Blogs: Moving the Mainstream

The convergence of blogs and mainstream media is a megatrend that has been picking up speed, no doubt. And Business Week recently carried a very interesting story on this topic that, IMHO, highlights the increasing credibility of popular, high quality bloggers and their importance in providing additional context (and advertising opportunities) for those seeking to reach a particular audience.

It’s no secret that
bloggers are becoming increasingly influential. But Arrington is part
of an emerging crowd of writers who use their narrowly focused blogs,
such as hyperlocal real estate reports, green guides, or Web 2.0
startup reviews, to establish themselves as thought leaders. These new
influencers are taking a page from the blog networks Gawker and Weblogs
Inc. and turning rapid-fire, around-the-clock blog patter that makes
and shapes the news into a hot new online media model.


Companies are directing more efforts toward buttering up these New
Media players, often feeding them exclusives that play well with their
targeted audiences. And for marketers who are increasingly comfortable
with spending money on blogs, advertising with these opinion leaders
provides instant cachet.

Laser-focused targeting. Inexpensive to reach your audience. Cachet. These are good things. Why, as an advertiser, would I not want to leverage these powerful blog platforms as a vehicle for reaching my audience? No reason. It has become an essential part of almost any media buying strategy that wants to reach the online demographic, which is pretty smart, generally educated, has cash to spend and is influenced by online fact and opinion. The article goes on to make a very interesting point relating to media aggregation and the use of blogs as a tool for adding color, perspective and depth to the mainstream discussion:

Think of these as
the digital version of potent, passionate trade press writers. They
swarm every novelty in areas like tech, creating problems and buzz for
companies and innovations. They report news and publish it alongside
analysis of newspaper stories and company releases. These posts are
salted with strong doses of personality, sparking discussions across
the Web. By melding their own insights and opinions with the aggregated
views of others, they’re starting to gain leverage. “In a time-starved
world, people—especially decision-makers—have very little time, but do
not want to miss being in the know,” says Rishad Tobaccowala, chief
innovation officer at advertising firm Publicis Groupe Media.

This hits on a few key themes that warrant mention: (1) the use of aggregated mainstream media to provide context; while (2) offering insights and opinions in order to cut through the noise of information overload and to offer incisive, hard-hitting commentary. This is one of the key problems with consuming news today, simply that there is too much of it to consume. But with smart, high-quality bloggers pulling it all together and providing a rational, well-thought out perspective, these blog sites can become powerful nodes for accessing information from a wide array of sources. This is a model with inherent leverage that can drive eyeballs - high quality eyeballs - to a site, providing advertisers with a highly attractive pool at which to deliver targeted messages. Good stuff. And these sites have gotten legitimacy across the mainstream lanscape, including companies like Disney:

These bloggers are
still dwarfed by traditional media sites. Sites like paidContent
provide a way for established companies and advertisers to reach
engaged, plugged-in consumers. PaidContent began as a place for Ali to
dump his notes as a tech reporter; last year, he raised venture funding
from Alan Patricof’s Greycroft Partners. Now he employs eight writers
who cover niches such as digital media and wireless media, and the blog
is profitable. “I appreciate their focus on the business of New Media,
as opposed to the buzz or cool factor,” says Larry Shapiro, an
executive vice-president at Walt Disney Internet Group (DIS
), who checks the site several times each day.

Hats off to Rafat, Michael and the others driving these powerful online models whose tentacles are felt in the offline world. This is the future. And it is coming on strong.

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COMMENT:

AUTHOR: Yaser Anwar

EMAIL: yaser@yaseranwar.com

URL: http://www.yaseranwar.com

DATE: 05/06/2007 07:24:52 PM

It’s no surprise that blogs are being recognized on the MSM level. Over the past 2 years the caliber of people who’ve started blogging is truly game changing. 

From this blog to Ernest Chan’s to Tim Price & the SUN executive (and lots of other great blogs run by veterans). Another reason people prefer professional bloggers, guys/gals with actual experience, is because they’ve got no hidden agendas- no political stances which are ushered through their postings, lack of advertising and/or conflict of interest, so readers trust their opinion over MSM dudes- who are quite smart but lack the actual experience and therefore fail to sometimes understand the intricacies  of what they talk about.

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