Taking The Blogosphere Seriously

Blogs accelerate buzz. It’s official. Word of mouth is on steroids. The steroid is not HGH. The steroid is the blog. The blogosphere’s got a herd mentality going on like nobody’s business. The ups and downs of Wall Street have nothing on the gyrations of what is going on in the cross-referenced, tagged, search-optimized world of blogs. It’s not that everybody’s doing it. It’s that enough of the smart, connected folks are doing it – and doing it in a very fun, engaging and entertaining way – that you can quickly get a lot of people interested in what you have to sell or what you have to say. Oh, and it works the other way around too. Hell hath no fury like the blogosphere scorned. Ask the folks at Dell.

written by Jerry Johnson, Brodeur \\ tags: buzz, campaign, engagement, fury, roi, Social Media, tags

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