Keynote Speech: Understanding Blogs, The Current Wave of the Information Revolution

Speech transcript, July 2005
Ted Demopoulos, Keynote Speaker, Demopoulos Associates,  ted@demop.com

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Blogs have gone from nearly unknown to having a readership of 38 million seemingly overnight! Why? What is so exciting about blogs?

The excitement behind blogs is that they allow individuals to publish without any technical knowledge. Publishing is as easy as sending an email. It’s very tempting for people to publish their thoughts and opinions to the world, and the ease and the low and sometimes no cost have led millions of people to start blogging. People blog on just about every issue or topic based on their own interests. Examples include politics, current events, and technology, as well as motorcycles, knitting and wine. Pick a topic and chances are someone is blogging about it.

The explosion of publishing enabled by blogs encompasses what is sometimes called participatory or grassroots journalism, and it’s changed the face of media. The mainstream media has to move more quickly than before and be more accurate, as the competition as well as scrutiny from blogs is intense. CBS with its recent 'Rathergate' fiasco learned firsthand about increased scrutiny from bloggers. Blogs also routinely report important news before the mainstream media. The capture of Saddam Hussein was first reported in a blog.

There are well over 12 million blogs, and 40,000 new blogs are started every day. The Pew Internet Study estimated that 27% of Internet users were regular blog readers at the end of 2004. That's approximately 32 million people who regularly read blogs. Blog readership jumped 58% in 2004. There is a lot of room for growth as 62% of Internet users are not sure what a blog is. The blogosphere – the world of blogs – is doubling in size every 5 months! Some blogs have millions of readers per month.

So what exactly is a blog?
Blog is short for 'Web Log,' and blogs are simple websites or part of websites.
A typical blog has a title and description, and a number of “posts” which contain the content. Posts are dated and new posts are frequently added. Posts are usually text but can be audio or video or anything else. They tend to be conversational in format and often contain opinions as well as facts, much as an editorial column in a newspaper. Many blogs have new posts daily, and some many times a day.
Recent posts on my blog include my comments and analysis on Microsoft’s recent decision to ban the word 'democracy' and other politically sensitive words by bloggers on its new Web portal in China, a review of the book “The Likeability Factor” by Tim Sanders, and a comparison of major industry information security certifications including my opinions and advice on them. Each of these posts allow user comments where readers add their own thoughts and insights and even dissenting opinions.

The Blogging Phenomenon can be roughly divided into three phases.

In the first phase, blogs were quirky Internet diaries. They didn’t have much mainstream appeal or recognition.

In the second phase, blogs moved into the areas of politics, professions and consumerism. Howard Dean was the first presidential candidate to author a blog. Soon afterwards, both national conventions issued press credentials to influential bloggers, and eventually both parties had blogs for their candidates. Since many of the early bloggers were technologists, technology blogs are commonplace. Two extremely popular ones are Slashdot “News for Nerds” and Robert Scoble’s Scobleizer. Popular consumer oriented blogs include Engadget, which reviews new and exciting technical gadgets. I won’t buy a new technical gadget without referencing Engadget and many other consumers feel the same way.

The third phase adds blogs whose primary purpose is business oriented. Examples include blogs from Hewlett Packard, Boeing, General Motors, and Ask Jeeves as well as many small company and consultant blogs. More business blogs are being started almost daily.

The medium’s momentum has passed the point of no return; blogs are now a part of business. A number of books on business blogging are starting to be released, and many companies are starting to offer business blogging consulting. PR companies are starting blogs for their clients. Business Week stated on its cover, “Blogging will change your business,” and virtually every business and news magazine has reported on the blogging phenomenon.
The only questions for most businesses are how soon they’ll embrace blogging and what shape their involvement will take.

Companies have enormous amounts of knowledge and information, but usually very little of it is available for customers or the public. The little that is released has typically been checked for appropriateness and cleansed by marketing, PR, or other internal groups. Bloggers obviously change this dynamic, and a company needs to have a blogging policy in place. This includes a policy for official company bloggers and personal bloggers as well. Employees have been fired for information in their own personal blogs, including a flight attendant for a major airline who wore her uniform in some photos the airline deemed inappropriate, and a new employee for a search engine company who blogged about a company event where apparently an excess of alcohol was consumed.

Blogs help businesses in several ways:
Blogs add a more personal voice to a company and add personality to its website and brand. This can help build trust and make closing sales easier.
I've had new clients remark they feel they almost know me already due to reading my blog. I have also bought products and services from companies whose blogs I read and have similar experiences.
Blogs are dynamic and interactive and tend to attract a regular following of readers.
The most popular blogs have millions of visitors each month! It didn't take long for my blog to develop a larger readership than my website. Since the content is updated several times weekly, that's perhaps not surprising. Individuals I know only through blogs regularly add intelligent comments, so I know I'm hitting my target audience. It seems my blog readership is a different set of people than my newsletter or website readership, enlarging my footprint on the web. Every reader, or at least every reader’s company, is a potential customer.
Search engines love blogs.
It's not uncommon for a blog post to quickly get a high ranking in the search engines, which translates to more Internet traffic and more potential business. A recent post of mine on offshore computer programming and development was titled 'The Offshore Threat, is it Real?' Within 24 hours, two other sites had linked to my post. For the last 5 weeks, it has been the number one hit for the Google search 'offshore threat.' You literally can't buy that kind of search engine placement!
Blogs can be used for advertising.
Although in its infancy, a number of large companies have been using blog advertising, including Paramount Pictures, The Wall Street Journal, and Dell Computer. Some companies such as Sony and Suburu have even sponsored third party blogs for advertising and publicity purposes.
Advertising on blogs can be an effective way to reach niche audiences as blog readers tend to be very interested in a blog's topic. For example, motorcycle blogs have readers very interested in motorcycles and wine blogs have readers very interested in wine. Blog advertising also is cheaper than traditional media, since blogger overheads are low or none.
And as I’ve mentioned, with 32 million regular blog readers and a rapid growth rate, blogs reach a large audience.
Blogs help position companies and consultants as experts in their industry.
This is one reason why so many consultants and small businesses blog. Blogs level the playing field by allowing individuals and their companies to become recognized as thought leaders in their field, regardless of the size of the company.
Blogs are great for communicating, with both internal and external audiences.
Some companies are using blogs to communicate with their employees. Some companies have replaced newsletters and ezines with blogs. Penn Media has recently decided to start publishing fifty of its e-zines as blogs.
Blogs are a great way to publicize company programs, opinions and values. Stonyfield Farm promotes healthy eating among children in its program “Creating Healthy Kids” with a blog of the same name.
A Blog can also be a business in itself, creating revenue through advertising, sponsorships, and product sales as well. This is somewhat similar to a television network approach, in which the content is free but supported by advertising and other programs. Admittedly not many blogs in this category are successful yet!
The 'Lifehacker' blog by Gawker Media is one such example. It is currently entirely sponsored by Sony, which has lots of ads on it. Gawker Media actually has a number of blogs which fall into this category, including Gridskipper, a travel blog which CheapTickets originally sponsored.

A blog is part of a company's public face and personality. Deciding who should write a corporate blog is an important decision. Obviously it depends to some extent on the purpose of the blog: is its primary purpose customer service, marketing, customer relations, internal communications, or some other use? There are several choices: one person can write the blog, a team can write the blog, or a 'fictional' character can write the blog.
A blog written by one person is very common today. It tends to give the blog a consistent style and flavor, which is great. However, continuity can be an issue. What if the blogger leaves the company or needs to stop blogging for some reason? Perhaps this is not catastrophic, but something to consider!
Two extremely popular business blogs with one author include
'Jonathan's Blog' by Jonathan Schwartz, President and Chief Operating Officer of Sun Microsystems, and 'Scobleizer' by Microsoft's Robert Scoble.
Alternatively, a team can write the blog. This allows CEOs and other executives to blog with less time commitment - an occasional insightful and informative post from a well respected corporate figure can add a lot of legitimacy to a blog. This also lessens the damage should a blogger leave the company or need to stop blogging for some reason. Examples of blogs written by teams include the 'Ask Jeeves Blog' written by several high level Ask Jeeves' employees and the 'Slashdot' News for Nerds blog.
Another possibility is having a 'fictional' character write the blog. For example, Captain Morgan Rum had “Captain Morgan” author a blog for a short period. Fictional character blogs are difficult to do successfully and many bloggers believe they are inappropriate.

It is important for a company to have a Defensive Blogging Strategy.
Most companies care about what the media says about them. Bad press can be extremely damaging. Blogs are part of the media, and an intense negative 'blog swarm’ can do immense damage. A blog swarm is when many bloggers, perhaps even thousands, start posting negative material on a subject and feed off of each other’s energy, commenting on each other’s opinions and facts as they are discovered.
Negative blog storms have been responsible for damage to ex-Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott, and The New York Times ex-Editor Howell Raines. In particular, they are responsible for the 'ex' part of those men's titles. The details are in the blogoshpere and easily looked up. So far, the only company that has had an immense negative blog storm has been CBS with their 'Rathergate' fiasco. CBS had some potentially damaging yet fake documents pertaining to President Bush. They continued to defend the documents blindly despite increasingly overwhelming evidence from the blogosphere that the documents were false. The damage to their brand was significant, and their viewership significantly smaller in its aftermath. Dan Rather’s reputation and credibility were adversely effected and he has since announced his retirement.
Many companies monitor what the media says about them, and that needs to include blogs. Blog search engines can help. The two biggest ones today are Daypop and Technorati. If intense negative comments start to surface, they need to be dealt with swiftly and honestly. Denying accusations categorically and insulting bloggers is exactly what CBS did, and it obviously doesn't work. Transparency and honesty will minimize damage. Admit mistakes - you will NOT be able to hide them.

Blogs are still evolving. Today, most are created by special purpose software such as the very popular and free Blogger, as well as LiveJournal, Movable Type, and WordPress. It is possible to create blogs using standard website development tools but it takes a lot of extra work. Also most websites and blogs are quite distinct, yet in the future I expect to see the distinction narrow if not entirely disappear. Website development software will include blog functionality in the future and many company homepages will resemble a merge between a blog and their website today. Some websites are listing what's new in reverse chronological order on their homepage, just as blogs do. Some websites are allowing user comments. For example CNet has a 'TalkBack' feature on cnet.com that allows users to leave comments just as blogs do. Beyond that, the term 'blog' will probably disappear and blog functionality will simply be an expected feature of most websites.

With over 12 million blogs in existence and a rapidly expanding readership of 32 million, blogs are here to stay. New blogs are being started almost every day – about a thousand have been launched since the beginning of this speech alone! Blogs are competing with the Main Stream Media as news sources, companies are reaping benefits from their blogging, and consumers are researching products on blogs. Traditional websites are slowly starting to take on characteristics of blogs. There is a lot of room for growth as less than half of Internet users are reading blogs. The Information Revolution is in the midst of interesting times, and blogs are a major part of the excitement.