We have become so engaged with blogging that we might have lost the sense of meaning along the way. So here is a little recap:
According to Wikipedia, a blog is a short form of the term “web log”.
“A blog is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (Art blog), photographs (photoblog), videos (Video blogging), music (MP3 blog), and audio (podcasting). Microblogging is another type of blogging, featuring very short posts.”
But does blogging live up to be all this? The answer is no. Blogging has become much more than a few sentences and short descriptions! It has almost become a way of life!
From writing your opinions, to commentaries, to bad or good services or experiences, to even a single parent asking how to raise his baby daughter! It is mind-blowing when you think about all the topics that people blog about. And when you let your mind go, you will realize the possibilities that lie in all these blogs.
In December 2007, Technorati tracked more than 112,000,000 blogs! Imagine one of these blogs is written about your company, whether it is negative or positive, the impact is amazing. Of course not every blog owner has a long list of readers, but someone might end up on that blog one day and it might just be that they are impacted by what that blogger has said.
A very good example is a well-known estate in the Western Cape. Someone came to visit the farm and had a bad experience at the restaurant and blogged about it. This quickly came to the attention of the person in charge of the social media of the estate. He contacted the blogger, apologized for the inconvenience and handled the situation in a positive manner. This lead to a blog about the quick response of the estate. What a way to turn things around! It’s like a new way of doing PR!
If you have not yet realized the impact that blogs have on the business environment, the time is now! Otherwise you may loose valuable customers. It is not about keeping the consumer in the shop happy anymore; the cyberspace community also needs to be considered.
That is the main thing traditional ways of communication tend to neglect. If you neglect online, you neglect your company’s future!

Still on my quest to find out why people blog and whether it is worth for companies to blog, some-one referred me to this article from Yahoo!News

General Motors’ auto business hasn’t been great of late, but its blogging strategy is paying off handsomely.

In 2006, the company’s FastLane blog delivered an estimated $410,470 worth of customer insight and marketing at an approximate cost of $255,675 — a return on investment of 67% — according to a newly released report from Forrester Research.

Compare that to 2005, when GM’s blog generated an estimated $578,374 worth of information and publicity at an approximate cost of $291,196. That’s a 99% return on investment.

Forrester analysts Charlene Li and Chloe Stromberg chose GM as the subject of their case study to demonstrate that companies can and should measure the ROI of blogging.

“As blogging becomes more visible — and expensive in terms of both time and money — supporting blogging with informal budgets and borrowed resources just won’t cut it,” their report says. “Instead, marketers need to understand how and why blogging will affect their particular businesses, and calculating the ROI of blogging is the process by which marketers can obtain this understanding.”

Li and Stromberg concede that it’s difficult to calculate the ROI of blogging accurately, noting that indirect benefits can be hard to measure. “How do you assign a dollar value to the ideas sparked by a Web dialogue between an executive and a company’s customers?” they ask.

And when you do assign a dollar value, as Forrester did in the case of GM, it’s difficult to be sure the value is fair. Take the imputed value of the FastLane blog, which is based largely on the assumption that press coverage of the blog is worth what it would cost to buy an ad in the publication where the article appeared. That may be an inflated estimate if, as research firms such as Outsell have suggested, print ads are overvalued compared to online ads today.

Moreover, given that Forrester’s estimate of GM’s 2007 blog ROI will drop to 39% in 2007 — mainly the result of diminishing novelty and press interest — there’s an argument to be made that companies should leave blogging to those employees who do it out of passion and off the books, rather than spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on enterprise blogging tools.

But for companies committed to blogging, it may be comforting to know that ROI is a real possibility rather than a pipe dream.

So, where does this leave us? Still more to ask, question and debate I guess!

Having pondered on the what and the why of blogging, I see that the SA Blog Awards for 2007 are now taking nominations.
According to their web site, these are the categories one can nominate a web site for:

Blogs can compete for the top honours in the following categories:

• South African weblog of the year - The best of the best from SA
• Best SA entertainment blog - Weblogs about movies, television, celebrities, theater and topical issues with entertainment value.
• Most humourous South African blog - witty, comical and written to induce uncontrollable laughter.
• Best post on a South African blog - The one post which stood out in 2006.
• Best overseas South African blog - Best blog written by a South African in any foreign country
• Best writing on a South African blog - composition, attention to detail, advanced levels of subject investigation.
• Best SA blog about politics - The best SA blog featuring mainly a political theme.
• Best SA photographic blog - The best SA blog featuring original photographic content.
• Best new blog - Best blog which was started during the year of 2006
• Best SA blog about food - The best blog written primarily about food or drink
• Best SA blog about tech / computers / web development - Best South African technology focused weblog
• Best SA Music blog - Best weblog about news of a musical nature.
• Best GLBT blog - Best SA gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered blog.
• Best designed SA blog - Best overall design and layout of a weblog page.
• Best SA podcast - The best independently produced video or audio podcast in SA.

So, once the results are out I may getting a better handle of who these people are and why they do what they do.
In the mean time I am still looking, listening and asking why?

Okay here I am, 10pm on a Tuesday evening doing a blog post.
It made me think and then ask myself this question: Who are bloggers and why do they blog?
Are they people with big ego’s and would like the world to hear their story?
Are they bored weirdo’s who can’t afford DSTV?
Are they married people who would rather sit on their pc than spend time with their spouses?
Are they corporate lackeys that get told to blog to keep the company looking good?

Surely personal blogging is just an expression of an opinion. Is corporate blogging therefore corporate opinion or just PR?

No, I don’t have the answers but I will attempt do dig them up. Sure, maybe I should’ve thought of this before starting my 2 blogs for which I attempt to do daily posts.
It’s just that whenever I speak to a normal person ( non-blogger, non-internet type) that they either have never heard of a blog and if they have, they just cannot understand why people have them.

I thought I did…