Alex McNabb and blogging paranoia
Campaign's lates issue (June 11, 2006) had the usual column of absurdity by the self-proclaimed PR guru, Alex McNabb of Spot On PR. Normally, DMO doesn't care to comment on his nonsense, but since he touched on blogging, it seems like it's time to take a look at what he was blabbering about.
McNabb suggests that a lot of the blogs are there to promote one company or another. He says,
Ah, Alex Alex.. the truth of the matter is, most corporations are not half as sophisticated as they would like to think. Blogging is hardly taken seriously by any major corporation. Besides, really, how many regional blogs are 'celebrated'?
Aside from Secret Dubai and Emirates Economist, there really isn't any other decent UAE-based blog. Of course there are a couple regional ones here and there, but they hardly promote any companies. Perhaps Mahmood's Den could be taken as an MTC Vodafone advocate with his Boycott Batelco.
McNabb suggests that a lot of the blogs are there to promote one company or another. He says,
Perhaps now you can tell me which one of our region's celebrated blogs is being targeted by shills in the pay of big corporations.
Welcome to the new paranoia.
Ah, Alex Alex.. the truth of the matter is, most corporations are not half as sophisticated as they would like to think. Blogging is hardly taken seriously by any major corporation. Besides, really, how many regional blogs are 'celebrated'?
Aside from Secret Dubai and Emirates Economist, there really isn't any other decent UAE-based blog. Of course there are a couple regional ones here and there, but they hardly promote any companies. Perhaps Mahmood's Den could be taken as an MTC Vodafone advocate with his Boycott Batelco.
posted by Dubai Media Observer at 9:50 PM
5 Comments:
Wow - thank you for the kind words!
And I agree totally about the paranoia. There isn't a single blog I am aware of out of the hundreds we've had on the blogrolls that is secretly promoting any company.
There are corporate blogs (Communicate's is particularly interesting) and there are blogs where people specifically blog about their work/company (The Viral Idea being a good example) but nothing so far underhand.
If Alex could provide an example of a "bought blog" I would be very interested to see it.
Not sure how people can continue to call my words kind? You are ruining my positioning strategy!
Anyhow, Alex is a nutcase who thinks he knows far more than he actually does. Of course, it would be unfair to say he really thinks such blogs do exist, but he does pose the question.
I find both blogs rather dull.. Campaign's blog is actually a bit more entertaining than the others.
insipid chagrin:
I would be interested if you could share some of your findings from that research with us (unless of course you cannot).. maybe just the overview of it.
I think 'shilling' as McNabb calls it, is an interesting idea. However, I think this would be a lot more applicable in newspapers' letters to the editor, op-eds, etc.
Blogs are gaining momentum in the region. The smarter companies should probably begin exploring supporting the ones that already align with their attitude (not necessarily their views) by advertising with them.
The thing is, most of the real audience to blogs and as such are techies and media junkies. The rest of the population could hardly care.
A good corporate blog is the one from Flip Corp (no, I don't work there!)...I disagree that Campaign's blog is any good. It seems to me just an advertisement for the magazine...and who cares about the editor's problems getting people on the phone!? BORING. DMO, what is remotely interesting about that?
Flip's blog is okay.. perhaps it's not of as much interest to me as Campaign's.
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