Lots of articles on social media talk about how critical a blog is to a business' online strategy. The old edict of “publish or perish” has been embraced and updated to include tweets, Facebook and LinkedIn updates and an increasingly ubiquitous barrage of blog posts.
As we discussed last week, Nicholas Negroponte coined the phrase “content is king” in his book Being Digital. Since then, modern communicators have enthusiastically picked up the gauntlet, publishing page after page and screen after screen of opinions.
My question is this – is anyone actually reading all this stuff? I know what happens when the proverbial tree falls in the deserted forest but what happens when all these unsolicited words fill more and more blogs?
When I speak at corporate conferences I share the dais with lots of newly minted social media experts who will tell you that they've built their entire businesses through blogging. And even though Google Analytics can track every hit and report back with voluminous metrics, cataloging who visited, how long they stayed on site and where they're from, is that also much ado about nothing? Other than some clearly successful outliers such as Mashable, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Tim Ferriss, Jeremiah Owyang, Brian Solis, Alex DC and a few more, is anyone actually paying attention?
Of course, all of this just begs the obvious – is anyone reading MY blog? Well, besides the fact that you've read this far (thank you), I'm just happy to have an outlet for what I want to say. I'm pleased when people comment online or tell me they thought what I wrote was either smart or hilarious. And if a printout makes it to my mom's refrigerator, that's the best consumer response I could ask for. After all, even Google can't show me the metrics on making my mom happy!!