by Steve Rubel
Steve Rubel is a senior vice president in Edelman's me2revolution practice, and his blog, micropersuasion is listed as one of the world's most influential blogs by Technorati.
In the last five years the media landscape has fragmented dramatically. Millions of blogs have sprouted up across the world, covering the most esoteric of subjects to a level of depth the mainstream media could never come close to matching. The blog boom gives the communicator a channel to listen to and engage directly with people, a subset of whom, are inherently interested in their products, company and initiatives.
On the flip side, it's still difficult to track the right conversations – an absolute prerequisite for joining the blogosphere. The rules of engagement with the blogosphere are quite different. The common law dictates that companies participate in an open, continuous, authentic conversation, which is quite different from "messaging" and communicating at audiences.
Compounding this situation further is the medium's globalization. Blogging, which began as an outgrowth of America's free expressionist culture, has truly become a worldwide phenomenon. Today, the majority of all 1.2 million daily blog posts tracked by Technorati each day are written in Asian languages.
All Blogs Are Local
The conversation in the United States largely focuses on technology, entertainment, politics, and personal affairs. However, outside the United States, each region emphasizes different conversational themes, reflecting the tenor of the local culture. For example, some of the most popular blogs written in Italian and French are personal journals. The global conversation is very local.
Nevertheless there's a universal truth about blogging that spans all languages and cultures. Blogs are increasingly influencing mainstream media. Bloggers are alpha-communicators. They are dedicated to being at the vanguard of their area of expertise. These individuals are the source of story ideas; they provide reporters with credible insights; they're often seen as experts; and in many instances they serve as the voice of the people.
However, bloggers are not like journalists. This is true for even many of the so-called "A list bloggers" — people with a high number of inbound links who are often treated like mainstream press. They're writing for themselves, not for their employer, nor to any deadline. They're not paid. They're blogging when they have something to say about their passions. Bloggers often are united in their intent to contribute to the broader conversation taking place among peers. They expect anyone, any company, that is participating in the blogosphere to act the same way.
Although blogging's impact will be felt by companies for years to come, change is already underway. By some measures, blogs may be peaking.
The Blogosphere Matures as Interest Picks Up in New Channels
Every quarter, Technorati, a popular blog search engine, releases the "State of the Blogosphere." The data is widely viewed as the best barometer to measure the vitality of blogging.
To date, the trend lines have always pointed in one direction: up. However, the last "State of the Blogosphere" report, published in October, seemed to indicate that interest in publishing blogs may be leveling off. Although the total number of blogs Technorati tracks topped a record 57 million, the volume of posts published per day appeared to be cresting, an additional quarter or two of data will provide more clarity.
Further, Gartner Group predicts that the number of bloggers will level off in the first half of next year at roughly 100 million worldwide. The reason? Those who love it are committed to keeping it up, while others have gotten bored and have moved on.
So is blogging dying? In a word: no. The need to express oneself is evergreen. All indications are that blogs will remain extremely influential. Going forward they will not be measured by volume of visitors, page views or even links, but by the quality of their readership and content. Savvy readers are using technologies like RSS to keep informed by their most trusted bloggers and mainstream media.
What might be happening, however, is that the public's attention is shifting from writing blogs to creating content through other means. In other words, the center of gravity is moving away from the blogosphere as the entire universe of media expands. YouTube and social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace are also incorporating blogs into their members' profiles.
A highly influential, but mostly overlooked authority about a company's reputation is its profile on Wikipedia, which tends to rank in the top 10 Google search results for dozens of brands and is edited by anyone connected to a computer.
Regardless of what form this all takes, communicators need to hear the drumbeat of conversations across all forms consumer generated media, not just blogs. And they need to do so globally and locally, where the culture can sway the content.
How can Companies Participate in Peer-to-Peer Conversation?
- Find: Identify your most influential advocates and vigilantes
- Listen: Develop the infrastructure to mine the conversations for insights both globally and locally
- Engage: Build relationships with bloggers both on a personal level (e.g. email conversations) but also by participating in the conversation with your blogs
- Empower: Create the structure to help your key influencers achieve their wants and desires
(Download entire report in PDF format: A Corporate Guide to the Global Blogosphere: The new model of peer-to-peer communications)
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