I've heard about blogs and blogging for about a year now. I first wondered what drove people to commit their thoughts to virtual paper, and publish what were in effect online diaries. The next thought was along the lines of 'who reads stuff like that.' The picture in my head was extended e-mail-like entries with degraded grammar and punctuation; pointless, wandering, stream-of-conscious copy put out with little consideration for the sensibilities of potential readers.

Well, I think I'm beginning to see a bit more of the elephant. I'm starting to move past the idea of 'blog-as-publication'--specifically I've stopped seeing Web logs as tradtional publications like magazines and Web sites, with their defined domains and demographically narrow clientele. Now I'm cultivating the idea of blogs as voice...

Being in what I broadly call the communication biz, I've produced my share of sanitized happy-talk. Features and benefits to go with a heaping helping of service, quality and value. (Not just products! Solutions!) I mention rather regularly in client meetings that people are more and more marketing-resitant; that difference is key to standing out. Part of my spiel usually includes a dose of 'branding as personality' and the importance of genuine messaging. These concepts usually play like a revelation in the first few strategy sessions. Then 'snap-back' occurs and the project reverts to the safer--usually blue--coprporate prototypes.

My clients want to 'connect' to their customer base, but they can't keep from ducking back behind the facade of marketese. All the while, I'm thinking people are sick of marketese.

Blogs, I'm beginning to understand, are raw communication uncensored by committee and unsactioned by gatekeepers. Web logs haven't been subsumed into the big, grey din of happy-talk spewed by our consumer-based economy. Some are rough or flawed, many are pretty darned slick, but for the the time being, blogs are real, human voices etched in electrons.

I think I see a bit more of the elephant. I sure hope that's a trunk...

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