Categories: Articles

The Reality of The Blog

Last week when I presented at The 2004 Digital Marketing Conference in Toronto that was put on by the Canadian Marketing Association (CMA) I discussed Blogs, RSS feeds and how we view them as users.
The reality of Blogs is that they will inevitably become just another marketing channel (victim). This has pros and cons. I think we’re already seeing that Blogs are becoming less and less distinguishable from a website (so much so that it’s hard to tell if you’re looking at a Blog, Micro-Site or website… all of the above!).
Ultimately, what is a Blog? I think it goes back to what the first website was all about. It’s simple. It’s about publishing on the web.
Sure, we’re giving Bloggers media accreditation to Presidential debates. Yes, Blogs are a credible and real force in the online world – I saw one research report that indicated a new Blog is created every five seconds. The question, as with all publishing, still remains: out of the millions and millions of them out there, how many Blogs are actually good, credible and interesting? Once you’ve figured that one out, take a step back and ask yourself the same question about all those websites?
Who’s truly delivering on their brand promise? If you can’t get it right offline, it’s going to be even more difficult online and increasingly more so when you move into the Blog space.
As new and fresh as Blogs seem, they’re powerless unless the person with the keyboard can keep the content fresh, relevant and human.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.