Colin's Corner

Behind the Scenes in the Blogosphere:

Nora Barnes, Chancellor Professor of Marketing and Director of the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth has just posted an insightful blog study "Behind the Scenes in the Blogosphere: Advice From Established Bloggers"

The key conclusion - it's hard work and takes a lot of time to be a successful blogger - I guess I've failed that test as my recent postings  have been very sparse. Too much travel.

Blogging takes time, commitment, and honesty. In return connections are made that are personal and strong. Blogs are not a fad. They are no longer even an option. Those businesses that choose to remain outside this online conversation, will be sidelined. Eventually they will become extinct.

Consumers will move about the wired world in search of products and services that meet their needs. Every serious business needs to have a presence in this electronic global marketplace. But there is more. Businesses need to listen to other conversations that are happening around them. This includes responding to other blog posts and comments.

The blogosphere itself is a provider of more and better research than off line businesses are getting now. A true competitive analysis takes place when one searches blogs to see who your competitors are in the minds of your target market.

Blogs act as huge, ongoing focus groups providing feedback and ideas. Some of the most brilliant people in the world are blogging. Talk to them. Let them help you become more successful. Move
your business forward in a way that is new, exciting, a bit scary, and ultimately necessary.

Behaviors of the Blogosphere

comScore Networks today released a report detailing the scale, composition and activities of audiences of Weblogs, commonly known as “blogs.”  The report, which was sponsored in part by Six Apart and Gawker Media, found that nearly 50 million Americans, or about 30 percent of the total U.S. Internet population, visited blogs in Q1 2005.  This represents an increase of 45 percent compared to Q1 2004.

Other key findings of the Behaviors of the Blogosphere report include:

•        Five hosting services for blogs each had more than 5 million unique visitors in Q1 2005, and four individual blogs had more than 1 million visitors each
•       Of 400 of the largest blogs observed, segmented by eight (non-exclusive) categories, political blogs were the most popular, followed by "hipster" lifestyle blogs, tech blogs and blogs authored by women
•       Compared to the average Internet user, blog readers are significantly more likely to live in wealthier households, be younger and connect to the Web on high-speed connections
•        Blog readers also visit nearly twice as many web pages as the Internet average, and they are much more likely to shop online

Overall I was surprised at the traffic levels on certain blogs which were lower than I had expected and while the impact of blogs is substantial they are not going to replace trusted core brands anytime soon. However, MSM certainly needs to see the value of community participation and aggressively embrance it.

Click here for the full Behaviors of the Blogosphere analysis and also see the reaction from Jason Calacanis who runs WebLogs Inc. 

One of the aspects of these blog networks that interests me, (where the individual sites are owned by the network, not the individual) is whether or not the low cost content model works long-term. The passion and exhuberance of the young contributors is great but is a model where content is provided very inexpensively sustainable, especially as the user expectations of the quality of the content will increase. To be useful to buyers - there has to be a lot more than just the news and if done well that content is much more costly.

Net Rage - A study of Blogs and Usability

According to Catalyst Group Design as far a mainstream users are concerned , web sites have a lot more work to do to convince people about the value of blogs. As for RSS/XML it's about time that we all found a better way to describe RSS than as a light weight XML content syndication format !

From June 29th through July 1st, 2005, Catalyst Group Design conducted usability testing in New York City, NY in order to gather qualitative feedback regarding mainstream internet users’ ability to understand and use blogs.  Chosen as a testing platform was one of BusinessWeek’s seven recently launched blogs, a personal finance destination called “Well Spent”

The findings: Even assuming mainstream interest, current blog design standards – at least in terms of navigation, nomenclature and taxonomy – are a barrier to consumer acceptance. In fact, the design of most blogs can incite “net rage”

The participants surveyed felt that blogs were a good or interesting development – with almost everyone saying that they would consider visiting blogs in the future. However, almost everyone also felt that there was not enough assistance on the site to allow them to take advantage of what was offered.

RSS is arguably the core of what makes a blog a blog. Being able to review dozens – or more – of posts as they update in real time is central to the value that blogs can provide. Unfortunately, the presentation of both the concept and the mechanics of RSS failed utterly with test participants. And in fact, even the basic idea of RSS ran afoul of users’ fear of unwanted costs and spam.

The report is available here and well worth a read.

Populism does not equal engagement

Steve Yelvington sums up the LA Times' failed experiment with an editorial wiki. He specifically mentions Greg Brooks very perceptive comments on Slashdot

" Their [LA Times] error lies in assuming blogs = populism, so Successful New Newspapering(tm) must = more populism, too. That's just not the case; Successful New Newspapering doesn't mean more populism as much as it means more engagement.

LA Times editors: Go ahead and own your editorial page -- it's your paper, and you already do a great job of having diverse voices from the community offer up commentary. The newspaper's editorial is the one place you currently allow the organization to have a subjective voice -- don't throw that away."

However, consider this: Use some of the vast resources of your parent company to offer free, idiot-proof blog space to your subscribers. Go ahead and sell ads, but also allow every blogger to stick in a Google AdSense banner if they want to, and let them keep anything they earn. Throw promotions, offer prizes, discount the subscription price if someone starts a blog -- do whatever you have to do to build a base of subscribers who are also bloggers.

Still with me? Good. Now: Every one of those bloggers should be subject to a limited Creative Commons License allowing you to: a.) publish URLs of interesting content your editors find; and b.) Excerpt content for use in the print edition.

You've just done several things: You've created an online advertising vehicle that requires less effort to sell (assuming you use pay-per-click as your model). Most newspapers try to sell ads into their online sites and most generate negative or near-negative returns on those sales. You've created a deep content pool. Armed with only a few editors, you can pull together a weekly section that would be, I believe, the best read in the paper after six months. Why? Because the voices would be genuine, unprofessional, opinionated and resonant with readers. Will you have to do some editing and fact checking? Yes, but that's light labor compared to pulling together a regular section. Oh, and give thought to doing a daily column of excerpts as well.... and... wait for it... you've creatied the basis for a new town square, with your paper as the foundation. Spirited dialogue, opinions everywhere and a lot of cross-chatter. Which is just as it should be.

Legal Guide For Bloggers

The Electronic Frontier Foundation recently issued a Legal Guide for Bloggers. The site notes:

"this guide isn't a substitute for, nor does it constitute, legal advice. Only an attorney who knows the details of your particular situation can provide the kind of advice you need if you're being threatened with a lawsuit. The goal here is to give you a basic roadmap to the legal issues you may confront as a blogger, to let you know you have rights, and to encourage you to blog freely with the knowledge that your legitimate speech is protected".

Star Wars Blogs

Steve Ruble at Micro Persuasion covers  Star Wars Blogs (IDG Entertainment is a partner with Lucas Entertainment's Hyperspace)

IBM''s Corporate Blogging Guidlines

Noted is the initiative taken by IBM to develop guidelines and encourage its 320,000 employees to blog.  James Snell, a member of IBM's Software Standards Strategy Group, has posted those guidelines on his public blog. The corporate communications and legal teams at IBM worked collaboratively with the IBM Blogging Community to draft the Corporate Blogging Guidelines copied below over a period of ten days using an internal wiki. Jason also notes a CNN article that takes a very different approach to the positive initiative by IBM and its blogging community. Maybe it is time for a major mainstream media outlet to take similar visionary initiative.

Key highlights:

"IBMers are personally responsible for their posts. Be mindful that what you write will be public for a long time -- protect your privacy."

"Identify yourself -- name and, when relevant, role at IBM -- when you blog about IBM or IBM-related matters. And write in the first person. You must make it clear that you are speaking for yourself and not on behalf of IBM."

"Don't cite or reference clients, partners or suppliers without their approval."

"If you publish a blog or post to a blog and it has something to do with work you do or subjects associated with IBM, use a disclaimer such as this: 'The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.'"

Blogs "On the go"

Google's Blogger has announced Blogger Mobile

Sending an MMS or email to go@blogger.com will automatically create a new blog. Your photo, along with any text you add, will be uploaded to that blog right away and then we'll message you back with the address so you can visit your new blog on the web. It's all free. When you feel like changing anything or you already have a Blogger account and you want the posts to go to your existing blog, you can log in to go.blogger.com and enter the token we sent to your phone.

The initial launch of Blogger Mobile will work with your phone if you are a US customer of Verizon, AT&T, Cingular, Sprint, or T-Mobile.

Technorati tags: Blogger, Mobile Blog

Who let the Blogs out ?

Interesting article from the NYTimes, A Blog Revolution? Get a Grip covering Nick Denton's Gawker Media, whose collection of sites include the popular Gizmodo, Gawker, Fleshbot, Sploid, GridskipperJalopnik. Both Denton's Gawker Media and WegLogs Inc run by Jason Calacanis are pursing an aggregation model using a network of owned web properties run by employees rather than ownership residing with the bloggers.

Stowe Boyd, president of Corante comments that "the editors on Gawker are talented, entertaining and informative, but also indistinguishable from any freelance writer, with no ownership of what they produce. These people are hirelings, what they are cranking out are the 700 words they signed on to produce." "They're pursuing a very clear agenda and they've done very well with that.. they're just an old media company in new media clothes"
 
"Blogs primarily excel at marketing and promotion for companies or individuals," Mr. Phillips of I Want Media said. "I think blogging can catapult unknown writers, and it can give them a platform if they're talented. But as a stand-alone business, I think the jury is still out on that." and

Interviews with Jason Calacanis can be found here and here 

What blogs are and what they are not

Les Blogs finished with Doc Searls discussing "What blogs are and what they are not". Arguing blogs are "writing" and should be thought of as a form of speech (which can be free) rather than media (which needs to be managed). Key comments included:

Blogs are by readers and writers for other readers and writers
Blogs inform - they don't just deliver information (content)
Blogs are authors of each other
The Blogosphere is a growing meritocracy not just a democracy

Doc has posted the slides of his presentation. Well worth reviewing.

Feedback on Les Blogs here and here where Matthew Gertner views blogs as the future of journalism noting that eventually the notion of the blog will disappear, to be replaced by what preceded it: plain old articles of news and opinion - some good some bad, some free some pricey.