The New Media?- Monitor the ‘Blogosphere’ for negative comments·
- Get your message out unfiltered·
- Get your message out to reporters and key contacts·
- Create a dialogue with those interested in your topic
The term 'Blogs' is short for “Weblogs”. They are basically online journals that are updated regularly. Blogs can make everyone a publisher, almost for free. Obviously, this is very, very good, and very, very bad. We have already seen the power of blogs given the role they played in the resignation of Dan Rather, the Kryptonite Lock incident, and the Sony spyware installations. Large companies like Honda, Dell, and Apple have also had bad experiences in the Blogoshpere. By its very nature, ideas in the blogosphere travel fast if they create interest, particularly if they are tied in to RSS feeds. The phenomenal power of Blogs is that the company or the PR professional can speak and interact DIRECTLY with the public without the filter that is the media getting in the way. No reporters re-interpreting your words, or changing your emphasis to fit their story. And readers can comment directly back to you – again giving direct feedback without filters. You can speak directly with your customers or interested people. They have, either by subscribing to your RSS feed or coming to your web site, asked for information from you. Top executives of Fortune 500 companies like Microsoft and GM are starting blogs. There is speculation that the Blog/RSS feed will replace the press release. Thousands of blogs are created every single day. Statistically, Blogs are growing faster than the mobile phone or the internet. About 80% of all non-spam blogs are “cat blogs” about people pretty wrapped up in their own world who think other people care. What is very important is the 5% of blogs which are ‘viral blogs’. These are “community aggregators” or blogs that post frequently – sometimes 5 times a day to keep people updated in a very specific niche of an industry like politics, search engine optimization or online PR. They mostly refer and comment on news articles, issues or other blog posts that their subscribers or readers might be interested in. Maybe 5% of blogs make money through pay per click or ad sales. Some make enough for the blogger to do it full time. Some companies pay employees to blog. Corporate blogging in the non-issues sense is a huge topic in itself, and the industry norms are still being tried and tested. There are expectations in the blogging field, and if they are not met, corporate blogs get criticized. But nobody owns the blogosphere. You live and die by your traffic, and the quality of your traffic. The blogging world is very new, and a lot of things are unsettled as to where it will be a few years from now. However it seems that the obvious fallout will be that some blogs do, over time, gain credibility [some branding], and become authority sources on their topics, either wide or narrow. They will be searched and quoted by the media and checked regularly by those interested in their topics. The Drudge Report and MoveOn.org have reached this status in the USA. Bloggers build a relationship with their readers, much more so than any traditional media has done in the past. The whole concept of Blogging leaves “Letters to the Editor” in the dust. Reporters are increasingly using blogs for story ideas, quotes, and research. Getting a hold of a blogger for a quote can be easier. The down side of blogs is that anyone, no matter how well informed [or uninformed], can post and spread their opinion on a product, service, issue, organization or company. Dissatisfied clients and customers post their stories, other people see them and concur or spread the story, and there is quickly something on the burner that is out of control. So far, it seems that there are clearly good ways and bad ways of dealing with this, but the rules are still being written. Threatening lawsuits is probably the worst thing you can do, ignoring it may be the second worst, or it might be the right thing to do. Note that anything posted is out there forever – possibly for years. Overwhelmingly, the “experts” in the field of Blogging and PR are technology specialists. Their main job is getting the word out on their products, not crisis or issue management. These are the people proclaiming that ‘PR is dead’. Their view of PR is more like “marketing plus”. Over the last few months we have seen the emergence of “Blog Search Tools” Like regular search, these tools undertake the arduous task of monitoring the millions [20 million plus] of blogs out there and will either alert you when posts concerning certain words are made, or list the most recent or relevant posts when you search certain words. They can also tell you the relative importance of the blog, and thus give you an idea as to whether you should respond or not. Employee Blogging Policy As Blogging becomes more and more popular, many companies are having to come up with an Employee Blogging Policy. This is a sensitive issue as a company does not necessarily want to crush freedom of speech, but at the same time does not want to make this new publication tool a ‘free for all’ and a potential nightmare for securities regulators. As this is a new technology, there is still debate as to what constitutes good policy in this area. There are huge and serious problems with “spam blogs” “spam comments” and stealing content, mainly due to unethical attempts to obtain search engine rankings. Efforts are being made to undermine this but it may be as daunting as eliminating email spam, turning many off of the blogging experience. | 
