Blogging and PR

There's nothing like the enthusiasm of a converted sceptic. 

I used to get annoyed by the hype surrounding blogging. I growled as Technology Guardian devoted yet more space to the subject. But then I decided to start my own blog.  All those articles suddenly grabbed my attention.

I reflected on my journey from blogging cynic to advocate yesterday when Jane Adams interviewed me about blogging for her dissertation for her Chartered Institute of Public Relations diploma.

Blogging has become part of my life so quickly. I can't imagine now not having a blog.

When I started, it was very much a personal thing. I didn't tell any of my friends about it for ages.  This was odd, as I've never been reticent in sharing my thoughts.

Like many bloggers, I regularly check how many people have visited my blog. I smile when my 'traffic' increases. Yet when I started, I didn't give a thought to whether others were reading my comments.

My blog is changing in other ways. At the beginning, most posts were about current affairs and sport. Now I'm writing more about PR and journalism - my working interests. This reflects the fact that most of the blogs I now read are by people in PR and the media.

Jane made an interesting comment during our discussion. She reported that someone who had blogged about a poor customer experience had been horrified when the company concerned had got in touch through the blogs to try to put things right. The complaint was that the company was acting like Big Brother (George Orwell, not Channel 4) in tracking what they were saying. This echoes what Newsnight deputy editor Daniel Pearl said recently about bloggers reacting adversely to comments he had made on their blogs posts mentioning the programme.

In short, many bloggers haven't yet grasped that blogging is an interactive process. 

Comments

[Linda]

I'm with you on the growling and being a converted sceptic! I've been hooked by the various PR blogs - now I just need to find some closer to home. :-)