The blogging biosphere of influence

To blog or not to blog

Blogs have become popular social memes on the web. The http://del.icio.us project (a worldwide shared collection of bookmarks), lists blogs as the second most active and the second most popular tags. The first is design.

Whether you like it or not, social memes do influence the business world. In 1999, the http://www.cluetrain.com/ manifesto stated that "a powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter - and getting smarter faster than most companies."

Oh blogit!

Are South African companies aware of the speed at which their emerging markets are accepting this form of communication? Right now, there are many brands that are ideally suited to this environment. Clearly, others are not positioned to do so immediately, but I'm sure we'll see them here in the not-too-distant future.

I recently read an article "Blogosphere: the emerging Media Ecosystem -
How Weblogs and Journalists work together to Report, Filter and Break the News" by John Hiler. He introduces the term by stating that: "Bloggers and Journalists form a blogging biosphere that has become an ecosystem in its own right, an ecosystem that one savvy blogger has dubbed the Blogosphere. The word was meant as a clever pun combining "Blog" with "logos", a Greek word meaning logic and reason. And while bloggers do often use logic in dissecting arguments, I love the word Blogosphere because it happens to capture another truth: the Blogosphere is a biosphere of its own, a Media Ecosystem that lives and breathes just like any other biological system."

Whatever this is, it isn't media as we know it. "You've got to rethink the structure of media at its most fundamental level," says Jeff Jarvis, whose blog, buzzmachine.com, covers politics and whatever else is on his mind. He should know because, yes, it's the same Jeff Jarvis, who launched Entertainment Weekly in 1990 (and who, when he's not blogging, serves as president and creative director at Advance Publications' Advance.net).

General Motors and Microsoft are some of the big brands that have already started to play in the brand blog territory.

"They are a great place to reach independent, influential thinkers," says Jim Taubitz, online marketing manager at Audi of America, which is the exclusive sponsor of car-enthusiast blog Jalopnik.com.

Brand blogs are a quick and very cost effective way to experiment with a different facet of your brand's voice.

eMerging blogger

The real secret to successful blogging lies in the ability of the blogger to communicate his or her own unique opinions and to tap into the social commentary that sees right through traditional marketing speak... to the genuine voice of the brand.

This requires a leap of courage from the marketer. The genuine voice will not be afraid to discuss the merits and demerits of the brand, it will not be afraid to welcome open debate. It requires that there is nothing to hide. Is your brand ready to live in a glass house? Can it withstand reality?