Full Circle Associates

I have picked a few snippets of this article. It has a strong PR/Marketing slant, but I think in a good way. ;-)

Radiant Marketing Group: The Future of Blogging, In Their Own Words, Part 3

The Future of Blogging, In Their Own Words, Part 3

Today, I want to feature two other commentators: Amy Gahran and Steve Rubel. [snip]

STEVE RUBEL

The future of blogging is that it will humanize business.

Do you remember what business was like in the first half of the 20th Century before the Information Age? ... People actually knew their butcher, their baker, their candlestick maker and everyone else they transacted with.

With each successive advance in technology, however, corporations became far more distant impersonal. [snip]

Blogging is significant because it is reversing this trend. It humanizes business. It gives consumers the ability to see and hear from the people inside the companies they love (and hate). And it gives companies the ability to do the same with customers.

In short, the future of blogging is public relations. This is not PR, but actually relating with publics.

AMY GAHRAN
...I don't think weblogs are a transitory media phase. I think they're here to stay, because the Internet is here to stay. I think blogs are an inevitable outgrowth of the Internet. They've become a valuable way for people to connect with each other, and to hear what individuals have to say. We might not always call them blogs, and their format and the tools used to create them will undoubtedly evolve.

[snip]

... the unvarnished thoughts and opinions of average people matter too. They may not always be articulate, circumspect, or well-informed, but they're real and vital in a way that the mass media have long since ceased to be. Even though blogs are technologically based, at heart they're probably one of the most thoroughly human media channels around today.

Even better, blogs are about conversations -- another very human function. These conversations occur in comments to blog postings, and between blogs, and between blogs and online discussion forums or Web sites. In this way, despite their apparent chaos blogs actually can help integrate and synthesize the jumble of information on the Internet and elsewhere -- because ultimate conversations are about connections and sharing. [snip]

Influence is the essence of power, and it's far more effective and less costly than direct control or theft. [snip]