A post at Garden Rant led me to The Washington Post article on blogging called "Barging into the Bloggers' Circle". Since I am a businessman, and blogger, it is an interesting read.
The nature of blogs is there are good ones, and bad ones. More and more business will try using blogs to reach their audience. Some will do this because they enjoy doing it, and really want feedback from their readers, or are trying to reach a specific audience. Others will try it as just another marketing campaign, with little or no place for comments from the readers.
Just like anything new, everyone will try the medium to see if it can affect sales, or to appear hip. The ones that really enjoy it as a way to express themselves, create two-way communication with their readers, or to reach an audience that conventional media is failing to reach will have success. You can just smell businesses that are using them as a sales tool. Most bloggers will sniff out these phonies, and find the blogs that really speak to them.
It’s the Wild West out in blog land. The blogs that will really be successful are the one that the readers have learned to trust. Trust is what will spread the word through the blogosphere, benefiting honest businesses, and toasting the phonies.