Richard Edelman, together with his “blog boy” Phil Gomes, deserve mucho props for establishing Edelman as the clear Web 2.0 leader among large PR agencies.
Having said that, Shel Israel points out an important shortcoming of Richard’s blog: he’s stingy in linking to others. Says Shel: “I find it appalling that he is either too lazy or too self-centered to bother to link to other bloggers.”
We’ve noticed that many blogs by traditional media outlets — particularly newspapers — are the same way. This communicates a clear message: “My content is better than your content. And I probably don’t bother to read your content anyway.”
Here’s a “new PR” tip that Media Orchard thinks we can all agree on: You can’t join the conversation if you don’t listen to what others are saying.
Technorati tags: Newspapers, PR, Public Relations, Edelman
Is linking to other sites the main way to join in the conversation? Links have several seductive benefits: they help establish authority, increase readership, and frequently lead to an increase in revenue. But joining in the conversation, in my opinion, also includes responding to blog comments – both positive and negative – on a regular basis. That takes a heck of a lot of time and doesn’t get nearly the credit it deserves. An exchange of comments can create a degree of intimacy that blog posts alone don’t. To get a big picture view, I look at a blog’s willingness to link to others, regardless of popularity, as well as the blogger’s track record in responding to comments. Am I in the minority on this?
Richard deserves credit for responding to all those who comment on his blog; he is certainly in the minority in this respect.
I’ll say this for Richard Edelman’s blogging – I dismissed it at first as a typical, big-agency response to the new “hot” trend. But I’ve had several one-on-one e-mail exchanges with Richard as a result of my comments to his blog that have changed my mind about Richard, the intent of his blog and the thought-leadership position occupied by the agency that bears his name.
I point to Richard’s actions as speaking much louder than his words – but together, his blogging represents a significant development in the on-going growth of social media as a bandwagon worth jumping for our profession.
Then there’s that Scott Baradell guy down in Dallas …
I disagree also. First off, there were people crying out that the majority of bloggers seem to just link to other bloggers or popular stories and hardly discuss it.
Now we have the case of Richard Edelman who constantly creates original content, but doesn’t link. The argument sounds childish to me. I link to other sites, but I try to concentrate on creating new content rather than commenting on what someone else has said already. That’s what comments on their blogs are for.
Piaras:
I can’t disagree that creating original content is more important than linking. I also think Shel’s criticism of Richard was a bit overstated. But I do think blogging is a balancing act between talking and listening, and the best way to show you’re listening is to reference other blogs. Just responding to comments on your own blog is not the same thing.
Does he comment on other people’s sites?
Piaras: I haven’t noticed it if he does. But he does send a personal response to everyone who comments on his blog — or at least that’s what I’m told. I’ve gotten these responses via email from him in the past. Phil, am I getting my facts straight on the current policy? I confess that I’m a sporadic reader.
Phil reports that Richard comments on other blogs at least occasionally. Yes — I know this is a bit of a tempest in a teapot at this point, but thought I’d follow up.