« Blog Bits - Week of November 28th | Main | Harris Survey Analyzes Value of Word of Mouth »

Blogs Overhyped in 2005? Marketers Still Need to Care

In the Dec. issue of CMO magazine editor Rob O'Regan suggests that blogging is the most overhyped phenomenon of 2005.  It's true that it was hard to miss the rise of blogging in 2005 but as we all know, weblogs, travel logs, online diaries, forums, etc. have been around for years.  Blogging seemed to get a kick in the pants early this year based on many factors such as the ease of publishing and fascination of the media (including the the many public doocings) and never died down.  There is no doubt that blogging took off in 2005 and I don't believe its popularity is going to wane anytime soon.

In his monthly commentary Rob writes that "despite the hype—or maybe because of it—I'm not fully convinced of the value of blogs."  Of course, this leads to another debate entirely, but even skeptics like Rob agree that blogs have to be on the minds of CMOs and marketers in general.  Why?  Because they can have a direct impact on a company's reputation. 

At the very least marketers need to understand what is being said about their company online. Additionally there are opportunities everywhere in the blogosphere such as product promotion, tracking message adoption, trendspotting, connecting with customers and gaining customer feedback.  And don't forget monitoring for threats, negative comments or incorrect statements/perceptions.   "Smart CMOs won't shoot the messenger; they will invest resources to understand why they have formed a negative opinion of their company and then address the problem."  I couldn't have said it better myself Rob!

Posted by Cymfony on December 5, 2005 at 12:04 PM | Email this post Permalink

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341cdcdc53ef00d83523cf8a53ef

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Blogs Overhyped in 2005? Marketers Still Need to Care:

Comments

The comments to this entry are closed.