This post written from Starbucks in Glen Rock, NJ

There are two types of people in this world, those that Blog and those that do not.  It took me 38 years to narrow the world’s population down to two groups but I finally did it. Life should be much easier for all of us from here on in.

The business Blogger typically Blogging to market a company, service or product. Business leaders, marketers, authors and wannabes, all marketing while sharing expertise on a given subject to gain exposure. The business Blogger adds their own flavor to a topic in an attempt to connect with their potential customers and readers. Freely giving knowledge in exchange for that elusive subscriber and illustrious comment. Garnering real unfettered feedback that has never been so readily available in the past.

Blogs are a must have tool for today’s business. In our web 2.0 world of social media and user generated content, companies are striving to become transparent and trusted. Blog’s are a crucial first step on the road to corporate transparency. Sharing expertise can often reaffirm expertise in a noisy landscape overflowing with self proclaimed gurus. Giving away a little wisdom can provide benefits that far exceed the tightlipped status quo of yesterday.

The personal Blogger creates daily diaries of minutia about everyday life. They document the world through their eyes writing feverishly as they record the events happening around them. Connecting with friends and those of similar ilk. the personal Blogger is also trying to earn that elusive subscriber and the coveted comment.  The personal Blogger shares thoughts and perspective with the rest of the Blogosphere by creating off the cuff conversations for all to partake in.

Two distinct motivations, some for love, some for money, most for a little of both. Equally hoping to achieve the same result.

What about the do not’s? Do they get it? Do they understand the complexities, motivations and the stress of creating post after post after post? Can they even begin to empathize with the tortured soul behind the keyboard of mediocrity desperately trying to connect with the connected?

Apparently not.

A good friend, an internationally acclaimed marketing author, a gifted writer and world class story teller, the man who would be king (of the Bloggers) recently made me rethink my “Blogging is something everyone should do” posture. I led him by the hand, guided him directly to the promise land and helped him create what was destined to be greatest Blog writing of all time! After about two weeks and one post I was sent an email and for the first time in my life – I was speechless.

“My suspicions about Blogs seem confirmed. 18 days: zero comments. Not even an email, a phone call, a driver passing me at a crosswalk, rolling down his window, and shouting “hey Buddy, see you’ve got a Blog!”

In cyberspace, no one can hear you scream.  Or Blog, either.

Blogs seems like vehicles that let people ruminate and free associate, not unlike those students in “creative” writing classes who are encouraged just to “express themselves,” as if the inchoate expression of their feelings almost certainly contains some key truths–a provably ridiculous assumption, and an example of “promoting self esteem” gone mad.   

Free association–”Here’s some shit I’m thinkin’ about, in the way I’m thinkin’ ’bout it”–worked to some degree for James Joyce, but Ulysses got a free pass from readers–most of them confused by the words most of the time–because it was “literature” and Joyce was a genius– the kind of event that prompted the author of the Emperor Has No Clothes to point out that quite often, kings are naked.

Everything outside of literature is journalism, and the responsibility and necessity for a journalist is above all: be clear.  Bloggers don’t seem to feel that responsibility; they instead seem to share the conceit that their innermost thoughts are not simply interesting, but intoxicating, to others.  

Well, sorry: no.  BLOG:  Big Lumps of Garbage.
Some others, perhaps.  But not me.  I’ve never read anything in a Blog that would merit a few column inches of type and the cost of the newsprint.

I suspect it would be the same if I posted a reasonably insightful piece about the marketing implications of the Anna Nicole Smith case, Brittany Spears’s meltdown, or the marketing of this weekend’s Academy Awards.  No one would listen or comment, not least of all because they’ve learned what I have: BLOGs are bogs–thickets of mud.
Dopes have Blogs.  Schmoes have Blogs.  Anyone has a Blog.  Why in heavens’ name should I?”

You were the choosen one!
You were suppose to bring order to the force not leave it in ruin!

I was disappointed but at the same time enlightened. I saw the passing of the old regime. A gifted author - a marketing genius -  a man who is ready to pass the torch to a new breed of guru. A new expert, an expert for today’s connected masses.

Blogging is critical in our world, there can be no argument. The sharing of insight and experience is the way of our connected world. Blogs are agreeably not literature but more so a means of connected communication representative of the timeliness and participatory nature of a new and exciting connected culture.

Those that Blog will, and those that do not will fade away, having done their part to get us to the world we now occupy. They have passed the torch and I – (ehem!) I mean, we, gladly accept it.

Ironically his email to me would have made a fantastic Blog post.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 25th, 2007 at 7:36 am and is filed under Blog Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.