Cheryl Gidley, managing partner of Gidley Consulting, former GE Capital Exec, and a Northwestern MBA, says that while blogs are hot now, they are going to get old. She provokes thought and makes some excellent points in an ePrairie article. In particular, she writes:
Segment marketing is both the medium and the message. Blogs are simply place
in the latest deliverable format. The reason this isn’t news is that
there will always be evolutions in place. Right now, post cards with
fabulous color and great copy are still hot.
They’re going to get old.
Everything does. Sending text messages is hot – that is, until schools
outlaw the use of cell phones because kids are cheating. It’s hard to
reach that age group when all the messages are stored up and they’re
blasting through them to clear their message cues.
What’s hot and what’s not is
pure and simple. It’s segmented marketing. Understanding any segment –
whether it’s generational, ethnic, cultural or educational – means
understanding what makes its members tick and what makes them buy
whatever it is you’re peddling.
The thing I resonate most with is her comment that "blogs are simply the place in the latest deliverable format". I agree here.
Where I think such a characterization can be a little misleading though is that I think such an argument reduces any communication and Internet technology down a bit too much to the point that people just don’t want to understand things at all. The telephone system has been around for quite awhile. R&D related to the telephone system networks have extended the life of underlying technologies, created the seeds for wireless phone technologies, and we are now seeing disruptive forces like VoIP having an impact on people’s lives. Accounting systems get old too. Should we not install those? Perhaps not with the cost of S-O, right [joke]?
I guess my point is that the blogging hype will likely get deflated over time and come back to reality, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore or even pass on learning about blogs and using them. Heck, the investment is not that big, right? And even if the total invested $$ in blogging is small, there’s more people (VCs, subscribers, software R&D) longing the market with real money and actual dollars than shorting the market. True in Bubble 1.0 too I suppose … perhaps I need to go to Warren Buffet to get a hedge instrument for this market …
Hi Steve,
Just to be clear – I’m not suggesting that Blogs aren’t an effective mechanism of communicating. Nor am I suggesting that there aren’t forums for which Blogs are highly appropriate – even the best – forms of linking people.
Rather, I’m challenging the hype that suggests every product/service should have a blog. It’s just not true; it’s just not the best solution for every product/service.
I also wanted to make the point that anyone reading a blog that ‘believes’ that every posting is without ulterior motives should consider that blogs are available to everyone, everywhere, at any time and so not only can a ‘covert’ contributor comment, they can, in fact, also drive a significant portion of discussion while ‘under cover.’
Cheryl.
Cheryl,
Thanks for the comments and clarification. Regarding the hype on blogging, it’s definitely up there with respect to the press coverage and volume of those in the blogosphere.
As you point out, it would be wrong to put the cart in front of the horse by saying that blogging is for all businesses. I’m still seeing that the actual use of blogging in corporate settings is still miniscule in the grand scheme of things. Hadn’t really thought about it too much before, but I suppose that’s why I tend to be biased (hopefully not too biased) towards the side of blogging evangelism. I see it as more of a small transgression at this stage of the game.
On your point about ulterior motives and covert ops, I suppose this sort of thing is out there already even in the non-blogging world. As a special case, I do wonder whether there will, at some point, be a fiasco related to identity theft in the blogging world (on the commenter side). Although I think there have been a few cases on hijacking on the blog author side, I could imagine some bad things on the commenter side happening.