nope.

The ghost blogging debate rages on, this time with a blog post from Shel Holtz. I really like Shel and his work (FIR is a great podcast), and he is certainly a leader in social media as it applies to public relations. Although he concedes points from the other side, Shel has decided that ghost blogging is not appropriate.

I, too, see the arguments from both camps, but I think that there is more to the debate. As we always should, let’s look at it from the point of view of the consumer.

Blogging takes time. To blog well, it takes lots of time. Not only are you posting on your blog, but you should be involved in the industry debates that appear on other blogs. So the choice becomes blog using a ghost blogger or don’t blog at all.

As humans, we desire communication. We need to hear from CEOs of the companies that we follow. If the option is a ghost blog that contains that CEO’s thoughts and messages or no blog at all, I want the ghost blog. Unfortunately, the ghost blog debate has assumed that the CEO has a choice in whether to blog or not. In many cases, the blog is desired - or even demanded - by a company’s many constituents. Again, people desire information, and a blog from the CEO gives them that information.

Sure, we could debate that someone else in the company could blog using his / her own name, but as PR people, we know the weight that the CEO title carries. That cannot be duplicated.

Obviously, at the end of the day, we all want our CEOs to blog for themselves. In practice, however, our need for information is more important. Our job as PR people is to provide information for our publics, and if ghost blogging is required to provide that information, it should be done.

Just read an interesting article on Bulldog’s Daily Dog by David Meerman Scott, author of “The New Rules of Marketing & PR.” David gives us a few pointers in blogger relations:

Invite an influential blogger or two onto your board of advisors.
Provide smart bloggers with trial or pre-release versions of your product or service.
Ask a blogger to provide a quote for your next press release.
Organize a meeting for bloggers in your industry to meet with your CEO or other executives to discuss industry issues.
When a blogger is helpful to you, provide them with the recognition they crave.
Link to influential blogs in your space in your online media room.
Take a blogger to lunch.

Good points, but I really wanted to address a comment posted by a reader:

Correct me if I’m wrong, but substitute the word “journalist” or “editor” for “blogger” in these bullets of advice, and don’t you get (with one notable exception) something that strongly resembles plain ol’ PR?

That is absolutely right, but the tone of those meetings / invitations / lunches is completely different. BLOGGERS ARE NOT JOURNALISTS. Bloggers have a power that GOOD journalists hide: their opinion. This is what makes a blogger different from a journalist. Every blogger wants to be a thought leader, an industry expert, a public figure in their industry. A good journalist reports the news, not his or her opinions. A good journalists remains objective and follows good journalism practices (confirming sources, etc.). We all hope bloggers follow the same integrity standards, but they do not have to.

The best way to reach out to bloggers is to approach them as they desire to be viewed: as thought leaders, industry experts, public figures, etc. Frankly, you aren’t looking for a blog post from a blogger, you are looking for an opinion (usually a favorable one). I’m not advocating doing anything that violates public relations ethics standards, but I am saying that putting bloggers in the “journalism” box is lazy. They have to be approached differently. Put simply, with journalists, you tell your story; with bloggers, you ask what they think about it.

I was just reading an interesting post on Communications Overtones about the “Top 10 Risks for Corporate Blogs.” Risk number 1: negative comments. For corporate blogs that I oversee or advise on, this is a real concern for those that manage companies. Heck, Larry and I discussed the issue for this blog and how we would handle such comments. At the end of the day, negative comments are a good thing. Here’s why:

1. Comments are a two-way street. Take a negative comment and respond to it! What a great opportunity to speak directly to a “concerned” public. If this person has taken the time to post a comment, others are probably thinking the same thing.
2. There are tons of places to posts comments. Some companies don’t allow comments on their corporate blog so that there is no risk of negative comments. Wrong! There are tons of places to post negative comments; the difference is that you might not have a place to post a response. I’d rather have all of my negative comments in one place so that I can appropriately address them.
3. I’d much rather respond to a negative comment on a blog than a “surprise” question from a reporter. Again, other people are probably thinking it. I’d much rather had a heads-up on an issue from a negative comment than from a reporter who springs the question on my CEO. At least with a blog, I can prepare a good response that can be carried to all key messages.
4. Negative comments give your blog legitimacy. By allowing negative comments and addressing them, you show your audience that you take comments and feedback from clients seriously. It also shows that your blog is “truthful” in what is being shown to the public.

I’m sure that there are more, and it’s possible that some of these are off the mark. Fortunately, we allow negative comments so that I can be set straight.

Found a little snippet on Bulldog Reporter’s Daily ‘Dog. From Richard Nacht, president of Blogging Systems comes the 10 strategic benefits of corporate blogging. To read the full article, visit the Bulldog site. Here are the 10 benefits as listed from the article:

1. Search Engine Marketing —Blogs give you an increased presence on major search engines. The technology is a magnet for search engines like Yahoo! and Google. A well-written, routinely updated, keyword-oriented blog can enhance your chances of garnering high rankings on search engine return pages. Google in particular indexes sites based on content—text on your site. The words comprising the content on your site are like currency to search engines. The more times a certain word or phrase, or a combination thereof, is used on your website, the more likely Google will index your site highly based on that word or phrase.

2. Direct Communications —Blogs provide a way for you to speak directly, openly and honestly with your customer. Blogs enable you to stop talking at them and start talking to them. Because blog technology allows readers to leave comments on the blog, communications becomes a two-way street, and a conversation ensues.

3. Brand Building —Blogs serve as another channel on which to promote your brand and company.

4. Competitive Differentiation —Because blogs give you the opportunity to tell your story over and over, they help set you apart from the competition.

5. Relational Marketing —Blogs allow you to build personal, long-lasting relationships with your customers that foster trust. One person put it this way: “A blog is a continual tour with a guide you get to know.”

6. Exploit the Niches —Blogs help you fill your particular industry niche.

7. Media & Public Relations —Blogs are excellent PR tools. The media calls you, not your competition.

8. Position You as an Expert —Blogs enable you to articulate your viewpoints, knowledge and expertise on matters pertaining to your industry.

9. Reputation Management —Blogs help you manage your online reputation.

10. Low Cost —Blogs are inexpensive to set up, operate and maintain. Ongoing marketing costs are minimal. They do require an investment of time in terms of blog posting, but it can pay big returns for the time spent.

Good job on the list, Richard.

According to this Fox News story published yesterday, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has started blogging. 

And this morning it appears that he has stopped.

I went to the blog yesterday to check it out. Fortunately, I had the option to read the post in Arabic, French or English.  His first (and only at that point) post was really, really long by blog standards (2k words). It allowed for comments though you couldn’t read comments that were submitted. No trackbacks.

It did have an survey: “Are the United States and Israel pulling the trigger for another world war?” As of yesterday at 5p EST, about 10k people had responded. 65% responded to the survey with “no.” It seems that Ahmadinejad was reaching people outside of his point of view. Isn’t that the point of blogging? I believe, however, that he didn’t like what he saw. Today, the blog goes to a default page and appears to have been taken down. Oh well.

A great lesson for those who are thinking about taking our companies into social media: You will quickly reach those who disagree with you. Sometimes it’s more fun to read blogs from people that you don’t agree with. It’s social because it’s a great medium for a debate. That’s the point. Does that mean we shouldn’t encourage companies to blog? Of course not! They just need to be prepared to take some criticism and learn from their detractors.