In the past few months, a number of respected social media strategists have noted the rise in evangelists and carpetbaggers selling their social media services in the face of the global financial crisis as a way to make instant money.

“Unfortunately, blog first, then engaging in social networks remains one of the most prevalent trends one finds. This ironically is probably the worst thing a company can do [1]“

Theirs is the suggestion that identity and trust can only be established successfully by going into other online communities first to establishing reputation and relationships.

“Great social media begins with research and listening, then participation.”

My AppGap colleague, Celine Roque, though, puts this into perspective. She reminds us that this new Web 2.0 world is all about interaction, from which one can establish relationships, and trust. Understanding this medium and consistently communicating in it helps to establish a reputation that can then be leveraged through other channels of communication.

By no means does this suggest that you must first, therefore, go into other communities and begin interacting before you can blog effectively. In my experience, blogging is still the the first among many things you should try first. Why?

• Blogging tools are easy to set up
• Blogging is easy to understand for most people — probably the easiest amongst all the social media tools — because its generally just a short-form article like you might find in a traditional newspaper
• Blogging is easy to try, and if it doesn’t work, to learn from its mistakes and try again
• Blogging is a highly effective means of talking about new thoughts and ideas
• Blogging is an excellent storytelling medium — therefore, one of the most effective ways of transferring tacit knowledge to others
• Blogging enables a range of interactions that includes discussion, commentary, link sharing that can establish reputation and trust
• Conversations on your blog can be more easily ‘controlled’ — after all, its you establishes the rules for user comment and input in setting the criteria for participation

So why are others suggesting to ‘do blogging’ last?

• Many blogs are still fake and more about company spin than relevant, personal and personalised conversation
• Many blogs are still only about push of information and not interaction or conversations
• Many blogs don’t have a point — there’s a message in there somewhere but no one is interested in listening to it or engaging with the person saying it
• Many blogs are just carbon copies of each other — there’s nothing to differentiate you from the competition
• Many people blog without understanding their audience and what they want — the blog is therefore waste their time and effort

I think that many of these issues reflect that some organisations just set up blogs as a token gesture — that blogs are often the only visible thing a company does as their social media strategy. Part of the solution, therefore, must be in undertaking research (just as you would any other communications strategy) to understand who the target audience is, who they are, what they want, what they need, and where they are most likely to want to receive communications and share knowledge and information. And no, just broadcasting a message on a blog like you would a television adjust doesn’t cut it anymore.

As Gene Smith of Atomiq suggests in his honeycomb model, social media enables a range of interactions and relationships to be established that are highly relevant to today’s information workers and more targeted, relevant and personal than your typical tv advertisement.

Unfortunately, blogging only enables conversations, and is more about establishing the writer’s identity, reputation and presence — this is really where corporate blogging is failing.

An effective social media strategy, though, must take into account tools that will enable all of the online interactions identified by Gene, with right messages targeted to the right audience in ways in which they will want to interact.

So do you blog first? The answer is ‘yes of course’! Your own blogs can help you to establish your own communities, but you probably want to do it at the same time as you engage in a range of other activities in other communities that will enable you to:

1. Share ’stuff’ with others in the online spaces where they already gather — whether its photos on Flickr, bookmarks on Delicious, or video on YouTube
   
2. Build relationships with those you share ’stuff’ with
3. Have conversations with the right people in the places they feel safest to communicate — like on Twitter or on other’s blogs
4. Support groups and communities of practice

These activities will help establish an online reputation that is real and communications that are relevant to others that you can then leverage for the communities you build yourself.

M

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1. Livingstonbuzz, 2008. Blog last. 17 Dec, Online at: http://www.livingstonbuzz.com/…7/blog-last/