Eventually, everything gets reduced to a formula of some kind, including art and writing. The formulas generally come from marketing professionals who see dollar signs from mass producing whatever the popular trend is of the day. I'm afraid blogging is coming down to this. The latest buzz in the business world is for businesses to have their own blogs. Momus at Wired has noticed this too.
Once upon a time, the wooden tongue was restricted to corporate reps, PR mouthpieces and government spinmeisters. But over the last couple of years, there's been a fashion for official websites to reformat as blogs. A corporate website might be consulted once or twice, but a blog invites readers to return for a daily dose of "rolling news" about the product, personality or politician being advertised.
Since people like to read blogs, it's only natural you can take the square peg of blogging and cram in the round business hole. A friend of mine who works for an advertising balloon manufacturer told me his Web master was trying to upsell him on adding a blog to their Web site. The very idea that there was something in the advertising balloon arena to write about every day that would actually appeal to their market and lead to revenue is laughable. Obviously there is no one size fits all to marketing and PR. Blogging is popular, but at the same time, it is a unique phenomenon that can't be bottled like a soft drink.
Small businesses especially need to think about their own Web sites. Blogs are only as good as their content. The content must be edgy and fun to read. Most small business can't afford to have somebody working full time on Web content. And blogs are work--this I know. In addition, many people assume that blog articles for business read like magazine articles. Writing magazine-like articles will only dull the impact of a blog and demonstrates the aforementioned wooden tongue.
Small business owners should seriously plan and consider their Web content since their investment must produce results. A better use of money is in search engine optimization and creative marketing. Leave blogging to individuals and press releases to the businesses. That's the way it should be.
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Wretched Human Mirror by Bloodbath