Quote of the Day: Tom Coates on Blog Marketing
Concerning the highly amusing tantrum that Hugh Macleod threw recently when his pimping of some wine brand got a little criticism, the BBC's Tom Coates makes what i feel is very important post about weblog marketing in general.
A response to the rhetoric of weblog marketing... (plasticbag.org)
I'm totally fed up of people standing up and waving a flag for the death of institutions based on sketchy information and a vague belief in the rightness of their cause - and I'm also slightly sick of more moderate voices being drowned out under the revolutionary fervour of people fresh with their first wave of excitement about user-generated content on the web. Weblogs suffer from this enormously. Someone said that every journalist that writes about weblogs thinks that the year they discovered them is the year weblogs went mainstream. I've watched this for almost six years now. I now need people to think about what's more likely to happen - that big media organisations, and governments and businesses will dry up and evaporate, or that some of them will adapt and change to a new ecology, renegotiate their place in the world and have a role in fashioning and supporting whatever it is that's coming?
There's actually much more to that post, and i think anyone interested in new ways to market using blogs should aquaint themselves with the entire conversation. Just follow the link to Hugh's tantrum, read Tom's post and follow the links - really, this is good stuff.
For the hard of attention span, here's a summary of the story:
- Hugh has a client that sells wine
- He's been giving to bloggers for free
- On the basis that they can write about it positvely or negatively
- Ben Metcalfe thinks this is polluting the blog ecology
- So does Tom, but goes into much more detial
- The upshot of which is, that the act of giving something away, even if you dont require positive comment, encourages positive comment, and errodes trust.
It's a facinating debate, enjoy...
blogmarketing is here to stay...
Tom has very opinionated views – I distinctly remember a run in with him in the past because he didn’t agree with the blog awards (I think it was by the Guardian, and was an award for the “Best British Blog”). Tom, along with many other “names” in the blog “industry” were up in arms about it, and even created a campaign where everyone would display a bit of JavaScript which said it was a bad idea.
That’s going off-topic; my main point is that people like Tom will always have some kind of vision that they were the founders of “blogs” and as such should have a say in the future of them. In reality, it doesn’t work like that. I’ve been blogging since 2000 and blog marketing really isn’t a bad (or new) thing – I really don’t see a problem with what Hugh’s been doing and kudos to the wine company or Hugh for coming up with the idea in the first place.
Just my 2p.
people like Tom will always
I didn't read anything of that nature at all in his post. Maybe you're opinion is colored by your ealier "run in"?
Seems to me he just made some very good, and eloquently expressed points on a difficult subject...
I haven't read the full article...
to be fair ;) My work firewall blocks it for adult content. I don't actually have a problem with Tom at all, I'm just not sure on what all the fuss is about with Hugh's/wine companies method of marketing.
Read it when you get home
Read it when you get home then James, I think he makes a VERY good argument.
it's not the method it's the attitude
I see nothing wrong with either the StormHoek or the English Cut promotions that Hugh does, but what I really get offended by (as a couple of you who might just have been subjected to my rants on this before know) is his belief that running a promotion via blog/bloggers is somehow superior to old fashioned marketing and that all things blogger are instantly better.
It's not unique to Hugh who I find a really good read most of the time, but the whole blogpuppy thing gets just way OTT. Blogging is simply another way of writing and bloggers are just people who write stuff. Bloggers aren't magically gifted human beings and blog marketing isn't anything new - hmmm, how shall we market this? I know, lets give it away to people who might write about it..... now where have I heard that idea before? Oh yeah - every single press trip/demo I ever did. Every single IV I ever did. Every single exhibition stand I ever worked on when a card carrying journalist turned up....
Sending free stuff to people isn't a bad idea but it isn't innovation either. Writing about how great a product is doesn't fall into any exciting new marketing category either. I wish people would just get on and do it instead of wanting to be credited with reinventing the wheel :)
Re-comment
For some reason my earlier comment dissapeared :OS
Giving something away - anyone interested in using freebies for marketing ought to read The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini and what he has to say about "the law of Reciprocity" - very interesting book
>>For some reason my earlier
>For some reason my earlier comment dissapeared
Nothing doing here chris - let me know if it happens again.
Spot on Gurtie
That list would be a mile long if i had the time or patience :)
did I miss something?
sending out free stuff to get tainted reviews is old hat... er.. oldest hat
By the way, is anyone getting sick of hearing about blogs and blogging in general?
Okay, easier CMS, easier self publishing, we get it. After 3 years, how about let's concentrate on the content and quit obsessing abou the medium...
used to be
used to be if you wanted to publish, you couldn't make enough copies.
Then the printing press changed that...
... if you had one.
Then the mimeograph changed that.
...provided you could distribute leaflets (legally).
Then email changed that.
... as long as you had an "established business relationship"
Then search marketing changed that
.. provided you had 50,000 backlinks.
Then blogging changed that...
Why is it that bloggers can't just ignore people? Why do they have to answer every little criticism as if it were valid? Geesh.