Five Articles to Challenge the Way You Blog

Who cares what the bloggers say about blogging.

Who cares what Facebook users say about Facebook.

What does NYU say about social media trends? What does the New York Times say? What do investors say?

Sometimes we need to step outside our blog bubbles and take a hard look at the online world we’re living. Don’t be afraid to ask the hard question about all these promises.

What is hype, what is hope, and what is verifiable fact?

Sometimes I get tired of reading all of the self-proclaimed, self-published experts. I’m not saying there’s no value to reading blogs. Stop twisting my words. Still, it’s good to look at how other industries view social media.

Sure, there is a lot of buzz around the net about the power of social media. It’s going to change the world–at least if you believe the articles bloggers are writing. That’s the problem. The biggest evangelists for the social media kool-aid are the ones drinking the stuff themselves.

So lately, I’ve been turning more and more to traditional media when I look for support for social media trends. In a way this seems backwards. By the time big media picks up an idea, the idea is old. At least, you could argue that. But in an attempt to resist running headlong into nonsense and false promises, I’m beginning to rediscover my old love for the editorial review process of traditional media.

• The Author Will Take Q.’s Now - Kara Jesella’s article for the New York Times Fashion and Style section (?) does a good job of explaining blog tours. You’ll find everything from current practices (as of summer 2007) and some general history of blog tours. Read this article to find the very first book ever to go on a blog tour!
• Blogging’s a Low-Cost, High Return Marketing Tool - In another New York Times article, Marci Alboher addresses blogging as a tool for small businesses. This one includes some interesting details, such as how much advertising money can be generated from 4500 visits per day.
• A New Generation Reinvents Philanthropy - Rachel Silverman shares examples of 8 social networking tools for nonprofits looking to raise money online. The details of this article have to do with fundraising, but the general concepts apply to any word of mouth marketing effort.
• Does Chatter Matter? The Impact of User-Generated Content on Music Sales - This study from NYU is the first one of its kind that I’ve seen. It can be a little overwhelming to folks who don’t read a lot of academic papers, so just read the abstract, intro, background (if it interests you). Then skip to “Prediction Versus Causality” and finally the conclusion. If you see stuff that looks like Greek, just ignore that and skim to the parts for us normal lay folks. (Hat tip to WOMMA and Adotas for bringing this one to my attention this month.)
• Top Internet Themes for 1H’08 - Finally, to change the pace a bit, I’m throwing in the Merrill Lynch investment overview for Internet and e-Commerce from January 2008. You can get lost in the technical details here too. So just read the general overview on page 1, then skip to “Emergence of Social Networking Rev Models” on page 6 and 7. The implication here is that bloggers need to create gateways to their content on social networking sites like Facebook, if they haven’t done so already. (Hat tip to Guy Kawasaki for this one. He’s the man!)

(Also, a special thanks to Tina Howard for prompting me to write this post. Her forty second clip of the paper bag monster brightened my Monday morning.)