The Blogosphere and the Corporation

James Cherkoff has an article, Modern Marketing in The Observer as well as on his site about the changing nature of media and the affects that social software is having on organizations. What's more, B. L. Ochman, has a post, Internet? Is That Some New Fangled Thing? that shows some corporations are clueless not only of the blogosphere but even of the net. Hey, I try talking with businesses all the time about enterprise social software and enterprise blogging, but to explain the process, even in biz terms or stories, is like explaining how to ride a bike with them not understanding balance.

The real problem is most corporate people have no understanding of information culture inside or outside of their organizations.

James: 

"You, too, can become a Global Broadcaster"

James Cherkoff on how 'citizen hacks' are challenging the might of corporations all over the world.

Citizen’s Media is one element of the way in which individuals are taking control of marketing channels. The first step was for digital consumers to use technology, such as PVRs, to avoid mass marketing. The next step was for consumers to use the same technology to create their own media.

For executives who already feel they are living in a goldfish bowl the idea of their own consumers owning media and becoming influential watchdogs can be alarming. However, this trend is growing, not going away. Corporates need to engage and in some cases collaborate with Citizen’s Media as they do with any other influential group.

James mentions at the end of his article that PR might be the best group to work in this emergent space; maybe for him, but one big firm has stumbled already. The Pathology of Business Bullshit is a good case study on what not to do as much as it is on what to do in the blogosphere.

B.L.'s post...

Any time I get too immersed in the new media space, I can be brought down to earth with a quote like this one:

"Classical advertising is not as effective and efficient as it has been in the past," said Javier Martin, who manages the I Can't Believe It's Not Butter brand at Unilever United States in Englewood Cliffs, NJ., "so we're looking for more innovative ways to reach our consumers."

The emperor has no clothes. 

What's really cool right now is that we have several good blog aggregation search engines that find the aliveness of conversations in the blogosphere. Mary Hodder from Napsterizatoin has started a six part series on For the Vox Populi: A Comparison of How Some Blog Aggregation and RSS Search Tools Work. Now if I were a corporate employee, I would be curious about blogging, rss, tagging - enterprise blogging - and try to figure out how I could work this into my plan today.

Seth has a clicher on organizations not listening - "overhead in the elevator".