Blogging is inviting the world into your mind

Today we learned blogging basics from Joe Barnes, including the ethics code promoted by the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) and case studies in how blogs have been used successfully and unsuccessfully by marketers. I find it hard to believe that lots of people want to spend hours reading about the mundane details of the blogger's life or watching crappy home video of a scrapbooking conference. To each his own! But I do believe the successful blogs add value by building community and giving people a chance to express themselves authentically.

Blogging 101

Blogging has a formal oversight association - who knew? "Word of Mouth Marketing Association" - WOMMA - makes me think of "yo mamma" which is probably not what they intended. As blogging and social networking become more and more used as marketing tools, one question is how to maintain the integrity of blogs i.e. many blogs are sponsored by the organization being blogged about - so is that really "free thought" - do blogs ultimately run the risk of becoming irrelevant because they no longer have an edge?