1.Shel:

Great post. There were a couple thoughts that stuck out to me as I was reading.

1) What are the industries that SHOULD be in the blogoshpere if communications (PR, Marketing, Etc) aren't. To me, blogs are ultimately communication tools and if someone says that the communications profession adds no value, there's quite a disconnect. That said, there are some (read many) blogs that give the rest a bad name and shouldn't continue. This leads me to...

2) I absolutely agree with you that I trust bloggers, not blogs. As I scroll down my list of feeds, I try to focus on post titles, but ultimately find myself looking at who posted the post first to select what I read. If I see something posted by you, or certain others (funny, they're all part of your new company!) I tend to read them first because I know that I will be getting good, trustworthy content.

Sorry for rambling, but I think that this is important. The blogosphere doesn't "belong" to anyone and no one can say who belongs and doesn't. Ultimately, the content rules and people who spend their lives communicating are going to (hopefully) frame their messages properly. Then it's up to us, the readers, to determine what is valuable.

2.Hi Shel,

I thought your article was very insightful and I do think there is a place in blogs for PR. The key is in what you say, "the conversation and benefit the community as a whole. PR can?and should?be a vehicle for truth." That means for a PR person that if you're going to try to get coverage in blogs you are really respectful of the bloggers and what the blog topics cover. Beyond respectful is that you need to do your research and further understand that bloggers DON"T have to cover a story.

I think that is one of the frustrations bloggers are going through because they're now so much on the PR radar that they get hundreds of pitches, blasts etc. that do not relate to their blog at all.

I got a pitch not long ago to my AdvanceYourMessage blog that had to do with a new diet food and came from a well-known PR agency, who obviously must just be compiling blog information and then doing horrid blog-blasts.

I also like what Kevin says about "the blogosphere doesn't belong to anyone" and think that's espescially true of bloggers and they need to be respected for the value they put on write they write about to their readership.

However, I think there are tons of amazing blogs out there and they keep growing and I keep reading!

Nettie

3.The idea of value is really important. All blog posts have value(s). They are among those values that provide a nexus of values for the community that takes an interest in that blog at time of the visit.

Such values can, and often do, form an asset for a reange of people and organisations.

Those who do not blog miss the opportunity to be involved in this form of value creation.

Not liking people to be in the blogosphere is, of course, elitist and runs counter to diversity.

Elitists as blogers are valuable too.

4.Shel,

At first, your contact-lens example made sense, but it falls apart on further examination.

What you seem to be saying is the blogosphere can help spread the word about a product recall. Sure, they can. But on what planet would blogs be the first place a responsible company would put that information?

The most efficient way to take advantage of the blogosphere in your scenario remains: Put your story out on the newswires first, and the mainstream news outlets next or simultaneously. Those are the places where broadcast media get their stories, and bloggers are in the same category. You'd then put the news on your website's homepage, so the media outlets would trust that this is a place to go for official company statements and updated information.

Communicating directly with the blogosphere would be, at best, a tertiary response, and probably redundant if you've done the first two steps. After you've put your CEO on Dateline NBC, perhaps you would recommend a chat with an A-list blogger. But you would expect your chat would be surrounded by links to everything else you'd done first.

Put yourself in the bloggers' shoes, which you are. A syndicated feed of a blog you respect pushes news in your face about a dangerous product. You go to the blog and can find no attribution, no link; but it's a strong statement and this guy has never given you a bum steer. You worship this blog.

However: Do you run with the information on your blog immediately? Or do you check it out via the mainstream media first, to see if this is real? You know what the answer is.

Even if you've set your company up to publish a frequently updated blog about its products: Can you really say you would post the item about the dangerous product on that blog--and stop there? Would you even do it as your first step?

It's great for PR that the blogosphere exists because it disseminates credible messages faster. But that's not the same thing as saying PR has figured out a distinct role in the blogosphere that overrides most bloggers' heightened resistance to spin and flackery.

5.Anonymous, I don't usually reply to anonymous comments, but yours is intelligent and articulate and deserves a response. (But why, for goodness sake, be anonymous? It's tough to be part of a community when nobody else knows who you are!)

First off, I never suggested that PR would go to the blogosphere FIRST. I have a mantra: "New media do not kill old media." But the influence of mainstream media is waning and it's a lot toughter today to get widespread distribution of information through traditional media channels. For the citizens of Waco, I'd hope local citizen journalism would pick up some of the slack. My approach would be to reach out to media, civic leaders, and the blogosphere/citizen journalism contingent concurrently. Speed of information was the critical element in this case. Heck, I'd put it on YouTube if I thought that would get the out to one family that kept their daughter from putting non-prescription lenses in her eye! I would continue to concentrate on local resources -- and bloggers who write about local matters have the ability to get the word out quickly. There's no 6 p.m. newscast or evening edition to wait for.

My post also didn't elaborate on the tactics I'd use today. I'd quickly find the influential bloggers covering local issues and make direct contact and ask for help. Remember, we weren't pushing a product or alerting people to a product recall. The message was simple: "Please make sure your kids aren't putting contact lenses in their eyes that weren't prescribed by a doctor. They could ruin their eyes for life."

Finally, my post wasn't about a "distinct role," but rather the ability to create value. Those PR practitioners who know how to reach out to the blogosphere in a candid, unbiased, and transparent manner in order to build awareness or consensus add value. The only difference between them and non-PR people is that the PR people do it on behalf of clients.