This Search Engine Strategies session started out good and then got even better with audience Q and A. Moderated by David Card, VP and senior analyst at Jupiter Research, with a panel made up of Jamie O'Donnell from SEO-PR, Rob Key of Converseon, and Mark Fletcher, creator of Bloglines. We started out with a somewhat brief discussion of the impact of blogs and mainstream media, and I'll highlight a few of the points we covered.
Mainstream Media and Blogs
There is a general consensus that mainstream media, i.e., newspapers, television, anything in print - are somewhat intimidated by the blogosphere. There's a confusion between the medium and the message. Blogs are a great way to cut the confusion and hear it straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak. Blogs educate the audience, and "old-fashioned public relations" (such as news releases) can't compete anymore with consumer generated media such as blogs. They're way more effective in getting the message across. The old marketing chestnut "define yourself or other people will define you" applies well to this situation.Blogs and What They Can Do
Blogs can market both individuals and companies. Blog searches save searchers time because instead of waiting in vain to hear something positive or negative about your company, you can instantly tap into the blog grapevine and see in nearly real time what's going on. For instance, if you subscribe to a service like Bloglines, you'll have access to over 1 million feeds and have the capacity to search any and all of them.Blogs and the Corporate Bottom Line
A blog is everyone's chance to be a journalist. The corporate concern is that there is no filtering in place (this was spoken from the perspective of a corporatation actually endeavoring to have a blog voice). There is a fine line to be walked between having an authentic voice but also not reflecting badly on the company that is represented.Professional Bloggers
Are professional bloggers "real" bloggers? Are they pundits? professionals? or just regular Joes? There was some back and forth discussion on this question, with the founder of Engadget chiming in to give his opinion as well - he stated firmly that the people who write for Engadget and his other properties are NOT professionals, but regular bloggers who happen to get paid for it. The jury was out on this one.What About Negative Blog Publicity?
Detractor blogs are starting to be an issue; for example, if you type in "wal mart" to Google, most of the results that come up in the top ten are not favorable to this American superstore. What's the solution? Create more content, and attempt to directly address any concerns that might be brought up. An audience member agreed with this approach, giving a great example of his own business being at first negatively targeted by detractor bloggers, but after his efforts to address their concerns, they became some of his biggest fans.Go on to the next page for the audience Q and A.
