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To blog or not to blog?

Posted 16 July 2007 at 9:08AM by Simon Dickson in Business blogging

Comments by Dr Jakob Nielsen, regarded since the web's early days as the leading expert on usability, have caused quite a stir on the blogs this week. The latest post in his fortnightly 'Alertbox' series says blogs are good for project management within companies, and for selling cheap products. But if you're looking to sell your expertise on a subject, he contends, you should 'invest your time in thorough, value-added content that attracts paying customers'.

This was always going to be a red rag to a bull, and bloggers haven't been slow in responding. Arch-blogger Robert Scoble takes the bait, saying: 'It's amazing that we're listening to a guy who has an uglier Web site than I do.' And he rightly notes that Nielsen 'used about 2,000 words to say something a better writer would say in about 300 words.' There's clearly some bad blood there.

This side of the Atlantic, the Daily Telegraph website's assistant editor Ian Douglas is confused. 'The blog form includes a lot of the good things Nielsen has been calling for all these years,' he observes. 'I can't decide whether his essay is a cry for help or the ramblings of a self-appointed leader in a field who has missed something great and is now feeling the pain.'

Speaking as a blogger myself, I'd urge businesses not to be put off by these comments from a 'guru'. His view may hold water in terms of individual blog items being lost in the general cacophony, but I think he neglects the idea of community and brand-building. If you can create an identity for yourself as 'someone with their finger on the pulse', whatever that pulse may be, you can build an audience who come direct to you and cut out the cacophony altogether. This builds brand awareness, loyalty and personal credibility. It also doesn't do your search rankings any harm.

The ultimate irony is that Nielsen's own material would be infinitely better served, and much more usable, if he were to move it over to a blog platform.

Tags: business blogging, ian douglas, jakob nielsen, telegraph, usability

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