HERLOFF says ...: Weblogs

According to Wired, narcissistic blog disorder is:

"[...] characterized by the creation of a blog in which the individual consistently denigrates not only the opinions of others, but the very fact that others have opinions, saying things like "nobody cares what some overpaid starlet has to say about global warming" and "nobody cares what some crusty career politician thinks is wrong with society today." Simultaneously, the individual assumes that people do care about what he or she has to say, in spite of the individual's only political or activist experience being watching the movie Dave twice."

Hahahahaha! Spot on! Being a fairly regular blog reader, I've come across quite a few bloggers suffering from this particular disorder - spending huge amounts of time and effort denigrating everybody in that "as if anybody gives a f***" kind of way. While not contemplating whether anybody actually gives a whole lot about their flaming self.

Read the full article on Wired.com if you want to know more about similar disorders, such as Bookmark Loop Disorder, E-mail Gullibility Syndrome, Atemporal Fad Disorder, Pugilistic Discussion Syndrome or Amusement Identify Disorder.

Corporateblogs I went to a seminar this morning, called "Weblogs are the new channel of the consumers - is this a threat or an opportunity for you and your company?"

The seminar had three speakers. The first introduced weblogs in general - as a technology and a social phenomenon.

Having blogged for 4 years, I didn't find that particularly enlightening. Especially since the speaker had just recently opened a blog simply to grasp what the H(ype) it was all about and was about as passionate about it as ... well. Choose your own dirty metaphor! It also annoyed me a little that the presenter chose some obscure blogging applications as examples of the software available, and never even mentioned the big three: Blogger, Typepad or WordPress. For an overview of the best options, see this post or this blog software comparison chart.

Never mind ... I actually liked starting my day feeling smarter than someone. Muahahaha!

The next speaker talked about how companies use blogs to control what he called "issues", ie. the gap between company actions and consumer expectations. Damage control, to use are phrase devoid of marketing lingo. In fact, that was quite an interesting perspective. Weblogs can raise a storm against companies with amazing speed, and companies can use corporate weblogs to settle the matter with equal speed. An example is the issue of the scratched screens of the iPod Nano, which Apple proactively settled by monitoring weblogs.

The last speaker was American Paul Walker, who works as a senior consultant at GCI New York. He presented a general view on weblogs as an upcoming and evolving global phenomenon. He had some very interesting views on what might be called the power structure of the Blogosphere, and what this means to companies. You can see his presentation on his professional blog, Digital Media Exploratorium.

Anyway. Corporate blogging...

Lots of companies are currently thinking "So ein ding müssen wir auch haben!". The turn-up at today's seminar proves that point. But, in my humble view, before venturing into this digital media, companies should consider this:

Do we have anything relevant to say? Nobody cares to read corporate blogs that are just plain, mindless corporate blabber.
Do we employ anyone with the talent to write read-worthy posts? Are we willing to hire someone?
If you're thinking of letting your marketing people or the PR-department write the blog ... DON'T! Unless they know how to stay credible, professional and relevant.
Are we willing to invest the amount of time it takes to write frequent and relevant posts and to respond to comments?

There are other issues you have to consider before starting a corporate blog. But the bottom line is this: readers trust people - not corporations! So please keep a keen eye on the credibility of your corporate blog, allow posts that may even be critical toward the company, or the media may backfire. And believe me ... you do not want that to happen. Being caught lying or being ridiculed in the Blogosphere is a powerful sort of horror!