In whose eyes? If blogging and social media isn’t that important, why did Michael Dell tell his employees to start using social media to embrace and engage its customers? Why did Ford just create a Director of Social Media, and give that person a 5-person team to head up the company’s SM efforts? Why is Pepsico hiring for a similar position (unless it’s been filled recently)? Why are big companies throwing all this money at something that ‘hasn’t really earned it yet’?

Is blogging the magic bullet that solves every businesses’ problems? Of course not. But it and social media IS changing the way businesses connect with, and reach their customers.

And it’s not going anywhere.

“But, just like I said the other day, print isn’t dead yet, and I get the sense from some that they feel that blogs are the next big wave and everybody had better jump on board thisverydamnedminute or perish.

And I say to that — great. When it happens — when blogs take over MSM — I’ll jump.”

Brian I hate to point out the obvious, but who in this conversation said that print is dead?

Who said that blogs are going to take over (whatever that means) MSM?

What happened is that a several people commented that the NYT and other businesses should take blogs a bit more seriously than they do and realize the influence that the group possesses.

I think what you ‘heard’ was those people saying that print is dead, and that bloggers had ‘taken over’ MSM.

And I think this is where most of the arguing is coming from, what is being said, and what is being ‘heard’ isn’t always the same.

“It’s about respecting bloggers as a group.”

vs.

“Mass generalizations … are not a good thing…”

Are we borg, or not?

Actually, I guess what sticks in my craw about the entire undercurrent of this is the idea that blogging is being treated with a self-importance by some that it hasn’t really earned yet.

Some blogs, just like some billboards, can make for great social and political change. Some e-mail blasts do the same thing, and so do some magazine ads. So do some bumper stickers.

But, just like I said the other day, print isn’t dead yet, and I get the sense from some that they feel that blogs are the next big wave and everybody had better jump on board thisverydamnedminute or perish.

And I say to that — great. When it happens — when blogs take over MSM — I’ll jump. Until then, for the majority of us, it’s vanity press amped up, and we shouldn’t let ourselves believe it for more than it us. Otherwise, we become the emperor in new clothes, 2.0.