Matt Haupt

It is funny how much things have changed over time. In the last 5 seconds, 10 new blogs were created from ordinary, everyday people. In that same time, 18.6 blog posts were published, ready for the wandering eyes of the online world to gaze upon them.

But, how many eyes actually see that particular post? In my case, and many others, the number can be as close to zero as you can get.

That doesn’t change the fact though, that these blog posts can be JUST as important as other information you can gather online. Sure, these bloggers do not have journalism degrees and maybe some do not write “well”..

What they do have, more importantly, is their emotion and heart in their writing.

And that’s more than I can say for a lot of professional journalists out there; even if you are one of the lucky journalists who have the privilege of writing in an opinion column.

This is why it is important for you as a company to realize that there are far more people to impress than the professional journalists from your national newspapers or magazines. Although these “professionals” have access to a publication with mass appeal, there are a bloggers throughout the online world who are talking about you and your products/services.

And let me tell you large fortune 500 company…it’s not all good. It’s not all bad, but DEFINITELY not all good.

If the short history of blogs have told us anything it is this…people are attracted to the opinion and thoughts of the general public, and not necessarily the big shot from the New York Times. And definitely not a company’s PR agency.

With everything that has happened over the past decade, from the controversial war in Iraq, to Enron (remember those guys), to the Wall Street meltdown and bailout, to the Big Three and their request for government loans (noticed I said LOAN and not BAILOUT), people are beginning to see corporations and their products as opaque as opaque can be.

They see deception, not straight-talk.

They see power, not humility.

In an age where the masses demand transparency in how the inside of a company and brand work, when people are looking for answers, they will soon turn to the only people (as for now) that they know are harder to manipulate than the general media…

Themselves

Their family

Their friends

Their next door neighbors

Their favorite blogger

Because if one of them says your product or service is terrible, guess what? They are not going to buy anything you throw at them. Not with funny ads. Not with integrated “advertorials”. Not with anything.

That is why each company should treat their own customers the same, if not better, than the journalists they’re afraid of doing anything in wrong in front of. We should be treated better than stockholders, because we are the ones that are keeping your company around.

Reach us, and we might have something good to write about you. And trust me, our opinion matters.

But until then…