Never too late to start blogging

October 20, 2009December 16, 2009 / Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

Let me start with a rhetorical question: Is blogging past its prime?

I get asked this question a lot since I have been doing it for, what now, 5+ years. So I have to go back and often conduct the 15-point check-up much like the way my car dealership does when I take the old (5-year old vehicle) in for service.

I thought about this again when reading Steve Rubel’s interview, as he was asked by Tech Crunch why he’s stopped blogging and begun ‘lifestreaming.’

Steve, as always makes a great point about where content, and content creators are headed. To him blogging has got long in the tooth, and fallen out of grace now that Twitter and Facebook have become more interesting ways to communicate.

So back to my question, is blogging past its prime, and should someone who has never done it even consider it now. I have two ways to look at this:

1. Telling stories. No matter what format you use, telling your story, has never gone out of style. Think about what some consider one of the most passe formats today, the printed newsletter. I see it doing very well in places as different as Trader Joe’s, churches, and the offices of financial advisers. They sure look long in the tooth to me, especially if I am not the target reader. But they do have plenty of cool content.

2. Providing context. Blogs have an uncanny way of connecting the dots, and putting things in context. Faced with the breathless pace of tweets that appear and vanish (unless you’re monitoring your Tweetdeck or Twitterrific all the time), a blog post is always there, and gives you an opportunity to frames things better, and analyze it from multiple perspectives. The best part, it lets others add their insight as well.

I’ve heard many say that Facebook is becoming the defacto hub of all other social media properties and actions. Hard to contest with that.

But…

Facebook only lets you do so much when it comes to writing good content. But blog posts can be used to connect the dots, and build on a body of work that is easy to find, link to, and create conversations around.

If you want to see what some other have said on this topic, here are two excellent posts:

Matthew DePietro – Is blogging passe?

Brian Clark – Blogging is dead (again)

Quotes for the week ending 10 Oct 2009

October 10, 2009October 24, 2009 / Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

“In the surround-sound media environment of today, there is no shortage of places you can go to see an expert’s view of business and where it is headed. What I took from the first day of the World Business Forum, however, was just how important passion is as a common thread in the people (and their organizations) who are accomplishing something.”

Rohit Bhargava, on the World Business Forum

“While 60% of employees use word processing daily, only 42% actually create documents.”

Forrester Research report on technology adoption in the workplace.

“In a real-time, social media world, marketing has to react immediately to the successes and shortcomings of operations, product development, legal, finance, customer support, and the idiosyncrasies of company personnel.”

Jason Baer, on how social media gives everything a marketing focus.

“A turtle travels only when it sticks its neck out.”

Tweet by @lspearmanii

“Hi! This is your aspirin bottle calling. I haven’t seen you in a while…”

Peter Svensson, of the Associated Press, on the technology that connects the pill bottle cap to an AT&T network.

“Does our Cicero even glance at his speeches before reading them in public?”

George Will, conservative columnist for the washington Post, on Obama’s overuse of words and concepts in his speech at Copenhagen.

“Nice headlamps”

Headline of a billboard ad for a Northern Ireland used-car web site, that got the advertisement banned in the UK. The accompanying visual was not about cars…

Two years of ‘broad public access’ at State Dept blog

September 29, 2009 / Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

Last week Dipnote, the blog by the State Department, turned two.

So much has happened in two years. It was the year that the iPhone debuted, and Microsoft bought a stake in Facebook. A few months before that TIME named all those people creating content and connecting through social media as the ‘Person of the Year’ – the famous “YOU” issue.

Luke Forgerson, Managing Editor of Dipnote

Dipnote took to this new way of communicating with amazing flair. If there is one example of I’ve been using repeatedly to illustrate how any organization could stop firing press releases and start a conversation, it’s been them.

Think about it. Foreign policy to many is as sexy as watching paint dry. But given the right angles –heck, the right to loosen up– and the interest in listening as much as speaking, it turns out to be a different animal.

I have talked to many organizations who are terrified at the thought of saying something that could come back to bite them. Blogs, and videos, and photos pulled from a diverse group of individuals seem like total anarchy to them. It might damage the brand, they fear. The question I get asked a lot is ‘What if someone says something nasty?” –followed by “should we publish that too?”

I won’t go into the responses I give, but you’d think a group of people who represent the brand image of a country must have thought about this a lot. There must be bookshelves of white papers and journals on this subject in their offices. There must be legal advisers shaking their heads in disbelief.

And yet…

If you look at the social media initiatives the State Dept has rolled out over the past few years, these ‘government employees’ seem to take to new media in a way you’d expect of a marketing organization. Maybe they understand that good marketing is all about good communication. It’s more than the ingredients of ‘technology and talent‘ that Sec. Clinton spoke about.

It’s about using social media as an antenna not a bullhorn.

Advertising Age, revealing the story behind the ‘worlds’ fastest nudist’ in New York this week, who turns out to be a guy doing a stunt for Zappos, via an ad agency, Agent 16.

Josh Bernoff, on how the Groundswell Awards, and how excellence in social media can come from anyone, anywhere.

Dan Barr, attorney for the Society of Professional Journalists, on the Arizona Supreme Court decision that now requires public entities to disclose Meta Data, the ‘hidden data’ embedded in electronic records.

Huffington Post on the list of visitors to the White House, released on Friday. The list includes lobbyists and prominent people

Story in Fast Company, that ‘Facebook plans to Geo-tag your life’ by linking geo-location information to users actions on the site.

Rohit Bhargava, on the World Business Forum

Forrester Research report on technology adoption in the workplace.

Jason Baer, on how social media gives everything a marketing focus.

Tweet by @lspearmanii

Peter Svensson, of the Associated Press, on the technology that connects the pill bottle cap to an AT&T network.

George Will, conservative columnist for the washington Post, on Obama’s overuse of words and concepts in his speech at Copenhagen.

Headline of a billboard ad for a Northern Ireland used-car web site, that got the advertisement banned in the UK. The accompanying visual was not about cars…

Title card in YouTube video aimed at the leaders attending the UN General Assembly in New York this week. The video-as-open letter was by RelaxZen, a mood-altering drink –that was shipped to every world leader.

Barack Obama, in his address to the United Nations General Assembly, on the commitment of the US to change.

Nathan Wagner, Relevant Chews,on selling

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, responding to claim that Number 10 was snubbed by the White House, with regard to a personal meeting between the two heads of state.

Microsoft statement about its new image management tool that lets companies monitor, analyze and engage in social media, via its Silverlight technology

Ike Pigott, at Media Bullseye, on Seth Godin’s rebranding Squidoo as a social engine that aggregates online chatter about a brand or company. Pigott also calls this a sinister act of piracy! Squidoo already has “900,000 hand built lenses.”

Soundtrack from the Bollywood movie, Blue, featuring Kylie Minogue and Oscar-winning composer, A.R. Rahman –he of of Slumdog Millionaire.