Bullshit. You hear this a lot but don’t believe it. It is the misguided extension of some legitimate ideas found in the “wisdom of crowds” and “wikinomics” crowd. That the blogosphere is more “democratic” is a fantasy. I know Democracy. I live in a Democracy. The blogosphere is no Democracy. Rather, it is a fiefdom of warlords, chieftans, and medicine men (and women), each with their own cult band of followers. Each with their own culture, language, and idiosyncratic power centers. This is not serious.
written by Jerry Johnson, Brodeur \\ tags: campaign, Democracy, gatekeeper, Social Media
People who sell this line are high on something. Most are high on the outrageous fees they charge. Here’s the traditional media / communications / PR formula — develop your message, train a spokesperson, go on a media tour. How simple is that? How cheap is that? Social media campaigns require more planning (because this stuff can backfire like nobody’s business — ask our friends at Edelman, MWW, and virtually every other company that has tried to pull off a viral campaign), more involvement of more people and more technical resources than most people have. It is very powerful but it ain’t cheap.
written by Jerry Johnson, Brodeur \\ tags: cost, viral campaign
More snake oil. Dream on. If you’re serious about the blogosphere you can’t be serious about this. You can measure activity — clicks, views, entrances and exits. But it is still just as difficult — perhaps more so –to measure what is actually changing knowledge, attitude and behavior. People talk about how many “views” some goofy video gets. I’m thinking … so? I’ve been doing this for 20 years. It ain’t hard to get people’s attention. Car wrecks will do that. But getting something in front of them that actually gets them to buy your stuff (whether it is products or ideas) is a completely different story. We can measure more stuff, but we are still having a devil of a time figuring out whether any of that stuff is doing us any good.
written by Jerry Johnson, Brodeur \\ tags: CTR, measurement, page views, roi, Social Media, statistics, sticky
Don’t believe it. Many companies do just fine and never touch the blogosphere. I know because some of them are my clients. There are those who claim that the new media train is leaving the station and if you don’t go home and buy a gazillion search terms, build a palace in Second Life and juggle 14 blogs you’re going to be roadkill. I’ve heard that roadkill thing before. It was 1999 and it was (irrational) Internet exuberance and they all worked for companies that flamed out. Hmmm. Warren Buffett never swallowed the Internet hype. He seems to have done ok.
written by Jerry Johnson, Brodeur \\ tags: CTR, engagement, hype, roi, second life, Social Media, warren buffett
What other claims or aspects of the blogosphere should we NOT take seriously? Have I missed something? Post what you think, have a discussion, and we’ll continually tally and assess the open forum.
written by Jerry Johnson, Brodeur \\ tags: blogosphere, ces
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