Blogs: It's (not) all about me

By Sam Smith on Feb 27, 08 01:28 PM in Creative industries

"Of the 12,000 new blogs created every day, 50% focus on exactly the same subject - the blogger".

At least that's the claim that Sarfraz Manzoor makes in his recent Esquire feature on the New Narcissism movement that this generation that are so plugged into the social media movement has spawned. So, in light of that I'm going to keep this introductory post short and sweet and try to make it not so much about me.

The digital landscape is starting to grow up, at least out of its infancy and into a slightly more self-aware adolescent phase. Those of us who work within the digital industry are finding that along with the raft of opportunities that the latest developments bring along with them comes a need for a new, more intelligent approach.

As an Information Architect (IA) in a digital agency I force myself to question and examine our clients' and their users' needs and behaviours to identify how we can make the right digital solutions work smarter for them.

There's a lot of exciting developments out there but there are also a worrying amount of businesses out there that aren't getting the best out of the digital space for many reasons. And that's where I come in. I'll be taking a look at the digital landscape, as it enters its teens, from an insider perspective. I'll be talking about where we are now and where we could and should be as digital grows up.

Sam joined the midlands based digital agency Freestyle Interactive in 2007 from the University of Birmingham where he was Head of Digital Content and Strategy. Back in the original dot com boom he cut his teeth as an Information Architect as part of the team responsible for developing the rightmove.co.uk site from concept to the UK's biggest property search site.

He also blogs on Freestyle's downtime diary and at www.longstory.co.uk

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2 Comments

Joanna Geary said:

Hi Sam,

Welcome to The Birmingham Post blogland!

I've always found it interesting that businesses are reluctant to blog.

There's a sense of loss of control when it comes to blogging and it seems to inspire fear in businesses.

Do you think there is a way that companies can get around this and, if they can, is there any real benefit for a business to blog? Eg, I'm not really sure who would subscribe to the Poundland blog. (Discovered via Pete)

February 29, 2008 9:52 AM

Sam Smith said:

Thanks Jo, it's nice to be here.

Many businesses are reluctant to blog because they don't understand the medium - but I think that now that the first wave of hype over blogs is starting to die away, it's easier to demonstrate the benefits and opportunities that blogs can offer businesses, and that it's not just egotists in their bedrooms writing about what they had for breakfast (although you do still have to screen out a lot of that).

Of course there is always the fear that blogs don't give you as much control over your content as traditional websites but if [blogs] are managed properly, this can be mitigated. And in fact there are documented cases of businesses actually generating positive PR from engaging with and responding to criticism and feedback from their blog.

Philip Young (http://publicsphere.typepad.com/mediations)
has got a lot to say about blogs and blogging. He ran a particularly good series of events called Delivering the New PR. I don't know if he is planning to follow these up but I would recommend anyone who is thinking about blogging for business to check out his blog and get in touch to find out more.

And that's not to mention the other positive benefits of blogging such as creating communities around your site, engaging with your users and organic search engine optimisations ... looks like there's enough there for a post in itself!

March 3, 2008 5:25 PM