The bloggers are coming, the bloggers are coming!!!

by Ed Van Herik

Recently, an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times took aim at the blogging world, stuffily proclaiming that it was “no substitute” for journalism as it is practiced today.  As you might expect, some bloggers took offense and fired back, pointing out that the author of the LA Times article, a former journalist, hadn’t even checked all the facts in his own article. (The Times ran a correction.)

While the dustup was fun to follow, it didn’t have much real meaning. And the issue – are bloggers going to be a replacement for MSM – probably isn’t the question to be asking.

The basic question is this: Will communications and the spread of information become easier because of blogging? And the answer, of course, is yes. Social media will make it much easier to both find information and follow up with further questions and observations. And it will, by and large, give more of a human feel to this information.

It’s part of that “human feel” that irritates some journalists and can frustrate public relations professionals. In both realms, the printed word is tightly controlled. Publications generally have several editors review a reporter’s work to ensure accuracy; PR people spend hours crafting any written material they produce.

On top of that, both professions pay reasonably well when you get to the top, but it generally takes time – like years – to get there.

And, now, here come the bloggers. They generally haven’t spent a decade or more learning their craft, creating sources and connections, and sucking up to those who can help them get the next story or next client. They’re often just somebody with a grudge or a complaint. Or maybe they’ve got a hobby and they want to talk to others like them. They just shoot from the hip – loud, sloppy, fast, and sometimes wrong. It’s got to be frustrating and a little scary for journalists and PR professionals to come up against that.

Or not.

In the last few years, many journalists have become accustomed to going on line to find sources or arcane information that would have taken days to ferret out before. And PR professionals are realizing that social media brings trust, a real prize for companies that can successfully create it.

Social media can bring the confidence that comes when one person talks to another and believes their recommendations and insights into politicians, products, or processes.
That trust is an element that journalists and PR people are finding very difficult to put into their work. How many people really believe that journalists will give them a fair shake, or that a press release can be trusted 100 percent?

For journalists, that lack of trust is in part the result of self-inflicted wounds. Stories like that of Jayson Blair, a New York Times reporter who made up a lot of his stories, and Dan Rather, whose career nearly came to an end as a result of dubious reporting, (a fact uncovered by bloggers).

And PR people sell stuff, whether it’s a company, commodity, non-profit organization, stray puppies, whatever. No matter how sincere they are, they are still putting the best, not necessarily the most accurate, face on their project. Who would trust that, even if the information is accurate?

Frustration has been a key driver in the blogging world as well. Many bloggers go on line to complain after they’ve brought legitimate complaints to companies or politicians and had them ignored.

Ownership of news media are becoming concentrated in the hands of a few large corporations, and political parties are now giant machines with huge fundraising staffs, millionaire candidates, slick voter materials, and their own staff of spin doctors. It was becoming nearly impossible for the average Joe to get his thoughts, much less his legitimate complaints, heard beyond his social circle.

But bloggers found a way to be heard: They expanded their social circle. Really expanded it. And they’ve become a political force to be reckoned with, plus a headache to MSM, marketing departments and PR people.

The adage that people trust others like them is age-old wisdom that’s being demonstrated anew in the blogosphere. Professional reporters may find renewed trust in collaborating with citizen journalists. And companies can certainly benefit by candid discussions with their customers.

So, rather than some giant face-off between existing methods of communication (Picture a mud wrestling pit with a giant newspaper editor, a poised PR professional in a pin-striped suit, and a horde of teeny bloggers), it’s possible that better forms of communication may emerge from these frustrations.

Or not.

Seth Godin’s Promiscuity Paradox

by Judy Knight

As What a Concept! has become increasingly successful and sought after, Sherry and her team, like most agencies and consultancies, grapple with the issues of growth, more clients, more sales, and how we continue to deliver the quality results the group is known for. This challenge is universal among those of us who sell our know-how in hourly increments of course, and was beautifully described by Seth Godin in a recent entry to his blog. Says Seth, “Marketers of all stripes are discovering that acquiring a reputation and permission to market to people isn’t as expandable as they might hope.” Ahmen (namaste), brother!

Like Seth’s example, we too have some terrific clients. These clients give us credibility to talk live, in the blogosphere, and with the media / new media. Over time, What a Concept! has gained a following and reputation among bloggers and organizations around town. As as a result, we get read, Sherry is invited to speak all over town, and lo and behold, new clients show up! Our temptation is to grow the business. To take on new clients. To work our magic for an ever larger group of people. To finally start making some of them thar big bucks!

And as Seth Godin says, this creates a problem that all companies like ours face: “The people who most want to be your clients are the people you should least want to represent. As you promote the unpromotable, the permission you have to talk to the media (or the new media!) doesn’t go up, it goes down. Better to be the agency that only represents bestselling authors than to be the biggest agency. In the long run, the pickier you are, the better you do. Same thing goes for online merchants, brokers, church groups and just about anyone else who markets with permission.”

So what are the limits to growth, and when is it appropriate to be so picky that you actually turn away business? An interesting dilemma! But we also know that Seth’s cautionary tale has been proven true time and again. In the case of What a Concept!, we argue over this problem endlessly . . . Sherry loves to hunt, the rest of us love to farm, and not surprisingly, we all enjoy our creature comforts. As a team of progressive thinkers who are conversant across the philosophical divide from Nietsche to Buddha, we have also learned we can be patient because we plan to be here a very, very long time. And when you are committed to being patient, it’s easier to be picky