[Here is our second in a series of four reader reviews of Blog by Hugh Hewitt. Today's review is written by Yvonne Divita of Windsor Media.]
Hugh Hewitt’s book on blogging, BLOG, is a masterpiece of information on a topic that is smoke and mirrors to too many people.
In the early days of the Internet, a lot of people shunned the new technology of the World Wide Web—too much ‘tech’ and not enough ‘knowledge.’ In the small business world, business owners thought web designers were selling them a bill of goods. “We’re doing okay,” they proclaimed. “Why should we spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on something unproven called a ‘Web site’?” Five years later, all of them were kicking themselves for their shortsightedness and rushing to establish a web presence.
Technology isn’t a bad word anymore, and these same business owners now understand that the Internet is a powerful tool. They know a presence on the WWW is a necessity, not a luxury. But, once again, technology is throwing something new their way, something full of mystery and distrust. Now they’re asking, “Blogging? What the bejeesus is that?” The underlying confusion is one of mistrust. Not another acronym! Not another “sure to bring you more business” tool! Not another verdict from the mount—handed down by the tech Gods!
As a blogger with a focus on a niche market, and someone who promotes blogging to others, I’m in front of these disbelievers every day. These are business owners who not only don’t understand blogging, they don’t want to understand it. It’s new, it’s untested, and it’s scary — in the same way Web sites were scary way back when the WWW was bursting the tech balloon. Hewitt’s book comes at just the right time. Now, those of us who know blogging well, have ammunition to fight the good fight and dispel much of the fear surrounding this growing phenomenon.
Getting Emotional
For me, Hewitt’s words strike home when he says in his introduction, “The blogosphere is evolving at an incredibly rapid pace, and a lot of the best mindspace is being claimed, but there remains incredible opportunity among hundreds of millions who have yet to figure out that there is a better way to gain information than watching the tube; quicker, more specific, more emotionally satisfying.”
More emotionally satisfying. There’s a subject I understand. I serve the women’s market, and women have, traditionally, been accused of being “emotional,” an accusation that is well founded. We are emotional. We use our intuition in ways men can’t even imagine. We laugh, cry, and shout, often for no reason at all. It serves our purposes. In the blogosphere, we are finally getting some respect for this ‘strange’ behavior. Because blogging is all about being yourself, being transparent. Hewitt gets it. One can only hope that his book will help a lot of others, get it, also.
Truth is, this is not a business blogging book, per se, as Hewitt delves into poliblogs a great deal. He gives page after page of detailed background on Dan Rather’s fall to bloggers; on Kerry’s issues with bloggers; and on the media darlings of the elections, the bloggers who attended the primaries. But, the essence of BLOG is the essence of the need for humans to connect. It’s a book about communication, a book about creating bonds—emotional attachments—to friends, family, partners, business prospects, customers, and even vendors.
Hewitt takes the reader back in time to remind us that the “advent of movable type,” i.e.: Gutenberg’s printing press, altered the course of human communication big-time. In a world where reading was the exclusive right of the religious and/or the privileged, the printing press gave a populace that was used to being hand-fed their news access to new thoughts and ideas. He notes that, “Without access to the thoughts of others, the Reformation of the sixteenth century could never have changed the world.”
All the Rage
BLOG, the book, shows the effect blogging is having on the knack people have which allows them to share and exchange thoughts, quickly and easily, via the Internet. The book proves its worth with credible reporting—and a little bit of witty humor. For instance, when discussing man’s introduction to written communication, Hewitt writes, “Eventually mankind got around to alphabets. Perhaps the Phoenicians got the alphabet to Greece, or perhaps it got there some other way, but eventually someone wrote down The Iliad, and a Brad Pitt movie was under way.”
Hewitt isn’t alone in writing about blogs and blogging. The top seems to be all the rage today. Bloggers are a “hot topic” in the news and entertainment world—evidenced by the number of times they get referenced on NBC’s, West Wing, but lest one be misled into believing blogs are a ‘fad’ or a ‘trend,’ Hewitt provides some serious investigative reporting that proves otherwise. He explains the difference between paid media and earned media: the first being that which is bought and controlled by the purchaser, the second being that which is worthy of attention by virtue of the public interest. Then he goes on to show that blogs and blogging have “The Inevitability of Dominance” in media, asserting that, “Blogs are built on speed and trust, and MSM (main stream media) is very slow and very distrusted.”
Not Just Eyeball Candy
Hewitt gets it all right when he talks traffic (how many folks visit your blog? how can you tell? is it eyeballs or unique visitors?). He gets it right when he talks content (you are what you write). He gets it right when he talks influence (sometimes it isn’t the blogs with the millions of visitors who hold all the influence, sometimes its smaller blogs—the “tail of the dog” so to speak), blogs with niche markets—a steady readership of folks who pull your content to their desktop, instead of having it forced upon them in an e-mail message. He also gets it right when he says bloggers care—about who reads them, and what their readership thinks of their blog. “There was never an honest author who didn’t care what the readers and critics thought, nor an honest actor indifferent to the reviews.”
The book has numerous pointers on how to blog. Hewitt gives advice on things NOT to write about, in your blog. He makes predictions about the future of blogging, and he maintains his seriousness about the power of bloggers and blogging throughout the book, with those tidbits of humor thrown in for effect. For a blogger who thought she knew it all, or at least, knew most of it—this book was an eye-opener. Hewitt proves I still have a lot to learn. But, at least I’m on the front lines learning it.
If you’re not on the front lines of blogging, you’d better get moving—in the blogosphere Hewitt tells readers, “the byline makes the brand.” Encouraging words to someone who, like her sisters, relates more to bylines than brands, anyway. Women own the concept; quoting from p. 89, “An event or an idea interests an individual, who wishes other people to know of the event or the idea. So that individual tells others, either in person or via some other means of communication.”
In former days, women used to shout out the window, up and down the street. Then, the telephone connected them, and in the latter half of the 20th century, it was e-mail. Today, women are using blogs to transfer thoughts and ideas. Baby boomers will remember that old ditty, “Telegraph, telephone, tell a girl.” Today, it would be, “Who’s blogging about you…and what is SHE saying?”
BLOG is a must read—Hewitt covers it all, from politics to products, from journaling to reporting, revealing the true power of blogging in his sub-title: “Understanding the Information Reformation that’s Changing Your World.” Change is good. Ignoring it is not. I’m left asking, “Who’s blogging about you, what is she saying…and who is she saying it to?” You’d better find out—or suffer the consequences, of which invisibility is just one. BLOG on! You’ll get noticed.
Yvonne Divita
Lip-Sticking Blog
Excellent and helpful review. Looks like I need to go get a copy of Blog.
Posted by: Anita Campbell at February 12, 2005 06:29 PM