Comments on: the corporate tipping point

By: Shawn Lea

Shawn Lea — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 23:42:02 +0000

I think blogs will affect all areas. (And I also believe that it’s going to get harder and harder to separate PR, advertising, marketing, etc. — it’s all going to just be communications, period.) And the rise of blogs will be both a blessing and a curse — while extra revenue for those trying to sell communications to businesses, for us in-house people it will just be one more duty added to the long list. And unless Lutz posts a little more loyally I don’t think he’s going to be the corporate tipping point. (He hasn’t posted since Jan. 14th!)

By: AdPulp

AdPulp — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 12:13:41 +0000

Take This Blog And Shove It

Yesterday, I attended Blog Walk 6.0, a conference of sorts, where sixteen bloggers from across the U.S. and Europe arranged themselves in small open space groupings to discuss a wide variety of topics. How to make money from blogging was…

By: Brett Stuckel

Brett Stuckel — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 10:25:57 +0000

Or maybe, Nathan, the blog is the medium that finally gets it right–and prevents that from happening.

By: Nathan Dornbrook

Nathan Dornbrook — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 09:03:18 +0000

The history of Radio, TV, and the Web is similar to this.
Guglielmo Marconi digs up the vacuum tube, creates wireless telegraphy, and clever hobbyists see the potential and a massively creative boom follows, only to watch as “their” medium is co-opted by big money and subverted to sell stuff.
The same happens when Philo Farnsworth starts transmitting pictures, and again when AOLosers are suddenly let loose on the Internet in 1991.
The same thing will happen, is happening, to blogs.
Blogs by the rich and famous will become more visited than those by visionary thinkers, the clever will be co-opted by the wealthy to create clever content for their blogs, consolidation and regulation will proscribe content and the public debate currently enriched by blogs will become stultified as the entrenched power base places boundaries on the conversation, steers the questions and assumes an answer.
The best that we can hope for is that WE end up higher up in the hierarchy as a result of a first mover advantage. Or, rather, I can hope that HUGH ends up better off as a first mover advantage.

By: David Burn

David Burn — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 05:51:10 +0000

I assure you I’m as real as they come, Johnnie.
GM gets blogs. There are others, but none as prominent.
I never said ad men (or ad women) were doing the managing of corporate, customer-facing blogs today. I did imply and I do believe that that’s about to change.

By: larry borsato

larry borsato — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 03:11:20 +0000

What if companies suddenly get it?

So is Hugh saying that every blogger secretly wants to be a corporate PR person? But if every company suddenly gets it, then why would they need bloggers? Isn’t the current value of blogging to bring a valuable counterpoint to…

By: Johnnie Moore

Johnnie Moore — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 02:58:52 +0000

Hey, I’d just want to laugh out loud at David Burn’s suggestion that “Managing brand identities, in whatever form they may take, or media they may use, is the ad guy’s job.”
Show me a brand that gets blogging and show me the ad man who “manages it for them”. C’mon David, get real.

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 02:34:30 +0000

JohnMoore, blogs are no more immune from human folly than anything else.
I think a lot of corporate burnouts got into blogging after dotbomb/9–11 as a refuge from the corporate world that had burned them out…
Now they’re seeing their refuge threatened by the corporates discovering them. AND THEY’RE NOT HAPPY!

By: johnmoore (from brandautopsy)

johnmoore (from brandautopsy) — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 02:23:23 +0000

The gadfly in me is concerned that

By: Kathy Sierra

Kathy Sierra — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 01:58:53 +0000

If blogging is on the verge of “tipping/crossing” (and it looks close), I’m wondering…what’s next? What comes *after* blogging? Where are the innovators and early adopters heading once blogs jump into the fat part of the curve?

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 00:43:26 +0000

Steve, the “Deliverables”? I have no idea. What are you intending to deliver on your blog?
Lies?
Pompous Waffle?
PR crap?
Or do you intend to do something more interesting?
The ball’s in your court, not the $3000-per-day asshole consultant’s.
And as far as ROI is concerned, again, I have no idea. What are you actually willing to invest?
Your own time, energy, and emotion?
Or are you just hoping to hire some little cuteypie part-time intern to futz around with the usal corporatespeak on your company’s behalf?
Frankly, if people don’t get blogs, I really don’t care. They can go buy Superbowl ads instead. And in 5 years they can explain to their spouses why they no longer have jobs.
That being said, the ROI/deliverable question will be answered like all questions are answered in the blogosphere, when people start talking about it openly. It’s still early days, though.

By: Steve Griffiths

Steve Griffiths — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 00:23:20 +0000

You’re still not satisfying your earlier query: when it comes to blogs what are the deliverables? How will ROI become apparent?

By: What's Your Brand Mantra?

What's Your Brand Mantra? — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 23:50:55 +0000

Blogs

Hugh talks about whether blogs have reached the tipping point:The blogosphere waits for the corporate-mainstream

By: David Burn

David Burn — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 23:48:35 +0000

Look at the other side of it John Moore (from the USA). If blogs help companies become more authentic, or more honest, then the inevitable move to corporate blogs can only be seen as a terrific development.

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 23:35:37 +0000

Don’t know if I agree, John. I think conversations about making money can be authentic– both me, my clients and my non-client readers need to eat.
As long as your open about it, I don’t see a problem.
Perhaps your gadflyness might be a result of you having been in an industry which FUCKING LIES all the time. So you may equate talking business with FUCKING LYING. Heh.
I can certainly relate with that. I used to work for large agencies, don’t forget.