Blogs and Business: The Downside

The blogosphere in Indiana and the nation is growing rapidly. Its impact on Hoosier businesses may be powerful, but the jury is still out.

Here's a raw example of how blogging by seasoned professionals -- in this case, p.r. experts writing a book about business and blogging -- can louse up a business' good name.

I have a message for Shel Israel and Robert Scoble: Your book about blogging has some superb points in it and may become a standard work on the subject (to the extent any work is longlasting in today's online world).

But your rant against Dell doesn't seem warranted. Your personal experience is like mine: Good computers, good support, a computer system that works as a tool to extend my own reach rather than working as an impediment to my goals. That sounds like a good thing. Indeed, my three-year-old Dell Inspiron 4150 laptop is far more to my liking than much newer machines with similar horsepower.

So why knock a good thing? If your buds have a problem, let them complain. Your complaint strikes me as opportunistic and an attempt to draw attention to yourselves and your book. It is, in effect, a self-fulfilling prophecy: Dell is bad because we blog that it is bad.

This jaded outlook is no better for the greater good than the reporters who truly persue the "gotcha" tactics I wrote about in a post earlier today.

End of my counter-rant!

Comments

[shel Israel]

Douglass,

Thanks for the kind words about the book. Sorry you don't see my point regarding Dell. It was hardly a rant, simply an assertation that when enought of the people I trust--in this case several bloggers--tell me that a company's service has turned shoddy, then it's time to buy my next commodity from a company whose customers seem happier. I guess I beliewe in the wisdom of crowds.

[Douglass Davidoff]

Shel,

Thank you for your acknowledgement. I look forward to publication of your book, which will turn online marketing in a new direction.

-- dtd

[Jim Buie]

Hi Doug,

Remember me? A long time ago in Indianapolis, we shared our enthusiasm for the Internet and what it could do in politics. Much has happened since then, eh?

I also have a blog on PR and the Internet:

http://jimbuie.blogs.com/journal/public_relations/index.html or click. I'd be happy to share links and network.

Regards,

Jim Buie