Blogging: The Next Big Thing

I remember telling my boss that we had to get a fax machine to send information to our customers. Now fax machines seem almost passé. Then I was convincing clients that they needed a Web site, even if it didn't "sell" anything. I also told them that they needed to use e-mail to communicate faster and better.

Blogging is the next big thing. You need to get onboard—and soon—if you are going to be on the leading edge rather than tagging along at the end of the technology parade.

Blogging has been compared to Gutenberg's printing press or the creation of the Internet in its ability to change our world. BusinessWeek warns that "you cannot afford to close your eyes to [blogs], because they're simply the most explosive outbreak in the information world since the Internet itself."

Starting in the late 1990s as a few online diaries, blogs (short for "Web logs") have been around for a while. Much of the content is trash. Who really cares to delve into teenage angst or listen to rabid political diatribes?

Three events are credited with elevating blogs to a higher level of relevance. After 9/11, blogging became a powerful means of communicating. Text messages from people making their way home from Ground Zero. Families looking for loved ones. Everyman sharing his pain. Suddenly, blogs weren't an individual's story, they were our story. The second event certainly seemed less dramatic. Trent Lott made a speech at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party in December 2002. The major news agencies had no comment. But bloggers picked up on his statements, which seemed to support and even long for the good old days of Thurmond's segregationist stands. The links flew from blog to blog for days while the mainstream press ignored it. Finally, blogs forced the hand of the mainstream press, who broke the story, and it eventually cost Lott his job as senate majority leader. Finally, while Vietnam was the first war to be televised, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are the first to be blogged. Blogs take us on patrol with Marines and let us feel the fear and the pride of our soldiers.

What's in It for You?

Okay, so blogs are here to stay. What's in it for me as a design professional? One statistic in a 2004 BusinessWeek article states that only 27 percent of Americans read blogs. Why should you do something reaching only a relatively small group?

Web sites are static pieces of information. Even if you update your site daily, you're pushing information out to your visitors. Blogs create an interactive environment. You can discuss ideas. You can educate laymen. In other words, you can build a relationship. Instead of being one of the billions of Web sites fighting for attention, you become a person. People do business with people. The more real you become to your clients, the more likely they are to be happy clients and repeat clients. Greg Ruggiero of the Immediast Underground is quoted as saying, "Media is a corporate possession… You cannot participate in the media. Bringing that into the foreground is the first step. The second step is to define the difference between public and audience. An audience is passive; a public is participatory. We need a definition of media that is public in its orientation."

Whether it's the latest presidential debate, American Idol castoff or shopping recommendations for parents-to-be, participation gets people excited and involved. If you are in the design business, people involved in your blog suddenly become part of the design process. Having their opinions heard makes the building theirs. Now they are your partners as well as your clients.

Brent Spore, creative director of The Creation Shop, a Phoenix, Arizona social media firm, says, "You have to be passionate about blogging to be successful at blogging." What is it that you love about architecture? Its history? The fusion of art and science? Sustainable building? Whatever topic is your passion should be where you begin your blog.

Blogs vs. Web Sites and E-mail

Few of us have the time or the interest to become programmers to build or maintain our own Web sites. While there is software available to help the average person build Web sites, it is still far from perfect. I recently tried to use a program to make the Construction Specifications Institute Phoenix chapter's Web site all volunteer. While the volunteers were all willing computer users, the software was too difficult to learn and retain. Each month saw us starting at step one yet again. I've been maintaining the site on my own for the last few months and still struggle with the software.

Blogging software, on the other hand, is much simpler to use. The two leading versions are free, so they have to be good to get people to come back. While you may want professional assistance to start your blog and tie it into your existing Web site, you are perfectly capable of keeping the momentum going.

Blog posts also can be timed for publication. I may write a week's worth of entries on Sunday afternoon, but they will show up individually each day for the next week. To do that on a Web site requires coordination (and cooperation) from my Web site programmer. I have to be on time. He has to be on time. To post the April newsletter on a client's Web site took five days and at least that many e-mails. I made the request in what I thought were clear terms. But the programmer didn't understand it. He made a new menu item, thus messing up the site navigation. Next he posted the new entry at the bottom of the list, not the top. Then he forgot to include the date with the newsletter title. With a blog, I could have made the post in one-quarter of the time.

Blogs started out as text entries, but they have evolved into a wonderful show-and-tell of words, videos, links and graphics. If a picture is worth 1,000 words, what is its value when accompanied by words and links?

Blogs are immediate. If a company can track opinions from blogs, it can get a heat map of what a growing number of prospects is thinking about. Blogs are generally public. The information is there to be mined. E-mails (with a few notable exceptions) are private. No one can measure their attitudes. Jeff Weiner, Yahoo's senior vice president, commented, "Never in the history of market research has there been a tool like this."

Blogs work with and improve your existing Web site. Having a blog on your Web site can increase your traffic, thus making the Web site a better investment. The increase in visitors is always good, but blogs bring two additional tools, trackbacks and pingbacks (which I will discuss in depth in the next issue). Both link comments on blogs to other blogs and Web sites. Your audience is broadened. The increase in traffic and the links to other sites increase your presence on the Internet and in search-engine results.

Project Blogs

Let's consider some of the practical uses of creating a blog for a project.

• You can limit access to a blog page with passwords.
• The client can access the blog at their convenience—not just during business hours, or not just when you are available to answer the phone.
• Haven't decided on the cabinetry for a lab classroom? Include links to manufacturers' Web sites for their photos and specs. Let the teachers who will be using the lab comment on what they need. Involve maintenance by getting their input.
• Present a problem/challenge. Discuss with the end users possible solutions. Lead to a consensus result.

Employee Blogs

Blogs can also serve an internal function:

• Calendars can share personal events, such as birthdays or anniversaries. Ever met someone who didn't like to hear "Happy Birthday"?
• Post menus for local eateries.
• Publish company policies and invite honest discussion. (You do have the ability to approve comments before they are published, just in case someone gets carried away.)
• Let everyone participate in planning the next company picnic to help it become a family event instead of a corporate obligation.