I read the entire The Red Couch blog over this past very wet California weekend with great interest and applauding them all the while. We need a good guide for business about blogs.
One thing has been rattling around in my head since reading it. If we are to be very honest about TRC – the goal is to sell books (a very good thing), thus the controversial, albeit passionate, statements of “blog or die”/“blog or be wiped out of existence” is understandable. As we’ve learned from our present administration, fear sells. But that approach is the very same hyperbole we find in much of PR today, yes?
Those of us who were web evangelists when the Web-as-we-know-it-today was born told the corporate world the same thing – be on the web or die. And, what happened? The corporate cosmos rushed to the web and implemented it - badly. And they still do for the most part. But, I’m not aware of any business that really did die by not getting on the web – but many did by doing it badly.
The blogosphere is delivering the same message - as loudly and as passionately, only more so because there are more of us now than there was 10 years ago. Will the shouting and fear-instilling hyperbole again force the corporate cosmos to rush to implement blogs in self-defense – and therefore once again do it badly? None of us, or them, would be happy with that result.
The issue is organizations need to understand the connected world and how people live in it, shape it and expand it. They don’t. They just don’t. Because they don’t live here yet. It is still largely foreign soil to them. So, if we really insist on them being here and if we are going to welcome them in, we need to teach not preach. We need to be teaching Business how blogging is yet another part of everyone being connected and what the deeper implications are behind blogs in order for them to be able to use them effectively - and to be able give us what we want from them. We need to give context to blogs, not simply blog success stories. A business book must help Business understand that context, not just the tactics. I hope the TRC evolves into a book more about teaching than about stating a case and demanding.
A couple other macro questions I am asking myself as I observe TRC’s work and their very interesting process…
Passion and authority are needed for a good blog – and a good book. Does the fact that the TRC book is being developed via the input of those so close to blogging affect both the passion and authority of the individual authors? What I mean is, by incorporating the views or content (even indirectly) of all of us out here in the blogosphere, does it water down the authors’ own unique point of view – and therefore their own unique passion? And, if the book is a compilation of contributions from those participating in the TRC, is the TRC “authority” its own or does the TRC become a report from the blogosphere?
And, is the TRC’s book about the passion the authors have for the process, i.e, blogging a book, or is it about the message/content the book must contain in order teach its readers? Both are equally valid.
Maybe the authors can write a second book and give us insights into the answers to those questions after they have moved through this process. I wish them great gobs of luck and a huge amount of fun in pursuing the subject and their goal.
'This is quite an experience. I would have thought I had to wait to complete my book before receiving my first bad review.'
Shel, it's a conversation, not a bad review or an attack. You make some good points, but so does Linda. You don't really respond to her points, you just defend and make some valid points of your own. Is that a conversation? You chose to blog the book up (or maybe Robert did, but hey). Now run with it.
Posted by: Ivan Pope | January 11, 2005 at 03:18 AM
This is quite an experience. I would have thought I had to wait to complete my book before receiving my first bad review. I am the author of the "fear instilling hyperbole" to which you make reference. First off, yes businesses died because they could not adjust to the Internet. To name a few categories: neighborhood bookstores, independent package delivery services, gift catalog writers, phone sex services, illigal betting parlors, local services organizations, independent fax repair services, etc. Other, larger organizations may still die including: your local newspaper who has lost its classified ad revenues; Independent Yellow Pages services, hopefully a few Baby Bells and oh yes ad agencies and PR firms.so on. The message then was not get a Web site or die--it was to adapt to the Internet or die.
One of the key messages of this book is not intended to just get a blog or die--but that the models for corporate communications are broken. Today there is an anti-corporate sense that we share. The usual channels of communications--press releases, advertising are filtered out, official party line quotes are ognored. The channels used to listen to these messages are Tivoed out or ignored. The message of our book is that corporations must adapt to this new way of communication or face the fate of the village blacksmith. This is not hype.
Finally, for you information, my partner is most certainly a blog zealoit. I am merely an enthusiast. What I am and have been for over 20 years is a business consultant with a passion for helping companies communicate effectively. I practiced PR for more than 20 years and left because I thought the business model and the credibility were crimbling all around me.
Posted by: shel israel | January 10, 2005 at 08:30 PM