Blogging for the man
Why corporate blogging has to be so wrong ? why creative agencies won’t initiate dialogue with the outside world ? why are we still in a I speak, you listen configuration ? how dare you call yourself a truly unique media and communication agency or a trendsetter when you are actually not listening ? Don’t serve me the usual we can’t do it answer. This is BS and you know it. We know it. If you want to be on the internet, fine, but you have to understand how things work here: interactions. Faster. Smarter. Provocative sometimes too. Nothing to do with the contents, but everything to do with the way it’s executed. And again, if this doesn’t fit with your business model, time to change it.
March 13th, 2007 at 11:00 am
and again nothing to do with the bloggers themselves, but where are my comments, feedbacks, interactions ?
March 13th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
not sure what you’re talking about (we need background, here!) but i like it when you’re pissed off
March 13th, 2007 at 8:17 pm
Anything to do with recent developments at neomarxisme/clast and click opera???
March 13th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
Click opera and Neomarxisme have been interesting places for discussions and I hope they will continue to provide interesting and challenging pieces. Agree or not, those two blogs have always been a good read.
Regarding the Clast blog, I was very disappointed to see that a truly unique media and communication agency wasn’t really unique on the interactions and communication with the outside world, not even allowing us mere generic mortals to comment. But I was apparently wrong and it’s all a glitch: as we speak Marxy is trying his best to turn the comments ON. Hope to see interesting discussion on Clast in the near future, I’m sure we (you, me, Marxy, the Diamond Agency and the consumers - U-35男子, whatever-) could share our views.
The questions left unanswered are:
- why corporate blogging is, in most cases, super boring (again, Clast may not be accounted as a boring one way PR move if the comments and the discussions are back soon);
- what could companies learn from user generated contents, especially blogs and why are we still in what I called a I speak you listen configuration ? why artists, designers, trendsetters, featured on Honeyee consider themselves brands and by doing so are playing by (very old skool) corporate rules; and btw some of our favorite brands are in the same scenario (think Apple);
- regarding Marxy’s move from independant blogger to blogging Clast for his boss, why the move and what does he get from doing it (hopefully something or else it would have been really silly); why not some other options (a book for ex.) ?
March 13th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
(and why the malaise when it comes to blogging while working in marketing / advertising ? I had the feeling Marxy wants with Clast to get rid of the discussion and debate of Neomarxisme and offer a clean, Momus-free view of the Japanese market. Again, very interesting contents, but very unbalanced at the same time.)
Please prove me wrong ! sorry again for my 2 cents, but, no, actually, fuck you, this is my blog :))
March 13th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
clast has always been intended to take comments (with moderation for the time being), but as you have pointed out, they are not working. I am looking into this now. I don’t understand why WordPress is not allowing free commenting at the moment even though I am instructing it to.
Secondly, if there is anything I’ve learned about blogging over the last three years, it’s that dialogue is really important for building readership. I don’t know why I wouldn’t apply these lessons to this new blog as well.
March 13th, 2007 at 9:11 pm
“why the move and what does he get from doing it (hopefully something or else it would have been really silly); why not some other options (a book for ex.) ?”
It’s not a move, it’s an addition to my other activities.
March 13th, 2007 at 9:12 pm
Thanks for the comments !
March 13th, 2007 at 9:24 pm
- corporate blogging is boring because they don’t want to take risks. they don’t want to alienate even one possible customer. that’s all, end of story.
- companies could learn only what the vocal minority have to say. users who generate content are the vast minority here. the majority of people who buy any one product are not blogging, not podcasting, not down with “web 2.0″. they’re happy to send some email and see the funny lolcats. is it in the companies best interests to listen to the blogging minority? remember when you said that hardcore gamers are not the market anymore? have bloggers ever been the market? because hardcore gamers = bloggers.
- a book? why a book? how I speak you listen of you! isn’t getting paid enough?
March 14th, 2007 at 5:26 am
I’m glad Marxy makes the point about dialogue building readership — couldn’t agree more there.
I think his credibility can’t help but take a hit from this development, though, because context makes exactly the same arguments he made on Neomarxisme mean something very different on Clast. For instance, “There are new class divisions appearing in Japanese society” on Neomarxisme sounds like a sociologist lamenting new gaps between haves and have-nots. Exactly the same statement on Clast has the meaning “Advertisers, here are your new emerging elite markets”.
It’s not so much that “he who pays the fiddler calls the tune” as that the exact same tune means something different depending on context. I know Marxy disagrees with that — he thinks that a swastika or a Barry Manilow sample retain a fixed meaning even when worn by a Visual Kei fan in Harajuku or inserted into a Daft Punk track. This is a weirdly naive belief for someone so intelligent, and for someone who works in marketing, which is surely all about how meanings are changed by fashion, by social status, by price, by brand, and so on. Context changes everything!
March 14th, 2007 at 10:02 am
I think I disagree with Brad on this one. An example from the US would be Dell. The company had to start blogging effectively or suffer further criticism. Their new blogging program, using customer service people to answer support questions posted by customers on their blog, demonstrates a path for the future.
March 14th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
your wrong. and you seem slightly confused about how things work.
i mean, all your doing is the “i speak, you listen” thing. where is this new business model you speak of? all the pictures of you modeling & partying are smarter content?
March 14th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
Trevor, welcome to the blog and thank you for your comment. Can you be a little more constructive ? why am I wrong ? because my first impression of Clast was one of something non interactive, without any possible dialogue ? (this was my first impression, but as Marxy himself commented, this was a glitch and we are all welcome to participate - again how could I know based on what I saw ?)
Or maybe I’m wrong about corporate blogs ? then give me some examples of good, open, corporate blogs. John Cass in the comment provided the example of Dell, interesting case. Or maybe I’m wrong about Honeyee ?
And then, how do things work ? give me clues here.
On the new business model thing, what I meant is that most companies come to the web 2.whatever without a clear idea of how things work here. They just want to be online, and we’ve heard about this thing called a blog, can we do that too ?. They just don’t get the fact that the one way communication as we’ve always known is over when you’re (seriously) online. Or should be. And their business model is in a way based on one way communication, no feedbacks thank you approach. Blogging could be a fun tool, but if you’re really serious about it then you’ll have to adapt your business model at some point. Or keep pretending you’re listening, when you’re not. I never said it was easy.
Regarding the smart pictures of me modeling & partying, well, you’re quite missing the point, but thank you for commenting anyway.