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Blogs in the “real” world

Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on March 12th, 2007
Tagged as: IT Blogs, Long Tail, Shel Israel

I read an interesting article over on Shel Israel’s blog about how Tom Shelley of the Economist had started mailing him asking for ideas on the direction the Economist should take while developing its own blog.

The post immediately after was one from Shel asking the public how his new book was shaping up.

This product/public interaction got me thinking about how one could or should adopt social media to create and market a new product and whether the need to satisfy public demand stifles brand identity by outsourcing it to the world at large.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m already a self-declared fan of Dell’s IdeaStorm and firmly believe that direct public interaction in shaping a company’s products and strategies is a fascinating development of this new medium.

But at the same time, I can’t help thinking this strategy risks pandering to a fickle public hunger for mediocrity and not necessarily what a product, brand or company stands for.

If blogs are the doyen of long tail social dialogue, then why is it their creators feel they need to satisfy short-tail philosophies to make sure they are accepted?

I think there is a danger of getting wires crossed here.

Physical products (and real-world businesses for that matter) live in a short-tail world and need all the help they can if they are to exceed their pre-set Key Performance Indicators. That’s why Shel’s call for public approval, and indeed Dell’s attempt to engender public input are such great ideas. 

Blogs, however, live in an entirely different medium. Sure, Technorati has its own Top 10, but this is principally about frequency, not authority. So asking the public how a blog should be isn’t so much helping a blog’s rankings as an attempt to make it an instant, popular hit rather than building it and shaping its inherent values over time.

I think companies should do everything in their power to ensure that their soul is the driving force behind projects as niche-rich as blogs, and champion this above anything else from the outset, no matter what happens.

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