A PR and blogging discussion is full of PR pros eager for a new world where they ghostwrite corporate blogs. The idea makes me vaguely nauseous.
Blogging becomes a sub-discipline of speechwriting -- execs and politicians hire wordsmiths, and celebrities hacks to answer fanmail and ghostwrite bios.
I've always been skeptical of the Romantic pose of the Cluetrain guys -- blogging is the true, authentic voice, cutting through the phony, saccharine hype of marketingspeak.
But an outsourced PR blog is a corporate newsletter -- it's the pep-talk tone of the American Airlines letter from the CEO, multiplied by a million.
Then again, if it's really boring, we don't have to read it. In the world of blogging, the limit is the number of blogs a reader can scan in a day. If a CEO blog is interesting, it will get linked and found. And if the propaganda is BS, easier to link and puncture the bubble -- viz the response to Movable Type's new pricing.
With comments and trackback and Technorati and Feedster, there are more ways to find the real conversation.
Posted by alevin at July 18, 2004 11:07 AM | TrackBack