Posted by randfish
The Stanford publishing conference has a fascinating group of participants. Today I've met editors and executives from Time Out Martha Stewart the Univ. of CA TruthDig ESPN and dozens more. My speech this morning centered around how major brands like these can leverage blogging to create passionate fans and a personal face for their company. Sadly a lot of the rules of old media still apply.
More than one discussion at lunch focused on the editorial limits of content at many of these sites. In the most extreme example the Univ. of CA requires that any material puiblished on (or off) the web make its way through 3 unique layers of content editing before it's approved for release. Naturally even a short paragaph can take a week to be released - this type of environment just isn't conducive to blogging.
When you think abuot what a true "blog" means it's not about the software or the format it's about the voice. The best blogs:
- Are a personal expression of subject matter
- Allow for a two-way conversation
- Build a connection between the readers and the blogger/company/brand
When you have layers of communication control you're essentially shutting out all the things that make blogging valuable or worthwhile. So what's the solution?
According to my new friend Beth - "we'll just have to wait for them (the people who control corporate communication) to die."
To me that sounds a bit morbid a touch depressing and far too long to wait for a media revolution. Is there anything we can do to speed up the adoption of blogging from old media publishers and established brands?
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