Blogging In Analog

Though we live with digital technology, it’s still an analog world, because people are not machines, comments marketing maven Tony Fannin of Be Branded. In the midst of all the new media, we seem to have lost some of what great marketing is all about, laments Fannin, and what great marketing is all about, he says, is the human connection.

As I ruminated on Fannin’s insightful blog post, the thought occurred to me that blogging might actually turn out to be the most effective of all the digital media in bridging the human communications gap Fannin describes. Sure, I use Twitter, Smaller Indiana, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Confluence to help me locate people, broaden my business network, to stay in touch with colleagues and competitors alike, and generally to stay on top of goings-on relevant to my business and those of my blogging clients.

I must say the one undeniable thing about digital social media is that digital gets stuff done! Yet, like Fannin, I can’t quite suppress my yen for the good old days when "friends" weren’t collected with quantity in mind.

Speaking of quantity, quantity in social media is much too great, and at the same time too limited to serve as communication "comfort food" or evenas meaningful business dialogue.  Corporate websites, at the other end of the spectrum, are relatively static; even the more flexible platforms can hardly be called nimble. Blog posts, on the other hand, are like the "just right" bowl of soup in the Goldilocks story, not too hot or too cold.

Blog posts in general are not too brief, too formal, or too cavalier. Like group email, blogs are personal and conversational, yet you don’t need permission from recipients to hold that conversation – after all, readers are the ones who sought you out online!

Even without hefty helpings of reader comments to turn a post into a party, blogs are personal in that readers get a sense of real people talking.  In fact, the very essence of my work as a professional ghost blogger (and the reason for the name of my company Say It For You) is for me as your "ghost" to speak your message, in your "voice", to your customers.  In other words, in this brave new digital world, my goal is to say it in analog!