A.O.B.
Blogosphere rules OK?
Published: 06 August 2008
Full marks to John Prescott for grasping the power of the blog and using Labourhome.org to attack Ministers and MPs plotting the removal of the Prime Minister. The former Deputy Prime Minister’s gesture of support certainly attracted widespread media coverage.
Go to the bottom of the class, however, for a blog in which Mr Prescott, the former ship’s steward, foolishly likened the Labour Party to the Titanic, even if his point was that it was not the captain but the iceberg that sank the ship.
The worldwide web and in particular the blog – a contraction of web log – has transformed the way in which the media collect and spread the news, with journalists combing blogs as well as press releases for stories.
Be careful that the story that journalists gather is the one you intended
The blog represents a medium for commentary or news on a particular subject or it can function merely as a personal on-line diary. It’s a direct, economical way of communicating key themes and messages.
Corporations and their PR teams have been quick to recognise the opportunities (and the threats) of this fast, cheap and effective communication medium.
Faced with difficulties in attracting recruits for clinical trials, for example, drug companies are turning to online solutions, including the blogosphere to promote the benefits of becoming involved in such trials.
They and other companies and organisations recognise that the blogosphere enables them to interact online directly with the audiences that they want and need to reach.
With set up and maintenance costs of running a blog low, small wonder that chief executives in organisations large and small, including local government, are establishing their unique blog identities enabling them to speak directly to customers, employees and other stakeholders.
Sure, elephant traps abound in the world of blogging – for example, allowing subordinates and syntactically-challenged politicians to blog unregulated – but handled well the blog is a potent communication tool. Handled badly, the blog is still potent but, as Mr Prescott (and Mr Brown) might agree, toxically so.
Liam Dempsey is an associate of The Governance Partnership.