What’s the difference between blogs and regular websites nowadays? It seems not much anymore. As Richard Jalichandra, the CEO of Technorati, said here “It’s getting harder and harder to define. Many mainstream media sites are adding blogs and blogging styles into their mix, many of the larger blogs are taking on features of mainstream sites and some blogs have transformed into full-blown mainstream media sites themselves with editorial staffs and business functions.”
And with so many blogs out there and the barrier to entry for starting one so low, does it pay to even start one? According to this article on Wired.com, it’s time to pull the cord on your personal blog and focus instead on Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and the social networking sites. Almost two years ago, I recall Joseph Jaffe saying in his South African accent “You want to improve your career? Start blogging!” How quickly things can change. Today the answer could be “start twittering.” And with so many blogs in our RSS feeds, how can we find the time to read them all (and stay on top of the news)? I would guess that instead of pulling the plug, the more dedicated bloggers will combine forces and blog together creating super-blogs, redirecting their URL’s into one central blogging destination.
This leads to another question about blogging platforms (e.g. wordpress. Blogger, Typepad). Will they become just another way to manage content? My friend John Rozzo, who helped me develop this blog, says, “I think Wordpress recognizes this trend and is deliberately evolving into a CMS [content management system].”
On the flip side, many writers may decide to keep their blog as a place to “store” all of their articles in one place online and so that their work can be easily found via search.
If there’s one buzzword that has spread like wildfire through the entire media business in the last five years, it is blogs.
Universal McCann’s global “Power to the People” Social Media Tracker study says that “blogs are a mainstream media worldwide and as a collective rival any traditional media,” with 73 percent of respondents saying they have read a blog.
The majority of the 184 million blogs worldwide are of the personal nature, according to Universal McCann’s study, and a recent eMarketer report states that there are 25 million bloggers in the U.S. alone.
The eMarketer study says that 67 percent of the U.S. online population — 104 million people — reads blogs, showing that blogging has become a truly mass media.The number of blog readers will continue to grow to 145 million by 2012.
The growth in readership reflects the consumer’s desire to participate with information, not just consume it. Younger consumers especially seek edgier and more personal sources of content than what is offered by the formal approach of mass media.
While blog readership has exploded, advertising investment represented only 1.34 percent of online spending in 2007, and eMarketer estimates it will grow to 1.46 percent by 2012.According to that estimate, U.S. blog advertising will increase from $283 million in 2007 to $746 million in 2012.
Today, corporate marketers are asking “do we need a corporate blog?” and “how do we participate in the conversation?” Look at any major media brand’s website and you will almost always find featured blogs as a way to update the brand’s online persona.
As marketers become increasingly interested in participating in the conversation of the blogosphere and proactively focusing their customer service efforts on what is being said about the brand online, a number of blog advertising networks have emerged. These networks offer marketers scale and control in advertising on blogs and social media sites and have succeeded by quickly growing revenues in recent years.
The following is an overview of major blog networks including BlogAds, Gawker Media, Technorait, Federated Media, Google, Forbes’ Business Blog Network and Izea, owner of two blog advertising services: SocialSpark and Pay Per Post.
Interesting article today on LATimes.com about blogging: Zimbabwe bloggers shine a light on their troubled country. While the mainstream media there cannot report about the real conditions because of government restrictions, the blogging community can write critical, transparent reports about inflation, corruption and poor health conditions. The piece reminded me of Cuban Blogger Yoani Sanchez, who really takes chances criticizing Castro’s regime, as reported in the Wall Street Journal and Spain’s El Pais. (I also wrote about Yoani in this earlier post.) Same idea…different country.
Venezuelans need to blog more to make up for Hugo Chavez shutting down the main TV station there as a result of their criticisms of their socialist leader. Read more about the protests against his decision on the WashingtonPost.com.
This blog map appeared in Vanity Fair’s June issue but the online version of their “blogopticon” is even better. Mouse over any of the blog logos to read what the blog covers and see where it lies between the news/opinion and scurrilous/earnest axis.
When my brother, Andrew, and I were in Madrid, sitting in front of the Reina Sofia Museum, two young women sat down next to us. As they were preparing some signs to put up nearby, they were laughing. What were they doing I asked in Spanish? Looking for a job they told me, using the following flyers with tabs that had a URL on YouTube since there were a number of advertising agencies in the neighborhood.
Evidently, Seth Godin’s blog post about “why bother having a resume” rings true in Spain. If someone wants to work in marketing/advertising, why should they market themselves like everyone else with just a resume? Why not produce a YouTube video, write an article, write a blog (some call it the 3D resume) or do something different?
Roughly translated, the poster reads “Two women with a lot of energy from Valencia seek a creative director to put them to work.”
Here is the video from YouTube – their own 30 second commercial: creative, provocative, funny and requesting a response. Side note: if you turn on the TV in Europe, every other commercial has a sexual reference or joke when compared to the US. Clearly, the Puritans all left Europe and came to the US! So, their message here (written on pad of paper) is “This is all you are going to see about sex” following their hand gestures.
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