Blogging is about listening
Reading Shel Israel's post on the state of blogging, I came across this gem in his reference of two of the seminal books on Internet marketing through conversation.
Naked Conversations [by Shel and Robert Scoble], like Cluetrain Manifesto, a book that profoundly influenced what we wrote, championed conversations over message sending. It argued for an interactive internet rather than a static one. It was about the business advantage to listening, instead of just talking.
'Message sending.' I like that. Most lawyers just post content to their blog, they're message sending. They're just sending content out to outer-space. Such lawyers are just contributing to an Internet of more static content.
Blogging is much more than 'message sending.' You listen to the conversation that's already taking place among leaders and the media covering your niche area of expertise. Only after listening can you engage in the discussion by referencing the discussion in your blog posts and commenting at other blogs.
Yes, the Cluetrain Manifesto is absolutely brilliant and a must read for all who participate in conversations on the internet.
Should come as no surprise that upon my prior company, Prairielaw.com, being acquired by LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell that a VP at Martindale offered up that he had just read Cluetrain and thought it the biggest pile of junk he'd ever read. He was let go later on.