Oct
28
Attack of the 50 Foot Blog
The professionals are nervous this week — worrying aloud about the ease with which any reader can turn into a writer. Forbes is the latest, with an hysterical cover story about how blogs are coming to get you. (Hysterical, as in, it’s pretty funny *and* batshit crazy all in one.) It’s almost like a piece of performance art — a paranoid story about uneven, one-sided rants from powerful publishing entities contained in an uneven, one-sided rant from a paranoid but powerful publishing entity. So meta it hurts.
Frankly, it’s so bad, I’m not going to offer a line by line critique. I will say this: they encourage firms to monitor the blogosphere and start their own blogs. I would, too, though not to ‘fight back.’ We are counseling someone now about how to deal with negative blog posts, and our overriding message to them is that your own blog should not be about doing tit for tat on every distracting blog post out there. Instead, add value. Tie your name & brand to the right sorts of things. We also don’t subscribe to the ‘blogs as weapons’ approach listed here. We’d never be anyone’s huckleberry for that sort of foolishness.
"Bloggers are more of a threat than people realize, and they are only going to get more toxic. This is the new reality," says Peter Blackshaw, chief marketing officer at Intelliseek, a Cincinnati firm that sifts through millions of blogs to provide watch-your-back service to 75 clients, including Procter & Gamble and Ford.
I’m going to assume that they did a really long interview with Pete, and that this quote only looks like FUD because of the context it’s in. Yes, monitor. Sure, check out Intelliseek, but not because of some article-induced panic attack.
Follow the discussion at tech.memeorandum. Here are some of the early reviews of this piece:
Chris Pirillo (nice one, Chris)
[...] blogosphere with a cover story titled “Attack of the Blogs.� And last but not least, Weblogs Work keeps it meta: It’s almost like a piece of performance art—a paranoid story about uneven, one [...]
Pingback by Supr.c.ilio.us: The Blog » Forbes Calls Bloggers a Lynch Mob, Gets Lynched by Bloggers — October 28, 2005 @ 2:05 pm
[...] blogosphere with a cover story titled “Attack of the Blogs.� And last but not least, Weblogs Work keeps it meta: It’s almost like a piece of performance art—a paranoid story about uneven, one [...]
Pingback by Supr.c.ilio.us: The Blog » Forbes Calls Bloggers a Lynch Mob, Gets Lynched by Bloggers — October 28, 2005 @ 2:05 pm
It always amazes me when the media tries, via a 1-sided, big brother is coming, approach to “journalism” (I use journalism lightly here) to drive its readership towards its point of view.
Because Blogs are still relatively new, and have grown exponentially in popularity over the last couple of years, its easy, I suppose, for the media to take pot shots…
It makes me wonder, however, if some of its attitude isn’t motivated by paranoia with a possible newcomer entry into the competitive world of the media: BLOGS!
Comment by Kevin — October 28, 2005 @ 2:12 pm
It always amazes me when the media tries, via a 1-sided, big brother is coming, approach to “journalism” (I use journalism lightly here) to drive its readership towards its point of view.
Because Blogs are still relatively new, and have grown exponentially in popularity over the last couple of years, its easy, I suppose, for the media to take pot shots…
It makes me wonder, however, if some of its attitude isn’t motivated by paranoia with a possible newcomer entry into the competitive world of the media: BLOGS!
Comment by Kevin — October 28, 2005 @ 2:12 pm
[...] nside Google – Blog Attack Blog Herald – Forbes Does Cover Story Hatchet Job on Blogging Weblogs Work – Attack of the 50 Foot Blog Forbes Blasts Blog [...]
Pingback by Lorelle on WordPress » Forbes Trashes Blogs — October 28, 2005 @ 8:06 pm
[...] nside Google – Blog Attack Blog Herald – Forbes Does Cover Story Hatchet Job on Blogging Weblogs Work – Attack of the 50 Foot Blog Forbes Blasts Blog [...]
Pingback by Lorelle on WordPress » Forbes Trashes Blogs — October 28, 2005 @ 8:06 pm
Attack of the Blogs
At least that is what someone who is in the business of warning big corporations about things being said about their products would want his customers to think.
Trackback by Don Singleton — October 29, 2005 @ 1:28 pm
Attack of the Blogs
At least that is what someone who is in the business of warning big corporations about things being said about their products would want his customers to think.
Trackback by Don Singleton — October 29, 2005 @ 1:28 pm