When the dust settled…
Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on October 11th, 2006
Tagged as: Acer, Apple, Dell, Masked Blogger, Richard Binhammer
Yesterday I was part of the single most interesting event since I started blogging. That wasn’t too long ago either so I guess *events* lurk around every corner.
Masked Blogger claims he’s trying to reach Apple from the inside. He publishes an intriguing post and the world jumps. Apple has blogged!!
Within 12 hours there’s even an *official* response from Dell’s senior communications man and the thing looks like it’s about to snowball.
But it didn’t and in the time it took for most of the non-listening world to notice, the storm was over. Yet in just 48 hours MB had managed to raise enough dust to cover the entire Gobi desert.
The conversation has since moved on and MB is drawing his own conclusions. The one thing I truly felt is that some companies heard. No matter how far up or down the food chain, they noticed, gave opinions and shared their thoughts on the subject.
OK, I *defended* Acer and took a harmless pot shot at the press-release response from Dell but rivalries aside, an exchange of views took place and they weren’t at watercooler level either.
Some of the points on MB’s post today show that companies are both listing and willing to participate but also illustrate just how important it is for companies who come onboard the bloggeride to set the record straight.
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Changing from the inside? More like an opportunity to battle it out.
Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on October 10th, 2006
Tagged as: Apple, Dell, Masked Blogger, Naked Conversations, Richard Binhammer, Scoble, Shel Israel
I knew this was going to happen.
Anyone who’s read Naked Conversations will have noted the authors’ persistent message: Apple doesn’t blog. Google doesn’t either. Be warned…
Yet someone has spoken up. The masked blogger has come along and reached out to Shel Israel in public (or perhaps in private is a better way of putting it). I share the masked blogger’s predicament and fully sympathize with his frustration.
Millions of bloggers *get* this social medium thing. Yet just as many companies do not. While it can’t be denied that the international business community has been slow to pick up on the arrival of blogs, I think it’s a little unfair to criticize the slow-moving conglomerates for not having a blogging voice.
Some companies are slicker than others, faster to adapt to the winds of change. Granted this gives them an advantage, and the case studies of Kryptonite and even Scobles’ close call with IE7’s toolbar issues prove the validity of an alert presence, but you just can’t escape the inertia and the firm grip of traditional, tried and tested media.
Having said that, I don’t think this post was the most suitable place for corporate messaging, and Dell’s Richard Binhammer made a brave move to post what is a shiney, carefully-written press release.
While having the Senior Manager for Dell’s Corporate Communications underlying his company’s commitment to hearing its customers can by no means be dismissed as a bad thing, you can’t get away from the fact that it was a well-worded attempt to, how does Scoble put it? “..improve their image“, at the expense of everyone else.
Now that someone has entered the argument *officially*, the best that could possibly happen here is that the major competitors slug it out. Thing is, as there’s no-one else out there right now, I doubt that’s going to happen in a hurry.
1-0 to Dell, but it should have been disallowed.
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