It’s not about blogs

“I sent the club a wire stating, PLEASE ACCEPT MY RESIGNATION. I DON’T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT ME AS A MEMBER.” – Groucho Marx

Okay, here goes nothing. I think Daniel Bernstein from Bite PR is a good writer. It’s swell that he included me with Jeremy Pepper and Steve Rubel in his post. Yeah he called us  “fanatical” — but maybe it was a compliment, so I am taking it as such. Hey, I’ve been called worse things this week, by far lesser “people.”

But… the idea that any group, no matter how it is constructed, should take over “management” of the PR blogosphere is wrong. So wrong.

Here’s why.

It’s not about blogs. Or link rank. Or any other rating system you can dig up. The reason blogs have traction is that they deliver on the promise of the World Wide Web. Everybody *can* be a publisher. That completely changes the equation — the “printing press” is no longer scarce, limited to those with deep pockets. Companies really have to give a shit about their customer.

Is that killing PR? Some think so. I don’t. Or at least, it is not killing PR as I know and practice it. PR is about telling the story. Yes to the media, but also to other publics. And no matter what, it has to be a good story. Bloggers like a good story as much as, if not more than, anyone.

The mushroom mentality (keep ’em in the dark and cover them with shit) doesn’t work anymore. About time.

If you want to succeed in the new world, it really is all about the customer. And not lip service. Really about the customer. As a marketer, that is a state of affairs I have strived for most of my career. Blogs facilitate this, but truly, it doesn’t matter if a company EVER does a blog. If it engages more fully with its customers, we’ve got a win.

Tell the truth. If it ain’t pretty, fix it. If you can’t fix it, do something else.

So, I don’t want to regulate anything. It is the Wild Wild West, and that is as it should be. At least for a little while longer. Command and control. No way. Engage and educate. Ethics. You bet. PR and marketing practitioners that take that approach will be successful.

But let’s not repeat our mistakes.

Try to stuff the genie back in the bottle.Um. No.

Try to impose old style agency models. Um. No.

Identify the leaders and tell everyone else they are in charge. Um. Really No.

Focus on helping our clients (and ourselves) figure this all out and do the level best we can in this new world. You bet. Will we get it right every time? Probably not. But that is okay.

Is blogging the “killer app?” Some say yes. I say not really. The “killer app” isn’t the tool we use. It is the change in attitude that blogging represents. We no longer tell the customer the story. We let him be part of it, for good or ill. Whether he or she does that through a blog or a podcast or a wiki or even a regular old Web site, it doesn’t matter. The killer app is the customer.

And blogs give her a voice whether the company ever blogs a word. Yup.

Now, some measure success by the Fortune 500 and what they adopt. More power to you. I do not, because that isn’t where change starts. In fact, it takes a good long while. Big companies are slow to move and risk averse.

Change usually happens in small to mid-size companies. And guess what, there are way more of those than there are big guys.

And I do see change. Companies (large and small) are looking at social media as part of the marketing mix. Customers are valued, not just counted. And you know, even some of the Fortune 500 are paying attention. Bonus points.

But it’s not just about blogs, folks, so expand your vision.

It’s about people.

Tags: social media, blogging, blogs