stedavies.com - communications consultant

The Art of Blogging. Now everyone’s opinions matter, understanding the blogging community.

“I’ve been on the web for 10 years and be on online communities for 20. I’m going to give a little history on this space.” [Shows screengrab of the first weblog ever - explains what the characteristics of a blog are - posts reverse chronological order, comments, trackbacks etc.]

“Very rapidly blogging went from friends sharing links and pictures to something more specialised. You have individuals writing about specific subjects, be it tech, fashion etc. It’s went from being a hobby for geeky people to something more mainstream.

[Shows BoingBoing and Organ Grinder (Jemima Kiss is blogging the event live to Organ Grinder)

"Prior to blogging it was hard to 'publish things'. Corporations were in the position of huge power. Now with blogging tools it means that anyone can broadcast for free and very simply. This is something that could never have happened 10 years ago. You're going to hear 'Web2.0' as a buzz phrase... just ignore it, it only means we can now do this cool stuff."

Today's styles of blogging:

* MSM comments
* Pro group blogs (e.g. BoingBoing)
* Advanced users
* Live Journal/MySpace
* Twitter/Flickr etc

[Someone asks what Twitter is... I sigh]

“People want to talk about you; they’ve always wanted to talk about you and they do. But now they can do it worldwide and lots of people listen and they join in.”

Ben asks if anyone knows what Slash Fiction is (warns not to Google it while at work).

“Fandom is what you want to tap into”

“Because the online community is so large, you can find like-minded people… guaranteed. There’s anything you want out there. If people are into a show they are sure they can go online and find people who like the same show. These are the people you need to start talking to. The location where they are really doesn’t matter. People love the stuff more than they love the brand that’s bringing it to them.

“People don’t care about the TV corporation; they care about the show. They’re not bothered who they get it from but whether they get it. You have to make programming that people will love but treat it as if it’s a loving relationship. Viacom is suing YouTube for $1bn. The viewer doesn’t care about Viacom or YouTube; they care about the TV shows. The copyright stuff online is not done to be mischievous they do it as a testament to the show.”

Marketing won’t work
“If the programme’s not very good no amount of marketing isn’t going to make a difference. The writer is the brand. If you go online people aren’t talking about Fox they’re talking about the people behind the TV shows.

“Because these TV communities are international you can’t control your marketing.” [Goes on to explain that TV shows (even those which aren't available in the UK yet) are readily available to download online.]

“So what can we do? (other than not making crap programmes)”

* Enable, don’t produce
* Aggregate, but be careful
* Don’t fake it, because we’ll know (If you astroturf you’ll get found out immediately)

[Shows example of a show he believes is doing the online thing better than anyone else]

* Battlestar Galactica – “The first thing they did was put their first episode online; the website has everything you need to know about it; they have the DVD commentary track as a podcast for fans to download and they’ve launched a competition to make a four minute film. In order for people to make these videos they’ve given fans a load of special effects to download.”

“They have so much brand loyalty because they are treating their audience on the basis that their audience loves them.”