B.L. Ochman reports on a few of the key conclusions in eMarketer’s 15-page, $695 2006 Business of Blogging report. One, in particular, I want to comment on:
Blogs are a great way to avoid seeming interchangeable with competitors.
With apologies to Marshall McLuhan, here’s the glaring flaw with this thinking…
Blogs are media.
A method to deliver a message.
Media can deliver a great message filled with personality and vitality … or it can be used to deliver meaningless, stiff, corporate drivel.
A blog, in and of itself, will do nothing to differentiate yourself from competitors. (Blogging advocates aside, the “oh jeez, another blog” point is here or fast approaching.)
A well-done blog … with personality, insight, interactivity, mythology and compelling discussion … can revolutionize a business.
Of course, all of those things can be done, in different ways, using traditional media, too. That’s a topic for another day … for the moment I’ll say that if you don’t focus on integrating those things in your [store experience, direct mail, phone scripts, packaging, product design, web site, store experience, welcome package and dozens of other things] you are making an enormous mistake.
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