As I noodle around with a number of presentations** I've got coming up (I've finally figured out Keynote for the Mac), I want to take a stand.
It's the end of marketing, advertising and corporate communications "as usual"
It's not enough to say that blogging is important or that social media tools are going mainstream.
Here's my little manifesto
I'm still noodling with it. Feel free to jump in and add something, help me clarify my thoughts or tell me to stuff it:
The Inflection Point of Corporate Blogging
- Blogs and other social media tools are here to stay
- Blogs are just next-generation Web sites
- Social media tools (RSS, blogs, podcasts, video, wikis, etc.) can be used by any company, large or small, B2C or B2B
- They symbolize community, conversation, mutual respect between users and an ethos of sharing
- These tools are more powerful at informing/influencing/persuading than traditional forms of marketing, advertising and corporate communications
- They help you get found online
- If you can't be found, you don't exist
Conclusion: This isn't optional
You gotta start using blogs, podcasts, online video (social media) today!
Defining an inflection point
Google's acquisition of YouTube yesterday for $1.65 billion is extremely significant. (Watch the CNN video with the announcement.)
Yes, it's a lot of money. Yes it's eerily like the dot com boom days when companies with no revenue were perceived to be hugely valuable.
But I see it as more than that. It's a tipping point (thanks to Malcolm Gladwell). Or an inflection point.
Intel's Andy Grove popularized "inflection point" as a business term. It's really a mathematical expression meaning a point on a curve at which the tangent crosses the curve itself. I don't pretend to understand calculus so don't ask me to explain.
Translated into business, it means something new is happening and there's no going back. No more "business as usual."
Read Andy's explanation here. It's an excerpt from his 1996 book, Only the Paranoid Survive:
"Strategic inflection points can be caused by technological change but they are more than technological change... They are full-scale changes in the way business is conducted, so that simply adopting new technology or fighting the competition as you used to may be insufficient. They build up force so insidiously that you may have a hard time even putting a finger on what has changed, yet you know that something has. Let's not mince words: A strategic inflection point can be deadly when unattended to." - Andy Grove, founder of Intel
** I'm speaking at a bunch of different venues over the next two weeks - both here in the U.S. and also in London (Oct. 18th and Oct. 25th) and at a private event in Paris! (Que j'adore Paris!)
Debbie and I go way back...well, in terms of blogging years. We remember when blogs were just making their entrance into the business spectrum and were being looked at with great speculation in terms of their usefulness and relevance as a business tool. Those were the good old days, and they are past!
I agree 110% with Debbie's surmise...Web 2.0 tech tools like blogs are here to stay and are a MUST for anyone serious about marketing in today's consumer-generated media, grassroots journalism environment.
Indeed, blogs have reached both the inflection point and, to borrow from Malcolm Gladwell, the tipping point. No longer is blogging limited to use by early adopters, it has reached the mainstream.
Just as having a website is a business prerequisite (and who would argue that point), so are blogs, podcasts, and video. It's how marketing and business communications is done these days...these "good new" days!
Posted by: Paul Chaney | October 10, 2006 at 12:46 PM
Excellent article Debbie. I agree blogs are here to stay!
No if I could only get my kids to reach the inflection point of their infection point.
Posted by: Jim Turner | October 10, 2006 at 03:40 PM
As I'm reading this blog post -- and commenting -- NPR is reporting on Google's acquisition of YouTube.
Yes, blogging, podcasts, video, etc. are here to stay.
If you're a Boomer or older, you may still be in a fog about this. But if you're a Gen Xer (25 to 42) or a Millenial (born after 1980), online is your preferred medium -- you grew up with it. You're not surprised.
As the expert source for the NPR story just said on that ancient medium, the radio, "We live in a different world now."
Posted by: Neil Sagebiel | October 10, 2006 at 06:00 PM
Debbie has been driving me with inspiration as I am beginning to build me business.
What I find most interesting about this post and others I have been reading is that the blogshpere is prime for small business to use as a means for attracting new customers, maintaining existing customers and positioning themselves as the experts in their local markets for the products and services they offer.
When I say, "small business," I do mean the small business owner with less than 30 employees with a brick and mortar storefront that need an online presence of some form.
Thanks for keeping the inspiration alive Debbie.
Posted by: Concentric Elements | October 19, 2006 at 12:56 PM