The Pitfalls of Blogging

For a long time now I’ve been touting blogging as the next big thing in online marketing mainly because of its ability to achieve organic search engine rankings. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm going to be on a NEDMA (New England Direct Marketing Association) panel later this month on The Pros and Pitfalls of Blogging. The session's moderator, Bob Cargill, from A New Marketing Commentator has provied the pannelists and I with some advance notice on the questions. Here's the first one on the list...


What are the pros and pitfalls of blogging?

Through this blog and blogsruvey.backbonemedia.com, John Cass and I have written plenty on the benefits of corporate blogging but possibly not enough on the pitfalls. It’s true. If you aspire for high rankings on your most valuable keywords then blogging can get you there. If you want to make friends with some influential folks and ultimately get some great PR out of it, blogging can do that too. However, this powerful communications tool cuts both ways so before you go off and start your own blog, I think it’s important to understand a few things before you publish your first post.

One thing that you will find once you start reading blogs or blogging yourself is that the blogosphere is made up of some amazing people who are very knowledgeable, curious, and passionate about their general area of interest. Many of them are also great writers. All of them (to my knowledge) are human and so are you. Humans can be friendly kind and respectful, and humans can also be mean jerks looking to take you down a peg just for the sport of it. Humans make mistakes. You need to be ready for that.

I think corporate blogging is about putting your company within the context of relevant online conversations. Just for the record this does not mean pushing your products. I always like to point to Stonyfield Farm's BLOG "Cow"munities! which are four auidence oriented Blogs that discuss strories and topics that their "Cow" mnities care about. This is a great example of how a company can use blogs to connect with their auidence and sell more product without directly pitching it.

If you want to engage in a conversation with people in the blogospher, you will mainly find a blogging culture, a group of humans that are willing to read, listen and respect what you have to say if it adds substance to the conversation. Make a strong point and your blogging community could make you feel like a star by linking to your post and commenting on your idea. That’s the benefit of buzz and PR.

Here’s the potential pitfall, substance or lack there of can be a double-edged sword however. The edgier it is the sharper it can cut in either direction. Dull is just dull. Bloggers are passionate and that can also mean that what you thought was inspired genius was not perceived that way at all. Make a controversial point and you could end up feeling like the blogosphere has turned you into the guy who invented email SPAM. This is usually where people who are not accustomed the critical side of blogging may get turned off. However, the potential of a negative reaction or attack is not something to look at as a pitfall but more as an opportunity. This however, could by your golden opportunity to engage your adversaries in an online conversation and set the record straight and more importantly establish your credibility. This is what’s great about the blogosphere and why people like it. Bloggers are bullshit detectors and they don’t like to spin or be spun.