Thursday, 30 October 2008

For and against blogs

Two recent articles on blogs provide contrasting arguments on the way that these tools can be used as an effective business tool. The first articles from Wired Magazine claims that blogs have now become a dated medium, outclassed by the more 'trendy' Web 2.0 sites like Facebook, Flickr and the latest 'hot site', Twitter. The argument is that the 'blogspace' is now so crowded and overused - particularly by large corporates - that it's almost impossible to get heard and therefore time could be better spent participating and developing content on the newer social multimedia sites.

In contrast, a report on the ClickZ website covers the results of some new research which has found that blogs can have more impact on purchase decisions than social networks, because blogs create the type of online conversation and 'trusted' resource that influences the purchase decision. The survey found that consumers were influenced by blogs more than social networks when making a purchase decision, mostly because bloggers establish themselves as an authority on a topic, particularly in niche areas, and create a relationship with the consumer.

Of course both of these arguments are centred around differing objectives for an individual or business and although there are clearly elements of truth in both viewpoints, there also has to be a clear strategy in developing either process, which can also work better in some markets compared to others.

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