New Rules of Marketing and PR: Word of Blog

In Chapter 5 of The New Rules of Marketing and PR (Blogs: Tapping Millions of Evangelists to tell your story), there were several important takeaways and examples that demonstrate the relative power of blogs as a weapon in your PR arsenal.

The first is that blogs are very unlike traditional journalism in that there is no set process or accreditation-level for published content. This is typically people’s biggest complaint against blogging and bloggers, but this is sometimes its strength.

This brings me to the next important point: You are what you publish. The value of a blog or the impact of a blogger are directly connected to the quality and frequency of material. Just as blogs are hassle-free to consume, they are also hassle free to avoid; the content is truly key.

Due to the potential level of participation on a reader’s part, blogs offer a unique platform for feedback. This can prove invaluable to any company or even devoted writer as they depend on reader feedback to further direct the subjects they cover and the way that they present them. This was seen in President Obama’s 2008 campaign when localized blogs allowed his campaign to gauge and manipulate the relevant dialogue of the area, addressing concerns directly.

In this scenario (and in many others), it is easy to see the ripples that bloggers make all across the web. Though they may only have a readership, of say, 100 people, each of those people may publish a blog that reaches 100 people as well, and information can spread quickly and exponentially.   

The last point in the reading (also, what I believe to be the most important) is the idea of the Web as a city rather than a “sprawling online newspaper”. This point somewhat speaks to my first point from the reading in that the way things are published on the web can be drastically different than traditional journalistic practices dictate. In the “Web-as-city” mentality, each person, though perhaps not a paid professional, has some area of personal expertise and experience. It is important then that in the case of valuable blogging, the bloggers typically stick to areas in which they have a contributive expertise, thus giving their material accelerated, yet niche value.