Benefits of Blogging

As always, the US is way ahead of us Brits in adapting social tools to commercial purposes. Many organisations are experimenting with ways to turn personal publishing into a managed medium:Blogging & PR Much of this is antithetical to the ethos of the medium, of course. But actually, blogs have been perverted from the outset, a bizarre fusion of personal, commercial and ethical agendas. This makes them a super-rich medium for story-telling, and appealing targets for influence. The beauty of blogs as a medium of influence is that they are just dripping in context. They are SO authentic. You can easily see who's commercial and who isn't. What's corporate and what's not. And blogrolls are a pretty good guide to the integrity and consistency of someone's opinions. The difference is that the blogosphere is a loose-knit community of (more or less) equals. Blogs are conversations. And they are, or should be, completely transparent. The opportunity they present is for 'Public Public Relations'. Any scumbag who perverts this ethic should be fed to the foxes.