Buzz Marketing with Blogs: The What Blogs Are Lecture

The What Blogs Are Lecture

At dinner on Thursday, the subject came around—as it so often does—to blogs. Yet another friend launched into the conversational gambit I (until now) secretly called the What Blogs Are Lecture. I get the “What Blogs Are Lecture” quite often. I get it from friends, from colleagues, from people with blogs, and people without. I get it after I give talks (ironically, most of these talks include some segment where I get to talk about what blogs are myself), or before, and sometimes even during.

These folks who give me the lecture have a bunch of things in common. Pretty much everyone who gives me the lecture is aware that I have written about book about blogs, most are probably even aware that I discuss what blogs are in that book. It’s perhaps paranoid of me, but I don’t believe many of these folks have necessarily read the book, though many tell me that they have plans to do so at any minute. Many, perhaps even most of them have blogs, but a larger number than you might expect don’t have blogs, don’t have plans to start one, and some don’t even read blogs. They all, however, are fascinated by blogs. Often that fascination takes the form of revulsion, or wonderment, but they’re all curious, interested—engaged—by the blog phenomenon.

I don’t mind the What Blogs Are Lecture, although I’ll admit to a few moments of incredulity during the first handful of lectures. ("Does this person really think I don’t know what a blog is?!") I got over my ego in a hurry because of what all my lecturers don’t have in common: nearly all of them have a different idea of a blog is, or who it is that writes a blog. It’s amazing! There are as many definitions of blogs and bloggers, as there are blogs. I love hearing all these ideas people propose; it reminds me of the all the fascinating blogs out there that I could never even conceive of, much less put together myself.

I’m looking forward to my next What Blogs Are Lecture. Dinner, anyone?

Posted by Susannah Gardner on 07/22 at 06:18 PM • Blogs

Comments

Would be nice to see some examples of what their ideas are of what a blog/blogger is. Can you list a few? I’m curious.

Posted by Marton on 08/03/06 at 04:44 PM
Susannah--
I am now a consultant in blogging--a “quasi-expert” like you--and I get these same lectures all the time. It’s really quite fascinating...the phenomenon that is. I once joined a neighbor for coffee, after bumping into her downtown and, right after she asked what I was doing these days and right after I explained it in detail (blogged for Stonyfield Farm; took that experience out into private practice, etc.) she proceeded to tell me, point by point, how blogger.com worked and that I should really check into it.

Okay. Right. Doesn’t anybody listen to anybody else any more, or is blogging making us all a bunch of conversational narcissists?

Posted by Christine Halvorson on 08/08/06 at 06:09 PM
you really should check out blogger. it’s so cool. you can set up a new blog in, like, five minutes!

*snort*

Posted by Susannah Gardner on 08/10/06 at 10:19 AM