„Attack of the Blogs“

Oh my god. They really don’t get it, do they?

Attack of the Blogs writes Forbes and proved just by this, that they don’t understand a thing about the new media landscape.

„Some of these bloggers have just one goal, and that is to do damage. It’s evil,“ […] Suddenly they are the ultimate vehicle for brand-bashing, personal attacks, political extremism and smear campaigns. […] Bloggers are more of a threat than people realize, and they are only going to get more toxic. This is the new reality

The new reality is: the consumer has found a way of more effectively voicing their opinion outside of the artificial settings of „marketing research“. Shame on us for stating our opinions, how could we?

A Kryptonite lock is faulty, bloggers blog about it. So who is evil, the bloggers?
Neil French discriminates women, bloggers blog about it. Then, Neil says it was „Death by Blog. No, Sir. If you say such things, then you’ve committed suicide. The damage was already done. Bloggers are just commenting that foolish suicide attempt.

Blogs only enable people to reach more people for a simple thing that has always been done: word-of-mouth.

And don’t forget: people also start blogs just to praise their favourite brand! Is that evil?

Some companies now use blogs as a weapon, unleashing swarms of critics on their rivals. „I’d say 50% to 60% of attacks are sponsored by competitors,“

Now that might well be, but with 20 million blogs out there, individual blogs can only start a damage, if they achieve a viral spread of whatever they’re complaining about. And things only spread, if people believe in the message (because they agree, or because the message sounds believable).

The new reality is greater transparency, as word-of-mouth messages spread faster than they did the previous 2000+ years. If companies can’t cope with this increased transparency, it should make you think.

May be Forbes should start reading their competitors magazines. Two articles on the importance of blogs are at Businessweek and Fortune.

(via Micropersuasion and Jaffe Juice)