Trust “MEdia” - How Real People Are Finally Being Heard

Trust “MEdia” How Real People Are Finally Being Heard The 1.0 Guide to the Blogosphere for Marketers & Company Stakeholders First in a Series on New Communications & Word-of-Mouth Marketing By Edelman and Intelliseek • Spring 2005 www.Intelliseek.com • www.Edelman.com EXECUTIVE SUMMARY I n a very short time, the blogging phenomenon has drastically altered the landscape and challenged traditional tenets about the control of messaging by corporations, the media, the government, marketers and company stakeholders. According to Edelman’s 2005 Trust Survey, This new and growing critical mass is peoples’ trust has shifted from authority forcing marketing professionals and figures to “average people, like you.” In fact, company stakeholders to think differently 56% of Americans trust only the opinions of about how they go to market. Bloggers are physicians and academicians more than they speaking and being heard in real time, and trust the opinions of people like themselves. only recently has the marketing community What does this mean? The average person begun to grasp bloggers’ impact on does not want canned, neatly packaged brands, business and issues. Because messages; the average person wants to of their speed, bloggers can and do alter engage and be engaged in conversations. the volume and tone of any conversation. And blogs—short for Web logs—have rapidly Gone are the days of waiting months to emerged as one of the newest technologies get reliable feedback on an initiative. The driving this shift. new reality is this: any blog author with a passion for what you’re selling knows what Blogs are easily published, personal Web you’re doing the minute you do it—and sites that serve as sources of commentary, maybe even before. Bloggers comment opinion, and uncensored, unfiltered sources immediately, and marketing and business of information on a variety of topics. The professionals can quickly lose control of the best-written and most widely read blogs conversation. are characterized by their authors’ genuine passion for a specific topic or issue—what This white paper is an initial look at the some call “passionate journalism,” or dynamics of the Blogosphere. It’s intended reporting with an informed bias. Blogs also to inform marketing and communications serve as communities where information, professionals about the who, what, where links, opinions, videos, audio files, photos and how-to of blogging. If this paper has and other forms of media are easily and done justice to the subject of blogging, it frequently shared, where elaboration can also should sound a huge wake-up call. be offered, disagreements can be aired, Blogging is not a passing fad…but any and comments can be posted. Together, brand, business or organization that fails to this collective conversation is called the grasp the fact may very well be. Blogosphere, and it’s one of the fastest growing areas of new content on the Internet. Trust “MEdia”: How Real People Are Finally Being Heard 2 Table of Contents THE BLOGGING BOOM: WHAT BLOGS ARE…AND HOW THEY’VE GROWN 4 THE IMPACT OF BLOGS: CHALLENGES, OPPORTUNITIES AND CHANGES 6 WHAT OTHERS SAID ABOUT BLOGS: PRAISE...AND DRAWBACKS 10 BLOGS THAT WORK...AND BLOGS GONE WRONG 12 BLOG SEGMENTATION: THE EDELMAN & INTELLISEEK TRUST MEDIA BLOG DIRECTORY 14 HOW TO CONTACT BLOGGERS: NEW RULES OF ENGAGEMENT FOR THE BLOGOSPHERE 15 TO BLOG OR NOT TO BLOG: KEY QUESTIONS FOR MARKETERS AND COMMUNICATIONS PROFESSIONALS 17 THE DO’S AND DON’TS OF BLOGGING IN GENERAL 19 BLOGGING TERMS YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED TO KNOW 20 Trust “MEdia”: How Real People Are Finally Being Heard 3 TRUST MEDIA: WHY THE AVERAGE PERSON IS FINALLY GETTING HEARD T HE BLOGGING BOOM: WHAT BLOGS ARE…AND HOW THEY’VE GROWN corporations, advertisements, marketers and other “officials.” 3 It was obvious that blogs would go down Indeed, bloggers played a role in creating THE 1.0 GUIDE TO THE in 2004 history when dictionary publisher and disseminating information during the BLOGOSPHERE FOR Merriam-Webster designated “blog” as the MARKETERS & COMPANY 2004 Presidential campaign, fueled initially most sought-after word of the year at its STAKEHOLDERS by Howard Dean’s Blog For America Web sites. (www.blogforamerica.com), which helped recruit new volunteers and raised record Is it any wonder? Blogs are booming, not amounts of money via the Internet for only in number but also in authority and his campaign. When the world’s largest reach. According to some estimates, about natural disaster took place in late 2004 in 20,000 new blogs are created daily, meaning remote Southern Asia, bloggers in Thailand, that millions of people have their own sites Indonesia, India and other affected countries on the World Wide Web—sites that in turn quickly jumped into action (e.g., http: attract millions of readers. These bloggers //tsunamihelp.blogspot.com/) to provide foster conversations, connections and new some of the first on-the-scene “reporting,” relationships, and their growth shows no including casualty reports, videos of the sign of slowing in the immediate future.1 damage, heart-breaking photographs, government updates, links to relief agencies, Since the late 1990s and into 2005, blogs lists of missing persons and victims, have evolved from “under-the-radar” hospital reports and more.