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Sunday, July 22, 2007
The upside of the echo chamber
One of the dominant criticisms of the blogosphere is that bloggers just write about what other bloggers have written about; it’s nothing more than a huge echo chamber.
I don’t buy the echo-chamber argument. Based on the 10% rule, which suggests that 10% of a blog’s (or Wikipedia’s or any other collaborative property’s) readers contribute to the content, that leaves 90% who are passive consumers of the content.
But the fact that bloggers write about what other bloggers have written about is a good thing. It’s one of the reasons I don’t think the much ballyhooed impending attention crash will happen. Here’s an example:
I read a blog called Brand to be Determined. Many of you—readers of this blog—probably don’t. So when I point you to a resource I learned about on Brand to be Determined, you’re getting information you probably wouldn’t have otherwise received.
In this case, the resource is a shared PowerPoint presentation on Primal Branding.
It’s a terrific presentation outlining the principles of a book I hadn’t heard of but will now read. And for some of you, my blog is the only way you found out about it. You don’t have to read every PR and marketing blog to discover this content (although I do highly recommend Brand to be Determined). Because we write about interesting things we’ve read on other blogs, the word spreads. (What, after all, is the concept of word-of-mouth all about?)
There are, by the way, six elements for a brand to succeed, according to the book, Primal Branding:
- Creation Story
- Creed
- Icons
- Rituals
- Pagans
- Sacred Words
- Leader