Why Do So Many Busy Business People Blog?

Having just read Hugh Hewitt’s book Blog, Understanding the Information Reformation That’s Changing Your World, I am even more excited about what blogging means to franchise buyers and owners. Hewitt, who is best known for his conservative political commentary on radio and in the blogosphere, describes blogging as a revolution that the world has not seen the equal to -- a power shift from the old media (mainstream media) to the new– the blogosphere. Since I have personally taken a leap in my career from old media to this new one, Hewitt caught me hook, line and sinker from page one.

Let me cover a few blog basics before commenting any further on Hewitt's bold words. First, what's a blog?

A blog is a space on the Internet where a person can publish a personal diary, photographs, or thoughts on a particular topic. Those who contribute articles to blog sites such as Blue MauMau are called “bloggers”.

This new media brings new conventions. For example, bloggers don't just use text to write like old media writers. They typically incorporate in their blogs the technological conveniences of the Internet -- multi-media footnotes in a simple to read format of linked text articles, video, audio or digital files to support and expound on issues.

What’s the big deal about blogging? Mr. Hewitt's book gives the following insight.

“What gave Luther the ability to succeed in his reform where others had failed? What allowed Calvin to shape the thought of every generation that followed him? Print. In 1449 Gutenberg amplified the human voice such that it could be heard around the world. He provided the means by which one person could communicate with the masses without the interference of the institutional structures of the day. At last individuals could speak, and none could silence them. For the MSM [Mainstream Media], it is 1449 and 1517, at the same moment.”

“The struggle to control information flow, and the profits and power that go with that control, started in five thousand years ago. Now that struggle is effectively over. Anyone who wants a say can have it, though the attention to that “say” must be earned.”

And he is not the only one saying this. BusinessWeek in its cover story article on the blogosphere (a term used for the collective world of web logs) wrote:

"How big are blogs? Try Johannes Gutenberg out for size…The printing press set the model for mass media. A lucky handful owns the publishing machinery and controls the information. Whether at newspapers or global manufacturing giants, they decide what the masses will learn. This elite still holds sway at most companies. You know them. They generally park in sheltered spaces, have longer rides on elevators, and avoid the cafeteria. They keep the secrets safe and coif the company's message. Then they distribute it -- usually on a need-to-know basis -- to customers, employees, investors, and the press…the cost of publishing has fallen practically to zero… This is just the beginning. Many of the same folks who developed blogs are busy adding features so that bloggers can start up music and video channels and team up on editorial projects. The divide between the publishers and the public is collapsing. This turns mass media upside down. It creates media of the masses. How does business change when everyone is a potential publisher? A vast new stretch of the information world opens up…But one thing is clear: Companies over the past few centuries have gotten used to shaping their message. Now they're losing control of it."

What is new about the blogosphere is that there are no barriers to entry to a world offering a nearly limitless audience. Anyone can post and if it is worth reading it will be read. What was once a handful of blogs back in 1999 has become over 12 million active blogs at the end of 2005 according to Pubsub, a website that tracks blogs. And the growth has just begun.

Blogging IS a BIG deal and it will only get bigger.

That still leaves the question -- why would someone want to read a blog over traditional mainstream media? Because readers want the truth. Trade publications in franchising tend to be watered down and beholden to advertisers. Their journalists are trained to write but blogs allow real business leaders, often with a better education, an opportunity to tell their insights freely -- to be expressed and delivered to any reader on the planet who has access to the Internet for practically nothing (the cost of electricity and an Internet connection). That’s the new paradigm in publishing that has been handed to each of us.

“The truth was and remains that many bloggers had credentials and resumes far exceeding those of ‘journalists’ who had often spent entire careers in one organization with little experience outside their own tightly managed and self-reinforcing world.”

Finally, why would a busy franchise professional or potential franchise owner blog? Here are a few reasons that are inspired by a UC Irvine research report,

• Blogging helps relieve the considerable stress from starting and running one's own business, sort of “Me Working Out My Own Issues”
• Blogging helps clarify entrepreneurial and management issues through writing
• Blogging shares franchise insights to mentor others. It's a point of view based on experience, not just chatter.
• Blogging can help the author build and tap into the collective wisdom to use as a resource. In this way, you can get into conversation with other franchisees and business consultants electronically and free. Moreover, individual franchise systems are more limited in members, can often have organizational blind spots or politically incorrect things that one cannot ask in its corporate culture without drawing attention to the franchise owner.
• Blogging is a document of your life (and where does a small business owner spend most of their life?) to show what you thought and experieced as you passed this way

That’s just a few. So, if you want to start blogging about your worst nightmare of a customer, the time you turned your business around when you thought all was lost or pose a question on a current business issue, just click here to begin your journey. If your a little shy, please know that Blue MauMau allows you to blog anonymously or use a pseudonym. And of course, you can always use your own name and email address.

And do tell us how we can make the site easier for you.